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not only in the achievements of war, but also in the arts and acquisitions of peace. It is "righteousness" that "exalteth a nation;" not the abundance of the wealth which it has acquired, not the splendour of its palaces, nor the skill of its inhabitants in ministering to the comforts and luxuries of life, not these things any more than the number of their victories; but their knowledge of God, and their devotion to his service. "But sin is a reproach to any people." Prov. 14. 34. No victories we have ever gained, no wealth we can ever amass, will wipe out the stain of our reproach, if either by reason of rapine in war, or of extortion or fraud in commerce, our land deserves to be called " mountains of prey."

And see how the Almighty himself fights in behalf of those who put their trust in Him. "The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep and none of the men of might have found their hands." They slept the sleep of death, as we learn from the history. It was by the stroke of the angel of the Lord, as we read there. Or as it is here expressed, "At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep" that is to say, both they who fought in chariots, and they who fought on horseback. Terrible indeed must God be in his wrath, at whose rebuke so many thousands were cut off at once. When his judgments were so plainly manifested from heaven, who could fail to stand in awe, who of all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth? When the fierce Sennacherib was thus humbled by God's power, before the meek and pious Hezekiah, surely the most haughty of princes must feel that God ought to be feared by them no less than by the least of their subjects.

"Vow," then, we would say to them, and unto all men, "vow, and pay unto the Lord your God: let all that are round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared." No worldly greatness can in the least degree exempt you from the duty of honouring and obeying God. The highest are as much within his reach as the lowest. He can constrain the wrath of the most furious to minister to his glory, as surely as the submission of the meek. He can arrest the progress of the most successful conqueror, and in the midst of his victorious career, strew the ground with the dead corpses of his host, and send him back with shame to his own land. And if God be thus terrible even here, to those who in the lust of conquest invade the dominions of their neighbours, how much more when He comes to call them to account, for the blood which they have shed upon the earth! Oh that Christian princes may remember their Christian vow, to be soldiers and servants of the prince of peace! Oh that both they, and all their subjects, may unite to offer unto God that gift, which we know to be good and acceptable in his sight, namely, to "lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty!" 1 Tim. 2. 2.

The psalmist mourneth, prayeth, and findeth comfort.

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph.

1 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto

me.

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the LORD: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search.

:

7 Will the LORD cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?

8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?

9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

10 And I said, This is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the

most high.

11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. 12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God!

14 Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

17 The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.

18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are

known.

not

20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

LECTURE 917.

Of taking comfort from the remembrance of God's mercies.

We have here the lamentation of an afflicted soul, and the remedy of affliction found in a due consideration of God's goodness. The affliction of the psalmist appears to have arisen from some calamity that had fallen upon the church, as by the public sanction of idolatry, or by the open profanation of the temple, or

by the carrying away of the people into captivity. Loud and repeated was the cry of grief which he uttered. But it was "unto God" that he cried, and God " gave ear" unto his prayer. No wonder that he found the way of comfort in his trouble; and learnt how to turn his fears into confidence, his mourning into joy. "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord." This is the psalmist's account of the path to peace. And his description of his grief is this, "my sore ran in the night, and ceased not," or rather, as it is translated in the margin, my "hand" ran, it was wet with my tears, "my soul refused to be comforted." Alas! which of us ever feel griefs like this, when the house of God is dishonoured, his people persecuted, or his services displaced by the abominations of idolatry? Which of us, on searching our own memories, could testify unto God, that we have ever out of grief on his account shed so much as a single tear?

Even the remembrance of God at the first only added to the trouble of the psalmist. Regret at having lost the favour of One, who was once so gracious, now overwhelmed his soul. This robbed him of his sleep, deprived him of his speech, and agitated his mind with such anxious questions as these, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" And certainly, if by reason of our sins God should at any time see fit to hide away his face from us, the remembrance of the joy which we had heretofore experienced, in the light of his countenance, would embitter by a most painful contrast, the misery of fearing lest He should have forsaken us.

But there is another view of God's past mercies, which his grace can enable us to take to our unspeakable comfort. We may think of them as tokens and pledges of mercies yet to come. And it is our infirmity, the weakness of our faith, that hinders us, if we cannot take this favourable view of them. How mercifully was the psalmist enabled to make this reflexion in the midst of his despondency, and to derive consolation from the very same recollections which had before added to his pain! How beautifully, under the influence of these thankful feelings, does he describe God's chief mercies to Israel of old! How profitably does he meditate on them for himself! How instructively does he set them forth before us! We seem to see the very wonders here described, the glory resting in the holy place, the waters parting to make a pathway for the people, and the people led gently, like a flock of sheep, by the same almighty hand which dealt so terribly with their enemies. We are left to draw the conclusion for ourselves. And we can be at no loss to argue thus: The Lord is full of compassion to those whom He has chosen to be his people; and as He has already mightily delivered them, He will continue, unless it be their own fault, to deliver them mightily ever after.

The psalmist exhorteth to the shewing forth of God's works.
Maschil of Asaph.

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children :

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8 And might not be as their

fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. 10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

LECTURE 918.

That parents must instruct their children in the truth.

We are informed in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, that Jesus spake unto the multitude in parables, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables." Matt. 13. 35. We readily understand the application of this name to many of our Lord's discourses. But how is the psalm before us a parable? Why does the psalmist speak of uttering a dark saying, when the psalm is one of the most easy to be understood in the whole book. Perhaps

he points to the darkness in the hearts of the people, and signifies that they were slow of heart to understand the moral instruction which he was about to dwell upon. Let us pray that these matters may be familiar to our hearts as well as plain to our understandings. Let us endeavour to incline the senses of our souls to the instruction which God has here set forth before us.

And first let us observe, how forcibly the duty of transmitting the knowledge of true religion from father to son is here inculcated. If there ever was a time when men learned the truths by revelation direct from God, there never ought to have been a single generation from that time to the present, which has not been instructed aright by those which came before it, and which has not aright instructed those who have come after it. And this method of transmitting true religion, by parental teaching and authority, is to last to the end of time; and is a most important means of preserving it in the world, in aid of the written word, and of the ordained ministry. Let every father do his best to bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let him teach them all that he knows aright, and warn them to avoid all that he is aware of having done wrong. Let them have the benefit, as far as possible, of his experience, without the risk of his temptations, and the pain of his regrets. All that he can do for them, by teaching, exhorting, warning, and reproving, will not be more than needful to prevent them from falling into the sins, and suffering the sorrows, of those who have gone before them.

This, the psalmist tells us, was the design of God, in ordaining that parents should thus teach their children after them continually; see Deut. 4. 9; 6.7; 11. 19; it was not only that the children might know God's will, but also that they might avoid the transgressions of their forefathers. And with this view he begins to mention some of the chief of these transgressions; namely, want of faith in God, that He would surely give them victory, and neglecting to keep God's covenant, and refusing to walk in his law, a forgetting God's works and his wonders that He had shewed them. And thus the mention of some of the chief of those mighty works is introduced; those which were done in Egypt, and those which were done in the passage of the people out of Egypt. Now St. Paul has told us, that these things, which befel the Israelites, were for examples unto us. Let not us therefore forget these wondrous works of God. Let us delight to hear of them, to read of them, to think of them. And let us never be weary of regarding them as proofs of God's goodness and of man's unworthiness, and as motives strongly urging us to become, as far as possible, less unworthy of his goodness than we are.

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