Secondly, To handle the words with respect to the nearer context in ver. 123, 'Mine eyes fail for thy salvation.' This teaching is begged after he had complained of the delay of the promises, and so implicilly he complaineth not of the falsity of the word, or the non-performance of the promise, but of the weakness of his own faith.
Doct. When the Lord suspends the promised deliverance, the godly suspect not the truth of his word, but tiie darkness of their own unbe- lieving hearts.
They think this failing is because they are no more enlightened ; they are dull in conceiving, and misty and cloudy in their apprehen- sions, and therefore would have a clearer understanding of the })romise and a more quick-sighted faith ; or have failed in the performance of the condition reijuired, therefore desire that God would teach them and show them their errors, and cause them to profit in sanctification. Thus should we do in like cases when tliere is a seeming contradiction between the word and the woi'ks of God, betwixt his pi-omises and his providence about us. His voice is sweet, like Jacob's, but his hands rough, like Esau's. Do not suspect the promise, but your understand- ing; go into the sanctuary, Ps. Ixxiii. IG, 17. God will help you to
VkR. 124.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 283
reconcile things ; otherwise the difficulty will be too hard for you. The saints that have suspected or distrusted God have found them- selves in an error, Isa. xlix. 14, 15 and Ps. Ixxvii. 8-10. (1.) You must not interpret God's promise by his providence, but his providence by his promise ; and the promise is the light side, and providence the dark side of the cloud : Isa. xlv. 15, ' Thou hidest thyself, 0 God of Israel, the Saviour;' Ps. Ixxvii. 19, ' Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.' We can- not ti"ace hira ; a man cannot find out the reason of ever3'thing that God doth. (2.) You must distinguish between a part of God's work and the end of it. We cannot understand God's providence till he hath done his work. In the last act of the comedy all the errors are reconciled. Tarry till then : Zech. xiv. 7, ' At evening it shall be light.' We view providence by pieces, and we know not what God is a-doing, rending and tearing all in pieces. But view God's work in its whole frame and contexture, and it will ap])ear beautiful. (3.) We nuist distinguish between what is best for us and what we judge is best for us : Deut. viii. 15, 16, ' Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no' water ; who brought thee forth water out of the ' rock ; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not ; that he might humble thee, and prove thee, to do thee good at the latter end.' Other diet is more wholesome for our souls than our sick appetite craveth. It is best with us many times when we are weakest : 2 Cor. xii. 10, ' When I am weak, then am I strong;' woi'st, when strongest : 2 Chron. xxvi. 16, ' When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his own destruction.' Many times the bufifetings of Satan are better for us than a condition free from temptations ; so is poverty and emptiness better than fulness. (4.) We must distin- guish between what things are in themselves, and what in their reduc- tion, use, and tendency. All things are for a believer in their use, though they may be against him in their nature, 1 Cor. iii. 18-20, and Rom. viii. 28. ' All things shall work together for good to them that love God.' All their crosses, yea, sometimes their sins and snares, God Avill overrule them for good, and the work of grace sometimes goetli back that it may go forward. Many such cases there are which look like a conti-adiction, which we shall not know what to make of them, unless we bring it to Christ, an interpreter, one of a thousand. But take heed in these confusions and tossings of thy soul how thou re- flectest on God ; a little experience will confute thy prejudices.
Thirdly, With respect to the nearest context, the former clause of this verse. After an appeal to the covenant of grace, or a petition for mercy, he asketh direction to keep the law.
Doct. They that would have mercy by the covenant must be earnest to be taught God's statutes.
Mercy and teaching are David's two great requests tliroughout this and other psalms.
Reason 1. The moral obligation of the law still lieth on God's servants, that are taken into the covenant of grace. There is an eternal obligation upon the creature to love and serve the creator, which cannot be dissolved. We are not redeemed from the service of
284 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. CXXXVI.
the la.w by Chrisl, but llie ciirso of the law: Luke i. 74, 75, ' Being delivered from the hands of our enemies, that we might serve God in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.' The end of our redemption was not to destroy our service according to the law, but to ■fit and enable us to perform it according to the image of God restored in us, Ei)h. iv. 24. The new man is created to restore in some measure those abiHties we lost in Adam. God never yet gave man a liberty to be free from the obligation of the moral law. He would not pardon any sin against it without satisfaction made by Christ, and believed and })leaded by sinful man. Christ merited, and God re- stored the spirit of sanctification, that men might keep it. He will not spare his own children, when they transgress against it by heinous and scandalous sins, as to temporal punishments: Prov. xi, 31, ' The righteous man shall be recompensed upon earth ; much more the wicked and the sinner; ' Ps. xxx. 131, David and Eli both smarted for their sins. No man hath interest in Christ unless he return to tho obedience of this law: 1 Cor. ix. 21, ' To them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law;' Horn. viii. 1, 2, ' There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit: for the law of the si)irit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.' JSTo interest in mercy else: Gal. vi. IG, ' As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.' We cannot have full communion with God till Ave perfectly obey it: Eph. v. 27, ' That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish.'