(3.) He will do it when it is good and necessary ; for God hath made promises and repeated promises of deliverance, and surely these are not in vain. If God had spoken but once, we had no reason to doubt ; but he telleth us over and over again we should cast our care upon him, and refer all things to him without despondency and distraction of mind : Ps. ix. 18, ' For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.'
Use. Instruction to teach us what to do when we are oppressed.
1. Patience. It is the lot of God's children to be often troubled by the world, and hardly used. Satan is the ruler of the darkness of this world, the blind, carnal, malicious, superstitious part of the world; and they cannot away with those that would overturn Satan's kingdom.
40G SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXLIX.
The good are fewest, and therefore we must look to be oppressed ; if there be any breathing-time it is a mercy : 2 Tim. iii. 12, ' Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ;' Gal. iv. 29, ' For as he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now,' and will be so ; we should want our way-mark without it.
2. Let us be prepared to commend our cause to God : Ps. x. 17, 18, ' Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble ; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear ; to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.' God prepares the htarts of the humble. How so ? The trouble con- tinueth till we are sensible of the misery of the sin, of the cause : Hosea v. 15, ' I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offences, and seek my face ; in their affliction they will seek me early.' It is a long time before men can be sensible of the hand of God upon them. Slight spirits are not grieved, but lull themselves asleep, Jer. v. 3. If they have a natural sense of the judgment, they have no sense of sin as the cause ; then they fly to human help to be eased of the trouble : Jer. iv. 14, ' Wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved ; how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee ? ' When past human help, then seek the favour of God to take up the controversy, 2 Chron. vii. 14 ; when driven to an earnest atten- dance upon God, and all probabilities spent ; we have no help but what heaven and a promise can afford, and upon these terms continue our importunity, Luke xviii. 7-18. It is a long time ere men will lay it to heart, to see his hand and seek to him for relief.
3. When you have prayed, then wait. It is a good sign when we are enlarged in prayer, and encouraged to wait. Enlarged to pray ; for when God hath a mind to work, he sets the Spirit of prayer a- work. God will not pour out his Spirit in vain; the Spirit knoweth the deep things of God: Ps. 1. 15, 'Call upon me in a time of trouble, and I will deliver thee.' So when we are encouraged to wait. How can our prayers be heard when we regard them not ourselves, and expect no issue ? How should God hear when we pray out of course, and do not think our prayers worth the regarding ? Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' I will hearken what God the Lord will speak,' &c. ; Ps. xl. 1, ' I waited patiently for the Lord ; he inclined unto me and heard my cry ; ' Hab. ii, 1, ' I will watch to see what he will say.' Look for an answer, God doth not usually disappoint a waiting people.
Secondly, When God delivereth us from the oppression of man, wc should be quickened and encouraged in his service.
1. Because every mercy inferreth an answerable duty : 2 Chron. xxxii. 25, ' But Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit done unto him.' There must be rendering according to receiving.
2. This is the fittest return, partly because it is real, not verbal. The Lord cares not for words ; he knows the secret springs of the heart, Isa. xxxviii. 9 ; and see Ps. 1. 23. It is good to be speaking good of God s name. This is one way of glorifying, but ordering the conver- sation aright is that which is most pleasing to him. _ And partly too because our clogs of fear and sorrow and other impediments are taken away : Ps. cxix. 32, ' I will run the ways of thy commandments when
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thou shalt enlarge my heart,' This was God's end, to deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, that we may serve him without fear, Luke i. 74, 75. Those wretches that said, Jer. vii. 10, ' We are delivered to do all these abominations,' to return to the practices of their vile courses afresh, did pervert God's end in their deliverance. What use shall we make of such a point in our deep sorrows ?