Doct. 4. We may ask deliverance from temporal troubles ; not only support, but deliverance. So doth David.
1. God hath promised : Ps, 1. 15, ' Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.'
2. Much of God is discovered in it. His wisdom : 2 Peter ii. 9, ' The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation/ We are at a loss many times, but God is never at a loss. His power: Dan. iii. 17, ' If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, 0 king;' when the wrath of the king was great, and the fiery furnace burning before them. His goodness : God is sufficiently inclined to it by his own grace, and delights to do it : Ps. cxlix. 4, ' The Lord taketh pleasure in his people ; he will beautify the meek with salvation.' He loveth the person of believers, and loveth their prosperity and happiness, and delighteth to see them do well in the world. He hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, Ps. xxxv. 27, which is a good encourage- ment to pray for it : 2 Sam. xiv. 1, ' Joab perceived that the king's heart was towards Absalom.' Yea, not only his love, but the con- stancy and unweariedness of his love : 2 Cor. i. 10, ' Who delivereth us from so great a death, and doth deliver ; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.' There are all respects of time. Solomon saith, Prov. xxv. 17, 'Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house, lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.' Men waste by giving, but I Am is God's name ; we still need, and he is still a-giving : 2 Tim. iii. 11, ' Thou hast fully known my persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, &c. ; but out of them all the Lord delivered me.' So many troubles, so many gracious experiences of God : Ps. xxxiv. 19, ' Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all;' Job v. 19, 'He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea, in seven shall no evil touch thee.' Seven is the num- ber of perfection. God can and doth deliver us as often as we need deliverance ; when clouds return after the rain, or one evil treadeth on the heels of another ; he hath a succession of mercies, for our suc- cession of sorrows. We are dismayed when we see one trouble is over and another cometh. We have the same God still, the same certainty of his mercy in delivering. Many times God so delivereth that the troublers of his people shall come in their room : Prov. xi. 8,
134 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. CLXXI.
1 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead ; ' as the leprosy of Naaman went to Gehazi. His faithful- ness, which he hath laid at pledge with us, that he will make a way to escape: 1 Cor. x. 13, 'God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way for you to escape, that you may be able to bear it.' His dominion and sovereignty : Ps. xliv. 4, ' Thou art my king, 0 God ; command deliverances for Jacob.' He hath all things at his command, all second causes, the hearts of his enemies.
3. We have greater opportunities to serve God : Ps. cxix. 134, 1 Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts ; ' Luke i. 74, 75, ' That he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holi- ness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.'
Use. They are too nice that think we may not ask of God temporal mercies. It is lawful to ask them if we ask them lawfully, with a submission to God, and for his glory, that we may serve him more cheerfully ; so you may ask a deliverance out of your troubles.
Doct. 5. Those that would have God to deliver them out of their afflictions should be sure they do not forsake their duty.
All the evil that David suffered could not weaken his love to the law of God, nor draw him from the obedience of it. And what was the issue ? He pleadeth this in prayer to God.
Reason 1. Because if we do so, the nature of our sufferings is altered, both as to God and man. As to man, we do not suffer as evil-doers : 1 Peter iv. 15, ' But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busy-body in other men's matters ; ' which will much darken our comfort and glory in suffering ; though for the main you have an interest in God, if by your miscarriage you have deserved the stroke of human justice. As to God, your sufferings are not castigatory, but probatory : Eev. ii. 10, ' The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried ; ' not punished, but tried.