Use. In times of trouble let us look to God, and continue looking all the time that God will exercise our faith and patience, and express our longings and desires of God's salvation in humble and earnest prayer.
1. It is no time to look elsewhere ; for God will show us that vain is the help of man by many disappointments : Isa. xlviii. 11, 'I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no saviour.' He will break all confidences till we come to this. He shall be my salvation, as Job resolved when God brake him with his tempests, and pursued him with his waves, and was ready to slay him, as he thought. In all
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extremities this should be our fixed ground of faith, that salvation and deliverance is to be expected from God only: Jer. iii. 23, 'Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and the mountains ; truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.' God will teach us this lesson ere he hath done with us. Usually there is no serious dealing with God till we find the vanity and inability of all other dependences : looking to the hills and mountains, strength of situa- tion, forces, all these will fail us.
2. It is no time to dally with God and his service any longer ; for when troubles come close and near, the spirit of prayer should be revived, and what was cursorily sought at other times should now be sought with some vehemency and longings in prayer: Jer. xxix. 13, 14, ' When they shall seek me with their whole heart, they shall find me, and I will give them an expected end.' We do not stir up ourselves to take hold of him : Ps. xiv. 7, ' Qh ! that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!' There should be a longing, we should not content ourselves with a few dead and drowsy prayers.
3. Salvation may be comfortably expected from God ; for as neces- sity enforceth these longings, so hope quickeneth them. Now it may be expected, for he is mighty to save, Isa. lxiii. 1 ; he is willing to save a distressed people : ver. 5, ' I looked, and there was none to help, therefore mine own arm brought salvation to me.' God struck in for the deliverance and help of his people when all human help failed ; he did the work alone himself. Once more, when he meaneth to save, he covereth himself with frowns and anger, as if he meant to destroy : Isa. xlv. 15, ' Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God, the saviour.' He seemeth to hide and stand aloof from his people in their afflictions, and carrieth himself so closely and covertly in the passages of his providence, that his people know not what he meaneth to do. What is our work, then, but to keep longing and waiting and looking to God's hands, till he have mercy upon us ?
Doct. 2. That we should delight in the promise before the salvation cometh.
So doth David say here, ' Thy law is my delight ; ' that is, whilst he was longing for God's salvation; and by law is meant God's word in the general ; the promise is included in it, as well as the precept.
1. A believer should not be comfortless in his troubless : John xiv. 1, ' Let not your hearts be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me.' Immoderate sorrow for temporal evils will not become one that hath an interest in God and Christ. Whatever falls out in the world, God is the same still, and the covenant is the same ; and our better part, and our happiness is above the reach of trouble ; there is a long-suffering with joyfulness, Col. i. 4.
2. All our delight and solace must not arise from the delights of sense, but out of the word of God. It is good to see what is our solace and support in troubles, for the man is as his solace is : Ps. xciv. 19, ' In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.' How do we ease ourselves in our perplexities and griefs ? Is it with God's comforts ? Now God's comforts are gospel comforts ; the comforts we have from the word they will make us
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more love the word, and trust more upon God's word, and the more confidently expect the performance of it.
3. The promises should support us upon a twofold account — partly because they are good, and partly because they are sure.
[1.] They are good ; there is a fulness in God's allowance that suiteth with all our cases : Ps. lxxxiv. 11, ' For the Lord God is a sun and a shield ; he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that live uprightly.' So 1 Tim. iv. 8, ' Godliness hath the promises of the life which now is, and of that which is to come/ Heaven and earth are laid at the feet of it. A man cannot desire a greater cordial than necessary provisions for this and the future life: Ps. cxix. Ill, ' Thy testimonies I have taken for an heritage for ever; they are the rejoicing of my heart.' The pro- mises of the world to come should swallow up all our present grief, for there is more in heaven than can be taken from us in the creature : 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' Heb. x. 34, ' And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods ; kno wing- in yourselves that in heaven ye have a better and more enduring- substance.' We have a treasure and a happiness elsewhere, which cannot be infringed by the afflictions we endure in this world. We do not lose much if we get eternal salvation in the issue, and so we get to heaven, no matter how dark soever our passage be. Then for the promises of this life, they suit with all our troubles, wants, clangers, breaches, and distresses. But what confidence can we have of these temporal deliverances or mercies? Ans. Either we shall have the mercies themselves, or God will order providences so as it may be good for us to want them, and have something better given in lieu of them, Kom. viii. 28. We know he will not leave us wholly destitute, Heb. xiii. 5, nor bring upon us insupportable difficulties, 1 Cor. x. 13 ; and this should be enough for us to maintain us in life and comfort.