SERMONS UPON PSALM XC. L
SERMON I.
Lord, thou hast been our divellmg-place in all generations. — Ps. xc. 1.
In a time of danger, we would all be glad if we could get a safe place of retreat or a secure habitation, where the evil might not come nigh us. The text will direct you to one, if you have an heart to make use of it.
This psalm was penned by Moses, the man of God, as the title showeth. Its reflection is mainly upon the state of those times wherein he lived, when the children of God wandered up and down in the wilderness, and were sorely afflicted by sundry plagues, and great mul- titudes of them cut off by untimely death for their provocations.
The psalm is said to be a ' Prayer of Moses.' He beginneth his prayer with an acknowledgment of God's goodness and gracious pro- tection. In the howling wilderness, and in all former ages, he had been their habitation ; and this giveth him confidence to ask and expect other things from God's hand. From hence we may learn to express faith in prayer before we express desire, and give God glory in believing before we lay forth our own wants. So doth Moses, the man of God : ' Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.'
JDoct That God is his people's habitation or dwelling-place.
I shall deliver the sum of this point in these considerations —
First, The first shall be a general truth, that true and lively faith doth apprehend all things as present in God which it wanteth in the creature. When they wandered up and down in the wilderness, God was their habitation. As the life of sense is a flat contradiction to faith, so is the life of faith to the life of sense. Faith is supported by two things — God's all-sufficiency and gracious covenant; the one showeth what may be, the other what shall be. As God hath a double knowledge, scientia simplicis intellig entice et visionis; by the former he knows all things that may be, in his own all-sufficiency ; by the latter he knows all things that shall be, in his own decree ; so faith sees all things made up in God. This can be, because God is able to bring it to pass ; this shall be, because God hath promised it. His promise is as good as performance ; therefore a believer, in the want of all things, doth not only make a shift to live, but groweth rich : 2 Cor. vi. 10, ' As poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things,' Nothing in the view of sense, ]>ut all things in God that are good for him. As God was as a fixed habitation to them that were in the wilderness, so he promiseth, Ezek.
172 SERMONS UPON PSALM XC. 1.
xi. 16, ' Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.* A christian that hath learned to live by faith above sense, he can never want anything ; he hath it in God ; and can see, not only pardon and righteousness forthcoming out of the covenant, but food and raiment, protection and maintenance, house and home, and all things, even then when they are most destitute. It is not only an act of love that God is instead of all these things, but an act of faith. As to love, 1 Sam. i. 8, * Am I not better to thee than ten sons ? ' God is not only better than all to a believer, but he is all.
Secondly, God's people may be reduced to such exigencies that they may have no house nor habitation on this side God ; as now the people of God were in a wandering condition : 1 Peter i. 1, Peter directs his epistle, ' To the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ; ' strangers not only in affection, but condition. Exile and separation from their outward comforts and privileges may be the lot of the people that are dearest to the Lord of any on earth besides : Heb. xi. 37, ' They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tor- mented ;' ver. 38, ' They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth.' So 1 Cor. iv. 11, 'We both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no cer- tain dwelling-place.' This God doth —
1. Partly to correct and humble them for the abuse of their mer- cies and the dishonours done to him in their dwellings. God hath reserved in the covenant a liberty to correct his wanton children : Ps. Ixxxix. 30-33, ' If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes, and keep not my command- ments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes,' &c. ; and by Moses' law the rebellious son was to be put out of doors. This kind of correction God himself useth for great sins. Mark the emphatical phrases of scripture. Sometimes our dwellings are said to cast us out, Jer. ix. 19 ; sometimes he is said to ' sling out the inhabitants of the land out of their dwellings/ Jer. X. 18, as easily, readily, and irresistibly as a stone is cast out of a sling ; sometimes God is said to pluck us out : Ps. lii. 5, ' He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place.' We are apt to root there, and to dream of such a fixing as not to be moved. Sometimes to spew us out : Lev. xviii. 28, ' That the land spew not you out also when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you.' Surely it is a great offence which provoketh a loving father to turn a child out of doors. God did not turn Adam out of paradise for eating an apple, as ignorant people talk. There is a long bill brought in by divines. Or if not for great sins, yet God thus punishes them, though in some more moderate way, for lesser sins ; as for their little sense of God's love, and merciful provision of so great a comfort as an habitation for them. Surely we should show more thankfulness when we enjoy the effects of God's bounty in this kind, that he should give us any repose, or place to rest in, not vouch- safed to Christ : Mat. viii. 20, ' The foxes have holes, and the birds of