I. His comfort; and, 11. His courage; and, III. His care.
I. His comfort. It was altogether in the Lord, whom he sets out in aU the beauties and excellency of speech he can. He propounds the Lord to him in borrowed terms. ' The Lord is my light and my salvation, the strength of my life,' Ps. xxvii. 1. So he fetcheth comfort from God, the spring of comfort, ' the Father of all comfort,' 2 Cor. i. 4. He labours to present God to him in the sweetest manner that may be. He opposeth him to every difficulty and distress. In darkness, he is ' my hght ;' in danger, he is ' my salvation ;' in weakness, he is ' my strength ;' in all my afflictions and straits, he is the ' strength of my hfe.' Here is the art of faith in all pei-plexities whatsoever, to be able to set somewhat in God against everj' malady in ourselves. And this is not simply set out, but likewise 'svith a holy insultation.* * The Lord is my light and salvation ; whom shall I fear?' Ps. xxvii. 1. It is a question proceeding from a holy insultation, and daring of all other things. ' The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afi'aid ? ' That is one branch of his comfort.
The second branch and ground of his comfort is, 2. The goodness of God in the ruin and destruction of his enemies. ' When the wicked, even mine enemies and foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell,' Ps. sxxu. 2. He describes his enemies by their malice, and by their ruin.
[1.] His enemies were cruel enemies, blood-suckers, eaters of flesh. We
call them cannibals. As indeed men that have not grace, if they have
greatness, and be opposed, then- gi-eatness is inaccessible ; one man is a
devil to another. The Scripture calls them * wolves, that leave nothing
* That is, ' defiance.' — G.
214 A BKEATHING APTER GOD.
till morning,' Zeph. iii. 3. As the great fishes eat up the little ones, so great men they make no more conscience of eating up other men, than of eating bread ; they make no more bones of overthrowing men and undoing them, than of eating bread. ' They eat up my people as they eat bread,' Ps. xxvii, 2.
[2.] But notwithstanding their cruelty, they ivere overthrown. Saith David, ' when my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.' For, indeed, God's children, when they are delivered, it is usually with the confusion of their enemies. God doth two things at once, because the special grievance of God's children it is from inward and out- ward enemies. He seldom or never delivers them but with the confusion of their enemies. So he sets down his own comfort in the Lord, by the confusion of his enemies. This will be most apparent at the day of judg- ment, when Satan, and all that are led by his spirit, all the malignant church, shall be sent to their own place, and the church shall be for ever free from all kind of enemies. When the church is most free, then the enemies of the church are nearest to destruction ; like a pair of balances, when they are up at the one end, they are down at the other. So when it is up with the chui'ch, down go the enemies. So here are the two branches of his comfort.
II. Now his courage for the time to come, that is, in the thu-d verse, ' Though an host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.' He puts the case of the greatest danger that can be. Though an host of men should encompass me, ' my heart shall not fear ; though war rise against me, in this I will be confident.' Here is great courage for the time to come. Experience breeds hope and confidence. David was not so courageous a man of himself; but upon experience of God's former comfort and assist- ance, his faith brake as fire out of the smoke, or as the sun out of a cloud. Though I was in such and such perplexities, yet for the time to come I have such confidence and experience of God's goodness, that I will not fear. He that seeth God by a spirit of faith in his greatness and power, he sees all other things below as nothing. Therefore he saith here, he cares not for the time to come for any opposition ; no, not of an army. ' If God be with us, who can be against us ?' Rom. viii. 31. He saw God in his power ; and then, looking fi'om God to the creature, alas ! who was he ? As Micah, when he had seen God sitting upon his throne ; what was Ahab to him, when he had seen God once ? So when the prophet David had seen God once, then ' though an host encamp against me, I wiU not fear,' &c. Thus you have his comfort in the double branch of it ; his courage, also, and his confidence for the time to come.
ni. What is his care ? That is the next. I will not analyse the psalm farther than the text. After his comfort in the Lord, and in the confusion of his enemies, and his courage for the time to come, he sets down his caxe, * One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,' &c. This was his care. He had so sweet experience of the goodness and power of God, being light, and salvation and strength to him in confounding his enemies, that he studied with himself how to be thankful to God ; and this he thought fittest in the open great congregation, in the church of God, among many others. Therefore he saith, ' One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after still, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.'