2. Perseverance in waiting is assuredly prevalent; and this ren-t ders it a necessary part of the duty itself If we continue to wait for
Ver.5,6.] wherein waiting on god consists. 617
the vision of peace it will come, it will not tarry, but answer our ex- j)ectation of it. Never soul miscarried that abode in this duty unto the end. The joys of heaven may sometimes prevent consolations in this life; God sometimes gives in the full harvest without sending of the fii-st-fruits aforehand ; — but spiritual or eternal peace and rest is the infallible end of permanent waiting for God.
This is the duty that the psalmist declares himself to be engaged in, upon the encouraging discovery which was made unto him of for- giveness in God : " There is forgiveness with thee, that thou maj^est be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope."' And this is that which, in the like condition, is required of us. This is the great direction which was given us, in the example and practice of the psalmist, as to our duty and deportment in the condition described. This was the way whereby he rose out of his depths and escaped out of his enta,nglements. Is this, then, the state of any of us? Let such take dnections from hence.
1. Encourage your souls unto luaiting on God. Do new fears arise, do old disconsolations continue? Say unto your souls, " Yet wait on God. ' Why are you cast down, O our soids? and why are you disquieted within us? hope in God; for we shall yet praise him, who is the health of our countenance, and our God;"' as the psalm- ist doth in the like case, Ps. xliii. 5. So he speaks elsewhere, " Wait on God, and be of good courage;" — " Shake off sloth, rouse up your- selves from under despondencies ; let not fears prevail." This is the only way for success, and it will assuredly be prevalent. Oppose this resolution to every discouragement, and it will give new life to faith and hope. Say, " My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the rock of my heart, and my portion for ever;" as Ps. Ixxiii. 26. Though thy perplexed thoughts have even wearied and worn out the outward man, as in many they do, so that flesh faileth, — and though thou hast no refreshing evidence from within, from thyself, or thy own experience, so that thy heart faileth, — yet resolve to look unto God; there is strength in him, and satisfaction in him, for the whole man ; he is a rock, and a portion. This will strengthen things which otherwise will be ready to die. This will keep life in thy course, and stir thee ujp to plead it with God in an acceptable season, when he will be found. Job carried up his condition unto a supposition that God might slay him, — that is, add oue stroke, one rebuke unto an- other, until he was consumed, and so take him out of the world in dark- ness and in sorrow, — yet he resolved to trust, to hope, to wait on him, as knowing that he should not utterly miscarry so doing. This frame the church expresseth so admirably that nothing can be added there- unto : Lam. iii. 1 7-26, " Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace : I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished
618 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. [Ver.5,6.
from the Lord : remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LoRD is my portion, saith my soul ; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.'' We have here both the condition and the duty insisted on, with the method of the soul's actings in reference unto the one and the other fully expressed. The condition is sad and bitter; the soul is in depths, far from peace and rest, verse 1 7. In this state it is ready utterly to faint, and to give up all for lost and gone, both strength for the present and hopes for the future, verse 1 8. This makes its condition full of sorrow and bitter- ness, and its own thoughts become unto it like " wormwood and gall," verses 19, 20. But doth he lie down under the burden of all this trouble? doth he despond and give over? No; saith he, "I call to mind that ' there is forgiveness with God;' grace, mercy, good- ness for the relief of distressed souls, such as are in my condition," verses 21-23. Thence the conclusion is, that as all help is to be looked for, all relief expected from him alone, so " it is good that a man should quietly wait and hope for the salvation of God," verses 24'-2G. This he stirs up himself unto as the best, as the most blessed course for his deliverance.