Secondly, This duty in the occasion mentioned is necessary upon the account of the greatness and sovereignty of him with whom we have to do: " My soul waiteth for Jehovah." Indeed, waiting is a duty that depends on the distance that is between the persons con- cerned in it, — namely, he that waiteth, and he that is waited on ; so the psalmist informs us, Ps. cxxiii. 2. It is an action like that of servants and handmaids towards their masters or rulers. And the greater this distance is, the more cogent are the reasons of this duty on all occasions. And because we are practically averse from the due performance of this duty, or at least quickly grow weary of it, notwithstanding our full conviction of its necessity, I shall a little insist on some such considerations of God and ourselves, as may not only evince the necessity of this duty, but also satisfy us of its rea- sonableness ; that by the first we may be engaged into it, and by the latter preserved in it.
Two things we may to this purpose consider in God, in Jehovah, whom we are to wait for: — First, His being, and the absolute and essential properties of his nature; secondly, Those attributes of his nature which respect his dealing with us; — both which are suited to beget in us affections and a frame of spirit compliant with the duty proposed.
Considerations of God, rendering our waiting on him reasonable and necessary —
His glorious being.
First, Let us consider the infinite glorious being of Jehovah, with his absolute, incommunicable, essential excellencies; and then
Ver.5,6.] god himself the object of our waiting, 621
try whether it doth not become us in every condition to wait for him, and especially in that under consideration. This course God himself took with Job to recover him from his discontents and complaints, to reduce him to quietness and waiting. He sets before him his own glorious greatness, as manifested in the works of his power, tlt&,t thereby, being convinced of his own ignorance, weakness, and infinite distance in all things from him, he might humble his soul into the most submissive dependence on him and waiting for him. And this he doth accordingly, chap. xlii. 6 : "I abhor myself," saith he, " and repent in dust and ashes." His soul now comes to be willing to be at God's disposal ; and therein he found present rest and a speedy heaUng of his condition. It is " the high and lofty One that inha- biteth eternity, whose name is Holy," Isa. Ivii. 15, with whom we have now to do: " He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers before him; yea, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance ; he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing ; and they are counted unto him less than nothing, and vanity," Isa. xl. 15, 17, 22. To what end doth the Lord set forth and declare his glorious greatness and power? It is that all might be brought to trust in him and to wait for him, as at large is declared in the close of the chapter ; for shall " grasshoppers," a " drop of the bucket," "dust of the balance," things " less than no- thing," repine against, or wax weary of, the will of the immense, glori- ous, and lofty One? He that "taketh up the isles as a very little thing," may surely, if he please, destroy, cast, and forsake one isle, one city in an isle, one person in a city ; and we are before him but single persons. Serious thoughts of this infinite, all-glorious Being will either quiet our souls or overwhelm them. All our weariness of his dispensations towards us arises from secret imaginations that he is such a one as ourselves, — one that is to do nothing but what seems good in our eyes. But if we cannot comprehend his being, we can- not make rules to judge of his ways and proceedings. And how small a portion is it that we know of God! The nearest approaches of our reasons and imaginations leave us still at an infinite distance from him. And, indeed, what we speak of his greatness, we know not well what it signifies; we only declare our respect unto that which we believe, admire, and adore, but are not able to comprehend. All our thoughts come as short of his excellent greatness as our na- tures do of his, — that is, infinitely. Behold the universe, the glorious fabric of heaven and earth; how little is it that we know of its beauty, order, and disposal ! — yet was it all the product of the word of his mouth ; and with the same facility can he, when he pleaseth, reduce it to its primitive nothing. And what are we, poor worms of
622 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. [Ver. 5, 6.
the earth, an uiconsiderable, unknown part of the lower series and order of the works of his hands, few in number, fading in condition, unregarded unto the residue of our fellow-creatures, that we should subduct ourselves from under any kind of his deahngs with us, or be weary of waiting for his pleasure? This he presseth on us, Ps. xlvi. 10, " Be still, and know that I am God;" — " Let there be no more repinings, no more disputings; continue waiting in silence and pa- tience. Consider who I am. ' Be still, and know that I am God.'" Farther to help us in this consideration, let us a little also fix our minds towards some of the glorious, essential, incommunicable pro- perties of his nature distinctly ; as, —