640 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM cxxx. [Ver.5,6,
if their wounds prove difficult to be cured, if they despise ordinary remedies, if their diseases are of long continuance, this is that which they must betake themselves unto: — They must search into the word of promise, and learn to measure things, not according to the present state and apprehensions of their mind, but according unto what God hath declared concerning them. And there are sundry excellencies in the promises, when hoped in or trusted in, that tend unto the establishment of the soul in this great duty of waiting ; as, —
(1.) That grace in them, — that is, the good-will of God in Christ for hel^^, relief, satisfaction, pardon, and salvation, — is suited unto all particular conditions and luants of the soul. As light ariseth from the sun, and is diffused in the beams thereof to the especial use of all creatures enabled by a visive faculty to make use of it ; so cometh grace forth from the eternal good-will of God in Christ, and is dif- fused by the 2">romises, with a blessed contemporation unto the condi- tions and wants of all believers. There can nothing fall out between God and any soul but there is grace suited unto it, in one promise or another, as clearly and evidently as if it were given imto him parti- cularly and immediately. And this they find by experience who at any time are enabled to mix effectually a promise Avith faith.
(2.) The word of 2')romise hath a wonderful, mysterious, especial impression of God upon it. He doth by it secretly and ineffably communicate himself unto believers. When God appeared in a dream unto Jacob, he awaked and said, " God is in this place, and I knew it not." He knew God was everywhere, but an intimation of his especial presence surprised him. So is a soul surprised, when God opens himself and liis grace in a promise unto him. It cries out, " God is here, and I knew it not." Such a near approach of God in his grace it finds, as is accompanied with a refreshing sur- prisal.
(3.) There is an especial engagement of the veracity and truth of God in every promise. Grace and truth are the two ingredients of an evangelical promise, — the matter and form whereof they do con- sist. I cannot now stay to show wherein this especial engagement of truth in the promise doth consist; besides, it is a thing known and confessed. But it hath an especial influence to support the soul, when hoped in, in its duty of waiting; for that hope can never make ashamed or leave the soul unto disaj^pointments which stays itself on divine veracity under a special engagement.
And this is that duty which the psalmist engageth himself in and unto the performance of, as the only way to obtain a comfortable interest in that forgiveness which is with God, and all the gracious effects thereof. And in the handling hereof, as we have declared its nature and necessity, so Ave have the psalmist's directions for its prac-
■Ver.7,S.] EXPOSITION of verses 7 AND 3. 641
tice, unto persons in the like condition with him, for the attaining of the end by him aimed at; so that it needs no farther appUcation. That which remains of the psahn is the address which he makes unto others, with the encouragement which he gives them to steer the same course with himself; and this he doth in the two last verses, which, to complete the exposition of the whole psalm, I shall briefly explain and pass through, as having already despatched what I prin- cipally aimed at.
VERSES SEVENTH AND EIGHTH.
" Let Israel hope in the Loud : for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."
I SHALL proceed, in the opening of these words, according unto the method already insisted on. First, the meaning of the prmcipal words shall be declared ; then, the sense and importance of the whole ; thirdly, the relation that they have unto the condition of the soul expressed in the psalm must be manifested ; — from all which obser- vations will arise for our instruction and direction in the like cases, wherein we are or may be concerned.
First. Verse 7. "Let Israel hope in the Lord:" -ip^-^s ^xnb^ ^n^^ "Hope, Israel, in Jehovah," — "trust," or "expect;" the same word with that, verse 5, " In his word do I hope;" properly, to expect, to look for, which includes hope, and adds some farther degree of the soul's acting towards God. It is an earnest looking after the thing hoped for: " Expecta ad Dominum," — hope in him, and look up to him.
" For with the Lord," — "quia," or " quoniam," because seeing that with the Lord, — "'PC-; "mercy." The verb substantive, as usual, is omitted, which we supply, "There is mercy," — grace, bounty, goodness, good-will. This word is often joined with another, discovering its im- portance; and thatis^l'^y?, "truth:" OJOXI non^ "goodness," or "mercy and truth." These are, as it were, constituent parts of God's pro- mises. It is of goodness, grace, bounty, to promise any undue mere}' ; and it is of truth or faithfulness to make good what is so promised. The LXX. commonly render this word by sXsog, — that is, " pardon- ing mercy," as it is everywhere used in tlie New Testament.