502 THE WISDOM OF MAKING THE LORD OUR REFUGE.
a course as this is, he tells you, verse 5, notwithstanding all this, they were in great fear. " There were they in great fear," saith he. May be so, for they saw some evil coming upon them. No, there was nothing but the hand of God in it; for in Ps. liii. 5, where these words are repeated, it is, " There were they in great fear, where no fear was;'"' — no visible cause of fear; yet they were in great fear.
God by his providence seldom gives an absolute, universal security unto men in their height of sin, and oppression, and sensuality, and lusts; but he will secretly put them in fear where no fear is: and though there be nothing seen that should cause them to have any fear, they shall act like men at their wits' end with fear.
But whence should this fear arise? Saith he it ariseth from hence, " For God is in the generation of the righteous." Plainly they see their work doth not go on; their meat doth not digest with them; their bread doth not go well down. * They were eating and devour ing ray people, and when'they came to devour them, they found God was among them (they could not digest their bread) ; and this put them in fear, quite surprised them.' They came, and thought to have found them a sweet morsel: when engaged, God was there filling their mouth and teeth with gravel; and he began to break out the jaw-bone of the terrible ones when they came to feed upon them. Saith he, ' God was there/ verse 5.
The Holy Ghost gives an account of the state of things that was between those two sorts of people he had described, — between the fool and the people of God,— them that were devouring, and them that had been utterly devoured had not God been among them. Both were in fear, — they that were to be devoured, and those that did devour. And they took several ways for their relief; and he showeth what those ways were, and what judgment they made upon the ways of one another. Saith he, " Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge/''
There are the persons spoken of, — they are "the poor;" and that is those who are described in the verses foregoing, the people that were ready to be eaten up and devoured.
And there is the hope and refuge that these poor had in such a time as this, when all things were in fear; and that was " the LORD/' The poor maketh the Lord his refuge.
And you may observe here, that as he did describe all the wicked as one man, " the fool/' so he describes all his own people as one man, " the poor/' — that is, the poor man : " Because the LORD is his refuge." He keeps it in the singular number. Whatsoever the people of God may differ in, they are all as one man in this business.
And there is the way whereby these poor make God their refuge. They do it by "counsel," saith he. It is not a thing they do by chance,
THE WISDOM OF MAKING THE LORD OUR REFUGE. 503
but they look upon it as their wisdom. They do it upon considera tion, upon advice. It is a thing of great wisdom.
Well, what thoughts have the others concerning this acting of theirs? The poor, they make God their refuge; and they do it by counsel What judgment, now, doth the world make of this counsel of theirs? Why, they " shame it;" that is, they cast shame upon it, contemn it as a very foolish thing, to make the Lord their refuge. 4 Truly, if they could make this or that great man their refuge, it were something; but to make the Lord their refuge, this is the foolishest thing in the world/ say they. To shame men's counsel, to despise their counsel as foolish, is as great contempt as they can lay upon them.
Here you see the state of things as they are represented in this psalm, and spread before the Lord; which being laid down, the psalmist showeth what our duty is upon such a state of things, — what is the duty of the people of God, things being thus stated. Saith he, * Their way is to go to prayer:' Verse 7, " Oh that the salva tion of Israel were come out of Zion ! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." If things are thus stated, then cry, then pray, " Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion/' etc. There shall a re venue of praise come to God out of Zion, to the rejoicing of his people.
That which I would principally think of use for myself and you in this psalm is this, —
That it is a wise thing, a thing of great counsel and advice, to make God our refuge in the time of greatest distress, terror, disorder, and wickedness, that can be in the world. This was the counsel of the poor of old in such a time as is here described (and there is not a sadder time in the whole book of God), that at such a time, and at all times, it is a wise thing, a thing of counsel and advice, to make God our refuge. I do remember, in Deut. xxxii. 21, God reproaches his people that they provoked him with that which was not God; and in Gal iv. 8 it is a reproach unto them, " Ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods." The meaning of it is this, that it is the foolishest thing in the world to put our trust and con fidence in any thing that hath not the nature of God. There is nothing but the immense nature of God that is able to yield a re fuge unto a poor soul in all the distresses whereinto it may fall; and therefore it is certainly our wisdom to make him our refuge. It is true, men do not take their immediate refreshment out of the ocean ; but it is from the ocean that all our streams are derived that give refreshment unto all creatures. We do not immediately take our spiritual relief in trouble from the immensity of God's nature, from his being God ; but it is from thence that all our streams where-