I have no delight in thee ; behold, here am I, let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him."
In all this he was doubtless actuated by a sense of his own extreme unworthiness : he saw that the affliction which was laid upon liira, was an accomplishment of the threatening long since denounced against him by God himself, and " he re- ceived it as the punishment of his iniquity." At the same time, assured in his own mind that the strokes were inflicted by a loving Father, and not by an avenging Judge, he desired only that God should glorify himself in any way which he saw best : "I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it^."]
Confine not however your views to David ; but,
II. Improve the subject for the benefit of your own
souls —
1. See here the sufferings of that Saviour whom
he typified —
[David was a most remarkable type of Christ, no less in his sufferings than in his exaltation to the throne of Israel. In all the Psalms where he speaks of his sufferings, he speaks quite as much in the person of the Messiah as in his own
person s Even where he seems most exclusively to
refer to his own case, he is quoted by St. Paul as pre-eminently typifying the Lord Jesus : " Innumerable evils have compassed me about : mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, that I am not able to look up ; they are more than the hairs of my head ; therefore my heart faileth me." Doubtless these words, as far as they relate to Christ, speak of him only as bearing the sins of others, whilst David suffered only for his own : but the whole Psalm is in a very peculiar degree descriptive of the Lord Jesus ^. Behold Jesus then as cast out by his whole nation, who said, " We mil not have this man to reign over us'!" Behold him forsaken by his own Disciples whom he loved, and betrayed by one who had eaten bread with . him, even by Judas, who was actually typified by Achitophel'^ ! Be- hold him going over that very brook Kedron^, pursued by armed bands™, who sought and laboured to destroy him !
But behold more particularly His deportment under his afflictions. Here was David pre-eminently a type of Him. When the bitter cup was put into his hands, though he prayed for the removal of it, he said, " Not my will, but thine be
*" Ps. xxxix. 9. s See Ps. xxii. and Ixix.
^ Compare Ps. xl. 6 — 8. with Heb. x. 5 — 9. i ver. 23, with John xviii. 1. ^ Ps. xli. 9. with John xiii. 18.
1 John xviii. 1. i" John xviii. 3.