This portion too is secured to them —
[Israel in Canaan were surrounded with enemies on every side : but God, who had allotted to every tribe its portion, en- gaged to " maintain their lot." Even when all the males assembled thrice a year at Jerusalem, God undertook to be a Pro- tector of their families and their possessions : and to this hour would they have enjoyed their inheritance, if they had not by their transgressions provoked God to forsake them. But ua, who have HIM for our inheritance, he will not forsake: as he has said, " The Lord will not forsake his people ; because it hath pleased him to make you his people':" and again, " I will never leave thee; I will never, never forsake thee'"." Not but that he will punish us for our transgressions ; and so punish, as to make us feel what *' an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from him : but his loving-kindness will he not utterly take from us, nor suffer his truth to fail"." It is not with us as with Israel in Canaan : they were left to forfeit and to lose their lot : but God, in his mercy, engages to preserve our inheritance for us, and us for it°: and not only never to depart from us, but so to put his fear in our hearts that we may not depart from him p."
Such then is thy portion, O Believer ; and such is thy security, that it shall be continued to thee.]
And is such the inheritance of all God's people ? We shall not wonder then at,
II. The feelings which tliey have in the contemplation of it- Behold how David expresses,
1 . His delight in it — - [All the pious amongst the Israelites would find some reason to be pleased and delighted with the portion that was assigned them. To some their proximity to the sea would be a matter of joy ; to others, their pasturage ; to others, their rocks and for- tresses : so that all in their respective places would say, " The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage.'' But how well niav thty adopt that language who have the Lord for their portion ? Tell me, Believer, what else canst thou want ? What can add any thing unto thee ? What is there which thou dost not find in thy God ? If thou possesses! ever so great a portion of earthly goods, are they not all as dung and dross in comparison of this ? Or, if thou art destitute even as Lazarus himself, is not all sense of indigence lost in the con- templation of thy better wealth ? What the worldling has, he holds by a very uncertain tenure, and that only for a moment :
but
' I Sam. xii. 22. " Heb. xiil. 5, 6. " Ps. Ixxxix. 30—35,
* 1 Pet. i. 5. P Jer. xxxii. 38—40.