will you still go on in those ways, which your own consciences condemn ? But, as the rich man was not suffered to return from hell to warn his surviving brethren, who were walking in his steps, so neither will any be sent from the dead, to instruct you. You have Moses and the Prophets ; and those you must both hear and obey : and, if you will not believe them, nothing awaits you but to " eat the fruit of your own doings, and to be filled imme- diately with your own devices." Now, however, you are warned : now, I trust, your consciences attest the truth and importance of all that ye have heard : and now I conclude with that solemn ad- monition of St. James, " To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin°."]
" Jam. iv. 17.
Ps. XX. 7. So7ne trust in chariots, and some in horses : lut ive ivill remember the name of the Lord our God.
ASTONISHING is the success of united prayer: nor are any so situated as not to need the inter- cessions of others. David, though so great and powerful, stood in need of them : and he here records the benefit he received from them'' — ■
The Psalmist here records,
I. The different grounds of men's confidence — • The generality make the creature their confi- dence—
[This prevailed universally among the heathen
And it too generally pervaded the Jewish nation also
We too, in all our straits and difficulties, are prone to it ; leaning
to our own understanding resting on our own rci-ohition
and undertaking every thing in a dependence on
self ]
The only proper ground of confidence is God —
[He alone is all-sufficient With him every thing is
easy David abhorred the idea of resting on any other''
Hence he adopted the resolution in the text.]
II. The correspondent issues of their confidence —
Those
See, and quote the whole preceding context.
Fs. cxxi. 1, 2. & xi. 1—4. Mark the spirit of these passages.
48 PSALMS, XXI. 1 7. [34^j'^
Those who depend on the creature are disap- pointed—
[This has frequently been the case ^ And it is only
what may be expected '^ Creatine-confidcnce arms God
against us* and entails his curse on all who indulge
it^ ]
But those who depend on God succeed —
[So did Asas So did Jehosaphat'' So did
Hezekiah ' So did David '' And so shall all, even
to the end of the world' ]