OUR TIMES IN god's HAND. Ps. xxxi. 15. My times are hi thy hand. TO the ungodly it is a satisfaction to deny the providence of God, and to cut him off, as it were, from any connection with his creatures. But the saints find a rich consolation in the thought that God reiffneth. This it is which reconciles them to the
o
evils they endure, and fortifies them against those which they have reason to apprehend. David, in the psalm before us, complains that there were many who " took counsel together against him, and devised to take away his life." But he comforted himself in the reflection, that, however man might be his enemy, God was " his God ;" and that however bitterly his
enemies
350.] OUR TIMES IN god's HAND. S5
enemies might be enraged against him, ** his times were not in their hands, but in God's;" and, conse- quently, that they could do nothing against him but by his permission.
From this view of the text we are led to notice,
I. Our dependence on God —
God is the Governor of the universe : he appoints the stars their courses ; he makes the raging elements to fulfil his will"; he imposes a restraint upon the most savage beasts, causing them to suppress "^ or forget '^ their instinctive ferocity, or over-ruling the exercise of it, for the preservation '' or destruction of men % as he sees occasion. The affairs of men he more especially controuls. In his hands are,
1 . The occurrences of life —
[There is nothing realiy casual or contingent in the world. It is Go<l that disposes of us from our earliest infancy to the latest hour of our lives. " He determines the bounds of our habi- tation ^." If we are called to the possession of wealth, or deprived of it by any untoward circumstarices, it is ^' the Lord who gives, and the Lord who taketh it aways." If we enjoy health, orpine away in sickness, it is " the Lord who both wounds and heals, who kills and makes alive*"." " There is neither good nor evil in the city, but the Lord is the doer of it'." Even the falling of a hair of our head, trifling as it is, takes not place but by hia appointment''.]
2. The seasons of death —
[To every man "there is an appointed time upon earth*: there are " bounds which he cannot pass™." " God holdeth our souls in life":" and " when he taketh away our breath, we die, and return to the dust°." Youth and health are no security again^t the stroke of death : the most vigorous constitutions are soon broken, when God is pleased to afflict us ?: the skill of phy- sicians, however useful when attended witli his blessing, is of no avail''. So numerous are the occasions of death, that no caution can possibly avoid them: " a man may flee from a lion, and a *bear meet him ; or he may go into a house for safety, and a ser- pent bite him""." When God "requires our souls," we must
surrender
» Ps. cxlviii. 8. ^ 1 Kin. xiii. 28. " Dan. vi. 22.
•^ Jon. i. 17. '2 Kin. ii. 24. ' Acts xvii. 26.
* Job 1.21. " 1 Sam. ii. 6, 7. ' Am. ill. 6.
^ Malt. X. 30. ' Job vii. 1. "^ Job.\iv. 5.
"Ps. Ixvi. 0. "Ps. civ. 29. * Job xxi. 23— 25.
" Mark v. 26. * Amos v. I9.