thy servant, O Lord ! for in thy sight shall no man living be jus- tified." Similar to this is the experience of all the saints. All are insufficient of themselves for any thing that is good : and the man who was stripped, and wounded, and left half dead% was but a faint emblem of the man who, feeling in himself innumerable corruptions, is unable to mortify so much as one of them, except as he is aided from above, and strengthened by communications of the Spirit of Grace. St. Paul himself lamented his state in reference to this ; yea, he even surpassed the Psalmist in his humiliating confessions and mournful complaints ^]
But in the midst of all this, we view with pleasure,
II. His consolation —
He considered that God's thoughts were exercised upon him —
[God is not an inattentive observer of any of his creatures : but^' his eves are more especially upon the righteous'^." As " his eyes were upon the Promised Land from one end of the year even to the other "^j" so are they upon his own people in every place and in every age. Me says, " I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you an expected end'." He thinks of his people with tender compassion — with anxious care — with joi/ful complacency. How tenderly did he listen to the effusions of Fphraim's sorrow""! With what anxiety does he sit, as a refiner, to watch the vessel which he is purifying in the furnace, lest it should by any means suffer injury by the process that was intended only for its good'! With what exultation too does he say, " To this man will I look, even unto him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit ;" as though not all the angels in heaven could engage his attention in comparison of such a sight ! David was sensible, that in the midst of all his spiritual distress he was not forgotten of bis God ; but that he was, notwith- standing all his unworthiness, an object of his paternal care".]
What comfort must such a consideration afford him !
[Surelv greater consolation could scarcelv be conceived than that which would arise from this source. What must it be to have
imse arc liable wisdom contriving for his good ! almighty
power ready to execute whatever Divine wisdom should judge
expedient 1 unhoiinded mercy pleading, that his sins and
frailties may not provoke God to withdraw his loving-kindness
from
'^Lnkex.SO. fRom.vii.24. ^ Ps.xxxiii. 18, ip. &:xxxiv. 15.
'' Job xxxvi. 7' Deut. xi. 12. ' Jer. xxix, 11.
■^ Jer.xxxi. 1S--20.&: Hos.xiv. 8. 'Mai. iii. 3. " He knew it from both his past and present experience, Ps. xxxi. J. with ver. 5.