In discoursing on these words, we will shew, I. What God had done for his soul —
David, as we are told in the foregoing context, had been involved in many troubles, from which nothing but a Divine interposition could have deli- vered him*^. But we must not confine the subject to temporal deliverances : he speaks of something which God had done for " his soul ,-" and more particularly specifies, that God " had not turned away his mercy from him^;" and makes Ma^ the peculiar ground of his praise and thanksgiving. We observe then that God had vouchsafed to him,
1 . The pardon of his sins —
[This would have been an exceedingly rich mercy, even if David have never fallen from his former integrity. But, if we view the great enormities committed by him in the matter of Uriah, we see good reason why he should magnify God's mercy beyond any other of the sons of men. Whether this psalm was written prior, or subseqiient to his fall, we know not ; and there- fore we forbear to notice that as an aggravation of his guilt, or as enhancing the mercy vouchsafed to him. As a man, he was a sinner from his mother's womb : and the most perfect of men could no more stand, than the vilest, if God should enter into judgment with ~ him, and mark in him all that had been done amiss. David was sensible of this, and acknowledged it in these expressive terms ; " I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart ; and I will glorify thy name for evermore : for great is thy mercy towards me j and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell*^." Let us be sensible, how much we also stand in need of mercy ; and let us seek it as that without which our souls must for ever perish : or, if we have received mercy, let us devoutly glorify our God for it as a benefit which no w^ords can ever adequately express.]
2. A manifestation of that pardon to his soul —
[David had prayed earnestly to God, and had obtained an answer to his prayer. How this answer was conveyed to his mind, we are not informed : but he had no doubt in his own soul respecting it: he could say, " Verily God hath heard me ; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer s." Oh! who can estimate aright this mercy ? See how the prophet Jeremiah speaks of it : '^ \ called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my
bi'eathing,
■' ver. 10—12, ' Ver. 20.
•' Ps. Ixxxvi. 12, 13. ver. I9.
224 PSALMS, Lxvi. 16. [379.
breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not*^." How tender! how pa- thetic ! how encouraging this acknowledgment ! Such was David's also, on another occasion : " I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles'." Truly this is a great and blessed work which " the Lord does for the souls" of men: and it was with good reason that David said, '' Come and hear, all ye that fear God ; and I will declare what he hath done for my soul."]
But it will be proper to state more particularly, II. Why he was so ready to speak of it — •
It was not from ostentation or vanity that he thus called the attention of others to his own concerns, but,
1. From a sense of gratitude to God —
[Such mercies call for the liveliest gratitude, and demand a tribute of praise from the whole world. Hence the soul that feels its obligations for them, would be glad to interest the whole creation in the blessed work of praise and thanksgiving. This David attempts in many of his psalms : " I will bless the Lord at all times : his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me; and let us