' Ps. cxlviii. 14. "" 1 John i. 3. • Jer. xxx. 21.
Ps. lxxvii. 7 — 10. Will the Lord cast off for ever P and will he be favourable no more P Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise foil for evermore P hath God forgotten to be gracious P Hath he in anger shit up his tender mercies P And I said, This is my infirmity : but I will remember the years of the right ha?id of the Most High.
IT pleases God to deal with men in a great variety of ways : some, in their bodies, experience scarce any pain or sickness till the period of their dissolution ; whilst others know little of health or ease through the greatest part of their lives. In like manner, the souls of some enjoy an almost unin- terrupted course of peace and prosperity; whilst others are made to pass through deep waters, and to sustain fiery trials during a great part of their earthly pilgrimage. It is of these last that we pro- pose at this time to speak. The afflictions of Asaph were certainly exceeding heavy : and the account^
which
which in the preceding verses he gives of himself, shews, that he may well be considered as a mirror, wherein the Lord's people in all ages may, under their several temptations, behold the workings of their own minds. Scarcely any one can experience a sorer temptation than his ". When he wrote this psalm, he was brought through it'' : but he tells us faithfully, what were his views and feelings under it. He sought the Lord without intermission ; but found no comfort ""i his very recollections of God's cha- racter contributed only to augment his griefs To such a degree was his spirit oppressed, that he was deprived of all rest by night, and of all power of friendly communication by day ; and he altogether sunk under his trouble ^ In vain did he call to mind the consolations he had enjoyed under former trials ^, or examine to find the causes of this peculiar dispensation ^ : he thought surely that God himself must have changed, and have cast off that character, which, in appearance at least, he had on all former occasions exhibited : yea, his darling attributes of mercy and truth seemed to have undergone a change, and to have assumed an aspect totally different from that in which they had hitherto been viewed**.
Happily, however, the snare was broken ; and he saw, that these hard thoughts of God had no foun- dation in truth : they were the result only of his own weakness' ; and would be effectually removed by a more attentive consideration of all that God had done for his people of old''.
His temptation was at its height, when he asked the questions recorded in our text. We shall do well therefore to consider,
I. What these questions import —
They are not to be viewed as subjects of a merely speculative inquiry, but to be taken in connexion
with
* He seems to have been that Asaph who was contemporary with David. ^ ver. 1. *= ver. 2. "* ver. 3. ' ver. 3, 4,
' ver. 5, 6. «f ver. 6. ^ ver. 7 — g. ' ver. 10.
* ver. 10—20.