420 PSALMS, cxix. 76. [425>i'
ccccxxv.
Ps. cxix. 76. Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness he for my comfort, according to thy word, to thy servant !
THE peculiar construction of this psalm forbids us to look for much connexion between its several parts. It is composed of short detached sentences, committed to writing at different times as they occurred to the mind of the Royal penman, and afterwards reduced to a certain kind of order ; eight of them beginning with the same letter through all the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. If however we take the words of our text as contiected with the preceding verse, we must understand it as a prayer that a sense of God's loving-kindness might be given him to comfort him under his afflictions. This sense we shall not exclude ; though we shall not entirely limit it to this : for, if we take the words by themselves, they contain some peculiarly impor- tant hints, which we are desirous to impress upon your minds.
In elucidating them, we propose to shew,
I. What the Scriptures speak respecting the loving- kindness of God —
They are full of this glorious subject : they declare,
1 . That it is the one source of all the benefits we enjoy —
[Survey the lustre and use of the heavenly bodies, the rich fecundity of the earth, the structure of the human body, or the faculties of the soul ; Whence do they proceed ? Who is their author ; and by what motive was he actuated in bestowing them upon us ? Can they be traced to any other source than the kindness of our God ? Behold the gift, the stupendous gift of God's only dear Son, and of salvation by him ! Can this be traced to any other source^? ]
2. That it is our chief support under all trials — ' [We will grant something to philosophy ; and acknowledge
that it can fortify the mind in some degree : but it is not to be
compared
'•' See John iii. l6. Tit. iii. 4, 5. Eph. ii. 7.