the strict award of justice deprecated.
Ps. cxliii. 2. Enter not into judgment with thj servant ; for
in thy sight shall no man living he justified.
TRIALS and persecutions are sometimes per- mitted by God, for the purpose of honouring his
people.
476 PSALMS, cxLiri. 2. [436.
people, and advancing his work in their souls ; and may justly be regarded by them as a gift from God, bestowed on them for Christ s sake for their eternal good''. But under some circumstances, trials may be viewed rather as judgments from God on account of some iniquity which they have committed. la this light must we consider all the troubles which arose to David in his own family, after his trans- gression in the matter of Uriah. The evil was un- merited as far as related to the persons who inflicted it ; but it was received from God as a chastisement, under which it became him to humble himself in dust and ashes. We are not indeed certain at what time David wrote this psalm, whether when he was sujfiTering under Saul, or when his own son Absalom had driven him from his throne. We are rather in- clined to think it was at the latter period, because that affliction was so decidedly a punishment for his former sins, having been predicted by Nathan in that view. But, whatever were the circumstances under which the psalm was written, David viewed them as judgments from God which he deprecated ; whilst, as to the immediate occasion, he appealed to God that he did not merit such treatment at the hands of man. In his appeal to God, he had called upon him " in faithfulness and in righteousness to hear and answer him ;" but it was only in reference to the evils im- puted to him by man that he dared thus to speak-: before God he knew he deserved all that could be inflicted on him ; and therefore he implored mercy at his hands, as one self-convieted and self-condenmed : ** Enter not, &c."
These words we shall consider in a two-fold point of view ;
I. As containing principles for our instruction —
It is obvious that in this address of David to Je- hovah the following truths are declared ;
1. That all men are sinners before Ggd— » , [David speaks of " every living man." And this is the universal testimony of Scripture, that " there is none righteous, no, not one:" that "in many things we all offend,-" that
it every * Phil. i. 29.