2. What loss do they sustain who live far off from God !
[It is the diligent and watchful Christian alone that feels the devout affections exercised in this psalm. Too many of those who profess religion are content with a low state of mind. They look upon the work of praise and adoration as rather to be desired than attained; as that which will engage them in heaven, rather than as that which they can be much occupied with on earth. The most of their devotions consist of formal lamentations on account of the deadness of their souls, and lukewarm petitions for pardon and acceptance. y\h ! what enemies are these to their own welfare ! They might enjoy a very heaven below ', and
yet " ver. 20.' " ver. 21.
438.] god's readiness to answer prater. 485
yet scarcely exceed in happiness the people from whom they have come forth. Oh, Brethren, let it not be thus with you : aspire after high and heavenly things : be not satisfied without the brightest manifestations of God's love, and the richest communi- cations of his grace : " Delight yourselves in God ; and then he will give you the desire of your heart."]
god's readiness to answer prayer.
Ps. cxlv. 18, 19. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call tipoji him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him : he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
ONE of the most endearing qualities of a monarch is, a readiness to listen to the petitions of his sub- jects, and to relieve, to the utmost of his power, their necessities. But no earthly potentate can be accessible to all ; nor, if he were, could he supply their wants. God alone is competent to this great task. With him there is no weariness, nor any defect either of inclination or of power. To him all may go, at all times, and under all circumstances : and, if they go to him, they shall find, by sweet ex- perience, that " he is able to do for them exceeding abundantly above all that they can ask or think." Hence the name given to Jehovah by the Psalmist, is this, " O thou that hearest prayer." In the pas- sage before us we are particularly led to contem- plate God in this view. It is here said,
I. That he will hear the supplications of his praying people — " The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him." —
[Never will he turn a deaf ear to a humble suppliant. We read not of so much as one whom the Lord Jesus turued away in the days of his flesh, provided only that he came under a deep sense of his own necessities, and a humble expectation of relief from him. So at this time there is no diilerence with respect to persons ; God is ready to hear " all " without excep- UoH;, whether those who have long approved themselves to him
as
486 PSALMS, cxLV. 18, ig. [438.
as faithful servants, or those who come to him for the first time
in their whole lives "He will be nigh unto them," the
very instant they call upon him. But who can declare all that is contained in this expression ? As to his actual presence, God is nigh uuto all, vvhetlKjr they call upon him or not. It is of the manifestations of his presence that the Psalmist speaks : and those will God vouchsafe to the souls of his faithful worshippers ifl a variety of ways. He will " lift up the light of his counte- nance upon them':" he will shed abroad his love in their hearts by the Holy Ghost : he will give them the spirit of adoption, yea, and the witness of his Spirit, whereby they shall know that their prayers are both heard and answered. We do not now speak of such testimonies as were vouchsafed to Daniel, or Cornelius, but such as are promised in the prophecies of Isaiah to the Church at large: "Then thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer ; thou shalt cry, and he shalt say. Here I am""." To judge of these assurances of our acceptance, we must have experienced them in our own souls. To those who have not known them, they must of necessity appeal- little better than the dreams of an heated imagination. But whatever the ignorant may say, " if we draw nigh to God, he will draw nigh to us*"," and " will ma- nifest himself unto us, as he does not unto the world''."]