i Numb. vi. 24— 2G. ^ Heb. xi. 9, 10.
no more satisfy the soiil than their vanities can do ? O give not reason for any such sentiment as this ! but let it be seen, that in having God for your portion, you have a good, which none can estimate but those who possess it, and which the whole world are unable either to diminish or augment ^]
1 Ps. Ixxiii. 25.
Ps. V. 11, 12. Let all those that put their trust in Thee, rejoice : let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name he joyful in thee. For thou. Lord, loilt bless the righteous: with favour wilt thou compass him, as with a shield.
DAVID, in speaking of the persecutions which he endured from Saul, represents them as accompanied with every species of malignity on the part of his oppressors : " There is no faithfulness in their mouth : their inward part is very wickedness : their throat is an open sepulchre : they flatter with their tongue." This character we should have been disposed to limit to the agents of Saul : but St. Paul teaches us to consider it as descriptive of human nature generally, and to apply it, without exception, to every child of man^. The fact is, that human nature is the same in all ages and places : and if it was so corrupt whilst under the immediate government of God himself, much more may it be expected to manifest similar corruption under circumstances less favourable for its control. Doubtless, to be reduced to a level with such abandoned men is very humihating : but it is consoling to know, that if, on the one hand, we resemble the??i by nature, we, on the other hand, are partakers of all David's privileges, as soon as ever we are renewed by divine grace. Under his great and accumulated trials, he was often filled with a holy and unutterable joy in God : and such joy is our portion also, if, hke him, we place our confidence in God. This is expressly asserted in our text, in which we behold,
a Rom. iii. 13.