he had a hiding-place ; and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in God.
Thus in this psalm we see, in a contrasted view,
I. The counsels of unbelief —
Unbelief always views the dark side of a question ; and not only keeps out of view those considerations that should animate and encourage the soul, but suggests others which are most injurious to its welfare :
1. It magnifies the difficulties we have to en- counter—
[Doubtless the dangers which encompassed David were great and imminent : the arrows with which his enemies sought to kill him, were aheady on the string, pointed at him, as it were, and needing only to be drawn, in order to pierce him to the heart: the foundations also of law and justice were so en- tirely subverted under the government of Saul, that there was nothing to prevent the wicked from executing their murderous plots. But still there is no sufficient ground for that despond- ing question, " What can the righteous do ? " Methinks the question under any circumstances is not only unbelieving, but atheistical : for if there be a God, and that God be a hearer of prayer, the question would rather be, ' What cannot the right- eous do ? ' " Let us look at an instance or two, as a specimen of what one righteous may do, even when, according to human appearance, the circumstances may be most desperate. The whole army of Israel is appalled at the sight of one gigantic warrior : yet a young stripling, with his sling and stone, destroys the giant, and puts to flight the whole army of the Philistines. Again : at a period when idolatry so prevailed in Israel, that Elijah thought himself the only worshipper of Jehovah in the whole land, one righteous man stems the tor- rent, destroys the priests of Baal, and demolishes all his temples and altars throughout the country. But another instance of singular importance is that of Oded'' ; who, by his own unaided expostulation, liberated two hundred thousand captives, and constrained their victorious enemies not only to restore them to their homes without injury, but to treat them vdth a ten- derness truly parental Shall any one, after such
instances as these, and many others that might be mentioned,
^' 2 Cliron. xxviii. 9 — 15.