on one occasion, to think that " God had cast him oif, and would be favoui'able to him no more, but had in anger shut up his tender mercies, so that his promise would fail for ever- more," he " called to mind God's wonders of old time," and thus composed his mind, and assured himself that his fears were groundless, the result only of " his own infirmity^." In any troubles, therefore, which we may experience, we shall do well to look back upon God's mercies of old, and to take encouragement from them to cast ourselves upon him, for the continuance of them.] .
Let us next observe,
II. What he deprecates —
Sin, in whomsoever it is found, is most offensive to God —
[God "cannot look upon iniquity without the utmost abhorrence™," both of the act itself, and of the person who has committed it. Hence, when he forgives sin, he " blots it out, even as a morning cloud, which passes away, and is no more seen"." God has put it altogether out of his own sight; he has " cast it behind his back°," " into the very depths of the seaP," from whence it shall never be brought up again. If it were remembered by him, he must punish it : and therefore, to those who turn unto him, and lay hold on his covenant, he promises, that " their sins and iniquities he will remember no
n ""I
morel, j
On this account David deprecates the remembrance of his sins —
[He specifies, in particular, " the sins of his youth," which, though committed through levity and thoughtlessness, were displeasing to God, and must entail his judgments on the soul. Little do young people think what their views of their present conduct will be, when God shall open their eyes, whether it be in the present or the future life. They now imagine that they have, as it were, a licence to indulge in sin, and to neglect their God. They conceive, that serious piety at their age would be premature and preposterous ; and that, if they only abstain from gross immoralities, they may well be excused for deferring to a later period the habits that are distasteful to a youthful mind. But these are vain and delu- sive imaginations. God views their conduct with other eyes. He admits not those frivolous excuses with which men satisfy their own minds. He sees no reason why the earlier part of life should be consecrated to Satan, and the dregs of it alone
1 Ps.xlii.G. andlxxvii.6 — 11, «" Hab. i. 13. " Isai. xliv. 22. o Isai. xxxviii. 17. p Mic. vii. 19. i Heb. viii. 1'.?.