obtain all that he desires: he is content to " tarry the Lord's leisure," assured that he shall not be ultimately cast out, or suffered " to seek the Lord in vain."
The whole of this experience may be seen in another psalm, where David places in one view the greatness of liis necessities, and the urgency of his requests : " I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Hear me speedily, O Lord : my spirit faileth : hide not thy face from me ; lest I be Hke them that go down to the pit. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning ; for in thee do I trust : cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee^"]
That we may not think too unfavourably of this experience, let us notice,
IL The confidence which it is calculated to inspire — The Psalmist, in the latter clause, did not merely intend to assert a fact, but to mark the connexion of that fact with the experience which he had just deli- neated ; and which he regarded,
1. As an evidence of mercies received —
[He was conscious of ardent desires after God, and of laborious exertions in seeking after him. But whence was it that such desires had ever arisen in his mind? And how came they ever to be put forth into act? And whence had he derived that firmness of character, that he could persevere in his pur- suit of God, under all the discouragements which he had to contend with ? Were these the spontaneous product of his own heart? or were they infused into him by man? or did they arise out of any contingent circumstances capable of producing them? No : they sprang from God only, who had cast, as it were, the mantle of his love upon him, and drawn him to him- self. It was " God who in the day of his power had made him willing" to renounce all his former pursuits, and to follow after Christ as the God of his salvation. God had "made him willing in the day of his power," and had kept him hitherto in his everlasting arms. Of all this, his experience was a decisive proof and evidence : and he could not but say, " He that hath wrought me to the self-same thing is God."]
2. As an earnest of yet further mercies in reserve —
[In this light God's mercies may with great propriety be viewed ; and I doubt not but that tliis idea was intended to be expressed in the words before us. It is precisely what David more fully expressed in another psalm ; where, having
^ Ps. cxliii. C— 8.