against his vicegerents, their worshipping of the molten calf, their contempt of the Promised Land, their joining with the Moabites and Midianites in the worship of Baal-peor, their quarrelling with Moses at Kadesh ; and, finally, their incor- porating themselves with the Canaanites, and imitating their idolatrous and cruel customs.
But together with all this, he shews how graciously God had dealt with them : for though he had inflicted many and sore judgments upon them, he had not yet finally forsaken them ; but, for his own name sake, and for the sake of the covenant which he had made with them, he still continued to them his tender mercies.]
And was not all this a ground for praise and thanksgiving ?
[Methinks it was not possible for any one who duly con- sidered the subjects here brought before him, to feel otherwise than as the Psalmist himself felt on the occasion. For, had God taken them in this manner from the midst of another nation, and multiplied his mercies to them to such an extent, and for so many hundreds of years, in the midst of all their rebellions ; and shall they not " bless him ?" Had he so shewn himself both " the God of Israel" and " a God to Israel;" and shall they not adore him? Shall they not desire that all should be alike impressed with a sense of these mercies, and that God should be alike glorified in all and by all? Methinks, when it was said, " Let all the people say, Amen," there was not one dissentient or silent voice in the midst of them. Indeed, we are expressly told that " they did all say, Amen; and praised the LordV And, if there had been one who refused to unite in this tribute of praise, he might well have been separated from the congregation, as a curse to the Church, and as un- worthy to be numbered amongst the Lord's people.]
From hence, then, we may clearly see, II. The corresponding feeling which it should gene- rate in us —
We have experienced an infinitely greater redemp- tion than they —
[Theirs was from temporal bondage, which, at all events, must have been ere long terminated by death : ours is from the
chains of sin and Satan, death and hell Theirs was by
power only : ours is by price as well as power, even by the inestimable price of our Redeemer's blood c ]
And, notwithstanding this, we have been as rebel- lious as ever they were —
b See the preceding reference. c 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.