enjoyment of the heavenly world. Let us but get the spirit of the Psalmist in the prayer before us, and we shall have no reason to complain that we were not amused with curious speculations, or edified with matters of deep research.
Our business on the present occasion will be quite simple, namely,
I. To explain the petitions here offered —
Two things the Psalmist here implores of God ;
1 . The manifestations of his mercy —
[Mercy is that which every child of Adam needs : he needs it too, not merely for some particular violations of God's law, but for every action of his life : there is iniquity even in his holiest things : his very tears need to be washed, and his re- pentances to be repented of. Hence he must, from the very beginning to the end of life, and in reference to every moment that he has lived, implore mercy at the hands of the heart- searching God
In this request he sets, as it were, before his eyes all the instances of mercy which God has shewn to his most favoured people from the foundation of the world. We may indeed understand his words as a general kind of plea taken from the wonted goodness of God to others : and then this petition will accord with that offered in another psalm, "Remember me with the favour which thou bearest unto thy chosen ; O visit me with thy salvation4!" But there seems here a more specific reference to some particular exhibitions of God's mercy in the days of old ; multitudes of which must of necessity present themselves to his mind, whenever his attention was directed towards them. What mercy had God shewn to Adam, in promising a Saviour to him, instead of inflicting on him the judgments he had so deeply merited ! What mercy to Abel also, in giving him such manifest tokens of his favour ! To Enoch also, in affording him such constant access to him, and in translating him to glory, without ever suffering him to taste the bitterness of death ! In like manner his mercy to Noah, in delivering him from the deluge which overwhelmed the whole world beside ; and to Abraham also, whom he admitted to all the familiarity of a most endeared friend. These, and many other instances, we may suppose to have been in his mind, when he proposed them to God as patterns of the mercy which he himself desired to partake of.
This is the true way in which every child of God should pray. From all that God has done for his saints in former
a Ps. cvi. 4, 5.