a Ps. Ixix. 1 — 4. b Ps. lxxxviii. 6, 7.
c Ps. lxxvii. 7 — 9. l! Ps. xviii. 3 — 6.
722. J god's mercy an encouragement to prayer. 413
compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soule!" Thus did Jeremiah also, under his extremities : " They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head ; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry f !" Thus it is that we also, under all our troubles, should approach our God. Nor should we be discouraged because we cannot find enlargement in prayer : our feelings may be too deep for utterance ; and our desires may find vent only in sighs, and groans, and tears : but, if only we be sincere, God will hear our very " breathing and our cry."]
From the account which David gives us of his prayers, we learn,
II. The views of God, from whence he derived his chief encouragement —
He dared not to plead for any thing on the footing of justice —
[He was sensible that he in no respect came up to the perfect demands of God's Law ; and that, if God should " mark his iniquities," it would be impossible for him to " stand;" since there wras not an act, or word, or thought in his whole life that could endure so severe a scrutiny. Such is the view which all holy men have of their own infirmities : they know that God " charges even his angels with folly g," and that " the very heavens are not clean in his sight : " how much less can man be pure, who by nature comes from a corrupt source; and, by practice, drinks iniquity like waterh? Job was the most perfect man of his day : yet he says, " If I should say I am perfect, my own tongue would prove me perverse1." And every living man must deprecate the being dealt with according to the demands of strict justice, saying, " Enter not into judgment with thy ser- vant, O Lord ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified k."]
His only hope was founded on the mercy of his
God —
[Mercy is an essential perfection of the Divine nature, and, consequently, inseparable from God. But the expression, " There is forgiveness with thee," intimates, that it is treasured up, as it were, in the Divine bosom, ready to be bestowed on every weeping penitent. We are told, that " it has pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell;" and that "out
s Ps. cxvi. 3, 4. f Lam. iii. 53—56. s Job iv. IS.
h Job xv. 14—10. ; Job ix. 2, 3, 20. k Ps. cxliii. 2.