down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God : for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my Godp." You must never forget that appeal which God himself makes to the whole universe, " I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vainq." Even in this world you may be sure that God will accept and bless you : for he has said, " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ; they shall walk and not faint1." But in the world to come, can any one doubt the acceptance of a penitent, contrite, and believing soul ? You might as well doubt the existence of God him- self: for he has said, that " we shall reap if we faint nots :" and to all his believing Israel he has engaged, that " they shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, and shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end1."]
p Ps. xlii. 11. i Isai. xlv. 19. r Isai. xl. 31.
s Gal. vi. 9. * Isai. xlv. 17.
Ps. cxxx. 7, 8. Let Israel hope in the Lord : for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
THAT advice which flows from experience is at all times most worthy of our attention. In this view the words of our text claim peculiar regard. David, in the psalm before us, records a very signal deliverance which he had recently experienced, pro- bably from an overwhelming sense of his own guilt and corruption : and, having informed us what me- thods he had used to obtain deliverance, and how effectual they had proved for his restoration to hap- piness, he recommends the adoption of them to all the people of God under all difficulties whatsoever ; and assures them, that they shall not in any instance fail of success : " Let Israel," &c.
He sets before us,
I. Our duty —
Hope in God, as men generally use the term, is nothing more than an unfounded expectation that God will save us, whatever be our state, and what-
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