We must remember, too, that, as members of the great body of the nation, we are called to bless God for our national mercies. Now national mercies are of a temporal nature : no nation, as a nation, participates spiritual blessings, any further than the mere external enjoyment of them : individuals alone have the grace of God in their hearts : and therefore, as mem- bers of the national body, we are bound, in whatever capacity we have received God's mercies, in that capacity, as far as possible, gratefully to requite them.]
3. Let us render unto God the tribute they de- mand—
[" Praise" is surely the least that we can render for such accumulated blessings : and this, as is observed in the psalm before us, is " both comely and pleasant1." Behold how Moses adored God for the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian hosts"1! See how David makes every distinct blessing a sub- ject of distinct acknowledgment, and no less than twenty-six times in as many short verses ascribes every thing to the free and everlasting mercy of his God"! And as David elsewhere calls on every rank and order of society to discharge that debt to God0, so in our text both " Jerusalem and Zion," botli priests and people, are called upon to praise the Lord: yea, the psalm both begins and ends with this just requirement, " Praise ye the Lord ; praise ye the Lord." Let every one amongst us then stir up his sold to this blessed work; and " let all that is within us bless his holy name."
Let us not however rest in acknowledgments, however devout. There is a more substantial way in which we are bound to praise him, that is, in our lives, " by giving up ourselves to his service, and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness all our days." This is the union which God himself prescribes ; " Who- so offereth me praise, honoureth me ; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the salvation of Godp."j
I ver. 1. m Exod. xv.
II Ps. cxxxvi. See particularly ver. 1, 2, 3, 26.
0 Ps. cxxxv. 19—21. and cl. 1— G. p Ps. 1. 23.