[He feels the necessity of divine grace to change his heart c. He therefore cries to God, " Turn thou me." He ventures like the prodigal to address God as his God. He urges this relation as a plea to enforce his request.]
We next see the state of his mind in the progress of his repentance —
He reflects upon the progress he has made —
[He has felt very pungent grief on account of his iniquities'1. Through the remonstrances of his conscience he has been " ashamed." He has been " even confounded" by discoveries of his own corruptions. His constitutional propensities, which were the reproach of his youth, are still his burthen, and his grief e.]
But he gives the glory of his advancement to God alone —
[He had cried to God for the gift of converting grace. He now acknowledges that grace to have come from God. He ascribes his deeper insight into the corruptions of his own heart to the illuminating operations of God's Spirit. Thus he adopts from his heart the confessions of Jobf, and of Paulg — ]
How acceptable to God such a penitent is, appears from,
II. The reflections of God over him —
The penitent can scarcely find terms whereby to express his own vileness ; but God accounts no honours too great for such a person —
He owns the penitent as a " dear and pleasant child"—
[The lower thoughts we have of ourselves, the higher God has of us. While we are confounded before him, he " rejoices over us with joy." While we are saying, " Surely such an one as I cannot be a child of God," He delights in testifying that
c John vi. 44.
d This is the import of that significant action of " smiting upon the thigh :" see Ezek. xxi. 12.
e The expressions of his grief rise in a climax ; he repents, he smites on his thigh ; he is filled with shame ; he is confounded before God. This, though an afflictive process, is a salutary and blessed experience ; as it argues deeper self-knowledge, and an increasing view of the purity of God's law.
f Job xl. 4. g 1 Cor. xv. 10.