The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 225

gence. No man knows the hatefulneBB of his sin until he realizes that it is divinely forgiven. II. Gon's FORGIVENESS PBODUOES A WORTHY FEAR. That kir.d of fear which makes us anxiously watchful lest we should prove unworthy of such foroiveness, and even need that forgiveness again, The sense of forgiveness binds us to "'God in such thankfulness and love that we fear to grieve him. And the forgiveness makes us so sensible of our own infirmities that we can but walk watchfully, as those who fear to fall. And we can never be quite sure that the sin forgiven was not rooted in a weakness which we still retain, and which is still to us a source of peril. So we fear for ourselves. III. Gon's FORGIVENESS BEHOVES oun FEAB. Because a forgiveness declares and guarantees an interest in us. God's forgiveness pledges continuous help and blessing. It reveals God to us so that we are able to cherish an absolute confidence in him. And while it puts us upon every endeavour not to sin, it keeps us from all despairing fear by assuring us that, even if we should be overcome by our frailties, '' there is for- giveness with him." Hie forgivings do not exhaust his mercy, but pledge it for days to come.-R. T. Vers. 5, 6.-0ur waiting is a watching. "In the year 1830, on the night preceding the first of .August, the day the slaves in our West Indian colonies were to come into possession of the freedom promised them, many of them, we are told, never went to bed at all. Thousands and tens of thousands of them assembled in their places of worship, engaging in devotional duties and singing praises to God, waiting for the first streak of the light of the morning of that day on which they were to be made free, Some of their number were sent to the hills, from which they might obtain the first view of the coming day, and by a signal intimate to their brethren down in the valley the very first moment of breaking dawn." They" watched for the morning." The kind of watching that comes home to us is the anxious watching by the sick-beds of loved friends. Night-work is especially trying. Sentinel-watching may be also in mind. I. A WAITING THAT IS A WEARY COMPULSION. We do not want to wait. We are made to wait. And the watching for the end of the waiting-time is simply a prolonged agony. Man often deals with his fellow-man thus; and God sometimes finds it needful to put his people into this hard discipline. Whether we like it or not, we must wait. Active man who would do somothing-must do nothing. lllust.: waiting for openiags in life. II. A WAITING THAT IS A HOPELESS ENDURANCE. The kind of waiting that belongs to times of uncertainty. We watch vainly, at lBSt almost hopelessly, for the daily post. Tennyson pictures this condition in his •Mariana'- " She only said, • My life is dreary: He cometh not,' she said; She said, 'I'm nwenry, o.wenry; I would that I were deD,d I ' " Even at such times the hopelessness would pass, though the enduring had to rernllin, if only the watching had its uplook as well as its onlook. Its cairn resting in the infinite wisdom and love that permits, as well as its peering away into tho distant east for the first glimpse of morning. III. A WAITING THAT 18 A LOVING EXPECTANCY. .And that our waiting may always be if we see it to be our Father-God's call to wait. There is his thought in it, his purpose in it. We may be sure of the" end of the Lord." It is well altogether to dismiss from our minds all such ideas of Divine sovereignty as even suggest that he ever "afflicts willingly." We seem to bo waiting for some change in our earthly circumstances, but we are really waiting for God to change our circumstances; and we may wait with the calm, and even joyous, expectancy that he will.-R. T. Ver. 7.-The final Object of hope. Luther says the redemption is called "plenteous" because such is the straitness of our heart, the slenderness of our hopes, the weakness of our faith, that it far exceeds all our capacity, all our petitions and desires. Lord Bacon says," Generous and ml\gnanimous minds are readiest to forgive; and it is a 252 'rHE BOOK OF PSALMS.