The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 260

II. ITS DIFFERENT STEPS. 1. Believing in God. This was shown by their obedience to the command ns to the Passover. Unbelief might have cavilled and objected, but the spirit of faith was given, and all Israel kept the Passover. And ere deliverance comes to the soul, there is ancl must be faith in Christ our Passover; the definite trust in him as our Saviour. 2. The 'fn-ealcing of the oppressm-'a power. (Ver. 10.) That which in the consciousness of the redeemed soul corresponds to what this verse tells of is the suspension of the power of sin. Whether permanently or not, for a time that power seems paralyzed, as was the power of Pharaoh when the firstborn were smitten. We are under its cruel compulsion no longer. 3. The actual deliverance. (Vers. lZ, 13.) They went out of Egypt; so does the soul abandon its old ways, and start for the promised possession. 4. Complete consecration. It seemed as if Llrael were to be dragged back agam into slavery there at Pi-hahiroth-as if the old misery were to come over again. How often the soul has found the like of that! But the command came to Israel to "go forward." It seemed impossible, but they obeyed, and lo I the Red Sea parted asunder (vers. 13, 14). St. Paul speaks of this as their being" baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.." It was the type of the sonl's complete con- secration. It will obey God, cost what it will; thongh it be like plunging into the sea, yet it will obey. That is what we must do. Then comes: 5. Further and com- plete deliverance. (Ver. 15.) When the soul thus resolves to obey God at all costs, even if it be like going straight to death, then, behold I the way w:11 be opened, and what seemed like death will prove to be life, and onr enemies trouble us no more. The soul's self-surrender to God is ihe destruction of its foes. 6. The wilderness trial and training. (Ver. 16.) The Law was given, and then ea.me the tests of obedience. Israel was tried by providential circumstances, by evil example, by fierce attacks of mighty kings. The redeemed life must be a. tried life; but, if we be really of God's Israel, it will be an overcoming life. III. ITs BLESSED END. (Vers. 21, 22.) And so the soul shall come into its heavenly places in Christ (see the Epistle to the Ephesians). It shall gain its inheritance and keep it, in the rest which remaineth for the people of God, of which Canaan was the earthly type.-S. C. Ver. 23.-Remembered of God. We were so; for- I. WE WERE ALL IN "LOW ESTATE." 1. By inherited flature inclining u., to sin. 2. By our own actual ain. 3. By our subjection to earthly care and sorrow. 4. By death overtaking us all. II. BuT Goo BEMEHBEBED us. 1. He might have actedfar othenoiae. Condemned us all to death, or forgotten us and left us to go our own ways. 2. But he remembered w. Indeed, though it seemed to our eye as if we had bnt just come into God's mind, we had, in fact, never been absent from his mind. (See the evolution of man's redemp- tion from the first purpose of grace in God down to our own individual redemption.) On and on the blessed work proceeded. 3. And he remembers w still. III. THE EXPLANATION OF THIS 18 THE NEVER-FAILING MERCY OF Gon. 1. For •hink of God. Could he, being so great and gracious as be is, do other than give this redemption to us? 2. Of the gift itself. Could we by any acts of our own purchase or procure it? Was it not utterly out of our reach? 3. Of ouraelves. Not only are we lacking in great amount of merit, but in all merit. How but by God's mercy can we be saved ?-S. C. Ver.1.-The endurir,,g mercy. This is very evidently a psalm arranged for alter- nate singing in the temple service. One section of the singers gives the sentences, and the other section answers with the ever-recurring refrain of the psalm, "For his mercy endureth for ever." It is a refrain which has peculiar point and interest when regarded as sung by the returned exiles in their restored temple, They felt very deeply what it was to be "monuments of God's mercy," and that sense of God's mercy to them enabled them to read ariaht the story of the ages old and hoary, and to anticipate aright the ages that were yet to be. God's mercy evidently had been upon his people from everlasting, and that was the best of guarantees that it would be unto everlast- ing. Let any man worthily apprehend God's mercy to him, and that man will be well assured that God's "mercy endureth for ever." 292 'l'HE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS. CXXXVI. 1-26.