Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc21/v22350

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 6KB | 103 lines

22357
 #11-22 Let young persons set out in life with learning the fear
 of the Lord, if they desire true comfort here, and eternal
 happiness hereafter. Those will be most happy who begin the
 soonest to serve so good a Master. All aim to be happy. Surely
 this must look further than the present world; for man's life on
 earth consists but of few days, and those full of trouble. What
 man is he that would see the good of that where all bliss is
 perfect? Alas! few have this good in their thoughts. That
 religion promises best which creates watchfulness over the heart
 and over the tongue. It is not enough not to do hurt, we must
 study to be useful, and to live to some purpose; we must seek
 peace and pursue it; be willing to deny ourselves a great deal
 for peace' sake. It is the constant practice of real believers,
 when in distress, to cry unto God, and it is their constant
 comfort that he hears them. The righteous are humbled for sin,
 and are low in their own eyes. Nothing is more needful to true
 godliness than a contrite heart, broken off from every
 self-confidence. In this soil every grace will flourish, and
 nothing can encourage such a one but the free, rich grace of the
 gospel of Jesus Christ. The righteous are taken under the
 special protection of the Lord, yet they have their share of
 crosses in this world, and there are those that hate them. Both
 from the mercy of Heaven, and the malice of hell, the
 afflictions of the righteous must be many. But whatever troubles
 befall them, shall not hurt their souls, for God keeps them from
 sinning in troubles. No man is desolate, but he whom God has
 forsaken.
22369
 * David prays for safety. (1-10) He complains of his enemies.
 (11-16) And calls upon God to support him. (17-28)

 #1-10 It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the
 most righteous cause, to meet with enemies. This is a fruit of
 the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the Seed of
 the woman. David in his afflictions, Christ in his sufferings,
 the church under persecution, and the Christian in the hour
 temptation, all beseech the Almighty to appear in their behalf,
 and to vindicate their cause. We are apt to justify uneasiness
 at the injuries men do us, by our never having given them cause
 to use us so ill; but this should make us easy, for then we may
 the more expect that God will plead our cause. David prayed to
 God to manifest himself in his trial. Let me have inward comfort
 under all outward troubles, to support my soul. If God, by his
 Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we need
 desire no more to make us happy. If God is our Friend, no matter
 who is our enemy. By the Spirit of prophecy, David foretells the
 just judgments of God that would come upon his enemies for their
 great wickedness. These are predictions, they look forward, and
 show the doom of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom. We must
 not desire or pray for the ruin of any enemies, except our lusts
 and the evil spirits that would compass our destruction. A
 traveller benighted in a bad road, is an expressive emblem of a
 sinner walking in the slippery and dangerous ways of temptation.
 But David having committed his cause to God, did not doubt of
 his own deliverance. The bones are the strongest parts of the
 body. The psalmist here proposes to serve and glorify God with
 all his strength. If such language may be applied to outward
 salvation, how much more will it apply to heavenly things in
 Christ Jesus!

22379
 #11-16 Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse:
 this was the character of David's enemies. Herein he was a type
 of Christ. David shows how tenderly he had behaved towards them
 in afflictions. We ought to mourn for the sins of those who do
 not mourn for themselves. We shall not lose by the good offices
 we do to any, how ungrateful soever they may be. Let us learn to
 possess our souls in patience and meekness like David, or rather
 after Christ's example.

22385
 #17-28 Though the people of God are, and study to be, quiet, yet
 it has been common for their enemies to devise deceitful matters
 against them. David prays, My soul is in danger, Lord, rescue
 it; it belongs to thee the Father of spirits, therefore claim
 thine own; it is thine, save it! Lord, be not far from me, as if
 I were a stranger. He who exalted the once suffering Redeemer,
 will appear for all his people: the roaring lion shall not
 destroy their souls, any more than he could that of Christ,
 their Surety. They trust their souls in his hands, they are one
 with him by faith, are precious in his sight, and shall be
 rescued from destruction, that they may give thanks in heaven.
22397
 * The bad state of the wicked. (1-4) The goodness of God. (5-12)

 #1-4 From this psalm our hearts should be duly affected with
 hatred of sin, and seek satisfaction in God's loving-kindness.
 Here is the root of bitterness, from which all the wickedness of
 wicked men comes. It takes rise from contempt of God, and the
 want of due regard to him. Also from the deceit they put upon
 their own souls. Let us daily beg of God to preserve us from
 self-flattery. Sin is very hurtful to the sinner himself, and
 therefore ought to be hateful; but it is not so. It is no
 marvel, if those that deceive themselves, seek to deceive all
 mankind; to whom will they be true, who are false to their own
 souls? It is bad to do mischief, but worse to devise it, to do
 it with plot and management. If we willingly banish holy
 meditations in our solitary hours, Satan will soon occupy our
 minds with sinful imaginations. Hardened sinners stand to what
 they have done, as though they could justify it before God
 himself.