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<p>We may here learn how to pray as well as praise. 1. We must be public-spirited in prayer, and bear upon our hearts, at the throne of grace, the concerns of the church of God, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.6" href="/passage/?search=Ps.108.6">Ps. 108:6</a>. It is God’s <i>beloved</i>, and therefore must be ours; and therefore we must pray for its deliverance, and reckon that we are answered if God grant what we ask for his church, though he delay to give us what we ask for ourselves. “<i>Save</i> thy church, <i>and</i> thou <i>answerest me</i>; I have what I would have.” <i>Let the earth be filled with God’s glory, and the prayers of David are ended</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.72.19,Ps.72.20" href="/passage/?search=Ps.72.19,Ps.72.20"><span class="bibleref" title="Ps.72.19">Ps. 72:19</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Ps.72.20">20</span></a>); he desires no more. 2. We must, in prayer, act faith upon the power and promise of God—upon his power (<i>Save with thy right hand</i>, which is mighty to save), and upon his promise: <i>God has spoken in his holiness</i>, in his holy word, to which he has sworn by his holiness, and therefore <i>I will rejoice</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.7" href="/passage/?search=Ps.108.7">Ps. 108:7</a>. What he has promised he will perform, for it is the word both of his truth and of his power. An active faith can rejoice in what God has said, though it be not yet done; for with him saying and doing are not two things, whatever they are with us. 3. We must, in prayer, take the comfort of what God has secured to us and settled upon us, though we are not yet put in possession of it. God had promised David to give him, (1.) The hearts of his subjects; and therefore he surveys the several parts of the country as his own already: “<i>Shechem</i> and <i>Succoth, Gilead</i> and <i>Manasseh, Ephraim</i> and <i>Judah</i>, are all my own,” <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.8" href="/passage/?search=Ps.108.8">Ps. 108:8</a>. With such assurance as this we may speak of the performance of what God has promised to the Son of David; he will, without fail, give him the heathen for his <i>inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession</i>, for so has he <i>spoken in his holiness</i>; nay, of all the particular persons that were given him he will <i>lose none</i>; he also, as David, shall have the hearts of his subjects, <a class="bibleref" title="John.6.37" href="/passage/?search=John.6.37">John 6:37</a>. And, (2.) The <i>necks of his enemies</i>. These are promised, and therefore David looks upon <i>Moab</i>, and <i>Edom</i>, and <i>Philistia</i>, as his own already (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.9" href="/passage/?search=Ps.108.9">Ps. 108:9</a>): <i>Over Philistia will I triumph</i>, which explains <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.60.8" href="/passage/?search=Ps.60.8">Ps. 60:8</a>; <i>Philistia, triumph thou because of me</i>, which some think should be read, <i>O my soul! triumph thou over Philistia</i>. Thus the exalted Redeemer is set down at God’s right hand, in a full assurance that all his enemies shall in due time <i>be made his footstool, though all things are not yet put under him</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Heb.2.8" href="/passage/?search=Heb.2.8">Heb. 2:8</a>. 4. We must take encouragement from the beginnings of mercy to pray and hope for the perfecting of it (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.10,Ps.108.11" href="/passage/?search=Ps.108.10,Ps.108.11"><span class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.10">Ps. 108:10</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Ps.108.11">11</span></a>): “<i>Who will bring me into the strong cities</i> that are yet unconquered? Who will make me master of the country of <i>Edom</i>, which is yet unsubdued?” The question was probably to be debated in his privy council, or a council of war, what methods they should take to subdue the Edomites and to reduce that country; but he brings it into his prayers, and leaves it in God’s hands: <i>Wilt not thou, O God</i>? Certainly thou wilt. It is probable that he spoke with the more
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