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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Psalms XLII].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1710)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>P S A L M S</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>PSALM XLII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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If the book of Psalms be, as some have styled it, a mirror or
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looking-glass of pious and devout affections, this psalm in particular
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deserves, as much as any one psalm, to be so entitled, and is as proper
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as any to kindle and excite such in us: gracious desires are here
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strong and fervent; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are
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here struggling, but the pleasing passion comes off a conqueror. Or we
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may take it for a conflict between sense and faith, sense objecting and
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faith answering.
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I. Faith begins with holy desires towards God and communion with him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:1,2">ver. 1, 2</A>.
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II. Sense complains of the darkness and cloudiness of the present
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condition, aggravated by the remembrance of the former enjoyments,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:3,4">ver. 3, 4</A>.
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III. Faith silences the complaint with the assurance of a good issue at
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last,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:5">ver. 5</A>.
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IV. Sense renews its complaints of the present dark and melancholy
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state,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:6,7">ver. 6, 7</A>.
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V. Faith holds up the heart, notwithstanding, with hope that the day
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will dawn,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:8">ver. 8</A>.
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VI. Sense repeats its lamentations
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:9,10">ver. 9, 10</A>)
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and sighs out the same remonstrance it had before made of its
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grievances.
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VII. Faith gets the last word
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:11">ver. 11</A>),
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for the silencing of the complaints of sense, and, though it be almost
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the same with that
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:5">ver. 5</A>)
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yet now it prevails and carries the day. The title does not tell us who
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was the penman of this psalm, but most probably it was David, and we
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may conjecture that it was penned by him at a time when, either by
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Saul's persecution or Absalom's rebellion, he was driven from the
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sanctuary and cut off from the privilege of waiting upon God in public
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ordinances. The strain of it is much the same with 63, and therefore we
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may presume it was penned by the same hand and upon the same or a
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similar occasion. In singing it, if we be either in outward affliction
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or in inward distress, we may accommodate to ourselves the melancholy
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expressions we find here; if not, we must, in singing them, sympathize
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with those whose case they speak too plainly, and thank God it is not
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our own case; but those passages in it which express and excite holy
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desires towards God, and dependence on him, we must earnestly endeavour
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to bring our minds up to.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Ps42_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Desiring Communion with God; Mourning for the Loss of Public Ordinances.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1> <! -- Date --> </FONT></TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<CENTER>
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<P>To the chief musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.</P>
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</CENTER>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
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thee, O God.
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2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I
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come and appear before God?
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3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they
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continually say unto me, Where <I>is</I> thy God?
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4 When I remember these <I>things,</I> I pour out my soul in me: for
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I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of
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God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept
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holyday.
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5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and <I>why</I> art thou
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disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him
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<I>for</I> the help of his countenance.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Holy love to God as the chief good and our felicity is the power of
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godliness, the very life and soul of religion, without which all
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external professions and performances are but a shell and carcase: now
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here we have some of the expressions of that love. Here is,</P>
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<P>
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I. Holy love thirsting, love upon the wing, soaring upwards in holy
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desires towards the Lord and towards the remembrance of his name
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:1,2"><I>v.</I> 1, 2</A>):
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"<I>My soul panteth, thirsteth, for God,</I> for nothing more than God,
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but still for more and more of him." Now observe,</P>
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<P>
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1. When it was that David thus expressed his vehement desire towards
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God. It was,
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(1.) When he was debarred from his outward opportunities of waiting on
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God, when he was banished to the land of Jordan, a great way off from
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the courts of God's house. Note, Sometimes God teaches us effectually
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to know the worth of mercies by the want of them, and whets our
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appetite for the means of grace by cutting us short in those means. We
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are apt to loathe that manna, when we have plenty of it, which will be
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very precious to us if ever we come to know the scarcity of it.
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(2.) When he was deprived, in a great measure, of the inward comfort he
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used to have in God. He now went mourning, but he went on panting.
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Note, If God, by his grace, has wrought in us sincere and earnest
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desires towards him, we may take comfort from these when we want those
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ravishing delights we have sometimes had in God, because lamenting
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after God is as sure an evidence that we love him as rejoicing in God.
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Before the psalmist records his doubts, and fears, and griefs, which
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had sorely shaken him, he premises this, That he looked upon the living
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God as his chief good, and had set his heart upon him accordingly, and
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was resolved to live and die by him; and, casting anchor thus at first,
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he rides out the storm.</P>
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<P>
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2. What is the object of his desire and what it is he thus thirsts
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after.
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(1.) He pants after God, he thirsts for God, not the ordinances
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themselves, but the God of the ordinances. A gracious soul can take
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little satisfaction in God's courts if it do not meet with God himself
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there: "<I>O that I knew where I might find him!</I> that I might have
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more of the tokens of his favour, the graces and comforts of his
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Spirit, and the earnests of his glory."
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(2.) He has, herein, an eye to God as the living God, that has life in
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himself, and is the fountain of life and all happiness to those that
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are his, the living God, not only in opposition to dead idols, the
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works of men's hands, but to all the dying comforts of this world,
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which perish in the using. Living souls can never take up their rest
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any where short of a living God.
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(3.) He longs to <I>come and appear before God,</I>--to make himself
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known to him, as being conscious to himself of his own sincerity,--to
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attend on him, as a servant appears before his master, to pay his
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respects to him and receive his commands,--to give an account to him,
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as one from whom our judgment proceeds. To appear before God is as much
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the desire of the upright as it is the dread of the hypocrite. The
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psalmist knew he could not come into God's courts without incurring
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expense, for so was the law, that <I>none should appear before God
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empty;</I> yet he longs to come, and will not grudge the charges.</P>
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<P>
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3. What is the degree of this desire. It is very importunate; it is his
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soul that pants, his soul that thirsts, which denotes not only the
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sincerity, but the strength, of his desire. His longing for the water
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of the well of Bethlehem was nothing to this. He compares it to the
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<I>panting of a hart,</I> or deer, which is naturally hot and dry,
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especially of a hunted buck, <I>after the water-brooks.</I> Thus
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earnestly does a gracious soul desire communion with God, thus
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impatient is it in the want of that communion, so impossible does it
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find it to be satisfied with any thing short of that communion, and so
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insatiable is it in taking the pleasures of that communion when the
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opportunity of it returns, still thirsting after the full enjoyment of
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him in the heavenly kingdom.</P>
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<P>
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II. Holy love mourning for God's present withdrawings and the want of
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the benefit of solemn ordinances
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>):
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"<I>My tears have been my meat day and night</I> during this forced
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absence from God's house." His circumstances were sorrowful, and he
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accommodated himself to them, received the impressions and returned the
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signs of sorrow. Even the royal prophet was a weeping prophet when he
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wanted the comforts of God's house. His tears were mingled with his
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meat; nay, they were <I>his meat day and night;</I> he fed, he feasted,
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upon his own tears, when there was such just cause for them; and it was
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a satisfaction to him that he found his heart so much affected with a
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grievance of this nature. Observe, He did not think it enough to shed a
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tear or two at parting from the sanctuary, to weep a farewell-prayer
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when he took his leave, but, as long as he continued under a forced
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absence from that place of his delight, he never looked up, but wept
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day and night. Note, Those that are deprived of the benefit of public
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ordinances constantly miss them, and therefore should constantly mourn
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for the want of them, till they are restored to them again. Two things
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aggravated his grief:--</P>
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<P>
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1. The reproaches with which his enemies teased him: <I>They
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continually say unto me, Where is thy God?</I>
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(1.) Because he was absent from the ark, the token of God's presence.
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Judging of the God of Israel by the gods of the heathen, they concluded
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he had lost his God. Note, Those are mistaken who think that when they
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have robbed us of our Bibles, and our ministers, and our solemn
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assemblies, they have robbed us of our God; for, though God has tied us
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to them when they are to be had, he has not tied himself to them. We
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know where our God is, and where to find him, when we know not where
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his ark is, nor where to find that. Wherever we are there is a way open
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heaven-ward.
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(2.) Because God did not immediately appear for his deliverance they
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concluded that he had abandoned him; but herein also they were
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deceived: it does not follow that the saints have lost their God
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because they have lost all their other friends. However, by this base
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reflection on God and his people, they added affliction to the
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afflicted, and that was what they aimed at. Nothing is more grievous to
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a gracious soul than that which is intended to shake its hope and
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confidence in God.</P>
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<P>
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2. The remembrance of his former liberties and enjoyments,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
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<I>Son, remember thy good things,</I> is a great aggravation of evil
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things, so much do our powers of reflection and anticipation add to the
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grievance of this present time. David remembered the <I>days of
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old,</I> and then <I>his soul was poured out in him;</I> he melted
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away, and the thought almost broke his heart. He poured out his soul
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within him in sorrow, and then poured out his soul before God in
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prayer. But what was it that occasioned this painful melting of spirit?
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It was not the remembrance of the pleasures at court, or the
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entertainments of his own house, from which he was now banished, that
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afflicted him, but the remembrance of the free access he had formerly
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had to God's house and the pleasure he had in attending the sacred
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solemnities there.
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(1.) He <I>went to the house of God,</I> though in his time it was but
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a tent; nay, if this psalm was penned, as many think it was, at the
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time of his being persecuted by Saul, the ark was then in a private
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house,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Sa+6:3">2 Sam. vi. 3</A>.
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But the meanness, obscurity, and inconveniency of the place did not
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lessen his esteem of that sacred symbol of the divine presence. David
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was a courtier, a prince, a man of honour, a man of business, and yet
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very diligent in attending God's house and joining in public
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ordinances, even in the days of Saul, when he and his great men
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<I>enquired not at it,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ch+13:3">1 Chron. xiii. 3</A>.
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Whatever others did, David and his house would serve the Lord.
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(2.) He <I>went with the multitude,</I> and thought it no disparagement
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to his dignity to be at the head of a crowd in attending upon God. Nay,
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this added to the pleasure of it, that he was accompanied with a
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multitude, and therefore it is twice mentioned, as that which he
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greatly lamented the want of now. The more the better in the service of
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God; it is the more like heaven, and a sensible help to our comfort in
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the communion of saints.
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(3.) He went <I>with the voice of joy and praise,</I> not only with joy
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and praise in his heart, but with the outward expressions of it,
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proclaiming his joy and speaking forth the high praises of his God.
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Note, When we wait upon God in public ordinances we have reason to do
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it both with cheerfulness and thankfulness, to take to ourselves the
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comfort and give to God the glory of our liberty of access to him.
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(4.) He went to keep holy-days, not to keep them in vain mirth and
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recreation, but in religious exercises. Solemn days are spent most
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comfortably in solemn assemblies.</P>
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<P>
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III. Holy love hoping
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>):
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<I>Why art thou cast down, O my soul?</I> His sorrow was upon a very
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good account, and yet it must not exceed its due limits, nor prevail to
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depress his spirits; he therefore communes with his own heart, for his
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relief. "Come, my soul, I have something to say to thee in thy
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heaviness." Let us consider,
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1. The cause of it. "Thou art cast down, as one stooping and sinking
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under a burden,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+12:25">Prov. xii. 25</A>.
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Thou art disquieted, in confusion and disorder; now why are thou so?"
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This may be taken as an enquiring question: "Let the cause of this
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uneasiness be duly weighed, and see whether it be a just cause." Our
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disquietudes would in many cases vanish before a strict scrutiny into
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the grounds and reasons of them. "<I>Why am I cast down?</I> Is there
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a cause, a real cause? Have not others more cause, that do not make so
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much ado? Have not we, at the same time, cause to be encouraged?" Or it
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may be taken as an expostulating question; those that commune much with
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their own hearts will often have occasion to chide them, as David here.
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"Why do I thus dishonour God by my melancholy dejections? Why do I
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discourage others and do so much injury to myself? Can I give a good
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account of this tumult?"
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2. The cure of it: <I>Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.</I>
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A believing confidence in God is a sovereign antidote against
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prevailing despondency and disquietude of spirit. And therefore, when
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we chide ourselves to hope in God; when the soul embraces itself it
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sinks; if it catch hold on the power and promise of God, it keeps the
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head above water. <I>Hope in God,</I>
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(1.) That he shall have glory from us: "<I>I shall yet praise him;</I>
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I shall experience such a change in my state that I shall not want
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matter for praise, and such a change in my spirit that I shall not want
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a heart for praise." It is the greatest honour and happiness of a man,
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and the greatest desire and hope of every good man, to be unto God for
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a name and a praise. What is the crown of heaven's bliss but this, that
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there we shall be for ever praising God? And what is our support under
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our present woes but this, that we shall yet praise God, that they
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shall not prevent nor abate our endless hallelujahs?
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(2.) That we shall have comfort in him. We shall praise him <I>for the
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help of his countenance,</I> for his favour, the support we have by it
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and the satisfaction we have in it. Those that know how to value and
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improve the light of God's countenance will find in that a suitable,
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seasonable, and sufficient help, in the worst of times, and that which
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will furnish them with constant matter for praise. David's believing
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expectation of this kept him from sinking, nay, it kept him from
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drooping; his harp was a palliative cure of Saul's melancholy, but his
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hope was an effectual cure of his own.</P>
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<A NAME="Ps42_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ps42_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Complaints and Consolations.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1> <! -- Date --> </FONT></TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I
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remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites,
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from the hill Mizar.
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7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all
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thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
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8 <I>Yet</I> the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> will command his lovingkindness in the
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|
daytime, and in the night his song <I>shall be</I> with me, <I>and</I> my
|
|
prayer unto the God of my life.
|
|
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why
|
|
go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
|
|
10 <I>As</I> with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me;
|
|
while they say daily unto me, Where <I>is</I> thy God?
|
|
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou
|
|
disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise
|
|
him, <I>who is</I> the health of my countenance, and my God.
|
|
</FONT></P>
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|
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|
<P>
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|
|
|
Complaints and comforts here, as before, take their turn, like day and
|
|
night in the course of nature.</P>
|
|
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<P>
|
|
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|
I. He complains of the dejections of his spirit, but comforts himself
|
|
with the thoughts of God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
1. In his troubles. His soul was dejected, and he goes to God and tells
|
|
him so: <I>O my God! my soul is cast down within me.</I> It is a great
|
|
support to us, when upon any account we are distressed, that we have
|
|
liberty of access to God, and liberty of speech before him, and may
|
|
open to him the causes of our dejection. David had communed with his
|
|
own heart about its own bitterness, and had not as yet found relief;
|
|
and therefore he turns to God, and opens before him the trouble. Note,
|
|
When we cannot get relief for our burdened spirits by pleading with
|
|
ourselves, we should try what we can do by praying to God and leaving
|
|
our case with him. We cannot still these winds and waves; but we know
|
|
who can.
|
|
|
|
2. In his devotions. His soul was elevated, and, finding the disease
|
|
very painful, he had recourse to that as a sovereign remedy. "My soul
|
|
is plunged; therefore, to prevent its sinking, I will remember thee,
|
|
meditate upon thee, and call upon thee, and try what that will do to
|
|
keep up my spirit." Note, The way to forget the sense of our miseries
|
|
is to remember the God of our mercies. It was an uncommon case when the
|
|
psalmist <I>remembered God and was troubled,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+77:3">Ps. lxxvii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
He had often remembered God and was comforted, and therefore had
|
|
recourse to that expedient now. He was now driven to the utmost borders
|
|
of the land of Canaan, to shelter himself there from the rage of his
|
|
persecutors--sometimes <I>to the country about Jordan,</I> and, when
|
|
discovered there, to <I>the land of the Hermonites,</I> or to a hill
|
|
called <I>Mizar,</I> or <I>the little hill;</I> but,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Wherever he went he took his religion along with him. In all these
|
|
places, he remembered God, and lifted up his heart to him, and kept his
|
|
secret communion with him. This is the comfort of the banished, the
|
|
wanderers, the travellers, of those that are strangers in a strange
|
|
land, that <I>undique ad cælos tantundem est viæ--wherever
|
|
they are there is a way open heavenward.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Wherever he was he retained his affection for the courts of God's
|
|
house; from the land of Jordan, or from the top of the hills, he used
|
|
to look a long look, a longing look, towards the place of the
|
|
sanctuary, and wish himself there. Distance and time could not make him
|
|
forget that which his heart was so much upon and which lay so near
|
|
it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He complains of the tokens of God's displeasure against him, but
|
|
comforts himself with the hopes of the return of his favour in due
|
|
time.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He saw his troubles coming from God's wrath, and that discouraged
|
|
him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Deep calls unto deep,</I> one affliction comes upon the neck of
|
|
another, as if it were called to hasten after it; and thy water-spouts
|
|
give the signal and sound the alarm of war." It may be meant of the
|
|
terror and disquietude of his mind under the apprehensions of God's
|
|
anger. One frightful thought summoned another, and made way for it, as
|
|
is usual in melancholy people. He was overpowered and overwhelmed with
|
|
a deluge of grief, like that of the old world, when the windows of
|
|
heaven were opened and the fountains of the great deep were broken up.
|
|
Or it is an allusion to a ship at sea in a great storm, tossed by the
|
|
roaring waves, which go over it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+107:25">Ps. cvii. 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
Whatever waves and billows of affliction go over us at any time we must
|
|
call them God's waves and his billows, that we may humble ourselves
|
|
under his mighty hand, and may encourage ourselves to hope that though
|
|
we be threatened we shall not be ruined; for the waves and billows are
|
|
under a divine check. <I>The Lord on high is mightier than the noise
|
|
of these many waters.</I> Let not good men think it strange if they be
|
|
exercised with many and various trials, and if they come thickly upon
|
|
them; God knows what he does, and so shall they shortly. Jonah, in the
|
|
whale's belly, made use of these words of David,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+2:3">Jonah ii. 3</A>
|
|
|
|
(they are exactly the same in the original), and of him they were
|
|
literally true, <I>All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me;</I>
|
|
for the book of psalms is contrived so as to reach every one's
|
|
case.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He expected his deliverance to come from God's favour
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness.</I> Things are bad,
|
|
but they shall not always be so. <I>Non si male nunc et olim sic
|
|
erit--Though affairs are now in an evil plight, they may not always be
|
|
so.</I> After the storm there will come a calm, and the prospect of
|
|
this supported him when deep called unto deep. Observe
|
|
|
|
(1.) What he promised himself from God: <I>The Lord will command his
|
|
lovingkindness.</I> He eyes the favour of God as the fountain of all
|
|
the good he looked for. That is life; that is better than life; and
|
|
with that God will gather those from whom he has, <I>in a little wrath,
|
|
hid his face,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+54:7,8">Isa. liv. 7, 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
God's conferring his favour is called his <I>commanding</I> it. This
|
|
intimates the freeness of it; we cannot pretend to merit it, but it is
|
|
bestowed in a way of sovereignty, he gives like a king. It intimates
|
|
also the efficacy of it; he speaks his lovingkindness, and makes us to
|
|
hear it; speaks, and it is done. He <I>commands deliverance</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+44:4">Ps. xliv. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>commands the blessing</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+133:3">Ps. cxxxiii. 3</A>),
|
|
|
|
as one having authority. By commanding his lovingkindness, he commands
|
|
down the waves and the billows, and they shall obey him. This he will
|
|
do <I>in the daytime,</I> for God's lovingkindness will make day in the
|
|
soul at any time. Though <I>weeping</I> has <I>endured for a night,</I>
|
|
a long night, yet <I>joy will come in the morning.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) What he promised for himself to God. If God command his
|
|
lovingkindness for him, he will meet it, and bid it welcome, with his
|
|
best affections and devotions.
|
|
|
|
[1.] He will rejoice in God: <I>In the night his song shall be with
|
|
me.</I> The mercies we receive in the day we ought to return thanks for
|
|
at night; when others are sleeping we should be praising God. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+119:62">Ps. cxix. 62</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>At midnight will I rise to give thanks.</I> In silence and solitude,
|
|
when we are retired from the hurries of the world, we must be pleasing
|
|
ourselves with the thoughts of God's goodness. Or in the night of
|
|
affliction: "Before the day dawns, in which God commands his
|
|
lovingkindness, I will sing songs of praise in the prospect of it."
|
|
Even in tribulation the saints can <I>rejoice in hope of the glory of
|
|
God,</I> sing in hope, and praise in hope,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+5:2,3">Rom. v. 2, 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is God's prerogative to <I>give songs in the night,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+35:10">Job xxxv. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He will seek to God in a constant dependence upon him: <I>My
|
|
prayer shall be to the God of my life.</I> Our believing expectation of
|
|
mercy must not supersede, but quicken, our prayers for it. God is the
|
|
God of our life, in whom we live and move, the author and giver of all
|
|
our comforts; and therefore to whom should we apply by prayer, but to
|
|
him? And from him what good may not we expect? It would put life into
|
|
our prayers in them to eye God as the God of our life; for then it is
|
|
for our lives, and the lives of our souls, that we stand up to make
|
|
request.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. He complains of the insolence of his enemies, and yet comforts
|
|
himself in God as his friend,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:9-11"><I>v.</I> 9-11.</A></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. His complaint is that his enemies oppressed and reproached him, and
|
|
this made a great impression upon him.
|
|
|
|
(1.) They oppressed him to such a degree that he went mourning from day
|
|
to day, from place to place,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
He did not break out into indecent passions, though abused as never man
|
|
was, but he silently wept out his grief, and went mourning; and for
|
|
this we cannot blame him: it must needs grieve a man that truly loves
|
|
his country, and seeks the good of it, to see himself persecuted and
|
|
hardly used, as if he were an enemy to it. Yet David ought not hence to
|
|
have concluded that God had forgotten him and cast him off, nor thus to
|
|
have expostulated with him, as if he did him as much wrong in suffering
|
|
him to be trampled upon as those did that trampled upon him: <I>Why go
|
|
I mourning?</I> and <I>why hast thou forgotten me?</I> We may complain
|
|
to God, but we are not allowed thus to complain of him.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They reproached him so cuttingly that it was a <I>sword in his
|
|
bones,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
He had mentioned before what the reproach was that touched him thus to
|
|
the quick, and here he repeats it: <I>They say daily unto me, Where is
|
|
thy God?</I>--a reproach which was very grievous to him, both because
|
|
it reflected dishonour upon God and was intended to discourage his hope
|
|
in God, which he had enough to do to keep up in any measure, and which
|
|
was but too apt to fail of itself.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. His comfort is that God is his <I>rock</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>)
|
|
|
|
--a rock to build upon, a rock to take shelter in. The rock of ages, in
|
|
whom is everlasting strength, would be his rock, his strength in the
|
|
inner man, both for doing and suffering. To him he had access with
|
|
confidence. To God his rock he might say what he had to say, and be
|
|
sure of a gracious audience. He therefore repeats what he had before
|
|
said
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
and concludes with it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+42:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Why art thou cast down, O my soul?</I> His griefs and fears were
|
|
clamorous and troublesome; they were not silenced though they were
|
|
again and again answered. But here, at length, his faith came off a
|
|
conqueror and forced the enemies to quit the field. And he gains this
|
|
victory,
|
|
|
|
(1.) By repeating what he had before said, chiding himself, as before,
|
|
for his dejections and disquietudes, and encouraging himself to trust
|
|
in the name of the Lord and to stay himself upon his God. Note, It may
|
|
be of great use to us to think our good thoughts over again, and, if we
|
|
do not gain our point with them at first, perhaps we may the second
|
|
time; however, where the heart goes along with the words, it is no vain
|
|
repetition. We have need to press the same thing over and over again
|
|
upon our hearts, and all little enough.
|
|
|
|
(2.) By adding one word to it; <I>there</I> he hoped to praise God for
|
|
the salvation that was in his countenance; <I>here,</I> "I will praise
|
|
him," says he, "as the salvation of my countenance from the present
|
|
cloud that is upon it; if God smile upon me, that will make me look
|
|
pleasant, look up, look forward, look round, with pleasure." He adds,
|
|
<I>and my God,</I> "related to me, in covenant with me; all that he is,
|
|
all that he has, is mine, according to the true intent and meaning of
|
|
the promise." This thought enabled him to triumph over all his griefs
|
|
and fears. God's being with the saints in heaven, and being their God,
|
|
is that which will <I>wipe away all tears from their eyes,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+21:3,4">Rev. xxi. 3, 4</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
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