to trust in God's salvation as their happiness at last, who can not trust his providence in the way to
it. To all that by faith and prayer, ask, seek, and knock, these doors of heaven shall at any time be
opened; and our distrust of God is a great aggravation of our sins. He expressed his resentment of
their provocation; not in denying what they sinfully lusted after, but in granting it to them. Lust is
contented with nothing. Those that indulge their lust, will never be estranged from it. Those hearts
are hard indeed, that will neither be melted by the mercies of the Lord, nor broken by his judgments.
Those that sin still, must expect to be in trouble still. And the reason why we live with so little
comfort, and to so little purpose, is, because we do not live by faith. Under these rebukes they
professed repentance, but they were not sincere, for they were not constant. In Israel's history we
have a picture of our own hearts and lives. God's patience, and warnings, and mercies, imbolden
them to harden their hearts against his word. And the history of kingdoms is much the same.
Judgments and mercies have been little attended to, until the measure of their sins has been full.
And higher advantages have not kept churches from declining from the commandments of God.
Even true believers recollect, that for many a year they abused the kindness of Providence. When
they come to heaven, how will they admire the Lord's patience and mercy in bringing them to his
kingdom!
Verses 40–55
Let not those that receive mercy from God, be thereby made bold to sin, for the mercies they
receive will hasten its punishment; yet let not those who are under Divine rebukes for sin, be
discouraged from repentance. The Holy One of Israel will do what is most for his own glory, and
what is most for their good. Their forgetting former favours, led them to limit God for the future.
God made his own people to go forth like sheep; and guided them in the wilderness, as a shepherd
his flock, with all care and tenderness. Thus the true Joshua, even Jesus, brings his church out of
the wilderness; but no earthly Canaan, no worldly advantages, should make us forget that the church
is in the wilderness while in this world, and that there remaineth a far more glorious rest for the
people of God.
Verses 56–72
After the Israelites were settled in Canaan, the children were like their fathers. God gave them
his testimonies, but they turned back. Presumptuous sins render even Israelites hateful to God's
holiness, and exposed to his justice. Those whom the Lord forsakes become an easy prey to the
destroyer. And sooner or later, God will disgrace his enemies. He set a good government over his
people; a monarch after his own heart. With good reason does the psalmist make this finishing,
crowning instance of God's favour to Israel; for David was a type of Christ, the great and good
Shepherd, who was humbled first, and then exalted; and of whom it was foretold, that he should
be filled with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. On the uprightness of his heart, and the
skilfulness of his hands, all his subjects may rely; and of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end. Every trial of human nature hitherto, confirms the testimony of Scripture,
that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and nothing but being created
anew by the Holy Ghost can cure the ungodliness of any.