2 Samuel 3:39

REFLECTIONS

THIS whole chapter, except what the first verse of it teacheth, serves to show the Reader and Writer what a mass of treachery, deceit, and evil, the human heart is made up of. Alas! alas! what a state is man reduced to by the fall. Oh! blessed Jesus, how is thy glorious redemption-work raised to our adoration and delight, in the contemplation of it; since but for thy gracious undertaking, all mankind must forever have remained under this mass of guilt and ruin. Blessed be God for Jesus Christ!

Before we dismiss our review of this chapter, methinks I would have the Reader, as well as myself, pause once more over the consideration of the serious thought induced in the contemplation of the long war between the house of David and of Saul: and let each for himself enquire to which, spiritually viewed, we belong. Then when this point is ascertained, if happily through grace we are of the house and lineage of our Almighty David; let us advance one step further, and examine whether, in the long contests between grace and corruption, nature is waxing more and more feeble, and our better part is renewed day by day?

Reader! depend upon it a real follower of Jesus Christ dreads above all things, lest in the end, he should be found mistaken concerning himself in his estimate of an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you really, truly, heartily, willing to know? Go before the throne - present yourself now just as you are for judgment. - Are you resting upon any presumptive evidence of what you suppose yourself to have experienced in times past, of awakening, convincing, converting grace; or are your sole hopes founded upon the blessed assurances of Jehovah's covenant love and faithfulness solely secured to poor sinners, in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ? If the latter be your experience, and not the former; if self, with all its feelings, supposed enlargements, joys, and the uncertain ups and downs of the soul, be out of the account; and Jesus, the Lord alone, be exalted in the day you present yourself for judgment; this will confirm, in the long war between grace and corruption, that the house of David is getting stronger and stronger; and that of Saul is waxing weaker and weaker! Lord Jesus! I would say both for myself and Reader, Search us, O God, and know our hearts; try us, and know our thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in our souls, and lead us in the way everlasting.