Psalms 10:18

REFLECTIONS

READER, let you and I pause over this divine Psalm. Whether it be the blessed Mediator, as man's surety, thus pleading concerning his own afflictions, and the afflictions of his people, under the hidings of the Father's countenance; or whether it be the cries of his church, or any individual of the church, thus pleading before the throne; in either sense, we may feelingly remark how heavy, and how grievous the burthen, when exercised saints are under the double distress of the persecutions of the ungodly, and the frowns or hidings of the Lord. "How long, O Lord, how long?" is the cry of his poor, needy, and sorrowful ones, when the enemy triumphs, and our God conceals his face.

But reader, even here, and under the deepest soul-sorrow, let us take comfort, that their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. We cannot run with them to the same excess of riot; we cannot think, much less speak, lightly of our God. They are, as the Apostle speaks, covetous, proud, boasters, implacable, unmerciful. Their wine is the wine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall; their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Precious Lord Jesus we thank thee for thy distinguishing tokens of grace, even when our souls are most afflicted, and when the enemy triumphs.

Lastly, Reader, under all your exercises, look to Jesus, and never, never forget that the Lord is King forever and ever; and the Heathen are perished out of his land. Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be cut down as the grass, and be withered even as the green herb; while the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, and spread abroad as the cedar in Lebanon. Blessed Jesus! in thy light we shall see light. There is a rest that remaineth for the people of God. Into that rest, which is thyself, thou wilt ere long bring all thy people, and thy ransomed shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.