I will ery unto God Most High: unto God that performeth
all things for me.—~PsaLm Ivii. 2
The greatness of God is a glorious and unsearchable mystery. The Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth,” Psal. xlvii. 2. The condescension of the most high God to men is also a profound mystery. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly,” Psal. cxxxviii. 6. But when both these meet together, as they do in this Scripture, they make up a matchless mystery. Here we find the most high God performing all things for a poor distressed creature. It is the great support and solace of the saints in all the distresses that befall them here, that there is a wise Spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion, and governing the most eccentric creatares, and their most pernicious designs, to blessed and happy issues. And, indeed, it were not worth while to live in a world devoid of God and providence.
How deeply we are concerned in this matter, will appear by that great instance which this psalm presents us with.
It was composed, as the title notes, by David, prayer-wise, when he hid himself from Saul in the cave; and is inscribed with a double title, 41 taschith, Michtam of David. JA! taschith refers to the scope, and Michtam to the dignity of the subject-matter.
“The former signifies destroy not, or, let there be no slaughter, and may either refer to Saul, concerning whom he gave charge to his servants not to destroy him; or rather, it hath reference to God, to whom, in this great exigence, he poured out his soul in this pathetical ejaculation, Jl taschith, Destroy not!”
The latter title, Michtam, signifies a golden ornament, and so is suited to the choice and excellent matter of the psalm, which much more deserves such a title, than Pythagoras’s golden verses did. Three things are remarkable in the former part of the psalm, namely: 1. His extreme danger. 2. His earnest address to God in that extremity. 3. The arguments he pleads with God in that address.
1. His extreme danger, expressed both in the title and body of the psalm. The tite tells us, this psalm was composed by him, when he hid himself from Saul, in the cave. This cave wasin the wilderness of Engedi, among the broken rocks, where the wild-goats inhabited, an obscure and desolate hole; yet, even thither the envy of Saul pursued him, 1 Sam. xxiv. 1,2. And now he, that had been so long hunted as a partridge upon the mountains, seems to be inclosed in the net; for the place was begirt with his enemies, and having, in this place, no outlet another way, and
THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. M Saul himself entering into the mouth of this cave, in the sides and creeks whereof he and his men” lay hid, and saw him, judge to how great an extremity, and to what a desperate state things were now brought; well might he say, as it is, ver. 4. “” My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire.”” What hope now remained? what but immediate destruction could be expected? -
2. Yet this frights him not out of his faith and duty, but betwixt the jaws of death he prays, and earnestly addresses himself to God for mercy: “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me,” ver. 1. This excellent psalm was composed by him when there was enough to discompose the best man in the world. “The repetition denotes both the extremity of the danger, and the ardency of the supplicant. Mercy, mercy! nothing but mercy, and that exerting itself in an extraordinary way, can now save him from ruin.
3. The arguments he pleads for obtaining mercy, in this distress, are very considerable.
(1.) He pleads his reliance upon God as an argument to move mercy; ‘ Be merciful unto meO God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in thee; yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpast,” ver. 1. This, his trust and dependence on God, though it be not argumentative in respect of the dignity of the act, yet it is so in respect both of the nature of the object, a compassionate God, who will not expose any that take shelter under his wings, and in respect of the promise, whereby protection is assured to them that fly to him for sanctuary; Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee,” Isa. xxvi. 3. Thus he encourages himself from the consideration of that God to whom he betakes himself.:
(2.) He pleads former experiences of his help, in past distresses, as an argument, encouraging hope under the present strait. “I will ery unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me,” ver. 2. In which words, I shall consider two things, 1. The duty resolved upon. 2. The encouragement to that resolution. 1. The duty resolved upon: I will cry unto God.” Crying unto God is an expression that doth not only denote prayer, but intense and fervent prayer. “To ery, is to pray in a holy passion; and such are usually speeding prayers, Psal. xviii. 6, and Heb. v. 7. 2. The encouragements to this resolution; and these are two-fold. (1.) Objective, taken from the sovereignty of God. (2.) Subjective, taken from the experience he had of his providence. (1.) The sovereignty of God: 1 will ery unto God most high.” Upon this he acts his faith in extremity of danger. Saul is high, but God the most high; and, without his permission, he is assured Saul cannot touch him. He had none to help; and if he had, he knew God must first help the helpers, or they cannot help him. He had no means of defence or escape before him, but the Most High is not limited by means. ‘Thisisa singular prop to faith, Psal. lix. 9. (2.) The experience of his providence hitherto: Unto God that performeth all things for me.” The word which we translate performeth, comes from a root, that signifies both to perfect, and to desist, or cease. For when a business is performed and perfected, the agent then ceases and desists from working; he puts to the last hand, when he finishes the work. To such a happy issue the Lord hath brought all his doubtful and difficult matters before; and this gives him encouragement, that he will still be gracious, and perfect that which concerneth him now, as he speaks: The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me,” Psal. cxxxviii. 8. ‘The septuagint renders it, who profiteth, or benefiteth me.”” And it is a certain truth, that all the results and issues of Providence are profitable and beneficial to the saints. But the supplement in our translation well receives the importance of the place, “who performeth all things,” and involves the most strict and proper notion of Providence, which is nothing else but the performance of God’s gracious purposes and promises to his people. And therefore Vatablus and Muis supply and fill up the room, which the conciseness of the original leaves, thus, “I will ery unto God most high: unto God that performeth the things which he hath promised.” Payment is the performance of promises. Grace makes the promise, and providence the payment.
Piscator fills it with, Unto God that performeth his kindness and mercy.” But still it supposes the mercy performed to be contained in the promise. Mercy is sweet in the promise, and much more so in the providential performance of it to us. Castalio’s supplement comes nearer to ours: 1 will ery unto God most high, unto God the transactor of my affairs.”
But our English, making out the sense by a universal particle, is most fully agreeable to the scope of the text. For it cannot but be a great encouragement to his faith, that God hath transacted all things, or performed all things for him; this Providence, that never failed him in any of the straits that ever he met with, (and his life was a life of many straits,) he might well hope it would not now fail him, though this were an extraordinary and matchless one.
Bring we, then, our thoughts a little closer to this Scripture, and it will give us a fair and lovely prospect of Providence.
In its 1. Universal, 2. Effectual, 3. Beneficial, 4. Encouraging influences upon the affairs and concerns of the saints,
(1.) The expression imports the universal interest and influence of Providence in and upon all the concerns and interests of the saints. It hath not only its hand in this or that, but in all that concerns them. It hath its eye upon every thing that relates to them throughout their lives, from first to last. Not only great and more important, but the most minute and ordinary affairs of our lives are transacted and managed by it. It touches all things that touch us, whether more nearly or remotely.
(2.) It displays the eflicacy of providential influences. Providence doth not only undertake, but performs and perfects what concerns us. It goes through with its designs, and accomplishes what it begins. No difficulty so clogs it, no cross accident so falls in its way, but it carries its design through it. Its motions are irresistible and uncontrollable; he performs it for us.
(3.) And, which is sweet to consider, all its products and issues are exceedingly beneficial to the saints. It performs all things for them. 1tis true, we often prejudice its works, and unjustly censure its designs, and, under many of our straits and troubles, we say, All these things are against us.”” But indeed Providence neither doth nor can do any thing that is really against the true interest and good of the saints. For what are the works of Providence but the execution of God’s decree, and the fulfilling of his word? and there can be no more in Providence than is in them. Now there is nothing but good to the saints in God’s purpo- - ses and promises; and, therefore, whatever Providence doth in their concerns, it must be, as the text speaks, The performance of all things for them.”
(4.) And if so, how cheering, supporting, and encouraging must the consideration of these things -/ be in a day of distress and trouble! What life and hope will it inspire our hearts and prayers with, when great pressures lie upon us! It had such a cheering influence upon the psalmist at this time, when the state of his affairs was, to the eye of sense and reason, forlorn and desperate; there was then but a hair’s breadth, as we say, betwixt him and ruin.
A potent, enraged, and implacable enemy had driven him into the hole of a rock, and was come after him into that hole; yet now, whilst his soul is among lions,” whilst he lies in a cranny of the rock, expecting every moment to be drawn out to death, the reflections he had upon the gracious performances of the Most High for him, from the beginning to that moment, supported his soul, and inspired hope and life into his prayers: I will cry unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me.” a
The amount of all, you have in this doctrinal conclusion:
That it is the duty of the saints, especially in times of straits, to reflect upon the performances of Providence for them, in all the states, and through all the stages of their lives.
“The church, in all the works of mercy, owns the hand of God: Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in” or for “us,” Isa. xxvi. 12. And still it hath been the pious and constant practice of the saints, in all generations, to preserve the memory of the more famous and remarkable providences that have befallen them in their times, as a precious treasure. If thou be a Christian indeed, I know thou hast, if not in thy book, yet certainly in thy heart, a great many precious favours upon record; the very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet; how much more sweet was the actual enjoyment! Thus Moses, by Divine direction, wrote a memorial of that victory obtained over Amalek, as the fruit and return of prayer, and built there an altar, with this inscription, Jehovah-Nissi, The Lord my banner,” Exod. xvii. 14, 15. Thus Mordecai and Esther took all care to perpetuate the memory of that signal deliverance from the plot of Haman, by ordaining the feast of Purim, as an anniversary throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that those days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed, Esther ix. 28. For this end you find psalms indited, To bring to remembrance,” Psal. 1xx. the title; parents giving suitable names to their children, that every time they looked upon them they might refresh the memory of God’s mercies, 1 Sam. 1. 20; the very places, where eminent providences have appeared, new named upon no other design but to perpetuate the memorial of those sweet providences which so refreshed them there: thence Bethel took its name, Gen. xxviii. 19; and that well of water where Hagar was seasonably refreshed by the angel in her distress, Beer-lahai-roi, the well of him that liveth and looketh on me,” Gen. xvi. 14. Yea, the saints have given, and God hath assumed to himself, new titles upon this very score and account: Abraham’s Jehovah-jireh, The Lord will provide, and Gideon’s Jehovah-shallum, The Lord send peace, were ascribed to him upon this reason. And sometimes you find the Lord styles himself, The God that brought Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees; then The Lord God that brought them out of Egypt; then The Lord that gathered them out of the north country; still minding them of the gracious providences which in all those places he had wrought for them.
Now there is a twofold reflection upon the providential works of God. 1. One entire and full, in the whole complex and perfect frame thereof. This blessed sight 1s reserved for the perfect state. It is in that mount of God where we shall see both the wilderness and Canaan; the glorious kingdom into which we are to come, and the way through which we were led into it. There the saints shall have a ravishing view of that beautiful frame; and every part shall be distinctly discerned, as if it had its particular use, and as it was connected with the other parts, and how effectually and orderly they
all wrought to bring about that blessed design of their salvation, according to the promise, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” &c. Rom. viii. 28. For it 1s certain that no ship at sea keeps more exactly by the compass which directs its course, than Providence doth by that promise which is its pole-star. 2. The other, partial and imperfect in the way to glory, where we only view it in its simple acts, or, at most, in some branches and more observable course of actions.
Betwixt these two is the same difference as betwixt the sight of the disjointed wheels and scattered pins of a watch, and the sight of the whole, united in one frame, and working in one orderly motion; or betwixt an ignorant spectator’s viewing some more observable vessel or joint of a dissected body, and the accurate anatomist’s discerning the course of all the veins and arteries of the body, as he follows the several branches of them through the whole, and plainly sees the proper places, figure, and use of each, with their mutual respect to one another. di}
Oh how ravishing and delightful a sight is that! to behold at one view the whole design of Providence, and the proper place and use of every single act which we could not understand in this world! For, what Christ said to Peter, John xiii. 7, is as applicable to some providences in which we are now concerned, as it was to that particular action: What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” All the dark, intricate, puzzling providences, at which we were sometimes so stumbled, and sometimes amazed, which we could neither reconcile with the promise nor with each other; nay, which we so unjustly censured and bitterly bewailed, as if they had fallen out quite cross to our happiness, we shall then see to be unto us, as the difficult passage through the wilderness was unto Israel, The right way to a city of habitation,” Psal. evii, 7.
And yet, though our present views and reflections upon Providence be so short and imperfect, in comparison with that in heaven, yet such as it is, under all its present disadvantages, it hath so much excellency and sweetness in it, that I may call it a little heaven, or, as Jacob called his Bethel, The gate of heaven. It is certainly a highway of walking with God in this world, and as sweet communion may a soul enjoy with him in his providences as in any of his ordinances. How often have the hearts of its observers been melted into tears of joy at the beholding of its wise and unexpected productions! How often hath it convinced them, upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives, that if the Lord had left them to their own counsels, they had as often been their own tormentors, if not executioners! into what and how many fatal mischiefs had they precipitated themselves, if Providence had been as short-sighted as they. They have given it their hearty thanks for considering their interest more than their importunity, and not suffering them to perish by their own desires.
The benefits of adverting to the works of Providence are manifold and unspeakable, as, in its place, we shall show you. But not to entangle the thread of the discourse, I shall cast it into this method: +
First. 1 shall prove that the concerns of the saints, in this world, are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of special Providence.
Second. 1 will show you in what particular concerns of theirs this providential care is evidently discovered.
Third. That it is the duty of saints to advert to, and carefully observe these performances of Providence for them in all their concernments.
Fourth. In what manner this duty is to be performed by them.
Fifth. What singular benefits result to them from such observations; and then apply the whole in such uses as offer themselves from the point.