Psalms 107

1. O GIVE thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary; 3 And gathered them out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. 4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way; They found no city of habitation. 5 Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. 6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, And he delivered them out of their distresses. 7 He led them also by a straight way, That they might go to a city of habitation. 8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! 9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, And the hungry soul he filleth with good. 10 Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Being bound in affliction and iron; 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, And contemned the counsel of the Most High: 12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; They fell down, and there was none to help. 13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble,

And he saved them out of their distresses.

14. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,

And brake their bands in sunder.

15. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,

And for his wonderful works to the children of men!

16. For he hath broken the gates of brass,

And cut the bars of iron in sunder.

17. Fools because of their transgression,

And because of their iniquities, are afflicted.

18. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat;

And they draw near unto the gates of death.

19. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble,

And he saveth them out of their distresses,

20. He sendeth his word, and healeth them,

And delivereth them from their destructions.

21. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,

And for his wonderful works to the children of men!

22. And let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving,

And declare his works with singing.

23. They that go down to the sea in ships, That do business in great waters;

24. These see the works of the LORD, And his wonders in the deep.

25. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,

Which lifteth up the waves thereof.

26. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths:

Their soul melteth away because of trouble.

mean when we speak thus! And how unable we are to trace the chain! We cannot see God’s Spirit prompting the prayer or suggesting the remedy which shall be the answer to the prayer. But the antecedent and the consequent are as really there; the links of the chain are as essential as they are in any of the phenomena of the material world which present themselves to our bodily senses. And thus the answer comes, not by direct interference with the laws of nature, but in accordance with the laws of the spiritual world—by the Divine action on the heart of man. If so, then the answer may be acknowledged with devout thanksgiving, and men may praise the Lord for His goodness.

The Psalm consists of six groups, with a preface (vs. 1-3) and a conclusion (v. 43). The preface and the conclusion alike give the theme or keynote of the Psalm. The first four groups are marked by the double refrain; the two last have but a slight connection with the others. P.

2-7. The people of God are “redeemed,” redeemed from the curse of the law, the powers of darkness, and the bondage of corruption. They are “gathered,” gathered by His grace out of all the diversities of the human race; “out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues.” Whatever this world is to others, they find it to be “a wilderness,” when they are often tried; but their trials urge them to prayer, and prayer brings them relief. And being divinely conducted, they at length reach their destination; and this is the conclusion of the whole, and it applies to each of them: “And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.” Jay.

4. The first example: The caravan which has lost its way in the desert. They wandered. The subject of the verb may be “men” generally. The incident described was doubtless not uncommon. The usual track of the caravan is lost, obliterated, perhaps, by the sandstorm.

6. Then they cried. So it ever is; only the pressure of a great need forces men to seek God. Prayer is not only the resource of good men, but of all men in trouble. P.

7. God for us, God with us, God in us, these are the ideas which describe our religion. For they explain its motive, they declare its meaning, they define its doctrine. The motive is, that God being for us, all things shall work together for our good, if we are for Him. The meaning is, that God being with us, His providence is ever ready to lead us on by the right way. The doctrine is, that an indwelling God is our salvation. Thorold. — God’s way, though to us it seems about, will appear, at last, to have been the right way. It is applicable to our condition in this world; we are here as in a wilderness, have here no continuing city, but dwell in tents as strangers and pilgrims; but we are under the guidance of His wise and good providence, committing ourselves to which we shall be led in the right way to the city that has foundations. H.

A heart that waits and watches for God’s direction, that uses common sense as well as faith to unravel small and great perplexities, and is willing to sit loose to the present, however pleasant, in order that it may not miss the indications which say, “Arise! this is not your rest,” fulfils the conditions on which, if we keep them, we may be sure that He will guide us by the right way, and bring us at last to the city of habitation. A. M.

4-7. The children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, instead of entering into the Holy Land, passed through the wilderness. There were many intricacies, many privations, and “but for the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night,” they would have lost their way. Thus it is with the children of God. There are great intricacies in the journey of life, and many privations, but they have a constant communication of Divine wisdom to guide them, if they supplicate for it. If left to ourselves we should fall by the right hand and by the left; but He has promised to guide us by His counsel, and to lead us by the way we should go. “The Lord God is a sun and shield, He will give grace and glory;” He will supply wisdom for direction in answer to prayer. Although the spiritual Israel have not a miraculous direction, they have a real one; it is the path of duty, the path of safety, and of happiness. The Israelites were fed with manna, by a Divine and supernatural production; thus the people of God are conducted through the world; they have many natural and spiritual enemies to combat, and many privations to endure, yet they are sustained, in a supernatural manner, by the Word of God and by the Spirit. They are nourished by the Word and ordinances, and sustained by the Spirit. R. Hall.

12. They fell down, and there was none to help. Affliction is then come to the height and its complete measure, when the sinner is made sensible of his own weakness, and doth see there is no help for him save in God alone. Dickson. — They could not help themselves, nor was there any creature that could. There is salvation in no other than in Christ; when He saw there was none to help Him in that work, His own arm brought salvation to him; and when sinners see there is help in no other, they apply to Him. Gill.

13. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble. Not a prayer till then. While there was any to help below they would not look above. No cries till their hearts were brought down and their hopes were all dead; then they cried, but not before. So many a man offers what he calls prayer when he is in good case and thinks well of himself, but in very deed the only real cry to God is that which is forced out of him by a sense of utter helplessness and misery. S.

17-22. Third example: sick persons brought by their sickness to the edge of the grave. P. —Bodily sickness is another of the calamities of this life which gives us an opportunity of experiencing the goodness of God in recovering us: and of that the Psalmist speaks in these verses. H.

17. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Many sicknesses are the direct result of foolish acts. Sin is at the bottom of all sorrow, but some sorrows are the immediate results of wickedness; men by a course of transgression afflict themselves and are fools for their pains. Worse still, even when they are in affliction they are fools still; and while under the rod they add sin to sin. S.

19. Then is a proper time for prayer; Then they cry unto the Lord. Is any sick? Let him pray; let him be prayed for; prayer is a salve for every sore. H. —In all the changes of this mortal life the Psalmist sees no real chance, no real change, but the orderly education of a just and loving Father whose mercy endureth forever, who chastens men as a father chastens his children, for their profit, that they may be partakers of His holiness, in which alone are life and joy, health and wealth. He sees that God is our Father, that God is educating us, that God hath neither parts nor passions, and that therefore God’s wrath is not different or contrary to His love, but that God’s wrath is His love in another shape, punishing men just because He loves men. Kingsley.

20. He sent His Word and healed them. This may be applied to the miraculous cures which Christ wrought when He was upon earth, by a word’s speaking; He said, Be clean, Be whole, and the work was done; it may also be applied to the spiritual cures which the Spirit of grace works in regeneration; He sends His Word and heals souls; convinces, converts, sanctifies them, and all by the Word. H.

23-32. Fourth example: Seafarers tossed and driven by the tempest and brought at last safe into port. It is the most highly finished, the most thoroughly poetical of each of the four pictures of human peril and deliverance. It is painted as a landsman would paint it, but yet only as one who had himself been in “perils of waters” could paint the storm, the waves running mountains high, on which the tiny craft seemed a plaything, the helplessness of human skill, the gladness of the calm, the safe refuge in the haven. Addison remarks that he prefers this description of a ship in a storm before any others he had ever met with, and for the same reason for which “Longinus recommends one in Homer, because the poet has not amused himself with little fancies upon the occasion, as authors of an inferior genius, whom he mentions, had done, but because he has gathered together those circumstances which are the most apt to terrify the imagination, and which really happened in the raging of a tempest.” By the way, he adds, “How much more comfortable as well as rational is this system of the Psalmist, than the pagan scheme in Virgil and other poets where one deity is represented as raising a storm, and another as laying it! Were we only to consider the sublime in this piece of poetry, what can be nobler than the idea it gives us of the Supreme Being thus raising a tumult among the elements, and recovering them out of their confusion, thus troubling and becalming nature?” P.

No language can be more sublime than the description of a storm at sea in this Psalm. It is the very soul of poetry. The utmost simplicity of diction is employed to convey the grandest thoughts. The picture is not crowded; none but the most striking circumstances are selected; and everything is natural, simple, and beyond measure interesting. The whole is an august representation of the providence of God, ruling in what appears the most ungovernable province of nature. It is God who raises the storm; it is God who stifleth it. The wise men of this world may look no farther than the physical laws by which God acts; but the Holy Spirit, by the Psalmist, views the awful conflict of the elements as the work of God. Carson.

The liquid acres of the deep, tossing themselves evermore to the winds and rolling their mighty anthem round the world, are among the most valuable and productive acres God has made. Great emotions and devout affections are better fruits than corn, more precious luxuries than wine or oil. And God has built the world with a visible aim to exercise His creatures with whatever is lofty in conception, holy in feeling, and filial in purpose toward Himself. All the trials and storms of the land have this same object. To make the soul great, He gives us great dangers to meet, great obstacles to conquer. Deserts, famines, pestilences, regions of cold and wintry snow, hail and tempest, none of these are elements of waste and destruction, because they go to fructify the moral man. As related to the kingdom of God, they are engines of truth, purity, strength, and all that is great and holy in character. The sea is a productive element of the same class. How many here have bowed who never bowed before to the tremendous sovereignty of God? How many prayers have gone up to fill the sky and circle the world, from wives and mothers, imploring His protecting presence with husbands and sons they have trusted to the deep? H. B.

28-30. All this is true of our individual lives, as well as of the history of the Church. Storms will come, and He may seem to be heedless. He is ever awakened by our cry, which needs not to be pure faith to bring the answer, but may be strangely intertwined of faith and fear. “The Lord will help, . . . and that right early;” and the peace that He brings is peace indeed. So it may be with us amid the struggles of life. So may it be with us when “the voyage on this storm-tossed sea of time is done!” “They cry unto the Lord in their trouble. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.” A. M.

By storms and by favorable breezes, through tempest and fair weather, the great Pilot and Ruler of the sea brings mariners to port and His people to heaven. We should long ago have been wrecked if it had not been for His preserving hand, and our only hope of outliving the storms of the future is based upon His wisdom, faithfulness, and power. Our heavenly haven shall ring with shouts of grateful joy when once we reach its blessed shore. S.

There is in the Bible no recognition of the difficulties raised by philosophy respecting prayer. On this point the instinct of the race has been manifested unequivocally. Universally, or nearly so, when, as the Psalmist says, men “draw near unto the gates of death,” when “they that go down to the sea in ships” “mount up to the heaven,” and “go down again to the depths,” “and are at their wits’ end,” “then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble.” Not only speculative questioners of the efficacy of prayer, but professed atheists have often been brought to extremities in which this instinct has so asserted itself that they have cried unto God. Not only from the Bible, but from the analogy of our earthly life, from our whole nature as practical, and from its necessary relation to our highest wants, we infer the efficacy of asking. M. H.—Providence is the natural and necessary development of the existence of God; it is the constant presence and permanent action of God in creation. The universal and undying instinct which impels man to prayer is in harmony with this ultimate fact; he who believes in God cannot but have recourse to Him in prayer. Guizot.

In times of action and of peril, the daily experience of the Christian effectively teaches him (far more effectively than can be done by abstract explanations) that the Divine providence and the spiritual economy, which are the objects of his faith, do not in any wise interfere with the ordinary course of events; in other words, that the latter is not broken in upon or disturbed by the former. With this evidence of experience constantly pressed upon him his faith ascends into its proper sphere; while he confidently reposes upon the Divine declaration, “That all things shall work together for good to those who love God.” I. T.—Providential and natural law is a discipline for us—our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; our teacher, introducing us to spiritual wisdom, and to God, the Fountain, the Inspirer, and the Executor of all Law. The lessons of providential and natural law throw us directly upon God, and powerfully teach us the importance and blessedness of a daily recognition of the Divine providence in all things. They are happy and secure, and they alone, who have learned to say, If the Lord will, Cheever.

33-42. The Psalmist, having given God the glory of the providential reliefs granted to persons in distress, here gives Him the glory of the revolutions of Providence, and the surprising changes it sometimes makes in the affairs of the children of men. H.—The character of the Psalm changes at this point. Instead of fresh examples of deliverance from peril, and thanksgiving for God’s mercies, we have now instances of God’s providential government of the world exhibited in two series of contrasts. The first of these is contained in vs. 33-39, and expresses a double change, the fruitful, well-watered land smitten, like the rich plain of Sodom, with desolation, and changed into a salt-marsh; and anon, the wilderness crowned with cities, like Tadmor, and made fertile to produce corn and wine; the second is contained in vs. 40, 41, and expresses the changes in the fortunes of men (as the last series did those of countries), viz., how the poor and the humble are raised and the rich and the proud overthrown. P.

33-39. The central idea here is that God has such absolute control over the realm of nature that He can utterly reverse its course, and so reverse the circumstances of our lot: changing rivers to dryness; the fruitful land to barrenness; or, again, the drought to copious waterings, and the barren soil to exuberant fertility. All is in His hand. C.

37. And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. Men work when God works. His blessing encourages the sower, cheers the planter, and rewards the laborer. Divine visitations bring great spiritual riches, foster varied works of faith and labors of love, and cause every good fruit to abound to our comfort and to God’s praise. When God sends the blessing it does not supersede, but encourages and develops human exertion. Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase.

39. Again they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. As they change in character, so do their circumstances alter. Under the old dispensation this was very clearly to be observed; Israel’s ups and downs were the direct consequences of her sins and repentances. Trials are of various kinds: here we have three words for affliction, and there are numbers more; God has many rods and we have many smarts, and all because we have many sins. S.

40,41. So, also, high station and great power, as men count things great, cannot save the wicked from His judgments. He can lay princes low, and exalt the poor to a state of manifold blessings. C.

41. He setteth the poor on high from affliction. High above the reach of the curse, which shall never touch him; above the power of Satan, which shall never ruin him; above the reigning influence of sin, which “shall not have dominion over him;” above the possibility of being banished from His presence, for “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” This is the way God sets His people on high, instructing them in the mysteries of His Word, and giving them to partake the joys that are contained therein. J. Irons.

Such surprising turns as these are of use: For the solacing of saints; they observe these dispensations with pleasure; The righteous shall see it, and rejoice in the glorifying of God’s attributes, and the manifesting of His dominion over the children of men. For the silencing of sinsinners; All iniquity shall stop her mouth; it shall be a full conviction of the folly of atheists, and of those that deny the Divine providence; and forasmuch as practical atheism is at the bottom of all sin, it shall in effect stop the mouth of all iniquity. H.

43. The remarkable appearances of Divine providence to persons in distress; the various changes and vicissitudes in the world; the several afflictions of God’s people, and their deliverances out of them; the wonderful works of God in nature, providence, and grace—these will be taken notice of, laid up in the mind, and kept by such who are truly wise, who know how to make a right use and proper improvement of them. “Even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the LORD;” every one of the wise men; they will perceive the kindness of God unto men, in the several dispensations of His providence toward them, and His special love and kindness toward His own people; even in all their afflictions they will perceive this to be at the bottom of every mercy and blessing; they will understand more of the nature and excellency of it, and know more of the love of God and Christ which passeth knowledge. Gill.

These mighty doings of our God in delivering His feeble creatures from the trackless wilderness of error; from the noisome chain of carnal lust; from the deadly sickness of a corrupt nature, and from the wild tempest of earthly passion, deserve the thoughtful joy of all who would be faithful servants of their Lord. The mouth of unbelief and the excuses of iniquity are stopped by the sight of the marvels of that mercy which endureth forever. The truly wise will ponder these things, for in the knowledge of them is true wisdom; and so pondering, there shall open before them, ever plainer, fuller, clearer, brighter, the revelation of that mighty love of their Eternal Father which surpasses all understanding, and is vaster than all thought. Plain Commentary.

How great a volume might be written concerning the observable things of Divine providence. I can never look upon it, I can never take the motions of it into my thoughts, but some new observation tendereth itself into my thoughts, I must turn my eyes from this wonderful work, for I see they will not be satisfied with seeing, my mind will never be filled with observation. When we speak of the love and favor of God to His people, we are prone to understand by it nothing but pleasing providences, grateful to our senses; now the “loving-kindness” of God is not only seen in pleasing dispensations, but in adverse providences also:

“Whom He loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every child whom He receiveth;” “all things are yours,” saith the apostle. This knowledge must be gained by observation. John Collinges.

Every follower of Christ may believe that he is never more reasonably engaged than when he is casting himself on the Divine providence. Instead of shuddering in chilly doubt as to particular providence, he assured you cannot conceive of a providence more particular than that which is. Superstition may take that for providence which is only its own morbid fancy. Presumption may rely on Providence, in idle, insolent neglect of means. But true faith will still cling to the belief that the sparrow’s fall is not too particular for God’s plan. It is our privilege, not only to hope in Providence with regard to the lesser affairs of life, but to recognize it—to see God’s hand in our daily walk, with wonder and love. “They that observe providences, shall have providences to observe.” J. W. A.

The design of this instructive Psalm is to impress the fact of God’s universal providence. The cases referred to are general illustrations of God’s acting in relation to every form of trial and peril, and are followed by explicit general declarations of His agency in the increase or barrenness of fields and vineyards, and in the affairs of rich and poor; the whole distinctly intimating that His providence extends equally to every estate and produces every event. There is evidence in this Psalm also that, although God acts thus minutely and universally, yet so far as His providence affects man’s moral actions it is not ordinarily irrespective of these actions. It is an ennobling as well as a grateful and warning truth that His conduct toward man is, in measure, directed and determined by man’s conduct toward Him. This truth is seen in the fact that in response to the cry of the wandering and famished, the helpless and hopeless, the Lord relieves and delivers them. It is here unqualifiedly shown that God’s providential dealings are to a certain extent influenced by man’s conduct, especially by active, prayerful confidence in Him. And this plainly revealed fact removes much of the difficulty pertaining to His providences. It takes away entirely from His doings the character of arbitrariness, while it sustains and grandly illustrates His sovereignty and benevolence. Thus the whole Psalm inculcates, explains, and commends the doctrine of God’s minute and universal providence. B.

It is certainly by general laws that the providence of God directs the course of the world.

It would be more correct to give these general laws another name. They are the permanent will of God, continuously acting on the world; for the Legislator, like His laws, is always present in the world. But when God created man He made him not like the material world, but a free moral agent; and hence is necessitated a radical difference in the kind of agency which He exerts upon man and upon the material world. The freedom of man, his free determinations in his moral acts, being admitted, it will not do to say that God governs man altogether by general and permanent laws; for that would be to ignore and abolish liberty as a part of man’s life; i.e., to ignore and mutilate the work of God. Man determines freely, and so effectuates, in his own proper life, events which are not the result of general laws exterior to himself. Divine providence takes cognizance of human liberty. It does not manage men as it does the stars of heaven and the waves of the ocean, which neither think nor will. It has different relations with man and with nature, and a different mode of acting upon them. How is it in the human family? The father and the mother while managing the child recognize his active development. They watch over him with authority and with tenderness. Without destroying his liberty they give that liberty rules and limits. They hear his prayers, sometimes grant, and at others refuse, them, just as reason dictates, and in view of his general and future interest. The child, on his part, without premeditation or design, but by the spontaneous instinct of his nature, recognizes the authority and feels the tenderness of his parents. In the course of his development he obeys and resists them in turn, using his natural liberty well or ill; but, through all these troubles of the will, he asks and prays with confidence, joyful and grateful when he receives from them, and ready to ask and beg again when he has been refused, and always with confidence. Such are the facts in the natural and good government of the family. And they are the imperfect but true image, the obscure and yet faithful shadowing forth of Divine providence. The Christian doctrine of providence presents and describes the action of God on the life of man qualified in just this way. It represents God as always present and accessible to men, as the father is to the child. It exhorts, encourages, invites men to pray to God and trust in Him. It reserves to God absolutely the answer to prayer. He bestows or denies. We may not see into His reasons, for “God’s ways are not our ways.” But yet with prayer “without ceasing” the Christian doctrine always connects hope; for “nothing is impossible with God.” The Christian doctrine of providence is in full and intimate harmony with the nature of man. In recognizing his liberty it does homage to his greatness; in giving to him access to God in prayer it provides for his weakness. As a question of science, it leaves the mystery as one incapable of solution; but in actual life and experience it resolves the problem of natural religion which burdens the soul. Guizot.

Nothing is or can be properly accidental to God; but accidents are so called in respect of the intention or expectation of second causes, when things fall out beside their knowledge or design. And there is nothing in which Providence so much triumphs over the profoundest wisdom of men as in the stable, certain knowledge and disposal of all casual events, in respect of which the clearest mortal intellect is wholly in the dark. And upon this account, as loose as these events seem to hang upon one another, yet they are all knit and linked together in a firm chain, and the highest link of that chain is held and managed by an unerring Providence; the chain, indeed, may wave and shake this way and that way, but still the hand that holds it is steady, and the eye that guides it infallible. South.—In all Divine works the smallest beginnings lead assuredly to some result; and the remark in spiritual matters, that “the kingdom of God cometh without observation,” is also found to be true in every work of Divine providence; so that everything glides quietly on without confusion or noise, and the matter is achieved before men either think or perceive that it is commenced. Bacon.

Devout attention to the dealings of Providence is equally consonant to the dictates of reason and of Scripture. He who believes in the superintendence of an Eternal Mind over the affairs of the universe is both irrational and indevout in neglecting to make the course of events the subject of frequent meditation; since the knowledge of God is incomparably more important than the most intimate acquaintance with our fellow-creatures; and as the latter is chiefly acquired by an attentive observation of their conduct, so must the former be obtained in the same way. The operations of providence are marked with a character as expressive of their great Author as the productions of human agency; and the same Being who speaks like Himself in His Word, acts like Himself in the moral economy of the universe. To us who have access to both these sources of information they serve to illustrate each other; the obscurities ties of providence are elucidated by Scripture; the declarations of Scripture are verified by providence. One unfolds, as far as it is suitable to our state, the character and designs of the mysterious agent; the other displays His works; and the admirable harmony which is found to subsist between them strengthens and invigorates our confidence in both. R. Hall.

God is the Lord of Hosts; He is the great commander of heaven and earth; He it is that directs the conflicts, neither are any put to try mastery, no field pitched, no battle fought, but by His special order and commission, and all for the accomplishment of His glory. But men which behold the state of the world with eyes dim by reason of the weakness of their judgments and affections, think all things are out of order, that there is nothing but confusion and disorder; that the worse men are the better they fare; and they fare the worse the better they are. But if they did but once ascend into the sanctuary of God and judge of occurrences by heavenly principles, then they would confess that no army on earth can be better marshalled than the great army of all the creatures of heaven and earth; and that, notwithstanding all appearance to the contrary, all is well and will end well; that God who is the God of order will bring light out of darkness and order out of the greatest confusion, could they have but patience and let Him alone with His own work. Spencer.

The world is not a vessel which is suffered to drift about, without a pilot, mast, or sail; but one in which an Almighty hand guides the helm. The human race is not an unbridled, ungoverned mass, but an immense flock, fed by an all-satisfying Shepherd. History is not a web of human will and blind chaos, but a work of art, for which He who orders all things twists the thread of all human doings and undertakings. And if it does not everywhere manifest itself as such a work of art, we must bear in mind that it is still only a fragment, and that our eyes are obscured with regard to the ways of God. Wait till the Lord Almighty reaches the end of His great designs, and till eternity removes every veil, and sharpens the eye and the understanding. Oh, how shall we then sink down in adoring astonishment before the feet of the Eternal, when we perceive how everything, even that which was the most opposed and inimical to His holy will, was obliged to submit, become subservient to and even promote under His all-powerful hand the exalted plans of His rule and government! Krummacher.

God, as the God of providence, is also the God of grace; He is the God of grace in order that His providence may be the blessedness of His creatures, and he is the God of providence in order that His grace may be put in their power, may be made available by them, may be applied to them, may be used by them for eternal life. For the accomplishment of the purposes of His grace all His providential laws in this world are constituted and carried into operation. All arrangements are made for this result, with reference to the plan of redemption. All the vast and almost confounding lines and cycles of events, eras, and experiments, apparently contradictory and entangled, the mighty movements of Divine providence that seem crossing and conflicting, have one and the same purpose and end, God’s glory in Christ Jesus. Cheever.

You can open your Bibles; learn to open the volumes of creatures and providences, to read there also of God and glory. Thus we might have a fuller taste of Christ and heaven in every common meal than most men have in a sacrament. If thou prosper in the world, let it make thee more sensible of thy perpetual prosperity. If thou art weary with labor, let it make the thoughts of thy eternal rest more sweet. If things go cross, let thy desires be more earnest to have sorrows and sufferings forever cease. Is thy body refreshed with food or sleep? Remember the inconceivable refreshment with Christ. Dost thou hear the raging noise of the wicked and the confusion of the world? Think of the blessed harmony in heaven. Thus every condition and creature affords us advantages for a heavenly life, if we had but hearts to improve it. Baxter.

God has been and is working in this world to regenerate, purify, cement, and build up human character. All the world is His storehouse, all time and all events His instruments. He works through all things, and in all His true friends, to secure their real, eternal good. The office of faith is to take God at His word; it is with love in our hearts to go out calmly into the future so dark to us, believing that God is our Guardian, and that in ways to us unknown the darkest calamities of life will conspire with its brightest scenes to do us good. J. Drummond.—It should be enough to reconcile us to every event, that it befalls us agreeably to the wisdom and justice and mercy of God. What misery, what weakness, what consumption of health, what decay of spirits, what paralysis of effort, what sourness and morose care might have been avoided if we had learned to live in a continual submission to Providence as to every particular of our lives. J. W. A.

Man has been placed in this world in the midst of concentric circles of Divine attributes, which become charged with deeper interest as they press in closer toward him. The most distant is power, girdling the universe with its rings of stars and constellations. Within it comes the sphere of harmonious wisdom in the orbits of the planets and the revolutions of sun and moon, with signs and seasons. When we touch our own world we can discern goodness in the varied tribes of being in earth, and air, and sea. Justice enters in the field of human history, inspiring confidence, and yet exciting awe when it shows us the rise or the ruin of nations, as they abide by, or depart from, the principles of rectitude. But the inmost circle of fatherly love and forgiving mercy remains in the approach of God to the individual soul. Such a circle there must be, and when we feel its clasp on our hearts we learn, in the language of the poet, “that the world is made for each of us.” The universe gathers round each single eye like a broad rainbow arch, to let us see, not the world alone, but God, power the outmost color, mercy the nearest, that every one may be able to look up to Him without dismay. Ker.