Psalms 65

REFLECTIONS UPON PSALM LXV.—Patient expectations for God shall be succeeded with joyful praises of him in his church and ordinances. And candid vows must be followed with conscientious fulfilment. God’s readiness to hear prayer should encourage every one earnestly and hopefully to address him in every case; and sense of loading guilt or prevalent lusts ought not to make us despair, but to implore, believe, and admire, the pardoning and sanctifying mercy of God. Fellowship with God is our greatest happiness. And it is not our merit, but his gracious choice and effectual grace, that brings us to it. Nor must it be by transient starts, but by a fixed attendance on the ordinances of his grace, as nothing but the fulness of God in Christ can satisfy our hungry souls. And, however terrible the answer must be, God never disappoints the prayers or hopes of his people. Wherever they may be in the world, they have equal access to him as their trust and salvation. Every where, in the works of nature, we may discern the power, wisdom, goodness, and greatness of God. And every thing we receive from mountains, from seas, from luminaries, from rains, from pastures, from fields, ought, with thankful admiration and praise, to be received as his gift. But in these let me discern, as in a figure, how he establishes his church, his ordinances, and his people. He limits, restrains, and directs, their raging troubles.—He enlightens, by the word of his grace, and the influences of his Spirit. And, while Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, rises with healing under his wings, his showers of gospel declarations and spiritual influences drop down abundantly, for the nourishment, satisfaction, and joy, of his ransomed ones