We never can sufficiently admire the beauty and comprehensiveness of this prayer. It is a prayer of faith, and includes almost every petition that can be offered, because it looks to Jesus, as the mercy looked for, the mercy promised. Luke 1:72. It forms the richest conclusion to the whole hymn of this Psalm. It is as if the Church had said, We know, Lord, that thine eye is always upon us; and we know that thou hast delivered thy people, and thou dost deliver them, and thou wilt still deliver them; and thou wilt be everything to them they need in time, and to all eternity. Now, Lord, in a believing expectation that all these blessings are in him that is the Mercy promised, the Messiah, the Jesus which is to come, thine Old Testament saints will live and die in the full enjoyment, by faith, of this great covenant blessing. Let our God come even as we do wait his coming. Song of Solomon 2:17. Reader! and what ought to be the language of New Testament saints, in closing this hymn of praise, and faith, and dependence, who have seen that mercy promised actually fulfilled, but still increasing bursts of holy joy, adoration, love, and confidence? Hail, Lord Jesus! thou art the Mercy promised. We bless thee in thy first coming with all thy finished work of redemption: and we desire to live and die in the full assurance and expectation of thy second coming, when that hope we have in thy salvation will be swallowed up in absolute enjoyment, and we shall live with thee, and enjoy thee forever!
REFLECTIONS
LET every justified soul rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice alway, for surely the rich redemption of Jesus is enough to fill all hearts that are the partakers of it with praise. But, my soul! what hast thou learned of this sacred and hallowed song? Canst thou go over the several parts of it with an eye to thine own interest in it, and make the responses, as thou goest along, from a real heartfelt and personal enjoyment of it? Thou canst sing indeed of creation, for the Lord in mercy hath called thee into existence, and thou canst testify, as this Psalm of praise records, that by the word of the Lord the heavens were made; and by his Spirit hath he garnished the heavens. Thou canst sing of his providence also, for his counsel must stand, and the Lord will perform all his will. Thou canst sing of grace no less, because thou hast seen how the Lord led out Israel, blessed him as a nation, and chose him as a people for his own inheritance. But, my soul, though these subjects are blessed aids to call forth hymns of continual praise; the question is, what part dost thou thyself bear in it? If, as this Psalm records, the Lord looketh from heaven and beholdeth all the sons of men; if the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, and upon them that hope in Jesus, the mercy promised; hast thou a well-grounded hope and assurance that his eye is upon thee in grace, because thou art hoping in Jesus? Pause, my soul! Art thou acquainted with God's mercy in Christ? Hath he delivered thy soul from spiritual death, in having found a ransom for thee to keep thee from going down to the pit? Hath he kept thee alive in famine, both before thou knewest him in grace, and now in the numberless instances since thou hast known him in mercy, when thy fears have been alive, and thy hopes dying from unbelief, and the temptations of the enemy? O then, my soul, if these things be so, and thou canst set to thy seal that God is true, look up to Jesus, look up to thy God and Father in him, and under the continued influences of the Holy Ghost, daily, hourly, adopt this sweet prayer of faith, and tell thy God that thy hope is in him; and never can any wait long for his blessing, who live upon Jesus's mercy. See, Lord, my expectation is alone in Jesus: and therefore, Jesus, be thou with me and upon me, according as my hope is in thee. Amen.