Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept
thy word. (Ps. 119:67)
Experience demonstrates, that so long as he deals gently
with us, we are always breaking forth into insolence. Since even a prophet of
God required to have his rebellion corrected by forcible means, this kind of
discipline is assuredly most needful for us.
The first step in obedience being the mortifying of the
flesh, to which all men are naturally disinclined, it is not surprising if God
bring us to a sense of our duty by manifold afflictions. Yea, rather as the
flesh is from time to time obstreperous, even when it seems to be tamed, it is
no wonder to find him repeatedly subjecting us anew to the rod.
This is done in different ways. He humbles some by poverty,
some by shame, some by diseases, some by domestic distresses, some by hard and
painful labors; and thus, according to the diversity of vices to which we are
prone, he applies to each its appropriate remedy. It is now obvious how
profitable a truth this confession contains. The prophet speaks of himself even
as Jeremiah, (Jer 31:18,) in like manner, says of himself, that he was "as
a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke;" but still he sets before us an image
of the rebellion which is natural to us all.
We are very ungrateful, indeed, if this fruit which we reap
from chastisements do not assuage or mitigate their bitterness. So long as we
are rebellious against God, we are, in a state of the deepest wretchedness:
now, the only means by which He bends and tames us to obedience, is his
instructing us by his chastisements. The prophet, at the same time, teaches us
by his own example, that since God gives evidence of his willingness that we
should become his disciples, by the pains he takes to subdue our hardness, we
should at least endeavor to become gentle, and, laying aside all stubbornness,
willingly bear the yoke which he imposes upon us. (Commentaries)
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