Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive
me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and
thy right hand shall save me. (Ps. 138:7)
Here David declares the sense in which he looked flint God
would act the part of his preserver—by giving him life from the dead, were that
necessary.
The passage is well deserving our attention for by nature we
are so delicately averse to suffering as to wish that we might all live safely
beyond shot of its arrows, and shrink from close contact with the fear of
death, as something altogether intolerable. On the slightest approach of danger
we are immoderately afraid, as if our emergencies precluded the hope of Divine
deliverance.
This is faith’s true office, to see life in the midst of
death, and to trust the mercy of God—not as that which will procure us
universal exemption from evil, but as that which will quicken us in the midst
of death every moment of our lives; for God humbles his children under various
trials, that his defense of them may be the more remarkable, and that he may
show himself to be their deliverer, as well as their preserver. In the world
believers are constantly exposed to enemies, and David asserts, that he will be
safe under God’s protection from all their machinations. He declares his hope
of life to lie in this, that the hand of God was stretched out for his help,
that hand which he knew to be invincible, and victorious over every foe.
And from all this we are taught, that it is God’s method to
exercise his children with a continual conflict, that, having one foot as it
were in the grave, they may flee with alarm to hide themselves under his wings,
where they malt abide in peace. (Commentaries)
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