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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
M I C A H.
CHAP. VII.
In this chapter,
I. The prophet, in the name of the church, sadly laments the woeful
decay of religion in the age wherein he lived, and the deluge of
impiety and immorality which overwhelmed the nation, which levelled the
differences, and bore down the fences, of all that is just and sacred,
II. The prophet, for the sake of the church, prescribes comforts, which
may be of use at such a time, and gives counsel what to do.
1. They must have an eye to God,
2. They must courageously bear up against the insolences of the enemy,
3. They must patiently lie down under the rebukes of their God,
4. They must expect no other than that the trouble would continue long,
and must endeavour to make the best of it,
5. They must encourage themselves with God’s promises, in answer to
the prophet’s prayers,
6. They must foresee the fall of their enemies, that now triumphed
over them,
7. They must themselves triumph in the mercy and grace of God, and his
faithfulness to his covenant
(ver. 18-20),
and with that comfortable word the prophecy concludes.
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1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer
fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is no
cluster to eat: my soul desired the first-ripe fruit.
2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is
none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt
every man his brother with a net.
3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince
asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man,
he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.
4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is
sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy
visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide:
keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up
against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in
law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
This is such a description of bad times as, some think, could scarcely
agree to the times of Hezekiah, when this prophet prophesied; and
therefore they rather take it as a prediction of what should be in the
reign of Manasseh. But we may rather suppose it to be in the reign of
Ahaz (and in that reign he prophesied,
or in the beginning of Hezekiah’s time, before the reformation he was
instrumental in; nay, in the best of his days, and when he had done his
best to purge out corruptions, still there was much amiss. The prophet
cries out, Woe is me! He bemoans himself that his lot was cast
in such a degenerate age, and thinks it his great unhappiness that he
lived among a people that were ripening apace for a ruin which many a
good man would unavoidably be involved in. Thus David cries out, Woe
is me that I sojourn in Mesech! He laments,
1. That there were so few good people to be found, even among those
that were God’s people; and this was their reproach: The good man
has perished out of the earth, or out of the land, the land
of Canaan; it was a good land, and a land of uprightness
but there were few good men in it, none upright among them,
v. 2.
The good man is a godly man and a merciful man;
the word signifies both. Those are completely good men that are devout
towards God and compassionate and beneficent towards men, that love
mercy and walk with God. “These have perished; those few honest men
that some time ago enriched and adorned our country are now dead and
gone, and there are none risen up in their stead that tread in
their steps; honesty is banished, and there is no such thing as a good
man to be met with. Those that were of religious education have
degenerated, and become as bad as the worst; the godly man
ceases,”
This is illustrated by a comparison
(v. 1):
they were as when they have gathered the summer fruits; it was
as hard a thing to find a good man as to find any of the summer-fruits
(which were the choicest and best, and therefore must carefully be
gathered in) when the harvest is over. The prophet is ready to say, as
Elijah in his time
I, even I only, am left. Good men, who used to hang in clusters,
are now as the grape-gleanings of the vintage, here and there a
berry,
You can find no societies of them as bunches of grapes, but those that
are are single persons: There is no cluster to eat; and the best
and fullest grapes are those that grow in large clusters. Some think
that this intimates not only that good people were few, but that those
few who remained, who went for good people, were good for little, like
the small withered grapes, the refuse that were left behind, not only
by the gatherer, but by the gleaner. When the prophet observed this
universal degeneracy it made him desire the first-ripe fruit; he
wished to see such worthy good men as were in the former ages, were the
ornaments of the primitive times, and as far excelled the best of all
the present age as the first and full-ripe fruits do those of the
latter growth, that never come to maturity. When we read and hear of
the wisdom and zeal, the strictness and conscientiousness, the devotion
and charity, of the professors of religion in former ages, and see the
reverse of this in those of the present age, we cannot but sit down,
and wish, with a sigh, O for primitive Christianity again! Where
are the plainness and integrity of those that went before us? Where are
the Israelites indeed, without guile? Our souls desire them, but in
vain. The golden age is gone, and past recall; we must make the best
of what is, for we are not likely to see such times as have been.
2. That there were so many wicked mischievous people among them, not
only none that did any good, but multitudes that did all the hurt they
could: “They all lie in wait for blood, and hunt every man
his brother. To get wealth to themselves, they care not what wrong,
what hurt, they do to their neighbours and nearest relations. They act
as if mankind were in a state of war, and force were the only right.
They are as beasts of prey to their neighbours, for they all lie in
wait for blood as lions for their prey; they thirst after it, make
nothing of taking away any man’s life or livelihood to serve a turn for
themselves, and lie in wait for an opportunity to do it. Their
neighbours are as beasts of prey to them, for they hunt every man
his brother with a net; they persecute them as noxious creatures,
fit to be taken and destroyed, though they are innocent excellent
ones.” We say of him that is outlawed, Caput gerit lupinum–He is to
be hunted as a wolf. “Or they hunt them as men do the game, to
feast upon it; they have a thousand cursed arts of ensnaring men to
their ruin, so that they may but get by it. Thus they do mischief
with both hands earnestly; their hearts desire it, their heads
contrive it, and then both hands are ready to put it in
execution.” Note, The more eager and intent men are upon any sinful
pursuit, and the more pains they take in it, the more provoking it is.
3. That the magistrates, who by their office ought to have been the
patrons and protectors of right, were the practicers and promoters of
wrong: That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, to
excite and animate themselves in it, the prince asketh, and the
judge asketh, for a reward, for a bribe, with which they well be
hired to exert all their power for the supporting and carrying on of
any wicked design with both hands. They do evil with both hands
well (so some read it); they do evil with a great deal of art and
dexterity; they praise themselves for doing it so well. Others read it
thus: To do evil they have both hands (they catch at an
opportunity of doing mischief), but to do good the prince and the
judge ask for a reward; if they do any good offices they are
mercenary in them, and must be paid for them. The great man, who has
wealth and power to do good, is not ashamed to utter his mischievous
desire in conjunction with the prince and the judge, who are ready to
support him and stand by him in it. So they wrap it up; they
perplex the matter, involve it, and make it intricate (so some
understand it), that they may lose equity in a mist, and so make the
cause turn which way they please. It is ill with a people when their
princes, and judges, and great men are in a confederacy to pervert
justice. And it is a sad character that is given of them
(v. 4),
that the best of them is as a brier, and the most upright is sharper
than a thorn-hedge; it is a dangerous thing to have any thing to do
with them; he that touches them must be fenced with iron
he shall be sure to be scratched, to have his clothes torn, and his
eyes almost pulled out. And, if this be the character of the best and
most upright, what are the worst? And, when things have come to this
pass, the day of thy watchmen comes, that is, as it follows,
the day of thy visitation, when God will reckon with thee for
all this wickedness, which is called the day of the watchmen,
because their prophets, whom God set as watchmen over them, had often
warned them of that day. When all flesh have corrupted their way, even
the best and the most upright, what can be expected but a day of
visitation, a deluge of judgments, as that which drowned the old world
when the earth was filled with violence?
4. That there was no faith in man; people had grown so universally
treacherous that one knew not whom to repose any confidence in,
v. 5.
“Those that have any sense of honour, or spark of virtue, remaining in
them, have a firm regard to the laws of friendship; they would not
discover what passed in private conversation, nor divulge secrets, to
the prejudice of a friend. But those things are now made a jest of; you
will not meet with a friend that you dare trust, whose word you dare
take, or who will have any tenderness or concern for you; so that wise
men shall give it and take it for a rule, trust you not in a
friend, for you will find him false, you can trust him no further
than you can see him; and even him that passes for an honest man you
will find to be so only with good looking to. Nay, as for him that
undertakes to be your guide, to lead you into any business which
he professes to understand better than you, you cannot put a
confidence in him, for he will be sure to mislead you if he can get
any thing by it.” Some by a guide understand a husband, who is called
the guide of thy youth; and that agrees well enough with what
follows, “Keep the doors of thy lips from her that lieth in thy
bosom, from thy own wife; take heed what thou sayest before her,
lest she betray thee, as Delilah did Samson, lest she be the bird of
the air that carries the voice of that which thou sayest
in thy bed-chamber,”
It is an evil time indeed when the prudent are obliged even thus far to
keep silence.
5. That children were abusive to their parents, and men had no comfort,
no satisfaction, in their own families and their nearest relations,
v. 6.
The times are bad indeed when the son dishonours his father,
gives him bad language, exposes him, threatens him, and studies to do
him a mischief, when the daughter rises up in rebellion against
her own mother, having no sense of duty, or natural affection; and no
marvel that then the daughter-in-law quarrels with her
mother-in-law, and is vexatious to her. Either they cannot agree
about their property and interest, or their humours and passions clash,
or from a spirit of bigotry and persecution, the brother shall
deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child,
Matt. x. 4; Luke xxi. 16.
It is sad when a man’s betrayers and worst enemies are the men of his
own house, his own children and servants, that should be his guard and
his best friends. Note, The contempt and violation of the laws of
domestic duties are a sad symptom of a universal corruption of manners.
Those are never likely to come to good that are undutiful to their
parents, and study to be provoking to them and cross them.
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7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God
of my salvation: my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall
arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto
me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have
sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment
for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold
his righteousness.
10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame
shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God?
mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the
mire of the streets.
11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day
shall the decree be far removed.
12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from
Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress
even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to
mountain.
13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them
that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
The prophet, having sadly complained of the wickedness of the times he
lived in, here fastens upon some considerations for the comfort of
himself and his friends, in reference thereunto. The case is bad, but
it is not desperate. Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this
thing.
I. “Though God be now displeased he shall be reconciled to us, and then
all will be well,
We are now under the indignation of the Lord; God is angry with
us, and justly, because we have sinned against him.” Note, It is
our sin against God that provokes his indignation against us; and we
must see it, and own it, whenever we are under divine rebukes, that we
may justify God, and may study to answer his end in afflicting us, by
repenting of sin and breaking off from it. Now, at such a time,
1. We must have recourse to God under our troubles
(v. 7):
Therefore I will look unto the Lord. When a child of God has
ever so much occasion to cry, Woe is me (as the prophet here,
v. 1),
yet it may be a comfort to him that he has a God to look to, a God to
come to, to fly to, in whom he may rejoice and have satisfaction. All
may look bright above him when all looks black and dark about him. The
prophet had been complaining that there was no comfort to be had, no
confidence to be put, in friends and relations on earth, and this
drives him to his God: Therefore I will look unto the Lord. The
less reason we have to delight in any creature the more reason we have
to delight in God. If princes are not to be trusted, we may say,
Happy is the man that has the God of Jacob for his help, and
happy am I, even in the midst of my present woes, if he be my
help. If men be false, this is our comfort, that God is faithful; if
relations be unkind, he is and will be gracious. Let us therefore look
above and beyond them, and overlook our disappointment in them, and
look unto the Lord.
2. We must submit to the will of God in our troubles: “I will bear
the indignation of the Lord, will bear it patiently, without
murmuring and repining, because I have sinned against him.”
Note, Those that are truly penitent for sin will see a great deal of
reason to be patient under affliction. Wherefore should a man
complain for the punishment of his sin? When we complain to God of
the badness of the times we ought to complain against ourselves for the
badness of our own hearts.
3. We must depend upon God to work deliverance for us, and put a good
issue to our troubles in due time; we must not only look to him, but
look for him: “I will wait for the God of my salvation, and for
his gracious returns to me.” In our greatest distresses we shall see no
reason to despair of salvation if by faith we eye God as the God of
our salvation, who is able to save the weakest upon their humble
petition, and willing to save the worst upon their true repentance.
And, if we depend on God as the God of our salvation, we must wait for
him, and for his salvation, in his own way and his own time. Let us now
see what the church is here taught to expect and promise herself from
God, even when things are brought to the last extremity.
(1.) My God will hear me; if the Lord be our God, he will hear
our prayers, and grant an answer of peace to them.
(2.) “When I fall, and am in danger of being dashed in pieces by
the fall, yet I shall arise, and recover myself again. I
fall, but am not utterly cast down,”
(3.) “When I sit in darkness, desolate and disconsolate,
melancholy and perplexed, and not knowing what to do, nor which way to
look for relief, yet then the Lord shall be a light to me, to
comfort and revive me, to instruct and teach me, to direct and guide
me, as a light to my eyes, a light to my feet, a light in a dark
place.”
(4.) He will plead my cause, and execute judgment for me,
v. 9.
If we heartily espouse the cause of God, the just but injured cause of
religion and virtue, and make it our cause, we may hope he will own our
cause, and plead it. The church’s cause, though it seem for a time to
go against her, will at length be pleaded with jealousy, and judgment
not only given against, but executed upon, the enemies of it.
(5.) “He will bring me forth to the light, make me shine
eminently out of obscurity, and become conspicuous, will make my
righteousness shine evidently from under the dark cloud of calumny,
Ps. xxxvii. 6; Isa. lviii. 10.
The morning of comfort shall shine forth out of the long and dark night
of trouble.”
(6.) “I shall behold his righteousness; I shall see the equity
of his proceedings concerning me and the performance of his promises to
me.”
II. Though enemies triumph and insult, they shall be silenced and put
to shame,
Observe here,
1. How proudly the enemies of God’s people trample upon them in their
distress. They said, Where is the Lord their God? As if because
they were afflicted God had forsaken them, and they knew not where to
find him with their prayers, and he knew not how to help them with his
favours. This David’s enemies said to him, and it was a sword in his
bones,
and see
Thus, in reproaching Israel as an abandoned people, they reflected on
the God of Israel as an unkind unfaithful God.
2. How comfortably the people of God by faith bear up themselves under
these insults
(v. 8):
“Rejoice not against me, O my enemy! I am now down, but shall
not be always so, and when my God appears for me then she that is my
enemy shall see it, and be ashamed” (not only being disappointed in
her expectations of the church’s utter ruin, but having the same cup of
trembling put into her hand), “then my eyes shall behold her in
the same deplorable condition that I am now in; now shall she be
trodden down.” Note, The deliverance of the church will be the
confusion of her enemies; and their shame shall be double, when, as
they have trampled upon God’s people, so they shall themselves be
trampled upon.
III. Though the land continue a great while desolate, yet it shall at
length be replenished again, when the time, even the set time, of its
deliverance comes.
1. Its salvation shall not come till after it has been desolate;
so the margin reads it,
God has a controversy with the land, and it must lie long under his
rebukes, because of those that dwell therein; it is their
iniquity that makes their land desolate
(Ps. cvii. 34);
it is for the fruit of their doings, their evil doings which
they have been themselves guilty of, and the evil fruit of them, the
sins of others, which they have been accessory to by their bad
influence and example. For this they must expect to smart a great
while; for the world shall know that God hates sin even in his own
people.
2. When it does come it shall be a complete salvation; and it seems to
refer to their deliverance out of Babylon by Cyrus, which Isaiah about
this time prophesied of, as a type of our redemption by Christ.
(1.) The decree shall be far removed. God’s decree concerning
their captivity, and Nebuchadnezzar’s decree concerning the perpetuity
of it, his resolution never to release them, “these shall be set aside
and revoked, and you shall hear no more of them; they shall no more lie
as a yoke upon thy neck.”
(2.) Jerusalem and the cities of Judah shall be again reared: Then
thy walls shall be built, walls for habitation, walls for
defence, house-walls, town-walls, temple-walls; it is in order to these
that the decree is repealed,
Though Zion’s walls may lie long in ruins, there will come a day when
they shall be repaired.
(3.) All that belong to the land of Israel, whithersoever dispersed,
and howsoever distressed, far and wide over the face of the whole
earth, shall come flocking to it again
(v. 12):
He shall come even to thee, having liberty to return and a heart
to return, from Assyria, whither the ten tribes were carried away,
though it lay remote, and from the fortified cities, and from
the fortress, those strongholds in which they thought they had them
fast; for when God’s time comes, though Pharaoh will not let the
people go, God will fetch them out with a high hand. They shall
come from all the remote parts, from sea to sea and from
mountain to mountain, not turning back for fear of your
discouragements, but they shall go from strength to strength till they
come to Zion. Thus in the great day of redemption God will gather
his elect from the four winds.
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14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage,
which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let
them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt
will I shew unto him marvellous things.
16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might:
they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall
be deaf.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out
of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of
the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.
18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he
retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will
subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea.
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to
Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of
old.
Here is,
I. The prophet’s prayer to God to take care of his own people, and of
their cause and interest,
When God is about to deliver his people he stirs up their friends to
pray for them, and pours out a spirit of grace and supplication,
Zech. xii. 10.
And when we see God coming towards us in ways of mercy, we must go
forth to meet him by prayer. It is a prophetic prayer, which amounts to
a promise of the good prayed for; what God directed his prophet to ask
no doubt he designed to give. Now,
1. The people of Israel are here called the flock of God’s
heritage, for they are the sheep of his hand, the sheep of his
pasture, his little flock in the world; and they are his heritage, his
portion in the world. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
2. This flock dwells solitarily in the wood, or forest, in
the midst of Carmel, a high mountain. Israel was a peculiar people,
that dwelt alone, and was not reckoned among the nations, like a
flock of sheep in a wood. They were now a desolate people
(v. 13),
were in the land of their captivity as sheep in a forest, in danger of
being lost and made a prey of to the beasts of the forest. They are
scattered upon the mountains as sheep having no shepherd.
3. He prays that God would feed them there with his rod, that
is, that he would take care of them in their captivity, would protect
them, and provide for them, and do the part of a good shepherd to them:
“Let thy rod and staff comfort them, even in that darksome
valley; and even there let them want nothing that is good for them. Let
them be governed by thy rod, not the rod of their enemies, for they are
thy people.”
4. He prays that God would in due time bring them back to feed in the
plains of Bashan and Gilead, and no longer to be fed in the woods and
mountains. Let them feed in their own country again, as in
the days of old. Some apply this spiritually, and make it either
the prophet’s prayer to Christ or his Father’s charge to him, to take
care of his church, as the great Shepherd of the sheep, and to go in
and out before them while they are here in this world as in a wood,
that they may find pasture as in Carmel, as in Bashan and Gilead.
II. God’s promise, in answer to this prayer; and we may well take God’s
promises as real answers to the prayers of faith, and embrace them
accordingly, for with him saying and doing are not two things. The
prophet prayed that God would feed them, and do kind things for them;
but God answers that he will show them marvellous things
(v. 15),
will do for them more than they are able to ask or think, will out-do
their hopes and expectations; he will show them his marvellous
lovingkindness,
Ps. xvii. 7.
1. He will do that for them which shall be the repetition of the
wonders and miracles of former ages–according to the days of thy
coming out of the land of Egypt. Their deliverance out of Babylon
shall be a work of wonder and grace not inferior to their deliverance
out of Egypt, nay, it shall eclipse the lustre of that
much more shall the work of redemption by Christ. Note, God’s former
favours to his church are patterns of future favours, and shall again
be copied out as there is occasion.
2. He will do that for them which shall be matter of wonder and
amazement to the present age,
The nations about shall take notice of it, and it shall be said
among the heathen, The Lord has done great things for them,
Ps. cxxvi. 2.
The impression which the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon shall
make upon the neighbouring nations shall be very much for the honour
both of God and his church.
(1.) Those that had insulted over the people of God in their distress,
and gloried that when they had them down they would keep them down,
shall be confounded, when they see them thus surprisingly rising
up; they shall be confounded at all the might with which the
captives shall now exert themselves, whom they thought for ever
disabled. They shall now lay their hands upon their mouths, as
being ashamed of what they have said, and not able to say more, by way
of triumph over Israel. Nay, their ears shall be deaf too, so
much shall they be ashamed at the wonderful deliverance; they shall
stop their ears, as being not willing to hear any more of God’s wonders
wrought for that people, whom they had so despised and insulted over.
(2.) Those that had impudently confronted God himself shall now be
struck with a fear of him, and thereby brought, in profession at least,
to submit to him
(v. 17):
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall be so
mortified, as if they were sentenced to the same curse the serpent was
laid under
(Gen. iii. 14),
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. They
shall be brought to the lowest abasements imaginable, and shall be so
dispirited that they shall tamely submit to them. His enemies shall
lick the dust,
Ps. lxxii. 9.
Nay, they shall lick the dust of the church’s feet,
Proud oppressors shall now be made sensible how mean, how little, they
are, before the great God, and they shall with trembling and the lowest
submission move out of the holes into which they had crept
(Isa. ii. 21),
like worms of the earth as they are, being ashamed and afraid to
show their heads; so low shall they be brought, and such abjects
shall they be, when they are abased. When God did wonders for his
church many of the people of the land became Jews, because
the fear of the Jews, and of their God, fell upon them,
Esth. viii. 17.
So it is promised here: They shall be afraid of the Lord our God,
and shall fear because of thee, O Israel! Forced submissions are
often but feigned submissions; yet they redound to the glory of God and
the church, though not to the benefit of the dissemblers
themselves.
III. The prophet’s thankful acknowledgment of God’s mercy, in the name
of the church, with a believing dependence upon his promise,
We are here taught,
1. To give to God the glory of his pardoning mercy,
God having promised to bring back the captivity of his people, the
prophet, on that occasion, admires pardoning mercy, as that which was
at the bottom of it. As it was their sin that brought them into
bondage, so it was God’s pardoning their sin that brought them our of
it;
and Isa. xxxiii. 24; xxxviii. 17; lx. 1, 2.
The pardon of sin is the foundation of all other covenant-mercies,
This the prophet stands amazed at, while the surrounding nations stood
amazed only at those deliverances which were but the fruits of this.
Note,
(1.) God’s people, who are the remnant of his heritage, stand
charged with many transgressions; being but a remnant, a very few, one
would hope they should all be very good, but they are not so; God’s
children have their spots, and often offend their Father.
(2.) The gracious God is ready to pass by and pardon the iniquity and
transgression of his people, upon their repentance and return to him.
God’s people are a pardoned people, and to this they owe their all.
When God pardons sin, he passes it by, does not punish it as justly he
might, nor deal with the sinner according to the desert of it.
(3.) Though God may for a time lay his own people under the tokens of
his displeasure, yet he will not retain his anger for ever, but
though he cause grief he will have compassion; he is not
implacable; yet against those that are not of the remnant of his
heritage, that are unpardoned, he will keep his anger for ever.
(4.) The reasons why God pardons sin, and keeps not his anger for ever,
are all taken from within himself; it is because he delights in
mercy, and the salvation of sinners is what he has pleasure in, not
their death and damnation.
(5.) The glory of God in forgiving sin is, as in other things,
matchless, and without compare. There is no God like unto him
for this; no magistrate, no common person, forgives as God does. In
this his thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours; in this he is
God, and not man.
(6.) All those that have experienced pardoning mercy cannot but admire
that mercy; it is what we have reason to stand amazed at, if we know
what it is. Has God forgiven us our transgressions? We may well say,
Who is a God like unto thee? Our holy wonder at pardoning mercy
will be a good evidence of our interest in it.
2. To take to ourselves the comfort of that mercy and all the grace and
truth that go along with it. God’s people here, as they look back with
thankfulness upon God’s pardoning their sins, so they look forward with
assurance upon what he would yet further do for them. His mercy
endures for ever, and therefore as he has shown mercy so
he will,
(1.) He will renew his favours to us: He will turn again; he will
have compassion; that is, he will again have compassion upon us as
formerly he had; his compassions shall be new every morning; he
seemed to be departing from us in anger, but he will turn again and
pity us. He will turn us to himself, and then will turn to us, and
have mercy upon us.
(2.) He will renew us, to prepare and qualify us for his favour: He
will subdue our iniquities; when he takes away the guilt of sin,
that it may not damn us, he will break the power of sin, that it may
not have dominion over us, that we may not fear sin, nor be led captive
by it. Sin is an enemy that fights against us, a tyrant that oppresses
us; nothing less than almighty grace can subdue it, so great is its
power in fallen man and so long has it kept possession. But, if God
forgive the sin that has been committed by us, he will subdue the sin
that dwells in us, and in that there is none like him in forgiving; and
all those whose sins are pardoned earnestly desire and hope; to have
their corruptions mortified and their iniquities subdued, and please
themselves with the hopes of it. If we be left to ourselves, our
iniquities will be too hard for us; but God’s grace, we trust, shall be
sufficient for us to subdue them, so that they shall not rule us, and
then they shall not ruin us.
(3.) He will confirm this good work, and effectually provide that his
act of grace shall never be repealed: Thou wilt cast all their sins
into the depth of the sea, as when he brought them out of Egypt (to
which he has an eye in the promises here,
he subdued Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and cast them into the depth of
the sea. It intimates that when God forgives sin he remembers it no
more, and takes care that it shall never be remembered more against
the sinner.
His transgressions shall not be mentioned unto him; they are
blotted out as a cloud which never appears more. He casts them
into the sea, not near the shore-side, where they may appear again next
low water, but into the depth of the sea, never to rise again.
All their sins shall be cast there without exception, for when
God forgives sin he forgives all.
(4.) He will perfect that which concerns us, and with this good work
will do all that for us which our case requires and which he has
promised
(v. 20):
Then wilt thou perform thy truth to Jacob and thy mercy to
Abraham. It is in pursuance of the covenant that our sins are
pardoned and our lusts mortified; from that spring all these streams
flow, and with these he shall freely give us all things. The
promise is said to be mercy to Abraham, because, as made to him
first, it was mere mercy, preventing mercy, considering what state it
found him in. But it was truth to Jacob, because the
faithfulness of God was engaged to make good to him and his seed, as
heirs to Abraham, all that was graciously promised to Abraham. See
here,
[1.] With what solemnity the covenant of grace is ratified to us; it
was not only spoken, written, and sealed, but which is the highest
confirmation, it was sworn to our fathers; nor is it a modern
project, but is confirmed by antiquity too; it was sworn from the
days of old; it is an ancient charter.
[2.] With what satisfaction it may be applied and relied upon by us; we
may say with the highest assurance, Thou wilt perform the truth and
mercy; not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to the ground.
Faithful is he that has promised, who also will do it.
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