A deceitful imagination allures a man into a fool's paradise. When things go well, fecurity kills us. When God fhines on the mount of transfiguration, we dream of building tabernacles there; but a change foon takes place. "Thou didst hide thy face, and I am troubled; the withdrawing of the light of thy countenance deprived me of my comforts." The turning away of God's face overspreads the gracious foul with a heavy gloom, and beclouds its hopes and comforts. We ought to be perpetually dependent on him. Our mountain is fupported by his hand, and when he withdraws it we fink into a valley of despondency and dejection, if not to the very borders of despair.

In this cafe the Pfalmift's voice was changed, from joyful praise to importunate fupplication. "I cried unto thee, O Lord." How often do God's children, in this imperfect state, change their notes! Singing and fighing are frequently in near connec tion. The skilful painter can, with a few strokes of his pencil, turn a smiling into a forrowful countenance. We find David here, at one time fo full of joy, that he calls upon his fellow-faints to help him to praise his gracious Benefactor; and very foon the scene is so changed, that he can do nothing but mourn and cry for deliverance. " Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; Lord, be thou my Helper." Again

Again we find the cloud difpelled. The Pfalmif experienced a happy deliverance. His darkness is turned into light, his forrow into joy, his hell into heaven.. "Thou haft turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou haft put off my fackcloth, and girded me with gladness." What wonderful effects do the restored joys of God's falvation produce, in minds fervently fet on heavenly things! He that was proftrate on the earth, repenting and mourning in the duft, in fackcloth and ashes, is now fo transported with divine delights, that he feems almost at a loss in what way to express his gratitude. He is like one fet at liberty from the restraints, the fetters and the darkness of imprisonment. He puts off his fackcloth, and is clothed with the garments of joy and praise.

The refult of all is expreffed in the last verse: "To the end that my glory may fing praise to thee, and not be filent; O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever." By his glory, the Pfalmist means the best thing he had. His tongue was the glory of his frame, and that should be employed in fpeaking forth the honours of his Saviour. If by his glory, as fome think, he means his foul, he refolved that that, with all its powers, fhonld be engaged in the delightful work of praise. "I will praise thee, O God, with my whole heart, I will

not

not be filent, I will not cease." The more we praise his gracious name, the more occafions of praise he will minifter to us. Let us therefore fay, with this holy man in another place, "I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more."

Through the whole of this pfalm we fee, to what changes the servants of God are subject in this life. Like mariners, they have fometimes a ftormy, and fometimes a smooth fea; or like travellers by land, they have to pass over mountains of difficulty and danger, as well as through vallies of delights. And what a variety of affections are stirred up in their minds, upon feveral occafions! Joy and forrow, fear and fortitude, eager defire and pleasurable fatisfaction, take their turns, and act their feveral parts, in the breasts of those who are travelling towards the celestial country.

In the verse in which our text lies, we perceive both night and day; thunder and lightning, and the bright shining of the fun after rain; the lightsome and the dark side of the pillar of the cloud; the law and the gospel; wrath and love; these are compared, and fet in opposition to each other. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

The

The words, In his favour is life, seem to come in as a fatisfying answer to a tacit objection formed by those who are invited to sing the praises of God, ver. 4. As if it had been faid, Alas! How can we join in the pleasing work of thanksgiving. We lie under the tokens of God's displeasure, and feem to feel the marks of his anger within us. How can we fing the Lord's fong, when our harps are hung on the willows?

The Pfalmift answers this by a conceffion; "Be it fo; it is proper there should be an interchangeable fucceffion of joy and forrow, as of day and night. Sorrow, like an unwelcome guest, may lodge with us during the night, but a bleffed morning of deliverance fucceeds. The feafon of difconfolation is but short; it will not laft for ever; so far from this, God's anger is but for a moment, and in his favour is life." The difpleasure and the favour of the Most High are here compared, in their nature and their duration.

The displeasure of God occasions a night of forrow and distress. Night in fcripture often denotes a season of gloom and disconfolation. The gracious foul is under great discouragement when the Sun of righteousness is withdrawn. If the wrath of a king be as the messengers of death, how afflictive must a fense of God's displeasure be, to the man who looks

for

for all his felicity from him! But in his favour is life; it is that which gives being to all the hope, the peace and comfort of a faint. He lives by the fhining of his heavenly Father's countenance.

The divine displeasure is but for a moment; the gloominess occafioned by it is but for a night. At longeft, the season of affliction and forrow can but continue during the period of a good man's pilgrimage through this vale of tears; but the favour of God is life everlasting; it runs parallel with the existence of the foul, and with the line of eternity.

The former part of this verfe, because short and concife, feems rather intricate; but in the latter,. the Pfalmift more fully unfolds his meaning. Anger, by an usual figure, is put for chaftifement, which, among earthly parents, is frequently the effect of anger. The Supreme Being is not angry as men are; yet he visits the tranfgreffions of his children with a rod, and their iniquities with ftripes, though he will not take away his loving-kindness from them, nor fuffer his faithfulness to fail.

The words in the Hebrew text lie thus, A moment in his anger; in his favour life. Life is oppofed to a moment, as favour is to anger. Displeasure is momentary, love is everlasting. The general fense of the paffage appears to be this,-Though for our offences the Lord may hide his face, withdraw