Life Desired: Upon the Death of a Relation

LIFE DESIRED. Upon the Death of a Relation.

*Psal. 119:175.* Let my Soul live, and it shall praise you, and let your Judgements help me.

Sweeter words than these could not come from the sweet Singer of Israel himself. The Hundred and Nineteenth is the longest, and yet, if the comparison be not odious, the sweetest, of all the Psalms; and perhaps the Psalm, like the grace wherewith it was composed, has a growing sweetness towards the conclusion of it. The one and twentieth Octonary in this excellent Psalm is a bundle of heavenly affections; this two and twentieth Octonary is a heap of holy petitions. There are especially six petitions in this last part of the Psalm. The fourth and fifth of them are in the words now before us. He begs, first, for his life, then for God's help. The life petitioned for may be understood as two-fold: it is called, the life of the soul; both natural life and spiritual life may be intended in that expression. But chiefly the former. Let my soul live; it is q. d. Let myself live. Tis an usual Hebraism. In that signification it was the choice of Sampson, Let me die, in the Hebrew it is, Let my soul die with the Philistines. The help petitioned for has two things declared concerning it. We have the for-what of this help; this is, that he might attend the business for which he desired to live; namely, to praise God. And we also have the from-from where of this help; this is, from the judgments of God. Your judgments — this is one of the ten various phrases used here, to signify the ways and means whereby God reveals himself to the world.

In short, the doctrine before us is, that

While we pray to live, we should account the praises of God to be the chief end of our life, in which the judgments of God are to be sought and used as our help.

The propositions which may shape this truth to our minds are these.