Psalms 37

Resp. The nature of love is in delighting in the object: Complacentia amantis in amato, Aquin. This is our loving God, our taking delight in him (Psalm 37:4): Delight yourself in the Lord: As a bride delights in her jewels. Grace changes a Christian's aims and delights.

When we have no bread to eat but the bread of carefulness (Ezekiel 19:8), when we have no waters to drink unless tears (Psalm 80:5): You give them tears to drink in great measure; can we now trust in God's providence, to make supply for us? A good Christian believes, that if God…

Paul was called a seditious man, the head of a faction (Acts 24:5). But at the Day of Judgment Christ will clear the saints' innocency; then he will bring forth their righteousness as the light (Psalm 37:6). As he will wipe off tears from their eyes, so dust from their name.

The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away: God will be the saints' compurgator. (Psalm 37:6) He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light. The night casts its dark mantle upon the most beautiful flowers, but the…

(8.) The borrower, who borrows money from others with an intention never to pay them again. (Psalm 37:21) The wicked borrows and pays not again. What is it but thievery to take money and goods from others, and not restore them again?

As no flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good. God will clear up the names of his people (Psalm 37:6). He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light.

6. If we would have the Word written effectual, let us labor not only to have the light of the Word in our heads, but the power of the Word in our hearts. Let us endeavor to have the Word copied out, and written a second time in our hearts (Psalm 37:31). The Law of God is in his…

Offenders must come to punishment. The sinners' death-day and doom's-day is coming (Psalm 37:13): "The Lord sees that his day is coming." While there is a hell the wicked shall be scourged enough; and while there is eternity, they shall lie there long enough; and God will abunda…

See now how God provides for her beforehand: he by his Providence sends the wise men from the East, and they bring costly gifts, gold, myrrh, and frankincense and present them to Christ; and now the Virgin had enough to defray her expenses to Egypt. God's children sometimes scar…

(3.) If there were no affliction, then many parts of Scripture could not be fulfilled. God has promised to help us bear affliction, and (Psalm 37:24, 39) how could we experience God's supporting us in trouble, if we did not sometimes meet with it? God has promised to give us joy…

For, why should any be dismayed with that estate, which Christ Jesus and his dearest servants have undergone for his example. Here some may ask, how this can stand with that saying of David; I have been young and am old: yet I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beggi…

And in this respect, well may the Apostle say here, It has a foundation; which the Holy Ghost in the Revelation says, to have 12 foundations. Secondly, the state of the Elect in heaven, is not only sure, but everlasting; that is, without end: Psalm 37:18. the Inheritance of holy…

These men are apt to take distaste at, to dislike, and so to be provoked, as to leave the way wherein they meet with them. Upon various surprising occasions, they fret themselves to do evil (Psalm 37:8). So David was [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], very short spirited when upon the b…

The grace to be desired is a readiness in all estates of life to rest on God's providence, whatever fall out. Commit your way to the Lord, and trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass (Psalm 37:5). Commit or roll your works upon the Lord, and your thoughts shall be directed (…

Lastly, that we might ease our minds by pouring out our hearts before the Lord: for to this end has he made most sweet and comfortable promises. Proverbs 16:3. Psalms 37:5. Objection: What need men use prayer, considering God in his eternal counsel has certainly determined what…

He shall not only have the venison, but the blessing. 4. Blessed in his posterity, Psalm 37. 26. He is ever merciful and lends, his seed is blessed. He shall not only leave an estate behind, but a blessing behind to his children; and God will see that the Entail shall not be cut…

Quest. 4. Why should the Devil so earnestly dispute about the body of Moses? Answ. 4. The Rabbins among other of their fables, interpret it of the desire which the Devil had to destroy Moses by death, there being no man like Moses, that saw God face to face; therefore his rage w…

What a lovely companion he is during the continuance of it! It would do anyone's heart good to be with him at such a time (Psalm 37:30-31): 'The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of judgment; the law of his God is in his heart.' When the heart is up with…

1. A rolling and casting ourselves upon Christ, having no other bottom to stand on, and seeing with him a rock able to bear us, and arms open to receive us. Now we throw ourselves and our whole weight upon him, and fall into his arms (Psalm 37:7; 55:22): Cast your burden upon th…

God raises some for greater falls: Miserable was the felicity of Pharaoh, to be raised up by God for a subject to show in him the power of his wrath (Exodus 9:16). It is but a little time before they shall be cut down as grass, and wither as the green herb (Psalm 37:2). None wou…

But on the other side, the end of all the actions of this life is good: as it is said of Job, that his latter end was more than his beginning (Job 42:12). Psalm 37:37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. If a man being to die, and havin…

The grace to be desired is a readiness in all estates, to rest on God's providence, whatever fall out. Psalm 37:5: Commit your way to the Lord, and trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass. Proverbs 16:3: Commit or roll your works upon the Lord, and your thoughts shall be dir…

And then they are as wax that melts before the fire, in Psalms 68:2. Yes, they are as the fat of lambs, in Psalms 37:20. They are as a worm, in Job 25:6.

Christ is held out in the Gospel as the City of Refuge, and the exercise of faith is to run from the hazard to Him, as a child that is chased by an unknown and uncouth body, flees to the mother's arms, or as the man-slayer fled from the Avenger of Blood to the City of Refuge; an…

Third, in urging this doctrine more hardly upon the people, to cause them not to rest on the letter of the law, but seek to the promised Messiah, in whom only was their righteousness — as young heirs and minors are kept under tutors while their minority expires. But, first, who…

Indeed, all things are yours (1 Corinthians 3:21). Not in possession, but in a choicer free-holding, in free heritage (Psalm 37:11). You have the broad rent, the fair income of all things.

4. It is most false that a man strict and upright in conversation can have a foul and polluted conscience, if you speak of true sincere strictness and uprightness of conversation, as the scripture speaks (Psalm 50:23). To him that orders his conversation aright, I will show the…

2. A constant adherence to our duty. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way (Psalm 37:34). Do not go one step out of God's way for all the good in the world.

Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, "O King, break off your sins with acts of charity" (Daniel 4:24), that is, whereas you have been given to cruelty, and oppression, cease to do so any more, and make some recompense by giving of alms. David says, it is the property of a wicked man,…

Verse 14. The dead shall not live, neither shall the dead arise, because you have visited and scattered them, and destroyed all their memory. The Prophet comes again to speak of the woeful end of the wicked, whose prosperous estate often disquiets and dismays us, as we may see i…

Now this sentence is the same which the Scripture so often and so diversely repeats, as, "They shall fall into the pit which they have dug": "In the nets which they have laid are their own feet taken" (Psalm 7:15). "Their sword which they have drawn shall pierce their own bowels…

To feed of ashes, signifies as much as to be replete with ashes: as, to feed upon wind (Hosea 12:1) signifies to be filled with wind; for the same may be said of the one, that is said of the other. As on the contrary, You shall feed the truth (Psalm 37:3) for you shall be satiat…

The Prophet therefore informs them, that however the profane nations flourished for a time, and seemed to be advanced above the clouds, yet their perdition was decreed as well as the salvation of Israel. In a word, he admonishes them not to judge of God's power by the estate of…

Both ought to be carefully observed; for, although praise is bestowed on Zacharias and Elisabeth for the purpose of showing us that the lamp, whose light went before the Son of God, was taken not from an obscure house, but from an illustrious sanctuary, yet their example exhibit…

So is it represented in the Text. And as an important Part of Religion, it is often exhorted to, and pressed, with great Earnestness; Psalm 37. 4. Delight thy self in the Lord, and he shall give thee the Desires of thine Heart.

And the Scripture is as plain as it is possible it should be, that none are true Saints, but those whose true Character it is, that they are of a Disposition to pity and relieve their Fellow-creatures, that are poor, indigent and afflicted. Psalm 37. 21. 'The Righteous shows Mer…

A Treatise of Delighting in God: From (Psalm 37:4) Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. In Two Parts.

But when a man is once in Christ, then all Providences are sanctified and sweet, Tit. 1:15 Vnto the pure, all things are pure. A little that a righteous man has, is better than the treasures of many wicked, Psalm 37:16 Now Christ becomes an head of Influence, as well as of Domin…

Never did any man lose at last by his fidelity. The written Word tells us, that the best expedient to inward peace and tranquillity of mind under puzzling and distracting troubles, is to commit our selves and our case to the Lord; so you read, Psalm 37. 5, 6, 7. and Proverbs 16:…

You have not wanted hitherto the necessaries of life, and are commanded, having food and rayment (though none of the finest) to be therewith content. A little that a righteous man has, is better than the riches of many wicked, Psalm 37:16 better in the Acquisition, sweeter in th…

And therefore, says the wise man (Proverbs 16:8), Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right. And the Psalmist (Psalm 37:16), A little that a righteous man has, is better than the riches of many wicked. Fourthly, robbery and deceit provokes God to c…

It is to commit our affairs to God, with thoughts of his infinite wisdom, sovereignty and goodness; with resolutions thereupon, that the product of his will, is that which will be good, be best for us, though it should not at all fall in with our present desires. It is true the…

There is a secret blessing that attends this hidden treasure, which gives content with want or abundance, and if God sees good he will increase the store. However, a saint's modicum or little, amounts to more than wicked men's multum or large revenues, as the word of truth testi…

They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. A gracious person has not only religion in his heart, but in his tongue (Psalm 37:30). The law of God is in his heart, and his tongue talks of judgment: he drops holy words as pearls.

He who had no bowels to an innocent Christ, his bowels gushed out. If it be good to draw near to God, it must needs be evil to draw back from him (Psalm 37:27): You have destroyed all them that go a whoring from you. 3. It exhorts us all to draw near to God.

By the wicked world's being drowned, the wicked, the enemies of God's people, were dispossessed of the earth, and the whole earth given to Noah and his family to possess in quiet: as God made room for the Israelites in Canaan, by casting out their enemies from before them. And G…

It is for the present a day of patience and forbearance with which God sees meet to treat men, even the worst of men withal, in which he lets them alone for a while, and suffers them to go on, till they have filled up their measure: and though they give him uncountable and very…

God seeks of no man above that he has, or according to what he has not: and if you fail in what you have, what can you say for what you have not. The formal cause of the charity, is the pouring or drawing out of the soul to the hungry (Isaiah 58:10), in faith, in lending to God,…

2. Influences of grace, spiritual joy, persevering to the end, can no more find good soil to grow in a rocky, stony, proud, and graceless heart, than corn can grow on stones and rocks (Matthew 13:20, 21), though there be a receiving of the word with joy and delight, that joy is…

To offer sacrifice, is to do that which is proper to God: now to go about any thing, and to say, that your wealth brings it to pass, is to sacrifice to your own net, that is, to attribute that to yourself, which is proper only to him. Again, as it is Idolatry, so it is a vain th…