CHAPTER XXVIII.—Divers qualities of the praise due to God, with helps therein; and notes of God's he
deliverance; for by it the soul is delivered out of its own straits and discontent.
CHAPTER XXVIII.—Divers qualities of the praise due to God, with helps therein; and notes of God's hearing our prayers Though this be God's due and our duty, and itself a delightful thing, yet it is not so easy a matter to praise God, as many imagine. Music is sweet, but the setting of the strings in tune is unpleasing. Our souls will not be long in tune, and it is harsh to us to go about the setting them in order. Like curious clocks, a little thing will hinder the motion; especially passion, which disturbs not only the frame of grace in us, but the very frame of nature, putting man out of the power and possession of himself; and therefore David here, when he had thoughts of praising God, was fain to take up the quarrel betwixt him and his soul first. Praising sets all the parts and graces of the soul awork; and therefore the soul had need gather itself and its strength together to this duty.
It requires especially self-denial, from a conscience* of our own wants, weaknesses, and unworthiness; it requires a giving up of ourselves, and all ours to be at God's dispose.† The very ground and the fruit which it yields are both God's; and they never gave themselves truly up to God, that are not ready to give all they have to him whensoever he calls for it. Thankfulness is a sacrifice, and in sacrifices there must be killing before offering, otherwise the sacrifice will be as the offering up some unclean creature.
Thanksgiving is an incense, and there must be fire to burn that incense. Thanksgiving requires not only affections, but the heat of affections. There must be some assurance of the benefit we praise
God for; and it is no easy matter to maintain assurance of our interest in the best things.
Yet in this case, if we feel not sense of assurance, it is good we should praise God for what we have. We cannot deny but God offers himself in mercy to us, and that he intends our good thereby, for so we ought to construe his merciful dealing towards us, and not have him in jealousy without ground. If we bring our hearts to be willing to praise
God, for that we cannot but acknowledge comes from him, he will be ready in his time to shew himself more clearly to us. We taste of his goodness many ways, Rom. 2:4, and it is accompanied with much patience; and these in their natures lead us not only to repentance, but likewise to thankful acknowledgment; and we ought to follow that which God leads us unto, though he hath not yet acquainted us with his secrets.
It is good in this case to help the soul with a firm resolution, and to back resolution with a vow, not only in general that we will praise, but particularly of something within our own power, provided it prove no snare to us. For by this means the heart is perfectly gained, and the thing is as good as done in regard of God's acceptance and our comfort; because strong resolutions discover sincerity without any hypocritical reservation and hollowness. Always so much sincerity as a man hath, so much will his inward peace be. Resolution as a strong stream bears down all before it. Little good is done in religion without this, and with it, all is as good as done.
So soon as we set upon this work we shall feel our spirits to rise higher and higher, as the waters in the sanctuary, Ezek. 47, as the soul grows more and more heated. See how David riseth by degrees.
Be glad in the Lord, Ps. 32:11, and then, rejoice, ye righteous, and then, shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. The Spirit of God will delight to carry us along in this duty, until it leaves our spirits in heaven, praising God with the saints and glorious angels there. To him that hath and useth it shall be given, Mat. 25:29. He that knoweth God aright will honour him by trusting of him; he that honours him by trusting him, will honour him by praying; and he that honours him by prayer, shall honour him by praises; he that honours him by praises here, shall perfect his praises in heaven; and
this will quit the labour of setting and keeping the soul in tune. This trading with God is the richest trade in the world. When we return praises to him, he returns new favours to us, and so an everlasting, ever increasing intercourse betwixt God and the soul is maintained.
David here resolved to praise God, because he had assurance of such a deliverance as would yield him a ground of praising him.
Praising of God may well be called incense, because, as it is sweet in itself, and sweet to God, so it sweetens all that comes from us. Love and joy are sweet in themselves, though those whom we love and joy in should not know of our affection, nor return the like; but we cannot love and joy in God but he will delight in us. When we neglect the praising of God, we lose both the comfort of God's love and our own too. It is a spiritual judgment to want or lose the sight or sense of God's favours, for it is a sign of want of spiritual life, or at least liveliness; it shews we are not yet in the state of those whom God hath chosen to set forth the riches of his glory upon.
When we consider that, if we answer not kindness and favour shewed unto us by men, we are esteemed unworthy of respect, as having sinned against the bond of human society and love, we cannot but much more take shame to ourselves, when we consider the disproportion of our carriage, and unkind behaviour towards God, when, instead of being temples of his praise, we become graves of his benefits. What a vanity is this in our nature, to stand upon exactness of justice, in answering petty courtesies of men, and yet to pass by the substantial favours of God, without scarce taking notice of them!
The best breeding is to acknowledge greatest respects where they are most due, and to think, that if unkindness and rudeness be a sin in civility, it is much more in religion. The greatest danger of unthankfulness is in the greatest matter of all. If we arrogate any spiritual strength to ourselves in spiritual actions, we commit either sacrilege, in robbing God of his due, or mockery, by praising him for that which we hold to be of ourselves. If injustice be to be condemned in man, much more in denying God his due, religion being the first due. It takes much from thankfulness, when we have
common conceits of peculiar favours. Praise is not comely in the mouth of fools; God loves no 'blind sacrifice,' Mal. 1:8.
We should, therefore, have wisdom and judgment, not only to know upon what grounds to be thankful, but in what order, by discerning what be the best and first favours whence the rest proceed, and which add a worthiness to all the rest. It is good to see blessings, as they issue from grace and mercy. It much commends any blessing, to see the love and favour of God in it, which is more to be valued than the blessing itself, as it much commends anything that comes from us, when we put a respect of thankfulness, and love to God upon it; and if we observe, we shall find the unkindness of others to us, is but a correction of our unkindness to God.
In praising God it is not good to delay, but take advantage of the freshness of the blessing. What we add to delay, we take from thankfulness; and withal lose the prime and first-fruits of our affections. It is a wise redeeming of time to observe the best seasons of thankfulness. A cheerful heart will best close with a cheerful duty, and therefore it is not good to waste so fit a temper in frivolous things; but after some contentment given to nature, let God have the fruit of his own planting, otherwise it is even no better than the refreshing of him that standeth by a good fire and crieth, 'Ah, ah, I am warm,' Isa. 44:16.
David doth not say, 'I will thank God,' but 'I shall praise him,' though he intends that. Thanks is then best when it tends to praising, and there ends; for thanks alone shew respect to our own good only, praises to God's glory; and in particular to the glory of such excellencies whence the benefit comes; and from thence the soul is enlarged to think highly of all God's excellencies.
Hannah, upon particular thanks for her hearing about a child, 1 Sam.
2:1, takes occasion to set out God's other excellencies, and riseth higher and higher, from one to many, from the present time to that which was to come; from particular favours to herself, she stirs up
others to praise God for his mercy to them. So David: 'Deliver me, O God, and my tongue shall sing of thy praises,' Ps. 51:14. He propounds this as an engagement of the Lord to help him, because it should tend to the enlargement of his glory; he was resolved to improve God's favour this way.
The Spirit of God works like new wine, enlarging the spirit from one degree of praising God to another; and because it foresees the eternity of God's love, as far as it can, it endeavours an eternity of God's praise. A gracious heart upon taste of favour shewed to itself, is presently warmed to spread the praise of God to others; and the more it sees the fruit of trusting God, and his truth in performing promise, the more it still honours that trusting, as knowing that it lies upon God's honour to honour those that honour him, 1 Sam. 2.
Blessing will procure blessing. The soul hath never such freedom from sin as when it is in a thankful frame; for thankfulness issues from a heart truly humbled and emptied of itself, truly loving and rejoicing in God; and upon any sin the spirit is grieved and straitened, and the lips sealed up in such a heart; for the conscience upon any sin looks upon it not only as disobedience against God's will and authority, but as unthankfulness to his goodness; and this melteth a godly heart most of all. When Nathan told David God had done this and this for him, and was ready to do more, he could not hold in the confession of his sin, but relented and gave in presently, 2
Sam. 12:8.
We ought not only to give thanks, but to be thankful, to meditate and study the praises of God. Our whole life should be nothing else but a continual blessing of his holy name, endeavouring to bring in all we have, and to lay it out for God and his people, to see where he hath any receivers. Our goodness is nothing to God. We need bring no water to the fountain nor light to the sun. Thankfulness is full of invention, it deviseth liberal things. Though it be our duty to be good stewards of our talents, yet thankfulness adds a lustre, and a more gracious acceptance, as having more of that which God calls for.
Our praising God should not be as sparks out of a flint, but as water out of a spring, natural, ready, free, as God's love to us is. Mercy pleases him, so should praise please us. It is our happiness when the best part in us is exercised about the best and highest work. It was a good speech of him that said, If God had made me a nightingale, I would have sung as a nightingale, but now God hath made me a man,
I will sing forth the praises of God, which is the work of a saint only.
'All thy works bless thee, and thy saints praise thee,' Ps. 145:10. All things are either blessings in their nature, or so blessed, as they are made blessings to us by the overruling command of him, who maketh all things serviceable to his. Even the worst things in this sense are made spiritual to God's people against their own nature.
How great is that goodness which makes even the worst things good!
Little favours come from no small love, but even from the same love that God intends the greatest things to us; and are pledges of it. The godly are more thankful for the least favours than worldly men for the greatest. The affection of the giver enhances the gift.
O then let us labour to improve both what we have, and what we are, to his glory. It discovers that we love God, not only with all our understanding, heart, and affection, but, when with all our might and power, so far as we have advantage by any part, relation, or calling whatsoever, we endeavour to do him service. We cannot have a greater honour in the world, than to be honoured of God, to be abundant in this kind.
Our time here is short, and we shall all ere long be called to a reckoning; therefore let us study real praises. God's blessing of us is in deed, and so should ours be of him. Thanks in words is good, but in deeds is better; leaves are good, but fruit is better; and of fruit, that which costs us most. True praise requires our whole man, the judgment to esteem, the memory to treasure up, the will to resolve, the affections to delight, the tongue to speak of, and the life to express the rich favours of God. What can we think of! what can we call to mind! What can we resolve upon! what can we speak! What
can we express in our whole course better than the praises of him, 'of whom, and through whom, and to whom we and all things are!' Rom.
11:36.
Our whole life should speak nothing but thankfulness; every condition and place we are in should be a witness of our thankfulness. This will make the times and places we live in the better for us. When we ourselves are monuments of God's mercy, it is fit we should be patterns of his praises, and leave monuments to others. We should think life is given us, to do something better than live in. We live not to live. Our life is not the end of itself, but the praise of the giver. God hath joined his glory and our happiness together. It is fit that we should refer all that is good to his glory, that hath joined his glory to our best good, in being glorified in our salvation.
David concludes, that he should certainly praise God, because he had prayed unto him. Prayers be the seeds of praises. I have sown, therefore I will reap. What we receive as a fruit of our prayers, is more sweet than what we have by a general providence.
Obj. But how do we know that God hears our prayers?
Ans. 1. If we regard them ourselves, and expect an issue. Prayer is a sure adventure. We may well look for a return.
2. It is a sign that God hath heard our prayers, when he stirs up thankfulness aforehand upon assurance. Thankfulness cannot be without either the grace of God, by which we are thankful, or some taste of the things we are thankful for. God often accepts the prayer, when he doth not grant the thing, and will give us thereby occasion of thanksgiving for his wise care in changing one blessing for another fitter for us. God regards my prayers, when by prayer my heart is wrought to that frame which he requires, that is, an humble subjection to him, from an acknowledgment of my wants, and his fulness. There is nothing stirred up in our hearts by the Spirit, no,
not so much as a gracious desire, but God will answer it, if we have a spirit to wait.
3. We may know God hath accepted our prayer, when he makes the way easy and plain after prayer, by a gracious providence; when the course of things begin to change, and we meet with comforts instead of former crosses, and find our hearts quieted and encouraged against what we most feared.
4. Likewise earnestness in prayer is a sign God hears our prayers, as fire kindled from heaven sheweth God accepts the sacrifice. The ground of prevailing by our prayer, is, that they are put up in a gracious name, and for persons in favour, and dictated by God's own
Spirit. They work in the strength of the blessed Trinity, not their own, giving God the glory of all his excellencies.
It is God's direction 'to call upon him in trouble,' Ps. 50:15, and it is his promise to deliver; and then both his direction and promise that we shall glorify him. When troubles stir up prayer, God's answer to them will stir up praises. David when he saith, I shall praise God, presupposes God would deliver him, that he might have ground of praising his name. And he knew God would deliver him, because as from faith he had prayed for deliverance, so he knew it was the order of God's dealing, to revive after drooping, and refresh after fainting.
God knows otherwise that our spirits would fail before him.
A thankful disposition is a special help in an afflicted condition, for thankfulness springs from love, and 'love rejoiceth in suffering,' Acts
15:21. Thankfulness raises the soul higher than itself. It is trading with God, whereby, as we by him, so he gains by us. Therefore the saints used this as a motive to God, that he would grant their desires, because the living praise him, and not the dead, Isa. 38:19. If God expect praise from us, sure he will put us into a condition of praise.
Unthankfulness is a sin detestable both to God and men, and the less punishment it receives from human laws, the more it is punished
inwardly by secret shame, and outwardly by public hatred, if once it prove notorious. When God's arrests come forth for denying him his tribute, he chiefly eyes an unthankful heart, and hates all sin the worse, as there is more unthankfulness in it. The neglect of kindness is taken most unkindly. Why should we load God with injuries, that loadeth us with his blessings? Who would requite good with evil?
Such men's mercies will prove at last so many indictments against them.
Use. I beseech you therefore labour to be men of praises. If in any duty we may expect assistance, we may in this, that altogether concerns God's glory. The more we praise God, the more we shall praise him. When God by grace enlarges the will, he intends to give the deed. God's children, wherein their wills are conformable to God's will, are sure to have them fulfilled. In a fruitful ground, a man will sow his best seed. God intends his own glory in every mercy, and he that 'praises him, glorifies him,' Ps. 50:23. When our wills therefore carry us to that which God wills above all, we may well expect he will satisfy our desires. The living God is a living fountain, never drawn dry. He hath never done so much for us, but he can and will do more. If there be no end of our praises, there shall be no end of his goodness; no way of thriving like to this. By this means we are sure never to be very miserable. How can he be dejected, that by a sweet communion with God sets himself in heaven? nay, maketh his heart a kind of heaven, 'a temple, a holy of holies,' 2 Cor. 6:16, wherein incense is offered unto God. It is the sweetest branch of our priestly office, to offer up these daily sacrifices. It is not only the beginning, but a further entrance of our heaven upon earth, and shall be one day our whole employment for ever.
Praise is a just and due tribute for all God's blessings; for what else especially do the best favours of God call for at our hands? How do all creatures praise God, but by our mouths? It is a debt always owing, and always paying; and the more we pay, the more we shall owe. Upon the due discharge of this debt, the soul will find much peace. A thankful heart to God for his blessings, is the greatest
blessing of all. Were it not for a few gracious souls, what honour should God have of the rest of the unthankful world? Which should stir us up the more to be trumpets of God's praises in the midst of his enemies, because this, in some sort, hath a prerogative above our praising God in heaven; for there God hath no enemies to dishonour him.
This is a duty that none can except against, because it is especially a work of the heart. All cannot shew their thankfulness in giving, or doing, great matters, but all may express the willingness of their hearts. All within us may praise his holy name, Ps. 103:1, though we have little or nothing without us; and that within us is the thing God chiefly requires. Our heart is the altar on which we offer this incense.
God looks not to quantity, but to proportion. He accepts a mite where there is no more to be had.
Quest. But how shall we be enabled to this great duty?
Ans. 1. Enter into a deep consideration of God's favours, past, present, and to come; think of the greatness and suitableness of them to our condition, the seasonableness and necessity of them every way unto us. Consider how miserable our life were without them, even without common favours; but as for spiritual favours, that make both our natural and civil condition comfortable, our very life were death, our light were darkness without these. In all favours think not of them so much, as God's mercy and love in Christ, which sweetens them. Think of the freeness of this love, and the smallness of thy own deserts. How many blessings doth God bestow upon us, above our deserts, yea, above our desires, nay, above our very thoughts! He had thoughts of love to us when we had no thoughts ourselves. What had we been if God had not been good unto us! How many blessings hath
God bestowed upon us, that we never prayed for! and yet we are not so ready to praise God, as to pray unto him. This more desire of what we want than esteeming of what we have, shews too much prevailing of self-love. But,
2. Secondly, comparing also ourselves with others, will add a great lustre to God's favour, considering we are all hewed out of one rock, and differ nothing from the meanest, but in God's free love. Who are we, that God should single us out for the glory of his rich mercy?
3. Considering, likewise, that the blessings of God to us are such as if none but we had them, and God cares for us as if he had none else to care for in the world besides. These things well pondered should set the greater price upon God's blessings. What are we in nature and grace but God's blessings?—what is in us, about us, above us? What see we, taste we, enjoy we, but blessings? All we have, or hope to have, are but dead favours to us, unless we put life into them by a spirit of thankfulness. And shall we be as dead as the earth, as the stones we tread on? Shall we live as if we were resolved God should have no praise by us? Shall we make ourselves gods, ascribing all to ourselves? Nay, shall we, as many do, fight against God with his own favours, and turn God's blessings against himself? Shall we abuse peace to security? plenty to ease, promises to presumption, gifts to pride? How can we please the devil better than thus doing? Oh, the wonderful patience of God, to continue life to those whose life is nothing else but a warring against him, the giver of life!
As God hath thoughts of love to us, so should our thoughts be of praises to him, and of doing good in our places to others for his sake.
Think with thyself, Is there any I may honour God by relieving, comforting, counsel ling? Is there any of Jonathan's race? 2 Sam. 9:1.
Is there any of Christ's dear ones? I will do good to them, that they together with me, and for me, may praise God, Psalm 118:1. As David here checks himself for the failing and disquietness of his spirit, and, as a cure thereof, thinks of praising God, so let us, in the like case, stir up our souls as he did, and say, 'Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, set forth his holy name,' Psalm 103:1. We never use our spirits to better purpose, than when by that light we have from God, we stir them up to look back again to him.