1. Out of

the depths

have Icried

Lord.

24.

bear my voice, let thine ears

be attentive to the voice of my Supplications.

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PARAPHRASE.

Verse 1, 2.

Lord, through my manifold fins and provocations I have brought myself in

unto thee O to great diftreffes. Mine iniquities are alLord ways before me, and I am ready to be overwhelmed with them, as with a flood of waters, for they have brought me into depths wherein I am ready to be fwallowed up. But yet, although my diftrefs be great and perplexing, I do not, I dare not, utterly defpond and cast away all hopes of relief or recovery; nor do I feek unto any other remedy, way or means of relief, but I apply myself to thee Jehovah, to thee alone: And in my application unto thee, the greatnefs and urgency of my troubles makes my foul urgent, earneft, and preffing in my fupplications. Whilft I have no reft, I can give thee no reft; Oh therefore attend and hearken unto the voice of my crying and fupplications!

2. If thou

Lord, Shouldst mark iniquities,

Lord, who fballfand?

Ver: 3.

IT is true, O Lord, thou great and terrible,

that if thou fhouldft deal with me in this condition, with any man living, with the best of thy faints, according to the strict and exact tenor of the law, which first represents itself to my guilty confcience, and troubled foul if thou shouldft take notice of, observe, and keep in remembrance, mine, or their, or the iniquity of any one, to the end that thou mightst

mightft deal with them, and recompenfe unto them according to the fentence thereof; there would be neither for me, nor them, any the leaft expectation of deliverance; all flesh must fail before thee, and the fpirits which thou haft made, and that to eternity; for who could ftand before thee, when thou fhouldft fo execute thy displeasure.

Ver. 4.

4. But

BUT, O Lord, this is not abfolutely there is

nefs with thou mayt be feared.

thee: That

and univerfally the ftate of things be- forgivetween thy Majefty and poor finners; thou art in thy nature infinitely good and gracious, ready and free in the purposes of thy will to receive them: And there is fuch a bleffed way made for the exercife of the holy inclinations and purposes of thy heart towards them, in the mediation and blood of thy dear Son, that they have affured foundations of concluding and believing, that there is pardon and forgiveness with thee for them; and which, in the way of thine appointments, they may be partakers of. This way therefore will I, with all that fear thee, perfift in I will not give over, leave thee, or turn from thee, through my fears, difcouragements, and defpondencies; but will abide constantly in the obfervation of the worship which thou haft prescribed; and the performance of the obedience which thou dost require; having great encouragements fo to do.

Ver. 5.

5. I wait

for the Lord, my foul doth wait, and

AND herein, upon the account of the forgivenets that is with thee, O Lord do I wait with all patience, quietnefs and perfeverance: In this work is my whole foul engaged; even in an earnest expectation of thy do I hope.

in his word

approach

approach unto me, in a way of grace, and mercy. And for my encouragement therein, haft thou given out unto me a bleffed word of grace, a faithful word of promife, wherein my hope is fixed.

Ver 6.

EA, in the performance and difcharge of this duty, my foul is intent upon thee, and in its whole frame turned towards thee, and that with fuch diligence and watchfulness in looking out after every way, and means of thy appearance, of thy manifeftation of thyfelf, and coming unto me, that I excell therein those who with longing defire, heedfulness, and earnest expectation, do wait and watch for the appearance of the morning; and that either that they may reft from their night watches, or have light for the duties of thy worship in the temple, which they are most delightful in.

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Ver. 7, 8.

EREIN have I found that reft, peace, and fatisfaction unto my own foul, that I cannot but invite and encourage others, in the like condition, to take the fame course with me: Let then all the Ifrael of God, all that fear him, learn this of me, and from my experience. Be not hafty in your diftreffes; defpond not, defpair not, turn not afide unto other remedies; but hope in the Lord; for I can now, in anefpecial manner, give teftimony unto this, that there is mercy with him fuited unto your relief: Yea, whatever your distress be, the redemption that is with him, is fo bounteous, plenteous, and unfearchable, that the undoubted iffue of your performance of this duty will be, that you fhall be delivered from the guilt of all your fins, and the perplexities of all your troubles.

General

General Scope of the whole PSALM.

HE defign of the Holy Ghoft in this pfalm is to exprefs, in the experience of the pfalmift, and the working of his faith, the state and condition of a foul greatly in itfelf perplexed, relieved on the account of grace, and acting itfelf towards God and his faints, fuitably to the difcovery of that grace unto him: A great defign, and full of great inftruation.

And this general profpect gives us the parts and scope of the whole pfalm: For,

1. We have the ftate and condition of the foul therein reprefented with his deportment in and under that ftate and condition, in ver. 1, 2. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my fupplications.

2. His enquiry after relief: And therein are two things that prefent themfelves unto him; the one whereof, which firft offers the confideration of itself to him in his diftrefs, he deprecates, ver. 3. If thou, Lord, fhouldft mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall ftand? The other he clofeth withal, and finds relief in it, and fupportment by it, ver. 5. But there is forgiveness with thee: that thou mayeft be feared.

Upon this his discovery, and fixing on relief, there is the acting of his faith, and the deportment of his whole perfon;

1. Towards God, ver. 5. 6. I wait for the Lord, my foul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My foul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning, 1 fay more than they that watch for the morning.

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2. To

2. Towards the faints, ver. 7, 8. Let Ifrael hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Ifrael from all his iniquities.

All which parts, and the various concernments of them, must be opened feverally.

And this alfo gives an account of what is my defign from, and upon, the words of this pfalm; namely, to declare the perplexed intanglements which may befal a gracious foul, fuch an one as this pfalmift was; with the nature and proper workings of faith in fuch a condition Principally aiming at what it is that gives a foul relief and fupportment in, and afterward deliverance from, fuch a perplexed estate.

The Lord in mercy, difpofe of these meditations in fuch a way and manner, as that both he that writes, and they that read, may be made partakers of the benefit, relief, and confolation, intended for his faints, in this pfalm by the Holy Ghost,

The ftate and condition of the foul reprefented in the pfalm. The two firft verfes opened.

The ftate and condition of the foul here reprefented, as the bafis on which the process of the pfalm is built; with its deportment, or the general acting of its faith in that ftate, is expreffed in the two firft verfes

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

Lord hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my fupplications.

1. The prefent ftate of the foul under confideration is included in that expreffion, Out of the depths.

Some of the ancients, as Chryfoftom, fuppofe this expreffion to relate unto the depths of the heart of the pfalmift; Tì is in patiav; not from the mouth or tongue only, ἀλλ' ἀπο καρδιας βαθυτάτης, but from the depth and bottom of the heart: aûlüv ens diavolas Twv Bálpa, from the deepest receffes of the mind.

And indeed the work is used to exprefs the depth of

the