But here, as the Psalm saith, lies the greatest and best of all consolations,—you will at once find comfort and deliverance if, casting away from your mind (if you can by any means do it,) all these apprehensions of evils and sorrows, (by which indeed you are distressed in vain,) you turn to the word and works of God, and to the histories of God’s doings and dealings from the beginning of the world: for you will there find that the works and doings of God from the beginning have been these,—to be merciful to and to save and help the sorrowful, the distressed, the destitute, and the afflicted; and to visit, in vengeance, the secure, the proud, the despisers, and the wicked, in the same way as he delivered the Israelites, and destroyed the Egyptians. Hence it is that David says, “Thy way, O God, is in the deep,” and “in the sea:” for God saves in the midst of death and of destruction, when despair is on every side. Learn this, my Christian brother! This Psalm thus sets forth to us God and the ways of God: that is, how he works, and what he does, in his church and in the saints: and all this is thus written, that we should not despair in perils and afflictions, when we are beyond the reach of all human help: but that rather, casting away all our own apprehensions and distressing thoughts, we should, at, and from that time, begin to trust in God, and to trust in him more and more, waiting for his help. PSALM LXXVIII. _An exhortation both to learn and to preach the law of God.—The story of God’s wrath against the incredulous and disobedient.—The Israelites being rejected, God chose Judah, Zion, and David._ Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, _to_ my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old; Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide _them_ from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know _them, even_ the children _which_ should be born, _who_ should arise and declare _them_ to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God; but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation _that_ set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. The children of Ephraim, _being_ armed, _and_ carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them. Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, _in_ the field of Zoan.