II. But now let us turn to that redemption which was the foundation of his trust. He did not trust without a reason, but said, ‘Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth;’ and we have to consider what he meant by that expression, ‘Thou hast redeemed me.’ In answer to this question, I have no hesitation in expressing my firm conviction that the redemption to which he referred was precisely the same as that on which we ourselves rest, the redemption from the guilt of sin wrought out by the Lord Jesus on the cross. There has never been any other redemption which could be the foundation of trust either in life or in death; and when we find the blessing of the Gospel connected in the Old Testament with redemption, we have no choice but to believe that the redemption with which they are connected is that great redemption by the Lord Jesus on which all our own hopes exclusively depend. Take, for example, such words as those of David, in Ps. cxxx. The great subject of that psalm is forgiveness: ‘There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared’ (ver. 4); and the reason why Israel is to hope for it is that ‘with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.’ What but the redemption through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus can be described as thus plenteous for all who need forgiveness? The same may be said of those words of God Himself in Isa. xliv. 22: ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.’ He cannot refer in those words to any deliverance that had already taken place, for he is only inviting the sinner to return; but he clearly refers to the blotting out of the curse through atoning blood, and to the way of life laid open to the returning sinner. So I cannot doubt for a moment that redemption in this verse means exactly the same as in both those passages. In Isaiah God said, ‘I have redeemed thee;’ and in this verse David said, ‘Thou hast redeemed me.’ The one gives, the other accepts; but they both speak of the same thing, the redemption on the cross, the only satisfaction for sin. Thus our blessed Lord, when He quoted the words, omitted this latter clause. He said, ‘Into thine hands I commit my spirit;’ but he did not say, ‘For thou hast redeemed me.’ The reason of this is obvious, for God had not redeemed Him, and He Himself was at that very time engaged in completing the redemption by His death. He could not use the words, for they referred to that great act of mercy in which at that very time He was engaged. But it may be said, If the redemption here spoken of was not to take place for more than a thousand years after the psalm was written, how was it that David spoke of it as a completed thing? Why did he not rather say, ‘Thou art about to redeem me?’ In answer to that question, two reasons may be given, either of which would be quite sufficient to explain his words.