Thy way, O God, _is_ in the sanctuary: who _is so_ great a God as
_our_ God!
Thou _art_ the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength
among the people.
Thou hast with _thine_ arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and
Joseph. Selah.
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: they were afraid: the
depths also were troubled.
The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows
also went abroad.
The voice of thy thunder _was_ in the heaven: the lightnings lightened
the world: the earth trembled and shook.
Thy way _is_ in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy
footsteps are not known.
Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
This Psalm contains a blessed doctrine: the Psalmist puts forth
himself as an example: and the whole is for the consolation of the
godly: for the Psalmist describes the unspeakable anguish and sorrow
of a heart alarmed at the wrath of God and sin: and he says, verse 4,
that he was so overwhelmed with these terrors and sorrows, that he
could neither sleep nor speak. And in verses 7–10, he, as it were,
repeats all these his feelings of sorrow and dread, saying, “Will God
forget to be merciful? Doth his promise fail for evermore”?
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.