Psalm 38

"A psalm of David to bring to remembrance."—Ps. xxxviii. in the title.

This psalm, as well as the seventieth, is particularly marked in the title, and distinguished from every other; and it will be worth while to seek into the cause. A great light will be thrown upon it, if we connect with this title, the character of the great author, under whose inspiration David, as the penman, wrote it: I mean, that sweet and blessed office of the Holy Ghost, the Remembrancer of the Lord Jesus. "He shall teach you"(saith the Lord Jesus, when describing the blessed Spirit in his offices) "all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you:" John xiv. 26. Now, if this psalm be found, on examination, to be speaking much of the person and character of Christ, ought it not, when read under the divine teaching of its Almighty Author, to act as a psalm to bring to remembrance, how Jesus thus suffered, thus groaned, bled, and died for his people? He it was, as this psalm represents, whose lovers and friends stood aloof from him, in his sorrows; for in the trying hour, all his disciples forsook him and fled: and he was the only person of whom it could be said, that as a deaf man who heard not, and as a dumb man who opened not his mouth, so Jesus stood, as a lamb before her shearers, when in the hall of Pilate, he was accused and condemned without opening his mouth. If then the great design of this psalm is to bring to remembrance the Redeemer, in those solemn seasons; shall we make application of the contents of it to David, king of Israel, and overlook David's Lord? Oh! thou great and divine Remembrancer of the Lord Jesus! I beseech thee, thou matchless Instructor! to cause every thing, and every incident, to call my poor forgetful heart to remember its Lord! Lord, I blush to think how men of the world feel interested in the most minute concerns of the histories of any characters of supposed eminence, which in former ages have lived among them; every memorandum of them that can be gathered, is treasured up with more avidity than gold: if a letter, or the hand-writing can be found, how they expressed themselves, or how their hours were engaged, with all, or any of the little events which marked their lives; Oh! what attention it gains in the world! But, as if to shew their indiffercnce to him, who, strictly speaking, is the only one worthy regard, what heart is alive to the ever blessed Jesus? Do thou, I beseech thee, thou eternal Spirit, in this gracious office of thine, as the Remembrancer of my Lord, make this psalm, as oft as I read it, a psalm to bring Jesus to remembrance in all his endearments: and also cause all thy sacred word to minister to this one great end! Here let me learn a lesson from men of the world; and while they feel rapture in the me, morandums and reliques of poor sinners, whose places know them no more; let my soul delight in the views his sacred word affords concerning Jesus. 'Thus Jesus spak,' I would say: and 'thus he stood;' and 'thus he was encircled by the astonished multitude, who witnessed the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.' Every incident then in his divine life, will be as a psalm to bring to remembrance; and I shall enjoy a thousand things, when the Holy Ghost, as his Remembrancer, brings them forth to view, which, without his gracious office and word, would be lost to my poor forgetful mind.