Seventh. As all this tender, great, rich, much abounding mercy compasseth us about, so that we may hope in the God of our mercy, it is said this mercy IS TO FOLLOW US. 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever' (Psa 23:6). It shall follow me, go with me, and be near me, in all the way that I go (Psa 32:8). There are these six things to be gathered out of this text, for the further support of our hope.
1. It shall follow us to guide us in the way. I will guide thee with mine eye, says God, that is, in the way that thou shalt go. Man's way to the next world is like the way from Egypt to Canaan, a way not to be wound out but by the pillar of a cloud by day and a flame of fire by night; that is, with the Word and Spirit. 'Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory' (Psa 73:24). Thou shalt guide me from the first step to the last that I shall take in this pilgrimage: Goodness and mercy shall follow me.
2. As God in mercy will guide, he will uphold our goings in his paths by the same. We are weak and apt to stumble and fall, though our path was never so plain. But 'when I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up' (Psa 94:18). Wherefore we should always turn our hope into prayer, and say, Lord, 'hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not' (Psa 17:5). Be not moved; let mercy follow me.
3. As the God of our mercy has mercy to guide us and uphold us, by the same will, he instructs us when we are at a loss or at a stand. 'I led Israel about,' says God, 'I instructed him, and kept him as the apple of mine eye' (Deut 32:10). I say we are often at a loss; David said, after all his brave sayings, in Psalm 119, 'I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant' (v 176). Indeed, a Christian is not so often out of the way; he is at a stand therein and knows not what to do. But here also is his mercy as to that. 'Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left' (Isa 30:21). Mercy follows for this.
4. Mercy shall follow to carry thee when thou art faint. We have many fainting and sinking fits as we go. 'He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom,' or upon eagles' wings (Isa 40:11). He made Israel ride on the high places of the earth and made him suck honey out of the rock (Deut 32:13).
5. Mercy shall follow us, take us up when we are fallen, and heal us of those wounds we have caught by our falls. 'The Lord upholds all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down' (Psa 145:14). And again: 'The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down; the Lord loveth the righteous' (Psa 146:8). Or, as we have it in another place, 'The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way. Though he falls he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with his hand' (Psa 37:23,24). Here is mercy for a hoping Israelite, yet this is not all.
6. Mercy shall follow us to pardon our sins as they are committed. Through the act of justification, we are forever secured from a state of condemnation, yet as we are children, we need daily forgiveness and pray, 'Our Father, forgive us our trespasses.' Now, that we may have daily forgiveness for our daily sins and trespasses, mercy and goodness must follow us; or as Moses has it, 'And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord! let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance' (Exo 34:9). Join to this that prayer of his, which you find in Numbers: 'Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now,' or hitherto (Num 14:17-19). How many times, think you, did Israel need a pardon from Egypt until they came to Canaan? Even so many times wilt thou need a pardon from the day of thy conversion to the day of death; to the which God will follow Israel, that he may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Eighth. As all this tender, great, rich, abounding, compassing mercy, shall follow Israel to do him good; so shall it do him EVERY GOOD TURN, in delivering of him from every judgment that by sin he hath laid himself obnoxious to, with rejoicing. For 'mercy rejoiceth against judgment' (James 2:13). That is, applying it to the mercy of God towards his, it rejoiceth in delivering us from the judgments that we have deserved; yea, it delivereth us from all our woes with rejoicing. In the margin, it is 'glorieth'; it glorieth in doing this great thing for us. Considering how often I have procured judgments and destructions to myself, I have thought that God would be weary of pardoning or that he would pardon with grudging. But the Word said, 'He fainteth not nor is weary' (Isa 40;28). 'I will rejoice over them to do them well,—with my whole heart, and with my whole soul' (Jer 32:41). This doing of us well with rejoicing, this saving of us from deserved judgments with rejoicing, this getting the victory over our destructions for us, with rejoicing; O! it is a marvelous thing! 'O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory'; the victory for us (Psa 98:1). And as Paul said, 'We are more than conquerors through him' (Rom 8:37); and this he did with triumph and rejoicing (Col 2:15). The heart is seen oft-times, more in the manner than in the act that is acted; more in the manner of doing than in doing of the thing. The wickedness of the heart of Moab was more seen in the manner of action than in the words he spoke against Israel. 'For since thou spoke [of] against him thou skipped for joy' (Jer 48:27). So Edom rejoiced at the calamity of his brother; he looked on it and rejoiced: and in his rejoicing appeared the badness of his heart, and the great spite that he had against his brother Jacob (Oba 10:14).
