forgiven, forms
the foundation of the disposition of heart which we perceive in the
Psalmists; see Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. iii. p. lxv. f. "What a
[Greek: plerophoria]"--so _Buddeus_ remarks, p. 109--"what a
confidence, what a joy of a tranquil and quiet conscience shines forth
in the psalms and prayers of David!" We have thus before us merely a
difference in degree. To the believers of that time, the sin of the
covenant-people appeared to be too great to admit of its being
forgiven. Driven away from the face of the Lord, so they imagined, it
would close its miserable existence in the land of Nod; never would the
[Greek: kairoi anapsuxeos] return. But, in opposition to such fears,
the Prophet declares, in the name of the Lord, that they would not only
return, but come, for the first time, in the true and full sense; that
where they imagined to behold the end to the forgiveness of sins, there
would be its real beginning; that where sin abounded, the grace of God
should there so much the more abound. Only, they should not despair,
and thus place a barrier in the way of God's mercy. Your God is not a
mere hard task-master; He himself will sow and then reap, as surely as
He is God, the gracious and merciful One.

Ver. 35. "_Thus saith the Lord, giving the sun for a light by day, and
the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for_ [Pg 446] _a light by
night, agitating the sea, and the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts
is His name._"

Ver. 36. "_If these ordinances will cease before me, saith the Lord,
then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me
for ever._"

Interpreters commonly assume that, already in ver. 35, the discourse is
of the firm and immutable divine laws which every thing must obey. But
opposed to this view are the words: "Agitating the sea, and the waves
thereof roar," in which no definite perceptible rule, no uninterrupted
return takes place. To this argument may be added the comparison of the
fundamental passage, Isa. li. 15, in which the omnipotence only of God
is to be brought out: "And I am the Lord thy God, who agitates the sea,
and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name;" comp. also Amos.
ix. 5, 6. It thus appears that, in ver. 35, God's omnipotence only is
spoken of, which establishes that He is God and not man; and this forms
the foundation for the declaration set forth in ver. 36, which is so
full of comfort for the despairing covenant-people,--the propos