Psalm 66:12

Verse 12. But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. Every word is sweetly significant, and amplifies God's mercy to us. Four especially are remarkable: --

So there is the deliverer, aliquid celsitudinis, Thou; in the delivery, certitudinis, broughtest out, in the delivered, solitudinis, us; in the happiness, plenitudinis, into a wealthy place. There is highness and lowness, sureness and fulness. The deliverer is great, the deliverance is certain, the distress grievous, the exaltation glorious. There is yet a first word, that like a key unlocks this golden gate of mercy, a veruntamen: -- BUT. This is vox respirationis, a gasp that fetcheth back again the very life of comfort. But thou broughtest, etc. We were fearfully endangered into the hands of our enemies; they rode and trod upon us, and drove us through hard perplexities. But thou, etc. If there had been a full point or period at our misery, if those gulfs of persecution had quite swallowed us, and all our light of comfort had been thus smothered and extinguished we might have cried, Periit spes nostra, yea, periit salus nostra. -- Our hope, our help is quite gone. He had mocked us that would have spoken, Be of good cheer. This same but is like a happy oar, that turns our vessel from the rocks of despair, and lands it at the haven of comfort. Thomas Adams.

Verse 12. (second and third clause).

Verse 12. (last clause). Thou, O God, with the temptation hast given the issue. Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

Verse 12. A wealthy place. The hand of God led them in that fire and water of affliction through which they went; but who led them out? The psalmist tells us in the next words: Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place; the margin saith, into a moist place. They were in fire and water before. Fire is the extremity of heat and dryness; water is the extremity of moistness and coldness. A moist place notes a due temperament of heat and cold, of dryness and moistness, and therefore elegantly shadows that comfortable and contented condition into which the good hand of God had brought them, which is significantly expressed in our translation by a wealthy place; those places flourishing most in fruitfulness, and so in wealth, which are neither over hot nor over cold, neither over dry not over moist. Joseph Caryl.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 11-12. The hand of God should be acknowledged.

Verse 12. Fire and water. Varied trials.

Verse 12. (first clause). The rage of oppression. Thomas Adam's Sermon.

Verse 12. (last clause). A plentiful place, free from penury; a pleasant place, void of sorrow; a safe place, free from dangers and distresses. Daniel Wilcocks.

Verse 12. (last clause). The victory of patience, with the expiration of malice. Thomas Adams' Sermon.

Verse 12. (last clause). The wealth of a soul whom God has tried and delivered. Among other riches he has the wealth of experience, of strengthened graces, of confirmed faith, and of sympathy for others.