The Thirty First of July.

I WILL DELIVER THEE --- Psalm 50:114, 15, 23.

"Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most high: and call unto me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright I will show the salvation of God." --- Psalm 50:14, 15, 23. See also Isaiah 25:9.

Nothing moves God more to hear us than the glorifying him by faith with thanksgiving, and keeping up a childlike confidence in him, as our reconciled Father in Christ: and nothing quickeneth faith more than the sure promises of answering our prayers. Thus God will certainly hear and deliver us, since all his ways are only designed to strengthen us in faith, and save our souls.

What need we then to be afraid in times of trouble? Ought we not rather to draw near to God in prayer and thanksgiving, and glorify him even beforehand, confidently believing that we shall certainly meet with new deliverances and quickenings of faith?

To what a stubborn frame
Has sin reduced our mind!
What strange, ungrateful wretches we!
And God as strangely kind!

Turn, turn us, mighty God,
And mould our souls afresh;
Break, sov'reign grace, these hearts of stone,
And give us hearts of flesh.

Let old ingratitude
Provoke our weeping eyes;
And hourly, as new mercies fall,
Let hourly thanks arise.