This, therefore, is the reason why, notwithstanding all our weaknesses, and also the rage of Satan, we are kept and preserved in a wicked world; we are compassed round about. Hence, when God asked Satan concerning holy Job, he answered, 'Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?' (Job 1:10). I cannot come at him; thou compassest him, and keepest me out. By this, then, is that scripture opened, 'Thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance' (Psa 32:7). And, indeed, it would be comely, if we, instead of doubting and despairing, did sing in the ways of the Lord: have we not cause thus to do, when the Lord is round about us with sword and shield, watching for us against the enemy, that he may deliver us from their hand? (Jer 31:12).
This also is the reason why nothing can come at us, but that it may do us good. If the mercy of God is round about us, about us on every side; then no evil thing can by any means come at us, but it must come through this mercy, and so must be seasoned with it, and must have its deadly poison, by it, taken away. Hence Paul, understanding this, saith, 'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God' (Rom 8:28). But how can that be, did they not come to us through the very sides of mercy? and how could they come to us so, since Satan pryeth to wound us deadly in every, or in some private place, if mercy did not compass us round about, round about as with a shield? He went round about Job, to see by what hog-hole he might get at him, that he might smite him under the fifth rib.[20] But, behold, he found he was hedged out round about; wherefore he could not come at him but through the sides of mercy; and, therefore, what he did to him must be for good. Even thus also shall it be in conclusion with all the wrath of our enemies, when they have done what they can; by the mercy of God, we shall be made to stand. 'Why boasteth thou thyself in mischief,' said David, 'O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually' (Psa 52:1). And that will sanctify to me whatever thou doest against me! This, therefore, is another singular encouragement to Israel to hope in the Lord; for that there is with him mercy to compass us round about.
Here is, I say, room for hope, and for the exercise thereof; when we feel ourselves after the worst manner assaulted. 'Wherefore should I fear,' said David, 'in the day of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?' (Psa 49:5). Wherefore? Why now there is all the reason in the world to fear the day of evil is come upon thee, and the iniquity of thy heels doth compass thee about. The hand of God is upon thee, and thy sins, which are the cause, stand round about thee, to give in evidence against thee; and therefore thou must fear. No, saith David, that is not a sufficient reason; he that trusteth in the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about. Here is ground also to pray in faith, as David, saying, 'Keep me as the apple of the eye, hid me under the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about' (Psa 17:8,9).
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 for ever' (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. The way of man 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 my pilgrimage: Goodness and mercy shall follow me.
2. As God in mercy will guide, so by the same he will uphold our goings in his paths. We are weak, wherefore though the path we go in were never so plain, yet we are apt to stumble and fall. 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; so by the same will he instruct us when we are at a loss, 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, as 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 to ride on the high places of the earth, and made him to suck honey out of the rock (Deut 32:13).
5. Mercy shall follow us, to take us up when we are fallen, and to heal us of those wounds that we have caught by our falls. 'The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down' (Psa 145:14). And again: 'The Lord openeth the yes 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 fall he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand' (Psa 37:23,24). Here is mercy for a hoping Israelite; and yet this is not all.
6. Mercy shall follow us to pardon our sins as they are committed. For though by the act of justification, we are for ever secured from a state of condemnation; yet as we are children, we need forgiveness daily, and have need to 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 stand in need of pardon, from Egypt, until they came to Canaan? Even so many times wilt thou need 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 for ever.