We are here taught, 1. That we owe our lives to God's mercy. David
prays, Deal bountifully with me, that I may live. It was God's bounty
that gave us life, that gave us this life; and the same bounty that
gave it continues it, and gives all the supports and comforts of it; if
these be withheld, we die, or, which is equivalent, our lives are
embittered and we become weary of them. If God deals in strict justice
with us, we die, we perish, we all perish; if these forfeited lives be
preserved and prolonged, it is because God deals bountifully with us,
according to his mercy, not according to our deserts. The continuance
of the most useful life is owing to God's bounty, and on that we must
have a continual dependence. 2. That therefore we ought to spend our
lives in God's service. Life is therefore a choice mercy, because it is
an opportunity of obeying God in this world, where there are so few
that do glorify him; and this David had in his eye: "Not that I may
live and grow rich, live and be merry, but that I may live and keep thy
word, may observe it myself and transmit it to those that shall come
after, which the longer I live the better I shall do."