The comfortable thoughts God gives.
They are the thoughts God starts in our minds concerning himself. The "multitude of thoughts" here suggest "anxious thoughts," "distractions;" "divided or branching thoughts." Keep before the mind that this psalm was written in some time of personal or national anxiety, which was causing very grave perplexity. Multitude of thoughts, complexity, conflict of thoughts.
I. OUR MULTITUDE OF THOUGHTS. A suitable and suggestive term. A true description. Have you ever tried to watch the process of the mind in ordinary times or in special times? Explain how the law of association brings up not one string of orderly thoughts, but various series, which branch and cross and conflict one with the other. Past, present, future, bring in their various thoughts. The importance of good ordering of thoughts, to the pious man, may be seen from these considerations,
1. Sin lingers in them.
2. Character is exhibited to God as much by them as by our actions; for "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
3. The power of religion is first felt in them.
4. They are the real springs of action, and they give character to our action.
II. GOD'S COMFORTING THOUGHTS. He gives comforting assurances for us to think about. God makes himself a Key-thought to the thoughts that we should cherish. Illustrate how the godly soul may fill his mind with the "exceeding great and precious promises," and how these will be always ready to come up, to dispel distracting thoughts, and soothe troubled thoughts. God's comforts are thoughts that realize God as the holy Father, Christ as the elder Brother, the Spirit as the present Guide, and "all things working together for good."
III. THE DUTY OF CHERISHING GOD'S COMFORTING THOUGHTS. They will ease our distress; they will recall us to trust; they will put a "song into our mouth." We may cherish them by full acquaintance with God's Word, which is the great storehouse of Divine thought suggestions, and by daily communion with God, which is sure to start fresh comfortings in our souls.—R.T.