EXPOSITION (3)

17. “The troubles of my heart are enlarged.” When trouble penetrates the heart it is trouble indeed. In the case before us, the heart was swollen with grief like a lake surcharged with water by enormous floods; this is used as an argument for deliverance, and it is a potent one. When the darkest hour of the night arrives we may expect the dawn; when the sea is at its lowest ebb the tide must surely turn; and when our troubles are enlarged to the greatest degree, then may we hopefully pray, “O bring thou me out of my distresses.”

18. “Look upon mine affliction and my pain.” Note the many trials of the saints; here we have no less than six words all descriptive of woe. “Desolate, and afflicted, troubles enlarged, distresses, affliction, and pain.” But note yet more the submissive and believing spirit of a true saint; all he asks for is, “Lord, look upon my evil plight;” he does not dictate or even express a complaint; a look from God will content him, and that being granted he asks no more. Even more noteworthy is the way in which the believer under affliction discovers the true source of all the mischief, and lays the axe at the root of it. “Forgive all my sins,” is the cry of a soul that is more sick of sin than of pain, and would sooner be forgiven than healed. Blessed is the man to whom sin is more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, a grace-taught heart alone feels it.

19. “Consider mine enemies.” Watch them, weigh them, check them, defeat them. “For they are many.” They need the eyes of Argus to watch them, and the arms of Hercules to match them, but the Lord is more than sufficient to defeat them. The devils of hell and the evils of earth are all vanquished when the Lord makes bare his arm. “They hate me with cruel hatred.” It is the breath of the serpent’s seed to hate; their progenitor was a hater, and they themselves must needs imitate him. No hate so cruel as that which is unreasonable and unjust. A man can forgive one who has injured him, but one whom he has injured he hates implacably. “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,” is still our Master’s word to us.

20. “O keep my soul” out of evil, “and deliver me” when I fall into it. This is another version of the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

“Let me not be ashamed.” This is the one fear which like a ghost haunted the Psalmist’s mind. He trembled lest his faith should become the subject of ridicule through the extremity of his affliction. Noble hearts can brook anything but shame. David was of such a chivalrous spirit, that he could endure any torment rather than to be put to dishonour. “For I put my trust in thee.” And therefore the name of God would be compromised if his servants were deserted; this the believing heart can by no means endure.

21. “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.” What better practical safeguards can a man require? If we do not prosper with these as our guides, it is better for us to suffer adversity. Even the ungodly world admits that “honesty is the best policy.” The heir of heaven makes assurance doubly sure, for apart from the rectitude of his public life, he enlists the guardian care of heaven in secret prayer: “for I wait on thee.” To pretend to wait on God without holiness of life is religious hypocrisy, and to trust to our own integrity without calling upon God is presumptuous atheism. Perhaps the integrity and uprightness referred to are those righteous attributes of God, which faith rests upon as a guarantee that the Lord will not forfeit his word.

22. “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” This is a very comprehensive prayer, including all the faithful and all their trials. Sorrow had taught the Psalmist sympathy, and given him communion with the tried people of God; he therefore remembers them in his prayers. Israel, the tried, the wrestling, the conquering hero, fit representative of all the saints. Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in wars with Canaanites, in captivity, fit type of the church militant on earth. Jesus is the Redeemer from trouble as well as sin, he is a complete Redeemer, and from every evil he will rescue every saint. Redemption by blood is finished: O God, send us redemption by power. Amen and Amen.