Here is — (1.) A representation of David's case; (2.) His supj)lica- tion or petition thereupon ; wlierein — (1st.) The request itself ; (2d.) The argument to enforce it.
VeR. 25.] SERMONS UPON PSAL5I CXIX. 235
First, The representation of David's case, ' My soul cleaveth unto the dust.' The speech is metaphorical, expressing the clei-)th of his misery, or the greatness of his sorrow and humiliation. (1.) The depth of his misery, with allusion to the case of a man overcome in battle, or mor- tally wounded, and tumbling in the dust, or to a man dead and laid in the earth ; as Ps. xxii. 15, ' Thou hast brought me to the dust of death.' Sure we are the expression importeth the extremity of dis- tress and danger, either as a man dead, or near death. ('2.) The greatness of his sorrow and humiliation ; and so the alhision is taken from a man prostrate and grovelling on the ground, which was their posture of humbling themselves before the Lord, or when any great calamity befell them. As when Herod Agrippa died, they put on sackcloth, and lay upon the earth weeping (Joseph., lib. xix. cap. 7). The same allusion is Ps. xliv. 25, ' Our soul is bowed down unto the dust, our belly cleaveth to the earth.' Suitably to which allusion, the Septuagint renders it eKoWydr] tu> iSdcpei t) ■^v)(i) fxov — to the pavement.
And we read in Theodoret, that Theodosius the Emperor, when reproved by Ambrose for the slaughter at Thessalonica, he lay upon the ground, and humbly begged pardon, using these words, Adhcesit pavimento anhna mea. The meaning is, that in his dejected condition he would lie prostrate at God's feet as a poor sup- plicant, and die there. The first point is —
That God's children may have such great afflictions brought upon them that their souls may even cleave to the dust.
These afilictions may respect their inward or outward condition.
1. Their inward condition ; and so through grief and terrors oi conscience they are ready to drop into the grave. That trouble of mind is a usual exercise of God's people, see Heman's complaint, Ps. Ixxxviii., from ver. 3 to the end of ver. 7 : ' My soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit : I am as a man that hath no strength. Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more : and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep. Tiiy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.' It was in his soul, and it was in his soul by reason of the ■wrath of God, and that in such a degree of vehemency that, in his own judgment and the judgment of others, he could not expect to be long a man of this world, little differing from the dead, yea, the damned. So David, Ps. Ixxvii. 1, &c., ' I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord ; my sore ran in the night and ceased not ; my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou boldest mine eyes waking : I am so troubled that I cannot speak : I have con- sidered the days of old, the years of ancient time,' &c. By the sense of God's wrath he was even wounded to death, and the sore running upon him would admit of no plaister ; yea, the remembrance of God was a trouble to him : ' I remembered God, and was troubled.' What a heavy word was that ! Soul troubles are the most pressing troubles; a child of God is as a lost man in such a condition.
236 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXVI.
2. In respect of the heavy ^yeig■ht of outward pressure?. Thus David fasted, and lay all night upon the earth in his child's sick- ness: 2 Sam. xii. 16, 17, ' David therefore besought God for the child ; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to liini to raise him up from the earth ; but he would not : neither did he eat bread with them.' And when he was driven from his palace by Absalom, and was in danger of his life every moment (which some interpre- ters think to be the case intended in the text), when he went up the Mount of Olives barefoot, going and weeping : 2 Sam. xv. 30, ' And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered ; and he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went.'
Xow the reasons of this are these —
1. To correct them for past sins. This was the cause of David's trouble, and this puts a sting into all miseries. God's children smart under their sins here in the world as well as others : Pro v. xi. 31, ' Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.' Kecompensed in the earth, that is, punished for his sins. Compare with it 1 Peter iv, 18, 'And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? ' God punisheth here that he may spare for ever. He giveth some remembrance of the evil, and corrects his people, not to complete their justification, or to make more satisfaction for God's justice than Christ hath made, yet to promote their sanctification ; that is, to make sin bitter to them, and to vindicate the glory of God, that he is not partial. For these reasons they are even brought to the dust by their own folly.