I. The present state of the soul under consideration is included in that expression, " Out of the depths."
Some of.jilie ancients, as Chrysostom, suppose this expression to
T-er*V Wnt(\and nlPths of the heart of the psalmist : T/ sstiv ix jSaOsuv
110+ 4lf and comino-' Ol' tongue only, uXX' d~b Kaphiag px^vrdri^g, —
" F^^-ino". desire heedful^icl bottom of the heart;" eS, auruiv rng Biavoiag
Tuv /bu>{)/^w^,he appearanc^epest recesses of the mind."
And, indtn their nio-ht is used to express the depths of the hearts of men, but u^emple, wl^n other sense: Ps. Ixiv. 6, "The heart is deep." ^erein havv
But the obvious tb-^^ooTui the place, and the constant use of the word, will not admit of tins interpretation: " E profundis;" from PPJ', "profundus fr'it^" is ^'\^''?Vp in the plural number, " profnnditates," or " depths." It is commonly used for valleys, or any deep plaoos whatever, but especially oi waters. Valleys and deep places^ because
Yer.1,2.] the first two verses opened. 331
of tlieir darkness and solitariness, are accounted places of horror, helplessness, and trouble: Ps. xxiii. 4, " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death;" that is, in the extremity of danger
and trouljle.
The moral use of the word, as expressing the state and condition of the souls of men, is metaphorical. These depths, then, are diffi- culties or pressures, attended with fear, horror, danger, and trouble. And they are of two sorts : — . . ,
1 Providential, m respect of outward distresses, calamities, and afflictions: Ps. Ixix. 1, 2, " Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I stick in the mhe of the deep, and there is no standing. I am come, Ci'.^"i?JPm, mto the depths of waters, and the flood overflows me." It is troul)le, and the extremity of it, that the psalmist complains of, and which he thus expresseth. He was brought by it into a condition like unto a man ready to be drowned, being cast into the bottom of deep and miry waters, where he had no firm foundation to stand upon, nor ability to come out; as he farther ex- plains himself, verse 15.
2. There are internal depths— dei^th& of conscience upon the ac- count of sin: Ps. Ixxxviii. 6, " Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps." What he intends by this expression, the psalmist declares in the next words, verse 7, " Thy wrath lieth hard upon me." Sense of God's wrath upon his conscience upon the ac- count of sin, was the deep he was cast into. So, verse 15, speaking of the same matter, saith he, " I suffer thy terrors;" and verse 16, " Thy fierce wrath goeth over me;" which he calls water, waves, and deeps, according to the metaphor before opened. ^^
And these are the deeps that are here principally intended. " Cla-^ mat sub molibus et fluctibus iniquitatem suarum," says Austin on the place ;— " He cries out under the weight and waves of his sms." This the ensuing psalm makes evident. Desiring to be delivered from these depths out of which he cried, he deals with God wholly about mercy and forgiveness; and it is sin alone fi-om which forgive- ness is a deliverance. The doctrine, also, that he preacheth upon his delivery is that of mercy, grace, and redemption, as is manifest from the close of the psalm; and what we have dehverance by is most upon our hearts when Ave are delivered.
It is true, indeed, that these deeps do oftentimes concur; as David speaks, " Deep calleth unto deep," Ps. xhi. 7. The deeps of afflic- tion awaken the conscience to a deep sense of sin. But sin is the disease, affliction only a symptom of it: and in attending a cure, the disease itself is principally to be heeded; the symptom will follow or
depart of itself.
Many intei-preters think that this was now David's condition. By
SS'I AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. [Ver.1,2.
great trouble and distress he was greatly minded of sin ; and we must not, therefore, wholly pass over that intendment of the word, though we are chiefly to respect that which he himself, in this address unto God, did principally regard.
This, in general, is the state and condition of the soul managed in this psalm, and is as the key to the ensuing discourse, or the hinge on which it timis. As to my intendment from the psalm, that which ariseth from hence may be comj^rised in these two propositions: —
1. Gracious souls, after much communion with God, may he hrou(jht into inextricable depths and entanglements on the account of sin; for such the psalmist here expresseth his own condition to have been, and such he was.
2. The inward root of outtuard distresses is principally to he attended in all pressing trials; — sin, in afflictions.
Gracious souls may be brought into depths on the account of sin — What those
depths are.
Before I proceed at all in the farther opening of the Avords, they having all of them respect unto the proposition first laid doA\Ti, I shall explain and confirm the truth contained in it ; that so it may be understood what we say, and whereof we do affirm, in the whole process of our discourse.