him in his own name, they will lead me to set be- fore you, I. His conduct in a season of deep distress —
What the particular distress was, we are not in- formed. Sometimes the language which he here uses has respect to sufferings under persecution. Thus in the 69th Psalm he says, " I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink : let me be deli- vered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters ^" Again, in the I42d Psalm; ** Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low : deliver me from ray persecutors ; for they are stronger than I : bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name''." But in the psalm before us, he speaks more particu- larly as under the pressure of sin: " Innumerable evils have compassed me about : mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up : they are more than the hairs of my head ; there- fore my heart faileth me'^." On this account I understand his distress to have arisen chiefly on account of sin, under a sense of which,
1. He " waited patiently w/jon the Lord" —
[He betook himself to prayer. And where should a weary and heavy-laden sinner go, but unto his God ; or how should he approach his God, but in a way of humble, fervent, and continual supplication ? In what manner he prayed, he tells us in another psalm : " Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord : Lord, hear my voice ; let thine ear be attentive to the voice of my supplication ! If thou, Lord, sliouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord ; my soul doth wait ; and in his word do I hope*." He was not like those who ^' pour out a prayer only when God's chastening is upon them :" he would call upon his God day and night j and never cease to wrestle with him, till he had prevailed^.]
2. He " waited patiently ybr the Lord" —
[He well knew how often he had turned a deaf ear to the
voice
•^ Ps. Ixix. 1, 2, 14. * Ps. cxlii. 6, 7, "^ ver. 12.
* Ps. cxxx. 1 — 5. See also Ps. xxxviii, 1 — 6. ' Gen. xxxii. 26. Hos. xii. 3, 4.
138 PSALMS, XL. 1 3. [361j
voice of God ', and therefore, how justly God might turn a deaf ear to him. Yet he hoped in the multitude of God's (cnder mercy. He came not pleading any merits of his own, nor trusting in any outward services whatever : lie knew that God required not the sacrifice of hulls and of goats to expiate sin, but faith in that better sacrifice which should in due time be offered for the sins of the whole world; and he came pleading the merit of that sacrifice, and trusting that through it he should ultimately find acceptance^. Mowever long therefore God sliould withhold an answer of peace, he would wait, and patiently too, without murmuring ; satisfied, if, after ever so many years of continued supplication, God should at last say to him, " Fear not ; thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee."]
The wisdom of this conduct may be seen in, II. The benefit he derived from it —
God " inclined his ear to him, and heard his cry;" and, in answer to his suppHcations, vouchsafed to him,
1. Liberty — [The image under which David depicts his unpardoned state is very beautiful and just. He was as one in " an horrible pit, and sunk in miry clay." Say, ye who know what it is to be shut up, as it were, under a sense of guilt, and an apprehension of God's wrath, whether any words can adequately describe the darkness, the misery, and the bondage of a soul so circumstanced ? The state of Jeremiah, when cast into a dungeon, and sunk in the mire, and ready to perish with hunger'', was distressing to flesh and blood : but what was that to a sinner shut up in hourly ex- pectation of the wrath of an offended God ? Oh ! it is inex- pressibly tremendous : no tongue can tell how a soul trembles, and sinks, and faints under such appalling apprehensions, as are called by the Apostle, " a certain fearful looking-for of judgment