peated in another place, and formed into a distinct psalm by themselves ^ is a strong reason for referring them also to him principally, or perhaps to him alone. In the words of our text we notice,
I. His complaint —
David on some occasions was reduced to great straits and difficulties with respect to his temporal concerns : but he was also much tried in his spirit : and the complaint before us seems to have arisen from,
1 . A sense of his guilt —
[In ver. 12, he speaks of " his iniquities having taken such hold upon him, that he was not able to look up ; that they were more than the hairs of his head, so that his heart failed him." It is very probable that he alluded in some measure to those dreadful enormities which he had committed in the matter of Uriah. But he would not consider those actions merely as insulated and detached, but rather as indications of the extreme depravity of his heart'': and in reference to thai he mij^ht well say of himself, " I am poor and needy." Indeed, who that knows any thing of the spirituality of God's law, or of his own innumerable departures from it, can use any other language than that in the text ? Was Adam poor when despoiled of the Divine image through the connnission of one sin ; and are not we, whose iiii(|uities are more than the hairs of our head ? Was he needy, when banished from Paradise, and doomed to eternal death ; and are not we, who from our very birth have been *' treasuring up wrath agiiinst the day of wrath?" Though God has forgiven ns, it does not become us to forget what we are in ourselves, !)ut to go softly before him all our days, repenting in dust and ashes.]
2. A sense of his weakness —
[David had other enemies than those who opposed his regal authority. He complains in another psalm, " Iniquities prevail against me*^:" and he found it exceeding difficult to subdue them. On this account also he used the expressions in the text. He felt himself poor and needy in reference to every thing that he accounted good. He lamented especially his want of wisdom, and strength, and righteousness. Hence he cried, " Open thou mine eyes ;" " O give me understanding in the way of godli- ness !" " Hold thou me up !" *' hold up my goings in thy ways, that my footsteps slip not 1" " Enter not into judgment with
thy
^ Fs. Isx. <= 111 this lii^ht he speaks of them in Ps. li. 5.
" P.<. kv. 3.