Ps. lxxxviii. 14 — 16. Lord, why easiest thou off my soul P
ivhij h'ldcst thou thy face from me P I am afflicted, and ready
to die, from my youth 7/p : ivhile I siffer thy terrors, I am
■ distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me ; thy terrors have
cut me off'.
HEMAN the Ezrahite, the author of this psalm, is thought by most to have been the grandson of Judah''; and to have been so eminent for wisdom, as almost to have equalled Solomon himself''. But he seems rather to have been the grandson of Shemuel, or Samuel^''. Whoever he was, he was a man greatly afflicted, and, at the time that he wrote this psalm, altogether destitute of any other conso- lation, than what he felt in spreading his sorrows before God. In other psalms we find many and grievous complaints ; but the gloom that overspreads the mind of the author at the commencement of them, is usually dispelled before they are brought to a close ; and what began with sorrow is terminated with joy. But in the composition before us there is no such pleasing change : it is nothing but one con- tinued
* 1 Chron. ii. 6. ^ 1 Kin. iv. 3 I .
^^ 1 Cliron. vi. 3.-5. & xv. IQ. compared with the title to Ps. l.\xxi.x. The graiidson of Judah couid not have written so about David.
tinued complaint from beginning to end. In dis- coursing on it, we shall point out,
I. The state to which a righteous soul may be re- duced— Truly the state of Heman was most afflictive — [There can be no doubt but that he was a righteous man. Had he not been so, he would not have addressed Jehovah in such expressions of holy confidence, as " The Lord God of his salvation ;" nor could he have affirmed, that " night and day he had poured out his prayers and cries before him '^." Yet behold, how heavy, how exceeding heavy was his affliction ! "His soul was so full of troubles, that they brought him nigh to the grave '^." Hear how he himself represents them, referring them all at the same time to God himself as the author of them : " Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me ; and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves*." To the same effect he speaks also in the words of our text, complaining of the dereliction he experienced in this hour of his calamity, and of the terrors which he endured, which, whilst they were rapidly bringing down his body to the grave, had well nigh bereaved him of his senses, and reduced him to a state of utter distraction.]
And such, alas ! is the state of many in every age of the Church —
[Some there are of a low, nervous, hypochondriac tempe- rament both of mind and body, and who, whether they were rehgious or not, would of necessity be of a melancholy disposi- tion ; that being their constitutional tendency, just as cheer- fulness or confidence are the tendencies of others. Persons of this class view every thing in a dark unfavourable light : they forebode nothing but evil : and, if religion occupies their minds, they write bitter things against themselves, and conclude that they never can be saved. They love gloomy thoughts, and brood over them day and night; and greatly injure both their minds and bodies by ruminating on subjects that are too deep for them. They perplex themselves about the Divine decrees, and thus give occasion to many to represent religion as distracting their minds : but the truth is, that they seek for nothing but poison : they have no appetite for wholesome food : and that religion is no more answerable for their distraction, than a fertilizing stream is for the death of a maniac who drowns himself in it.
Some there are who are brought into this state by long and. complicated troubles. The mind of man, unless supported in a miraculous way, cannot endure a pressure beyond certain limits.