David's distress and consolation.
Ps. xxxviii. 1 — 9. 0 Lord, rebuke me not iti thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure : for thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no sound- ness in my flesh because of thine anger ; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head; as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. lam troubled ; I am bowed down greatly ; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled ivith a loathsome disease; and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble, and sore broken : I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before thee ; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
IT will be of great use to us through life to trea- sure up in our minds the dealings of God with us on some particular occasions. As his care over us in our difficulties may well call for '' a stone of remem- brance, which shall be called our Eben-ezer," so his merciful attention to us at the first commencement of our humiliation before him may well be written in
indelible characters upon our hearts. The Prophet Jeremiah, looking back to some season of peculiar distress, records his experience in terms of lively gratitude "": and, in like manner, David opens to us all his views and feelings when he sought the Lord after a season of darkness and distress ; and he tells us that this psalm was written by him " to bring to remembrance" the troubles he then endured, and the tender mercies of God towards him.
From the part we have just read, we shall be led to consider,
I. His distress —
This was exceeding great. — Let us notice,
1. The source and cause of it —
[He traces it to sin as its proper cause '^r and sin is the
true and only source of all trouble Sin is an object of
God's abhorrence ; and wherever it exists unlamented and dominant, he will visit it according to its desert. In whomso- ever it be found, whether he be a king on his throne, or a beggar on a dunghill, he will make no difference, except indeed to punish it in proportion to the light that has been resisted, and the aggravations with which it has been com- mitted. Doubtless the sins of David were of most transcendent enormity, and therefore might well be visited with peculiar severity : but we must not imagine that his are the only crimes that deserve punishment : disobedience to God, whether against the first or second table of the Law, is hateful in his sight, and will surely subject us to his " hot displeasure" ]
2. The extent and depth of it —
[His soul was overwhelmed with a sense of God's wrath. " God's arrows" pierced his inmost soul: and his hand was heavy upon him, and " pressed him sore." His iniquities, which, when they were yet only committed in desire and pur- pose, appeared light, now were an insupportable burthen to his soul ; insomuch that " he roared by reason of the disquietness of his heart," Here then we see what sinners may expect in this life. Verily such experience as this is little else than a
foretaste of hell itself
But lois body also was afflicted with a grievous disease, which had been sent of God as an additional mark of his righteous indignation ''. And no doubt, if we could certainly discover the reasons of the Divine procedure, we should often see
a Lam. iii. 1—4, 12, 13, 17—21. ^ ver. 3, 4, 5. « ver. 3, 5, 7.
567.] David's distress and consolation. 309
diseases and death inflicted as the chastisement of sin"^. David viewed his disorders in this Hght: and those, without any additional load, were heavy to be borne ; but, when added to the overwhelming troubles of his soul, they almost sunk him to despair. Let those who think lightly of sin, view this monarch in the state above described, and say, whether sin, however " sweet in the mouth, be not at last the gall of asps within us^:" yes, assuredly, it will sooner or later " bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder."]