David's success in prayer an encouragement to us.
Ps. xl. 1 — 3. I ivaited patiently for the Lord, and he mclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings. And he hath 'put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
THIS psalm undoubtedly refers to Christ, being expressly applied to him by an inspired Apostle ; and so applied, as to have the whole weight of the Apostle's argument depending on the truth and pro- priety of his citation ^ Yet it certainly refers to David also, who, in some parts of it, speaks in his own person, and, in others, in the person of the Messiah. It is in this way that the prophetic writings generally speak : there will be found in them a primary or historical sense, and a secondary or mystical sense ; the two senses being sometimes more blended, and sometimes more distinct. Here, as in several other psalms, some parts of the psalm are more applicable to David, and others to the Messiah. To David, we conceive, the words which we have just read more immediately belong : and, as spoken by him in his own name, they will lead me to set before 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 delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters^." Again, in the 142d Psalm; *' Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low : deliver me from my 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 particularly 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 ; therefore my heart faileth me*^." On this account I understand
a Heb. X. 4—9. ^ Ps. Ixix, 1, 2, 14.
«= Ps. cxlii. 6, 7. ^ ver. 12.