i Ps. lvi. 8. r Rev. xiv. 13. s Phil. i. 21. * Gal. vi. 7, 8.
god's mercy an encouragement to prayer.
Ps. cxxx. 1 — 4. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice : let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgive- ness with thee, that thou may est be feared.
IN seasons of affliction, it is a great comfort to see how others in similar circumstances, have found relief. It is in this view that biography is peculiarly interesting ; and Scripture biography more especially, because it is more authentic in itself, and a surer ground for wise and profitable observations. The Psalms are a rich repository of such instruction. David was a man of deep experience. His afflictions, both temporal and spiritual, were very abundant: and, as they are faithfully related to us, so do we see under them the workings of his mind. In the passage just read we see,
I. The means he used for deliverance from his dis- tresses—
His trials were greatly diversified, and very severe —
[Unless it were recorded on divine authority, we should
scarcely conceive it possible that a man of David's character
should be an object of such inveterate and envenomed malice
as he was in the eyes of Saul : and, after the returns which he made to Saul, we should scarcely think that human malignity could ever arrive at such a height, or rage with such unre- lenting fury, as it did in that envious and jealous monarch. Of his troubles under persecution David speaks under the same metaphor as that which is used in our text : " Save me, O Lord! for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing : I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying : my throat is dried : mine eyes fail, while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head : they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty a."
It seems, however, that on the present occasion he refers to his spiritual troubles, because it is of his iniquities that he chiefly complains, and of forgiveness that he expresses his chief desire. It might be supposed that so holy a man as he should have no complaints of this kind to make : but the truth is, that the more holy any man is, the more enlarged will be his views of the spirituality of God's Law, and the more painful his sense of his short-comings and defects : and it should seem that David was permitted to sustain great anguish of mind on this account, that so he might be the better fitted to instruct and comfort God's tempted people to the very end of time. Hear his complaints under a sense of God's displeasure: " 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 wavesV Sometimes he was so overwhelmed, that he thought himself altogether an outcast from God, and doubted whether he should ever find mercy at his hands : " Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more ? Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies c ? "]
Under all his trials he had recourse to God in prayer —
[" Out of the depths he cried unto the Lord." He well knew that none but God could support him under all his temporal afflictions, and that there was no other comforter amidst the troubles of his soul. Hence, on all occasions, he betook himself to God in prayer. Under trials from man he says, " I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies'1." And under the frowns of Almighty God he still sought refuge in the arms of him whose displeasure he feared: "The sorrows of death