The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 311

round with woe, that I could not see the path before me, w:LS distracted and unable to choose a line of conduct, thou (emphatic) knewest my path. We are often placed in circumstances in life which baffle intellect and power of judgment. We are over- whelmed because we cannot understand, and cannot steer our way through conflicting conditions, so as to form a safe judgment as to the course we should take. But the condition of the psalmist, as indicated in this sentence, was altogether more serious. Intellect and judgment remained to him, but they were silenced, crnshed, overwhelmed, with a weight of feeling; his "spirit was overwhelmed within him." I. THE :MASTERY OF OUR SOUL-MOODS IS OUR DEEPEST DISTRESS. We cannot watch for it to guard against it. We cannot account for it so as to excuse it to ourselves. We cannot deal with it so as to gain security out of our experience. Every man knows that, any day, he may be beaten by the mastery of his soul-moods. And the strange thing is that the peril is greater the more spiritually sensitive a man becomes. The more worldly a man is, the.fewer soul-moods he has. The more spiritual a man is, the more soul-moods he has. Often in life we are placed in circumstances that are not really very anxious, but which we make overwhelming by the response of our souls to them. And this explains how little we understand one another in the perplexities of life, because we cannot know how differently souls answer to things. II. ColfFIIlENCE IN GoD's OVERRULI};(l RELIEVES OUR DEEPEST DISTRESS. "Then thou knewest my path." At such times there is always something to do. And the psalmist is close near to the very heart of truth when he shows that God relieves feeling by leading into duty. Keep feeling, and the hands will hang down. Talw feeling to God, and he will lead into active service, and so bring relief to feeling. We may be so blinded by feeling that we cannot see the way we should take. We may be sure that our feeling does not represent God's. He never is so blinded. He always sees our way, and will lead us if we put our hand in his.-R. T. Ver. 4.-Uncared-:for souls. This expression may very properly be associated with David, or at least may be illustrated by certain experiences in his life. When he was hunted by Saul among the hills of the south country, he seems to have fallen into a desponding mood, and to have thought that nobody cared for him (see 1 Sam. xxii. 1; x.xiv. 3). And as regards the help of man, he certainly then did seem desolate. But in God there still was hope. We may think of those who, with some measures of truthfulness, may nowadays say these words, "No man careth for my soul.~ L THE so-CALLED HEATHEN. It would, perhaps, be well if we could give up using this term, which makes of those who have other thoughts of God than we have a distinct and lower class of beings. We have no right to put upon them the slur of a bad name. They are our brethren of this humanity, and God is both their Father and ours. They are the vast multitude of men. '!'hey are in mental bondage, anrl in moral dearadation. Each one of them is kin with us in nature and destiny. Each one La, i~tense inward desires, of which his particular religion is the wild, wandering expression. We have many interests in them that lie in the range of civilization 1md commerce, but how little and limited is our concern for their souls I II. MuLTJTUDES IN OUR OWN NEIGHBOURHOODS. Everywhere we are surrounded with those who do not know God, or do not hold him in personal and saving relations; and alas! even with those who are living in the wretchedness of sin and vice. Do you thidk that their souls are altogether silenced? Do not they excuse their degradations by bitterly saying, "No man careth for my soul"? And in the sadly unaggressive character of very much pre~nt-day Christian life and labour, have they not a right to say it? IIL MA:i-.-Y OF ouR NEAREST AND DEAREST FRIENDS, Who among us has no unre- generate friends? Who should care for them? Are not some hindered because we have not 6hown our care for them? They question the worth of our professions if they do not inspire activity in winnina and saving others. 1. Cultivate a deeper sense of the worth of souls. 2. Suspect that'°God's work for us to do will begin with what lies close to our hands.-R. T. Ver. 4..-Caring /or 6ouls the work of the Church, "Refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." For present purposes associate the psalm with the anxious time PB. CXLII, 1-7.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 349