The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 158

the soul can cry, "My God," we may be sure the cry is not unreciprocated. (3) Such a cry will surely Le heard. Past deliverances assure us of this. Yea, even ere the wail in the dark iB over, the light begins to dawn. "One Sunday morning," said Mr. Spurgeon, in an address at Mildmay Hall, June 26, 1890, reported in the Christian of July 4, "I preached from the text, 'My God, my God, why bast thou forsaken me?' I could not tell why I' should be made to preach it. I felt ,vhilc preaching as if I were myself forsaken. On the sabbath evening, there came into the vestry a man of about sixty, whose eyes were bright with a stran::('l lustre. He took my band, and held it, and cried. He said to me,' Nobody ever preache<l my cxperienc,i before. I have now been for years left, deserted, in a horrible gloom of great darkness; but this morning I learned that I was not the only man in the darknesg, and I believe I shall get out!' l said,' Yes; I have got out; but now I know why I was put in.' That man was brought back from the depths of despair, and rnstorcd to joy and peace. There was a child of God, dying in darkness. lie said to the minister who spoke with him, 'Oh, sir, though I have trusted Christ for years, I have lost him now. ·what can become of a man who dies feeling that God bas clesnted him?' 'l'be minister replied,' What did become of that Man who died saying," My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken rue?" Is be not on the highest throne of glory even now?' The man's mind changed in a moment, and be began to say, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;' and he died in peace." 3. The light dawns at last. Tile "everlasting covenant" does not fail; H has been "ordered in all things," and remains sure ancl steadfast; and often times, even while tho saint is on bis knees, he will scarce have ended bis groaning 'ere bis sigh is turned to a. song (cf. Ps. xxvii. 12-14). Hence the last ten verse,i of the psalm nre as joyous as the others are sad. "The darkest hour is before the dawn," and the brightness of morning shall chase away the gloom of night. So it isbere. (1) The saint who takes his groans to God alone, shall yet sing his .praises in the assemblies of the saints. Having told the rest to bis God, he will "give others the sunshine.'' (2) Tho rehearsal of this story shall be the joy of other hearts in day to come (vcrs. 25-27). (3) 'l'he outcome of nil will be that God will viudicate his own houour, and that the generation yet uuborn will praise him a11d declare his righteousness. II. WORDS OF A SUFFERING SAIN1' ARE APPROPRIATED BY A SUFFERING SAVIOUR, The Lord Jesus Christ, in all things" made like unto his brethren," takes up wonls from this psalm into his own lips. If we were dealing only with the MessiBnic aspect of the psalm, we should open it up in the following order: (1) The Saviour's sufferiug. (2) The Saviour's inquiry : "Why?" (3) 'l'he S,lViour's joy. Since, however, we nre seeking to·expound the psalm in both its aspects, we rather indicate four lines of thought, the pursuing of which will throw light on the wonder of the nppropriation of the words of a suffering saint by a suffering Saviour; while some look nt the fierce cry with which this psalm begins as intended to set forth the woes of the comiug Messiah, that cry seems to us far more touching when we find that our dear Redeemer uses the words j an ancient sufferer as his own 11 Observe : 1. There is no depth (If sorrow through which tlie saint can pass, but Jesus understands it all. How n,any causes of woe are enumerated here l But in all points Jesus felt the ~a.me. 'l'be writer endured (1) tbo cutting remnrks of many; (2) weakness; (3) reproach and scorn; (4) tbe plotting of foes; (5) the treachery of friends; and, worst of all, (6) the scns,, of separntion form God. Every one of these forms of hardship and ill pressed sorely on Jesus; and though we may meditate continuously and with e1'er-dccpe11ing wonder 3 on each of them, yrt all the rest fnde away into insignificance compared with the angui.,h that arose frocn the biding of the Father's face. Every trouble can be borne when the Father is seen to smile; but when his foce is hidden in a total eclipse, what darkness can be so dreadful as that? 'l'hrre was, as it were, a biding of the face from him (Isa. !iii. 3).3 1 "By the deepest of nil sympathies, the sufferings of Messiah became the sufferings of the Church, and she cries out, witl1 her suffcrillg Lord, 'My God, my God, why hruil tl1ou forsaken me ? ' " • For o. series oC devout reflections on the whole psBlm, the remarks of Mr. Spurgeon thrreon will be found helpful. • Sec the present writer's exposition of Ian. liii., in 'To the Light through the Cross' (Dickinson),  160 THE BOOK OF PS.ALMS. [Fil, XXII, 1-31.