The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 108

know it is wrong to think and feel it. Reserve is the bane of friendship. There must ba no reserve with God. .And the very best way in which to become a.shamed of our compla.inings is to speak them out before God. The infinite patience and gentleness towards us seems to search us through and through.-R. T. Ver. 2.-The mission of mental depressions. "My hand in the night sea.son was stretched out, and ceased not." The figure is of the hand stretched out in prayer till it was unnerved by weariness, and yet refosed to rest. The cause of lying awake at night is usually mental anxiety and distress; burdens on the mind rather than pains in the body. We begin to think worryfully, and so banish sleep. The text, there- fore, presents a season of mental depression; and the occasion of it is found in the anxious condition of the nation. Illust. by the times of Hezekiah. Times of mental depression are not nece~sarily wrong. They are the natural response of the mind to physical conditions and outward circumstances. They mean" sensitiveness," "quick- ness to respond;" and these differ in different individuals. Some are easily made despondent; they can always see, or think they see, black clouds gathering in the sky. Some are unduly hopeful, and fail to, respond when circumstances do call for anxiety. We make the mistake of failing to recognize Divine working through the anxieties of the mind, as well as through the pains of the body, and the distress of the circumstances. \Ve deceive ourselves by thinking these mental trials are in no sense sent; we make them ourselves, and so we fail to associate God with them, and lose what would be our best comfort and relief. The truth is, that God is even more freely working through our mental depressions, because they are immaterial-they belong to the innermost of us, to the sphere in which God's grace is most unhindered. I. MENTAL DEPilESSIONS KEEP us CONVmCED OF THE SPIBITUAL. Suppose we took all things easily ; never troubled over them; never brooded ;-how easily the "material" would gain the mastery ! We know there is another world than the world of sense; there is a world of thought and feeling. How intense and real this world is we are made to know when depression prevents sleep, and even breaks down health . .And so we come to apprehend the reality of the" spiritual." II. MENTAL DEPRESSIONS CONVINCE OF THE SERIOUSNESS OF OUR MORAL CONFLICT. Conceive that the struggle for character only concerned circumstances and relations, and then what an unimportant struggle it would seem to be! "But we wrestle, not with flesh and blood only, but with the rulers of spiritual darkness." .Add mental conflict, and virtue becomes a sublime achievement, a transcendent victory, won at an awful cost. Ill. MENTAL DEPRESSIONS MAY BE OVERRULED SO AS TO GIVE NOBLER VIEWS OF Goo. Illustrate by the psalm (vers. 10-20). The law of rebound applies. Compare such a. case as that of the poet Cowper, whose songs of trust were the cries of one who was often in despair. 'l'be question is-Do we yield to mental depressions, or do we resist them, and so let God work his work of grace through them ?-R. 'l'. Ver. 4.-0ccupations for sleepless nights. Comparing ver. 3, we find that, lying awake, the psalmist had "remembered God," or, more precisely, bad "thought upon God." It is true that the thought had only brought him trouble, bnt the occupation was good, whatever it broug':i.t him. Comp. Ps. iv. 4, "Commune with yonr own heart upon your bed, and be still;" Ps. !xiii. G, "When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches." As the cause of loss of sleep is generally a physical condition, nnd often brain-disease of some kind, men usually at such times take sombre, dreary, and distressing views. They arc never so ready to "write bitter things against themselves as who1 they lie awake at night." It is well to see clearly that tho views taken at such times are almost always untrue and unworthy, and can sehlom be hopefully mad11 the guide of conduct or the basis of important decisions. .And proper correction of gloomy night-views should be made when sunshine brings light and cheer into our souls once more. I. MosT PEOPLE, WHEN THEY LIE AWAKE, WORRY OVEB THEIR CU:CUfilS'l'ANCES. .And thnt is a very hopeless occupation. Only dark, depressing, anxious sides of things are likely to come to view in night seasons. It will be found thnt the fretting things are llSually the things selected for thinking over. And, usually, it is imagination that 118 THE DOOK 01<' PSALMS. [rs. LXXVII. 1-20.