Ver. 3.-A soul full of troubles. These plaints are such as could only be uttered by a disea.~ed man-diseased in body or diseased in mind. The man felt "satiated with evils." Hezekiah, suffering from his carbuncle, or Job, as be "scraJ:led himself witb. his potsherd," might be expected to read life as drearily and despondingly as the psalmist did. "'l.'he psalm accumulates images to describe the pressure of trial upon the frailty of human nature." Look at some of the troubles. I. THE BREVITY OF HUMAN LIFE. 'l'hat does not impress us so much when the aged are ta.ken away, because we have become familiar with seventy as man's allotted years; and the aged seem to have completed their time, and rounded off their lives. Nor does it impress us when young children die, because we have become familiar with the perils of infancy. Vv e feel it most when men are ta.ken away in the "mid~t of their days." Hezekiah, smitten in the prime of life, wails over the brevity of life, saying, "I said, in the cutting off of my day, I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the residue of my years, Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life." See the similar plaints of Job. The corrective of this trouble is to measure life by deeds, not by years. He lives long who does much. II. Loss OF BODILY AND MENTAL STRENGTH. "I am as a man that hath no strength." Perhaps there is nothing harder for active-minded, energetic men to endure than conscious weakness. 'l'o many persons mental depression, resulting simply from lowered vitality, is the supreme distress. Yet in these days the human trial often takes this form. It is a triumph of grace to hold fast integrity even when the very mind is clouded with weakness, and" like a mist our vigour flees away," until all that remains to us is "a fragile form, fast basting to decay." The corrective is to see that even weakness is in the list of God's disciplinary agents. III. SEPARATION FROM ORDINARY DUTIES AND RELA'l'lONS. From ver. 8 we gather that this was complicated by the fact that disease hac.l taken offensive forms; and this brings to view the very marked and distressing features of Job's disease. No one can fail to feel it hard to retire from loved scenes a.ad associations, and to loose out of hand loved duties. We think that no one can do them but ourselves, and no one can be to our friends what we were. The corrective is to remember that God may provide rest- times for his servants; but he never bids them put their tools down, once for all, until he knows that their work is done; and then no true-hearted man could wish to stay. It may come to be the form of our final struggle with self, that we are called to give up lifo's duties and life's relations at God's bidding. 'l'bere is possible triumph even over soul-troubles.-Il. T. Ver. 7.-A.ffeiction conooived as Divine wrath. "Thy wrath lieth hard upon me." The word "wrath" hos now such meanings and suggestiuns for us, that it cannot be wisely applied to GOil. 'l'he Prayer-book Version reads," 'l'hine indignation lieth hard upon me, and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms." 'l'he word "indigna- tion" better suggests official feeling in response to wrong-doing. " Wrath" suggests personal feeling. It would be well, however, if we could keep "wrath" as the special term to indicate the response of God to n:an's sin. "He is angry with," wrathfw 236 'l'HE IlOOK OF rsALlllS. [PB. LXXXVID, 1-18,
towards, "the wicked every day." Perowne translates by a very unsuitable word, "Upon me thy fu,-y lieth hard." In his moments of deepest depression the man ot God ought not to associate jury with his God, because it indicates feeling that is be.vond control, passion; and we may never think of God as having lost self-control. It must be borne in mind that we have in this pmlm passionate utterances, not calm and sober judgments. These are not the quiet, settled opinions of the psalmist; they are only passing feelings, belonging to a time of strain. '!'hey are his "infirmity." Two thiugs lead him to think and speak thus. I. THE SENSE OF SIN MAKES AFFLICTION SEEM LIKE DIVINE WRATH. When the son of the widow of Zarephath died, she rushed into the presence of Elijah, saying, "0 thou man of God, art thon come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" Her feeling is that which comes to us all in times of affliction. We ask what we can have done to need this visitation of Divine wrath. The Jews were sure that either the man born blind or his parents must have sinned. '!'he friends of Job could find no explanation of Job's afflictions, save that he had come under the wrath of God for some special sin. The Book of Job is written to show that this may be the explanation of suffering, and it may not be. All through life, and often very painfully at the close of life, the sense of sin em bitters trial and suffering. Our relief comes from feelinii; that all God's "wrath," shown in the affiictious of his people, is disciplinary and corrective (see Heh. :xii. 5-11). Il. THE SPECIAL FORMS AFFLICTION SOMETIMES TAKES COMPEL US TO THINK THEY ARE SIGNS OF DIVINE WRATH. It is not so much their intensit.v as it is their special character. Some kinds of affiiction are specially distressing; they are unsightly, or offensive, or disgraceful. This is hinted at in the psalm. Even relatives shrank from the sufferer. Take the case of Job. This was the bitterest feature of his trouble. Illustrate from such disease as leprosy, or from offensive forms of skin-disease. Surely some special "wrath" in God must appoint us such a lot. And yet the truth may be that this is but a burden of love. We are only being shown "how great things we may be able to suffer for his Name's sa.ke,"-R. T.