_I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications._ CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE AND ITS RESULTS I. The psalm opens with a general declaration of gratitude to God, as the hearer of prayer (verse 1). I. The true believer is a man of prayer. 2. Another feature of the child of God is co... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live._ ANSWERS TO PRAYER CONFIRM HABITS OF PRAYER Philip Henry, after he had been engaged in prayer for two of his children that were dangerously ill, remarked, “If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my r... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sorrows of death compassed me._ TO SOULS IN AGONY I. First, here is the wretched condition into which many a poor awakened soul has been brought. 1. Many a troubled conscience feels the sorrows of death; that is to say, he is the subject of griefs similar to those which beset sinners on thei... [ Continue Reading ]
_I was brought low and He helped me._ GOD’S METHOD OF HELPING Thousands of times has this experience of the psalmist been repeated. It is the Divine method. Bring low and then help. Cast down and then lift up. There are some diseases of the human system which the skilful physician thus treats. He b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee._ THE GATE TO REST The psalmist exhorts his soul to return unto its rest; not because it has heard of God, or has seen His power in nature; not because He recognizes Divine order in the universe, not because his poetica... [ Continue Reading ]
_For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling._ ON RECOVERY FROM SICKNESS I. The blessing conferred. Why was the psalmist so transported with joy, on being delivered from death? As if a mariner were to give thanks that he is not arrived in port; a trav... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living._ THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF GOOD WORKS 1. The matter of the duty in which the psalmist promiseth to engage--“I will walk.” It signifies the practice of what is good and lovely, as the words following intimate. 2. The manner in which he purp... [ Continue Reading ]
_I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted._ OPINIONS AND CONVICTIONS There is sincerity, intensity, reality, in every line of this song. Nobody doubts the psalmist when he says, “I believed, and therefore do I sing my song of trust in God, and thankfulness to Him for a great sal... [ Continue Reading ]
_I said in my haste, All men are liars._ THE DANGERS OF PESSIMISM Pessimism is a sin, and those who yield to it cripple themselves for the war, on one side of which are all the forces of darkness, led on by Apollyon, and on the other side of which are all the forces of light led on by the Omnipoten... [ Continue Reading ]
_What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?_ GIVING THANKS BY TAKING MORE There is a wonderful ministry of contrast in this varied psalm. A diamond resting upon black plush or velvet shines with a more dazzling lustre. And so it is with the bright patches in this psalm, they... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people._ WHETHER WELL-COMPOSED RELIGIOUS VOWS DO NOT EXCEEDINGLY PROMOTE RELIGION Whoso doth engage himself by a well-ordered vow, doth set his religion in the whole, or in some particular part of it, in very good forwardness. Religi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints._ PRECIOUS DEATH As we see death, it means decay, removal, absence--things which we do not prize. But as God sees death, He beholds something really precious to Him and, we may justly infer, precious to us, for whatever is against us ca... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Lord, truly I am Thy servant._ GOD’S SERVICE This_, _with the following verses, may be thus paraphrased: Blessed Lord, from the sense of what Thou hast done for me, I cannot but declare myself infinitely obliged to Thee; no servant bought with a price, or born in a house, can be more engaged to... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the courts of the Lord’s house._ THE DUTY AND BLESSING OF PUBLIC WORSHIP I. An urgent duty. That God should receive the adoration of His creatures is the first dictate of all theology. We are told, in the earliest periods of sacred history, of altars erected and sacrifices offered. It was not... [ Continue Reading ]