Psalms 143:4

My heart within me is desolate.

Trouble of soul

He spake before of his external calamities; now he confesseth the infirmities of his mind, that he was wonderfully cast down in heart and troubled in his soul, so that his strength was almost gone (not like the strength of a whale fish, or of a rock), but being ready to drown with sorrow, he was sustained by faith and God’s Spirit, he swam under these evils. Our Saviour Himself confessed of Himself, “My soul is troubled to the death.” God knoweth our mould, we are not stocks without passions or perturbations; we are not like lepers, whose flesh is senseless; but we are sensible of evils, that we may run to God for help and comfort. Had not Job his own perturbations and griefs, which made him utter hard speeches, for which God rebuked him, and he afterwards repented? yet God affirmed that he spake better of him than all his friends did. Can a ship sail along with such a constant and direct course in stormy weather as it were calm and before the wind? it is enough that it directeth the course ever towards the port, albeit it be forced to cast board twenty times. So God careth not albeit we be troubled in our course to heaven. Let us ever aim at the port of eternal glory, howsoever we be disquieted with contrary winds and tempests, God will pass by all those our frailties and imperfections, and will at last deliver us from them all, if in the midst of those our extremities our heart set itself toward heaven. (A. Symson.)