Psalms 25:18

Look upon mine affliction and my pain.

A troubled prayer

I. It is well for us when our prayers about our sorrows are linked with prayers about our sins. Our sorrows profit us when they bring our sins to mind.

1. They give us time for thought. A sick bed has often been a place of repentance.

2. Our sorrows are often the direct result of our sins. Then we cannot but remember them. Not to have sorrow when we sin is a mark of the reprobate.

3. When our sorrows are so like our sins. Jacob was a crafty deceiver, and he in his turn was, once and again, craftily deceived. He was a great bargain maker, and he in his turn was once and again craftily deceived. He cheated his father, and so everybody cheated him, of course. How often we have to eat the fruit of our own ways!

4. They drive us out of an atmosphere of worldliness. There is our nest, and a very pretty, snug nest it is; and we have been very busy picking up all the softest feathers that we could find, and all the prettiest bits of moss that earth could yield, and we have been engaged night and day making that nest soft and warm. There we intended to remain. We meant for ourselves a long indulgence, sheltered from inclement winds, never to put our feet among the cold dewdrops, nor to weary our pinions by mounting up into the clouds. But suddenly a thorn pierced our breast; we tried to remove it, but the more we struggled the more deeply it fixed itself into us. Then we began to spread our wings, and as we mounted we began to sing the song which, in the nest, we never should have sung, the song of those who have communion with the skies.

5. Sometimes they remind us of our ingratitude. How sad a blemish upon the character of Hezekiah it was that he rendered not again unto the Lord according to the benefits done unto him.

6. Sometimes sorrows remind us of want of sympathy with those who have like sorrows.

7. Sorrow is also sent to admonish us of our neglect of Divine teaching. Why that rod? Why that whip and bridle? Because I have been like the horse and the mule which had no understanding. Let us humble ourselves before God, and ask with Job, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.”

II. It is well when we are as earnest about our sins as we are about our sorrows. The chaplain of Newgate says many of the prisoners will pretend very great repentance when he is talking to them about spiritual things, but he can always tell whether their repentance is genuine or not, by their trying to bring him round to tell them something about their punishment. Before their tidal they frequently ask to know what term of imprisonment they are likely to get. Then, when they are undergoing punishment, they frequently try to get some trifling favour through his means. They think much more of the punishment than they do of the crime. If I go to God and only ask to have my sorrows taken off me, what is that? I am no true penitent. It is the pain and not the sin that troubles me.

III. It is well to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. David took both to God.

1. Take our sorrows to him, not to any neighbour or friend.

2. But let us take our sins also.

3. The most mournful and the most sinful are welcome to the Lord Jesus.

4. He can with equal ease remove both.

IV. Go to Him in the right spirit. David says, “Look upon,” that is all. But when he speaks of his sins he is much more definite as to what he would have done with them, “Forgive all my sins.” I must have them forgiven, I cannot bear them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Comfort under affliction

We know not the nature of the sufferings under which David laboured, whether of body or of mind, or both; but this we know, that in all of them his first refuge and his principal relief was prayer. Suffering times are times both of searching and discovery. It is a fire that tries a man’s work, a man’s temper, and a man’s state whether he be really a child of God. If he be not, when suffering comes, his angry almost blasphemous speeches will reveal that. But the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, will bring forth good things. God being pleased with him, he is pleased with every thing. Hence in affliction, knowing that it is laid on in love, and that he deserves much more, he prays, “Look upon mine affliction,” etc. Two things are taught us here--

I. That a kind look from God is very desirable in affliction; for it is--

1. A look of special observation. As to the kind, the degree, and the duration of our affliction.

2. Of tender compassion.

3. Of support and assistance (Exodus 3:7; 2 Chronicles 16:9). Now here we generally stop; if the Lord will but grant us this, it is all we ask, we will not trouble Him for more. We forget our sin.

II. That the sweetest cordial under affliction is the assurance of Divine forgiveness (Psalms 32:1; Romans 4:7).

1. Because trouble is very apt to bring our sins to remembrance (Jeremiah 22:21; Gen 42:21; 1 Kings 17:18; Psalms 40:12).

2. Because a sense of pardon will largely remove all distressing fears of death and judgment. When we feel our flesh wasting and this earthly house of our tabernacle ready to tumble about us, we cannot help inquiring, with a trembling anxiety, “When I am turned out of this house where shall I live next?” And if we have no evidence and no hope of an interest in the Saviour, how terrible the prospect. But if we are forgiven, how all is changed.

So then, let us--

1. Praise God that He should condescend so graciously as to look favourably upon us.

2. From former mercies of the Lord, if the Lord is looking upon us, let us hope for future ones.

3. If a kind look from God be so comfortable, what must heaven be? (Samuel Lavington.)