The Biblical Illustrator
Psalms 60:11
Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
Help in God in all times of trouble
If a man had a long and perilous journey to take, in which he would be exposed to many difficulties and great dangers, would he not most thankfully receive from any one the kind offer of direction and assistance, that he might perform it with success and security? The life of man is such a journey, during which he is exposed to many difficulties and dangers.
I. In the world we must expect tribulation. As fallen creatures, we are constantly liable to infirmities, affliction, and disappointment.
II. Vain is the help of man. Man may not have the ability nor the inclination to help us in our worldly troubles. Man may not feel for our misery, nor be disposed to aid us in our distress. He may promise us his assistance, and yes desert us “in the very time of need.” “Vain is the help of man.” Man may endeavour to help; but it is so feeble, as to be of no real service. God, and God alone, can remove the burden, or support us under it.
III. How is this help to be obtained? By humble, fervent, and believing prayer. “Give us help in trouble, for vain is the help of man.” It is freely bestowed in Christ Jesus to all that need it and seek it of God in humble and fervent prayer. (C. Davy.)
The common in human life
I. A common human condition. “Trouble.” He has, almost from birth to death, to “walk in the midst of trouble”--troubles personal and social, material and spiritual--troubles of body, troubles of intellect, troubles of conscience.
1. Those that are spiritually pernicious--tending only to intensify the rebellion of the soul, harden the conscience, etc.
2. Those that are spiritually beneficent. To all regenerate and Christly men troubles are morally disciplinary (Hebrews 12:11).
II. A common human instinct. “Give us help from trouble.” Man in great trouble instinctively cries to the Supreme for help. Even irrational creatures seem to shriek for help in trouble. Tyndall says of the hare, when the greyhound is almost upon her, that she abandons hope through her own efforts, and screams convulsively into space for help. Man’s instinct is of a higher kind. The space into which he cries in trial is not empty. He sees a God in it. This instinct is as deep as the soul and as wide as humanity. It is developed by saint, by savage, and by sage.
1. This instinct implies a constitutional, an ineradicable belief in the existence, personality, accessibleness and entreatability of a God.
2. This instinct shows that prayer is not against the laws of nature, but one with it. As sure as the sun will rise, men will pray.
III. A common human experience. “Vain is the help of man.”
1. He cannot give an effective deliverance from trouble. That which makes anguish is the state of the soul--disordered affections, guilt of conscience, moral regrets, and dark forebodings. Unless these are removed the troubles remain.
2. He cannot give a permanent deliverance from trouble. Whatever alleviation he may afford to the sufferer, it can be only temporary. Let our prayer therefore be, “Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.” (Homilist.).