Psalms 79:11

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before Thee.

The prisoner’s sigh

How difficult is it in earthly courts for the poor and sick to get access to the monarch’s earl There is a fearful contrast between the king thus surrounded with magnificence and pomp, and the prisoner alone in his sad dungeon, the prey of hunger, of nakedness, and cold--the music of the monarch’s court, the silence of the captive’s cell, the monarch’s prospects of power and glory for to-morrow, and the prisoner’s that the morrow will be even as wretched as to-day. But what we cannot contemplate in things temporal is oftentimes plainly shown in things spiritual. The court of the Most High is unlike all others, for there the poor, the wretched, and the sad have entrance when they will.

I. The prisoner.

1. There is the prisoner under forced bondage to sin, who is held in degrading thraldom against his will, perhaps by some peculiar effort of the devil, perhaps by some evil habit which he has allowed to become ascendant in his heart. Be encouraged, we say to such an one, with all your sins you are not shut out from life and hope, your state is dangerous but it is not desperate, provided that you make God’s throne the destination of these sighs.

2. The prisoner under the bondage of conviction. Whilst you are sighing in your captivity, our message is to sustain you, not to do away with your convictions, or bid you cease to sigh, but to make your convictions lead you to the Cross, and to tell you that your sighs are surely heard.

3. The prisoner in the dungeon of despair. We approach such an one and say, “How earnest thou in hither? Who has denied the entrance of hope into thy cell, and fast bound thy soul in iron? Why shouldest thou at one time rage, and at another time be sullen? Hast thou ever petitioned for thy relief?” We tell this man of Christ, and of the free love of God, and of mercy shown to such sinners as David and myriads more, and exalting the power of the Cross; we show how “Jesus is able to save even to the very uttermost all that, come unto God by Him”; but what the immediate effect of this might be none can tell. At the sound of this Gospel’s trump, the walls of some men’s dungeons will immediately fall fiat, as Jericho’s fell prostrate at the sounding of the priests. Then the captive of despair, seeing that there is salvation in Christ, will be set free by the Son, and so be free indeed.

II. The prisoner’s application for relief.

1. A sigh is an unexpected declaration. Although we do not speak, still we can tell a long tale of sorrow with a sigh.

2. An unexpressed with for deliverance. A sigh indicates a condition of the mind: it tells us that there is sorrow there. Do you indeed feel this? If you do, is it possible that you can thus express your sadness without God’s being well acquainted with it all? Surely not; and if God knows this, is His heart hardened that He will not feel; is His hand shortened that it cannot save?

III. The source from which this prisoner looked for help. “According to the greatness of Thy power.” This preservation shall be vouchsafed to every one of you who sigh for it to God. He Will deliver you from the place where you are confined with a sentence of death upon you, and will altogether reverse the sentence itself. It were of no use to escape from the prison-house with our sentence still impending over us; we might be apprehended again, and lose our life at last. Deliverance, however, and remission, shall both be yours; and the greatness of the power you have invoked shall be seen in each. And who will come forth, and bring you from your captivity, but Jesus Christ Himself? (P. B. Power, M. A.)

The condemned prisoner

I. Our sad and gloomy condition as fallen creatures. There are many sorts of prisoners; some are so from debt, some by being taken captive in battle, some for criminal offences. The sinner is all these. He is, as the word may be rendered, a son of death; a criminal, respited, but not pardoned. He is as one waiting for execution. His doom is delayed, but not averted.

II. What are the obstacles to deliverance? In the King who can reprieve he sees the adversary whom he has wronged, and the Judge who has appointed him to die. Omnipotent power, injured dignity, and immutable justice are leagued against him. What can the prisoner do?

III. That there is a way of escape. In the face of every obstacle, deliverance is attainable. In proof of this we may notice--

1. The infinite knowledge of God. “Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee.” From whatever depth of guilt and misery you breathe the prayer of a broken and contrite heart, that prayer is heard by a gracious God.

2. The Almighty power on which the plea is founded--“According to the greatness of Thy power.” This must be exercised. (Anon.)