Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps6.6

Text File | 1993-03-17 | 10KB | 179 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        The Psalmist gives a fearful description of his long
agony: "_I am weary with my groaning_." He had groaned till his
throat was hoarse; he had cried for mercy till prayer became a
labour. God's people may groan, but they may not grumble. Yea,
they must groan, being burdened, or they will never shout in the
day of deliverance. The next sentence, we think, is not
accurately translated. It should be, "_I shall make my bed to
swim every night_," (when nature needs rest, and when I am most
alone with my God). That is to say, my grief is fearful even now,
but if God do not soon save me, it will not stay of itself, but
will increase, until my tears will be so many, that my bed itself
shall swim. A description rather of what he feared would be, than
of what had actually taken place. May not our forebodings of
future woe become arguments which faith may urge when seeking
present mercy? "_I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is
consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine
enemies_." As an old man's eye grows dim with years, so says
David, my eye is grown red and feeble through weeping. Conviction
sometimes has such an effect upon the body, that even the outward
organs are made to suffer. May not this explain some of the
convulsions and hysterical attacks which have been experienced
under convictions in the revivals in Ireland? Is it surprising
that some should be smitten to the earth, and begin to cry aloud;
when we find that David himself made his bed to swim, and grew
old while he was under the heavy hand of God? Ah! brethren, it is
no light matter to feel one's self a sinner, condemned at the bar
of God. The language of this Psalm is not strained and forced,
but perfectly natural to one in so sad plight.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 6.--"_I fainted in my mourning_." It may seem a
marvellous change in David, being a man of such magnitude of
mind, to be thus dejected and cast down. Prevailed he not against
Goliath, against the lion and the bear, through fortitude and
magnanimity? But now he is sobbing, sighing, and weeping as a
child! The answer is easy; the diverse persons with whom he hath
to do occasioneth the same. When men and beasts are his
opposites, then he is more than a conqueror; but when he hath to
do with God against whom he sinned, then he is less than nothing.

        Verse 6.--"_I caused my bed to swim_." ... Showers be
better than dews, yet it is sufficient if God at least hath
bedewed our hearts, and hath given us some sign of a penitent
heart. If we have not rivers of waters to pour forth with David,
neither fountains moving with Mary Magdalen, nor as Jeremy,
desire to have a fountain in our head to weep day and night, nor
with Peter weep bitterly; yet if we lament that we cannot lament,
and mourn that we cannot mourn: yea, if we have the smallest sobs
of sorrow and tears of compunction, if they be true and not
counterfeit, they will make us acceptable to God; for as the
woman with the bloody issue that touched the hem of Christ's
garment, was no less welcome to Christ than Thomas, who put his
fingers in the print of the nails; so, God looketh not at the
quantity, but the sincerity of our repentance.

        Verse 6.--"_My bed_." The place of his sin is the place
of his repentance, and so it should be; yea, when we behold the
place where we have offended, we should be pricked in the heart,
and there again crave him pardon. As Adam sinned in the garden,
and Christ sweat bloody tears in the garden. "Examine your hearts
upon your beds, and convert unto the Lord;" and whereas ye have
stretched forth yourselves upon your bed to devise evil things,
repent there and make them sanctuaries to God. Sanctify by your
tears every place which ye have polluted by sin. And let us seek
Christ Jesus on our own bed, with the spouse in the Canticles,
who saith, "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul
loveth."--^Archibald Symson.

        Verse 6.--"_I water my couch with tears_." Not only I
_wash_, but also I _water_. The faithful sheep of the great
Shepherd go up from the _washing_ place, every one bringeth forth
twins, and none barren among them. #So 4:2|. For so Jacob's
sheep, having conceived at the watering troughs, brought forth
strong and party-coloured lambs. David likewise, who before had
erred and strayed like a lost sheep, making here his bed a
washing place, by so much the less is barren in obedience, by how
much the more he is fruitful in repentance. In Solomon's temple
stood the caldrons of brass, to wash the flesh of those beasts
which where to be sacrificed on the altar. Solomon's father
maketh a water of his tears, a caldron of his bed, an altar of
his heart, a sacrifice, not of the flesh of unreasonable beasts,
but of his own body, a living sacrifice, which is his reasonable
serving of God. Now the Hebrew word here used signifies properly,
to cause to swim, which is more than simply to wash. And thus the
Geneva translation readeth it, I cause my bed every night to
swim. So that as the priests used to swim in the molten sea, that
they might be pure and clean, against they performed the holy
rites and services of the temple, in like manner the princely
prophet washeth his bed, yea, he swimmeth in his bed, or rather
he causeth his bed to swim in tears, as in a sea of grief and
penitent sorrow for his sin.--^Thomas Playfere, 1604.

        Verse 6.--"_I water my couch with my tears_." Let us
water our bed every night with our tears. Do not only blow upon
it with intermissive blasts, for then like fire, it will resurge
and flame the more. Sin is like a stinking candle newly put out,
it is soon lighted again. It may receive a wound, but like a dog
it will easily lick itself whole; a little forbearance multiplies
it like Hydra's heads. Therefore, whatsoever aspersion the sin of
the day has brought upon us, let the tears of the _night_ wash
away.--^Thomas Adams.

        Verses 6,7.--Soul-trouble is attended usually with great
pain of body too, and so a man is wounded and distressed in every
part. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger,
says David. "The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison
whereof drinketh up my spirit." #Job 6:4|. Sorrow of heart
contracts the natural spirits, making all their motions slow and
feeble; and the poor afflicted body does usually decline and
waste away; and, therefore, saith Heman, "My soul is full of
troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave." In this
inward distress we find our strength decay and melt, even as wax
before the fire, for sorrow darkeneth the spirits, obscures the
judgment, blinds the memory as to all pleasant things, and
beclouds the lucid part of the mind, causing the lamp of life to
burn weakly. In this troubled condition the person cannot be
without a countenance that is pale, and wan, and dejected, like
one that is seized with strong fear and consternation; all his
motions are sluggish, and no sprightliness nor activity remains.
A merry heart doth good, like a medicine; but a broken spirit
drieth the bones. Hence come those frequent complaints in
Scripture: My moisture is turned into the drought of the Summer:
I am like a bottle in the smoke; my soul cleaveth unto the dust:
my face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelid is the shadow of
death. #Job 16:16, 30:17,18,19|. My bones are pierced in me, in
the night season, and my sinews take no rest; by the great force
of my disease is my garment changed. He hath cast me into the
mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. Many times indeed the
trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and
indisposition of the body. Long affliction, without any prospect
of remedy, does, in process of time, begin to distress the soul
itself. David was a man often exercised with sickness and the
rage of enemies; and in all the instances almost that we meet
with in the Psalms, we may observe that the outward occasions of
trouble brought him under an apprehension of the wrath of God for
his sin. (#Ps 6:1,2|; and the reasons given, verses Ps 6:5,6|.)
All his griefs running into this most terrible thought, that God
was his enemy. As little brooks lose themselves in a great river,
and change their name and nature, it most frequently happens,
that when our pain is long and sharp, and helpless and
unavoidable, we begin to question the sincerity of our estate
towards God, though at its first assault we had few doubts or
fears about it. Long weakness of body makes the soul more
susceptible of trouble, and uneasy thoughts.--^Timothy Rogers on
Trouble of Mind.

        Verse 7.--"_Mine eye is consumed_." Many make those eyes
which God hath given them, as it were two lighted candles to let
them see to go to hell; and for this God in justice requiteth
them, that seeing their minds are blinded by the lust of the
eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, God I say,
sendeth sickness to debilitate their eyes which were so
sharp-sighted in the devil's service, and their lust now causeth
them to want the necessary sight of their body.

        Verse 7.--"_Mine enemies_." The pirates seeing an empty
bark, pass by it but if she be loaded with precious wares, then
they will assault her. So, if a man have no grace within him,
Satan passeth by him, as not a convenient prey for him, but being
loaded with graces, as the love of God, his fear, and such other
spiritual virtues, let him be persuaded that according as he
knows what stuff is in him, so will he not fail to rob him of
them, if in any case he may.--^Archibald Symson.

        Verse 7.--That eye of his that had looked and lusted
after his neighbour's wife is now dimmed and darkened with grief
and indignation. He had wept himself almost blind.--^John Trapp.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 6.--Saints' tears in quality, abundance, influence,
assuagement, and final end.

        Verse 7.--The voice of weeping. What it is.