_David moveth God to take compassion of his pitiful case._
A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance.
O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot
displeasure.
For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
_There is_ no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither
_is there any_ rest in my bones because of my sin.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they
are too heavy for me.
My wounds stink _and_ are corrupt because of my foolishness.
I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day
long.
For my loins are filled with a loathsome _disease_: and _there is_ no
soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart.
LORD, all my desire _is_ before thee; and my groaning is not hid from
thee.
My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine
eyes, it also is gone from me.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen
stand afar off.
They also that seek after my life lay snares _for me_: and they that
seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day
long.
But I, as a deaf _man_, heard not; and _I was_ as a dumb man _that_
openeth not his mouth.
Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth _are_ no
reproofs.
For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O LORD my God.
For I said, _Hear me_; lest _otherwise_ they should rejoice over me:
when my foot slippeth, they magnify _themselves_ against me.
For I _am_ ready to halt, and my sorrow _is_ continually before me.
For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
But mine enemies _are_ lively, _and_ they are strong: and they that
hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I
follow _the thing that_ good _is_.
Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.
Make haste to help me, O LORD my salvation.
This is a fervent prayer to God, in which David complains with
wonderful groanings, that he is stricken and bruised with the sense of
his sin; that he is distressed and straitened in spirit under the
deepest sorrow; and that he can see nothing and feel nothing but wrath
from heaven, and the terrible lightnings, arrows, and threatenings of
God; and in a word, death, and hell itself; and that this great
distress exhausts not only all the moisture, all the strength, all the
blood, and all the marrow of his frame, but fills him with an
unspeakable alarm and perturbation, and makes him pant and sweat with
agony; so that the intenseness of his feelings, destroys the natural
colour and appearance of his face, and affects his whole body. For to
feel in reality the burthen of the conscience under a sense of sin, is
a distress and terror exceeding all other distresses and terrors. And
these deep temptations of the godly are greatly increased by those
wicked ones without, who cease not to call them heretics, seditious
persons, and murderers. For these hypocrites, while they boast in the
teeth of the godly that they are the true saints, and the true church,
and the real people of God, (and God in the meantime, which is often
the case, not bringing in help and consolation) the godly are deeply
grieved and afflicted, as if God was their enemy because of their
sins.
But this Psalm teaches us constantly to hope for, and expect the help
and consolation of God, and still to fight against all such hypocrites
by prayer. And the prophet, in the midst of the agonizing conflict of
this temptation, sustains and lifts up himself by taking courage from
the divine promise. And here he maintains his cause, (which is not the
cause of men but of God,) as a strong fortress against Satan and his
cause, and here again flows in the consolation of faith, &c. And so
also we ought to pray always, and in no temptation yield to sorrow of
mind, even though we are sinners, and though Satan shakes us with the
horrible terrors of sin: for grace is stronger than sin!