I take the next three clauses of the text as being all closely
connected. 'I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honour
him'--in trouble, His presence; from trouble, His deliverance; after
trouble, glorifying and refining. There are the whole theory and process
of the discipline of the devout man's life.
'I will be with him in trouble.' The promise is not only that, when
trials of any kind, larger or smaller, more grave or more slight, fall
upon us, we shall become more conscious, if we take them rightly, of
God's presence, but that all which is meant by God's presence shall
really be more fully ours, and that He is, if I may say so, actually
nearer us. Though, of course, all words about being near or far have
only a very imperfect application to our relation to Him, still the
gifts that are meant by His presence--that is to say, His sympathy, His
help, His love--are more fully given to a man who in the darkness is
groping for his Father's hand, and yet not so much groping for as
grasping it. He _is_ nearer us as well as _felt_ to be nearer us, if we
take our sorrows rightly. The effect of sorrow devoutly borne, in
bringing God closer to us, belongs to it, whether it be great or small;
whether it be, according to the metaphor of an earlier portion of this
psalm, 'a lion or an adder'; or whether it be a buzzing wasp or a
mosquito. As long as anything troubles me, I may make it a means of
bringing God closer to myself.
Therefore, there is no need for any sorrowful heart ever to say, 'I am
solitary as well as sad.' He will always come and sit down by us, and if
it be that, like poor Job upon his dunghill, we are not able to bear the
word of consolation, yet He will wait there till we are ready to take
it. He is there all the same, though silent, and will be near all of us,
if only we do not drive Him away. 'He will call upon Me and I will
answer him'; and the beginning of the answer is the real presence of God
with every troubled heart.
Then there follows the next stage, deliverance from trouble; 'I will
_deliver_ him.' That is not the same word as is employed in the previous
verse, though it is translated in the same way in our Bibles. The word
here means lifting up out of a pit, or dragging up out of the midst of
anything that surrounds a man, and so setting him in some place of
safety. Is this promise always true, about people who in sorrow of any
kind cast themselves upon God? Do they always get deliverance from Him?
There are some sorrows from the pressure of which we shall never escape.
Some of us have to carry such. Has this promise no application to the
people for whom outward life can never bring an end of the sorrows and
burdens that they carry? Not so. He will deliver us not only by taking
the burden off our backs, but by making us strong to carry it, and the
sorrow, which has changed from wild and passionate weeping into calm
submission, is sorrow from which we have been delivered. The serpent may
still wound our heel, but if God be with us He will give us strength to
press the wounded heel on the malignant head, and we can squeeze all the
poison out of it. The bitterness remains; be it so, but let us be quite
sure of this, that though sorrow be lifelong, that does not in the least
contradict the great and faithful promise, 'I will be with him in
trouble and deliver him,' for where He is _there_ is deliverance.
Lastly, there is the third of these promises for the troubled. 'I will
honour him.' The word translated 'honour' is more correctly rendered
'glorify.' Is not that the end of a trouble which has been borne in
company with Him; and from which, because it has been so borne, a devout
heart is delivered even whilst it lasts? Does not all such sorrow
hallow, ennoble, refine, purify the sufferer, and make him liker his
God? 'He for our profit, that we should be partakers of His holiness.'
Is not that God's way of glorifying us before heaven's glory? When a
blunt knife is ground upon a wheel, the sparks fly fast from the edge
held down upon the swiftly-revolving emery disc, but that is the only
way to sharpen the dull blade. Friction, often very severe friction, and
heat are indispensable to polish the shaft and turn the steel into a
mirror that will flash back the sunshine. So when God holds us to His
grindstone, it is to get a polish on the surface. 'I will deliver him
and I will glorify him.'