Psalm 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privately laid a snare for me. : — I. A HUMBLE APPEAL. "Thou knewest my path," — Thou knewest that my cause was just, and the steps which I took for obtaining redress were holy. 1. The path of prayer (ver. 1). 2. The way of faith, — choosing God for his portion, trusting Him as his refuge, expecting bountiful treatment at His hands (vers. 5, 7). Without this choice of God as our portion, and confidence in Him, prayer is mere selfishness, and has nothing to distinguish it from the cries of the lost. II. A CONTRITE CONFESSION. Thou knewest how impatient I was even when professing meek submission. I could bear the great trial of Saul's persecution, but not the lighter one of Nabal's churlish insolence. Thou knewest the crookedness of my path, when by false pretences I evaded an enemy and deceived a friend; using sinful artifice where I should have relied in truth upon the God of truth. III. A THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE LORD'S GRACIOUS CONDUCT TOWARDS DAVID WHEN HIS SPIRIT WAS OVERWHELMED. "Then Thou knewest my path:" Thou didst approve my course; and therefore didst support and comfort me under my trials. But how much greater occasion has the believer in Christ to make this thankful acknowledgment! Conclusion — 1. Let the children of God lay their account for sufferings and sorrows here below: heavy sorrows and dreadful sufferings, it may be. Such things are appointed for us, because needful, as is the furnace to separate the dross from the pure ore. 2. All trouble should lead us to God — not from Him. There is in the blessed God health and cure for all diseases of the mind; balm in Gilead, and a never-failing Physician there. 3. Let us all cherish the thought that God knows our path; in the fullest sense of the words knows our every step. To the sincere Christian, to the upright soul this truth is full of comfort. (C. Hodgson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. |
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