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God's comforts are not like melting vapours and summer brooks. They are "rivers of pleasures," and "wells of salvation." We stoop down to drink where Abraham bent the knee. We draw water where David assuaged his thirst. Jesus talks to us of the living water which shall be "in us a well of water." If the toils, and cares, and troubles which exercised the pious soul of the writer of this psalm should come in on us in all their multitude, and with all their tumult, like the noise of many waters, the "comforts" of our God, fuller, deeper, and more abiding, will come flowing in to still them, and to fill all the soul with their own sweet delights.

I. SUPPOSE THAT THE TROUBLE ARISES DIRECTLY OUT OF THE HEART. The multitude of the thoughts in this ease are all tinged with self-accusation. Sin revives, the better self seems dead. Where is the comfort for such a state? In the whole Gospel. In all the fulness of Jesus Christ — His cleansing blood, His purifying Spirit, His tender love, His power to save to the uttermost.

II. Suppose that the trouble arises, not out of the heart directly, BUT OUT OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES. There are some who have not habitually many fears within, but who have often or constantly great fightings without. Martha still lives her busy, toilsome life. "Careful and troubled about many things" is written on many a face. The comforts God has for such a state are manifold, and they sometimes break upon the man suddenly, like stars through clouds. "Ebenezer!" That seals and keeps all the past, so that now you cannot lose it. It will be a fact for evermore, and I trust to you a blessed memory, that the Lord has helped you through all that past. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want!" Is not that a plentiful provision for the present hour? And there are some texts with still more tenderness in them (Matthew 6:8; Philippians 4:19; 1 Peter 5:7).

III. Or suppose that the trouble arises in some way OUT OF THE STRANGENESS AND THE STRENGTH OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. Every man with a will, with a plan, with any great and generous purpose, is sure to be at some time so thwarted as greatly to need the comforts of God. Then take these comforts, these two: — The first is this, that undoubtedly the supreme and perfect will of God has been working in all. And as soon as there is a devout recognition of that will, there will be some beginning of rest, some influx of a holy calm. But there is another. Because another is needed to make the comfort full. For the man might still say, "Then all I have been working for is pure loss — loss of energy, loss of affection, loss of time — mere ruin in God's universe. God does not need ruins to build with. How much better, therefore, it would have been if I could have discovered the perfect will earlier, so as to save all that bootless toil and useless waste." Not so. For here is the second comfort: — "All things work together for good to them that love God."

IV. A devout Christian LOOKING AT THE WHOLE CHURCH may well have a "multitude of thoughts within him." This whole Church is the one body of Christ, and "every one members one of another"; and yet what divisions, what conflicts there are among the parts and sections! But here also God's comforts come in. The Lord reigneth. He will heal the distractions of His Church. He will give "the same mind and the same judgment." He will give one heart and one soul. He will pour out His Spirit as a spirit of love and power and of a sound mind. He will restore the waste places, the ruins of many generations. He will bring again Zion. He will establish and make Jerusalem a praise in all the earth.

(A. Raleigh, D.D.)

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KJV: In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

WEB: In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul.