All day long they engulf me like water; they enclose me on every side. Sermons
I. GOD'S HIDINGS ARE NEVER MERE ACTS OF SOVEREIGNTY. A thoughtful writer says, "I know that some have maintained that God sometimes forsakes his people in the exercise of his sovereignty. I confess I do not understand this. It appears to me that undue and unwarrantable liberties are often used with the sovereignty of God, and that many things are laid to its account with which it is not chargeable. We speak of the Divine sovereignty. But sovereignty is not an arbitrary, capricious thing; it is a righteous and holy thing; and God must ever act in conformity with the unalterable principles of his character. Believe it, there is no such mystery as some would make us think in those temporary desertions with which God sometimes visits his own people. The reason of them is to be found in themselves - in their sinfulness, in their unsteadfastness, in their unfaithfulness." II. GOD'S HIDINGS ARE ALWAYS EXPRESSIONS OF DIVINE WISDOM. They are special modes of dealing, arranged in precise adaptation to particular persons, at particular times, and under particular circumstances. Comfort lies in clearly seeing that God's hidings are not common and usual dealings, and therefore if God deals thus with us, it must be in wise and gracious adaptation just to us. III. GOD'S HIDINGS ARE THE BEGINNINGS OF HIS ANSWERS TO US. This may be effectively illustrated by our Lord's treatment of the Syro-phoenician woman. He began his answer by seeming indifference, and even seeming refusal, which drew forth her noble intensity. - R.T.
I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer Thy terrors, I am distracted. As the comforts which true religion affords are the only sure support against the evils and calamities to which every condition of life is more or less exposed, so the terrors of religion, being very grievous in themselves, exclusive of these comforts, add weight to all our miseries, and are a burden too heavy for the spirit of a man to sustain. These terrors arise from —I. UNCERTAINTY IN RELIGION. The religious man fears God because he knows Him; and therefore he fears Him, as a wise, just, good, and merciful Father and Judge ought to be feared: his fear is full of love and reverence, and has nothing dreadful in it, unless guilt and a wounded conscience arm it with unnatural terrors; but the superstitious man fears God, just as children and weak men fear spirits and apparitions; he trembles at the thought of Him, he flies from he knows not what, seeks refuge he knows not where; and this hurry and confusion of mind he calls religion; but the psalmist has given it a better name, it is distraction. II. FALSE NOTIONS OF GOD, AND OF THE HONOUR AND WORSHIP DUE TO HIM. We ought never to expect more from God than He has expressly promised, or than He may grant consistently with the measures by which His providence rules and governs the world. If we exceed these bounds, religion, instead of being our comfort, will soon become our torment; but we, and not religion, will be to blame. If we consider that this world is a state of trial, and that afflictions are trials, we can never lay it down to ourselves, that God will relieve us at our request from all afflictions; for this would be owning ourselves in a state of trial, and, at the same time, expecting that no trial should come near us: It is supposing that God has shown us a way to defeat the great end of His providence in sending us into this world; He sent us here to be proved, and yet we think to prevail on Him not to prove us. III. A CONSCIENCE WOUNDED UNDER THE SENSE OF GUILT. Natural religion has no cure for this; because the title by obedience being forfeited, there are no certain principles of reason from which we can conclude how far, and to what instances, the mercy of God will extend; because we can have no assurance of ourselves that our sorrow is such, and our resolutions of amendment such as may deserve mercy; and lastly, because this whole matter is founded upon reasons and speculations too exact, and too refined, to be of common use to mankind. This last reason alone will sufficiently justify the wisdom and goodness of God, in proposing to the world a safe and general method for the salvation of sinners; for what if you have penetration enough to see a way for sinners to escape under natural religion; must your great parts be a measure for God's dealing with the world? Shall thousands and thousands live and die without comfort because they cannot reason as you do? This consideration should make those who have the highest opinion of themselves, and therefore of natural religion, adore the goodness of God in condescending to the infirmities of men, and showing them the way to mercy, which they were unable to find out. This He has done by the revelation of the Gospel of Christ, which is the sinner's great charter of pardon, a certain remedy against all the terrors and fears of guilt. IV. ACCIDENTAL DISORDERS OF MIND OR BODY. Whatever the union of soul and body is, so united they are, that the disorders of one often derive themselves to the other. A melancholy mind will waste the strength and bring paleness and leanness upon the body; disorders in the body do often affect the mind; a stroke of the palsy will rob a man of the use of his understanding, and leave him disabled in mind as well as body. For this reason it is that I ascribe some religious fears to the disorders of the body, though they properly belong to the mind. These terrors cannot be imputed as a blemish to religion; not by him, at least, who acknowledges the providence of God, and whose principle of religion is reason; for all madness is destructive of reason, as much as these terrors are of religion: they are both destructive: they are evils to which we must submit; and if we cannot account for the reason of them, it becomes us to be dumb, and not open our mouths in His presence whose ways are past finding out. (Bp. Sherlock.) People Abaddon, Ethan, Heman, Korah, Mahalath, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Altogether, Circle, Close, Compassed, Completely, Daily, Encompassed, Engulfed, Flood, Round, Surround, Surrounded, WatersOutline 1. A prayer containing a grievous complaint.Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 88:1-18 5831 depression Library Out of the Deep of Doubt, Darkness, and Hell. O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night unto Thee. Oh! let my prayer enter into Thy presence. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draweth nigh unto Hell. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, and in the deep.--Ps. lxxxviii. 1, 2. If I go down to Hell, Thou art there also. Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee; but the night is as clear as the day.--Ps. cxxxix. 7, 11. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling. … Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep How to Make Use of Christ as the Truth, that we May Get Our Case and Condition Cleared up to Us. How a Desolate Man Ought to Commit Himself into the Hands of God Our Status. His Past Work. How is Christ, as the Life, to be Applied by a Soul that Misseth God's Favour and Countenance. Letter xvi to Rainald, Abbot of Foigny Letter xxiv (Circa A. D. 1126) to Oger, Regular Canon The Wrath of God Period ii. The Church from the Permanent Division of the Empire Until the Collapse of the Western Empire and the First Schism Between the East and the West, or Until About A. D. 500 Sense in Which, and End for which all Things were Delivered to the Incarnate Son. Of Faith. The Definition of It. Its Peculiar Properties. Psalms Links Psalm 88:17 NIVPsalm 88:17 NLT Psalm 88:17 ESV Psalm 88:17 NASB Psalm 88:17 KJV Psalm 88:17 Bible Apps Psalm 88:17 Parallel Psalm 88:17 Biblia Paralela Psalm 88:17 Chinese Bible Psalm 88:17 French Bible Psalm 88:17 German Bible Psalm 88:17 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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