Homiletic Review Psalm 143:8 Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning; for in you do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk… : — There are days and days. There are days of darkness such as this psalm illustrates. Many think that David sung this psalm when he fled from Absalom. I. IT WAS A DARK DAY FOR DAVID. 1. It was a day of hard environment. "The enemy hath persecuted my soul." Think of David fugitive, and climbing, in sackcloth, the slopes of the Mount of Olives. There are days when everything seems to go against us. 2. It was a day for David of clean discouragement. "He hath smitten my life down to the ground." Have you not been in such a discouraged day? 3. It was a day of despair. When hope has gone out and despair has come in, your hands hang and your step stops. 4. This was a day for David when memory made contrast (ver. 5). The only comfort for the soul in such plight is the memory of better days. That is a very bad, enervating mood when one, instead of looking forward, is perpetually looking backward. Oh, the brave apostles Though prisoner in Rome, "forgetting the things which are behind." II. HOW TO GET OUT OF SUCH A DARK DAY AND MOOD INTO A GOOD DAY. 1. By prayer. "Cause me to hear." The soul addresses God; turns resolutely Godward. 2. By beginning the day with a sense of God. "Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning." Count your mercies and begin the day by doing it. There is a way of looking at disadvantage in the light of advantage. Mr. Edison, partially deaf since childhood, was told by a specialist an operation would help him. He answered, "Give up an advantage that enables me to think on undisturbed by noise or conversation? No, indeed." 3. By constancy in trust. "For in Thee do I trust." Trust, and keep on trusting anyway. 4. By determining to do, and at all hazards to do the right. "Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk." Notice that — the praying and the walking; the search for the right and the resolve to do it. Darkness shall surely flee from such a soul. Such turning of dark days into good ones makes — character! (Homiletic Review.) Parallel Verses KJV: Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee. |
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