April 24

My soul is cast down within me. - Psalms 42:6.

“MAN is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward;” and whatever direction our life takes, it will be sure to conduct us through a vale of tears. Observe, here, the speaker himself. These are the words of David, a great man, who had even reached the throne. It was not while he was in Bethlehem, but after he had reached Jerusalem-after he had exchanged a shepherd’s crook for the royal sceptre- that he said, “O that I had wings like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest.” Yet he was a good man-an eminently good man-who possessed more experimental religion than any man before the incarnation of the Son of God; “a man after God’s own heart.” There are many who are perplexed and distressed because they think God has no regard for them, therefore they often ask, “If I am his why am I thus?” Whereas they are thus because they are his. They are pruned because they are vines, and because he would have them bring forth more fruit. They are in the furnace because they are gold; they are chastened because they are sons-“for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not.”

Observe, next, the extent and degree of his fear. You will see that it got through to his mind, and pulled his very soul down to the ground. “My soul is cast down within me.” It is not the water without a vessel that sinks it, but the water that gets in. While the mind is calm, peaceful, and heavenly, outward distresses are of little importance; but when all is dark without and gloomy within too, when man frowns, and God does not appear to smile, then is the soul tried. A man’s Spirit may sustain his infirmities, “but a wounded Spirit who can bear?” And, we may add, who can cure? Why, only the God of all grace, and the God of all comfort, to whom David made his complaint.

Let us, whenever we feel distressed and depressed in our mind, take the case and spread it before the Lord. He alone can alter the state of the mind who has access to it, and dominion over it. Let us remember that when the soul is cast down it is not destroyed; and endeavour to check instead of giving way to despondency; and say, in the preceding words, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, for he is the help of my countenance, and my God.”

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.”