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I. ITS CHARACTERISTICS.

1. How earnest it is! The psalmist was not in any light, indifferent, or formal spirit when he uttered this prayer. Its intensity is evident all the way through.

2. And believing. "In thy faithfulness answer me" (ver. 1). He believed the promises of God, and claims their fulfillment, expects that what God has promised he will make good. Such expectation is all too rare; and its rarity accounts for the many unanswered prayers over which we mourn.

3. And sincere. "And in thy righteousness" (ver. 1). If he had regarded iniquity in his heart, he could not thus have prayed, for he would have known that the Lord would not hear him; but he could appeal to him who was the righteous Searcher of all hearts, that with true heart he prayed. Hence he could appeal - to the righteousness of God, because "the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and his countenance doth behold the upright."

4. Humble. (Ver. 2.) For whilst he could appeal to God to attest his innocence and sincerity of heart, that did not prove him to be faultless in the sight of God. St. Paul said, "I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified." And similar to this is the psalmist's confession here. He might be, and he was, innocent before men, and sincere in heart toward God; but yet there were many a trangression and fault and failure, the remembrance of which made him pray, "Enter not into judgment," etc. (ver. 2). Such were the characteristics of this prayer, and should be of all prayer - indeed, must be, if our prayers are to avail.

II. ITS COMPLAINT. The psalmist tells what his enemies had done against him (ver. 3).

1. They had persecuted his soul. He had, no doubt, some outward, present persecution in his thought; but in reading this psalm we may transfer his words to those spiritual persecutions which we often have to suffer at the hands of our great enemy; and, thus applied, the whole psalm answers to all too frequent experience of the people of God today. For the enemy doth by all manner of temptation persecute our soul - he suggests doubt, he stirs up evil thoughts, he assails our faith, he darkens our mind, and in every way seeks to loosen our hold on God.

2. And some have to confess, "He hath smitten my life down to the ground." There have been periods in the history of God's servants - there were in David's - when the Divine life in them has been all but non-existent, when they could not pray, nor witness for God, nor give him praise, nor render any service of a spiritual kind. They have been terrible seasons - the enemy hath come in like a flood, and the overwhelmed ones were unable to pray that "the Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard against him."

3. And then, in consequence, there has been the "dwelling in darkness, as those that have been long dead." Oh, the darkness of that time! it was as the gloom of the grave. The soul that the enemy hath so smitten is conscious of his awful loss; that the life of God in him is seemingly gone; and he seems abandoned to the utter corruption of sin! No wonder that his spirit is overwhelmed and his heart desolate (ver. 4). How could it be otherwise? He is simply and utterly miserable.

III. THE COMING OF RELIEF.

1. God leads him to remember the days of old. To hunger after those blessed times when God came to his soul, and was his Helper and Deliverer. Full of help are memories like these.

2. Then to "meditate on all thy works." To see the wisdom, power, and love displayed in them, and so to hope that for him, too, there should be wrought some gracious work of God. As he thus mused, the fire of love and desire and faith would begin to burn, and then his musing thought would take form and action; for:

3. He would stretch forth his hands unto God. His soul was athirst for God, and now forth go his hands in prayer. Yes, relief was coming; for there are its near harbingers, everywhere and always.

IV. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TAKEN BY FORCE. (Vers. 7-12.) What a crowd and rush of prayers, protestations, cries, and pleadings, these verses contain! One after another they come, in hot haste and eagerness that will take no denial. It is a very besiegement of the throne of grace. But the chief burden of all is, not for deliverance from enemies, but for a closer knowledge of God; the consciousness of his favor, the speedy hearing of his loving-kindness; the being made to know the way wherein God would have him walk. Then come prayers that God would teach, would lead, would quicken, and would bring his soul out of trouble. There is prayer for deliverance from calamities; but the great longing is after the doing of God's will, and the quickening of his soul in righteousness. Prayer helps him in attaining that submissiveness of will which is essential to his gaining that unspeakable blessing on which his heart is set. And in proportion as a man is taught of God, this is the supreme desire of his soul. If he gains this, it matters not much whether the outward calamities go or stay. If God's face shines upon him, man's may frown as it will. He has heaven within him, even though hell be outside of and all around him. What can any enemy do unto him, since God is on his side? He has won the kingdom of heaven, and no man can take it from him. Blessed is any sorrow when such reaction as this psalm reveals follows from it ] The light affliction which was for the moment is now working out the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The travail of his soul has issued in the glorious birth of the life of the love of God. And this is ever God's intent in all our sorrows; for this he lets the enemy smite our soul down to the ground, and make us dwell in darkness. He desires that we should flee unto him to hide us. And, blessed be his Name! he ever will; and far more than that will he do. - S.C.

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KJV: {A Psalm of David.} Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

WEB: Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.