I. How FAR THE DISCOURAGEMENTS OF SAINTS MAY REACH. They may reach —

1. To the refusing of the word of consolation brought to you — "My soul refuseth to be comforted."

2. To the consequent affliction and distress of the body (Psalm 102:4, 5, 6, 9; Jeremiah 20:7-9).

II. WHY DOES GOD PERMIT THIS? It is always for His people's good.

1. So only will men come to God. So long as they find fulness in creatures they will not come (1 Timothy 4:5; 1 Samuel 30:6).

2. To make us value peace and quietness of soul.

3. God, as a tender Father, would have all the love of His children, and so removes what intercepts that love, as our earthly comforts often do.

4. Our comforts are sent to bind us to God and to wean us from the world, but sometimes we need to be weaned from these weaners that we may grow up unto more perfection.

5. To prevent over-confidence: the soul grows wanton and secure under its comforts, and then these need to be withdrawn.

6. As a wise and honest chirurgion, though he desire his patient to be soon cured, yet if he see the plaister doth not lie right, he takes it off again: so doth Christ do if He see that the comforts of His people are not laid rightly. Hence a poor soul may ere long be much discouraged, though for the present full of comfort. He will, if he lay his comfort upon internal blessings and measure God's love by them.

III. BUT HOW CAN ALL THESE DISCOURAGEMENTS STAND WITH GRACE? Can a man be thus to and fro in his comfort in Christ and yet be holy? Yes, for though there be evil in this, yet there is grace withal. Though they be much cast down, they still mourn after God. They long for His presence. But let such cast-down ones take heed —

1. Not to forget God.

2. Not so to seek comfort that you lose it yet more: there is such a thing as more haste and worse speed. Some seek comfort in a use of reason, and try to argue themselves into comfort. Others give up their common duty and neglect their proper callings, thinking that in their distress here is nothing to be done but prayer. But thus they lay themselves open to yet more temptations.

3. Not so to strain after some outward comfort that you lose that which is inward. I read of Francis Spira that, having denied the truth in order to get a good estate for his wife and children, he could no longer bear the sight of them, his conscience being in such horror of what he had done. They had been his comforts before, but now to see them was to be filled with misery. What comfort had Judas in his thirty pieces of silver? God forbid that we should drink the blood of our own peace and comfort.

IV. REMEDIES FOR OUR DISCOURAGEMENTS.

1. DO now what you would if now you were to be justified.

2. Find out why God has left you: if for some sin, be humbled for if.

3. Read much in God's Word, and so fill your mind with thoughts of Christ and with the blessed promises of God.

4. When God restores comforts to you, take care to understand them: if you would be rid of Satan coming into your quarters, fall you upon his. Attack him and do him all the mischief you can: put your comforts into Christ's hand and use them for His.

(W. Bridge, M. A.)

1. Grief gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first. What bustling there is here before David can get the victory over his own heart.

2. A gracious and living soul is most sensible of the want of spiritual means.

3. A godly soul, by reason of the grace given it, knows when it is well with it and when it is ill, when a good day and when a bad. Now, our text tells us of David's state wherein he was, and of his carriage in that state. He was much cast down, but he bids himself trust in God. Now, God's people are often cast down.

II. THE DISCOURAGEMENTS WHICH COME TO GOD'S PEOPLE FROM WITHOUT.

1. God Himself. He sometimes hides His face from them (Matthew 27:46). It is with the godly in this case as with vapours drawn up by the sun, which, when the extracting force of the sun leaves them, fall down again to the earth. So when the soul raised up by the beams of God's countenance is left of God, it presently begins to sink.

2. By Satan. He is all for this; being disquieted himself, he would disquiet others.

3. By Satan's instruments and servants. Hear them (Psalm 137:7).

4. By ourselves. There is a seminary of causes of discouragement within us. Our flesh is one of them.

III. THOSE THAT ARE FROM WITHIN. There is cause oft in the body of those in whom a melancholy temper prevaileth. But in the soul, too, there are causes of discouragement.

1. Want of knowledge in the understanding.

2. Forgetfulness (Hebrews 12:5).

3. Underrating our comforts (Job 15:11).

4. A childish kind of peevishness. Abraham (Genesis 15:2; Jonah 4:9; Jeremiah 31:15).

5. False reasoning and error in our discourse. Many imagine their failings to be failings, and their fallings to be fallings away.

6. Proceeding by a false method and order in judging of their estate. They will begin with election, which is not the first, but the highest step of the ladder. God descends down unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification: we must ascend to Him, beginning where He ends.

7. Seeking for their comfort too much in sanctification, neglecting justification, relying too much upon their own performances. This is a natural kind of popery in men. St. Paul was of another mind (Philippians 3:8, 9). Still, though the main pillar of our comfort be in the free forgiveness of our sins, yet, if there be a neglect in growing in holiness, the soul will never be soundly quiet. Sin ever raises doubts and fears.

8. The neglect of keeping a clear conscience.

9. Ignorance of Christian liberty, by unnecessary scruples and doubts.

10. Want of employment. An unemployed life is a burden to itself.

11. Omission of duties and offices of love to them to whom they are due.

12. Want of firm resolution in good things. Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture, and halting in religion is full of disquiet (1 Kings 18:21). God will not speak peace to a staggering spirit that hath always its religion and its way to choose.

IV. BUT THERE ARE POSITIVE CAUSES AS WELL AS NEGATIVE ONES.

1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things. These are ever changing, and to build our hopes upon them is to build castles in the air. Micah is right (Micah 2:10).

2. When we depend too much upon the opinions of other men. Men that seek themselves too much abroad find themselves disquieted at home.

3. When we look too much and too long upon the ill in ourselves and abroad. Now, learn from all this not to be too hasty in censuring others when they are cast down, for there are so many things which cast men down; and to prepare our hearts for trouble, so that when it comes we be not cast down.

V. CASTING DOWN OURSELVES CAUSES MANY EVILS.

1. It indisposes a man to all good duties.

2. It is a great wrong to God Himself.

3. It makes a man forgetful of all his former blessings, and —

4. Unfit to receive mercies. Till the Spirit of God meekens the soul, say what you will, it minds nothing.

5. It keeps off beginners from coming in. Hence, we should all labour after a calmed spirit.

VI. REMEDIES.

1. To do, as here, cite the soul before itself, and, as it were, to reason the case. God hath set up a court in man's heart, the court of conscience, and its prejudging will prevent future judging. But evil men love not this court; they are afraid of it (1 Kings 22:16; Acts 24:25). Self-love, indolence, pride, are all against it.

2. And we must not merely cite the soul before itself; but it must be pressed to give an account, and if that will not help, then speak to Jesus Christ by prayer, that as He stilled the waves, so He would quiet our hearts.

3. A godly man can cast a restraint upon himself, as David here does. There is an art in bearing troubles as in bearing burdens, and we should seek to learn it.

4. We see here again that a godly man can make good use of privacy. When be is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself. The wicked dread being alone. Illustration — Charles IX. of France after the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day.

5. God hath made every man a governor over himself.

( Sibbes, Richard.)

1. WHEN THE SOUL IS TROUBLED FOR THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE VEXED FOR. As Ahab (1 Kings 21:1, 2).

II. WHEN IT SPRINGS PROM SELF-LOVE.

III. WHEN WE TROUBLE OURSELVES, THOUGH NOT WITHOUT CAUSE, YET WITHOUT BOUNDS. We may know when our dejection is excessive.

1. When it hinders us from holy duties. It was not thus with our Lord (John 19:26, 27; Luke 23:42).

2. When we forget the grounds of comfort that are given us.

3. When it inclines the soul to evil. Therefore inquire —

IV. WHAT IS THE SWEET AND HOLY TEMPER OF SOUL THAT WE SHOULD SEEK FOR?

1. The soul must be raised to a right but yet a bounded grief. And to this end we should look at the state of the soul in itself and on what terms it is with God (Leviticus 16:29). And we should look outside of ourselves to note the causes of grief that are there (Jeremiah 9:1).

2. But our grief must be kept within bounds, and it is so, when it is ready to meet God at every turn in obedience and communion; and when reason approves our grief, and when our grief moves us to all duties of love towards others. Our concern for God's house cannot be excessive (Psalm 69:9; Psalm 119:39; Isaiah 59:19; Exodus 32:19). See, then, the life of a poor Christian in this world. He is in great danger if he be not troubled at all, and, when troubled, lest he be over-troubled. Let him ask the Holy Spirit's help (John 11:13).

( Sibbes, Richard.)

2. Love not overmuch anything in this world lest when we have to give it up we be brokenhearted. The way to prevent this is given in Colossians 3:1; 5:3. Take care when trouble comes not to mingle our passions with it. Our hearts are deceitful. Who would have thought that Moses would have murmured, David murdered (2 Samuel 12:9), Peter denied our Lord (Matthew 26:72)? But trouble and temptation draw forth hidden evils. Therefore let us watch over our own souls and examine them continually. Let us not yield to passion; do we not belong to God? Our passions are to serve, not rule us. Man's curse was to be a servant of servants (Genesis 9:25). Exercise strong self-denial. The gate, the entrance of religion is narrow, and we must strip ourselves of self before we can enter.

( Sibbes, Richard.)

1. He is depressed. Aspiration has grown faint. We all know these heavier moments, when the spring seems to go out of our being, and we feel as though the tripping step will never return. We feel prematurely old.

2. He is not merely burdened, he is possessed by a feverish uncertainty. He can no longer look at things calmly and therefore truly, and everything appears to him in monstrous and distorted guise. There is no more fatal minister in human life than the disquieted eye. So long as the eye can gaze at things with cool and quiet vision we see things in their true perspective and proportion. But when the eye is shaken into restlessness its focus is perverted, and everything is seen awry. But the disquieted soul is not only possessed of a restless eye, it is the possessor of a nerveless hand.

II. THE REMEDY.

1. The first step in the removal of this spiritual sickness is a realization of the personal relationship of the soul to God. Once postulate God, and all things come within the plane of the credible.

2. The second essential secret of recovery is to believe in the possibility of God's health being transmitted to us. There is a striking difference between verse five and verse eleven. In the former verse the psalmist speaks of praising God "for the health of His countenance," and in verse eleven he speaks of praising God, "who is the health of my countenance." The health of the one can be transmitted to the other. We more frequently speak of the contagion of disease. Perhaps when we know a little more we shall speak with equal assurance of the contagion of health. If evil communications corrupt good man-hers, holy communications refine them. One of the secrets of obtaining a healthy spiritual life is to obtain the fellowship of saintly people. But the transcendently important clue is to obtain the friendship of God. God's holiness is contagious; to commune with Him is to become a partaker of the Divine nature.

(J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

1. Physical weakness.

2. A constitutional tendency to look on the darker side of things.

3. The misapprehension of certain main spiritual truths, such as the character of God, conversion, etc.

II. TREATMENT OF THE DISEASE.

1. If physical weakness be the secret of our spiritual depression, then the only effectual cure is to aim at strengthening that which is really weak, namely, the bodily health; and not to weaken the body still more by fretting over a lowness of spirits which results from our feeble physical condition almost as inevitably as loss of light follows from the setting of the sun.

2. If, again, it is a constitutional tendency to look on the dark side of things generally, that has to answer for the gloomy hue of our religion, the obvious remedy is to look on the brighter aspect.

3. Or if, by unhappy training, or through the bias of temperament, we have come to entertain such views of God, and of spiritual things, as are directly causative of religious despondency, then we must do our best to remedy the evil by acquiring right views. Above all, we must sedulously and prayerfully cherish right views of God, whom we dishonour by regarding as a captious taskmaster — Him whose nature, and whose name, is Love!

(T. F. Lockyer, B. A.)

1. Sometimes our compassionate Father, who in mercy visits us so often with external afflictions, is pleased, for the same benevolent reasons, to make us suffer internal sorrows. As when the sun is eclipsed, all nature appears to mourn, so everything is gloomy to the believer when anything interposes between his soul and the gracious countenance of his God.

2. Sometimes Satan is permitted to disquiet and distress the children of God.

3. With Satan, wicked men often concur to depress and cast down the pious.

4. But the great causes of our dejections and melancholy are to be found in ourselves.

(1)From the temperament of the body

(2)From ignorance and error.

(3)From sin.

II. WHY, LIKE THE PSALMIST, WE SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO RISE FROM THIS STATE. Your duty to God, as wail as your own happiness, requires this. How imperfectly are all the Christian duties performed by you, when you are thus "swallowed up with overmuch sorrow": how unfitly do you worship Him who loves a cheerful and a thankful giver?

III. THE MEANS WHEREBY WE MAY AGAIN OBTAIN PEACE, COMFORT, AND A CALM TRUST IN GOD.

1. Imitate the psalmist here: instead of yielding to a vague grief, cite your soul; inquire of it the particular cause of your sorrow: different remedies will be requisite, according to the different sources of your distress: and be careful that you trifle not with God, and your comfort, and your salvation, while you inquire of your soul, "why art thou cast down?"

2. Be careful to understand the Gospel-scheme of salvation; especially the nature, the terms, the intent of the covenant of grace.

3. Study also the promises of God; view them in their variety, their extent, their application to you.

4. In your devotions, be much employed in praise and thanksgiving, instead of principally occupying yourselves with lamentations. If you cannot do this with all the joy that you would, do it as well as you can.

5. Be not unacquainted with your own hearts; examine them, to see the marks of conversion, and to "make your calling sure" to yourselves.

6. But do not confine yourselves to this self-examination; be also engaged in active duties. The growing and fruitful Christian will be a comfortable one; a degree of peace and satisfaction will follow every good action; and your graces, acquiring maturity, will shine by their own light.

(H. Kollock, D. D.)

1. Good men are often east down; their souls are often disquieted in them, from want, as they imagine, of actual communion with God in duty, or a sense of His gracious presence with them; and if this complaint were as well founded as it is a common and heavy complaint, it would be a just cause, no doubt, of great disquiet. But how are we to judge of our communion with God in duty?(1) We are to judge by an habitual sense of the Divinity upon our minds, and the devout reverential impressions we feel from His presence with us, and our accountableness to Him.(2) We are to judge of communion with God in duty, from the sense we have of our need of daily supplies and communications from His fulness and all-sufficiency.(3) It will be found no unsatisfying evidence of God's gracious presence with us in duty if we are enabled to deal fairly with our own hearts.

2. The suggestions of Satan assail the minds of good men. But how are we to distinguish such suggestions as may be properly ascribed to the grand enemy, and those that arise from the unsubdued corruption and lusts of our own minds? We are to distinguish by the welcome they meet with, and the free quarters we allow them, on the one hand; or by the pain and distress they give us, on the other, and by our opposition to them, and our endeavours to dismiss them. It is the consent of the will alone that constitutes the moral turpitude of every emotion or action; and while it is our daily struggle to withhold this, and we are, upon the whole, through Divine grace, enabled to withhold it, we have nothing to fear from all the efforts of Satanical machinations to taint and corrupt our affections. And here the disquieted soul may rest.

3. Not a few have been disquieted and cast down from false representations and wrong conceptions of the Divine decrees; as if thereby a certain number were under a sentence of reprobation, and for ever excluded from the Divine mercy. But this ground of disquiet is most unreasonable, and most dishonourable to God.

4. Another cause of much disquietude arises from imperfect or dark views of the ground of our acceptance with God. A cause of disquietude to which bad men are entire strangers, unless under the immediate horror of momentary convictions.

II. THE PSALMIST'S EXPOSTULATION WITH HIMSELF. "Why art thou cast down?" etc. God doth not leave His people to lie under their spiritual distresses, to pore over them, and sink under them. He leads them home to prove their hearts; he leads them to their hope.

1. He leads them to prove their spirit, and to observe what is amiss about them: to mark this passion as too violent; that affection as wrong directed; that here they have lost the guard over themselves, and spoke unadvisedly with their tongue, and have been led into indiscretions, into excesses; that there their attachment to the world, or worldly connections, have been too strong, and occupied their time and attention too much.

2. He leads them to their hope — to "Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." It is from this Sun of Righteousness that the first dawn of hope opens upon the trembling, awakened sinner, and, ready to sink under a load of guilt, supports him. And when believers themselves fall, and thereby wound their peace and lose sight of all their evidences, they have no other refuge.

III. THE PSALMIST'S SUPPORT AMIDST ALL HIS DISTRESS. "Still hope in God," etc.

(T. Gordon.)

1. It magnifies troubles.

2. It drags at and prevents work.

3. It shadows blessings, making the hard things in life prominent rather than the ameliorating things.

4. It bereaves of God and shadows the promises.

II. THERE ARE MANY CAUSES FOR DOWNHEARTEDNESS IN THIS STRANGE AND DISCIPLINARY WORLD,

1. Exile.

2. Overstrain of work.

3. Hard environment.

III. HOW CAN ONE DEFEAT DOWNHEARTEDNESS AND LIFT INTO AND KEEP HIMSELF IN CHEER?

1. By recognition of the fact that downheartedness is worst for us. A man ought to esteem it as bad for the soul as some corrupting contagion is for the body.

2. By service for others. That is one trouble with downheartedness — it emphasizes self. And a good, and frequently quick, cure for it is the determined emphasizing on our part of other Selves, thus causing, somewhat at least, a forgetfulness of the morbid self.

3. I pray you also, when you are downhearted, make your work a sacrament. By strong and prayerful volition put yourself at the daily duty; do it even more painstakingly than ever, even though you feel so little like it. A high reactive feeling of victory will have large share in scattering your darkness.

4. Last and chiefest, turn to God. Follow the example of the psalmist here.

(W. Hoyt, D. D)

II. THE DESIRABLENESS OF THE INVESTIGATION WHICH THE PSALMIST INSTITUTED.

1. It is very often for a want of asking the question that you are in that state at all. Many men allow partly imaginary trials to creep into their souls, that scarcely have a palpable existence if they were only inquired into, and yet when once they are seen they are watched over, and they grow until they expand to such an extent that they seem to fill the man's whole spirit and all around him; whereas if they were just looked at in the face in the light of Divine presence and in the glory that beams from another world, they would vanish in a moment like mists before the rising sun; the man's trouble would be turned into triumph, and his saddest sorrows into sweetest song. Let the inquiry be made, for it is for lack of the inquiry very often that the soul is cast down within us, and is disquieted in all it has to pass through.

2. The inquiry should be made because generally, if not entirely, it would be found that in the Divine dealings there really was no cause whatever for the soul to be cast down at all. The very form of the question implies that. "Why art thou cast down?" Really, the psalmist does not know of any reason why it should be, and he speaks to his soul like another man, of whom he was surprised and almost ashamed.

3. Another reason why the question should be asked is because very often the answer to it will be found in the soul itself. "You ask me why I am cast down within you. Remember all the accumulation of worldliness and care and greed and sinful indulgence that you have heaped up upon me till I have been buried under it and could not move."

III. THE COUNSEL THE PSALMIST ADDRESSES TO HIS SOUL. "Hope thou in God." Look at Martin Luther when his enemies are like raging lions gathered round him, and he is cast into prison and all things look dark and threatening, and a common soul might be disquieted and cast down. "No," he says, "let us sing the Psalms 46th psalm, ' God is our refuge and strength, a very present help; therefore will not we fear though the mountains be removed.'" His soul is not cast down. He hopes in God. What say you — the stream is dried up? Well, in all probability it is in mercy it has, for if that had continued you had never gone to the fountain. Hope thou in God, for if you can say, "God is my salvation," with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. What do you say — your strength is exhausted and you are feeble and have no power left? Then hope thou in God, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

(J. P. Chown.)

II. HAVE AN EYE TO THE EXAMPLES OF THOSE WHO HAVE THUS PLACED THEIR TRUST IN GOD, AND HAVE FOUND HELP IN THE TIME OF NEED. Wonderful is that instance of an unshaken confidence in God, which is displayed for our instruction, and recorded for our imitation, in the history of the sufferings and of the patience of Job.

III. Endeavour to STRENGTHEN OUR RELIANCE ON GOD FROM THE EXPERIENCE WE OURSELVES HAVE HAD OF HIS FORMER LOVINGKINDNESS TOWARDS US. To God we owe our being, and those blessings which we either now do, or ever did, enjoy. There are many calamities incident to men which we have, through the goodness of God, escaped. He who hath delivered us from so great dangers, and doth deliver, in Him we may safely trust, that He will yet deliver us. Is the Lord's hand, that has been so often stretched forth for our help, since shortened, that it can no longer save? Or is His ear, that has been so often opened to our prayers, grown heavy, that it can no more hear?

(Bishop Smalridge.)

(R. Berry.)

1. For Divine vindication.

2. For Divine deliverance.

3. For Divine information.

4. For Divine guidance.

II. AN APPEAL TO SELF. He was conscious of —

1. The personality of his soul.

2. The sorrow of his soul.

3. The interests of his son!

(Homilist.)

1. For judgment against the accusations of an ungodly nation. Nothing uncommon for the Christian to be the target of wrong charges.

2. For deliverance from the deceitful and unjust man.

3. For light and truth to lead him back to Zion.

II. THE EXILE'S PROMISE.

1. To go to the altar, i.e. for sacrifice, consecration, worship.

2. To seize the harp for thanksgiving and praise.Religious services should be gladsome; those in the home as well as those in the sanctuary. Our hearts too often like "muffled drums beating funeral marches," rather than like well-tuned harps sending forth strains of sweetest harmony and gladdest adoration, etc.

III. THE EXILE'S SOLILOQUY.

1. A question.

2. A response.Cast down! — "Hope." "Disquieted!" — "Praise." "Praise Him who is the health," the beauty, the ruddy glow, the youth, "of thy countenance, and thy God."

(J. O. Keen, D. D.)

     5436   pain
     8023   faith, necessity
     8478   self-examination
     8479   self-examination, examples
     8724   doubt, dealing with

Psalm 42:1-11

     5831   depression

Psalm 42:4-11

     8670   remembering

Psalm 42:5-11

     8713   discouragement

Psalm 42:9-11

     5831   depression

The Alarum
That is not, however, the topic upon which I now desire to speak to you. I come at this time, not so much to plead for the early as for the awakening. The hour we may speak of at another time--the fact is our subject now. It is bad to awake late, but what shall be said of those who never awake at all? Better late than never: but with many it is to be feared it will be never. I would take down the trumpet and give a blast, or ring the alarm-bell till all the faculties of the sluggard's manhood are …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Knox Little -- Thirst Satisfied
William John Knox Little, English preacher, was born 1839 and educated at Cambridge University. He has filled many parochial cures, and in 1881 was appointed canon of Worcester, and sub-dean in 1902. He also holds the vicarage of Hoar Cross (1885). He is of high repute as a preacher and is in much request all over England. He belongs to the High Church school and has printed, besides his sermons, many works of educational character, such as the "Treasury of Meditation," "Manual of Devotion for Lent," …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 8

Be not Far from Me, O My Strength,
"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts; all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." -- Psalm 42:7,8. Be not far from me, O my strength, Whom all my times obey; Take from me anything Thou wilt; But go not Thou away, -- And let the storm that does Thy work Deal with me as it may. On Thy compassion I repose, In weakness and distress: …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

Longing for the Courts of the Lord's House. --Ps. Xlii.
Longing for the Courts of the Lord's House.--Ps. xlii. As the hart, with eager looks, Panteth for the water-brooks, So my soul, athirst for Thee, Pants the loving God to see: When, O when, with filial fear, Lord, shall I to Thee draw near? Tears my food by night, by day, Grief consumes my strength away; While his craft the Tempter plies, "Where is now Thy God?" he cries; This would sink me to despair But I pour my soul in prayer. For, in happier times, I went, Where the multitudes frequent; I, …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

As Pants the Wearied Hart for Cooling Springs
[1190]Pax Dei: John Bacchus Dykes, 1868 Psalm 42 Latin Version by Robert Lowth, 1753; Tr. George Gregory, 1787 DOXOLOGY As pants the wearied hart for cooling springs, That sinks exhausted in the summer's chase, So pants my soul for thee, great King of kings, So thirsts to reach thy sacred dwelling place. Lord, thy sure mercies, ever in my sight, My heart shall gladden through the tedious day; And midst the dark and gloomy shades of night, To thee, my God, I'll tune the grateful lay. Why faint, …
Various—The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA

Questions which Ought to be Asked
ELIHU PERCEIVED the great ones of the earth oppressing the needy, and he traced their domineering tyranny to their forgetfulness of God: "None saith, Where is God my Maker?" Surely, had they thought of God they could not have acted so unjustly. Worse still, if I understand Elihu aright, he complained that even among the oppressed there was the same departure in heart from the Lord: they cried out by reason of the arm of the mighty, but unhappily they did not cry unto God their Maker, though he waits …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880

1 to Pray Does not Imply that Without Prayer God Would not Give us Anything...
1. To pray does not imply that without prayer God would not give us anything or that He would be unaware of our needs, but it has this great advantage, that in the attitude of prayer the soul is best fitted to receive the Giver of blessing as well as those blessings He desires to bestow. Thus it was that the fullness of the Spirit was not poured out upon the Apostles on the first day, but after ten days of special preparation. If a blessing were conferred upon one without a special readiness for …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

The Kingdom Divided
THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS: Jonah Page Amos Page Isaiah Page OUTLINE FOR STUDY OF PROPHETICAL BOOKS 1. Class. 2. Commission of Prophet. 3. Biographical Description of Prophet. 4. Title of Prophet. 5. Historical Place. (a) Name of Kingdom. (b) Names of Kings. 6. Outline of Contents. 7. Prophecies of Earthly Kings or Kingdoms. 8. Prophecies of Christ. 9. Prophecies of Christ's Kingdom. 10. Leading Phrases. 11. Leading Chapters. 12. Leading Teachings. 13. Questions. 14. Items of Special Interest. …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

The Holy War,
MADE BY SHADDAI UPON DIABOLUS, FOR THE REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS OF THE WORLD; OR, THE LOSING AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE TOWN OF MANSOUL. THE AUTHOR OF 'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.' 'I have used similitudes.'--Hosea 12:10. London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms in the Poultry; and Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1682. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Bunyan's account of the Holy War is indeed an extraordinary book, manifesting a degree of genius, research, and spiritual …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

His Past Work.
His past work was accomplished by Him when he became incarnate. It was finished when He died on Calvary's cross. We have therefore to consider first of all these fundamentals of our faith. I. The Work of the Son of God is foreshadowed and predicted in the Old Testament Scriptures. II. The incarnation of the Son of God. III. His Work on the cross and what has been accomplished by it. I. Through the Old Testament Scriptures, God announced beforehand the work of His Son. This is a great theme and one …
A. C. Gaebelein—The Work Of Christ

Dialogue ii. --The Unconfounded.
Eranistes and Orthodoxus. Eran.--I am come as I promised. 'Tis yours to adopt one of two alternatives, and either furnish a solution of my difficulties, or assent to what I and my friends lay down. Orth.--I accept your challenge, for I think it right and fair. But we must first recall to mind at what point we left off our discourse yesterday, and what was the conclusion of our argument. Eran.--I will remind you of the end. I remember our agreeing that the divine Word remained immutable, and took …
Theodoret—The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret

The Exile.
David's first years at the court of Saul in Gibeah do not appear to have produced any psalms which still survive. "The sweetest songs are those Which tell of saddest thought." It was natural, then, that a period full of novelty and of prosperous activity, very unlike the quiet days at Bethlehem, should rather accumulate materials for future use than be fruitful in actual production. The old life shut to behind him for ever, like some enchanted door in a hill-side, and an unexplored land lay beckoning …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

"But it is Good for Me to Draw Near to God: I have Put My Trust in the Lord God, that I May Declare all Thy
Psal. lxxiii. 28.--"But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works." After man's first transgression, he was shut out from the tree of life, and cast out of the garden, by which was signified his seclusion and sequestration from the presence of God, and communion with him: and this was in a manner the extermination of all mankind in one, when Adam was driven out of paradise. Now, this had been an eternal separation for any thing that …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Love
The rule of obedience being the moral law, comprehended in the Ten Commandments, the next question is: What is the sum of the Ten Commandments? The sum of the Ten Commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, and our neighbour as ourselves. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' Deut 6: 5. The duty called for is love, yea, the strength of love, with all …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Poetical Books (Including Also Ecclesiastes and Canticles).
1. The Hebrews reckon but three books as poetical, namely: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which are distinguished from the rest by a stricter rhythm--the rhythm not of feet, but of clauses (see below, No. 3)--and a peculiar system of accentuation. It is obvious to every reader that the poetry of the Old Testament, in the usual sense of the word, is not restricted to these three books. But they are called poetical in a special and technical sense. In any natural classification of the books of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Nature of Spiritual Hunger
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness Matthew 5:6 We are now come to the fourth step of blessedness: Blessed are they that hunger'. The words fall into two parts: a duty implied; a promise annexed. A duty implied: Blessed are they that hunger'. Spiritual hunger is a blessed hunger. What is meant by hunger? Hunger is put for desire (Isaiah 26:9). Spiritual hunger is the rational appetite whereby the soul pants after that which it apprehends most suitable and proportional …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Of Faith. The Definition of It. Its Peculiar Properties.
1. A brief recapitulation of the leading points of the whole discussion. The scope of this chapter. The necessity of the doctrine of faith. This doctrine obscured by the Schoolmen, who make God the object of faith, without referring to Christ. The Schoolmen refuted by various passages. 2. The dogma of implicit faith refuted. It destroys faith, which consists in a knowledge of the divine will. What this will is, and how necessary the knowledge of it. 3. Many things are and will continue to be implicitly …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners:
A BRIEF AND FAITHFUL RELATION OF THE EXCEEDING MERCY OF GOD IN CHRIST TO HIS POOR SERVANT, JOHN BUNYAN; WHEREIN IS PARTICULARLY SHOWED THE MANNER OF HIS CONVERSION, HIS SIGHT AND TROUBLE FOR SIN, HIS DREADFUL TEMPTATIONS, ALSO HOW HE DESPAIRED OF GOD'S MERCY, AND HOW THE LORD AT LENGTH THROUGH CHRIST DID DELIVER HIM FROM ALL THE GUILT AND TERROR THAT LAY UPON HIM. Whereunto is added a brief relation of his call to the work of the ministry, of his temptations therein, as also what he hath met with …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Rules to be Observed in Singing of Psalms.
1. Beware of singing divine psalms for an ordinary recreation, as do men of impure spirits, who sing holy psalms intermingled with profane ballads: They are God's word: take them not in thy mouth in vain. 2. Remember to sing David's psalms with David's spirit (Matt. xxii. 43.) 3. Practise St. Paul's rule--"I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with the understanding also." (1 Cor. xiv. 15.) 4. As you sing uncover your heads (1 Cor. xi. 4), and behave yourselves in comely reverence as in the …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Letter Xl to Thomas, Prior of Beverley
To Thomas, Prior of Beverley This Thomas had taken the vows of the Cistercian Order at Clairvaux. As he showed hesitation, Bernard urges his tardy spirit to fulfil them. But the following letter will prove that it was a warning to deaf ears, where it relates the unhappy end of Thomas. In this letter Bernard sketches with a master's hand the whole scheme of salvation. Bernard to his beloved son Thomas, as being his son. 1. What is the good of words? An ardent spirit and a strong desire cannot express …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament