But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. .. and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
The doom of the wicked
1. Here is the loss of energy. “The eyes of the wicked shall fail.” The soul’s eyes gone, and the spiritual universe is midnight.
2. Here is the loss of safety. “They shall not escape.” All efforts directed to safety utterly fruitless.
3. Here is the loss of hope. “Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.” The idea is that the loss of hope is like death, the separation of the soul from the body. What the soul is to the body, the dominant hope is to the soul, the inspirer of its energies and the spring of its being. The loss of the dominant hope is like death in two respects.
(1) In respect to its painfulness. The loss of the dominant hope is like death--
(2) In respect to its ruinousness. When hope takes her exit from the soul all beauty departs, all pleasures end, all usefulness is gone. (Homilist.)
Delusive hopes of ungodly men
Like many a sick man that I have known in the beginning of a consumption, or some grievous disease, they hope there is no danger in it; or they hope it will go away of itself, and it is but some cold; or they hope that such and such medicine will cure it, till they are past hope, and then they must give up these hopes and their lives together, whether they will or no. Just so do poor wretches by their souls. They know that all is not well with them, but they hope God is merciful, that He will not condemn them; or they hope to be converted sometime hereafter; or they hope that less ado may serve their turn, and that their good wishes and prayers may save their souls; and thus in these hopes they hold on, till they find themselves to be past remedy, and their hopes and they be dead together. There is scarcely a greater hindrance of conversion than these false, deceiving hopes of sinners. (R. Baxter.).