He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.
Divine interpositions
We are not as those who believe in two co-existent forces, each supreme, one of whom shall create disasters, and the other distribute blessings. The prince of evil is, according to our faith, subordinate to the great Lord of all. Everywhere is God, and in all things His hand is present; in the things which seem to us evil, as well as in the events which appear to us good, God is at work. We freely admit that we do not understand this, and therefore we do not attempt to explain it; but we believe and adore. We need not try to justify the ways of God with men, for He asks no defence at our hands. If there is a providence, why are such terrible evils permitted?
I. Miraculous interpositions in the calamities of this life are not to be expected.
1. Such interpositions would change the whole arrangement of the world.
2. If interpositions were given to save the lives of godly men alone, as some would have it, then this world would become the place of judgment, which it is not intended to be.
3. If God were to interpose in the case of all calamities it would involve many evils. It would encourage idleness, neglect of sanitary laws, carelessness, etc.
4. Divine interpositions of a miraculous sort would not be attended with the advantage to the ungodly which we might suppose, because if there were miracles of mercy on the behalf of God’s people to snatch them from a watery grave or other perils, then we might expect to have, and naturally should have, miracles of judgment too.
II. Providential interpositions are frequent among God’s people. They come in the way of deliverance from floods of trouble. “He took me, He drew me out of many waters.” He does this not by miracles. He violates no law of nature, but yet delivers in a marvellous way. He does not quench the violence of the flame, yet a precious life is saved from a burning building. The Lord allows all the forces of nature to drive on in their ordinary course, and yet the outcome of it all is, that His servant is delivered and his prayers are answered. This He does in various ways. The sick are restored to health. Business is made to prosper. Enemies are turned to friends, or they die, like Haman. Then believe in the unexpected. Believe that God will do for you something which you know nothing about. The Lord always has a plan in reserve. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Deliverance out of deep waters
The testimonies of experience are always welcome to us. In sickness, those of the experienced physician. In battle, those of the proved commander. This Psalm seems to be a leaf taken out of David’s private diary.
I. Let us inquire whence it was that God took David. “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.” The term “waters” is used in the Scriptures to express a state of trouble and mental disquietude. Apart from the naturalness of the imago as descriptive of something which overwhelms, and desolates, and lays waste, to an Eastern mind this image would have a peculiar force and beauty; for in the mountainous parts of Judea, even as in Switzerland to this very day, the people were liable to sudden inundations, which would sweep away flocks and herds, towns and villages, in their disastrous and overwhelming torrent. Well, David says, “God drew me out of many waters”; intimating, first, his deliverance from the depths of outward danger. And as from many dangers, so from many sorrows had God taken David out. Think of the sorrow of his exile, the sorrows so many and terrible that came upon him through his great sin. And yet God took him out of them all. But sickness, bereavement, exile were not David’s deepest waters; but sin, the displeasure of God, merited condemnation for his offences, who could hold up the bead in such waters? “A wounded spirit who can bear?” The image in the text is commonly used in connection with David’s sins. The penitential Psalms will be found to abound with such allusions. “Out of the depths have I cried,” etc. “I am come unto deep waters.” “Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves.” His sins had plunged him into many deep waters. And as with sorrows, so with sins, have we not known a like experience to that of David? May not the same confession of misery which they caused us, and of God’s “God,” says Bunyan, gracious deliverance out of them, come truly from our lips? “God,” says Bunyan, “will sometimes cleave a saint with a wedge of his own timber,” that is, He will make him feel the consequences of his own sin, in order that the bitterness of his distress may draw him to a better choice. But to draw a struggling man out of the waters and to take no further care of him--to leave him on the brink of the same pit, and liable again to make shipwreck in the same sea, this is not the way of Him “whose work is perfect” and therefore we inquire, not only whence God took David, but--
II. Whither He took him. This David beautifully expresses in the 40th Psalm. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Here, then, we have the deliverance perfected. Not only is he raised from the depths, but he is exalted to the heights; not only is he drawn out of the waters, but be is set upon a rock. Fear is superseded by the tranquilities of the promise; a calm conscience stills the agitations of despair. In all your afflictions, therefore, whether of “mind, body, or estate,” trust to the arm which once drew you out of the waters. You are safe where He would draw you; it is even to the rock of His protection, to the secret of His pavilion, to the covering of His arm, to the tower of His great name. And so your comfort is, that if the waters be many, the succours shall be ninny. God will “send from above”; grace from above to deliver you, promises from above to cheer you, a Spirit from above to guide you, a Saviour from above to defend and bless you. When your race is over, when your struggles are finished, and when you are landed safely on the eternal shores, then to the God of all grace shall you sing this song of praise. “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.” (Daniel Moore, M. A.)
Saved from the depths
Jewels long hidden under the lava flood at Pompeii have been recovered undimmed, and divers have recently been searching for valuable gems lost in the sea near Trieste in 1822. When the river overflowed the summer palace of the Shah of Persia at Lar he fled in such haste that his jewels were forgotten. An astute officer of the court gave orders that the banks of the river were to be searched when the flood had subsided, and by this means he restored the jewels to his master, and was rewarded by being promoted to high rank. (W. Y. Fullerton.)