Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
A meditation on the sixty-first psalm
In the first verse it is not the Jew but the man that speaks. The same idea can be found in all languages. When David speaks thus, he speaks for the whole world! There is no doubt the most intense personality in the petition; it is “my” cry, it is “my” prayer. What then? Even when the man individualizes himself most carefully, he does but mingle most familiarly with all other men. This is the voice of an exile--a man far from the city which he loves most; yet even at the extremity of the land he says he will cry unto God. Why not? God can give the exile a home! Wherever God reveals himself in loving pity and all the riches of His grace, the soul may take its rest, knowing that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. David cried from the end of the land! We have cried from the same extremity. By processes too subtle for us to comprehend, God has often caused our misfortunes to become our blessings, In the midst of the psalmist’s trouble there rises an aspiration--“lead me to the rock that is higher than I. “The” self-helplessness expressed in this prayer moves our entire sympathy. “Lead me”--what a blind man who had wandered from the accustomed path would say; “lead me”--what a lame man would say who had fallen by reason of his great weakness; “lead me”--what a terrified man would say who had to pass along the edge of a bottomless abyss. It is in such extremities that men best know themselves. David wished to be led to the rock; he wished to stand firmly, to stand above the flood-line, to have rest after so great disquietude. Then there is a rock higher than we? We have heard of Jesus Christ by this strange name; we have heard of Him as the Rock of ages; we have heard of Him as the Rock in the wilderness; we have heard of Him as the Stone rejected of the builders but elected of God to the chief place. The aspiration is succeeded by a recollection (Psalms 61:3). History is rightly used when it becomes the guide of hope. The days of a man’s life seem to be cut off from each other by the nights which intervene; but they are continuous when viewed from the altitude of Divine providence. Yesterday enriches to-day. All the historic triumphs of the Divine arm stimulate us in the present battle. We may say of God--What Thou hast been, Thou wilt be; because Thou hast inclined Thine ear unto us, therefore will we call upon Thee as long as we live. “I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever, I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.” Here is a beautiful combination--worship and confidence! The relation is not only beautiful, but strictly sequential; for worship is confidence, and confidence is worship. Truly to kneel before God is to express trust in Him, and truly to express trust in Him is to bow down and worship at His footstool. This is the complete idea of worship: not prayer only, not hope only, not adoration only, not a blind dependence only; but all combined, all rounded into one great act of life. “Under the covert of Thy wings”--how tender the figure! The bird spreads her wings over the nest where her young ones lie, and thus gives them warmth, and affords them all the little protection in her power. What a beautiful image of unity, defence, completeness, safety, is so frail a thing as the nest of a bird! Multiply that image by infinitude; carry it far above all the mischances which may befall the little home of the bird, and then see how full of comfort is the idea. We have heard of a “shelter,” and a “tower,” and a “tabernacle,”--words which have much meaning for the heart when its distresses are not to be numbered, and which reach their full explanation only in that great Saving Man who was wounded for our transgressions. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The pious experiences of an exile
I. A deep sense of isolation. “From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee.” Few feelings are more saddening than the feeling of lonelihood. It hangs like a cold leaden cloud over the heart. In this lonelihood, and far away from the scenes of his home and populations of men, he prays. The Great Father is accessible in all seasons of the soul, and all points of space.
II. A felt need for Divine helps. Many things would tend to overwhelm the heart of David with sorrow--the conduct of Absalom his son, the treachery of professed friends, the disorders of his country, and, above all, remorse on account of the many wrong things he had done and which had perhaps brought all these distresses upon him. Under such a load of sadness, he feels that his only hope is in God. The soul in its sorrow requires something outside of itself and greater, and there is a Rock for tempest-tossed souls.
III. A yearning for lost privileges. “I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever.” He was far away from this tabernacle now,--a scene where he had often worshipped and experienced the raptures of religion. Profoundly does he feel the loss, and hence he resolves on his return to abide there, not only to visit it occasionally, but to continue as a resident, “dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.” When there, he had felt like the young bird under the wing of its parent, warm, safe, and happy; and this privilege he yearned for again. “I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.” It is an old adage, that “the well is not missed until it is dried up.” The loss of blessings is evermore the means of deepening our impressions as to their value.
IV. As acknowledgment of Divine kindness (Psalms 61:5). The “heritage” mentioned is participation in the honours and privileges of the chosen people, and such were indeed great (Romans 9:4-5). What a heritage! And this David acknowledges as being given to him by God. Whatever privileges we have, personal, social, political, or religious, our “heritage” is the gift of God.
V. An assurance of future prosperity. “Thou wilt prolong the king’s life.” He seems to have been assured of two things.
1. The lengthening of his rule as a king. “Thou wilt prolong the king’s life”--add days to that reign which was nearly brought to an abrupt termination.
2. The continuation of his privileges as a saint. “He shall abide before God for ever.” These two things he seems to have been assured of--that he should live for years, and for years to come enjoy the presence of his God. Blessed assurance this!
VI. A cry for moral excellence. “Mercy and truth.” These are the cardinal virtues. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” A soul full of benevolence and in harmony with eternal realities. In this all good is comprised. Herein Paradise blooms and blossoms. The profoundest hunger Of all souls should be for these two things, grace and truth. Having these, all else follows.
VII. A resolution to worship for ever. Worship is the highest end of being. Religion, or worship, is not the means to an end, it is the grandest end of existence. (Homilist.)