Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
Human suffering
I. Man’s sufferings are sometimes overwhelmingly great. This shows--
1. The abnormal state of man. Was man made to suffer thus? No; man suffers because he has transgressed.
2. The blessedness of Christ’s mission. He came to “heal the broken-hearted,” and to “wipe away all tears from off all faces.”
II. Man’s sufferings are often inflicted by his fellow-creatures. The sufferer here ascribes his sufferings, not to God, or accident, or fate, but to men.
1. To the malice, the multitude, and the might of his enemies. These enemies, he says--
(1) Compelled him to restore what he “took not away.” They extorted from him by violence that which was his, not theirs. He does not say what it was, whether it was his time, his labour, or his property. Men are often doing this, taking from others that to which they have no right.
(2) Persecuted him on account of his religion. “For Thy sake I have borne reproach,” etc. How often in the history of the world do we find men inflicting sufferings upon their fellows in consequence of their religious convictions!
2. To the alienation of his most intimate relations and friends.
3. To the contempt he received from all on account of his religious zeal.
III. Man’s sufferings often reveal the moral weakness of his character. If, as here, you find a man parading his sufferings, moaning and groaning about his afflictions, he is not a man of strong moral character. Christ, instead of parading His sufferings, seldom even mentioned them.
IV. Man’s sufferings occasionally lead him to God. They did so now in the case of David. (Homilist.)
The good man’s foes
I. The good man has foes.
1. The devil.
2. Wicked men readily learn the craft of their master.
II. The good man’s foes are pertinacious.
1. They act in concert--take counsel how they may best succeed in their designs; encourage one another, to make their plans most effective.
2. They are never satisfied. Satan, not content to rob Job of his property, must needs seek to destroy his children. The trouble of the Christian, so far from moving his enemies to compassion, do but instigate to fresh deeds of iniquity.
III. The good man’s enemies are cowardly.
1. Slander is one of the commonest weapons by which they seek to destroy. It is referred to several times by David. It is the sharp “sword,” the poisoned “arrow,” the “bitter words.”
2. Misrepresentation is another very common mode of attacking the godly. “They Search out iniquities.” This seems to suggest that when faults cannot readily be found, they are sought diligently, until some trivial defect is discovered that may be magnified into a deadly sin. Instead of setting a watch upon themselves, they watch others, and looking for faults they will invent them rather than be disappointed.
IV. The good man’s enemies are laborious. They are “workers of iniquity.” Men who are too idle to do any good thing will toil at an evil one. Many men work far harder to go to hell than would suffice, humanly speaking, to carry them to heaven. If half the diligence devoted to works of evil were but given to the service of God, how greatly would the aspect of the world be changed. (Joseph S. Exell, M. A.)