The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.
Ver. 18. The Lord hath chastened me sore] Corripuit me seria et severa castigatione; and yet David was his darling.
But he hath not given me over unto death] It might have been worse, may the afflicted saint say; and it will yet be better: It is in mercy and in measure that God chastiseth his children. It is his care that the spirit fail not before him, nor the souls which he hath made, Isaiah 57:16. If his child swoons in the whipping God lets fall the rod, and falls a kissing it, to fetch life into it again.