mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 88.xml

<div2 id="Ps.lxxxix" n="lxxxix" next="Ps.xc" prev="Ps.lxxxviii" progress="52.09%" title="Chapter LXXXVIII">
<h2 id="Ps.lxxxix-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.lxxxix-p0.2">PSALM LXXXVIII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.lxxxix-p1">This psalm is a lamentation, one of the most
melancholy of all the psalms; and it does not conclude, as usually
the melancholy psalms do, with the least intimation of comfort or
joy, but, from first to last, it is mourning and woe. It is not
upon a public account that the psalmist here complains (here is no
mention of the afflictions of the church), but only upon a personal
account, especially trouble of mind, and the grief impressed upon
his spirits both by his outward afflictions and by the remembrance
of his sins and the fear of God's wrath. It is reckoned among the
penitential psalms, and it is well when our fears are thus turned
into the right channel, and we take occasion from our worldly
grievances to sorrow after a godly sort. In this psalm we have, I.
The great pressure of spirit that the psalmist was under, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.3-Ps.88.6" parsed="|Ps|88|3|88|6" passage="Ps 88:3-6">ver. 3-6</scripRef>. II. The wrath of God,
which was the cause of that pressure, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.7 Bible:Ps.88.15-Ps.88.17" parsed="|Ps|88|7|0|0;|Ps|88|15|88|17" passage="Ps 88:7,15-17">ver. 7, 15-17</scripRef>. III. The wickedness of
his friends, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.8 Bible:Ps.88.18" parsed="|Ps|88|8|0|0;|Ps|88|18|0|0" passage="Ps 88:8,18">ver. 8, 18</scripRef>.
IV. The application he made to God by prayer, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.1-Ps.88.2 Bible:Ps.88.9 Bible:Ps.88.13" parsed="|Ps|88|1|88|2;|Ps|88|9|0|0;|Ps|88|13|0|0" passage="Ps 88:1,2,9,13">ver. 1, 2, 9, 13</scripRef>. V. His humble
expostulations and pleadings with God, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.10 Bible:Ps.88.12 Bible:Ps.88.14" parsed="|Ps|88|10|0|0;|Ps|88|12|0|0;|Ps|88|14|0|0" passage="Ps 88:10,12,14">ver. 10, 12, 14</scripRef>. Those who are in
trouble of mind may sing this psalm feelingly; those that are not
ought to sing it thankfully, blessing God that it is not their
case.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88" parsed="|Ps|88|0|0|0" passage="Ps 88" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.1-Ps.88.9" parsed="|Ps|88|1|88|9" passage="Ps 88:1-9" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.88.1-Ps.88.9">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.8">Sorrowful Complaints; Complaining to
God.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.lxxxix-p1.9">
<p id="Ps.lxxxix-p2">A song <i>or</i> psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief
musician<br/>
upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxxix-p3">1 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxix-p3.1">O Lord</span> God of
my salvation, I have cried day <i>and</i> night before thee:  
2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
  3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh
unto the grave.   4 I am counted with them that go down into
the pit: I am as a man <i>that hath</i> no strength:   5 Free
among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou
rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.   6
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
  7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted
<i>me</i> with all thy waves. Selah.   8 Thou hast put away
mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination
unto them: <i>I am</i> shut up, and I cannot come forth.   9
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxix-p3.2">Lord</span>, I have called daily upon thee, I have
stretched out my hands unto thee.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p4">It should seem, by the titles of this and
the following psalm, that Heman was the penman of the one and Ethan
of the other. There were two, of these names, who were sons of
Zerah the son of Judah, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:1Chr.2.4 Bible:1Chr.2.6" parsed="|1Chr|2|4|0|0;|1Chr|2|6|0|0" passage="1Ch 2:4,6">1 Chron. ii.
4, 6</scripRef>. There were two others famed for wisdom, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:1Kgs.4.31" parsed="|1Kgs|4|31|0|0" passage="1Ki 4:31">1 Kings iv. 31</scripRef>, where, to magnify
Solomon's wisdom, he is said to be <i>wiser than Heman and
Ethan.</i> Whether the Heman and Ethan who were Levites and
precentors in the songs of Zion were the same we are not sure, nor
which of these, nor whether any of these, were the penmen of these
psalms. There was a Heman that was one of the chief singers, who is
called <i>the king's seer, or prophet,</i> in the words of God
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:1Chr.25.5" parsed="|1Chr|25|5|0|0" passage="1Ch 25:5">1 Chron. xxv. 5</scripRef>); it is
probable that this also was a seer, and yet could see no comfort
for himself, an instructor and comforter of others, and yet himself
putting comfort away from him. The very first words of the psalm
are the only words of comfort and support in all the psalm. There
is nothing about him but clouds and darkness; but, before he begins
his complaint, he calls God <i>the God of his salvation,</i> which
intimates both that he looked for salvation, bad as things were,
and that he looked up to God for the salvation and depended upon
him to be the author of it. Now here we have the psalmist,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p5">I. A man of prayer, one that gave himself
to prayer at all times, but especially now that he was in
affliction; for <i>is any afflicted? let him pray.</i> It is his
comfort that he had prayed; it is his complaint that,
notwithstanding his prayer, he was still in affliction. He was, 1.
Very earnest in prayer: "<i>I have cried unto thee</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.1" parsed="|Ps|88|1|0|0" passage="Ps 88:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>), and have <i>stretched
out my hands unto thee</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.9" parsed="|Ps|88|9|0|0" passage="Ps 88:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>), as one that would take hold on thee, and even catch
at the mercy, with a holy fear of coming short and missing of it."
2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer: <i>I have called
upon thee daily</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.9" parsed="|Ps|88|9|0|0" passage="Ps 88:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>), nay, <i>day and night,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.1" parsed="|Ps|88|1|0|0" passage="Ps 88:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. For thus men ought always to
pray, and not to faint; God's own elect cry day and night to him,
not only morning and evening, beginning every day and every night
with prayer, but spending the day and night in prayer. This is
indeed praying always; and then we shall speed in prayer, when we
continue instant in prayer. 3. He directed his prayer to God, and
from him expected and desired an answer (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.2" parsed="|Ps|88|2|0|0" passage="Ps 88:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): "<i>Let my prayer come before
thee,</i> to be accepted of thee, not before men, to be seen of
them, as the Pharisees' prayers." He does not desire that men
should hear them, but, "Lord, <i>incline thy ear unto my cry,</i>
for to that I refer myself; give what answer to it thou
pleasest."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p6">II. He was a man of sorrows, and therefore
some make him, in this psalm, a type of Christ, whose complaints on
the cross, and sometimes before, were much to the same purport with
this psalm. He cries out (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.3" parsed="|Ps|88|3|0|0" passage="Ps 88:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>): <i>My soul is full of troubles;</i> so Christ said,
<i>Now is my soul troubled;</i> and, in his agony, <i>My soul is
exceedingly sorrowful even unto death,</i> like the psalmist's
here, for he says, <i>My life draws nigh unto the grave.</i> Heman
was a very wise man, and a very good man, a man of God, and a
singer too, and one may therefore suppose him to have been a man of
a cheerful spirit, and yet now a man of sorrowful spirit, troubled
in mind, and upon the brink of despair. Inward trouble is the
sorest trouble, and that which, sometimes, the best of God's saints
and servants have been severely exercised with. <i>The spirit of
man,</i> of the greatest of men, will not always sustain his
infirmity, but will droop and sink under it; <i>who then can bear a
wounded spirit?</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p7">III. He looked upon himself as a dying man,
whose heart was ready to break with sorrow (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.5" parsed="|Ps|88|5|0|0" passage="Ps 88:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): "<i>Free among the dead</i> (one
of that ghastly corporation), <i>like the slain that lie in the
grave,</i> whose rotting and perishing nobody takes notice of or is
concerned for, nay, whom thou rememberest no more, to protect or
provide for the dead bodies, but they become an easy prey to
corruption and the worms; they are <i>cut off from thy hand,</i>
which used to be employed in supporting them and reaching out to
them; but, now there is no more occasion for this, they are cut off
from it and cut off by it" (<i>for God will not stretch out his
hand to the grave,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.30.24" parsed="|Job|30|24|0|0" passage="Job 30:24">Job xxx.
24</scripRef>); "<i>thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,</i> as low
as possible, my condition low, my spirits low, <i>in darkness, in
the deep</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.6" parsed="|Ps|88|6|0|0" passage="Ps 88:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>),
sinking, and seeing no way open of escape, brought to the last
extremity, and ready to give up all for gone." Thus greatly may
good men be afflicted, such dismal apprehensions may they have
concerning their afflictions, and such dark conclusions may they
sometimes be ready to make concerning the issue of them, through
the power of melancholy and the weakness of faith.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p8">IV. He complained most of God's displeasure
against him, which infused the wormwood and the gall into the
affliction and the misery (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.7" parsed="|Ps|88|7|0|0" passage="Ps 88:7"><i>v.</i>
7</scripRef>): <i>Thy wrath lies hard upon me.</i> Could he have
discerned the favour and love of God in his affliction, it would
have lain light upon him; but it lay hard, very hard, upon him, so
that he was ready to sink and faint under it. The impressions of
this wrath upon his spirits were God's <i>waves</i> with which he
afflicted him, which rolled upon him, one on the neck of another,
so that he scarcely recovered from one dark thought before he was
oppressed with another; these waves beat against him with noise and
fury; not some, but all, of God's waves were made use of in
afflicting him and bearing him down. Even the children of God's
love may sometimes apprehend themselves children of wrath, and no
outward trouble can lie so hard upon them as that apprehension.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p9">V. It added to his affliction that his
friends deserted him and made themselves strange to him. When we
are in trouble it is some comfort to have those about us that love
us, and sympathize with us; but this good man had none such, which
gives him occasion, not to accuse them, or charge them with
treachery, ingratitude, and inhumanity, but to complain to God,
with an eye to his hand in this part of the affliction (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.8" parsed="|Ps|88|8|0|0" passage="Ps 88:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): <i>Thou hast put away my
acquaintance far from me.</i> Providence had removed them, or
rendered them incapable of being serviceable to him, or alienated
their affections from him; for every creature is that to us (and no
more) that God makes it to be. If our old acquaintance be shy of
us, and those we expect kindness from prove unkind, we must bear
that with the same patient submission to the divine will that we do
other afflictions, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.19.13" parsed="|Job|19|13|0|0" passage="Job 19:13">Job xix.
13</scripRef>. Nay, his friends were not only strange to him, but
even hated him, because he was poor and in distress: "<i>Thou hast
made me an abomination to them;</i> they are not only shy of me,
but sick of me, and I am looked upon by them, not only with
contempt, but with abhorrence." Let none think it strange
concerning such a trial as this, when Heman, who was so famed for
wisdom, was yet, when the world frowned upon him, neglected, as a
vessel in which is no pleasure.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p10">VI. He looked upon his case as helpless and
deplorable: "<i>I am shut up, and I cannot come forth,</i> a close
prisoner, under the arrests of divine wrath, and no way open of
escape." He therefore lies down and sinks under his troubles,
because he sees not any probability of getting out of them. For
thus he bemoans himself (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.9" parsed="|Ps|88|9|0|0" passage="Ps 88:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>): <i>My eye mourneth by reason of affliction.</i>
Sometimes giving vent to grief by weeping gives some ease to a
troubled spirit. Yet weeping must not hinder praying; we must sow
in tears: <i>My eye mourns,</i> but <i>I cry unto thee daily.</i>
Let prayers and tears go together, and they shall be accepted
together. <i>I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy
tears.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lxxxix-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.10-Ps.88.18" parsed="|Ps|88|10|88|18" passage="Ps 88:10-18" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.88.10-Ps.88.18">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxxix-p10.3">Pleading with God.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxxix-p11">10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the
dead arise <i>and</i> praise thee? Selah.   11 Shall thy
lovingkindness be declared in the grave? <i>or</i> thy faithfulness
in destruction?   12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark?
and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?   13 But
unto thee have I cried, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxix-p11.1">O Lord</span>; and
in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.   14 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxix-p11.2">Lord</span>, why castest thou off my soul? <i>why</i>
hidest thou thy face from me?   15 I <i>am</i> afflicted and
ready to die from <i>my</i> youth up: <i>while</i> I suffer thy
terrors I am distracted.   16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me;
thy terrors have cut me off.   17 They came round about me
daily like water; they compassed me about together.   18 Lover
and friend hast thou put far from me, <i>and</i> mine acquaintance
into darkness.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p12">In these verses,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p13">I. The psalmist expostulates with God
concerning the present deplorable condition he was in (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.10-Ps.88.12" parsed="|Ps|88|10|88|12" passage="Ps 88:10-12"><i>v.</i> 10-12</scripRef>): "<i>Wilt thou do
a miraculous work to the dead,</i> and raise them to life again?
Shall those that are dead and buried <i>rise up to praise thee?</i>
No; they leave it to their children to rise up in their room to
praise God; none expects that they should do it; and wherefore
should they rise, wherefore should they live, but to praise God?
The life we are born to at first, and the life we hope to rise to
at last, must thus be spent. But <i>shall thy lovingkindness to thy
people be declared in the grave,</i> either by those or to those
that lie buried there? And thy faithfulness to thy promise, shall
that be told in destruction? <i>shall thy wonders be wrought in the
dark,</i> or known there, <i>and thy righteousness in</i> the
grave, which is <i>the land of forgetfulness,</i> where men
remember nothing, nor are themselves remembered? Departed souls may
indeed know God's wonders and declare his faithfulness, justice,
and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies cannot; they can neither
receive God's favours in comfort nor return them in praise." Now we
will not suppose these expostulations to be the language of
despair, as if he thought God could not help him or would not, much
less do they imply any disbelief of the resurrection of the dead at
the last day; but he thus pleads with God for speedy relief: "Lord,
thou art good, thou art faithful, thou art righteous; these
attributes of thine will be made known in my deliverance, but, if
it be not hastened, it will come too late; for I shall be dead and
past relief, dead and not capable of receiving any comfort, very
shortly." Job often pleaded thus, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.7.8 Bible:Job.10.21" parsed="|Job|7|8|0|0;|Job|10|21|0|0" passage="Job 7:8,10:21">Job vii. 8; x. 21</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p14">II. He resolves to continue instant in
prayer, and the more so because the deliverance was deferred
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.13" parsed="|Ps|88|13|0|0" passage="Ps 88:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>): "<i>Unto
thee have I cried</i> many a time, and found comfort in so doing,
and therefore I will continue to do so; <i>in the morning shall my
prayer prevent thee.</i>" Note, Though our prayers be not answered
immediately, yet we must not therefore give over praying, because
<i>the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall
speak and not lie.</i> God delays the answer in order that he may
try our patience and perseverance in prayer. He resolves to seek
God early, in the morning, when his spirits were lively, and before
the business of the day began to crowd in—in the morning, after he
had been tossed with cares, and sorrowful thoughts in the silence
and solitude of the night; but how could he say, <i>My prayer shall
prevent thee?</i> Not as if he could wake sooner to pray than God
to hear and answer; for he neither slumbers nor sleeps; but it
intimates that he would be up earlier than ordinary to pray, would
<i>prevent</i> (that is, go before) his usual hour of prayer. The
greater our afflictions are the more solicitous and serious we
should be in prayer. "My prayer shall present itself before thee,
and be betimes with thee, and shall not stay for the encouragement
of the beginning of mercy, but reach towards it with faith and
expectation even before the day dawns." God often prevents our
prayers and expectations with his mercies; let us prevent his
mercies with our prayers and expectations.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxix-p15">III. He sets down what he will say to God
in prayer. 1. He will humbly reason with God concerning the abject
afflicted condition he was now in (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.14" parsed="|Ps|88|14|0|0" passage="Ps 88:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>): "<i>Lord, why castest thou off
my soul?</i> What is it that provokes thee to treat me as one
abandoned? <i>Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.</i>" He
speaks it with wonder that God should cast off an old servant,
should cast off one that was resolved not to cast him off: "No
wonder men cast me off; but, Lord, why dost thou, whose gifts and
callings are without repentance? <i>Why hidest thou thy face,</i>
as one angry at me, that either hast no favour for me or wilt not
let me know that thou hast?" Nothing grieves a child of God so much
as God's hiding his face from him, nor is there any thing he so
much dreads as God's casting off his soul. If the sun be clouded,
that darkens the earth; but if the sun should abandon the earth,
and quite cast it off, what a dungeon would it be! 2. He will
humbly repeat the same complaints he had before made, until God
have mercy on him. Two things he represents to God as his
grievances:—(1.) That God was a terror to him: <i>I suffer thy
terrors,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.15" parsed="|Ps|88|15|0|0" passage="Ps 88:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>.
He had continual frightful apprehensions of the wrath of God
against him for his sins and the consequences of that wrath. It
terrified him to think of God, of falling into his hands and
appearing before him to receive his doom from him. He perspired and
trembled at the apprehension of God's displeasure against him, and
the terror of his majesty. Note, Even those that are designed for
God's favours may yet, for a time, suffer his terrors. The spirit
of adoption is first a spirit of bondage to fear. Poor Job
complained of the terrors of <i>God setting themselves in array
against him,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.6.4" parsed="|Job|6|4|0|0" passage="Job 6:4">Job vi. 4</scripRef>.
The psalmist here explains himself, and tells us what he means by
God's terrors, even his <i>fierce wrath.</i> Let us see what
dreadful impressions those terrors made upon him, and how deeply
they wounded him. [1.] They had almost taken away his life: "<i>I
am so afflicted</i> with them that I am <i>ready to die,</i> and"
(as the word is) "<i>to give up the ghost. Thy terrors have cut me
off,</i>" <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.16" parsed="|Ps|88|16|0|0" passage="Ps 88:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>.
What is hell, that eternal excision, by which damned sinners are
for ever cut off from God and all happiness, but God's terrors
fastening and preying upon their guilty consciences? [2.] They had
almost taken away the use of his reason: <i>When I suffer thy
terrors I am distracted.</i> This sad effect the terrors of the
Lord have had upon many, and upon some good men, who have thereby
been put quite out of the possession of their own souls, a most
piteous case, and which ought to be looked upon with great
compassion. [3.] This had continued long: <i>From my youth up I
suffer thy terrors.</i> He had been from his childhood afflicted
with melancholy, and trained up in sorrow under the discipline of
that school. If we begin our days with trouble, and the days of our
mourning have been prolonged a great while, let us not think it
strange, but let tribulation work patience. It is observable the
Heman, who became eminently wise and good, was <i>afflicted and
ready to die,</i> and suffered God's terrors, <i>from his youth
up.</i> Thus many have found it was good for them to bear the yoke
in their youth, that sorrow has been much better for them than
laughter would have been, and that being much afflicted, and often
ready to die, when they were young, they have, by the grace of God,
got such an habitual seriousness and weanedness from the world as
have been of great use to them all their days. Sometimes those whom
God designs for eminent services are prepared for them by exercises
of this kind. [4.] His affliction was now extreme, and worse than
ever. God's terrors now came round about him, so that from all
sides he was assaulted with variety of troubles, and he had no
comfortable gale from any point of the compass. They broke in upon
him together like an inundation of water; and this daily, and all
the day; so that he had no rest, no respite, not the lest
breathing-time, no lucid intervals, nor any gleam of hope. Such was
the calamitous state of a very wise and good man; he was so
surrounded with terrors that he could find no place of shelter, nor
lie any where under the wind. (2.) That no friend he had in the
world was a comfort to him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxix-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.88.18" parsed="|Ps|88|18|0|0" passage="Ps 88:18"><i>v.</i>
18</scripRef>): <i>Lover and friend hast thou put far from me;</i>
some are dead, others at a distance, and perhaps many unkind. Next
to the comforts of religion are those of friendship and society;
therefore to be friendless is (as to this life) almost to be
comfortless; and to those who have had friends, but have lost them,
the calamity is the more grievous. With this the psalmist here
closes his complaint, as if this were that which completed his woe
and gave the finishing stroke to the melancholy piece. If our
friends are put far from us by scattering providences, nay, if by
death our acquaintance are removed into darkness, we have reason to
look upon it as a sore affliction, but must acknowledge and submit
to the hand of God in it.</p>
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