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1.
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Wilt thou hide thy face from me? David’s sorest
trial was the occasional feeling that God had turned His back on him. His
constant and intense longing was to behold God’s face: Psa. 11:7; 17:15;
27:4,8; 34:5.
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2.
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How long shall I take counsel? “How long must I
wrestle with my thoughts?” (NIV). What schemes can save me? None! Only
God: 14:6.
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How long shall mine enemy be exalted (“lord
it”: NEB) over me? Samuel’s anointing of David carried with
it an implicit divine promise that one day the exaltation would be his, and not
Saul’s.
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3.
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Lighten mine eyes seems to mean: ‘Save me from
this present physical exhaustion’; this was the experience of Jonathan on
eating the honey: 1 Sam. 14:27,29. On a spiritual level, God’s
“light” is sweeter than honey (Psa. 19:8,10).
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Lest I sleep the sleep of death. Is this intended as a
deliberate contrast with Saul’s experience when he slept the sleep of
“safety” with a spear poised over his heart (1 Sam. 26:8)?
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4.
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Mine enemy. How very many psalms speak of conflict with
an enemy! But in none of them is the enemy the “orthodox” Devil, but
always a man, or men — or self!
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I have prevailed against him. “He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now” (Matt. 27:43).
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5.
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Thy mercy. Always this precious Old Testament word
hesed refers to God’s covenants of promise. Through
all this harassment David knew that the throne was to be his. The way through
all these horrific situations is by trust (faith) in God’s
“mercy”.
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1.
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How long? This plaintive repetition tells of
Christ’s human spirit sorely tried: “How am I straitened till it be
accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). Yet even when at the lowest ebb, these words
of faith imply confidence that there will be an end to the evil
time.
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Wilt thou hide thy face from me? In spite of Psa. 22:1,
it is not possible to believe that the Father ever truly hid His face from His
Son. But there were times when human weakness was tempted to believe that He
did: 11:7.
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2.
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Sorrow in my head....mine enemy exalted. Even though
the gospels tell but little of this side of the psychology of Jesus, there must
have been times when these words were poignantly true.
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3.
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Lest I sleep the sleep of death. A sense of possible
failure of his life’s work and of his death; cp. the Messianic Isaiah
49.
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4.
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Those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. The
vaunting spirit of evil did rejoice against Christ, but only for a short while.
It did not endure even as far as the third day.
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5.
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I have trusted in thy mercy. Gethsemane illustrates
how, many a time, a despondent spirit in Jesus gave way at last before the
positive steadfastness of his faith. (“Mercy” does not necessarily
imply forgiveness of sins; rather, it could be translated
“lovingkindness”.) As stated above, it is connected with God’s
covenants of promise, having to do with eternal life, and confirmed by the blood
of Christ the “covenant-victim” (Heb. 9:13-17).
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6.
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Because he hath dealt bountifully. This verse may be
read either as a later addition, when faith had won through, or as a typical
Hebraism — expressing, even in the midst of depression, that the
reinforcements of heaven are at hand and all-sufficient.
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1.
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How long? A question repeated in Psa. 74:10; 79:5;
89:46. Notice similar questions in Hab. 1:2; Dan. 12:6; 8:13. The general answer
to such questions is in Isa. 54:17:
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“For a small moment have I forsaken thee [cp. 2
Cor. 4:17: ‘our light affliction, which is but for a
moment’], but with great mercies will I gather thee.”
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Wilt thou hide thy face from me? Job, in the midst of
intense sufferings, asked the same question (Job 13:24). Compare also Psa.
10:1.
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3.
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The “sleep” of death: Job 7:21; Psa. 6:5;
146:3,4; John 11:11; 1 Cor. 15:18; 1 Thes. 4:13-16.
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But I. Emphatic in the Hebrew: but as for me! A
definite contrast with others.
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5.
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My heart shall rejoice. Phil. 4:4.
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6.
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Dealt bountifully. The basic idea is completeness; the
Lord has “granted all my desire” (NEB).
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