Psalms 142:1-7 - Homiletics

Our resource in extremity.

Few passages in Scripture more aptly illustrate the words, "They learn in suffering what they teach in song," than does this psalm. In a few strong sentences we have placed before us—

I. THE EXTREMITY OF HUMAN TROUBLE . David is "brought very low." His persecutors are too strong for him ( Psalms 142:6 ), too numerous; moreover, they are very wily, their stratagems are clever, and they involve him in great peril ( Psalms 142:3 ). He is abandoned by his friends; he is placed outside the reach of kindly sympathy and succor ( Psalms 142:4 ); nay, he is so shut up and surrounded that there seems no way of escape for him ( Psalms 142:7 ); he feels as if he were defeated, and he is a disheartened man ( Psalms 142:3 ); the waves of misfortune go over him. We may find some correspondence to this desperate position in our own case:

1. In very serious sickness, when the husband and father is stricken down in the midst of his life and of his responsibilities, and there does not open any way for the maintenance of his family; or when the student, who has spent many years in preparation for the Christian ministry, breaks down in health as the door of usefulness is about to open.

2. In the loss of reputation; when a true man is, through the "wicked devices" of some heartless neighbor, charged with a sin or crime of which he cannot possibly prove himself innocent, and he has to meet the averted looks and cold address of those who were once his cordial friends.

3. In desertion; when some pure and tender heart has trusted one that "smiles and smiles, and is a villain," and is by him betrayed and deserted, and all human "refuge fails," and no one seems to "care for the soul" of the sufferer, and the heart is indeed "overwhelmed."

4. In the bitter disappointment of some noble and generous hope; when the toiling evangelist or the lonely missionary makes no way, and the heathenism at home or abroad appears to be as dense and as dark as ever.

5. In some moral or spiritual entanglement ( Psalms 142:7 ); when the mind is imprisoned in some inextricable difficulty, in some harassing doubt, or even in utter disbelief; or when the life is darkened because the will is ensnared by some unworthy and, it may be, even degrading habit, and the soul is in a bondage compared with which that of stone walls and iron locks is as nothing; or when the spirit finds itself in the hard and cruel fetters of selfishness, or worldliness, or pride, and is therefore a long way off from the favor and friendship of Jesus Christ. In all such cases as these—and the moral are far more serious than the material—we are "brought very low;" we may well be "overwhelmed within us."

II. OUR ONE RESOURCE . Our refuge is in God; he is our Portion.

1. We go to our Divine Lord for refuge, that we may hide ourselves in him, to cast ourselves on his unfailing friendship, to rest in his deep and perfect sympathy ( Hebrews 4:15 , Hebrews 4:16 ).

2. When everything else is lost, when we are abandoned by our human friends, we have a heritage in God; we have still a heavenly Father to trust and love, and a holy service and filial submission to render; we have fellowship with God.

3. We ask and we hope for Divine deliverance. We know that an almighty arm is on our side; we believe that the All-wise can and will show to us a way of escape from the very midst of our difficulties; we are assured that God can break the net in which our soul is taken, and can enlarge us and give us a blessed spiritual freedom. Has not a Savior come to preach deliverance to the captives and whom the Son makes free, are they not free indeed"?