3. But now prayer lifts up her voice,
like the watchman who proclaims the daybreak. The gloomy thought of God’s
having forsaken him is still on the psalmist’s soul, and he therefore cries, Considerand hear me. He remembers at once the root of his woe, and cries aloud that
it may be removed. The final absence of God is Tophet’s fire, and his temporary
absence brings his people into the very suburbs of hell. God is here entreated
to see and hear, so he may be doubly moved to pity. What should
we do if we had no God to turn to in the hour of wretchedness? O Lord my God. Note the cry of faith.
Our interest in God is not destroyed by all our trials and sorrows. Lightenmine eyes. That is, let the eye of my faith be clear, that I may see my God
in the dark; let my eye of watchfulness be wide open, lest I be entrapped; and
let the eye of my understanding be illuminated to see the right way. Perhaps,
too, here is an allusion to that cheering of the spirits so frequently called
the enlightening of the eyes because it causes the face to brighten, and the
eyes to sparkle. Well may we use the prayer, “Lighten our darkness, we beseech
thee, O Lord,” for in
many respects we need the Holy Spirit’s illuminating rays. Lest I sleep thesleep of death. Darkness engenders sleep, and despondency is not slow in
making the eyes heavy. From this faintness and dimness of vision, caused by
despair, there is but a step to the iron sleep of death. David feared that his
trials would end his life, and he rightly uses his fear as an argument with God
in prayer; for deep distress has in it a kind of claim upon compassion, not a
claim of right, but a plea which has power with grace. Under the pressure of
heart sorrow, the psalmist does not look forward to the sleep of death with
hope and joy, as assured believers do, but he shrinks from it with dread, from
which we gather that bondage from fear of death is no new thing.
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