Four portraits of one soul.
I. INQUIRE AS TO THE SOUL.
1. The psalm tells of ransomed exiles, of redeemed Israelites, and recounts the sad but varied experiences through which they had passed. Some had been wanderers, some captives, some stricken with mortal sickness, some all but lost at sea.
2. But in all ages of the Church this psalm has been taken as telling not merely of the literal facts which it records, but as setting forth in vivid and varied way the history of every soul as yet unsaved. It is, then, of the soul not yet saved that this fourfold portraiture is given.
II. LOOK AT THE PORTRAITS.
1. That of the wanderer. Out of the right way, in the wilderness, and going astray there; very miserable since he can find no home or rest; famine stares him in the face, and his soul faints within him. Is not this a true description of such as are unsaved? Every detail answers to his experience and condition. "All we like sheep have gone astray." Wanderers from God, and weary because of it,—such is the unsaved soul.
2. That of the captive. He is shut up in some dark dungeon, fettered hand and foot, doomed to die; he has brought it all on himself by his rebellion; the weight of his trouble has utterly east him down; he lies prostrate on the ground, without help or hope. Here, again, the real resemblance between this portrait and the unsaved soul can be readily seen. Many such can bear testimony that they have been through it all. Christ speaks of such as captives, held fast behind prison doors and bound (Luke 4:18). Then:
3. That of the man stricken with mortal disease. Fools are they, and not simply unhappy, for these also have brought their misery on themselves; they are sinners as well as foolish. But now, so stricken with sickness are they, that they turn from all food, and are at the point of death. Sin is such a disease, and they are fools who bring it on themselves; and the effects of it are just what is said, and there is but a step betwixt them and death.
4. The storm-driven mariner ready to perish. Again we have a portrait of the soul, so driven and tossed by the tempests, trials, and storms of life, that he has almost made shipwreck. We may be going on in our ordinary pursuits when these dreadful tempests rise; and then, at our wit's end, not knowing what to do, our soul is melted because of trouble. Oat of Christ, we are ever exposed to such storms; for his word alone can still the tempest, and bring us to the haven where we would be.
III. OBSERVE THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE AND RESEMBLANCE.
1. Of difference. The first tells of the unrest and failure of the soul to find satisfaction apart from God. The second, of the awful power, oppression, and cruelty of sin. "O wretched man that I am! who," etc.? (Romans 7:24). The third, of the paralysis of all spiritual energies, and the drawing ever nearer death of all the faculties of the soul, which sin causes. The fourth, of the liability to sudden and overwhelming destruction of the soul unpiloted by Christ.
2. Of resemblance. All such souls have to suffer. That suffering reaches extremity ere succor comes. Nor does it come then until prayed for; but then it does come and according to the need of each. The Lord alone sends it. The effect of it is ever to wake up praise; to make the soul long that others may praise, and to grieve that they do not.—S.C.