PSALM CXXX.

DE PROFUNDIS.

This great ode has won the admiration and moved the hearts of devout men in all ages. In his dying moments, as cited by Prothero, the thoughts of Richard Hooker, the pride of English theologians, dwelt on this psalm; while Luther, in his efforts to give the German nation a Bible and Hymn-Book^ founded upon it his well-known hymn —

"Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir."

And who can forget the sublime symbolism of Sir Noel Paton's wonderful creation, " De Profundis" — ^the female figure, the soul, struggling out of the mists of the valley, with her beautiful gauze robe and butterfly wings all frayed and stained by the mire; and the peerless form of the Saviour coming round the crest of the hill, laying aside His crook, and with tender gaze, yet tense hands, snatching the well-nigh exhausted Psyche from the abyss. What an incomparable blending of the human and Divine — human faith and Divine faithfulness meeting and co-operating in one supreme act of covenant love! And yet how limp the arms of the human figure are, when compared with the strong, tense grasp of the Good Shepherd! It is not so much faith that saves: it is the Saviour; and, therefore, the teaching of the whole canvas can only re-echo the closing strain of the Psalmist —

"  Israel, hope in the Lord;

For with the Lord there is mercy.

And He shall redeem Israel

From all his iniquities."

But what are the depths out of which the Hebrew singer directs his supplications? The present psalm gives no uncertain answer. It suggests, at least, a threefold division.

1. The Great Deep op Sin, and its One Propound Need — Forgiveness.

This is the burden of verses 3, 4, as read more particularly in the light of the instructive Hebrew names.

"If Thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities,

     O Adonai, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with Thee,

     That Thou mayst be feared."

It recalls the teaching of Hosea, the prophet of love. Jehovah was to him not only a King or Ruler who demanded civil justice as between man and man, or ethical righteousness as a reflection of the Divine; He was also a Divine Husband and Father who had taken Israel into covenant relationship with Himself, and who still yearned over the unfaithful wife or over the disobedient son, after she or he had been guilty of spiritual apostasy. Both as Jehovah*s spouse and Jehovah's son, Israel was pledged to a life of fidelity and service; and, therefore, the peculiar character of Israel's backsliding was to be read and judged in the light of that fact It was at least two things in one. It was a sin against covenant love, and a grave dereliction of duty. She had committed two great evils — slighted the love which a father's God had cherished towards her, as "Jah"; and in so doing had failed to render the filial service and obedience which she owed to Him as "Adonai." And in all this there was the proof not only of unrighteous conduct or the breach of universal law, but of a heart not true to Jehovah, out of sympathy with His character and ungrateful to His love.

This is the true nature of sin as depicted in the present psalm. The individual, no less than the nation, had departed from Jehovah. He had sinned against Him as the God of love, and was now trembling at the prospect of having to meet Him as the God of power. But who can stand before Him as Adonai, if He, as the God of the covenant, be strict to mark iniquity? No one. Before the searching glance of Him who is both loving-kindness and power, the conscience-smitten Israelite can only sink into the abyss.

What, on the other hand, if the God of Israel should not be extreme to sift? The mere possibility that there might be another alternative is full of promise for every sincere penitent. In the plenitude of His mercy He might allow the inner graciousness of His motive to determine the character of His discipline, and say, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me: My compassions are kindled together/' Hence the punishment, though richly deserved, would not be the " ban " of an utter extermination: it would be chastisement — the proof of His love. This is the profound conception that calms and reassures the Psalmist now. He might quail at the prospect of facing the sovereign might of Adonai, but what if the covenant love of Jah should act as his Divine goel? Might he not appeal from the one to the other — from the power to the love — and say, with the author of the " Royal Crown, that he would fly from God to God?

"From Thee to Thee I fly to win

A place of refuge, and within

Thy shadow from Thy anger hide

Until Thy wrath be turned aside.

 

Unto Thy mercy I will cling

Until Thou hearken pitying;

Nor will I quit my hold of Thee

Until Thy blessing light on me."1

This is the Psalmist's perfect plea when realising the depth of his own iniquity. He can lift his eyes, like Psyche, to the Great Shepherd of Israel and say —

"But there is forgiveness with Thee,

That Thou mayst be feared."

The sin of man may be deep, but the forgiveness of God is deeper. The consciousness of guilt may be wiped out by the exercise of covenant love.

2. The Closely Allied Deep of Suffering and its One Profound Need of Patience,

This is the supplementary thought contained in verses 5, 6. When the prophet Nathan exclaimed in the Parable of the One Ewe Lamb, " Thou art the man " (2 Sam. xii. 7), the royal backslider at once confessed his sin, and was as promptly assured of the Divine forgiveness. He might have said, in the language of Ps. xxxil 5 —

"I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord:

And Thou — Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.''

But what of the other great deep of suffering which had come as sin's necessary and bitter fruit? What of the personal and family sorrows which had fallen so calamitously upon his life? Were these also wiped out by the alchemy of faith, or by the free, spontaneous outflow of Divine forgiveness? Alas, for the answer. "Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." The sin might be forgiven, but the sorrow and the suffering remained.

Now, in these circumstances, what is the one supreme need of the suppliant? Not simply the faith that justifies, but the Spirit-taught patience that endures. He must learn to say, as in verses 5, 6 —

"I wait for God, my soul doth wait,

     My hope it in Hit word,

More than they that for morning watch,

     My soul waits for the Lord.''

" Ye have heard of the patience of Job," adds the Apostle, "and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity and merciful." What, in view of both of these passages, is the true nature of Christian patience? Is it the mere submission of a soul which has no power to resist — the cold, dull stupor of a man who is compelled to bow to the inevitable? Is it not rather the spiritual attitude of one who is thrilled by a deathless hope — the calm resignation of a human spirit, which, having seen the end of the Lord, is now confident of the morning? Yes —

''Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:

For there is a future for the man of peace."

                                   Ps. xxxvii. 37 (margin).

Patient waiting upon God has a future. It is an attitude of soul which is closely akin to hope. It is deeply rooted in the soil of childlike communion with Jehovah, and will yet wave its branches and bear its fruit in the sunshine of covenant love. The secret of the Lord is its strength. Having turned its face towards Adonai — for without any descriptive verb he exclaims, "my soul is to the Lord" — he is confident that not more surely shall they who watch for the dawn be rewarded by the glory of the sunrise, than will Adonai, the God of power, appear in His glory, and cause the night of His servant's sorrow to cease. This sets the reality of the Psalmist's assurance of forgiveness in the strongest possible light. Once he quailed at the prospect of appearing before Adonai, but now the advent of His Divine might is his one inspiration and hope. The same Power which might have crushed him in his state of unforgiven sin is now to appear in his favour and vindicate his confidence. He can therefore trust and not be afraid, even in the dark night of sorrow; he can stay his chastened spirit upon his God.

And is this not the pressing need of the present generation? In an age when all the ephemeral playthings of the hour are duly recorded in the morning papers, and the moral energies of the race are in grave danger of being wasted on a multiplicity of trifles; and when even the Church is being tempted to accept the alluring teaching that all human suffering is an anachronism — that the natural human flight from pain is really a spiritual quality which ought to be raised to the dignity of a moral obligation; is there not an ever-growing necessity for the trumpet-call of this time-honoured psalm, emphasising, as it does, the need of a renewed deepening of thought at the centre, a firmer grasp of the value of Divine discipline, and a calm, resigned waiting upon the Lord? The grace of God is sufficient for all the children of sorrow, even though the iron which has entered into the quick is not at once removed. By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving the afflicted suppliant is to make known all his requests unto God, and even if the prayer is not answered, at least in the way so fondly anticipated, the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall guard his heart and his thoughts in Christ Jesus. This is the second way in which the God of all grace comes to the help of His suffering people. In the great deep of their sorrow and suffering He teaches them the patience that endures.

3. The Great Deep of Humility and its One Profound Need of Assurance.

"There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayst be feared "; nay, there is discipline with Thee, that Thou mayst be reverenced and adored. The two combined give us the brightest jewel in Old Testament piety. The fear and the adoration together give us humility. "To this man will I look) saith the Lord, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word."

But what, in essence, is this peculiarly Christian grace? " It is no mere modesty or absence of pretension— a meaning which even heathen writers might have read into it I — no, nor even a self-made grace in any sense; it is an esteeming of ourselves small, inasmuch as we are so" (Trench). Inasmuch as we are so! That may not be the impression made upon us by the imperfect examples of our fellows, but it is the conviction produced by the felt presence of Jehovah's power. Like Charles Lamb, we might possibly be able to stand erect before the greatest of our human masters, but if He should come in, we would all kneel. This, we repeat, is the brightest gem in Old Testament piety. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

Now, here, again, what is the humble man's supreme need, especially when he comes to deal with friend or fellow? Not to allow his humble-mindedness to paralyse his confidence so that he becomes dumb with timidity before the Church or the world; but to allow the fear of God to so possess his mind and spirit, that, having eliminated every other fear, he can say —

"O Israel, hope in the Lord;

For with the Lord there is mercy,

And with Him is plenteous redemption."

The humble man's need is an assurance of salvation so deep and strong that he will be constrained to become an evangelist And it is not without interest in this connection to recall that it was the singing of this psalm as an anthem, at St. Paul's Cathedral, on 24th May 1738, which stirred the heart of John Wesley to receive that quickening sense of God's redeeming love which made him one of the foremost ministers and evangelists of his time. The Psalmist's theme, indeed, might well make the most timid man eloquent. Like the Divine Spirit, whose word it is, it is a message whose illuminating power searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. It searches and illumines the deep things of His love; for " with the Lord there is mercy " — not only inherent in His nature, but with Him, as His " darling attribute " (Matthew Henry), the very essence and seal of His covenant. And the deep things of His truths for the Psalmist had already said, "in His word do I hope " — that word of promise and agelong wisdom which, like Jehovah Himself, is eternal. And chief of all, the deep things of His redemption: "plenteous redemption" is the arresting phrase, containing enough for all, enough for each, enough for me. "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy."

These are the deep things of God — His character, His truth. His salvation; and yet the proper theme of the psalm has been the deep things of a man — his sin, his suffering, his humility. Out of the depths of the one he has cried in an agony of appeal to the fulness and might of the other, " Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I"; and like " deep calling unto deep," the love of Jah has responded to the impassioned appeal, and with all the might of Adonai has snatched the well-nigh exhausted Psyche from the abyss. And what He has done for one, He will do for all.

"He shall redeem Israel

From all his iniquities.''

In each generation, then, let every rescued soul sing —

"Plenteous redemption

Is ever found with Him,

And from all his iniquities

He Israel shall redeem."

1 Solomon Ibn Gebirol, born in Malaga, 1021. See Abraham's Short History of Jewish Literature, p. 64.