05.02. David's Darkness

David’s Darkness

Oh! what a mine of experimental truth. How well it agrees with those Scriptures which describe the heartfelt trials of God’s children! Often in their feelings they are at a distance, and question whether God has really anything to do with them or not. But the very cry, the very anxiety, is the strongest proof we can have that this felt distance would not trouble us except God Himself had come near to us in His Grace. It is a glorious fact that no trial, no tribulation, no temptation, however fierce, no way, no work, no warfare, however desperate, can make us feel that we have nothing to do with God. We often wonder how God can have anything to do with such unworthy sinners, but we also realize that we must have to do with God. The heart charged with its bitterness heaves the heavenward sigh, and desires, and cries after the only object that can truly satisfy it. Now David’s experience in verse 1 springs from this fact. He sought for God because no refreshment could be found. The land was barren, the clouds were dark. Hence his resolve -- "Early will I seek Thee." In Hebrew these five words are expressed by one word, shah-char, which means to break, cleave, break through. Hence the noun means the dawn, the breaking forth of light, and the verb gets an additional idea of breaking forth, hence to seek carefully or earnestly. In our text the two thoughts are united. Similar is the teaching (though not the same word) in Psa 46:5 (marg.), "God shall help her, and that right early." What volumes do these words contain for Israel and Jerusalem in the future, and for all anxious waiting souls now! In the dark and dreary nights of trial which we are called to pass through, we wait and watch for the day’s return. "My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning" (Psa 130:6). As surely as God’s children experience the darkness of the Wilderness, so surely will God help, defend, and comfort them with the morning of His appearing Yes! God’s deliverances are "early". Look at Exo 14:24-27. The children of Israel are in straits. They know not what to do. The enemy is in hot pursuit, but "in the morning-watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of the fire and the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians." The Lord looks destruction on His enemies; but He looks mercy and deliverance to His own. Israel’s enemies are dismayed and destroyed, while the Redeemed of the Lord break forth with songs of deliverance, and joy, and gladness. So with Hezekiah, when Sennacherib, King of Assyria, sent his blasphemous letter. Hezekiah made no stir, marshalled no forces, but went up to the house of the Lord. What was the result? "When they arose early in the morning they were all dead corpses" (Isa 37:36). Ah! it is blessed (and it will ere long be blessed for Israel), after a long night of darkness and sorrow, to behold the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings" (Mal 4:2). And why did David long to see God’s power? (verse 2). Because his own fancied strength was gone! The collect for the second Sunday in Lent exactly expresses David’s mind. "Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul, through Jesus Christ our Lord." David knew that his own strength was perfect in weakness. He, like Paul, gloried in his infirmity, that the power of Christ might rest upon him. And why did David long to see God’s glory? Because God had stained all his pride, marred all his beauty, divested him of all boasting and self-glorying. Because the lovingkindness of God was better to him than life, David would praise Him with joyful lips. These were David’s experiences, expressed, not only here, but in Psa 119:25, where he says, "My soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken Thou me according to Thy word." With so firm a foundation as Jehovah’s word, he could look up and say, "Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth" (Psa 71:20). David’s faith was for the night as well as for the day, for the storm as well as for the calm. That is a faith which is worth having, a faith to live in, and a faith to die in.