Psalm 42:10 As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me; while they say daily to me, Where is your God? I. THE CARRIAGE, DISPOSITION AND EXPRESSION OF OTHERS TO DAVID. 1. They were his enemies. God's children will never want such. 2. They reproached him. Their tongues were tipped from hell, and they did but utter that which was in their hearts. But such reproach is grievous. See Galatians 4., how Ishmael persecuted Isaac. 3. The specialty of their reproach was, "They say unto me, Where is thy God?" They touch him in his religion. They did not deny that there was any God, but they upbraid him with his singularity, "Where is thy God?" And this is an ordinary reproach to be east at a good man in trouble. They seek to shake his faith. So did Satan try our Lord (Matthew 4:3). 4. And they say out their reproach to his face. They are that impudent. Malice is so, and will always be so. 5. And they say it "daily." They are unwearied: their malice is fed with a spring; it never wants for words. 6. And that which they say is — Where is now thy God? God does at times hide Himself (Isaiah 45:15; Matthew 27:46). God was never nearer Christ in all His life than then, and yet He thus cries out. But our life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). As in winter the life of a tree is hid in its roots. But God was not gone from David. God was never nearer Moses than when he was sprawling upon the water in that ark they had made for him (Exodus 2:8). David might have said to them, Where are your eyes? For God was not only in heaven, but in his soul. II. How DID THIS REPROACH AFFECT DAVID? "As with a sword in my bones." Now, this was so 1. Because it tended to the reproach of God. It disparaged God, and so touched David, who loved God. 2. And it touched upon religion itself. As if it were vain to serve God. It was a base thought to think that God would do no good to them that serve Him. Even the devil does that. 3. This reproach was for the damping of the spirits of all good men. Words affect strangely; they have a strange force with men, especially in such as are weak (Numbers 13:32). III. CONCLUSION. To make some use of all this — how does hearing God reproached affect us? Is it as a sword in our bones? It should be. That which hath no grief when there is cause of grief is to be accounted but as dead flesh. When God's enemies persecute His people we ought to be stirred. Paul (Acts 13:10). And we may learn here how to enlarge the commandments. The swords spoken of here were but words. He is a murderer in God's esteem that wounds another with his tongue (Romans 3:13; Proverbs 12:18). ( Sibbes, Richard.) Parallel Verses KJV: As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? |
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