This sermon is the first of a series of forty-five on the cxxx. Psalm preached by Mr. Hutcheson at Irvine, where he died in 1674. The sermons are from the pen of a hearer. Mr. Hutcheson was a truly able and savoury divine, and his works are still much sought after. See note in another column.—ED.
HAVING a purpose (if the Lord will) to go through this Psalm, I shall speak somewhat in a brief word to the title of it. It is called “A Song of Degrees,” a title that is common to fifteen Psalms in this Book, from the 120th to the 134th inclusive, and the importance of this title is not easily condescended upon. Popish writers would from this make up fifteen degrees of virtues, each of them still above another, whereby a sinner breathes for redemption by Christ, from a state of sin and misery, and ascendeth to heaven; but this necessitates them to strain their wits, and to put these Psalms on a rack, to find out the distinction of these virtues, and therefore we shall leave it. The Hebrew word rendered “degrees” leads us to somewhat more certain, yet not demonstrative: that these Psalms may be called songs of degrees—1. Upon the account of the way of singing them, the voice in singing them being raised to an high key, as 2 Chron. xx., where it is said the Levites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel, with a loud voice on high. It is the same word used here for degrees. 2. There is a reason why these Psalms were to be sung with a loud voice; a song of degrees may signify a most excellent song, or a song which in excellency surmounts other songs: and so the word is applied to a man of excellency (1 Chron. xvii. 27): “Thou hast regarded me according to a man of high degree, or a man of excellency, O Lord”; and so these Psalms may be called songs of degrees, because they are most excellent, for the sweet, grave, and pithy sentences they contain. 3. They may be called songs of degrees upon the account of the place where these excellent songs were to be sung, with an high voice. The Chaldee paraphrast says they were to be sung upon the degrees, or stairs, whereby they went up to the Temple, or rather, whereby they went up to Mount Sion, the City of David, one of which fifteen Psalms was to be sung on every step of these stairs. And others will have them to be sung in the several mansions of the people that came from the Babylonish captivity, for so we find the word rendered, Ezra vii. 9. These things I only name, and pass them; and I might add one conjecture more: when I consider the affinity that is betwixt the word degrees rendered, and the original that signifies burnt-offering or sacrifice, I incline to think that these songs were sung by the Priests and Levites about the altar, while they offered these burnt-offerings or sacrifices.
Having thus briefly spoken to the title, there are other general notes common to this with other Psalms that might be insisted on, which I also pass.
For the penman of the Psalms, he is not designed; nor is it needful to enquire who he was, since the Psalm hath its authority from the Spirit of God, and not from man. It is most like to be a Psalm of David, or that David was the penman, for these doubled expressions (ver. 2) of this Psalm are used by him in Psalms liv., lv., and lxi., and many others.
For the particular difficulty to which this Psalm relates, it is not needful to determine what it was. It may suffice for us taking up the scope of the Psalm in general that the Psalmist is in a distress, and being in a distress ye will find him first wrestling, and then, secondly, victorious.
The Psalmist’s Wrestling
For the first, his wrestling; ye shall take it up in three branches.
- Ye will find him wrestling with plunging difficulties and perplexities, and these he expresseth under the term of “depths;” and the way he takes to win out of them is wrestling by prayer (ver. 1, 2).
- Ye will find him wrestling with the sense and conscience of guilt, putting back his prayer, and offering to crush his hopes; and this he wrestleth with by claiming to pardon (ver. 3, 4).
- Ye will find him wrestling with delays to his answer of prayers, or delays of the outgate prayed for; and this he wrestleth with by patience and hope (ver. 5, 6).
Again, in the last two verses ye have him victorious; for having gotten an issue he hoards it not up, he does not conceal it, but he brings it forth and improves it for the use of the people of God, whom he encourageth to hope in God, upon the account of mercy, and pardon, and plenteous redemption, and on the account of His redeeming Israel from all his iniquities.
So much for the scope and partition of the Psalm.
To return to the first two verses, upon which I may be the more brief that I had occasion to speak to you before of the troubles and trials of God’s people, of prayer, and God’s answering prayer; yet we shall not pass this part, but we shall endeavour to gather some things useful from it.
In this his wrestling, then, take notice of these four things:
- Ye have that that the Psalmist was put to wrestle with, which is expressed under the name of “depths.”
- The way of his wrestling therewith; out of the depths he cried, “Out of the depths have I cried.”
- Ye have him reflecting on this his practice; he takes a back look of it, and he avows it before God, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.”
- Ye have the prosecution of this his wrestlings, or his pleading for audience in a new and doubled suit (ver. 2), “Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.”
For the first of these, the depths out of which he cried: I cannot accord to understand it thus, that he prayed from the depths or bottom of his heart. So the commentators I spoke of before understand it of that degree of virtue which is profound prayer, from the inward parts or bottom of the heart. There is a truth in that I confess, that prayer should come from the bottom of the heart, and in prayer we should write our hearts on our tongues; but I find it not a Scripture phrase, that people are said to pray from the heart when they cry out of the depths. Neither can I understand it of the conscience of sin only, that, as some would understand it, he is under a deep of despair upon the account of guilt that he speaks of (ver. 3, 4), and hath a promise of redemption from ver. 8. The word is depths in the plural number, and therefore it is safest to understand it, more generally of plunging and sinking difficulties, both outward, trouble and inward perplexity resulting thereon, and of the conscience of guilt wakened up in trouble that may come in under these depths; and this interpretation agrees best with the current of Scripture, where we find the horrible pit, the miry clay, depths, deep waters, water-floods, made use of to hold out great troubles, as in Psalms xl. 2, xlii. 7, lxix. 2, 14, 15.
I shall here touch upon one observation, that not only the visible Church, but even the truly godly, may be brought under plunging difficulties and perplexities, both inward and outward, to their great sinking, or at least their apparent sinking. They may be, and are very often, in the depths, and put to their prayers in the depths; so it was with the Psalmist here, and in those Psalms formerly cited. And in prosecution of this point—
The Metaphor of Deep or Depths
- I shall first speak a little to the metaphor of deep or depths.
- How it comes to pass that the Lord’s people are brought to these depths.
- To a word of use.
First, for the metaphor of deep or depths, I shall shortly offer what I conceive is the import thereof in these four:
1. Darkness and Unintelligibleness
Firstly, that which is a deep is a thing very dark. Dig a pit and make it deep, the light of the day cannot penetrate into it. Thus the unintelligible mysteries of seducers are called depths, as in Rev. ii. 24, the depths of Satan spoken of. Thus also the wise counsels of God, that men cannot indagate (Fathom), are called depths (Ps. xcii. 5), “Thy thoughts are very deep”; and 1 Cor. ii. 10, “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” And thus, also, in Ezek. iii. 6, a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words the people could not understand, are spoken of; in the original it is a people of a deep lip—Deepness then imports darkness, unintelligibleness, that which is mysterious. And that this notion is not strained even in this case of trouble, is clear from Heman’s lament (Ps. lxxxviii. 6), “Thou hast laid me (saith he) in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps,” where to be in darkness and in the deeps are expressed as synonymous, or one and the same. And truly this is ordinarily incident to the people of God; their deep trials are in themselves so dark, and in their effects so astonishing, that they are often at a stand to know what God says to them by them, and hence are these “wheresoever” and “whys” as to this or that which is come upon them; as also in reference to their duty, as Jehosophat expresseth his distress (2 Chr. xx. 12), “Lord, we know not what to do.”
2. Difficulty in Escaping
But, secondly, this metaphor of a deep or depths, as it imports that which is dark and unintelligible, so it imports that out of which it is not easy to get up. Cast a man upon the ground he may easily get up, but cast him in a deep pit he can hardly get up out of it without help. Some emblem we have of this in Jeremiah xxxviii., where he is put into the dungeon where there was no water, but mire, and he sunk in the mire; Ebedmelech had a hard task to get him up. And the people of God their troubles may be depths on that account; refuge may fail them, no man caring for their soul (Ps. cxlii. 4); all hope that they shall be saved taken away, as it is said by Paul in that voyage (Acts xxvii. 20); all their expectations of an outgate may be crushed, as Jer. xiv. 19, “Why has thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble”: yea, all their endeavours to extricate themselves out of trouble may be frustrate, Jer. viii., “When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me;” and Job ix. 27, 28, “If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself, I am afraid of all my sorrows.”
3. Apparent Ruin
But, thirdly, this metaphor of a deep or depths imports not only that which is dark and hard to get out of, but that which appears ruining. Put a man into a deep pit, if he get none to help him out of it he must starve and ruin; as Ebedmelech said to the king, They have put Jeremiah into the dungeon, and he will die for hunger in the place where he is (Jer. xxxviii. 9). Put a man in a pit where there is deep water, he will drown if he be not taken out. So the people of God; their trouble may be such as not only all ground of hope of outgate may be taken away, but all hope of issue may be accompanied with apparent present ruin. David is put to a humbling posture when he is put to that (Ps. lxix. 15), “Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.”
4. Plurality of Depths
But, fourthly, the metaphor of depths in the plural number imports a plurality of them; a multitude of these depths, dark, hard, hopeless, ruining postures, trysting all together on a child of God, that his sad lot may be like that of the Church (Lam. ii, 22). “Thou hast called as in a solemn day, my terrors round about.” There is a convocation of them, one trouble seldom comes its alone upon the people of God; as one wave uses not to come its alone to beat upon the shore, but trial upon trial, wave upon wave, one depth calling upon another depth, till their trial be perfected.
More particularly, the plurality of these depths may be taken up in these steps:
Outward Trouble and Disadvantages
Firstly. Their outward trouble may be attended with other visible disadvantages; for when a man is under trouble, then ordinarily he is in contempt (Job xii. 5): “He that is ready to slip with his feet is a lamp despised,” as a dying-out snuff in the thought of him that is at ease. Hence (Heb. xii. 2) it is said, “Christ endured the cross, despising the shame.” The cross and shame, the cross and ignominy, go hand in hand. It is not enough to be in affliction, but thou must be content to be reproached and counted a fool; yea, not only doth outward trouble and contempt go ordinarily together, but outward affliction and slighting from near relations, which is a load above a burden (Ps. xxxi. 11): “My lovers and friends stood aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stood afar off”; (Ps. lxxxviii. 8, 18), “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness.”
Conscience of Guilt
Secondly. It comes to the depths with the people of God on this account: that great outward trouble readily wakens the conscience of guilt, as we see of Joseph’s brethren when they were put into prison (Gen xlii. 41): “They said one to another, We are very guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear: therefore is this distress come upon us.” Yea, outward trouble, and conscience of guilt under it wakened, may break the peace of the mind, and that adds to these depths. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” That is deep upon deep; trouble and guilt, trouble and broken mind, turns to be the greatest burden.
Imagination and Crosses
And thirdly. It may come to depths with the people of God on this account: that when once the mind is broken, there is no need of many real crosses. The imagination can no sooner hatch an apprehension, but the mind will make it a cross; and then so many apprehensions, so many depths, are created. And thus ye have some sort of account of the importance of this metaphor, a depth, or depths.
How God’s People are Brought to These Depths
I proceed to the second thing, being to name a few considerations for clearing how it comes to be thus with the people of God, that they are brought into these depths. I shall name but a few, having been long in breaking in upon this purpose, which will save me a labour afterward.
1. Folly of God’s People
And 1. Take this consideration in general: the folly of the people of God puts them to this posture. That is one (Ps. xxxviii. 8): “There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin”; and v. 5, “My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness.” Whatsoever there may be of a trial of faith in their trouble, sin is at the door at which their troubles, particularly their overwhelming troubles, enter in.
2. Ordinary and Habitual Faults
But 2. Because the people of God may sometimes, through mercy, be kept from gross outbreaks, therefore consider that even the ordinary and habitual faults of the people of God will provoke Him to put them in these depths. I shall instance but in these two faults. First, the ordinary fault of negligence in doing duty, I do not say of neglecting duty; custom and conscience may keep them at duty, but ordinary negligence in doing duty hath need of a rousing douk in a depth, to set them to their feet. If the Psalmist cried out of the depths, and the poor speaks supplications as he doth (v. 2), it intimates there is little crying, little humiliation, in ordinary diligence; therefore He sends to the depths to put an edge upon folk’s diligence, and to teach them to say their prayers in earnest. And second, fault in ordinary is the neglect of ordinary needy dependence upon God in all things, the neglect of going through the wilderness “leaning on the beloved”; a small fault as ye would think, but sad in a Christian life to live in this neglect. Hence the apostle (2 Cor. i. 8, 9) saith: “We were pressed out of measure above strength, inasmuch that we despaired even of life: we had the sentence of death in ourselves.” And for what end? To learn us dependence, that we should not trust in ourselves, “but in God, who raiseth the dead.”
3. God’s Near Relation with His People
And 3. Whereas it might be thought that such faults as these, and grosser, are passed in many others, I shall add, that the Lord’s near relation with his people will not let them win away with their faults, win away who will (Amos iii. 2): “You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”; or, as it is in the original, “I will visit upon you your sins.” His people will not want the rod when their faults call for it, want who will.
4. God’s Purposes of Love
- Consider there is this to be looked upon as a cause of putting His people in the depths, to wit, His purposes of love to His people. And His allowances upon His people are so rich that there is need of preparations, by trial and afflictions, to make them capable of them; for were they not put into the depths they could not be capable of them. Hence it is Paul’s remark in the forecited place (x Cor. i. 4, 5). God “comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” We might not want these depths of tribulation, because without them we could not be capable of the consolations we receive from Christ.
5. Saints’ Tenderness
And 5. To add no more, we may take notice of somewhat in the saints’ tenderness above others that occasion these depths. Many folks may be under as great trouble that are not so plunged and perplexed with it as they are. Many a man has been tossed as David was by Saul who have not expressed their resentments as he did. How is that? The tender-spiritedness that is in the people of God occasions their trouble of mind; they see God in their afflictions, and they would fain see more of Him and of His mind as to their duty; and this makes affliction take a deeper stamp and impression on them, and to draw blood of them more than it doth on an unsubdued spirit, who hath no mind of God or Providence, but hath only the outward trouble to grapple with. Thus we see how it comes to pass that the people of God are put in the depths.
Use of the Doctrine
For the third thing I proposed to be spoken to, that is, the use of the doctrine, the whole observations to be gathered from the two following verses are instructions how to improve such a lot, and consequently uses of the point in hand. Therefore, I shall content myself to hint briefly at three general words here:
1. Jealousy of a Crossless Life
- From what has been said, ye would learn to be more jealous of a crossless life, of a life without trouble and exercise. Why? It speaks little of soul-thriving in the life of God. Take notice of that word (Ps. lv. 19) spoken of the wicked, “because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God”: and that spoken of Moab (Jer. xlviii. 11), “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed, and he rests on his lees.” And as a crossless life speaks little thriving in the life of grace, so it speaks to very many little of God’s love and care. There is a sort of indignation kythed (Shown) against sinners that they little notice, and wherein there is a snare when they get leave to go on in sin and meet not with a cross: when a person will not deinz (Condescend; to give) one that is going wrong with a reproof, it speaks hatred. So that is a sad word from God (Ezek. iii. 26): “Thou shalt not be a reprover to them, for they are a rebellious house”; and that word (Hos. iv. 17), “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone,” that is a sad dispensation. A douk to the hazard of drowning in the depths is better company.
2. Not to Mistake Sad Exercises
- From this ye would be cautioned not to mistake the sad exercises of the people of God, whose lot in ordinar is outward troubles; they get ordinarily the stakes to keep. And to mark it in the by, I wonder what a mistake is befallen us, or rather a distraction is come upon us, that we should stumble at the people of God their want of prosperity. Look to the frame of the people of God; they are in ordinary broken folk. Others can bear their afflictions with a sort of gallantry; they can drink them down, rant them down. But they are broken with their affliction, as if they had no spirit at all to bear them. But I say ye would not mistake, for it is a token of God’s love and care, who drouks them in the depths, to put them, out of the depths to cry unto Him; and it is a more blessed posture to be put, out of the depths to cry, than to be in a palace with neglect of prayer. And therefore I call it no better than a distraction to stumble at their want of prosperity; they are the folk that faint and have no might, and yet they will lay by the young men and the youths for all their ranting; because they wait upon the Lord, “they shall renew their strength” (Isa. xl. 29). This I speak, not to foster discouragement in any, but to caution them that are ready to stumble at the people of God their being in trouble, and broken in that condition.
3. How to Improve Affliction
- And a third word of use shall be, that every one that is in the depths would try how they improve that lot; and this use is the key to open the door to the following purpose, which I shall not now break in upon. Only remember, “The Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.” Therefore there must be something that, in affliction, when we are in the depths, He is calling us to, and which we would ply to in earnest. And therefore we would take heed that the bellows be not burnt, that the founder do not melt in vain, and that we provoke not God to call us “reprobate silver, whom he hath rejected” (Jer. vi. 29, 30).