Psalms 25:18

Look upon mine affliction and my pain. Note the many trials of the saints; here we have no less than six words all descriptive of woe. "Desolate, and afflicted, troubles enlarged, distresses, affliction, and pain. " But note yet more the submissive and believing spirit of a true saint; all he asks for is, "Lord, look upon my evil plight; "he does not dictate, or even express a complaint; a look from God will content him, and that being granted he asks no more. Even more noteworthy is the way in which the believer under affliction discovers the true source of all the mischief, and lays the axe at the root of it. Forgive all my sins, is the cry of a soul that is more sick of sin than of pain, and would sooner be forgiven than healed. Blessed is the man to whom sin is more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, a grace taught heart alone feels it.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain. Note the many trials of the saints; here we have no less than six words all descriptive of woe. "Desolate, and afflicted, troubles enlarged, distresses, affliction, and pain. " But note yet more the submissive and believing spirit of a true saint; all he asks for is, "Lord, look upon my evil plight; "he does not dictate, or even express a complaint; a look from God will content him, and that being granted he asks no more.

IF this Psalm were, indeed, written by David at the time when his son Absalom had raised the rebellion against him, we can readily understand the distinction which he draws between his "affliction," and his "pain." It is a great "affliction" to have a son become a rebel and that subjects who owed so much to their monarch should become traitors against his gentle government. "Pain" was the acute sensation which David's own heart experienced as the result of such calamity. He knew— "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child." None of us can guess the "pain" which David must have felt from the "affliction" of having such a son as Absalom, and the "pain" of mind, again, which he felt in being betrayed by his familiar counselor, Ahithophel, and in being forsaken by his subjects who in former days had honored him and rejoiced in him. He asked the Lord, therefore, to look not only upon the trouble, but also upon the misery which the trouble caused him. "If needs be," says the Apostle, "we are in heaviness through manifold temptations"—as if not only the temptations were to be observed, but also the heaviness consequent thereof. So here we may bring before God's notice not only our trial, but the inward anguish which the trial occasions us. I can understand, also, why David should add, "And forgive all my sins," because he knew that the revolt of Absalom was mysteriously connected with the Divine purpose as a chastisement for his sin with Bathsheba. He recollected how Nathan had told him that he should have war all the days of his life—and now he remembered it all—the bitterness of gall sickened his soul as he remembered that sin which had once been so sweet to his taste.

Look upon mine affliction - See my distressed condition, and thy eye will affect thy heart. Forgive all my sins - My sins are the cause of all my sufferings; forgive these. This is the verse which should begin with the letter ק koph; but, instead of it, we have ר resh both here, where it should not be, and in the next verse where it should be. Dr. Kennicott reads קומה kumah, “arise,” and Houbigant, קצר ketsar, “cut short.” The word which began with ק koph has been long lost out of the verse, as every version seems to have read that which now stands in the Hebrew text.

Look upon mine affliction - See my distressed condition, and thy eye will affect thy heart. Forgive all my sins - My sins are the cause of all my sufferings; forgive these. This is the verse which should begin with the letter ק koph; but, instead of it, we have ר resh both here, where it should not be, and in the next verse where it should be. Dr. Kennicott reads קומה kumah, “arise,” and Houbigant, קצר ketsar, “cut short.” The word which began with ק koph has been long lost out of the verse, as every version seems to have read that which now stands in the Hebrew text.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain - See Psa 25:16. This is a repetition of earnest pleading - as if God still turned away from him, and did not deign to regard him. In trouble and distress piety thus pleads with God, and repeats the earnest supplication for His help. Though God seems not to regard the prayer, faith does not fail, but renews the supplication, confident that He will still hear and save. And forgive all my sins - The mind, as above remarked, connects trouble and sin together. When we are afflicted, we naturally inquire whether the affliction is not on account of some particular transgressions of which we have been guilty; and even when we cannot trace any direct connection with sin, affliction suggests the general fact that we are sinners, and that all our troubles are originated by that fact. One of the benefits of affliction, therefore, is to call to our remembrance our sins, and to keep before the mind the fact that we are violators of the law of God. This connection between suffering and sin, in the sense that the one naturally suggests the other, was more than once illustrated in the miracles performed by the Saviour. See Mat 9:2.