Psalms 27:13

I had fainted,....

And let our hearts be thus affected in singing this psalm. Encouragement in Prayers. 1 The L ORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the L ORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

The strong emotion is indicated by the incomplete sentence, for which the English Version supplies a proper clause; or, omitting that, and rendering, "yet I believed," &c., the contrast of his faith and his danger is expressed. to see--is to experience (Ps 22:17).

Faintness of heart is a common infirmity; even he who slew Goliath was subject to its attacks. Faith puts its bottle of cordial to the lip of the soul, and so prevents fainting. Hope is heaven's balm for present sorrow. In this land of the dying, it is our blessedness to be looking and longing for our fair portion in the land of the living, whence the goodness of God has banished the wickedness of man, and where holy spirits charm with their society those persecuted saints who were vilified and despised among men. We must believe to see, not see to believe; we must wait the appointed time, and stay our soul's hunger with foretastes of the Lord's eternal goodness which shall soon be our feast and our song.

I HAVE taken the whole verse for my text, but I am not sure that I shall keep to it. The words in it at which I catch are these, "Unless I had believed to see." Most people see to believe, but in David's case the process was reversed and put into Gospel order—he believed to see and this is the keynote of our discourse.

I HAVE taken the whole verse for my text, but I am not sure that I shall keep to it. The words in it at which I catch are these, "Unless I had believed to see." Most people see to believe, but in David's case the process was reversed and put into Gospel order—he believed to see and this is the keynote of our discourse. The prayer of my heart is that some may be led to believe to see, and that those who have been trying to see in order to believe may now come and trust in Jesus and believe and see the Grace of God. Here we have in the words I select for the text, a doctrine stated, many difficulties removed, and some directions afforded for the Christian life. I. We have here before us a fundamental truth and DOCTRINE of our faith that the great act by which a man is saved, so far as he is concerned, is the act of faith. That is to say he gives up all other righteousness and casts himself upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment he does that he is saved—his past sins are forgiven him—his future is secure. That one simple act of confidence in Jesus, insignificant as it may appear to be, is the dawn of spiritual life, the evidence of security, the token of eternal salvation! And here is the reason for this, namely, that faith is God's appointed mark which He sets upon His favored ones, and by this may a man know whether he is saved or not, whether he is ordained unto eternal life or not—by his answer to this one question—"Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?" Or, in other words, "Do you trust in the Son of God?" The case is ordered in this wise—we have sinned, we have broken God's Law—God's Law must be honored. Sin cannot be committed without a penalty being inflicted.

I had fainted, unless I had believed - The words in italics are supplied by our translators; but, far from being necessary, they injure the sense. Throw out the words I had fainted, and leave a break after the verse, and the elegant figure of the psalmist will be preserved: “Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” - What! what, alas! should have become of me! Dr. Hammond has observed that there is a remarkable elegance in the original, which, by the use of the beautiful figure aposiopesis, makes an abrupt breaking off in the midst of a speech. He compares it to the speech of Neptune to the winds that had raised the tempest to drown the fleet of Aeneas - Aeneid. lib. i., ver. 131. Eurum ad se zephyrumque vocat: dehinc talia fatur; Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri? Jam coelum terramque, meo sine numine, venti, Miscere, et tantas audetis tollere moles? Quos ego-sed motos praestat componere fluctus. To Eurus and the western blast he cried, Does your high birth inspire this boundless pride? Audacious winds! without a power from me, To raise at will such mountains on the sea? Thus to confound heaven, earth, the air, and main; Whom I - but, first, I’ll calm the waves again. Pitts.

I had fainted, unless I had believed - The words “I had fainted” are supplied by the translators, but they undoubtedly express the true sense of the passage. The psalmist refers to the state of mind produced by the efforts of his enemies to destroy him, as mentioned in Psa 27:12. So numerous, mighty, and formidable were they, that he says his only support was his faith in God; his belief that he would yet be permitted to see the goodness of God upon the earth. In this time of perplexity and trial he had confidence in God, and believed that He would uphold him, and would permit him to see the evidences of His goodness and mercy while yet on the earth. What was the ground of this confidence he does not say, but he had the fullest belief that this would be so. He may have had some special assurance of it, or he may have had a deep internal conviction of it, sufficient to calm his mind; but whatever was the source of this confidence it was that which sustained him. A similar state of feeling is indicated in the remarkable passage in Job, Job 19:25-27. See the notes at that passage. To see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living - That is, that I should “live,” and yet see and enjoy the tokens of the divine favor here upon the earth.