Spurgeon: April PM
* 04/11/PM
"Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my
sins."
--Psalm 25:18
It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked
with pleas concerning our sins--when, being under God's hand, we
are not wholly taken up with our pain, but remember our offences
against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to
the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow: it
was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, we must
take our sorrows to God . Even your little sorrows you may roll
upon God, for He counteth the hairs of your head; and your great
sorrows you may commit to Him, for He holdeth the ocean in the
hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may
be, and you shall find Him able and willing to relieve you. But
we must take our sins to God too . We must carry them to the
cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their
guilt, and to destroy their defiling power.
The special lesson of the text is this:--that we are to go
to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit .
Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, " Look upon
mine affliction and my pain;" but the next petition is vastly
more express, definite, decided, plain--" Forgive all my sins"
Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my
pain, and look at my sins." But David does not say so; he cries,
"Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to
Thy wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to Thee, I
should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as Thou wilt; but
as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I must have
them forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a
moment." A Christian counts sorrow lighter in the scale than
sin; he can bear that his troubles should continue, but he
cannot support the burden of his transgressions.