Psalms 94:19

Psa 94:19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

Ver. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me] My perplexed, intricated, ensnarled, intertwined (as the branches of a tree) cogitations and ploddings upon my daily sufferings; when I know not what to think, or which way to take to.

Thy comforts delight my soul] The believer is never without his cordial; he hath comforts that the world knows nothing about. The good Landgrave of Hesse, being held prisoner for a long time together by Charles V, emperor, said that he could never have held it out so, but that he felt the divine consolations of the martyrs. Martyr etiam in catena gaudet, &c., saith Austin. Crux inuncta est, saith Bernard. Godliness hath many crosses, and as many comforts; like as Egypt hath many venomous creatures, but withal many antidotes against them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_94:19

In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul.

Comfort amid disquieting thoughts

The word here translated thoughts means thoughts of a pensive, anxious nature--thoughts which have in them nothing bright and pleasant; thoughts which yoke themselves with cares; which perplex and disturb and depress us; and which we are not very ready to speak about, but are rather inclined to keep to ourselves. Our text speaks of the multitude of such thoughts. They are not rare and exceptional. They are to be found in all. Nor do they come to us merely at great crises and emergencies of our life, when something startling wakes up within us slumbering faculties, or when something crushing evokes hidden feelings of our heart. No; such thoughts come to us all at times, now darting into our mind like a lightning flash; now floating dreamily within our consciousness on some current of ordinary reflection. And their number who will reckon? As sparks fly off from the heated iron, so do these thoughts spring up in every reflective mind. For such thoughts, the psalmist implicitly admits there is no remedy in ourselves. From disagreeable things outside us we may protect ourselves; but who can insure himself against the influence of thoughts which arise within, and which come most easily in seasons of solitude and retirement from the world? Happy are they who learn the folly of fleeing from such thoughts; who know the wisdom of boldly fronting them with the precious thoughts of God; who are able to use the psalmists words as the expression of their experience. In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts have caused me to leap and dance for joy. Not only has he been able to bear the uneasy, anxious thoughts; not only has he been able to resist and overcome and quench them; but also he has experienced sensations of a directly opposite character; sensations of joy and exhilaration comfort. Care and anxiety and grief do, by Gods grace, but make more real to us the tenderness of His sympathy and the amplitude of His love. Let us particularize some of these thoughts within us which disquiet and distress us, and let us see how they are met and satisfied by the comforts of God which delight our souls. In the multitude of our disquieting thoughts will be found some concerning God and the future. What if there were no God? What if it be true, after all, that the immortality of the soul is a delusion? Such thoughts are very distressing. Still, let us face them calmly. It is not sinful to face and examine them when they come. They are permitted to come to us that we may not be satisfied with a traditional, superstitious, unintelligent belief. They who have passed through honest doubt without making shipwreck of their faith attain to a confidence and assurance regarding the truth of Christianity which nothing can shake or weaken. Their faith before was a sapling which had never felt a breeze, whereas now it is an oak which has been nursed into strength amid furious storms. They will feel that it was worth all the disquiet they suffered to attain to the firm peace which they now enjoy.. The consolations of God were small to them formerly compared with what they are now. They never knew before the preciousness of Gods thoughts as they know them now. But another, and a very different class of disquieting thoughts are to be met with in many of Gods people; I mean uneasy thoughts about their temporal affairs. You remember how you trembled at the thought of things which were threatening; how you persuaded yourself that disasters were inevitable; how your spirits were depressed, your bodily health enfeebled, and yourself unfitted, in a great measure, for meeting an emergency if it arose. In such an hour, when you turned to Him whom you were dishonouring, what light fell upon your path, what consolation entered your heart, what strength was imparted to your resolution, what grace was given you to accept cheerfully whatever might come. Think yet again. In the multitude of our uneasy, anxious thoughts there will be some about our friends. God has linked us so closely to those around us that even the most selfish of us cannot always care only for ourselves. Perhaps some of the most solicitous thoughts we ever have are about those who are near and dear to us. And yet we must bury them to a large extent in our heart. They must be to each, My thoughts within me. The careful, anxious thoughts which crowd forth from a Christian parents heart, and cluster round his or her children, are a multitude which no man can number. Yet, amid such thoughts, what comfort a Christian parent has in God! Upon whom, save upon Him, can he roll such a load of care? To whom, save God, can he tell all that is in his heart? And mark his consolation. God is his Father. All the love and pity and care; all the solicitude and tender concern which he feels for his child, God feels for him. What confidence, what gladness, what trust that enables him to feel. His anxieties about his children are changed into arguments for faith; into unanswerable reasons for calm, unwavering trust. Once more. How many anxious, disquieting thoughts some Christians have about death. Perhaps most or all of us have them. And there is no class of thoughts men are more unwilling to utter than these. They keep them in their own heart. My thoughts within me. And yet, when we bring them to God in prayer, how many consoling messages He brings home to our hearts from His Holy Word. What peace, what satisfaction, what comfort we experience in leaving to His loving care all that may happen! The hour of our departure is fixed by Him. Before that hour comes, nothing can take us away; after it has arrived, nothing can detain us here. My times are in Thy hand. Not only the time, but also the place and the manner are arranged by Him. And who loves us so wisely or so well as He? Regarding it all, we need not have a single care. (W. Young, B. A.)

Davids malady and remedy

I. The malady.

1. The grief itself. Thoughts considered simply in themselves do not contain any matter of grief or evil, they are the proper and natural issue and emanations of the soul which comes from it with a great deal of easiness, and with a great deal of delight, but it is the exorbitancy and irregularity of them which is here intended, when they do not proceed evenly and fairly, as they ought to do, but with some kind of interruption. The finest wits are liable to the greatest distractions; and the more advantages any have of doing evil, the more occasions have they likewise of suffering evil, as the mind is capable of the greater comfort and contentment, so it is also of the greatest trouble; and look as it is in the body, that the most exquisite constitutions are liable to the greatest pains, so in the soul the most sublime and raised parts are exposed to the most disquieting thoughts.

2. The amplification of this evil from the number. Multitude of thoughts. Thoughts crowding and thrusting in themselves in a violent and confused manner one upon another.

(1) Mans mind goes from one thing to another like a bee in the change of flowers, and is never at rest; and this is a part of that vanity which is upon it; this infirmity is seen in nothing more than it is in the performance of good duties, prayer and hearing of the Word, and such religious exercises as these, wherein this multitude of thoughts does in a special manner discover itself.

(2) Our thoughts are for the most part answerable to the estate we are in, and the occasions which are presented to us. Now, forasmuch as there is an alteration in them, there is also a diversity in these, suitable and agreeable thereunto.

3. The subject of this grief and distemper is David himself; from whence observe that even the children of God themselves they are sometimes troubled with anxious and solicitous thoughts, and that also in a very great multitude and plurality of them.

(1) Concerning their own salvation and state in grace.

(2) Concerning their own preservation and provision and state always in the world.

(3) Concerning the public state and condition of the Church of God and the commonwealth. All these several heads do make up this multitude of thoughts in the Church of God.

4. The intimacy or closeness of it. In my very heart.

(1) The secrecy of this grief.

(2) The settledness and radication of this evil; it was within him, and it was within his heart, that is, it was deeply rooted and fastened, and such as had a strong groundwork and foundation in him, such were these troublesome thoughts, they were got into his very inwards and bowels, and so were not easily got out again.

(3) The impression which they had upon him, and the sense which he himself had of them. They were such as did grievously afflict him, and pierce him, and went near unto him, they went to his very heart, and touched him, as it were, to the quick, through the grievousness of them.

II. The remedy.

1. The physic itself.

(1) To take it distinctly and simply in itself. Thy comforts. He speaks here to God, and gives testimony to His comforts in this hi.s present condition. My thoughts, but Thy comforts; we may raise thoughts of ourselves, but it is God only can settle them: we may torment ourselves, but it is God only can relieve us; none can comfort but God. Thy comforts, not only original and effective, but likewise material and objective; not only as God is the author and bestower of these comforts, but likewise as God is the object and matter of this last. If we speak properly and exactly, so all comforts are Gods comforts, even those comforts which are in the creatures, and which are derived and conveyed to us in them, they are no other than His. The comforts which are in friends, estates, outward blessings, are all His comforts. They are His as giving the thing, and as giving the contentment. But these comforts here in the text are said to be His in a further consideration. Thy comforts, that is Divine comforts, Christian comforts, spiritual comforts, comforts drawn from religion. The closer we walk with God, the more comfort we have from Him, not only hereafter in heaven, but also now at present here upon earth, which should therefore be a further spur to incite us hereunto.

(2) The second is by considering them connectively in reference to what went before in the beginning of the verse, In the multitude of my thoughts. First, here is their concomitancy, by making in to be as much as cure. In my thoughts, that is, altogether with them; and so it does imply thus much unto us, that the children of God are never wholly and absolutely disquieted and dejected in themselves; but as God does in His providences suffer them now and then to be troubled with sad thoughts, so at the very same moment and instant of time does he administer comfort more or less unto them. The second is their opportunity, In the multitude of distracting thoughts; that is, just when they were come to their height and extremity in me. The comforts of God are seasonable, and observe the proper time for their coming, neither too soon, nor too late; not before, that were too soon, nor after, that were too late; but in, that is, just in the very point and nick of time. This should teach us never to despair, but rather then to be fullest of hope, and to make perplexities to be a remedy against themselves. And so much for that second particular, to wit their opportunity. The third particular is their conveniency, and the suitableness of these comforts here spoken of. This is signified in that interpretation, which renders it by the word according. And here again are two things more. First, they are suitable to the number of the evils. And, secondly, they are suitable to the greatness of them.

2. The operation of this physic, and that we have briefly in these words, Delight my soul.

(1) For the act delight, this is a transcendent expression, which the Holy Ghost in the pen of the prophet David comes up unto: it had been a great matter to have said, they satisfy my soul, or they quiet me, no more but so, that is the highest pitch which a perplexed spirit can wish to itself. Those which are in great pain, they would be glad if they might have but ease, they cannot aspire so high as pleasure and delight; this is more than can be expected by them; but see here now the notable efficacy of these Divine comforts, they do not only pacify the mind, but they joy it; they do not only satisfy it, but ravish it; they do not only quiet it, but delight it.

(2) The second is the object, and that is my soul. We showed before how the grief was in the mind, and therefore the comfort must be so also, that the remedy may answer the malady. Bodily comforts will not allay spiritual troubles, but spiritual comforts will make very great amends in bodily infirmities. A good heart it will do good, as a medicine, as Solomon speaks; and it will give marrow and fatness to the bones. (T. Horton, D.D.)

Unruly thoughts quieted by Divine consolations

I. In evil times the misery of the saints of God is more from thoughts within than from troubles without.

1. The best men they are not freed, while they live here, from unruly, unsubdued thoughts.

(1) From the corruptions of the unregenerate part, the remainder of a corruption in the best men, it is like fire in an oven (Hos_7:4-5), and he hath violent irruptions.

(2) From the invasion of some enticing creature-objects amongst them, as David saw Bathsheba: Achan saw, and he desired; considered and desired: so likewise it is said in 1Jn_2:6.

(3) From the injections of Satan: for what are unruly thoughts? It is Satan doth himself many times immediately inject: so the devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ.

2. In times of trouble, these thoughts come in by multitudes: a mans thoughts are never so tumultuous as in troublesome times.

(1) Because in troublesome times the souls of men are awake. In times of prosperity and peace there is usually a spirit of slumber upon men; but when God empties a man from vessel to vessel, then how full of projects is the heart of man? never brought into danger, but the man his thoughts rise. Oh, how shall I escape? what shall I do? and how shall I make provision for myself?

(2) Satan takes special care to assail the hearts of men with thoughts in an evil time.

3. The great part of afflictions doth lie more in these tumultuous and unruly thoughts within, than in all a mans troubles and afflictions without: winds without do not cause an earthquake, but wind within.

II. God doth provide for His people consolations in and answerable to their afflictions. Consider, first, there is no affliction that ever the people of God are cast into that He leaves destitute of consolation. It is never pure darkness (Gen_15:17), even when the Church of God was as a sacrifice cut in pieces, yet notwithstanding there was a light passed between the pieces; it is never pure darkness, but yet notwithstanding it may be many times darkness in reference to creature-comforts, they may have no comforts they can look at here below. And this consolation that God gives them is a seasonable consolation, In the multitude of my thoughts: in the very time when I am most perplexed, then doth God bring in His consolations. Nay, not only in the affliction, but according unto the affliction, so shall the consolation be, and therefore Jerome reads it, According to the multitude of my thoughts; so were the multitude of Gods consolations; God will give it in the time and the season of it; but, withal, the Lord will give it according unto the measure; when He doth bring great afflictions, He provideth for you strong consolations, that as the affliction aboundeth, so the consolations shall abound; the Lord tells you, that His rewards shall be according to the measure of His mercies: it is an admirable expression in Hos_10:12. (W. Strong.)

Religion the best support under the troubles of life

I. Religion moderates our love of the world, restrains our affections from the eager pursuit of its enjoyments, and thereby enables us to bear with greater patience its evils and afflictions, and prevents immoderate sorrow and dejection under them.

II. Religion affords such immediate delight and pleasure, as in a great measure supplies the want of any outward enjoyment, and allays the pain of any worldly distress.

III. Religion, as it teaches that all things are ordered by the most perfect wisdom and goodness, so it particularly assures every good man that all things shall work together for his real interest.

IV. Religion gives us the blessed prospect of a happy end to all our sorrows, and of rest from all our labours in the life which is to come.

V. Religion entitles us to the gracious influences of the Spirit of God, by which we are enabled to apply all these things to our comfort, and to rejoice in the Lord always. (F. Carmichael.)

Divine comforts in the world of thought

I. Mans real world is in his thoughts, As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. The universe and God are to a man according to his thoughts. Those thoughts are very multitudinous. The multitude of my thoughts. Who can count the thoughts of one man, even during one day? They flow through the soul as wavelets on the rapid stream.

II. Mans real happiness is in his God. Thy comforts delight my soul. Thy unchangeableness amidst the mutations, Thy paternal providence amidst the solicitudes, Thy pardoning mercy amidst the remorses, Thy promises of immortality amidst the forebodings--all these delight my soul. (Homilist.)

Gods comforts greater than our troubles

Gods comforts are not like melting vapours and summer brooks. They are rivers of pleasures, and wells of salvation. We stoop down to drink where Abraham bent the knee. We draw water where David assuaged his thirst. Jesus talks to us of the living water which shall be in us a well of water. If the toils, and cares, and troubles which exercised the pious soul of the writer of this psalm should come in on us in all their multitude, and with all their tumult, like the noise of many waters, the comforts of our God, fuller, deeper, and more abiding, will come flowing in to still them, and to fill all the soul with their own sweet delights.

I. Suppose that the trouble arises directly out of the heart. The multitude of the thoughts in this ease are all tinged with self-accusation. Sin revives, the better self seems dead. Where is the comfort for such a state? In the whole Gospel. In all the fulness of Jesus Christ--His cleansing blood, His purifying Spirit, His tender love, His power to save to the uttermost.

II. Suppose that the trouble arises, not out of the heart directly, but out of the circumstances. There are some who have not habitually many fears within, but who have often or constantly great fightings without. Martha still lives her busy, toilsome life. Careful and troubled about many things is written on many a face. The comforts God has for such a state are manifold, and they sometimes break upon the man suddenly, like stars through clouds. Ebenezer! That seals and keeps all the past, so that now you cannot lose it. It will be a fact for evermore, and I trust to you a blessed memory, that the Lord has helped you through all that past. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want! Is not that a plentiful provision for the present hour? And there are some texts with still more tenderness in them (Mat_6:8; Php_4:19; 1Pe_5:7).

III. Or suppose that the trouble arises in some way out of the strangeness and the strength of Divine providence. Every man with a will, with a plan, with any great and generous purpose, is sure to be at some time so thwarted as greatly to need the comforts of God. Then take these comforts, these two:--The first is this, that undoubtedly the supreme and perfect will of God has been working in all. And as soon as there is a devout recognition of that will, there will be some beginning of rest, some influx of a holy calm. But there is another. Because another is needed to make the comfort full. For the man might still say, Then all I have been working for is pure loss--loss of energy, loss of affection, loss of time--mere ruin in Gods universe. God does not need ruins to build with. How much better, therefore, it would have been if I could have discovered the perfect will earlier, so as to save all that bootless toil and useless waste. Not so. For here is the second comfort:--All things work together for good to them that love God.

IV. A devout Christian looking at the whole Church may well have a multitude of thoughts within him. This whole Church is the one body of Christ, and every one members one of another; and yet what divisions, what conflicts there are among the parts and sections! But here also Gods comforts come in. The Lord reigneth. He will heal the distractions of His Church. He will give the same mind and the same judgment. He will give one heart and one soul. He will pour out His Spirit as a spirit of love and power and of a sound mind. He will restore the waste places, the ruins of many generations. He will bring again Zion. He will establish and make Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. (A. Raleigh, D.D.)

Deliverance from danger; delight in distress

I. The souls danger and distress.

1. The danger arose, not from any impotency in the man, but from the slippery or rough state of the road. Your horse may be quite sure-footed, but if you drive him over a rough or ice-covered road he may stumble. This good man was both sound and strong. He believed that the man was blessed whom the Lord chastened. But just at this point the path became very slippery, and for the moment he felt confused, excited, and troubled, so that he was almost falling. Now, a much-needed lesson springs out of this circumstance. We are taught to guard ourselves against a spirit of self-sufficiency, and also to sympathize with our stumbling brethren, who are quite as sound and strong as ourselves, but who slip because of the stronger temptations they have to encounter.

2. But connected with this danger there is distress. As a rule distress follows in the wake of danger, even though the threatened danger has been averted. People who have experienced what seemed miraculous escapes have afterwards been visited by the greatest distress of mind. They are intensely thankful that they did escape, but the danger, that was so dreadful and imminent, takes such hold of their mind, that, though saved from it in a physical sense, they, nevertheless, go through it again and again in their imagination, and the process is one of the most acute pain. Deliverance from evil does not, as a rule, leave the mind full of pure joy and gratitude; the thought of the other alternative--what might have been--fixes itself like a barbed arrow in the breast.

II. Deliverance and delight. Observe the nature of the deliverance. He was held up, not lifted and carried away. His surroundings remain the same. The slippery path is before him as well as behind him. God simply sustains him. Thus it is that His mercy is often vouchsafed. He takes not away the burden; but He enables us to bear it. He changes not the scene from war to peace, but arrays us in the armour and strengthens us with the might that will ensure for us a glorious victory. He makes not the path less rough or slippery, but takes us by the hand, and so helps us on. And just as the danger is followed by distress, so the deliverance is followed by delight. Thy comforts delight my soul. The feet are not only firmly established, but a new song is put into the mouth. The hearts agitation is calmed. The shock is allayed. The troubled mind finds peace. Its darkness is turned into day, and its motions are no more those of fear, but the ecstasies of pure delight.

III. The souls access to these blessings. When I said. The confession and the salvation are connected--the one leads to the other. And what of the confession? It is that of a trembling, humble soul that mistrusts itself; but though perplexed still, trusts in the living God, and so, in answer to its call, deliverance comes. What a difference there is, then, between confession and profession (Mat_26:33-34). (Adam Scott.)

Medicine for the distracted

Good people are a thoughtful people. They are none the less so because they are men of faith. Christs words, Take no thought for the morrow, meant only take no carking care, no anxious thought: it was anxiety, not prudence, which He condemned. They take much account of their thoughts. Other men are scarcely alarmed at their actions unless they be very glaring, but the saint trembles when an impure thought defiles his soul. For thought makes character: As a man thinketh, so is he. We must, then, look well to our thoughts and keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Happy shall we be if we can say as the psalmist, In the multitude, etc. Note--

I. The psalmists declaration: It means--

1. That, when passing many subjects in review before him, he selected the joys of true religion, or the comforts of God, as the subjects which he preferred before all others. He knew the joys of quiet meditation. He was a man whose contemplations would take a wide range. He had lived a country life, he knew much of the beauties of nature, of the glories of the heavens, and he could unite his thoughts about them to fit words. Of all purely intellectual joys there is, surely, none greater than to be able to pour forth sublime truths in fitting words. But he knew also the delights of active life, and they are not a few to a man who is in vigorous health and mental force. Also he knew the splendours of a court. Yet, reviewing all his life thoughts, he makes this declaration, In the multitude, etc. Should not this be the assertion of every Christian?

2. The text means, also, that when he was exercised with many cares in life, he found his solace in the comforts of his God. He had many reasons for care. At court, when persecuted; but, we read, David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. This what we should do. Then--

3. When oppressed with evil thoughts he found his shelter in God. Such thoughts do come into the holiest minds. How horrible they are, and how desperate is the conflict of a gracious soul when it is tortured with them. But at such times the only consolation is to fall back upon God.

4. When the mind is worried with thoughts which cannot be dissipated, it is well to turn unto the Lord. Men will have periods in which they do not seem so much to have a subject for thought as to be prisoners of care to ten thousand subjects at once. They are carried away as with a flood. What nights of weary watchings and longings for rest that will not come do they cause! Now, there is no sleeping draught that I know of like contemplation of the love of God.

5. If ever we are beset with a multitude of thoughts of a doubting kind, we shall find our best solace in flying to our God. Francis Quarles, in his quaint Emblems, represents a man with a flail, who is dealing heavy blows all around, and the only one who escapes is a person who, with much daring, comes close to him; the way to escape the heavy blows of Providence is to close in with Him who wields the rod, for the further off the heavier the blow. In all dark times run home. Return unto your rest. If you cannot come to the Lord as a saint, come as a sinner.

II. What is this subject upon which David lays such stress? He says, Thy comforts delight my soul. What are Gods comforts? They are the truths which surround the person and work of God. First there is the Father. What comfort that He is our Father! Then comes Jesus, the Son of God, our very brother, man, our perfect atonement, and He who has perfumed the grave in which we shall sleep, and then removed its door. And then the Holy Spirit, for He helpeth our infirmities. But these consolations spring from the whole work and system of Divine grace; from the attributes and from the promises of God. The Bible is a great honeycomb, and it drips with honey. Conclusion:--The way to comfort is the way which leads thee to thy God. And oh, poor sinner, the same way is open to you. Do not look within for comfort, for you will find none. As well go to the Arctic regions, and pierce icebergs to discover warmth, as look to yourselves for consolation. Away then to Him who has said, Whosoever cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Multitudinous thoughts and sacred comforts

If a man were a mere animal he would not need the comfort which thought may bring, outward things would be enough. Let but the trough be full and the swine are happy; the pasture abundant and the sheep are content. But man needs far more. His greatest joy or misery must proceed from inner springs. Hence the importance, but also the labour and difficulty of guarding our thoughts, for they are unstable, unruly, fickle, swift, impetuous, changeable as the clouds of heaven. How then shall we do this? Let the text tell us. It speaks--

I. Of multitudinous thoughts and sacred comforts. None of these thoughts, then, are those which are tumultuous in the night of trial. At such times it is a great blessing if Gods comforts are, as they may be, our stay and holdfast. They were so to David (Psa_94:9; Psa_94:12; Psa_94:14). And he calls to mind his own experience. Unless the Lord had been my help, etc. Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. Such thoughts as these in times of tumult will not merely console, but delight the soul. Perplexing thoughts and periods of dilemma. It is with some as with Israel at the Red Sea. The sea before them, the rocks on either hand, and the cruel Egyptians in the rear. In such cases there is nothing for it but to stand still and see the salvation of God. Remember that often all thy way is ordered by a higher power than thine. Our Pilot never sleeps, and His hand never relaxes its grasp. Remorseful thoughts in the hour of recollection. Who can be without these when he passes his life in review? Can there be forgiveness for all these? Then the comforts of God come to us in Jesus. Thoughts of heart-searching in seasons of spiritual anxiety. And of foreboding in days of depression. Lift high the banner, Jehovah Jireh. It must be well with us, it cannot be ill. Occasionally we have thoughts profound in times of meditation. There are many great mysteries in the Word of God, and foolish persons utterly befog themselves with them; some minds seem never to be satisfied until they find something which they cannot comprehend, and then they are ready to give up the Bible altogether; they act like one who should come in to a feast, and after turning over all the good things, should at last find a bone with no meat upon it, and should insist upon it that he would not eat a morsel until he could digest that particular bone. But I bless God for a religion which I cannot perfectly understand.

II. View these sacred comforts. View them in their nature. They are connected with God--the Father, Son, Holy Ghost. When Archbishop Whately was dying, a friend said to him, Sir, you are great in death as well as in life. The good man shook his head and replied, I am dying, as I have lived, a simple believer in Jesus Christ. But what a blessing it is, said the other, that your glorious intellect does not fail you at the last. There is nothing glorious, said he, but Jesus Christ. Still, said the other, your grand endurance is a great support to you. I have no support but faith in the crucified Saviour, said he. Comfort comes from the Lord alone. And these comforts have stability. Many consolations are like the life-buoys heard of a while ago, which are exceedingly useful on dry land, but of no service whatever when once a man trusts his life to them in the sea. But not so Gods comforts. And they are efficient. They delight my soul, my very self. And they delight, not merely sustain and quiet the soul.

III. A contrast. For many never think at all. Their thoughts, if they have any, are like a swarm of gnats, volatile, dancing up and down, light, useless. Oh, that men would think! Once there was a canoe afloat on Niagara, but some miles off the fall. As the current carried it on, people on the bank could see that the paddle was shipped and an Indian lying in the canoe fast asleep. They shouted as loud as they could to awake him, for they well knew what dread peril he was in. They ran along the bank shouting and calling to him, but it was of no use. He had either been drinking or was so fatigued that his slumber was most profound, and the canoe went on, continually increasing its pace. It dashed at last against a headland, and spun round in the torrent, and they said one to another, He is safe; the man will be awakened. Such a start as that must rouse him up, and he will paddle out of danger. But no, he went right on till the roaring of the fall was near, and then the course of the boat was so rapid that none could keep up with it, and it went whirling on faster and faster. So profound was the Indians sleep, that for a while even the roar of the fall did not awaken him, but at last he was aroused, and then he grasped his paddle; but it was all too late; he was borne onward, and the last that was seen of him was his standing bolt upright in the boat as it plunged over the abyss, and was never seen or heard of more. Ah! how like is this to those of you who are asleep, and are borne onward by the treacherous current. That fever, that sick-bed, like a headland jutting into the stream, methought it would have made you think. That frail bark of thine was twisted round and round. O that thy soul had been but aroused from its slumber. The noise of hell may well be in thy ears, and the sound that cometh up from the abyss of terror may well arouse thee; but alas, I fear, thou wilt sleep on until escape be no longer possible. But may God forbid. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Mans comfort

Here is a twofold army, one marching against another, an insurrection and a debellation; a tumult and its appeasement; a band of thoughts assaulting, and a host of comforts repelling, resisting, protecting. There is a multitude of those thoughts, and no less is the number of these comforts. These troublous thoughts have got into the citadel of the heart, within me; and these consolatory forces have entered as far, even into the soul; they delight my soul. Those thoughts fight under the colours of flesh and blood, but these comforts under the banner of God; they are my thoughts, but Thy comforts; the cogitations of man, but the consolations of Jesus Christ.

I. Our foes.

1. The rebels are thoughts. As the world produceth vipers, and serpents, and venomous creatures, worms and caterpillars that would devour their parent, so the soul breeds noxious and mutinous thoughts, that are like an earthquake in her bowels; and while they maintain civil broils and factions one against another, she feels the smart of all.

2. The number of them is a multitude. Thought calls to thought, jealousy to fear, fear to sorrow, sorrow to despair; and these furies leap upon the heart as a stage, beginning to act their tragical parts. Man hath more wheels moving in him than a clock; only the difference is, that the wheels of a clock move all one way, whereas his faculties, like the epicycles, have a rapt motion. His sensitive appetite gives him one motion, his fantasy another, his reason a third, and his imperious, impetuous will crosseth them all, driving the chariot of his affections with the fury of Jehu. He desires and thinks, and chooseth, argues, consents, and dislikes, and makes more business than time itself. There are not so many hours in one year as there may be thoughts in an hour.

3. The captain of this troublesome soul is himself; my thoughts. From what suggestion soever our thoughts come, we call them our own; as whosoever begot the babe, the mother calls it her own child. Indeed, the praise and propriety of good motives we ascribe only to God, without whom we cannot so much as think a good thought; as the channel may gather filth of itself, but it cannot have a drop of pure water but from the fountain. Bad suggestions, though they proceed from Satan, we call them our own, because they are bred in the womb of our natural corruption; stubble is blown by the wind into the fire, and, being inflamed, it becomes fire.

4. The field where the skirmish is fought; within me. It is unhappy when soldiers march over the palaces of peace and seats of justice, where the councillors and senators used to sit. If there must be war, let it be in foreign countries, or if it will be in our own land, yet let it proceed no further than the borders; but when it is gotten into the chief city, though it be subdued, it will cost a dear victory.

II. Our friends.

1. They are comforts; not presumptions, nor promises, nor mere hopes; but solid and sensible comforts.

2. There is a plurality of them: many comforts. Are we troubled with the wants and miseries of this life? We have a comfort for that: The Lord is my portion; He is my shepherd. I shall lack nothing. Do we sink under the burden of our transgressions? We have a comfort for that. Mary Magdalene heard it to quiet all her storms: Thy sins are forgiven thee. Are we haunted with temptations, hurried with persecutions? We have a comfort for that: I will be with thee in trouble, saith the Lord. Our comforts vie with the number of our sorrows, and win the game. The mercies of God passed over in a gross sum breed no admiration; but cast up the particulars, and then arithmetic is too dull an art to number them. As many dusts as a mans hands can hold is but his handful of so many dusts; but tell them one by one, and they exceed all numeration.

3. Thy comforts. Troubles may be of our own begetting; but true comforts come only from that infinite fountain, the God of consolation; for so He hath styled Himself. The eagle, at her highest flight, will not lose sight of her young ones; if she perceive any danger approaching, down she comes again to their defence. Christ is indeed ascended up on high, yet He hath a favourable eye to His servants below.

4. Delight the soul, which is the last circumstance; the effect of all. All Gods war is for peace. We should never have had such a conflict, if God had not intended us for such a conquest. If here were nothing but sorrows, earth would be thought hell; if nothing but comforts, it would be thought heaven.But that we may know it to be, as indeed it is, neither heaven nor hell, but between both, and the way to either, we have a vicissitude of troubles and delights. In calamity, good nourishments are comfortable, good words are comfortable, good friends are comfortable, the physician is comfortable, a good spouse is specially comfortable; but in respect of these comforts, which do nevertheless pass all understanding, we may say of them, as Job did to his visitant friends, Miserable comforters are ye all. But blessed are the souls upon whom this Sun of comfort shineth; and happy are those showers of tears and sorrows that shall be dried up with such beams of comfort. (T. Adams.)

Thought of God should be continuous

Life is but a dreary stretch of wilderness unless all through it there be dotted, like a chain of ponds in a desert, those moments in which the mind fixes itself upon God, and loses sorrows and sins and weaknesses and all other sadnesses in the calm and blessed contemplation of His sweetness and sufficiency. The very heavens are bare and lacking in the highest beauty unless there stretch across them the long lines of rosy-tinted clouds. And so across our skies let us cast, a continuous chain of thoughts of God; and as we go about our daily work, let us try to have our minds ever recurring to Him like the linked pools that mirror heaven in the midst of the barren desert, and bring a reflection of life into the midst of death. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Divine comfort alone sufficeth

In all the comforts we have it is good to consider from whence it comes; is it Gods comfort or a fancy of our own? A comfort that is made up of our fancies is like a spiders web that is weaved out of its bowels, and is gone and swept away with the turn of a bosom. (T. Manton, D.D.)

The thoughts of man multitudinous

The thoughts of a mans heart--what millions are there of them in a day! The twinkling of the eye is not so sudden a thing as the thinking of a thought, yet those thousands and thousands of thoughts which pass from thee, that thou canst not reckon--they are all known to God. (A. Burgess.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 94:19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me — While my heart is filled with various and perplexing thoughts, as the original word signifies, and tormented with cares and fears about my future state; thy comforts delight my soul — Thy promises, contained in thy word, and the remembrance of my former experience of thy care and kindness to me, afford me such consolation as revives my dejected mind.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. (Psa 94:19) In the multitude of my cares within me, thy comforts cheer my soul. The second noun, which is of rare occurrence, does not mean thoughts in general, but uneasy, anxious thoughts, solicitudes, or cares. The addition of within me renders still more prominent the idea that it was not mere external troubles that disturbed his peace. Thy comforts, the consolations of thy word. See above, on Psa 94:13. Cheer or shall cheer, gladden, or exhilarate. My soul not only completes the parallelism, but suggests the idea of a cordial genuine exhilaration. See above, on Psa 3:2.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In my trouble and distress I ever found thy present help.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. In the multitude of my thoughts] Of my griefs, (dolorum, Vulgate;) my sorrows, (οδυνων, Septuagint.) According to the multitude of my trials and distresses, have been the consolations which thou hast afforded me. Or, While I have been deeply meditating on thy wondrous grace and mercy, Divine light has broken in upon my soul, and I have been filled with delight.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) Thoughts.—Properly, dividing—i.e., “perplexing” or “anxious” thoughts. (See Job_4:13; Job_20:2.) LXX. and Vulg., “griefs.”

We may compare the Virgilian “animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc,” imitated by Tennyson:

This way and that dividing his swift mind,

In act to throw.”

Delight.—Literally, stroke, and so soothe. The Hebrew word is used in Isa_66:11 of a mother quieting her child with the breast, and in Jer_16:7 of the cup of consolation given to mourners at funerals.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. thoughts] Or, as R.V. marg., doubts; distracting thoughts which divide and perplex the mind.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me,.... The word for thoughts is used of branches of trees, thick and entwined, and so denotes perplexed and distressing thoughts; such as good men sometimes have concerning God; his awful and tremendous majesty; the perfections of his nature, particularly his power, purity, and holiness; concerning their relation to him, his presence with them, and good will towards them, which, because of their sins, they are ready to doubt of: thoughts concerning sin; that there are no sins like theirs, attended with such aggravated circumstances; that they are such as will not be forgiven; or they fear their corruptions will be too many for them, and they shall perish by them; or that they shall so fall as to bring dishonour on the ways of God; and sometimes that they have sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost: thoughts concerning the law of God their sins are a violation of, of the holiness and spirituality of it; by comparing themselves with which, they find they are very deficient, and very carnal; and ready to fear that all the curses of it belong to them, and the condemnation of it will light upon them: thoughts concerning Christ, the Saviour; that he is the Saviour of others, but not of them; that he is able to save, but they cannot think he is willing to save such vile sinners as they are: thoughts concerning the work of the Spirit of God upon them; calling it in question, fearing it was never begun, because of the power and prevalence of sin and corruption in them: thoughts concerning their present and future state; how it is with them now, and how it will be with them hereafter; how they shall pass through the troubles and difficulties of this world, and pass over Jordan's river, or get through the valley of the shadow of death; and how they shall appear before the judgment seat of God; and how things will be with them to all eternity: these are some of the perplexing and distressing thoughts, a multitude of which rise up at times in the minds of God's people, who yet are favoured with the same gracious experience the psalmist was, expressed as follows:

thy comforts delight my soul; such as flow from the love of God, is shed abroad in the heart; from the presence of God enjoyed; from the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel; from Christ, and the things of Christ, shown, brought home, and applied by the Spirit; his person, offices, fulness, righteousness, blood, and sacrifice; all which are a fund of divine consolation to a distressed mind: these are the consolations of God, of which he is the provider, author, and giver, and therefore called "the God of all comfort"; they come from Christ, the "consolation of Israel", and by the Spirit the Comforter, who sheds abroad the love of God in the heart; reveals Christ, and the things of Christ; opens and applies the promises; wherefore these comforts are called the "comforts of the Holy Ghost"; and they are usually enjoyed by means of the word and ordinances, which are "breasts of consolation"; and these are not small, but strong, and even everlasting, and which "delight the soul"; worldly comforts may delight the animal part, and please the senses, but not delight the soul, especially a wounded spirit, a distressed mind; but these will satiate the weary soul, and replenish the sorrowful soul with a joy unspeakable, and full of glory: the psalmist may here represent the church in the latter day, when in the midst of her troubles, and having many distressing thoughts concerning the issue of things; the comforts of God, from his promises, will delight her; Psa 94:14, that he will not cast off his people, nor forsake his inheritance; but judgment shall return to righteousness; that he will keep her in the hour of temptation, and avenge the blood of her slain.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul - The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate render this, “In the multitude of my griefs within me,” etc. DeWette renders it, “Bei meinen vielen Sorgen,” “in my many cares.” The Hebrew word, however, properly means “thoughts;” and the idea seems to be that in the great number of thoughts which passed through his mind, so many of them perplexing, anxious, burdensome - so many of them vain and profitless - so many of them that seemed to come and go without any aim or object, there was one class that gave him comfort. They were those which pertained to God. In those thoughts he found calmness and peace. However much he might be disturbed by other thoughts, yet here he found rest and peace. In God - in his character, in his law, in his government - he had an unfailing source of consolation; and whatever trouble he might have from the cares of life, and from the evil imaginings in his own mind, yet here his soul found repose.

God was an unfailing refuge; and meditation on him and his perfections made the mind calm. How many thoughts pass through our minds in a single day or a single hour! Who can tell from where they come, or by what laws they are linked together! How many of them seem to have no connection with any that went before! How many of them seem to be thrown into our minds when we would avoid them! How many are vain and frivolous; how many are skeptical; how many are polluted and polluting! How many come into the mind which we would not for worlds disclose to our best friends! How few of us would walk abroad if we were conscious that all whom we meet could look into our bosoms, and see all that is passing there! What a consolation it is to us that they cannot see it! What a world of confusion and blushes would this be if, in the streets of a crowded city, or when man meets his fellow man anywhere, all that is in his bosom were known! And yet, in this multitude of thoughts - so empty, so foolish, so sinful, so vexing, so skeptical, so polluting - there are others - there are thoughts of God, of Christ, of heaven, of hope, of faith, of love, of benevolence; thoughts within us, when the divine promises come to the heart, and the prospect of heaven warms the soul. These give “comfort;” these fill the soul with “delight.” Happy he who can find in his bosom, amidst the multitude of thoughts within him, those which pertain to God; to a higher life; to heaven!

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In the multitude of my thoughts; whilst my heart was filled with various and perplexing thoughts, as this Hebrew word signifies, and tormented with cares and fears about my future state.

Thy comforts; thy promises contained in thy word, and set home by thy Spirit upon my soul, and the remembrance of my former experiences of thy care and kindness to me. Compare Psa 119:50,76.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts, etc. That is, just when they were come to their height and extremity in me. The comforts of God are seasonable, and observe the proper time for their coming, neither too soon, nor too late but, "in, "that is, just in the very point and nick of time. There is another thing here spoken of. In the "thoughts, "and in the "multitude" of the "thoughts; "not in the indifference of thoughts, but in the perplexity; not in the paucity of thoughts, but in the plurality: our extremity is God's opportunity. "In the mount will the Lord be seen, "when we have thought and thought and thought all we could, and know not what to think more, then does God delight to tender and exhibit his comforts to us...

In the words "within me" we have, next, the intimacy or closeness, of this grief. The Hebrew word is ykzrk, in medio mei. The Arabic be-kalbi, in corde meo. And so likewise the Septuagint, en th kardia mou, in my very heart. This is added by way of further intention and aggravation of the present evil and distress. First, To show the secrecy of this grief. Those evils which are external, and in the body, every one is ready to bemoan them, and to bewail them, and to take notice of them, and to shew a great deal of bowels towards those which are afflicted with them; but these griefs which are inward, and in the mind, they are such as are known but to God himself. "The heart knoweth his own bitterness, "saith Solomon, Pr 14:10.

Secondly, Here is hereby denoted the settledness and radication of this evil: it was within him and it was within his heart, that is, it was deeply rooted and fastened, and such as had a strong groundwork and foundation in him, such were these troublesome "thoughts, "they were got into his very inwards and bowels, and so were not easily got out again. Thirdly, Here is hereby also signified the impression which they had upon him, and the sense which he himself had of them. They were such as did grievously afflict him, and pierce him, and went near unto him, they went to his very heart, and touched him, as it were, to the quick, through the grievousness of them, as he speaks in another place concerning the reproaches of his enemies, Ps 42:10: "As with a sword (or killing) in my bones mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?"

Now what are these "comforts" of God which the psalmist does more especially intend here in this place? In a word, they are the comforts which do flow from our communion with him. The comforts of his attributes, and the comforts of his promises, and the comforts of his gracious presence drawing near unto our souls, when it pleases him to shine upon us, and to express his

Psalms 94:18*

Ver. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me. When I am tossed to and fro with various reasonings, distractions, questions, and forebodings, I will fly to my true rest, for

thy comforts delight my soul. From my sinful thoughts, my vain thoughts, my sorrowful thoughts, my griefs, my cares, my conflicts, I will hasten to the Lord; he has divine comforts, and these will not only console but actually delight me. How sweet are the comforts of the Spirit! Who can muse upon eternal love, immutable purposes, covenant promises, finished redemption, the risen Saviour, his union with his people, the coming glory, and such like themes, without feeling his heart leaping with joy? The little world within is, like the great world without full of confusion and strife; but when Jesus enters it, and whispers "Peace be unto you, "there is a calm, yea, a rapture of bliss. Let us turn away from the mournful contemplation of the oppression of man and the present predominance of the wicked, to that sanctuary of pure rest which is found in the God of all comfort. Good will to us, and to give us some evidence and assurance of his love and favour towards us; these are his comforts.

"Delight." This is a transcendant expression, which the Holy Ghost in the pen of the prophet David comes up unto. It had been a great matter to have said, they satisfy my soul, or, they quiet me, no more but so, that is the highest pitch which a perplexed spirit can wish to itself. Those which are in great pain, they would be glad if they might have but ease, they cannot aspire so high as pleasure and delight, this is more than can be expected by them; but see here now the notable efficacy of these Divine comforts; they do not only pacify the mind, but they joy it; they do not only satify it, but ravish it; they not only quiet, but delight it. Thy comforts delight my soul. That is, not only take away the present grief, but likewise put in the room and place of it most unspeakable comfort and consolation; as the sun does not only dispel darkness, but likewise brings in a glorious light in the stead of it.

"My soul." We showed before how the grief was in the mind, and therefore the comfort must be so also, that the remedy may answer the malady. Bodily pleasure will not satisfy for mind distraction: nothing will ease the soul but such comforts as are agreeable to itself, and such are these present comforts of God, they delight the soul. Thomas Horton.

Ver. 19. Thoughts considered simply in themselves do not contain any matter of grief or evil; they are the proper and natural issue and emanations of the soul which come from it with a great deal of easiness, and with a great deal of delight; but it is the exorbitance and irregularity of them which is here intended, when they do not proceed evenly and fairly, as they ought to do, but with some kind of interruption;and so the word which is here used in the text seems to import; the Hebrew sagnaphim carrying an affinity with segnaphim, which is derived from a root which signifies properly a bough. Now we know that in a bough there are two things especially considerable, as pertinent to our present purpose. First, there's the perplexity of it. And, secondly, there's the agitation. Boughs usually catch, and entangle one another, and boughs they are easily shaken, and moved up and down by the wind. If there be never so little air or breath stirring abroad, the boughs presently discover it, and are made sensible of it. So that this expression does serve very well to imitate and set forth unto us the perplexity and inconstancy of thoughts, which David was now troubled withal, and whereof he now complains, as grievous and offensive to him. They were not thoughts in any consideration, but thoughts of distraction, such thoughts as did bring some grief and trouble with them. This the Septuagint translators were so fully apprehensive of, that they quite leave out thoughts, and render it only by griefs, kata to pkhyov twn odunwn mou: according to the multitude of my sorrows. But it is more full and agreeable to the word to put them both togethermy grievous and sorrowful thoughts such thoughts as in regard of the carriage and ordering of them, do bring grief and sorrow with them.

And here we may by the way observe thus much, that God need not go far to punish and afflict men when he pleases; he can do it even with their own thoughts, no more but so. He can gather a rod of these boughs, and make a scourge of these twistings, wherewith to lash them, and that to purpose. If he does but raise a tempest in the mind, and cause these thoughts to bluster and bustle one with another, there will be trouble and affliction enough, though there were nothing else. It is no matter whether there be any ground or occasion for it in the things themselves; it is enough that there be so but in the conceit and apprehension. God can so use a fancy, a mere toy and imagination itself, and so set it on upon the soul, that there shall be no quiet nor rest for it. Thomas Horton.

Ver. 19. Observe the greatness of this man's distress. This is forcibly expressed in the text, though in our translation it is scarcely obvious. The word in it rendered "thoughts, "scholars tell us, signifies originally the small branches of trees. The idea in the psalmist's mind appears to be this: `Look at a tree, with its branches shooting in every direction, entangling and entwining themselves one with another; let the wind take themsee how they feel it, how restless they become and confused, beating against and striving one with another. Now my mind is like that tree. I have a great many thoughts in it; and thoughts which are continually shifting and changing; they are perplexed and agitated thoughts, battling one with another'. There is no keeping the mind quiet under them; they bring disorder into it as well as sorrow. And mark the word "multitude" in the text; there is exactly the same idea in that. It signifies more than number; confusion. Think of a crowd collected and hurrying about: `so, 'says the psalmist, `are my thoughts. I have a crowd of them in my mind, and a restless confused crowd. One painful thought is bad enough, but I have many; a multitude of them; and almost countless, a disturbed throng.' We now, then, understand the case we have before us. The man's sorrow arose, at this time, from disquieting thoughts within his own breast; and his sorrow was great, because these thoughts were many, and at the same time tumultuous. When the psalmist says, "Thy comforts, "he means more than comforts of which God is the author or giver. God is the author and giver of all our comfortsof all the earthly comforts that surround us; they are all the work and gift of his gracious hand... We are to understand here such comforts as are peculiarly and altogether God's, such as flow at once from God; not from him through creatures to us, but from him immediately to us without the intervention of creatures. The comforts that we get from his attributesfrom meditating on, and what we call realising them; the comforts we get from his promisesbelieving and hoping in him; and the comforts of his presence, he drawing near to our souls and shining into themwe knowing he is near us, conscious of it by the light and happiness and renewed strength within us. "Thy comforts" the comforts we get from the Lord Jesus Christ; from looking at him, considering him; thinking of his person, and offices, and blood, and righteousness, and intercession, and exaltation, and glory, and his second coming; our meeting him, seeing him, being like him. "Thy comforts" the comforts which come from the Holy Spirit, "the Comforter": when he opens the Scriptures to us, or speaks through ceremonies and ordinances, or witnesses within us of our adoption of God; shining in on his own work of grace in our hearts; enabling us to see that work, and to see in it God's peculiar, eternal love to us; not opening to us the book of life, anal showing us our names there, but doing something that makes us almost as joyful as though that book were opened to us; showing us the hand of God in our own soulshis converting, saving handhis hand apprehending us as his own; making us feel as it were, his grasp of love, and feel, too, that it is a grasp which he will never loosen. Charles Bradley.

Ver. 19. Thy comforts delight my soul Xerxes offered great rewards to him that could find out a new pleasure; but the comforts of the Spirit are satisfactory, they recruit the heart. There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten and one that is painted on the wall. Thomas Watcom.

Ver. 19. Thy comforts. Troubles may be of our own begetting; but true comforts come only from that infinite fountain, the God of consolation; for so he hath styled himself. Thomas Adams.

Ver. 19. Delight my soul. The original word wevevy, signifies "to cause to leap or dance for joy; "but the English language will not bear an application of this image to the soul; though we say "to make the heart leap for joy." Samuel Horsley.

Ver. 19. Because the malignant host is first entered into the ground of my text, consider with me: 1. The rebels, or mutineers, "thoughts." 2. The number of them, no less than a "multitude." 3. The captain whose colours they bear; a disquieted mind; "my thoughts." 4. The field where the battle is fought; in the heart; apud me, "within me." In the other army we find, 1. Quanta, how puissant they are; comforts. 2. Quota, how many they are; indefinitely set down; abundant comfort.

3. Cujus, whose they are; the Lord's, he is their general; thy comforts. 4. Quid operantur, what they do; they delight the soul. In the nature of them being comforts, there is tranquillity; in the number of them, being many comforts, there is sufficiency; in the owner of them, being thy comforts, there is omnipotence; and in the effect of them, delighting the soul, there is security. From Thomas Adams' Sermon entitled "Man's comfort."

Ver. 19. A text of this kind shows us forcibly the power of Divine grace in the human heart: how much it can do to sustain and cheer the heart. The world may afflict a believer, and pain him; but if the grace which God has given him is in active exercise in his soul, the world cannot make him unhappy. It rather adds by its ill treatment to his happiness; for it brings God and his soul nearer togetherGod the fountain of all happiness, the rest and satisfaction of his soul.

This psalm was evidently written by a deeply afflicted man. The wicked, he says, were triumphing over him; and had been so for a long while. He could find no one on earth to take his part against them. Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? he asks in Ps 94:16; or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? And it seemed, too, as though God had abandoned him. His enemies thought so, and he seems to have been almost ready to think so himself. But what was the fact? All this time the Lord was secretly pouring consolation into his soul, and in the end made that consolation abundant. In appearance a wretched, he was in reality a happy man; suffering, yet comforted; yea, the text says delighted Thy comforts delight my soul. Charles Bradley, 1845.

Ver. 19.

1. In the multitude of my unbelieving thoughts thy comforts delight my soul.

2. In the multitude of my penitential thoughts thy comforts, etc.

3. In the multitude of my worldly thoughts, etc.

4. In the multitude of my family or social thoughts, etc.

5. Of my desponding thoughts, etc.

6. Of my prospective thoughts, etc.

Or

1. There is no consolation for man in himself.

2. There is no consolation for him in other creatures.

3. His only consolation is in God. G.R.

Ver. 19.

1. The soul jostled in the thoroughfare of anxious thoughts.

2. The delectable company nevertheless enjoyed. C.A.D.

Psalms 94:20*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me; rather, my various thoughts, "my busy thoughts." Sarappim (as Dr. Kay observes) "are anxious, perplexing, branchings of thoughts," such as continually vex faithful yet doubting souls. Thy comforts delight my soul. Internal comfort is given by God himself to the perplexed and troubled in spirit, whereby they are "delighted," or, rather, "soothed and solaced.

The throng of our thoughts.

It is not difficult to see how the experiences which are more or less plainly

referred to in this psalm should produce a "multitude of thoughts." The text reminds us that

I THOUGHTS COME IN THRONGS. To one standing on the golden gallery that surmounts the dome of St. Paul"s in London, and looking down on the streets below, the sight of the thronging multitudes of people, hastening hither and thither, each intent on his or her own business, the traffic never ceasing, is very striking. How the people come and, some one way, some another, crossing and recrossing each other, never still for a moment, it is all a picture of the minds of most men. Who could count or remember the multitude of thoughts that pass and repass, that come and go across the pathways of the mind? It is an incessant traffic, a concourse that is never still. And they are of all kinds, good, bad, and indifferent, grave and gay, coming one scarce knows whence, and going one as little knows whither.

II MANY OF THEM OFTEN LEAVE THE SOUL SAD. There are those of an opposite character, and by God"s mercy they are the most numerous and ordinary. And there are people who seem never to think seriously at all the mere butterflies of life. But the Christian cannot be one of them. We know what our Lord said of the "wayside" hearers. The good seed never takes root there. But the soul awakened to things that are eternal must often think seriously, and, not seldom, sadly likewise. It was so with the writer of this psalm. To him also the enigmas of this unintelligible world came clamouring for solution, as they do still. "Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph?" (ver. 3). That was to him one of the many inexplicable and heart saddening facts of life. And how many minds are today agitated, perplexed, well nigh shipwrecked, and their lives darkened by the mysteries they must meet, but cannot comprehend? But

III GOD HAS PROVIDED RELIEF FOR SUCH SOULS. Indeed, much more than simply relief. He has provided "delight" for them. Unquestionably blessed be his holy Name for it! God has done this. The testimony of saints in all ages has shown that God giveth "songs in the night." See the life and letters of men like Paul; above all, listen to "the Man of sorrows" himself telling of his "joy," and praying that it may "be fulfilled" in his disciples. And there are children of God now plunged in poverty or pain, or both, and yet who know and confess that God is their "exceeding Joy.

IV THIS IS ACCOMPLISHED BY MEANS OF HIS "COMFORTS." "Thy comforts delight," etc.

1. They are of God. Those that this world supplies could never accomplish this.

2. They come through various channels. Sometimes through Nature her calm and beauty and grandeur uplift the soul. Or through revelation. Think of all the "exceeding great and precious promises." Or through providence. Or by his Spirit in the soul. This best of all.

V THE CONDITION IS TRUST IN GOD. S.C.

The comfortable thoughts God gives.

They are the thoughts God starts in our minds concerning himself. The "multitude of thoughts" here suggest "anxious thoughts," "distractions;" "divided or branching thoughts." Keep before the mind that this psalm was written in some time of personal or national anxiety, which was causing very grave perplexity. Multitude of thoughts, complexity, conflict of thoughts.

I OUR MULTITUDE OF THOUGHTS. A suitable and suggestive term. A true description. Have you ever tried to watch the process of the mind in ordinary times or in special times? Explain how the law of association brings up not one string of orderly thoughts, but various series, which branch and cross and conflict one with the other. Past, present, future, bring in their various thoughts. The importance of good ordering of thoughts, to the pious man, may be seen from these considerations,

1. Sin lingers in them.

2. Character is exhibited to God as much by them as by our actions; for "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

3. The power of religion is first felt in them.

4. They are the real springs of action, and they give character to our action.

II GOD"S COMFORTING THOUGHTS. He gives comforting assurances for us to think about. God makes himself a Key-thought to the thoughts that we should cherish. Illustrate how the godly soul may fill his mind with the "exceeding great and precious promises," and how these will be always ready to come up, to dispel distracting thoughts, and soothe troubled thoughts. God"s comforts are thoughts that realize God as the holy Father, Christ as the elder Brother, the Spirit as the present Guide, and "all things working together for good.

III THE DUTY OF CHERISHING GOD"S COMFORTING THOUGHTS. They will ease our distress; they will recall us to trust; they will put a "song into our mouth." We may cherish them by full acquaintance with God"s Word, which is the great storehouse of Divine thought suggestions, and by daily communion with God, which is sure to start fresh comfortings in our souls. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thoughts - While my heart was filled with various and perplexing thoughts, as this Hebrew word signifies. Comforts - Thy promises, and the remembrance of my former experience of thy care and kindness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.