We may remind ourselves of the assessment of this psalm given last month by Neale and Littledale that, “This psalm stands alone in all the Psalter for the unrelieved gloom, and hopeless sorrow of its tone.” That tone is little altered in the remaining verses.
Verse 9. “Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee …” Weeping must not hinder praying. We must sow in tears. “Mine eye mourns,” says the psalmist, but “I will cry unto thee daily.” Let prayers and tears go together, and they shall be accepted together: “I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears.”
Verse 9. “Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.” He used the appropriate posture of a supplicant, of his own accord. When men are eagerly pleading for mercy, they need no posture-maker or master of the ceremonies; nature suggest to them attitudes both natural and correct. As a little child stretches out its hands to its mother while it cries, so did this afflicted child of God. He prayed all over: his eyes wept, his voice cried, his hands were outstretched, and his heart broke. This was prayer indeed.
Verses 10-12. “Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” In these verses we find mention made of four things on the part of God: “wonders,” loving kindness,” “faithfulness,” and “righteousness.” These were four attributes of the blessed Jehovah which the eyes of the psalmist had been opened to see, and which the heart of the psalmist had been wrought upon to feel. But he comes, by divine teaching, into a spot where these attributes seem to be completely lost to him. And yet, (so mysterious are the ways of God!) that spot was made the very place where those attributes were more powerfully displayed and made more deeply and experimentally known to his soul.
The Lord led the blind by a way that he knew not into these spots of experience, that in them He might more fully open up to him those attributes of which he had already gained a glimpse. But the Lord brought him in such a mysterious way, that all his former knowledge was baffled. He therefore puts up this enquiry to the Lord, how it was possible that in those spots where he now was, these attributes could be displayed or made known.
He begins – “Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?” He is speaking here of his own experience; he is that “dead” person to whom those “wonders” are to be shown. “Shall the dead arise and praise thee?” The dark, stupid, cold, barren, helpless soul that cannot lift up one little finger etc. … - “Shall it arise?” And more than that, shall it “praise thee?” Can lamentation ever be turned into praise? Can complaint ever be turned into thanksgiving? Can the mourner ever shout and sing? Oh; it is a wonder of wonders, if “the dead” are to “arise,” if “the dead” are to “praise thee;” if “the dead” are to stand upon their feet, and shout victory through Thy blood.
Verse 13. “But unto thee have I cried, O Lord ….” That “but” seems to come in as an expression of his resolution made in the first verse. He knew his condition, yet he had sought the Lord, and would go on doing so. Suppose you find no relish in the ordinances and means of grace – yet use them. You are desperately sick, yet you must take the food that is brought to you, and some strength will come of that. Say to yourself; “Be I dammed or saved I resolve to go on!”
Verse 15. “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up ….” We found the heat more oppressive this day than we had yet experienced it. The hillocks of sand between which we were slowly moving at the usual camel’s pace, reflected the sun’s rays upon us, till our faces were glowing as if we had been by the side of a furnace ... Perhaps it was through this part of the desert of Shur that Hagar wandered, intending to go back to her native country; and it may have been by this way that Joseph carried the young child Jesus when they fled into the land of Egypt. Even in tender infancy the sufferings of the Redeemer began, and He complains, “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up.” Perhaps these scorching beams beat upon His infant brow, and this sand-laden breeze dried up His infant lips, while the heat of the curse of God began to melt His heart within. Even in the desert we see the Suretyship of Jesus.