Sickness and Prayer, Healing and Praise

Sickness and Prayer, Healing and Praise

(No. 3274)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 20, 1865.

"Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities
are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner of meat, and they draw near
unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble
and He saves them out of their distresses. He sent His Word, and healed
them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would
praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the
children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and declare His works with rejoicing" Psalm 107:17-22.

WHEN a person is very ill, one of the greatest kindnesses that you can
show to him is to tell him how you felt under a similar affliction, to
what physician you resorted, what remedies he prescribed, through what
processes you passed, what were the symptoms connected with your
recovery and how long you have been able to rejoice over the cure which
has been worked in you. This kind of practical, experimental talk will
be far more valuable to him than any doctor's opinions that you may
read to him out of a book of medicine. Tell the sufferer what your
experience has been and you will generally find that he will attach
more importance to that than to any theory which you may propound to
him, however well you may support that theory by argument!

I propose, this evening, as God shall enable me, to give you some of my
experience. Indeed, I think that what I shall have to say will describe
the experience of most of those who have been led to understand their
state as spiritually sick, and who have been guided to the Great
Physician and have found out how He works a complete and permanent
cure. I have no doubt that this Psalm refers to actual bodily sickness
and that it teaches us that we ought to praise the Lord very heartily
whenever we are restored from any illness. It is no small mercy to have
life preserved and health restored, especially if the end of life would
be to us the beginning of eternal death and that our soul, when
separated from the body, would have no "better land" to enter, and no
right to a place in the home of the blessed where sickness is unknown!
But while I think that the Psalm refers to bodily sickness, I am fully
persuaded that it also applies to spiritual sickness and that we shall
act in accordance with the mind of the Spirit if we consider the text
as first, describing the spiritually sick Then, as showing the means by
which they are cured. And lastly, as revealing what they do after they
are cured.

I. So, first, we have in the text A DESCRIPTION OF THOSE WHO ARE
SPIRITUALLY SICK.

First, we are told their name. It is not a complimentary one–"Fools."
But it is a name which they richly deserve! At least I know that I
deserved it when I was in their case. God never calls a man a fool
unless he is one. Why, then, are unconverted sinners rightly called
fools?

They are fools because they prefer the shadow to the substance. They
are as foolish as the dog in the old fable who dropped the solid meat
that he had in his mouth and tried to seize the shadow of it that he
saw reflected in the water. And men are indeed fools when they prefer
the shadows of time to the substances of eternity!

They are fools, next, many of them, because they say that this world
grew up by chance. "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God."
He said that because he was a fool–if he had not been a fool, he would
neither have thought it nor said it. If I were to assert that this
Tabernacle grew up by chance, without either architect or builder, I
would be a liar as well as a fool! But I should have just as much
reason to say that as to declare that the universe came into existence
without the fiat of the great Creator. Men who deny the plain teaching
of Scripture upon this point are indeed fools!

They are fools, too, because they make a mockery of sin. If men cut
their fingers by playing with edged tools. If they put red-hot coals
into their bosom, or fling firebrands about and say that they do it for
fun, truly they are fools! But they are not such mad fools as those who
play with sin and so ruin their souls forever, or who put into their
lives sins that are like hot coals of juniper–and then laugh as though
they had done a wise thing. They are indeed fools who prefer the
pleasures of sin to the joys of eternity, for such pleasures will soon
end–and then everlasting misery will be their portion. If you want to
know how foolish they really are, you must view their folly in the
light of eternity. Look down upon them from the heights of the Heaven
which they appear so willing to lose, or try to imagine the depths and
woes of the Hell which they seem determined to inherit, and you will
straightway discover what fools they are! They think nothing of their
never-dying souls, but Christ thought so much of immortal beings that
He left Heaven with all its glories and endured suffering and shame of
the most fearful character that He might deliver souls from going down
into the Pit of woe forever!

The text does not say that they are fools who are short of wit as we
generally use that term, but it refers to those who are short of
heavenly wit. They are fools who are deficient in common sense, for it
is certainly in accordance with common sense that I should look first
to that which is of the greatest importance–that is to say, my soul
and the position it is to occupy throughout eternity when this mortal
life is ended. Whoever you may be, my Friend, though some may call you
wise, and though you think yourself wise, if you have not seen that all
is right with you for eternity, God calls you a fool–and I dare not
call you anything else! You may be a master of mathematics, but if you
have not solved this great problem, "What shall it profit a man if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" you are what God
says you are–a fool!

But the test goes on to tell us that these fools fall sick–and that is
a cause for devout thankfulness, for if they never feel sick, they
would never get well–and the sickness which I am about to describe is
one which leads to everlasting health! What is the cause of the
sickness which comes upon these fools? The text says, "Fools because of
their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted."
"Transgression" is crossing over the line which God has laid down in
His Word. "Iniquity" is a lack of equity, a lack of that "right spirit"
which God alone can give, and without which right words and actions are
impossible. Well do I remember when I was spiritually sick because of
my transgressions and iniquities. I could not sleep in peace, for I
remembered that I had provoked God to anger by my sins. I had not loved
Him with all my heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. I had set up
my will against His will and so I had insulted Him to His face. I felt
not only that I was condemned by God, but my own conscience joined in
the condemnation! As I read the whole Law of the Lord through and
remembered how Christ interpreted and applied it, I felt sick at heart,
and the conviction burned itself into my soul with all the force of a
raging fever–that all the Ten Commandments would be swift and sure
witnesses against me at the Judgment Bar of God! It must be a terrible
thing to stand in front of a row of soldiers, knowing that every one of
their rifles contains a bullet that is meant for your heart, but the
condemnation of a sin-burdened conscience is worse than that! The ten
great guns of the Law of God are all aimed at the poor sinner and there
he stands, dreading the doom that he knows he deserves, for the Justice
of God has but to lift its finger and swift and awful would be the
punishment which his sin would bring upon him!

I can bear my testimony that there is no sickness that is so hard to
bear as the sickness that is caused by sin. You may get a little rest
now and then in almost every other form of affliction, but you cannot
get any rest when you are suffering from this spiritual malady! "Day
and night," said David, "Your hand was heavy upon me." So it is not at
all surprising that he added, "my moisture is turned into the drought
of summer." This sickness because of sin is one that no human physician
can cure and no earthly medicine can even alleviate! When suffering
thus, the soul can find no comfort–often, not even in the Word,
itself! Yet, if there are any here who are sick in this way, let me say
that I am glad that they are thus afflicted, for this is a sickness of
which souls do not eternally die–it is a sickness which ends in
everlasting health! So I pray with all my heart that we may allfall
sick of it–and then that Jehovah-Rophi may come and cure us as only He
can!

There is one special symptom of this soul-sickness to which the text
directs our attention–"Their soul abhors all manner of meat." Here
comes the world's waiter bearing a dainty dish in his hand. As he lifts
the cover, the sinner recognizes its contents and remembers how he has
relished such food in the past. But when he tastes it, he cannot tell
why, but he feels an utter revulsion to it! That which once seemed so
savory is now quite nauseous to him! "Take it away," he cries. "I am
sick of the very sight of it!" Then the waiter brings in something that
is more highly spiced and sets it before him,

but when he has tried it, he says, "I do not see why people are so fond
of such fare as this! To me it is utterly flavorless and insipid." One
brings him the fare that is provided at the theater, another tries to
tempt his appetite with innocent pleasantries, a third tries the
seductions of immoral amusements, but to the whole set of them he
cries, "Get you gone, every one of you! Not one of you can bring me
anything to suit my palate." He finds fault with everything that is
offered to him! The fact is, his mouth is out of taste for all such
dainties, as some call them. It is a blessed thing to have no liking
for such fare as the world can set before you, for those who are
satisfied with such food as that will find that they have to digest it
in Hell–and long enough will they be in doing so! There may be some in
this building, tonight, who have lost their taste for things that once
charmed them. You do not know how it is, but somehow or other, you
cannot get on with the company in which you used to feel quite at home.
The amusements which once delighted you seem, now, to be so frivolous
and senseless that you wonder how you could ever have been allured by
them. The explanation is that you are now like those of whom our text
speaks–"Their soul abhors all manner of meat."

The worst of it is that people in this state of mind and heart abhor
the good meat as well as the bad–"their soul abhors all manner of
meat–the good meat of the Gospel as well as the tainted viands of the
world. Many a time I have acted as a cook and I have tried to tempt
these sin-sick folk with what I reckoned to be most delicious
fare–food which I had myself tasted first and found it to be most
palatable and nourishing. But when I have set it before them, they have
turned away from it and said, "No, no, that is not for us–we cannot
relish such fare as that." I have preached concerning the abounding
mercy of God, but the sinner has said, "There is no mercy for me." I
have talked of the power of Jesus' precious blood, but the sinner has
said, "It will never cleanse me." I have spoken of the prevalence of
believing prayer, but the poor man has shaken his head and despairingly
cried, "I cannot pray!" I have told him that Christ is willing and
waiting to receive all who come to Him, but he only turned his face to
the wall and said, "I cannot come to Christ, and I never shall come to
Him. I know that I am a condemned man." I have brought out the promises
and set them in a dish garnished with Gospel invitations, but his soul
has abhorred all manner of meat. The fault is not with the meat, but
with the sinner's mouth–the provision is good, yet his soul abhors it!

I recollect the time when I used to come out of every House of Prayer
feeling worse than when I entered it. I used to read Baxter's Saint's
Rest, Alleine's Alarm to the Unconverted, Bunyan's Grace Abounding to
the Chief of Sinners, and other books of the same sort–but often, when
I shut them up, I wished I had never opened them! I read the Bible most
diligently, but the choicest passages in it only made me cry, "Ah, it
is a most blessed Book for other people, but it is not for me." I was
in the condition described by the text and my soul abhorred all manner
of food, even the very best!

The text also tells us the extent to which this soul-sickness had
gone–"they draw near unto the gates of death." Ah, poor Soul, is not
this a true portrait of you? You think that your death warrant has been
signed by your God, that you are shut up in the condemned cell and that
you can hear the carpenters at work making the scaffold ready for your
execution! In imagination you have been already shackled, you have gone
up the fatal stairs, the cap has been drawn over your face, you are
standing upon the drop and to your own apprehension you are about to be
launched into Hell! This shows how sick you are, but while I am moved
to pity as I see how you are suffering, I am thankful that your present
pains are of so salutary a character and that they will prove to be for
your lasting good! I can even clap my hands for joy that you are
brought so low as to draw never to the gates of Death, for my hope is
that you will soon be brought near to the gate of Everlasting Life! Now
that God has brought you down, He will soon bring you up, for it is as
Hannah sang, "The Lord kills and makes alive: He brings down to the
grave, and brings up." Therefore be of good courage even though your
soul is in such a sad and desperate state!

II. Now, secondly, let us consider the text as SHOWING THE MEANS BY
WHICH THESE FOLKS ARE CURED.

First, they call for the aid of the Great Physician. "Then they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble." Now that they are brought so near to
the gates of Death that there is no hope of their recovery unless God
Himself interposes on their behalf, "they cry unto the Lord." I have
known some who when they have got to their most desperate state, have
been afraid to call upon God to help them. "How can I pray, now," one
asks, "when I never prayed before?" That is all the greater reason, my
Friend, why you should begin to pray now! You need not even bend the
knee, but let your heart go up to God in prayer just where you are now
sitting or standing. "But," says another, "if I were to pray, it would
only be through fear of Hell. Poor Soul, do not be too particular about
your reasons for praying! Cry from your very soul, "God be merciful to
me, a sinner," and God will hear you and have mercy upon you! I doubt
not that many have come to God first through fear of Hell, and
afterwards they have learned the attractive power of the love of God in
Christ Jesus. If you go to Christ, He will in no wise cast you out!

"But my prayer would be such a selfish one! I could only ask that I
might be saved." Well, and what then? For whose sake did the prodigal
go back to his father? And did his father refuse to receive him because
it was a selfish motive that made him return? He said, "How many hired
servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish
with hunger!" It was a mere bread and cheese motive that took him back
from the far country, but his father's welcome was none the less hearty
to the returning prodigal! I never send for a doctor except from the
most selfish motive–I do it for my own good, not for his! And so it
must be with you. Cry to the Great Physician because you need Him to
cure you. You will think more of His honor and Glory after He has cured
you, but for the present, be selfish enough to cry, "Lord, save me, or
I perish!"

"But I have tried everyone else, first, so I cannot expect God to
attend to me after that." Ah, but God's ways are not like man's! If you
had been round to every other shop, first, an ordinary tradesman might
refuse to serve you, but God does not deal with sinners in such a
fashion as that! Though you have tried the Law of God and tried your
own good works, and tried all sorts of human inventions–and all have
failed you, cry now to your God! "Better late than nev-er."All that you
have yet done is but part of your disease, so go to your God and
confess it, mourn over it before Him and he will tell you that all your
sins are forgiven you for His dear Son's sake because He took your
place and suffered in your place when He died, "the Just for the
unjust," to bring you to God!

"But I cannot pray," says one. Then do not try to pray, but simply cry
to God as they did in the Psalmist's day. Crying is the most natural
expression of human needs. I expect you have learned that your child
manages very early in life to let you know what he wants–he does not
say, "Father, teach me a little phrase that I may say every morning
when I want my breakfast." How soon a little child in pain will let you
know that something is the matter! He will cry all over–head, hands,
feet and his whole body will be in such a state of agitation that you
will run to his relief! And that is the way to cry to God in your
trouble. If your tongue cannot express your needs, let your bended
knees, your uplifted hands and your streaming eyes and heaving bosom
and aching heart all help to make up for your broken utterance! And
then will the Lord speedily save you out of your distress.

"But what is the Physician's fee?" asks one, who has vivid memories of
earthly doctors' bills. The fee–oh, the Physician will have you,
yourself, as His fee! When He heals you of your soul-sickness, He takes
you to be His forever. But He wants nothing from you! Only trust Him.
Only cry to Him. Then, and though your soul has abhorred all manner of
meat, and you have drawn near to the gates of Death, Jehovah-Rophi will
cause your disease to vanish in a moment and your soul shall rejoice in
perfect restoration to health!

I can only speak briefly upon the happy cure of the sin-sick patients
by the Great Physician–"He sent His Word, and healed them." The one
remedy for sin-sick sinners is the Word of God, so let them be diligent
in reading it and eager to hear it whenever they can, for, "faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Certain passages of
Scripture will always be peculiarly precious to us, for they were the
golden keys which opened the dungeons in Doubting Castle and set us at
liberty. I can never forget that blessed text, "Look unto Me, and be
you saved, all the ends of the earth," for that was the message that
brought peace to my troubled spirit! And no doubt many of you have
similar memories concerning the texts which were used by God for your
deliverance. It is the Word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit, that is
the means of healing sin-sick souls!

But there is a still higher meaning in this expression, for the Lord
Jesus Christ is THE WORD OF GOD and it is He whom God has sent for the
healing of poor sin-sick souls! He was sent by God to be the sinner's
Friend and the sinner's Savior! He lived for sinners and He died for
sinners. Listen to this good news, Sinner! You have sinned, but if you
believe in Jesus, you shall no longer be regarded by God as a sinner,
for Christ has borne your sins into the land of forgetfulness, as the
scapegoat of old did typically for Israel! You have sinfulness still
within you, but if you are truly trusting in Jesus, He will overcome
your sinfulness by putting His holy fear in your heart and by causing
His Spirit to subdue all your evil properties.

Notice, too, how quick the cure is. God has but to say to the sinner,
"Be you healed," and he is healed! Just as in Creation, Jehovah said,
"Let there be light: and there was light." And just as when He was upon
the earth, the Lord Jesus but spoke and blind eyes were made to see,
deaf ears were made to hear, the lame were enabled to walk and even the

dead were raised to life! Poor Sinner, you think that your coffin will
soon be needed, but Jehovah-Jesus has but to speak the word and in an
instantthe flush of health shall come upon your soul and you shall be
perfectly healed!

This cure is also perfect as well as immediate, for the text says that
the Lord "delivered them from their destructions," as well as that He
"saves them out of their distresses." They are not only cured of one
spiritual malady, but of all! They are delivered from the guilt, the
power and the penalty of sin! And once they are really cured by Christ,
there is no fear of their ever having this soul-sickness again! Let the
Great Physician but speak the healing word to the sinner here who is in
the most desperate condition–and in a moment that sinner shall be made
whole, never to suffer in the same fashion again! Oh, that He would put
forth His healing power this very moment! I can only talk, but He can
act. I can only tell you how sin-sick sinners are cured, but He can
cure you! Oh, that you who have been brought so low that you think you
can go no lower unless you are cast into Hell, would only cry unto the
Lord in your trouble and He will save you out of your distresses! He
will send His Word and heal you, and deliver you from going down to
destruction! God grant that it may be so, for His dear Son's sake!

III. Now I must close by briefly reminding you of WHAT THESE SIN-SICK
FOLKS DO AFTER THEY ARE CURED. They do what I would like to do all my
life!

First, they praise the name of the Lord. What blessed employment this
is, and I think God has just cause of complaint against us that we do
not praise Him more. Men of the world seem to have thoroughly learned
the art of cheering themselves with song. If the woodman goes forth on
a snowy morning with his axe over his shoulder, he is generally humming
or whistling a merry tune. You scarcely ever see a milkmaid in the
country brushing the early dew from the grass without also hearing her
singing some lively strain. And the housewife, as she rocks the cradle,
soothes her babe to sleep with a tuneful lullaby. The sailors an board
ship never haul up the anchor or join in other heavy labor without
uniting in a jovial song to help them in their task! And Christians
ought to imitate them, only on a much higher scale! I think we lose a
great deal through not praising God more. We need much more
singing–could you not sing much more at home, at the family altar, or
when you are engaged in your various occupations? It would help to
bring heavenly enjoyment into your lives if you had more of this
heavenly employment!

Then, next, sin-sick souls who have been healed offer sacrifices unto
the Lord–"Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving." I do not
believe you have ever been cured by Christ unless you need to do
something to show how grateful you are to Him. A saved soul feels the
sacred burdening of love and longs to consecrate itself and all it has
to God's Glory! And if there is one thing that is more difficult than
another, the grateful soul says, "That is what I should like to do for
Christ, to prove my love to Him." Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
have you really devoted yourselves–body, soul and spirit–to Him who
gave His all for you? Then prove it by your self-denial and
self-sacrifice for His cause!

Now, lastly, those who are cured by Christ "declare His works with
rejoicing,"by which is meant, I suppose, that if they can preach, they
are to do it "with rejoicing." There are some preachers who seem to
regard the Gospel as though it were a cup of medicine of the bitterest
kind. It is true that it is a healing balm–it is a most blessed
cure-all–but it is neither to be presented nor taken with a wry face
as though it were some nauseous concoction of the apothecary!
White-field began one of his discourses thus–"When I read my text, I
felt inclined to sing instead of preaching to you." That is the way to
preach–with a holy joyfulness of spirit, telling your hearers that you
have found the priceless Pearl and inviting them to share its
preciousness with you! And you who cannot preach, can talk to one
another in a similar strain– how much good can be done by a bright
testimony to God's Grace in little companies of three, four, five, or
six! I thank God that many of you are not strangers to this blessed
work, but I wish that more of you would get at it. How can you keep
this blessed secret to yourselves? You are in a hospital full of
spiritually sick folks and yet you keep to yourselves the secret of
everlasting health! You are surrounded by myriads of lost souls and yet
you keep to yourselves the secret of salvation! Oh, shame on you for
such guilty silence! End it at once–tell the good news to someone
before you go to bed tonight–and then tell it to somebody else as
early as you can in the morning! And keep on telling it in season and
out of season as long as you live! Let us have plenty of
street-preaching, plenty of Bible-distribution, plenty of Sunday school
teaching, plenty of teaching young men and women in Bible classes,
plenty of everything, in fact, that will make men know what Jesus
Christ can do! I would that I could whisper in the ear of everyone who
has been healed, "Go, and tell your neighbor, your friend, your child,
your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife what the Lord has
done for you!"

"Are we all to preach?" asks someone. Oh, no! Only you who have been
healed can tell about the Good Physician's healing power. If you are
among those who are sick through sin, and sick of sin, come to Him to
be healed–trust Him to save you and then–

"Tell to sinners round What a dear Savior you have found Point to His
redeeming blood And say, 'Behold the way to God.'"

God bless you, everyone, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM107:1-32.

The Psalmist exhorts the redeemed in praising God, to observe the
different forms of His mercy. He views the chosen people as travelers,
captives, sick men and seamen. And in each of these classes he exhorts
them to praise the Lord.

Verse 1. O give thanks unto Jehovah, for He is good. He is essentially
good. His name, God, is only a shorter form of good, yet if we were to
lengthen it, there could be no more goodness found in it than is found
in the three letters, "God."

1. For His mercy endures forever That is the form which His goodness
takes in relation to us, His sinful creatures. As we deserve nothing,
everything that He gives us is a gift of mercy–and what a range His
mercy takes! "His mercy endures forever.''

2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the
hand of the enemy. If nobody else will say that God is good, let His
redeemed ones say it! If others are silent, let them speak to His
praise! If others are doubtful, let them declare positively that the
Lord is good and that His mercy endures forever!

3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west
from the north, and from the south. We were scattered in various
directions by our own folly and sin–

"EEach wandering in a different way, But all the downward road"– and
He gathered us unto that blessed Shiloh of whom Jacob said, "Unto Him
shall the gathering of the people be."

4. They wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way. Ah, the way of a
sinner, convicted of sin, is indeed a solitary way! He has a sorrow
which he cannot tell to anybody else–a stranger intermeddles not with
his grief!

4. They found no city to dwell in. There are no cities in the
wilderness for people to dwell in. We look for a city that is out of
sight at present–"a city which has foundations, whose Builder and
Maker is God." Here, in this fleeting world, we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come.

5, 6. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried
unto the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their
distresses. They were a long while before they prayed to the Lord, but
He was not a long while before He answered their prayer! When they were
brought to that, then, that is to say, when they were so hungry, and so
thirsty, and so faint that they could do nothing else but cry, then,
was the moment that they cried unto the Lord, "He delivered them out of
their distresses."

7. And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city
of habitation. "He led them"…"that they might go." The leadings of
Divine Grace do not destroy the activities of the human will. God does
not treat us as if we were blocks of wood or stone, but He treats us as
reasonable beings.

8, 9. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His
wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing
soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness.We hardly looked for that
verse to follow the preceding one! We might have thought that the
Psalmist would have written, "for He brings them to a city of rest."
God always exceeds our expectations. He not only brings His wandering
people home, but He feeds them bountifully when they are there! He
holds high festival within Zion's gate, and the citizens of the New
Jerusalem are fed with the finest of the wheat. Surely souls so blessed
must praise Jehovah for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the
children of men! Now comes another picture, the picture of the
captives–

10, 11. Such as sit in darkness andin the shadow of death, being
boundin affliction andiron; because they rebelled against the words of
God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High. They "sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death," for they have lost all energy. They sit
down in dumb despair, for at last their sins have found them out. They
rejected God and He has left them to suffer the consequences of their
sin–"being bound in affliction and iron."

12, 13. Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell
down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the LORD in
their trouble–This seems to always be the last thing that people in
trouble do! Until they hunger and thirst, and their soul faints, as in
the former case, or until they fall down utterly helpless, as in this
case, they will not pray. But "then they cry unto Jehovah in their
trouble"–

13-16. And He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out
of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in sunder Oh
that men would praise the LORD for His goodness and for His wonderful
works to the children of men!For He has broken the gates of brass, and
cut the bars of iron in sunder All Glory be to the great Liberator's
name! Now comes the picture of sick men, which is also the portrait of
ourselves–

17. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their
iniquities, are afflicted. Perhaps affliction comes to their bodies,
but more especially it attacks their hearts–they have heart disease, a
mortal tremor within, or a terrible fever of fear.

18. Their soul abhors all manner of meat. You cannot comfort them, they
cannot or will not receive the Truth of God that would sustain
them–they have lost all appetite for spiritual food.

18. And they draw near unto the gates of death.They seem to come close
to those great iron gates that shut out all hope forever! They can hear
them grind upon their massive hinges–they begin to realize what the
wrath of God means.

19. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble. Fools though they
are, they have sense enough to do this!

19. And He saves them out of their distresses. So that a true prayer
from one who is near unto the gates of death is a prevailing prayer! We
earnestly urge all to repent long before they come to a dying bed, but
if they are on a dying bed– if they are literally near unto the gates
of death–here is evidence that if they cry unto the Lord in their
trouble, He will not close His ears or His heart to their prayer!

20. He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions. The Word of God has a sort of Omnipotent power in it. By
the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and by the Word of the Lord
are sick [See

Sermons #1992, Volume 33–SONG FOR THE FREE–HOPE FOR THE BOUND; #1824,
Volume 31–THE HISTORY OF SUNDRY FOOLS and #2921, Volume 51–AN
OLD-FASHIONED REMEDY.] souls healed. That Word can do anything

that God purposes. "Where the word of a king is, there is power," but
where the Word of God is, there is Omnipotence!

21, 22. Oh that man would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His
wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the
sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing. Now
we come to the seafaring men–

23, 24. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in
great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the
deep. These words literally apply not only to seamen, but also to
others who are called to endure great storms while sailing across the
sea of this mortal life.

25, 26. For He commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the
waves thereof. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the
depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. For even he who has
his "sea legs" on, finds them of little use to him when such a storm as
this is tossing everything in a dreadful hurly burly. "They mount up to
the heavens, they go down again to the depths," and this experience is
repeated, perhaps, hundreds of times, day and night, sometimes for
weeks together!

27. They reel to and fro, and stagger like drunken men, andare at their
wit's end. But, oh, when souls are caught in a storm of conviction of
sin, this is a true description of their spiritual distress–they are
at their wits end and do not know what to do! Everything about them is
shaking, and they are reeling to and fro, sometimes this way and
sometimes that–staggering, scarcely able to believe anything, seeing
some things double and everything out of place!

28. Then they cry–Yes, then, when they are reeling and staggering!
That is a strange condition–is it not–in which to be praying, reeling
to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man? "Then they cry"–

28. Unto the LORD in their trouble, and He brings them out of their
distresses. Then God will hear the prayer of a staggering man, and the
prayer that has not any sense in it because the man who prays is at his
wit's end! By "sense" I

mean not following the consecutiveness of an orderly petition–the
prayer itself seeming to reel to and fro. The suppliant is so
overpowered by sorrow that he might be thought to be drunk–as she was
to whom Eli so harshly spoke bidding her put away her wine from her,
whereas she was overcome by sorrow. God hears us when we cannot hear
ourselves pray and when we cannot put the words of our supplication in
proper order. God knows what we mean to say and gives us what we really
need.

29. He makes the storm a calm–What a change! And what a blessing it is
to get into one of God's calms, for they are far beyond the ordinary
calm of nature! Then do we enjoy "the peace of God, which passes all
understanding."

29-32. So that the waves thereof are still Then are they glad because
they are quiet; so He brings them unto their desired haven. Oh that men
would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to
the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the
people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders