“Even more noteworthy is the way in which the believer under affliction discovers the true source of all the mischief and lays the axe at the root of it. “Forgive all my sins”, is the cry of a soul that is more sick of sin then of pain, and would sooner be forgiven then healed. Blessed is the man to whom sin as more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, the grace-taught heart alone feels it.”

 

-Charles Spurgeon

 

“In these four Psalms which immediately follow one another, we may find the soul of David presented in all the several postures of piety lying, standing, sitting, kneeling. In the twenty-second Psalm, he is lying all along, falling flat on his face, low grovelling on the ground, even almost entering into a degree of despair. Speaking of himself in the history of Christ in the mystery, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In the twenty-third Psalm, he is standing, and through God’s favour, in despite of his foes, trampling and triumphing over all opposition; “The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing.” In the twenty-fourth Psalm he is sitting, like a doctor in his chair, or a professor in his place, reading a lecture of divinity, and describing the character of that man how he must be accomplished “who shall ascend into thy holy hill, “and hereafter be partaker of happiness. In this twenty-fifth Psalm, he is kneeling, with hands and voice lifted up to God, and on these two hinges the whole Psalm turneth; the one is a hearty beseeching of God’s mercy, the other a humble bemoaning of his own misery.”

 

-Thomas Fuller