Psalms 13:6

I will sing unto the Lord.

The passing of morbid states of mind

Much spiritual darkness is no doubt caused by the mind’s sympathising with a morbid condition of the body, a condition not always known to the sufferer, and often not even suspected. Nevertheless, the morbid condition exists, and prevents the mind from rightly estimating the evidences of its conversion. No sooner, however, is the believer’s health restored than he finds himself in a new world of religious hope and feeling, and yet without a single new evidence of his being a child of God. His repentance is not more sincere, his faith more entire, nor his purpose to serve God more determined. His restoration to health alone has invested his evidences of conversion to God with pleasurable emotions. He has, of course, more enjoyment in his religion, but not an iota more of genuineness and safety in it than there was before. (David Caldwell, A. M.)

Joy in God’s ways with us

This Psalm, like many others, begins in sorrow, but ends in joy. In all God’s works there is a great likeness running throughout--a change from bad to good, from hope deferred to real enjoyment; as the proverb has it, “No cross, no crown” Thus it is that daylight succeeds the darkness of night, and disperses it. Health and strength follow so often after a bed of sickness, inward joy after a long period of outward sorrow. Our Lord Himself “went not after joy; but first He suffered pain.” And such is the life’s history of all God’s most chosen saints. How differently a man goes through the world who dwells upon the blessings he has received more than the sorrows and trials he may have undergone, who tries to see in all circumstances of his life God’s goodness towards himself, instead of repining continually in discontent at everything which crosses his will or his hopes. It is in this way that God so often draws the hearts of men to Himself, weans them from the love of this world, makes them to love Him supremely before all else, and thus sows the seed of eternal life in their hearts. We are all surrounded by a thousand blessings, of which we take little or no account. These words of the text contain a direct expression of our own individual blessings and mercies. It is the work of God’s Holy Spirit in us to shed abroad in our hearts the love of God. And when we love God we love all that belongs to God. Let this be one object of our daily life, to see more and more God’s love towards us. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.).

Psalms 14:1