Psalms 88:8

I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

The imprisoning power of suffering

I. Suffering always shuts us up to ourselves. It does this in two ways, it destroys both the disposition and the capacity to go out into society. Suffering isolates, it throws us back upon Ourselves, and makes us feel our absolute lonelihood. This is often--

1. Spiritually necessary.

2. Spiritually beneficent.

II. Suffering sometimes shuts us up to God. When “shut up “to ourselves, we are often urged into the conscious presence of God. God is better seen and heard in solitude than in society. I am not alone, “the Father is with me.” “Enter into your closet, and shut your door,” etc.

III. Suffering must shut us up to the grave. Elsewhere the writer says, “My life draweth nigh unto the grave.” (Homilist.)