out on a freshened
world, differs from the boding stillness while the slow thunder-clouds
grow lurid on the horizon. He cries for healing, for he knows his
sickness to be the buffet and assault of God's hand; and its bitterness
is assuaged, even while its force continues, by the conviction that it
is God's fatherly chastisement for sin which gnaws away his manly vigour
as the moth frets his kingly robe. The very thought which had been so
bitter--that every man is vanity--reappears in a new connection as the
basis of the prayer that God would hear, and is modified so as to become
infinitely blessed and hopeful. "I am a stranger with Thee, and a
sojourner, as all my fathers were." A wanderer indeed, and a transient
guest on earth; but what of that, if he be God's guest? All that is
sorrowful is drawn off from the thought when we realise our connection
with God. We are in God's house; the host, not the guest, is responsible
for the housekeeping. We need not feel life lonely if He be with us, nor
its shortness sad. It is not a shadow, a dream, a breath, if it be
rooted in Him. And thus the sick man has conquered his gloomy thoughts,
even though he sees little before him but the end; and he is not cast
down even though his desires are all summed up in one for a little
respite and healing, ere the brief trouble of earth be done with: "O
spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be no
more."

It may be observed that this supposition of a protracted illness, which
is based upon these psalms, throws light upon the singular passiveness
of David during the maturing of Absalom's conspiracy, and may naturally
be supposed to have favoured his schemes, an essential part of which was
to ingratiate himself with suitors who came to the king for judgment by
affecting great regret that no man was deputed of the king to hear them.
The accumulation of untried causes, and the apparent disorganization of
the judicial machinery, are well accounted for by David's sickness.

The fifty-fifth psalm gives some very pathetic additional particulars.
It is in three parts--a plaintive prayer and portraiture of the
psalmist's mental distress (vers. 1-8); a vehement supplication against
his foes, and indignant recounting of their treachery (vers. 9-16); and,
finally, a prophecy of the retribution that is to fall upon them (vers.
17-23). In the first and second portions we have some points which help
to complete our picture of the man.