Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.
Parallel Translations
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Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.
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I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
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(142-5) Look on my right hand, and see, for there is no man that knoweth me; I have no way to flee; no man careth for my soul.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Psalms 142:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 30:17 For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”
- Psalms 31:11 Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
- Psalms 88:18 You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
- Job 19:13-19 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me. All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
- Matthew 26:56 But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
- 1 Samuel 27:1 David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand.”
- Psalms 69:20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
- Psalms 88:8 You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
- 2 Timothy 4:16 At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them.
- 1 Samuel 23:11-13 Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant.” Yahweh said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” Yahweh said, “They will deliver you up.” Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. Saul was told that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there.
- 1 Samuel 23:19-20 Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert? Now therefore, O king, come down. According to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part will be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.”
- Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”
- Jeremiah 25:35 The shepherds will have no way to flee. The leader of the flock will have no escape.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 4. On looking to the right hand, The allusion…
4. On looking to the right hand, The allusion here, it is supposed, is to the observances of the ancient Jewish courts of judicature, in which the advocate, as well as the accuser, stood on the right hand of the accused. (Psalm 109:5.) The Psalmist felt himself in the condition of one who had nobody to plead his cause, and to protect him in the dangerous circumstances in which he was placed.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, sought for myself.
Or, sought for myself.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 142:4 I looked on [my] right hand, and…
Psa 142:4 I looked on [my] right hand, and beheld, but [there was] no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
Ver. 4. I looked on my right hand] Not a man would appear for me. Aφιλον το δυστυχες, misery is friendless for the most part. See 2Ti 4:16. Nulla fides unquam miseros delegit amicos.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Right hand; the place where the patron or assistant…
Right hand; the place where the patron or assistant used to stand. See Psa 16:8; 109:31; 121:5.
No man, to wit, in Saul’s court or camp; none of my former acquaintance, and friends. and relations.
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Know me; own me, or show any respect or kindness to me.
For my soul; or, for my life, to wit, to preserve it; but they all conspired to take it away; which is here implied.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The psalmist here tells us, for our instruction, 1.…
The psalmist here tells us, for our instruction, 1. How he was disowned and deserted by his friends, Psa 142:4. When he was in favour at court he seemed to have a great interest, but when he was made an out-law, and it was dangerous for any one to harbour him (witness Ahimelech's fate), then no man would know him, but every body was shy of him. He looked on his right hand for an advocate (Psa 109:31), some friend or other to speak a good word for him; but, since Jonathan's appearing for him had like to have cost him his life, nobody was willing to venture in defence of his innocency, but all were ready to say they knew nothing of the matter. He looked round to see if any would open their doors to him; but refuge failed him. None of all his old friends would give him a night's lodging, or direct him to any place of secresy and safety. How many good men have been deceived by such swallow-friends, who are gone when winter comes! David's life was exceedingly precious, and yet, when he was unjustly proscribed, no man cared for it, nor would move a hand for the protection of it. Herein he was a type of Christ, who, in his sufferings for us, was forsaken of all men, even of his own disciples, and trod the wine-press alone, for there was none to help, none to uphold, Isa 63:5. 2. How he then found satisfaction in God, Psa 142:5. Lovers and friends stood aloof from him, and it was in vain to call to them. "But," said he, "I cried unto thee, O Lord! who knowest me, and carest for me, when none else will, and wilt not fail me nor forsake me when men do;" for God is constant in his love. David tells us what he said to God in the cave: "Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living; I depend upon thee to be so, my refuge to save me from being miserable, my portion to make me happy. The cave I am in is but a poor refuge. Lord, thy name is the strong tower that I run into. Thou art my refuge, in whom alone I shall think myself safe. The crown I am in hopes of is but a poor portion; I can never think myself well provided for till I know that the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup." Those who in sincerity take the Lord for their God shall find him all-sufficient both as a refuge and as a portion, so that, as no evil shall hurt them, so no good shall be wanting to them; and they may humbly claim their interest: "Lord, thou art my refuge and my portion; every thing else is a refuge of lies and a portion of no value. Thou art so in the land of the living, that is, while I live and have my being, whether in this world or in a better." There is enough in God to answer all the necessities of this present time. We live in a world of dangers and wants; but what danger need we fear if God is our refuge, or what wants if he be our portion? Heaven, which alone deserves to be called the land of the living, will be to all believers both a refuge and a portion. 3. How, in this satisfaction, he addressed himself to God (Psa 142:5, Psa 142:6): "Lord, give a gracious ear to my cry, the cry of my affliction, the cry of my supplication, for I am brought very low, and, if thou help me not, I shall be quite sunk. Lord, deliver me from my persecutors, either tie their hands or turn their hearts, break their power or blast their projects, restrain them or rescue me, for they are stronger than I, and it will be thy honour to take part with the weakest. Deliver me from them, or I shall be ruined by them, for I am not yet myself a match for them. Lord, bring my soul out of prison, not only bring me safe out of this cave, but bring me out of all my perplexities." We may apply it spiritually: the souls of good men are often straitened by doubts and fears, cramped and fettered through the weakness of faith and the prevalency of corruption; and it is then their duty and interest to apply themselves to God, and beg of him to set them at liberty and to enlarge their hearts, that they may run the way of his commandments. 4. How much he expected his deliverance would redound to the glory of God. (1.) By his own thanksgivings, into which his present complaints would then be turned: "Bring my soul out of prison, not that I may enjoy myself and my friends and live at ease, no, nor that I may secure my country, but that I may praise thy name." This we should have an eye to, in all our prayers to God for deliverance out of trouble, that we may have occasion to praise God and may live to his praise. This is the greatest comfort of temporal mercies that they furnish us with matter, and give us opportunity, for the excellent duty of praise. (2.) By the thanksgivings of many on his behalf (Co2 1:11): "When I am enlarged the righteous shall encompass me about; for my cause they shall make thee a crown of praise, so the Chaldee. They shall flock about me to congratulate me on my deliverance, to hear my experiences, and to receive (Maschil) instructions from me; they shall encompass me, to join with me in my thanksgivings, because thou shalt have dealt bountifully with me." Note, The mercies of others ought to be the matter of our praises to God; and the praises of others, on our behalf, ought to be both desired and rejoiced in by us.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain I looked on my right hand, and beheld,.... On…
I looked on my right hand, and beheld,.... On the left, so Kimchi supplies it, and after him Piscator; he looked about him every way to the right and left, to see if he could get any help, or find out any way of deliverance. To this sense the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render the words; and so Kimchi and Aben Ezra understand them: but some render them in the imperative, "look on the right hand, and behold" (n); and consider them; either as spoken to his own soul, to stir up himself to look around him for help and relief; or as an address to God, to look and behold, as in Psa 80:14; and R. Obadiah reads them, "look, O right hand"; O right hand of God, that does valiantly: but looking cannot properly be ascribed to the right hand; and besides it is not the Lord the psalmist is speaking to, or looking after, but men, as follows;
but there was no man that would know me; take notice of him, and acknowledge and own him, or show him any favour, or even own that they had any knowledge of him; which is often the case when men are in affliction and distress, their former friends, acquaintance, yea, relations, keep at a distance from them; so it was with Job, the Messiah, and others; see Job 19:13;
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refuge failed me; as he could get no help from men, so there was no way open for his escape, or by which he could flee and get out of the hands and reach of his enemies; in these circumstances he was when in the cave;
no man cared for my soul; or "life" (o); to save it, protect and defend it, that is, very few; otherwise there were some that were concerned for him, as the men that were with him, and Jonathan, Saul's son; but none of Saul's courtiers, they were not solicitous for his welfare, but on the contrary sought his life, to take it away. This is an emblem of a soul under first awakenings and convictions, inquiring the way of salvation, and where to find help, but at a lois for it in the creature.
(n) "respice dexteram et vide", Montanus; "vel ad dexteram", Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis. (o) "vitam meam", Junius & Tremellius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Right-hand - The place where the patron or assistant…
Right-hand - The place where the patron or assistant used to stand.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. There was no man, that would know…
Verse 4. There was no man, that would know me] This has been applied to the time in which our Lord was deserted by his disciples. As to the case of David in the cave of En-gedi, he had no refuge: for what were the handful of men that were with him to Saul and his army?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 142:4. I looked on my right hand, &c.…
Psa 142:4. I looked on my right hand, &c. — The place where the patron, or assistant used to stand; but there was no man — Namely, in Saul’s court or camp: none of my former relations, friends or acquaintance; that would know me — Own me, or show any respect or kindness to me. The verb, in the first clause of the verse, being in the imperative; look on my right hand, &c. — Dr. Horne considers the words as a request to God to look on his destitute condition, and to pity and relieve him; but Bishop Patrick views them as a kind of soliloquy, and explains them thus, “Look about thee, O my soul, and see if thou canst spy any hope of relief from thy best and most powerful friends: there are none of them that dare own thee; nor do I know whither to flee for safety.” Refuge failed, or rather, faileth me — There is no patron on earth to whom I can commit my cause, nor any help in man for me. No man cared, rather careth, for my soul — Or, for my life, namely, to preserve it: but they all conspire to take it away.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain I looked on my right hand, and beheld -…
I looked on my right hand, and beheld - Margin, “Look on the right hand and see The words translated “looked” and “beheld” are in the imperative mood in the Hebrew. They are not, however, improperly rendered as to the sense. They refer to David’s state of mind at the time, and give vividness to the description. The psalmist seems to be in the presence of others. He calls upon them to look around; to see how he was encompassed with danger. Look, says he, in every direction; see who there is on whom I may rely; what there is to which I may trust as a refuge. I can find none; I see none; there is none. The “right hand” is referred to here as the direction where he might look for a protector: Psa 109:6, Psa 109:31.
But there was no man that would know me - No man to be seen who would recognize me as his friend; who would stand up for me; on whom I could rely.
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Refuge failed me - Margin, as in Hebrew, “perished from me.” If there had been any hope of refuge, it has failed altogether. There is none now.
No man cared for my soul - Margin, “No man sought after my soul.” Hebrew, after my “life.” That is, No one sought to save my life; no one regarded it as of sufficient importance to attempt to preserve me.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. On my right hand—The place of an advocate…
4. On my right hand—The place of an advocate or friend. See on Psa_109:6. No man cared for my soul. The word rendered “cared” means to inquire after, to seek. The idea is, no man felt interest enough for my welfare to inquire into the justice of my cause or to seek my good. The verb look is in Hiphil imperative, and the verse should be read: “Look on the right hand and see! there is none recognising me; refuge has perished from me; there is none inquiring for my soul.” His distresses failed to awaken for him a friend capable of efficiently helping him.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. Look on the right hand and see, for…
4. Look on the right hand and see, for I have none that acknowledgeth me:
There is no asylum left me; my soul hath none that careth for her.
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Though he will tell Jehovah of his distress, he knows that, even if he has no human sympathisers, He at any rate (Thou is emphatic) knows it already. His spirit faints (Psa_77:3; Psa_143:4; Jon_2:7) within him, literally upon him, for the spirit (as elsewhere the soul or heart) is distinguished from a man’s whole ‘self,’ and regarded as acting upon him from without (cp. Psa_42:4); he is in despair, but his comfort is that Jehovah knows the course which he must take (Psa_143:8), and the perils which beset him from treacherous enemies.
4. The Massoretic text reads the imperative look … and see. The rendering of P.B.V. and A.V. I looked … and saw (beheld) follows the LXX, Vulg., Syr., and Targ., but requires a change in the vocalisation of the Hebrew words. The indicative I looked is the more obvious reading; but the appeal to Jehovah, look! is more forcible. Cp. Lam_1:11; Lam_2:20; Lam_5:1.
on my right hand] Where his protector would be standing if he had one. Cp. Psa_16:8; Psa_109:31; Psa_110:5; Psa_121:5. But there is no one to acknowledge him as his client (Rth_2:10; Rth_2:19) and defend him. He has no asylum left: lit. a place of flight is perished from me. Cp. Job_11:20; Jer_25:35; Amo_2:14.
With the last clause cp. Jer_30:17, “Yonder is Zion, who hath none to care for her.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) I looked.—The Authorised Version follows the ancient versions…
(4) I looked.—The Authorised Version follows the ancient versions in turning the Hebrew imperatives into historic tenses. But they are easily intelligible if taken rhetorically, and indeed the psalm loses in liveliness by missing them:
“On the path by which I must walk they have laid a trap for me;
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Look to the right and see,
Not a friend is in sight.
Failed has refuge from me,
There is none who careth for my soul.”
To the “right,” because according to the regular Hebrew metaphor it was on the “right hand” that the protector would stand. (See Note Psa_16:8, &c. and comp. Psa_109:6; Psa_109:31; Psa_110:5; Psa_121:5.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but…
I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. I looked about, i.e., for human aid, but there was no one who would so much as know me. I was utterly deserted in my trouble. Refuge failed me. I had nowhere to flee unto no safe and sure abiding-place. The "cave of Adullam" was but a miserable spot to hide in. No man eared for my soul; or, "looked after my soul". (comp. Jer_30:17)
"No man cared for my soul.
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It may be that the psalmist was thinking only or chiefly of his life; but more commonly the soul refers to that which is of far more worth than the body to that in us which is spiritual, immortal, and made in the image of God. And thus we shall understand the word here, and speak of "the evil and danger of neglecting the souls of men." See Dr. Doddridge"s great sermon on this theme. The psalmist declares, "No man eared for my soul.
I IS THE ASSERTION TRUE?
1. It often seems so. How many there are to whom no one ever speaks, for whom no one makes any direct effort to win them for God! They are just let alone. And it is not because they would resent such endeavor. Often they greatly desire that some one would speak to them; for they know they are wrong, and need help to be other than they are. But it seems as if no one cared.
2. But, strictly speaking, it is not universally true. For there have never been any periods of time when there were not some faithful workers for God, and earnest intercessors for sinful men. And often it has been that, unknown to the soul that thinks itself uneared for, fervent prayers have been going up to God for that soul. And if not specially for that soul, yet for all such souls, that God would have mercy upon them, and lead them into the way of truth, for that they have erred and are deceived. When do God"s people ever gather together without such prayers being offered?
3. Still, it is far too largely true. The neglect of souls on the part of those who should care for them is a terrible and distressing fact.
II WHO ARE TO BLAME?
1. All Christians generally. For if we be saved by the compassion and grace of God ourselves, we are bound by every motive to try and get others saved likewise. If we do thus try, prayerfully and earnestly let men call us by any ill name they please the consciousness of Christ"s approval and benediction will become surer and fuller of holy joy and help every day we live. If we make no such endeavor, the salvation we have will dwindle and starve, and, ere long, utterly disappear, and our last state will be worse than the first.
2. But more especially those who are nearest to such souls, and who have, therefore, most influence over them. Fathers and mothers first and chief of all. As they are, so the children will be. Then teachers, especially teachers in Sunday schools. What is the good of such schools if the teachers do not, above everything else, care for the souls of those they teach? And ministers: theirs, beyond most others, is the cure of souls. How awful, if they to whom this charge has been especially given, should be found faithless! What will such answer, when asked by the "chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls," as they will be asked, what they have done with those entrusted to their care?
III HOW COMES THERE TO BE SUCH NEGLECT? The causes are many.
1. With some it is unbelief. They doubt almost every truth which the Church teaches. Some actually deny, others do not more than half believe.
2. With others it is misbelief. They pervert the doctrine of the sacraments, of the eternal mercy of God, of final perseverance, and, on such grounds, say, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.
3. With more it is that they are not saved themselves. Their belief, whatever it is, does nothing for them, gives them neither peace, purity, strength, nor joy. They profess, but do not possess, and therefore cannot impart to others what is not their own.
4. Fear of man. How many, who should be directly and avowedly caring for souls, are ensnared here! And they salve their consciences by thinking that such work belongs to the clergy or the ministers not to such as they. We shall never do anything until we are willing to be thought "fools for Christ"s sake.
5. Dread of doing harm rather than good. But duty is ours, not consequences; and if God, by his Spirit, prompt, and bids us speak for him, as he very often does, all we have to do is to obey. He will take care of the consequences. Such are some of the causes of this sad lack of care for souls.
IV THE EVIL OF IT.
1. The glory due from us to Christ is not reordered. The martyrs whom St. John saw overcame "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." Christ claims our confession of him.
2. Men are hardened in sin. They say, "If these people believed what they profess, they would not leave us alone as they do. They don"t believe it, and we won"t.
3. Our own souls perish; for we are guilty of our brother"s blood.
V HOW IS IT TO BE REMEDIED? What is involved in the caring for souls?
1. Belief in the existence of the soul. In its worth; its peril; in the willingness of God to save it.
2. Solicitude for its salvation.
3. Open, active, and definite endeavor to secure this.
4. Be sure that we are saved ourselves.
CONCLUSION. To those who bring the charge, "No man careth for my soul," we would say:
1. Mothers do not care, see to it that you care yourself. It is your concern, after all.
2. If others care ever so much, and you do not, you will be only worse off titan before.
3. But if you care, then, whether others care or not, you will certainly be saved. S.C.
Uncared-for souls.
This expression may very properly be associated with David, or at least may be illustrated by certain experiences in his life. When he was hunted by Saul among the hills of the south country, he seems to have fallen into a desponding mood, and to have thought that nobody cared for him. (see 1Sa_22:1 1Sa_24:3) And as regards the help of man, he certainly then did seem desolate. But in God there still was hope. We may think of those who, with some measures of truthfulness, may nowadays say these words, "No man careth for my soul.
I THE SO-CALLED HEATHEN. It would, perhaps, be well if we could give up using this term, which makes of those who have other thoughts of God than we have a distinct and lower class of beings. We have no right to put upon them the slur of a bad name. They are our brethren of this humanity, and God is both their Father and ours. They are the vast multitude of men. They are in mental bondage, and in moral degradation. Each one of them is kin with us in nature and destiny. Each one has intense inward desires, of which his particular religion is the wild, wandering expression. We have many interests in them that lie in the range of civilization and commerce, but how little and limited is our concern for their souls!
II MULTITUDES IN OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOODS. Everywhere we are surrounded with those who do not know God, or do not hold him in personal and saving relations; and, alas! even with those who are living in the wretchedness of sin and vice. Do you think that their souls are altogether silenced? Do not they excuse their degradations by bitterly saying, "No man careth for my soul"? And in the sadly unaggressive character of very much present-day Christian life and labor, have they not a right to say it?
III MANY OF OUR NEAREST AND DEAREST FRIENDS. Who among us has no unregenerate friends? Who should care for them? Are not some hindered because we have not shown our care for them? They question the worth of our professions if they do not inspire activity in winning and saving others.
1. Cultivate a deeper sense of the worth of souls.
2. Suspect that God"s work for us to do will begin with what lies close to our hands. R.T.
Caring for souls the work of the Church.
"Refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." For present purposes associate the psalm with the anxious time of David"s life, when he was persecuted by Saul. The point of his sadness was that nobody seemed to care for him. That was likely to make him restless. If he had further said, "and even God does not care for me," he would have grown desperate, and exclaimed, "Why should I care for myself? Why should I try to be true and good and faithful?" By his word "soul" David meant "life;" but we mean spiritual and eternal interests.
I CARING FOR SOULS IS NOT THE WORLD"S WORK. We use the term "world" in many senses. Sometimes for the evil element in the midst of which we are set. So far as men come together in mutual interest and service, men as men, apart from any such distinctions as godly men, their interest in each other is limited to morals. There is such a thing as the welfare of the race. There is an "enthusiasm of humanity." But see what it embraces, and where are its limits. Trace through an ascending scale.
1. Physical well-being; bodily development, conditions of health.
2. Social well-being; all that pertains to the relationships which men sustain.
3. National well-being; the attainment of the highest civil liberty consistent with stable government.
4. Intellectual well-being; education in elementary, middle, and advanced stages.
5. Moral well-being; the general conception of virtue as the moderate and harmonious use of all faculties, or emotional culture. But there the world stops. Even the best men who care for the race seem to recognize no souls, no spiritual natures. (The spirit of modern philosophy may be thus expressed: Dismiss noumena, and deal only with phenomena.) And if men did recognize souls, they would be incompetent to render the care that souls need. They have not the suitable powers or agencies at their command. Chemistry, electricity, and education will not touch souls. So far as men are souls, they may look abroad over the world and say, "I can get much for body and mind, but "no man careth for my soul. And yet the part that men miss caring for is the chief part. They care for the box and the setting, but they neglect the jewel. Consciousness testifies that we are souls. Revelation deals with us as souls. God cares for souls. Christ cares for souls. The true care for man is care for his soul; and this includes care for all lesser things that are interesting to him.
II CARING FOR SOULS IS PRECISELY THE WORK OF CHRIST"S CHURCH. Physical, intellectual, and moral good is not the Church"s first work. The Christian is, of necessity, also a philanthropist.
1. The Church exists to give testimony to the worth of souls in the sight of God.
2. The Church exists to devise and carry out schemes for the salvation of souls. This is indeed the work of every regenerate individual; but it is especially the duty of the Church as an organization. In it men are banded together for the care of souls.
III IN MANIFESTING ITS CARE FOR SOULS, THE CHURCH WILL HAVE A SPECIAL CARE FOR THE YOUNG. Why?
1. Apprehending the peril of souls, the Church will want to keep the young from temptation, rather than to deliver them when overcome by it.
2. Apprehending the hardening influence of sin, the Church will try to deal with it in its initial stages. Youth is the plastic time when men may be fitted to good life-moulds.
3. Apprehending the nobler possibilities of a godly life, the Church seeks to secure for it the earliest possible beginning. Every godly life is rich in blessing; but those who serve their generation best as Christ"s servants are those who began the service in early youth. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 4. I looked on my right hand, and…
Ver. 4. I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. He did not miss a friend for want of looking for him, nor for want of looking in a likely place. Surely some helper would be found in the place of honour; some one would stand at his right hand to undertake his defence. He looked steadily, and saw all that could be seen, for he "beheld"; but his anxious gaze was not met by an answering smile. Strange to say, all were strange to David. He had known many, but none would know him. When a person is in ill odour it is wonderful how weak the memories of his former friends become: they quite forget, they refuse to know. This is a dire calamity. It is better to be opposed by foes than to be forsaken by friends, When friends look for us they affect to have known us from our birth, but when we look for friends it is wonderful how little we can make them remember: the fact is that in times of desertion it is not true that no man did know us, but no man would know us. Their ignorance is wilful.
Refuge failed me. Where in happier days I found a ready harbour I now discovered none at all. My place of flight had taken to flight. My refuge gave me a refusal.
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No man cared for my soul. Whether I lived or died was no concern of anybody's. I was cast out as an outcast. No soul cared for my soul. I dwelt in No man's land, where none cared to have me, and none cared about me. This is an ill plightno place where to lay our head, and no head willing to find us a place. How pleased were his enemies to see the friend of God without a friend! How sad was he to be utterly deserted in his utmost need! Can we not picture David in the cave, complaining that even the cave was not a refuge for him, for Saul had come even there? Hopeless was his looking out, we shall soon see him looking up.
Ver. 4. I looked on my right hand, and beheld. The first two verbs must be translated as imperatives, as in the margin of the English Bible. ("Look on the right hand, and see.") The right hand is mentioned as the post of a protector. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 4. Looked on my right hand. The allusion here, it is supposed, is to the observance of the ancient Jewish courts of judicature, in which the advocate, as well as the accuser, stood on the right hand of the accused (Ps 110:5). The Psalmist felt himself in the condition of one who had nobody to plead his cause, and to protect him in the dangerous circumstances in which he was placed. James Anderson's Note to Calvin in loc.
Ver. 4. There was no man that would know me. The fact that David, although surrounded by a band of loyal subjects, confesses to having no true friend, is to be understood similarly to the language of Paul when he says in Php 2:20: "I have no man like minded." All human love, since sin has taken possession of humanity, is more or less selfish, and all fellowship of faith and of love imperfect; and there are circumstances in life in which these dark sides make themselves felt overpoweringly, so that a man seems to himself to be perfectly isolated, and turns all the more urgently to God, who alone is able to supply the soul's want of some object to love, whose love is absolutely unselfish, and unchangeable, and unclouded, to whom the soul can confide without reserve whatever burdens it, and who not only honestly desires its good, but is able also to compass it in spite of every obstacle. Surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies, and misunderstood, or at least not thoroughly understood by his friends, David feels himself broken off from all created beings. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 4. There was no man that would know me. Teacheth us of what little estimation God's children be, with the world and worldly men. Thomas Wilcocks.
Ver. 4. There was no man that would know me. Persecution from the side of our enemies presses sorely, but abandonment by our friends, who should have stood by one's side as helpers and defenders, presses more sorely still. Taube, in Lange's Commentary.
Ver. 4. Observe the beautiful opposition between "Thou knewest" (Ps 142:3) and "no man would know me." Refuge failed me, literally "perished" from me (Jer 25:35 Am 2:14). But "thou hast been my refuge in the day of my trouble"; Ps 59:16. Andrew Robert Fausset.
Ver. 4-5. Refuge failed me...Thou art my refuge. Travellers tell us that they who are at the top of the Alps can see great showers of rain fall under them, but not one drop of it falls on them. They who have God for their portion are in a high tower, and thereby safe from all troubles and showers. A drift rain of evil will beat in at the creature's windows, be they never so well pointed; all the garments this world can make up cannot keep them that travel in such weather from being wet to the skin. No creature is able to bear the weight of its fellow creature; but as reeds, they break under the pressure, and as thorns, they run into the sides of those who lean on them. The bow drawn beyond its compass breaks in sunder, and the string wound above its strength snaps in pieces. Such are outward helps to all that trust to them in hardships. George Swinnock.
Ver. 4-5. Refuge failed me...Thou art my refuge. Are there any among us to whom the world's face is quite changed, and the brooks of comfort in it are dried up, and they are so tossed, chased, and harassed in it that they have forgotten their resting place? Are any of you "become a stranger unto your brethren and an alien unto your mother's children"? Ps 69:8. Is it grown such a strange world, that even "your own familiar friend, in whom you trusted, which did eat of your bread, hath lifted up his heel against you"? (Ps 41:9); and that wherever you turn yourselves in it, to find rest and refuge, the door is shut in your face? Here is a refuge for you; here is one open door; come in, thou blessed of the Lord: "the Lord gathereth the outcasts of Israel" Ps 147:2. It seems the Lord minds to have you in: he is doing with you as a father with a stubborn son who ran away from his father's house, thinking to shift for himself among his friends, and not come back: the father sends peremptory word through them all, saying, "In whoever's house my son is skulking, presently turn him out of doors, and let none of you take him in; and if he come to you give him not one night's lodging, nay, let him not eat in your house." Wherefore is all this but just to get him back again to his father's house? Thomas Boston, 1676-1732.
Ver. 4-5. When all slighted him, when none took care of him; what doth David in this case? The words in Ps 142:5 tell us what. I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. As if he had said, Upon these unkindnesses, disrespects, and slightings which I found in the world, I took occasion, yea, I was stirred in my spirit to cry unto thee, O Lord, and to say, "Thou art my refuge", that is, then I made thee my refuge more than ever. Having made thee my choice in my best times, when men honoured and embraced me, I am much encouraged in these evil times when men regard me not to shelter my weather beaten self in thy name and power. When we have most friends in the world, then God is our best friend, but when the world hates us, and frowns upon us, especially when (as the prophet speaks of some, Isa 66:5) "our brethren hate us, and cast us out for the name's sake of God himself", saying, "Let the Lord be glorified", when 'tis thus with us (I say) our souls are even forced into the presence of God, to renew our interests in his love, and to assure our souls that we are accepted with him. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 4. (last clause). The soul considered of no value.
1. Consider the worth of the soul.
a) The soul will continue for ever.
b) The righteous will grow more happy, and the wicked more miserable.
c) A great price has been paid for it.
2. Contrast the care we take of our souls, and our anxiety about worldly objects.
a) The solicitude we manifest for riches.
b) Our care in educating the intellects of our children.
c) Eagerness in pursuit of business, honoureven trifles.
d) How anxious about a human life! Describe the search for a lost child.
e) Contrast our care for souls and our Saviour's care for them: Paul's, Luther's, Whitefield's.
3. Remember some things which show that this care does not exist.
a) If you do not statedly observe secret prayer.
b) If your soul is not burdened with the souls of others.
c) If you neglect family prayer, or observe it as a mere form.
d) If you do not regularly go to prayer meetings.
Remark: The great responsibility resting upon every
Christian.
Jacob Knapp, in "The Homiletic Monthly", 1882.
Ver. 4. (last clause). The burden of souls.
1. What is meant by care for souls?
a) To have a firm conviction of their value.
b) To cherish tender solicitude for their welfare.
c) To feel alarming apprehensions of their danger.
d) To make zealous exertions for their salvation.
2. Who ought specially to exercise this care?
a) Parents.
b) Teachers.
c) Ministers.
d) Members.
3. The criminality of neglect.
a) It is ungrateful.
b) It is cruel.
c) It is fatal.
W.W. Wythe, in "The Pulpit Analyst", 1870.
Ver. 4-5.
1. A terrible plight; no friend, no helper, no pitying heart.
2. A touching prayer. A cry and a saying.
Ver. 4-5.
1. Human help fails most when most needed.
a) In outward troubles: "I looked", etc.
b) In soul troubles: "No man cared for my soul."
2. Divine help is most given when most needed. A refuge and a portion when all others fail. Man has many friends in prosperity, one only in adversity.
G.R.
Ver. 4-5.
1. Why the saints make God their refuge, and the object of their faith and hope in their greatest afflictions.
a) God has given himself to the saints, in the covenant of grace, to be their God, and has promised that they shall be his people.
b) God stands in a most near relation to the saints, and condescends to sustain many endearing characters of love, which he fulfils to their advantage.
c) The saints, through the power of God's grace upon their souls, have chosen him for their portion, and their highest felicity.
2. What perfections there are in God that render him a safe refuge for the saints, and a proper object of their confidence.
a) God is infinite in mercy.
b) God is infallible in wisdom.
c) God is boundless in power.
d) God is omniscient and omnipresent.
d) God is a Being whose love never changes.
e) God is an independent Being, and the Governor and Director of all things.
3. The many sweet advantages, arising to the saints, from this practice of making God their refuge, in their greatest troubles.
a) They have been preserved from fainting under their heavy burdens.
b) They have derived from God new and seasonable supplies of divine grace and strength for service.
c) God has refreshed his saints with divine consolations for the future.
John Farmer, 1744.
Psalms 142:5*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain No man cared for my soul
Psa_142:4
No man cared for my soul
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Gods care for each life
With normal natures happiness begins with the thought that God has time to care for each life.
In a world where no grain of sand escapes Natures notice, where there are no runaway stars or suns, where a Divine Ruler leads a beautiful world out of darkness, fire-mist, and chaos, man cannot support the thought that there is no place for him in Gods loving providence. So momentous are those events named a betrothal, a marriage, the death of babe, or mother, or statesman, that men wish to associate them with a Divine Friend. Indeed, the most bitter cry that ever arises from human lips is this one: No man cared for my soul. In a world full of conflict, full of labour, whose fruitage is often sorrow, man fulfils his journey across the wilderness towards the promised land, supported by the thought that the angels of Gods providence go before him. Standing under the midnight sky, looking into the realm where stars twinkled and suns blazed, Job found it easy to believe that man moves forward under the convoy of an intimate Friend. From the thought that the millions of orbs making up the community of the sky are Divinely controlled, the mind passes easily to the larger thought that God is carrying individual men and nations upward toward a sublime culmination. But if the scholar finds a unifying power in the heavens, the historian finds a providence in the history of nations, in that each country has its special task, each generation its own contribution. For multitudes this great truth of Gods overruling cars has been eclipsed by reason of the vastness of the universe. At one time the East stood close beside the West. Now the telescope has crowded back the horizon. In Newtons day the sun was known to be ninety millions of miles away. To-day, in comparison, the distance to the fixed stars, the distance to our sun is like the distance to the threshold of ones next door neighbour. Science has enlarged the universe in space, but it has enlarged the soul of man a thousandfold more. The new science has caused the mind to rise up, clothed with infinite majesty and beauty. Earth knows only one thing vast enough and precious enough to justify an overruling providence and care--the human soul. Can a human mind shape the innumerable threads into one beautiful whole, and the infinite God be unable to control fifteen hundred millions of men, leading them toward one great purpose of happiness and righteousness? The laws of light and heat, the laws of gravity and soil are so delicately related as to encourage the thought that all the mechanism of the starry world is arranged for the embroidering of violets upon the lap of spring. The vastness of Nature does but enlarge the scope of Gods providential purpose. The thought, God cares for man, has also suffered injury through the over-emphasis of the reign of law. Science exhibits man as moving forward enmeshed in laws of heat and light and gravity. By law the winter recedes, by law the summer advances, by law the harvests are ripened, by law the clouds are lifted, by law the rivers are filled. Soon men began to spell the word Law with a capital L, and Force with a capital F. Gently law and force led the Infinite Being to the edge of the universe, and bowed Him out of existence. Men decided that law could build the world if it was spelled with large letters instead of small. But nothing could have been more foolish than this over-emphasis of law. Merchants do, indeed, have one law, by which the office opens at eight, and another law by which it is closed at six, but if some foolish person should think that these rules which the merchant has enacted have built up his trade so that it is no longer necessary to have a merchant or an inventor, and all the businesses get along by the rules and need no presiding mind, we should have that which would answer precisely with the amazing thought that the laws of nature have done away with the necessity of God. Man has certain habits that are the rules of his life. Gods habits are Natures laws. And but for their stability the universe would be without flexibility. Thus science, that once threatened to do away with Providence, has now, through the reign of law, established providence. For laws are flexible, not alone for God, but for man, who, through them, makes this world a fruitful and beautiful paradise. Now, for the individual life, how unspeakably precious this declaration of Gods loving care! In hours of weakness, when baffled and beaten, when man perceives how vast is the sphere in which he is moving, how mighty are the forces whirling about him, he yearns for some power strong enough and wise enough to overrule events, and from defeat lead forth to victory. It is not enough that there is a providence over summer and winter, by which the barn and storehouse are made to overflow. In the midst of the fierce strife man cries out, No one cares for my soul. Nature has no personal friends. On the battlefield a thousand men may lie in the orchards and thickets, weltering in their life blood, but the boughs heed not the prayers, the trees shed no tears. In the olden times, when the knight went into battle, he carried with him the name and face of his beloved one. One look upon that face armed him for his conflict. Dying, upon that face his last look fell. It is said that mans name is written upon Gods hand. With the coming of each sun comes the loving providence, and after each days going the great God remains. Happy is the man who feels that God cares for him, that he journeys forward under Divine convoy, that his Father is Regent of universal wisdom and represents the whole commonwealth of love, and commands all nature to serve His child. Such a man is weaponed against every enemy, and is invincible. He who ever carries with him this sense of Gods loving providence is fitted to pass through fire, through flood, through all the thunder of lifes battle. God cares for you--then you cannot live too long, and you cannot die too soon, for heaven ever lies all about you. God cares for man--then from every storm there is a harbour. (N. D. Hillis.)
A bad social state
I. A wrong social state. Each taken up with himself, and none concerned for his neighbours, is manifestly wrong.
1. It is unnatural. The constitution of our nature,--endowed as we are with social longings and sympathies, and with faculties suited to render service one to another,--proves the unnaturalness of social indifference. What is morally abnormal is morally wrong.
2. It is unrelational. We are all the offspring of the same common Father, all united by the bonds of consanguinity. Indifference, therefore, is manifestly wrong.
3. It is un-Christian. Christ lived and died for our race, and His apostles exhorted us to care for others rather than ourselves.
II. A miserable social state. Though there may be much in a mans temperament, character, and procedure to alienate him from others,--he may be unsocial, irascible, and grossly immoral,--all this does not justify his fellows for utterly disregarding him. In truth it forms a strong reason why they should be interested in him. (David Thomas, D. D.)
The care of souls
This psalm is the last one of eight which are, not unreasonably, associated with the persecution of David by Saul in the south country of Judah (see the heading). It was an anxious, lonely, wearisome time; all the harder to bear because David knew he was innocent of any evil intentions concerning the Lords anointed. But it was, in some respects, a best time for David. Then there was a great crying after God. In his despondency, when everything seemed to be going wrong with him, David took up the idea that nobody really eared for him. And when a man gets into that mood and mind he is in grave danger of becoming reckless. If David had gone on to say, And even God does not care for me, he would have become altogether desperate, and would have said, Then why should I care for myself? Why should I any longer try to be true, and good, and faithful? Why not let things go? Nobody cares for my soul. By his soul David would mean his bodily life; and the history tells us that, just matching the exclamation of this psalm, towards the end of the persecution spoken of, David bitterly and hopelessly exclaimed, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. He was wrong in that. Some one did care for his soul, both in the lower sense of his life, and in the higher sense of his spiritual welfare. Taking the word soul in its higher sense, there are many around us who may use the words of the text.
I. Caring for souls is not the work of the world. Caring for one another in all the ranges of the material and the moral is the worlds work. Our interest in each other as worldly men and women is limited to physical well-being, social comfort, educational progress, and moral goodness. Not until man is quickened himself with the higher spiritual life is he in the least likely to concern himself about the possibilities of the higher spiritual life for others. There is such a thing as seeking the welfare of the race. There have always been philanthropists moved by the enthusiasm of humanity. But their efforts do not go beyond the removal of disabilities, and reformation of abuses, and uplifting in the social and intellectual planes. But man is no mere body with a material environment. God has breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man has become a living soul. He is a spirit, and we must find spirit forces if we would deal with his most real necessities.
II. Caring for souls is the proper work of the Church. From the Churchs point of view men are perishing; they are dying in their sins, and she, and she alone, has the evangel that can save the perishing and quicken the dead. The Church of Christ may do, and ought to do, all that the philanthropist would do; but it must do more. The Church exists to do just what its Divine Lord did, seek and save the lost. Its work is to devise and carry through schemes for the salvation of souls, and whatever form its agencies and efforts may take, this, and nothing less than this, must be at the heart of them. (Robert Tuck, B. A.)
The reproachful outcry
We are all sympathetic with physical disaster, but how little sympathy for spiritual woes! There are men in this house who have come to mid-life who have never yet been once personally accosted about their eternal welfare.
I. Unsatisfied longings. You feel as you go out day by day in the tug and jostle of life that it is every man for himself. You can endure the pressure of commercial affairs, and would consider it almost impertinent for any one to ask you whether you are making or losing money. But there have been times when you would have drawn your cheque for thousands of dollars if some one would only help your soul out of its perplexities. There are questions about your higher destiny that ache, and distract, and agonize you at times. You sometimes think till your head aches about great religious subjects. You wonder if the Bible is true, how much of it is literal and how much is figurative law, if Christ be God, if there is anything like retribution, if you are immortal, if a resurrection will ever bake place, what the occupation of your departed kindred is, what you will be 10,000 years from now. With a cultured placidity of countenance you are on fire with agitations of soul. Oh, this solitary anxiety of your whole lifetime. You have passed up and down the aisles of churches with men who knew that you had no hope of heaven, and talked about the weather and about your physical health, and about everything but that concerning which you most wanted to hear them speak--viz. your everlasting spirit. Times without number you have felt in your heart, if you have not uttered it with your lips, No man cares for my soul.
II. Mans extremity. There have been times when you were especially pliable on the great subject of religion. It was so, for instance, after you had lost your property. Everything seems to be against you. The bank against you. Your creditors against you. Your friends suddenly become critical against you. All the past against you. All the future against you. You make reproachful outcry: No man cares for my scull There was another occasion when all the doors of your heart swung open for sacred influences. A bright light went out in your household. Within three or four days there were compassed sickness, death obsequies. A few formal, perfunctory words of consolation were uttered on the stairs before you went to the grave; but you wanted some one to come and talk over the whole matter, and recite the alleviations, and decipher the lessons of the dark bereavement. No one came. Many a time you could not sleep until two or three oclock in the morning, and then your sleep was a troubled dream, in which were re-enacted all the scene of sickness, and parting, and dissolution. Oh, what days and nights they were! No man seemed to care for your soul. There was another occasion when your heart was very susceptible. There was a great awakening. There were hundreds of people who pressed into the Kingdom of God; some of them acquaintances, some business associates, yes, perhaps some members of your own family were baptized by sprinkling or immersion. Christian people thought of you, and they called at your store, but you were out on business. They stopped at your house; you had gone around to spend the evening. They sent a kindly message to you; somehow, by accident, you did not get it. The lifeboat of the Gospel swept through the surf, and everybody seemed to get in but you. Everything seemed to escape you. One touch of personal sympathy would have pushed you into the Kingdom of God.
III. A startling revelation. Instead of this total indifference all about you in regard to your soul, I have to tell you that heaven, earth, and hell are after your immortal spirit--earth to cheat it, hell to destroy it, heaven to redeem it. Although you may be a stranger to the Christians in this house, their faces would glow and their hearts would bound if they saw you make one step heavenward. No one cares for your scull Why, in all the ages there have been men whose entire business was soul saving. In this work Munson went down under the knives of the cannibals whom he had come to save, and Robert McCheyne preached himself to death by thirty years of age, and John Bunyan was thrown into a dungeon in Bedfordshire, and Jehudi Ashman endured all the malarias of the African jungle; and there are hundreds and thousands of Christian men and women now who are praying, preaching, living, dying to save souls.
IV. A stupendous intervention. No one cares for your scull Have you heard how Christ feels about it? I know it was only five or six miles from Bethlehem to Calvary, the birthplace and the deathplace of Christ; but who can tell how many miles it was from the throne to the manger? From the first infant step to the last step of manhood on the sharp spike of Calvary a journey for you. Oh, how He cared for your scull
V. The Fathers patience. A young man might as well go off from home and give his father and mother no intimation as to where he has gone, and, crossing the seas, sitting down in some foreign country, cold, sick, and hungry, and lonely, saying: My father and mother dont care anything about me. Do not care anything about him! Why, that fathers hair has turned grey since his son went off. He has written to all the consuls in the foreign ports, asking about that son. Does not the mother care anything about him? He has broken her heart. She has never smiled since he went away. All day long, and almost all night, she keeps asking: Where is he? Where can he be? Oh, do not his father and mother care for him? You go away from your heavenly Father, and you think He does not care for you because you will not even read the letters by which He invites you to come back, while all heaven is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for you to return. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The duty of caring for souls: -
I. What it is to care for the souls of others.
1. A deep and heartfelt conviction of its worth. The soul is spiritual in its nature, noble in its capacities, and eternal in its duration.
2. A deep and thorough sense of the danger to which it is exposed.
3. Tender solicitude for its welfare.
4. Zealous exertion for their salvation.
II. On whom this duty devolves.
1. On the heads of families.
2. On all the members of the Church.
3. Pre-eminently on ministers.
III. The great evil of neglecting this duty.
1. It is cruel. A man would be considered cruel who saw one of the beasts that perish in danger, and did not attempt its rescue. He is cruel who, having it in his power to relieve the necessitous, or save the perishing, does not do it. But the cruelty of the man who, knowing the danger of souls, does not care for them, is beyond expression.
2. It is ungrateful. If others had not cared for us, we must have perished.
3. It is criminal.
4. It is fatal. Fatal to those who are perishing, and fatal to those who have a name to live; fatal to all genuine piety, fatal to all ardent love to the Saviours cause, fatal to zealous exertions for ethers, but especially fatal to our own souls. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
A cry from the depths
I. A striking testimony.
1. Man has a soul.
2. Mans soul is of priceless worth (Mat_16:26).
3. Mans soul requires to be cared for. It needs--
(1) Light (Pro_19:2; Hos_4:6; Joh_3:16-21; 1Jn_1:5-7).
(2) Freedom (Joh_8:32; Rom_6:12-18; Psa_119:32).
(3) Holy nurture (Joh_6:51; Heb_6:1-2; 2Pe_1:5-8).
(4) Christian help and companionship (Ecc_4:9-10; Gal_6:1-2; Rom_12:10; Heb_10:24-25; 1Co_12:12-26).
II. A mournful complaint.
1. Want of sympathy (Mat_27:4; Psa_69:20; Amo_1:11; Mat_18:33; Eph_4:32).
2. Unbrotherly neglect (Deu_20:1-20; Deu_3:7; Gen_4:9; Isa_58:7-12; Gal_6:2; Exo_3:18).
3. Heart-killing repulse.
III. A heart-touching appeal.
1. To man. Pity. Sympathy. Brotherly help (Act_16:9).
2. To God. No one cries to God in vain. The poor may look to the rich in vain, but God is the helper of the poor (Psa_10:14). (W. Forsyth, M. A.)
Carelessness for the soul reproved: -
I. How the soul is usually regarded.
1. How many a child may say, My parents cared not for my soul. They were attentive to my body, and to my bodily health and preservation. They sought my temporal comfort; they got me bread to eat and raiment to put on. They felt for me when I lay sick upon my bed; they spared no trouble to do me service and to get me well again: but they cared not for my soul.
2. How many a servant may say this? A servant is as capable of knowledge, of holiness, and of happiness as a master. God is no respecter of persons.
3. How many a neighbour may say this. If a neighbour meet with some sad accident, or what we usually call a misfortune, what a concern do we all feel for him but who cares for his soul? who feels concerned for that?
II. Why especially it should be cared for.
1. Because it is the noblest part of the creation. It is in what regards the soul that man is but a little lower than the angels. It is the soul that reasons, hopes, fears, recollects, anticipates. It is the soul that is imperishable: the body returns to the dust again; the spirit to Him who gave it.
2. On account of its vast capabilities.
3. Because of the price paid for its redemption--the blood of Christ.
4. Because if lost it will remain lost and unredeemed for ever. (W. Mudge.)
Isolation of soul: -
I. When this complaint may be made.
1. When they are at a loss with respect to soul concerns, and have none to instruct them in difficulties nor advise them (Isa_41:28).
2. When they have wandered out of the way, and have none to reprove them.
3. When they are visited with affliction, either in their persons or families, and have none to pray with or for them. As secret, so social prayer is a duty; and intercession is a necessary part of both.
4. When they are under distress and anguish of mind, and have none to comfort them.
II. Improvement.
1. In passing this censure, let us take care that we be not mistaken. Let us not give way to groundless jealousies, or be suspicious of our friends without a cause.
2. If none care for our welfare, what a mercy is it that God has excited in us a care of our own souls; that we are not in that stupid, insensible state in which we once were, and perhaps continued for many years! If others neglect our souls, it should more and more awaken our serious concern and anxious solicitude about them.
3. What a still greater mercy it is that God cares for our souls.
4. In order to avoid the charge in our text, let us not fall into the contrary extreme; and whilst we are busily concerned about others souls, let us not neglect our own. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Caring for the souls of others
If we think only of ourselves, of our own comfort, or convenience, or safety, our selfish-Hess is most inexcusable. It is not only vast regions, dark and dead, through the debasing influences of heathenism which beckon onward the philanthropist and the Christian to help, but there is an important work to be done at our very doors.
1. Take the case of some poor child that you know of; a child left to the tender mercies of an ignorant, heartless parent; a child suffered to run at large without even the appearance of control. This neglected child might be brought to Sunday-school and church; might be taught to shun even petty dishonesty as a sin; might be kept from speaking the language of demons; might at least be shielded from the more alluring forms of temptation.
2. You are on friendly and familiar terms with many irreligious people, over whom you might easily exercise some influence for good. They visit often at your.houses, and you chat with them daily on the street. If all of us who claim to be Christians would show by our conduct that we really eared for the souls of those who are living unmindful of their obligations to God, our labour of love would be wonderfully blessed.
3. Even when people have become members of Gods family, the Church, they need and long for the kindly sympathy of those who belong to the household of faith.
4. There are those who, having learned by sad experience the folly and wretchedness of a life of sin, would gladly return into better ways if they only knew how to accomplish it. (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Neglected souls
Vedius Pollio was a wealthy and luxurious Roman patrician. In his magnificent villa at Puteoli there reclined one day at the epicures sumptuous table, with many other distinguished guests, the Emperor Augustus. A slave, waiting upon the company, let fall a costly crystal vase, shattering it in fragments upon the mosaic pavement. Instantly the unfortunate wretch fell at the imperial feet, piteously pleading for his life. Why? exclaimed the master of the world; what danger to thy life? The trembling supplicant replied that he expected, according to his lords custom in such cases, to be east into his fish-pond as food for his lampreys. A cloud of wrath darkened the monarchs brow; and, fixing his keen eye sternly upon his host, Augustus arose, seized a staff, and dashed to pieces all the crystal ware before him, in a terrific tone exclaiming--Know thou, O miscreant and murderer! that one human life is worth more than all the crystal vases in the world! This must have happened while One was walking the hills and vales of Palestine, who, had He been present, might have told the haughty Roman of something far more valuable even than human life. He teaches us that the soul is worth more than the earth and all its material contents, and that there is nothing in all the Creators visible works to be named as its approximate equivalent in value. In creation the body was first constructed, and then tenanted by the living. The soul is the life of the body, and the body is the servant of the soul. The soul uses the body as its vehicle of thought and feeling, its means of communication with the outer world; while the body ministers to the soul with all its members and organs, bringing it intelligence from all quarters, and enlarging and multiplying its joys. This, then, is the primary excellence of the soul--its spirituality; to which we must add its splendid intellectual faculties, which render it so far superior to all mere animal existences, and capable of indefinite progress and improvement. Its powers of reasoning, comparing, combining, abstracting, analyzing, classifying, imagining the unseen, forecasting the future, recalling the past with all the vividness of present reality, creating for itself ideal scenes amidst which it moves as in a fairy realm--these are strictly human faculties in which it is approximated by no other order of creatures within the range of our observation. And to the growth of these faculties we can assign no limits, and none to the knowledge which the soul may acquire by their exercise. But far loftier than its intellectual are its moral capabilities and capacities. It has a living conscience, and is responsible to a divine law. There are voices within which proclaim its immortality. There are hopes and longings which reach into other worlds. There are instincts which earth cannot satisfy, and faculties which time cannot mature. Will Jehovah cut short the career of a creature capable of eternal progress? Does He delight in such abortive creations? Man is at present but in embryo, at best but in chrysalis, and death is only a change in the mode and the circumstances of his being. For this glorious truth we are indebted to the Holy Book. All Divine revelation proceeds upon the principle of mans admitted immortality. What wonder that God cares for it, Christ dies for it, angels watch over it, and demons strive to control its destin! And how ought you and I to estimate its value, tremble for its danger, labour for its rescue, and rejoice in its salvation! And what a fearful accusation against us is the voice of a worlds sins and sorrows continually crying in the car of God--No man careth for my soul! May no accusing voice in judgment, no wail from the ranks of the reprobate and the ruined ever reach our ears--No man cared for my soul! (J. Cross, D. D.)
No man cared for my soul
What an amount of pathos is contained in this expression! How sad that any human being should ever have occasion to utter it! As long as any Christianity is left in the world, as long as common humanity even has not wholly deserted it, no one, we should think, would be so utterly forlorn as to be obliged to say, No man cared for my soul. That the sensual and the worldly should not care for the souls of their brethren might not indeed surprise us; but that Christians should not is truly wonderful. If we feel it a duty to feed the hunger and clothe the nakedness of the body, much more should we endeavour to feed moral hunger. But there will be other voices heard on that day uttering expressions of gratitude to those who have cared for their souls; for the word spoken in season which determined the undecided will in favour of right; for the wise counsel, the pure precepts of love, the faithful rebuke, the cordial sympathy, the kind encouragement which have turned many to righteousness. They will say, We were without hope, and you gave it to us. We were living in godlessness and sin, and your affectionate warnings opened our eyes to the perils of our condition. You came to us in our doubts with cheerful encouragement, in our despair to lead us to look to God. You have taught us the true value of life; you have set us in the right way. Others have done much for our outward prosperity, and we thank them; but you have made our souls alive, and you are the greatest of our benefactors. Why, then, do we not have more care for souls? It is partly because the god of this world has blinded our hearts; because, not being spiritual, we do not feel the reality of spiritual things; because we do not feel the infinite value of souls, the terrible evil of sin; because we have not faith in ourselves, in our own power of doing good by anything we can say; because we have not faith that God will help us to say what we ought; and because, moreover, we sometimes say as Cain did, Am I my brothers keeper? though in a different spirit from that in which he said it. We carry independence in religion too far, till it becomes mere individualism; and we neglect the great law of love, which binds soul to soul, and ordains that no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. There is still another feeling which prevents us from direct attempts to help each others soul,--the feeling that more can be done indirectly than directly; that we can do more for others by the influence of a good life and good example than by direct exhortation or advice. There is, indeed, great weight in this consideration. Certainly one way, and perhaps the most important way, in which we can help the souls of others is by manifesting good principles, living convictions, faithfulness to right, a tender and loving humanity in our own lives. Yet I cannot but think that direct influence might often with advantage be added to indirect; and that, without urging upon reluctant minds spiritual considerations, without prematurely pulling open the folded end of the spiritual life, without violating the sacred retirement and holy privacy of the interior soul, we may yet, if we are watchful, find many opportunities of saying words of direct counsel, which shall come at the right time, shall fall into the right place, and be like seed, to bear thirty, fifty, and a hundredfold. But though Christians are not faithful to this duty, though their love grows cold, and though many are obliged to say, No man cares for my soul, yet there is One who always cares for the souls of all His children. God cares for souls evermore. All souls are His, and He will not let them go without many an effort to draw them up to Himself. He sends many blessed influences, He sends many holy providences ever to those who are neglected and forsaken by man. (J. Freeman Clarke.)
The soul neglected
Two things a master commits to his servants care, saith one, the child and the childs clothes. It will be but a poor excuse for the servant to say at his masters return, Sir, here are all the childs clothes neat and clean, but the child is lost! Much so will be the account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies at the great day. Lord, here is my body; I was very careful for it. I neglected nothing that belonged to its content and welfare; but for my soul, that is lost and cast away for ever. I took little thought and care about it. (J. Flavel.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.