From the end of the earth, I will call to you when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Parallel Translations
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From the end of the earth, I will call to you when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
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From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
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(61-3) From the end of the earth will I call unto Thee, when my heart fainteth; lead me to a rock that is too high for me.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Psalms 61:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 18:2 Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
- Psalms 139:9-10 If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me.
- Isaiah 32:2 A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
- Psalms 62:6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken.
- Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Psalms 62:2 He alone is my rock, my salvation, and my fortress. I will never be greatly shaken.
- Psalms 77:3 I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.
- Psalms 18:46 Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock. Exalted be the God of my salvation,
- Psalms 27:5 For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.
- Psalms 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my route. On the path in which I walk, they have hidden a snare for me.
- Psalms 40:2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
- Jonah 2:2-4 He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
- Isaiah 54:11 “You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
- Psalms 143:4 Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
- Psalms 42:6 My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
- Psalms 43:5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
- Psalms 55:5 Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.
- Luke 22:44 Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
- Mark 14:33-34 He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain From the place where I was banished, being driven…
From the place where I was banished, being driven out of the city and Temple by my son Absalom.
Unto the which without thy help I cannot attain.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 61:2 From the end of the earth will…
Psa 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock [that] is higher than I.
Ver. 2. From the ends of the earth] Or, of the land. In all places men may lift up holy hands, 1Ti 2:8 Joh 4:21, and speed. A desert may be a goodly oratory. Sic dicit respectu arae a qua exulabat longe in bello contra hostes (R. Sol.).
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When my heart is overwhelmed] Or, covered over, Ut fit in deliquiis et lipothimiis, as is usual in swoons. See a like expression Psa 102:1 title; Lam 3:65, where the word rendered sorrow of heart signifieth such a covering like a shield, such a lid put over the heart, that is suffocated, as in the Cardiaca passio. David’s harp was not more out of tune than his heart sometimes; he prayeth, and is helped.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I] i.e. Do for me that I cannot do for myself; set me in safety.
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 Of the earth; or rather, of the land; to…
Of the earth; or rather, of the land; to which David was driven by the tyranny of his enemies.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; convey me into some high and secure fortress, which I could not reach without thy succour, and where mine enemies cannot come at me. He alludes to their custom of securing themselves in rocks, 1Sa 13:6.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain From the end of the earth will I cry…
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee,.... Where he now was, as is observed on the title; see Gill on Psa 61:1, though he was distant from his own house, and from the house of God, he did not restrain prayer before him, but continued to cry unto him, and determined to do so; and as the people of God are sometimes forced to flee to distant parts, they have a God still to go to, who is a God afar off, as well as at hand. It may be the psalmist may represent the church in Gospel times, throughout the whole world, even at the further parts of it, in the isles afar off, where men may and do lift up holy hands to God without wrath and doubting:
when my heart is overwhelmed; or "covered" (x); with grief and sorrow for any trouble, outward or inward, and ready to sink, and fail and die. Sometimes the saints are overwhelmed with a sense of sin, are pressed down with the weight and burden of its guilt; their faces are covered with shame and confusion; and their hearts are swallowed up and overwhelmed with overmuch sorrow, both at the number of their sins, and at the aggravated circumstances of them; and especially when they are without a view of pardoning grace and mercy, Psa 38:4, Lam 3:42; and sometimes they are overwhelmed with afflictive providences; the Lord causes all his waves and billows to go over them, and they are just ready to sink; and did he not stay his hand, and stop contending with them, the spirit would fail before him, and the souls that he has made, Psa 42:6; and sometimes with divine desertions, which cause a "deliquium" of soul, and throw them into fainting fits, Sol 5:6; and sometimes through unbelieving frames; and did not the Lord appear to them, and strengthen their faith, and remove their unbelief, they would sink and die away, Psa 77:2. And at all such times it is right to cry unto the Lord, and make the following request to him:
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lead me to the rock that is higher than I; not the land of Israel, as Kimchi thinks, the psalmist being now in the low lands of the Philistines; nor Jerusalem, and the fort and hill of Zion; he being now at the extreme and lower parts of the land: this sense is too low. Some think that some great difficulty is meant; which seemed insuperable, and like a rock inaccessible, which he could not get up to, and upon, and get over; and therefore desires the Lord would lead him up it, and over it, before whom every rock, mountain, and hill, becomes a plain, Zac 4:7; but rather Christ is meant, the Rock of Israel, the Rock of our salvation, and our refuge. He is higher than David, and all the kings of the earth; higher than the angels in heaven, and than the heavens themselves, Heb 7:26; and who by his height is able to protect and defend his people from all their enemies; and by the shade he casts to refresh and comfort them; and by the sufficiency in him to supply all their wants; for he is as a rock impregnable, and well stored, Isa 33:16. And here gracious souls desire to be led by the Spirit of God always, and especially when in distressing circumstances; and he does lead them to his blood for pardon and cleansing, and to his righteousness for justification and acceptance with God, and to his fulness for fresh supplies.
(x) "quum tegitur", Michaelis.
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 The end - To which David was driven. Lead…
The end - To which David was driven. Lead me - Convey me into some high and secure fortress.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. From the end of the earth] ארץ…
Verse 2. From the end of the earth] ארץ arets should be here translated land, not earth, and so it should be in numerous places besides. But here it seems to mean the country beyond the Euphrates; as it is thought to do, Ps 65:5; Ps 65:8, called there also the ends of the earth or land. It may be remarked that the Jews were always more pious and devoted to God in their afflictions and captivities, than when in their own land, in ease and affluence. But who can bear prosperity? How many hearts filled with heavenly ardour in affliction and persecution have grown cold under the beams of the sun of prosperity!
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.] Direct me to a place of refuge and safety. It is a metaphorical expression; and Calmet interprets it of the liberty granted to the Jews by Cyrus to return to their own land. This was a privilege far higher than any thing they could expect. The fathers think Jesus Christ is meant by this high rock.
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 61:2-3. From the end of the earth —…
Psa 61:2-3. From the end of the earth — Or rather, of the land, to which, it seems, David had been driven by the violence of his enemies; will I cry unto thee — And not to other gods, but to thee only. It is our happiness that, wherever we are, we may have liberty of access to God, and may find a way open to a throne of grace. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I — Convey to a place of safety, where mine enemies cannot approach to hurt me: take me under thy peculiar care and protection. He alludes to their custom of securing themselves in rocks. God’s power and promise are a rock that is higher than we. In these we must take refuge, and in these must we abide. Christ is the rock of our salvation, and they, and only they, are safe that are in him. But we cannot get upon this rock unless God lead us by his power. I will put thee in the cleft of the rock — We should therefore, by faith and prayer, put ourselves under the divine conduct, that we may be taken under the divine protection. For thou hast been a shelter to me — I have found in thee a rock higher than I, therefore I trust thou wilt still lead me to that rock. Our past experience of the benefit of trusting in God, as it should engage us still to keep close to him, so it should encourage us to hope that it will not be in vain. Thou hast been my strong tower from the enemy, and thou art as strong as ever, and thy name as much a refuge for the righteous as ever it was, Pro 18:10.
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 From the end of the earth will I cry…
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee - This language is derived from the idea that the earth is one extended plain, and that it has limits or boundaries. Such language is common in the Scriptures, and indeed is in constant use now, even although we know that the earth is globular, and that there are no parts which can properly be called “the ends of the earth.” The meaning is plain. The psalmist was far from the place where he was accustomed to live; or, in other words, he was in exile or in banishment. The language agrees well with the supposition that the psalm was composed when David was driven from his home and his throne by Absalom, and was in exile beyond the Jordan, 2Sa 17:22. Compare Psa 42:1-11.
When my heart is overwhelmed - The word used here - עטף ‛âṭaph - means properly to cover, as with a garment, Psa 73:6; then, with grain - as a field, Ps. 65:14; then, with darkness or calamity, Ps. 102 title; Isa 57:16. The meaning here is, that darkness or calamity seemed to have covered or enveloped his soul. He saw no light, he had no comfort. Compare Psa 42:3, Psa 42:6-7.
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Lead me to the rock that is higher than I - To a rock; to some place of refuge; to some stronghold where I may be safe. The allusion is to God as such a rock or place of refuge. See the notes at Psa 18:2. The idea is, that he had no strength in himself; that if he depended on himself, he could not be safe. He was, as it were, in a low vale, exposed to every enemy. He wished to be put in a place of safety. To such a place of safety - to Himself - he prayed that God would lead him. We need one much higher than we are to save us. A Saviour - a Redeemer - on the same level with ourselves could not help us. We must have one that is supreme over all things; one that is divine.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain heart is overwhelmed--literally, "covered over with darkness," or, "distress."
heart is overwhelmed--literally, "covered over with darkness," or, "distress."
to the rock-- (Psa 18:2; Psa 40:2).
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higher than I--which otherwise I cannot ascend.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. From the end of the earth—Or, taking ארצ,…
2. From the end of the earth—Or, taking ארצ, (arets,) “earth,” in the sense of land, that is, the Hebrew territory, as it sometimes signifies, the description would be literally true, for Mahanaim, where we suppose David now was, lay not far from the eastern border, in the central mountains of Gilead. But it seems far to be separated from the sanctuary.
Overwhelmed—Or, faint, as Lam_2:19, “children that faint for hunger.” See Psalms 102, title.
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Rock that is higher than I— “Rock,” here, is to be taken in the figurative sense of fortress, stronghold, place of security. The “Rock that is higher than I,” is one that is above his kingly command, safer than all his military defences—the immediate protection of God himself. Out of himself, above himself, he seeks his refuge in God.
The fundamental passage is Deu_32:4, and it is parallel to Isa_26:4, where “everlasting strength” is in Hebrew, the rock of ages, from which comes our hymn of that title. Compare Psa_62:2; Psa_62:7, also, Psa_71:3, where “strong habitation” denotes rock of habitation.
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 2. From the end of the earth] Perhaps, from…
2. From the end of the earth] Perhaps, from the end of the land. But Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of God, is for him the centre of the earth. He measures his distance from it not by miles but by the intensity of his yearning to be there, in the place where the visible pledges of God’s Presence were to be found.
will I cry] R.V., will I call.
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is overwhelmed] Or, fainteth (Psa_142:3).
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I] Lead me up upon a rock that is too high for me to reach by my own unaided efforts. ‘Rock’ denotes an asylum to be reached, not an obstacle to be surmounted (Psa_27:5). God Himself is such a Rock of refuge (Psa_62:2; Psa_62:6-7). David’s wanderings may have suggested the metaphor (1Sa_24:2; 1Ch_11:15).
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 (2) From the end. of the earth . .…
(2) From the end. of the earth . . .—A hyperbolic expression for a great distance. Isaiah (Isa_5:26) uses the expression of Assyria, and it would be natural in an exile’s mouth, but must not be pressed to maintain any theory of the psalm’s date.
When my heart is overwhelmed.—Literally, in the covering of my heart, the verb being used (Psa_65:13) of the valleys covered with corn, and metaphorically, as here, of “the garment of heaviness,” which wraps a sad heart (Psalms 102 title; Isa_57:16). (Comp. Tennyson’s “muffled round with woe.”)
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Lead me to the rock . . .—Literally, upon the rock lead me, which is probably a constructio prægnans for lead me to the rock too high for me to climb by myself, and place me there. The elevated rock is a symbol of security, which cannot be obtained without the Divine help. Others take the expression as figurative for a difficulty which it needs God’s help to surmount.
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 From the end of the earth will I cry…
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. Eastern hyperbole may call the Trans-Jordanic territory "the end of the earth," but certainly the expression would be more natural in the mouth of an exile in Assyria, Media, or Babylon. When my heart is overwhelmed; or, "when my heart fainteth". (comp. Psa_107:5) Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; rather, that is too high for me that I cannot reach unaided. Some regard the "rock" as Mount Zion; but others, more reasonably, explain it as "God himself". (see Psa_62:2, Psa_62:6, Psa_62:7) "Let thy grace lead me to thee" (Kay).
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. 2. From the end of the earth will…
Ver. 2. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. He was banished from the spot which was the centre of his delight, and at the same time his mind was in a depressed and melancholy condition; both actually and figuratively he was an outcast, yet he does not therefore restrain prayer, but rather finds therein a reason for the louder and more importunate cries. To be absent from the place of divine worship was a sore sorrow to saints in the olden times; they looked upon the tabernacle as the centre of the world, and they counted themselves to be at the fag end of the universe when they could no longer resort to the sacred shrine; their heart was heavy as in a strange land when they were banished from its solemnities. Yet even they knew right well that no place is unsuitable for prayer. There may be an end of the earth, but there must not be an end to devotion. On creation's verge we may call upon God, for even there he is within call. No spot is too dreary, no condition too deplorable; whether it be the world's end or life's end, prayer is equally available. To pray in some circumstances needs resolve, and the psalmist here expresses it,
I will cry. It was a wise resolution, for had he ceased to pray he would have become the victim of despair; there is an end to a man when he makes an end to prayer. Observe that David never dreamed of seeking any other God; he did not imagine the dominion of Jehovah to be local: he was at the end of the promised land, but he knew himself to be still in the territory of the Great King; to him only does he address his petitions.
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When my heart is overwhelmed: --when the huge waves of trouble wash over me, and I am completely submerged, not only as to my head, but also my heart. It is hard to pray when the very heart is drowning, yet gracious men plead best at such times. Tribulation brings us to God, and brings God to us. Faith's greatest triumphs are achieved in her heaviest trials. It is all over with me, affliction is all over me; it encompasses me as a cloud, it swallows me up like a sea, it shuts me in with thick darkness, yet God is near, near enough to hear my voice, and I will call him. Is not this brave talk? Mark how our psalmist tells the Lord, as if he knew he were hearing him, that he intended to call upon him: our prayer by reason of our distress may be like to a call upon a far off friend, but our inmost faith has its quiet heart whispers to the Lord as to one who is assuredly our very present help. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. I see thee to be my refuge, sure and strong; but alas! I am confused, and cannot find thee; I am weak, and cannot climb thee. Thou art so steadfast, guide me; thou art so high, uplift me. There is a mint of meaning in this brief prayer. Along the iron bound coast of our northern shores, lives are lost because the rocks are inaccessible to the shipwrecked mariner. A clergyman of one of the coast villages has with immense labour cut steps up from the beach to a large chamber, which he has excavated in the chalk cliffs; here many mariners have been saved; they have climbed the rock, which had else been too high for them, and they have escaped. We have heard of late, however, that the steps have been worn away by the storms, and that poor sailors have perished miserably within sight of the refuge which they could not reach, for it was too high for them: it is therefore proposed to drive in iron stanchions, and to hang up chain ladders that shipwrecked mariners may reach the chambers in the rock. The illustration is self interpreting. Our experience leads us to understand this verse right well, for the time was with us when we were in such amazement of soul be reason of sin, that although we knew the Lord Jesus to be a sure salvation for sinners, yet we could not come at him, by reason of our many doubts and forebodings. A Saviour would have been of no use to us if the Holy Spirit had not gently led us to him, and enabled us to rest upon him. To this day we often feel that we not only want a rock, but to be led to it. With this in view we treat very leniently the half unbelieving prayers of awakened souls; for in their bewildered state we cannot expect from them all at once a fully believing cry. A seeking soul should at once believe in Jesus, but it is legitimate for a man to ask to be led to Jesus; the Holy Spirit is able to effect such a leading, and he can do it even though the heart be on the borders of despair. How infinitely higher that we are is the salvation of God. We are low and grovelling, but it towers like some tall cliff far above us. This is its glory, and is our delight when we have once climbed into the rock, and claimed an interest in it; but while we are as yet trembling seekers, the glory and sublimity of salvation appal us, and we feel that we are too unworthy ever to be partakers of it; hence we are led to cry for grace upon grace, and to see how dependent we are for everything, not only for the Saviour, but for the power to believe on him.
Ver. 2. From the end of the earth. This may be taken two ways: either naturally, and then it is an allusion to men that are far distant and remote from help, relief and comfort: or, as I may say, ecclesiastically, with reference to the temple of God, which was "in medio terrae, ""in the midst and heart of the land, "where God manifested and gave tokens of his gracious presence and favour: as if he had said, "I am at the end of the earth; far from any tokens, pledges, or manifestations of the love and favour of God, as well as from outward help and assistance." John Owen.
Ver. 2. The end of the earth. What place was this, the end of the earth, referring the expression to the writer of the Psalm? We know that the centre of the affections and devotions of the pious Israelite was the "holy city, Jerusalem; whither the tribes went up, even the tribes of the Lord, to testify unto Israel, and to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." The country of which this city was the capital, was to the Jew the world; it was the world within the world; the earth within the earth; the whole globe besides was to him a waste, a place out of the world; an extraterrestrial territory, beyond the limits set up by the Lord Almighty. Thus in Holy Writ what is called the world, or the earth, frequently signifieth only that part thereof which was the heritage of the chosen people... The end of the earth, then, as referred to the psalmist, would signify any place of bodily absence from the temple where the Deity had taken up his special abode, or any place whence his spiritual affections were unable to reach that temple. As referred to us, the expression signifies any sensible distance from God: for as God is the centre of life, hope, love, and joy, distance from him, of whatsoever degree, is the antipodes of the soul, a region of sterility and darkness; the Iceland of man's spirit. Alfred Bowen Evans, 1852.
Ver. 2. I will cry unto thee. There is in this expression an endeavour to approach unto God; as you do when you cry after one whom you see at a distance, and are afraid he will go farther from you. It is the great work of faith to cry out after God, at a distance, when you are afraid lest at the next turn he should be quite out of sight. Crying to the Lord supposes him to be withdrawing or departing. John Owen.
Ver. 2. Cry. No matter how abrupt the prayer be, so it be the representation of our hearts. Thus did David. Where doth he pray? In banishment. When? When his spirit is overwhelmed. How does he pray? He cried. Thus Hannah prayed herself into a composed state of mind. Remember, resignation is the work of the Spirit of God; and therefore you must plead for it before you have it. John Singleton(-1706), in "The Morning Exercises."
Ver. 2. Cry. Crying is a substitute for speech; and also the expression of earnestness. William Jay.
Ver. 2. When my heart is overwhelmed. Troubles are of various kinds; some are provoking, some are gnawing, some are perplexing, and some are overwhelming; but whatever form they assume, they are troubles, and are part of the wear and tear of life. ...Overwhelming troubles are such as sweep over a man, just as the mighty billows of the ocean sweep over and submerge the sands. These are troubles which struggle with us, as it were, for life and death; troubles which would leave us helpless wrecks; troubles which enter into conflict with us in our prime, which grapple with us in our health and strength, and threaten to conquer us by sheer force, no matter how bravely we may contend. Such trouble the psalmist knew. Philip Bennett Power, in "The I wills of the Psalms, "1861.
Ver. 2. Heart. The heart is here represented to us as being overwhelmed, or, as it is otherwise translated, "covered over; "it is smothered in, unable to perform its functions with proper action, unable to throw out the blood to the extremities, to give them needed vitality and power for necessary effort. When the action of the heart is paralysed, even temporarily, it will tell upon all the members, a chill there send its cold vibration through every limb; Satan knows this well, and so all his dealings are heart dealings, efforts to paralyse the very spring of life itself. This is precisely what we ourselves have experienced; we have partially felt death within us, we have felt a gradual numbing of our heart; a gradual diminution in the quickness of its beat; a gradual closing in, and pressure of a weight upon it, and this was the overwhelming process. Philip Bennett Power.
Ver. 2. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The tower, in Ps 18:2, is "an high tower, "and the rock is here an high rock, the rock higher than I; and yet there is a way to get into the highest towers; by scaling ladders a man may get over the high walls of towers. This tower and rock were too high for David himself to get into, and therefore he sets to the scaling ladder. "Lead me to the rock, and into the tower that is higher than I. Hear my cry, attend unto my prayer." So he makes prayer the scaling ladder to get upon that rock and into that tower that otherwise had been too high for him; he gets that safety and deliverance which otherwise but by prayer unto God had been impossible to have been obtained. Jeremiah Dyke.
Ver. 2. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The language is very remarkable. It gives us the idea of a man suffering shipwreck. The vessel in which he has been sailing has sunk. He has been plunged into the mighty ocean; and there he is buffeting the waves, struggling for life, panting for breath, and just about to give up all for lost. Suddenly he discovers a rock towering above him. If he can but climb up to the top of it, and get sure footing upon it, the billows will not be able to reach him, and he will be safe. Now, the prayer in our text is the cry of that poor wretch for help. He is so spent and exhausted, that he cannot reach the rock himself. He shouts aloud for the friendly hand of some one stronger than himself, or for a rope that may be flung to him by those who are already safe on the rock, if by these helps he may gain it. Lead me to the rock, cries the poor perishing wretch. "O, lead me, guide me, direct me to it; for I am so worn and spent, that I cannot reach it otherwise. I am at the point to die; and I must sink, and be no more seen for ever, if there is none to help me." Thus he calls for some one to rescue him from the deep, and to place him on the rock. But what rock? He knows that unless the rock be a high one, he will not be in safety, though he should be on it. The rock, he says, "must be higher than I, or the waves will reach me, and wash me off again." It is not a rock, the top of which just shows itself above the sea, no higher than a man's own body, that will save the life of a shipwrecked mariner. Such a rock may occasion the wreck, but it will not afford any help to the sufferers afterwards; it is a rock to split upon for destruction, not to stand upon for safety. Lead me to the rock, or as it is in the Prayer book version, "Set me upon the rock that is higher than I!"...The text having shown us the danger of sin, does not leave us comfortless; it shows us the security of the refuge. We have before remarked, that the prayer of David, as a shipwrecked man, is, to be "led to, "and set upon a rock, that is higher than himself. The expression seems to imply much. The rock that is higher than he, must be higher than any man; for David was a mighty monarch. He implies, therefore, that the refuge he seeks must be more than any "arm of flesh" can afford him; it must be therefore divine. Condensed from a Sermon by Fountain Elwin, 1842.
Ver. 2. It is more the image of one overtaken by the tide, as he is hastening onwards to get beyond its reach, and yet with every step he sees it rolling nearer and nearer to him; he hears its angry roar, the loosening sand sinks beneath his tread--a few minutes more, and the waves will be around him; despair hath "overwhelmed his heart; "when in the very depths of his agony he sees a point of rock high above the waves. "O that I could reach it and be safe!" And then comes the cry, the agonizing cry, to him that is mighty to save, Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. It is the sinner's cry to the sinner's Saviour! Barton Bouchier, A.M., in "Manna in the Heart; or, Daily Comments on the Book of Psalms, "1855.
Ver. 2. Lead me to the rock. If we would find ourselves upon the rock, and enjoy the realisation of being so, we must be dependent upon another's hand. And that hand can do everything for us, even in our worst of times. When we are so blinded by the salt waves that dash in our eyes, so reeling in brain that we perhaps cannot think, much less make continuous efforts, there is a hand which can lead us, which can draw us out of the waters, which can set our feet upon the rock. Surely we have already experienced the power and tenderness of that hand? and it may be that in the reader's case, the waves, as they made sure of their prey, found it supernaturally drawn forth from them, that it might be set upon a rock, immoveable amid all the waters, and sufficient amid all storms! Philip Bennett Power.
Ver. 2. The rock that is higher than I. The rock of our salvation, then, is "higher than we." Here we have the Deity of Christ, the Rock, set forth; in this he is "higher than we." And except as he is thus higher, as he is God, he could not be a Saviour; for "He is a just God, as well as a Saviour." A being no higher than we, or but a little higher, as the angels (for we are but "a little lower than they"), though he might teach us, or warn us, or console us, could never save us. The prey is in the hands of the mighty, and the Almighty alone is mightier. But a rock is not only high, but deep; it not only erects its front above the waves, but its base is fixed in the ocean's bed. "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find our the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." Job 11:7. Here we have the humanity of him who is the rock; that humanity by which he was able to go down to the deeps, as well as ride triumphantly on the bosom of the waters--those deeps, whereof David speaking experimentally of himself, spake prophetically of him; the depths of our fall and degradation--that humanity in which he went down into the grave, into the recesses of the intermediate state, and "preached to the spirits in prison." This is our rock, both deep and high; the rock of our salvation; to which those whose sons have set them at "the end of the earth, "desire to be brought, that they may find a place of safe standing. Let not those fear who feel the bitterness of distance from God, for they shall be brought nigh; desolate may be the coast to which they are driven, but over against it is the Paradise of God; clouds and darkness may gather at the base of this rock of safety, but "eternal sunshine settles in its head." Alfred Bowen Evans.
Ver. 2. Higher. A hiding place must be locus exelsissimus. Your low houses are soon scaled. Jesus Christ is a high place; he is as high as heaven. He is the Jacob's ladder that reacheth from earth to heaven. Ge 28:12. He is too high for men, too high for devils; no creature can scale these high walls. Ralph Robinson (1614-1655), in "Christ All and in All."
Ver. 2. Lead me.
I. Show me the way: reveal Jesus.
II. Enable me to tread it: work faith in me.
III. Uplift me when I cannot tread: do for me what is
beyond me.
Ver. 2. Higher than I. Jesus greater than our highest efforts, attainments, desires, expectations, conceptions.
Ver. 2. God, the saint's rock. John Owen's Two Sermons. Works. Vol. 9, pp. 237-256.
Ver. 2. The heart's cry and desire.
I. A recognition of a place of safety; then,
II. We have this place brought before us, as abundantly
sufficient, when personal weakness has been realised.
III. This place cannot be attained without the help of
another's hand.
IV. The character of this refuge, and the position of a
believer when availing himself of it: the place of
refuge is "a rock, "and the position of the believer
is "upon a rock." P. B. Power.
Ver. 2-3.
I. How would he pray? I will cry unto thee.
II. Where would he pray? From the ends of the
earth.
III. When would he pray? When my heart is
overwhelmed.
IV. For what would he pray? Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I.
V. Whence does he derive his encouragement to pray?
For thou hast been, etc. (Ps 61:3). William Jay.
Psalms 61:3*
Ver. 2-3.
I. How would he pray? I will cry unto thee.
II. Where would he pray? From the ends of the earth.
III. When would he pray? When my heart is
overwhelmed.
IV. For what would he pray? Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I.
V. Whence does he derive his encouragement to pray?
For thou hast been, etc. (Ps 61:3) William Jay.
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 From the end of the earth will I cry…
Psa_61:2
From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Reek that is higher than I.
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Davids refuge
This psalm, like very many others, begins with tears and ends with praise. It is very often so, in coming to a throne of grace day by day. Many a believer has gone down upon his knees with a broken heart, and has risen with it healed and fully cured.
I. Davids resolution. I will cry unto Thee. Now, the term cry is of very frequent use in Scripture, and it is very expressive. It signifies earnestness--it signifies desire for relief; it is the expression of want. A child cries, a child cries long before it can speak: and how prevailing is that cry! How a mothers heart yearns at the cry of her infant!
II. The circumstances. When my heart is overwhelmed. You see the circumstances here are most serious. He might have taken up the language of Hezekiah and said, Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. But still, although he was overwhelmed, he pursued the right course. For what is the remedy in affliction? Is any afflicted? Let him pray--pray. It is, perhaps, reasonable, and to a certain extent natural, that men under the pressure of affliction should go down upon their knees, Many a tear has been dried so; and the deeper the sorrow, the more reason there is to cry to God.
III. But, you see, not only the circumstances, When my heart is overwhelmed, but From the end of the earth--is whatever place you may be. The psalmist mentions the end of the earth, however distant he might be from that which was the appointed place of prayer, the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, where the saints were in the habit of assembling together. We know now under the Gospel dispensation, that wherever there is a place of prayer, the most obscure position cannot cut off the communication between a spiritual heart and Heaven. How blessed is this! For our encouragement, how very numerous are the instances recorded in the Word of God of definite prayers on the part of Gods saints, and definite answers on the part of God! No fewer than eighty-eight distinct prayers of men of God, and eighty-eight distinct answers from the Lord, are recorded in the Old Testament; and no fewer than forty-eight instances of the same kind occur in the New Testament. And, doubtless, these are only just sprinkled in that we may be encouraged, whenever we find them, to see that there is a reality about it--that Gods saints of old have endeavoured to cultivate this state and condition, and that God has marked it by His especial favour.
IV. What the psalmist prayed for--Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. This gives us an idea of safety in the midst of trial, and support when one is almost ready to be swallowed up. Now, the rock that you and I must look to is the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and to Him the Holy Spirit must lead us. We need to be led, or we shall never come to Him. And observe in the next verse to the text the way in which the psalmist draws his encouragement. For Thou hast been a shelter to me, and a strong tower from the enemy. You see, the experience of the past may confirm our hope for the future, for He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, and they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.)
Faith and its aspirations
I remark, first, that this is the expression of faith, as distinguished from science, and it justifies that faith. The present age is not, I think, to be characterized above all others as an age of intellect. It is an age of wonderful control over the forces and facts of nature. By this knowledge, certainly, man has great power, as he has by all intellectual acquisition. Intellectual strength is a wondrous faculty. In yonder closet there sits a pale thinker, in body puny almost as an infant, shrinking from the cold, and withering under the heat like a sensitive plant. And yet upon some occasion that man will stand up, and his words will run like an electric shock through the hearts of thousands, and they will be swayed by the sheer force of his mind like the leaves of the summer forest. He sets his pen to the vindication of some truth, and his documents flying abroad, alarm councils, change faiths, and alter polities. It is possible you may find a few rare instances of men who can make out what is called a scientific religion, and live by it; having a cause for every effect, and a law for every crisis; finding the source of their own suffering at -the end of the scalpel, and counting up their beating pulses by the tick of the watch. But there are few people who can stand on the level of the mere facts of nature and say it is enough to know that the earth turns on its axis, and that all things move in order. We want something higher than all this. These forces of nature have no particular sympathy with us. They are relentless, silent, stern. We crave something akin to ourselves--something near to our own souls, as nature is not--something that is higher than ourselves, to lift us up. It must be above the facts that prevail around us. Therefore, we say, what comes through science does not make up the complement and perfection of human nature. We need an element of faith--that kind of faith with which this grand old psalm was written. The soul wants something more than what the mere intellect gives; something that can reach the depths of its affections, and strengthen it in its moral weakness. So I come to observe, finally, that there are occasions in life when religion demonstrates itself to be a special need and prompting of the soul; when not only is this text found to be the language of religion, above all science and all mere morality, but above all mere logical arguments, above all debates, above all controversy; when there breaks out a demonstration of the truths of religion in just such language and experience as that which is contained in the words of the text--When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.(E. H. Chapin.)
The believers refuge in distress
I. There is no speck in this earth, no place in the vast extent of Gods boundless creation, where His power, wisdom and goodness do not extend. For whither will you flee, where the hand of God cannot reach you; or where the eye of God cannot see you, and witness your every thought, word and deed? Who by searching can find out God? Who can find out the Almighty unto perfection? For what proportion can any series of finite numbers bear to Infinity?
II. Contemplate the period when this urgent request is made, and when this earnest supplication is poured forth; namely, when the heart is overwhelmed, when the spirit is sorrowful, and when the soul is bowed down; when deep calleth unto deep, and when the waves and billows roll over the sinking and sorrowing soul. It would be easy to explain why the heart of the sincere Christian is often overwhelmed. Not only has he his troubles and trials in common with the rest of the world, but he has those which are peculiar to him as a member of the household of faith--as a traveller who is journeying to a foreign country--peculiar to him as a citizen of that city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God--peculiar to him as a soldier who is marching through an enemys country to take possession of the promised land.
III. The gracious and merciful encouragement every tried, tempted and trembling sinner has to repair to this rock of defence. For every believer freely acknowledges, and from his inmost spirit feels, that he is a weak, defenceless creature, unable to contend in his own strength against the powers of sin and death leagued against him; he finds that he has not only to wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places; consequently he had need to take upon him the whole armour of God--he had need to fly for refuge to a stronger arm than his own for protection. (N. Meeres, B. D.)
Mans need of the superhuman
Unless the rock be beyond our height it cannot shield us from the sun-glare, nor from the arrows of the enemy. We need--
I. A faith that is beyond the range of earthly knowledge. Daniel Webster said he would not believe in a religion whose doctrines he could comprehend.
II. A power to help us that is beyond our own power, in order to conquer ourselves. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The higher life
We all feel within us that there is something higher, purer, and more firm and endurable than the ignoble and unstable level on which we are living just now. We feel that a higher state is what we should aim at; and it is this instinct which always seems to draw us on. When a man reverently reads the life of Jesus and the writings of the apostles, he feels there is a higher, nobler and purer life to which he is drawn; and I think a prayer in harmony with our feelings is this, Lead me to the rock, or to the life, that is higher than I. One feature of this higher life, and one step towards it is this--that in the midst of our crosses and worries and troubles we shall endeavour to be patient and cheerful. Cheerfulness is a great promoter of happiness in ourselves and others. If we have not naturally a cheerful disposition, we should try to cultivate it. Assume a virtue if you have it not. We may learn many a lesson of the higher life from the book of Nature. Some one has advised us to go to the ant for a lesson in industry, to the dove to learn innocence, and to the serpent to see wisdom; but let us go to the robin redbreast for a picture of cheerfulness. What can be a finer lesson in patient cheerfulness than the warbling of the robin on your window-sill in a winter morning, when the whole earth is like one hard piece of ice? Tucking one leg under his wing to keep it warm, the robin chirps and warbles to us a lesson of unalloyed patience. There is a step which leads us still higher; it is to be gentle. Gentleness is very high up on the rock of the heavenly life, and therefore it is a step which is rather difficult to mount. Gentleness is the disposition of God. Twice in the Bible we have these remarkable words, Thy gentleness hath made me great. Another characteristic of the higher life is willingness to voluntarily suffer for the good of another. I trust we all believe in this kind of religion. We may have it by prayer. Lead me, says the psalmist; I cannot be self-denying for others unless Thou lead me to be so. Lead me therefore, O God, and it can be done. (W. Birch.)
The sheltering rock
I. The season referred to--When my heart is overwhelmed. There are such seasons in Christian experience.
1. From a sense of the Divine claims we owe obedience (Deu_6:5; Mat_22:37).
2. From the pressure of heavy trials (Psa_55:12-14).
3. From the keenness of temptation to which the very best of men are subject. Moses, David, Daniel, Job, and even our Lord Himself, were all tempted.
4. From the anticipations of future evils.
II. Whither the psalmist desires to be led--To the Rock that is higher than I. The rock gives the idea--
1. Of strength (Psa_62:2; Psa_62:6; Psa_62:8).
2. Durability: I am the Lord, I change not. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, etc.
III. The grounds of the psalmists plea--from the ends of the earth.
1. This prayer is prompted by a consciousness of need.
2. It is addressed to the true source of ability.
3. It is encouraged by past experience (Psa_61:3). (G. Stockdale.)
God the saints rock
There are two things here--
1. The state wherein the psalmist was--the end of the earth, in loneliness and distant from the house of God. And his heart was overwhelmed, and he fainted under his distress.
2. The course he takes in this state. He cried unto the Lord. His faith made him do so, for faith makes the heart sensible of affliction, and complain of it unto God, and earnestly endeavour to come near to God. What it craves is, that God would lead him to the rock, that is, that God would give him access unto Himself by Christ, in whom God is our rock and refuge.
I. Note some instances of this cry of faith (Jon_2:2-3). David in many instances.
II. The grounds of it.
1. Faith does this, because it is able to distinguish between the covenant itself, which is firm, stable, invariable; and the administration of the covenant, which is various and changeable; I mean the outward administration of it. And this God teaches us (Psa_89:30-34).
2. Faith will naturally thus act, as it is the principle of the new nature in us that came from God, and will tend unto Him, whatever difficulties lie in the way.
III. What it is, that in such an overwhelming condition as I have described, faith regards in God, to give it a support and relief, that it be not utterly overwhelmed.
1. The first thing faith considers in such a condition is the nature of God Himself, and His excellencies. There are three or four circumstances that may befall us in our distress, that faith itself can get no relief against them, but from the essential properties of the nature of God.
2. Believers may be brought into distress in all places of the world: in a lions den with Daniel; in a dungeon with Jeremiah; they may be banished to the ends of the earth, as John to Patmos; or they may be driven into the wilderness, as the woman by the fury of the dragon, Now, what can give relief against this circumstance of distress which may befall the people of God? (Jer_23:28).
3. God is ever the same.
4. There is relief to be found in God, and only in Himself, in the loss of all, when nothing remains. This was Habakkuks comfort if all should fail him; yet, saith he, I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.
5. The last circumstance of distress is death, with the way and manner whereby it may approach us: and how soon this will be we know not. The souls relief lies in Gods immutability, that we shall find Him the same to us in death as He was in life, and much more. (J. Owen, D. D.)
The strong sanctuary
An ineradicable sense of dependence inheres in every finite being as he is brought into conscious life. A created nature must go out of itself and make its sanctuary in a greater and a holier nature before it can be rightly centred and rationally satisfied. This predisposition to lean, to nestle, to seek sanctuary, is the common birthmark of everything in which there is the breath of life. Rather than have no refuge at all, the troubled man will fly to one who is weaker and less discerning than himself. He will consult an authority he cannot trust rather than be shut up within the ring-fence of his own infirm and imperfect personality. The castaway on an unknown shore will make the savage he has tempted into his service a confidant, and will teach his own speech to the parrot, so that he may hear some other voice, rather than be abandoned to his own resources. The general who has lost a battle, and whose habit it has been to maintain a severe aloofness from every member of his staff, will take counsel in the days of his defeat and humiliation with a dependant, and discuss schemes of campaign with a cook or a campfollower, rather than be left to himself. The lost traveller in the desert will yield himself at last to the instincts of his horse or camel, for he has a maddening horror of the repeated misjudgments which are taking him farther and yet farther from wells of water and palm-trees and the tents and habitations of men. We must have some kind of refuge outside ourselves, if it be but the beggars cave. It would be a poor look-out for us if there were nothing within our horizon measuring up to a loftier altitude than our own few paltry cubits of stature. What a wilderness of peril, torture, trepidation, this earthly life would be if there were no high tower, no strong fortress, no enduring refuge, open for us to run into! We need to lean on one towering aloft above this poor, decrepit nature of ours, to fly to the overshadowing power of the Most High, to penetrate the inmost secrets of His love. We demand that which transcends ourselves, and yet is at the same time gentle, gracious, sympathizing. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Nothing which is on our own level can quiet our fear and appease our distress. Fleeing from ourselves and from all the terrors that pursue us, bidding farewell to the very sins that seem as inseparable from us as our shadows, we may make our dwelling-place and our abiding home in the brightness of His ever faithful presence. This strong and enduring sanctuary can only afford its peace and shelter to our troubled spirits when we are willing to accept terms of reconciliation with God. God is a refuge for us, and we cannot hide in the refuge and at one and the same time be estranged from God. The melancholy perplexity of many around us consists in this, that they crave a hiding-place from the evils and terrors which infest human life, and yet they cannot or will not turn their faces Godward. The centrifugal tendency seen in Cain when he fled from the face of the Lord, and yet shuddered at the thought of the pain, execration, antagonism, which were everywhere confronting him in his flight, reappears in us. We want to leave both God and the terrors which beleaguer our steps behind; and the two things are absolutely incompatible. We must humble our pride, consent to be contrite, accept Gods truce, if we are to come into the impregnable sanctuary of His gentleness and power. (T. G. Selby.)
The rock higher than I
Palestine was not only a land that flowed with milk and honey, but a land of rock and river, and of towering mountains, presenting to his eye a diversified scenery of valley and height, of hill and dale. To apply the term Rock to God, as the refuge and defence of His people in times of difficulty and danger, as the natural rocks were to the distressed Israelites, became as it were a proverbial form of speech, which almost ceased to partake of the nature of metaphor. The Lord is my rock and my fortress. Who is a rock, save our God? Then he forsook the God that made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. So in the New Testament Christ is called the Rock that supplied the Israelites with means to quench their spiritual, as the rock of Horeb quenched their natural thirst. He was the Rock that followed them. The prayer, then, of David in the text, Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I, is a prayer for all people and in all times. Adversity is a painful school, but it seems to be the order of Gods providence that the majority of men, if saved at all, should be saved so as by fire. The weakness of humanity requires to be demonstrated, not only in the truth of Scripture, but in their own persons, in order to bring conviction to their minds and to impress their hearts. When merry, we find it easy to sing psalms; it is only when afflicted that we heed the injunction to seek relief in prayer. It is only when sick that we apply to the Great Physician, when lost that we seek to be saved. Not the mighty, the noble, the wise, but sinners are called to repentance; it is only in weakness that we are made strong. When we are victorious upon the plain we turn our backs to the fortress and the rock; it is the routed army that flees to it for shelter and support. But God is no less the needed Rock that is higher than we in prosperity; indeed, if possible, the more needed than in adversity. Of the two we think the history of the human heart will show that the former is the more dangerous and the more fraught with perils to the souls of men. There is no one of us but at some time has felt the need of the Rock that is higher than I. If we have had full garners, we have feared lest in gaining the world we might perchance lose our own souls; if we have been called to suffer and endure, we have wanted beneath us the everlasting arms to be our comfort and support. It is a necessity of our natures, it grows out of our relations to God. We are His creatures; He is the source of our spiritual and natural life, and it is only His sustaining power that can preserve that life in being. If left to ourselves, Scripture, reason, experience, all teach us that we grope as the blind, we totter and fall, and are made painfully conscious of our own weakness and infirmities. To give us confidence, to enable us to to forward without faltering or fear, we must have some other reliance than our own strength and efforts, some other trust than our own unaided resources in the fierce warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Are we weak? there is the source of strength. Are we sorrowing? there is comfort. Are we penitent? there is pardon. Were it merely a Rock, the symbol of strength alone, of that power which can destroy as well as save, our faith might falter and our hopes might fail; but it is the Rock of Love as well, Jesus is a High Priest who can be touched with a feeling for mans infirmities, for He was tempted and tried in all points as are we, only without sin. (G. F. Cushman, D. D.)
Christ our Rock
I. The state described.
1. Man is an emotional being; so delicate and subtle is the organization of the human heart, that a single sound will influence it. So highly wrought that it may be operated upon by the most refined instrument which creature skill ever constructed. So tenderly susceptible, that a word is often times enough to lift it into ecstasy, or depress it to despair--so sensitive, that the glance of an eye can fill it with joy, or transfix it with grief.
2. We may understand, therefore, how it is, that in some circumstances, under strong influences--a sudden influx of joy, or prosperity, or under a storm and inundation of woes--the heart becomes overwhelmed. The Christian is not exempt from the troubles and trials of life; and, in addition to them, how frequently is he overwhelmed with a sense of his own unworthiness--his imperfections; the smallness of his faith--and the coldness of his love. How often does he make the language of the psalmist his own, and say unto God, When my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me, etc.
II. The import of the prayer. Here is the expression of conscious weakness, Lead me. He feels the need of assisting grace, and Divine support--and with the self-diffidence and conscious weakness of a little child, he tries to grasp his Fathers hand--Lead me. Higher than I. This implies confidence--faith in God--in the sufficiency of Christ. He acknowledges in Christ some one to look up to, superior to any human source; here is humility, (J. D. Carey.)
The appeal of the human to the Divine
No irreligious man, no liver of the lower life, no man sunk in the material, could pray this prayer. It is the cry of the spiritually awakened man, for only he knows there is anything higher than himself, and only he would ever cry out for its possession.
1. This mans conception of Deity has two sides to it--a physical and supernatural. He conceives God in the form of a natural and poetical image; sees Him as a Rock. To others God might be Father, lover, friend, but to him He was the rock, that against which birds and armies and tempests dash themselves to pieces, but also that on which flowers bud out of the winds, and birds build their nests, and men hide from the march of tempests. But it is possible that in this other phrase higher than I--we have another conception of the Divine. Change higher than I into too high for me, and you have the conception which held his mind. Too high! i.e. on a higher level, of another order, of a greatness I can never attain, nor match, nor rival! Too high, i.e. God is everything man is not. Man, frail, tainted, limited, weak, foolish. God, enduring, holy, omnipotent, unchangeable, all-wise. Too high! i.e. beyond human apprehension I Too high for me, makes Him the unknowable, the unsearchable splendour, homed in unapproachable light, and worshipped from afar.
2. This discovery and conception of the Divine is not without its effect on the man. First it creates a thirst, a desire in the man. The vision breaks up his self-content, and fills him with a heavenward longing. O Rock, Thou the timeless, the restful, the immutable, let me hide myself in Thee. Man is but the lichen that would root itself on the unshaken and unshakable. The other effect is of a different character. It is said that the revelation of God is the revelation of a mans self. When Job saw God, he cried, I abhor myself. When Isaiah beheld Him, he exclaimed, I am a man of unclean lips. Everywhere else man is the all--the king--only in the temple is he the little helpless child with no language but a cry. Man can see the good, dream it, idealize it; he can long for the good, love it, worship it, but it is his disappointment and his hell that he knows it is not in him to be it, to win it, nor possess it.
3. With this point the experience seems to terminate. When man reaches the point of inability, he reaches the end. There is nothing more for him to do than to sit down, fold his hands and wait for the inevitable. If he cannot, he cannot, and he can only acquiesce in his helplessness. But such a termination is impossible. The point where man breaks down is the point where the Divine enters and begins its miracles. The revelation is meant to set the human in action, to lift him to something higher. Instead, therefore, of the conception ending with inability, it ends with a sobbing prayer. It is an appeal for means--Cut steps in the cliff that I may climb it, let down the rope and draw me up. It is an appeal for help--I stagger with fatigue and weakness, put an arm round me and help me up the stone-strewn steeps. It is a cry for guidance--Take my hand and guide me, and put my foot on the first stair of the stairway that leads to Thee. It is a cry for light--I am confused with fear and doubt, give me light that I may see the way that leads to Thee. It is a cry for shelter--Suns smite me, and sanddrifts sweep over me, and the whole landscape reels and swims; lift me into the shadow of Thy wings. It is a cry for salvation--I cling to Thee, but the storm beats and the waves drag and my hold is slipping, put out Thy hand and draw me from the hungry waters. It is the prayer of the helpless, the appeal of the human to the Divine--man in his weakness casting himself on the benevolence and omnipotence of Deity, man in his despair abandoning himself to God. Lead me, let me reach Thee, dwell with Thee, and be one with Thee for ever. (C. E. Stone.)
The high rock
I. Prayer is always available.
in every place, and in every condition of our spirit. I think David meant, by the expression, the end of the earth, a place where he should be far away from his friends, far away from human help, and far away from Gods sanctuary.
1. Gods people are sometimes brought into such a condition that they are far away from friends. Perhaps you know what it is to have a trouble which you are compelled to bear yourself, which you could not describe even to those in your own house, though your friends would have been ready to help you if they had known; yet it was such that, with all their readiness, they would not have had ability to assist you in it, the biggest words could not have told it, and the bitterest tears could not have spelled it out. You were far away from friends in reality, though they were all round you. Now, this is what David meant by the end of the earth,--far away from friends,--yet even then, when friend and helper and lover failed, did he cry unto his God.
2. Again, he meant, by the end of the earth, far away from human help. There are times when we are sighing after spiritual mercies, when we are groaning under the withdrawal of Gods countenance, when our sins are hunting us like packs of wolves, when afflictions are rolling over us like huge billows--when faith is little, and fear is great, when hope is dim, and doubt becomes terrible and dark--then we are far away from human help; but, blessed be God, even then we may cry unto Him.
3. By the end of the earth, I think, too, David means at a distance from the means of grace. Sometimes, by sickness, either personal or the sickness of our relatives, we are detained from the house of God; at other times, in journeying by land or upon the sea, we are unable to be in Gods sanctuary, and to use the means of grace.
II. There are times when even a believer cannot get to Christ as he desires. Sometimes God, in His sovereignty, is pleased to show a man his sin, and not to show him his Saviour, for a season; he strips the sinner, perhaps he leaves him to shiver in the cold before he clothes him, just to let him know what a boon that robe of Christs righteousness is. He sometimes gives repentance and faith at the same time, just as the thunder sometimes follows the lightning at once; at other times, He gives repentance, and then He makes us tarry for many a day before He gives us full assurance of our interest in Christ; but they are sure to follow one another, sooner or later. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Oh, help me to believe! Lord, enable me to see the need of Thy Son, give me the power to look unto Him who was pierced, and, as Thou hast given me eyes to weep, so give me eyes to look on Him, and grace to rejoice in Him as mine.
III. We are now coming to that part of the text which most of all delights my soul, the thought of Jesus Christ, who is the Rock that is higher than we are. Here is a man who is a great sinner. Ah! he says, I am indeed a great sinner; my iniquities reach so high that they have ascended above the very stars; they have gone before me to the judgment-seat of God, and they are clamouring for my destruction. Well, sinner, come thou here, and measure this Rock. Thou art very high, it is true; but this Rock is higher than thou art. Here comes another forward; he is not a man full of doubts and fears, but he is a man of hopeful spirit. Oh! says he, I have many sins, but I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will take them all away. I have many wants, but I hope that He will supply them. I shall have many temptations, but I hope that He will ward them off. I shall have many difficulties, but I hope He will carry me through them. Ah I man, I like to see thee have a good long measuring-rod, when it is made of hope. Hope is a tall companion; he wades right through the sea, and is not drowned; you cannot kill him, do what you may. Hope is one of the last blessings God gives us, and one that abides last with us. If a man is foodless, and without covering, still he hopes to see better days by and by. Now, sinner, thy hopes, I would have thee to see, are very tall, and very high; but remember, this Rock is higher than any of thy hopes. Well, cries another, from what I have heard, and what I have read in Gods Word, I am expecting very great things of Christ when I shall see Him as He is. Oh, sir, if He be better than the communion of His saints can make Him, if He be sweeter than all His most eloquent preachers can speak of Him, if He be so delightful that those who know Him best cannot tell His beauties, what a precious--what a glorious--what an inconceivable Christ He must be! Ah, I am glad thou art measuring Christ by thine expectation I But let me tell thee, high as thy expectations are, He is higher than thou art. Expect what thou mayest; but when thou seest Him, thou wilt say with the Queen of Sheba, The half was not told me. Now, as some of you will be exercised with troubles, remember that the Rock is higher than you are; and when your troubles reach you, if you are not high enough to escape them, climb up to the Rock Christ, for there is no trouble that can reach you when you get there. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The saints asylum in distress
I. The distress supposed. When my heart is overwhelmed.
1. By distressing temptations.
2. By providential visitations.
3. By inward fears and depressions.
II. The asylum referred to. The rock higher than I.
III. The prayer presented. Lead me to the rock, etc.
1. Conscious insufficiency.
2. Confidence in Christs all-sufficiency.
3. Earnest desire to feel our connection with Christ. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Overwhelmed
Imagine a vessel at sea, and you can get an idea of the meaning of our text. It has been labouring in a storm; sometimes lifted up to heaven, as though its masts would sweep the stars; then again descending until its keel seemed dragging on the ocean bed; first staggering this way, and then that way, reeling to and fro, now rushing forward and now starting back--like a drunken man, or like a madman who has lost his way. At last, a huge sea comes rolling on; its white crest of foam can be seen in the distance, and the sailors give up all for lost; on comes the wave, gathering up all its strength till it dashes against the ship, and--down the vessel goes, it is overwhelmed. The decks are swept, the masts are gone, the timbers are creaking, the ship descends, and is sucked down as in a whirlpool; all is lost. Now, says David, that is the case with my heart; it is overwhelmed, drawn into a vortex of trouble, borne down by a tremendous sea of difficulty, crushed and broken; the ribs of my soul seem to have given way; every timber of my vessel is cracked and gone out of its place. My heart is overwhelmed within me. Can you now get an idea of the extreme sorrow of the psalmists spirit? Yet, says he, even then will I cry unto Thee. Oh, noble faith, that can cry amidst the shrieking of the tempest and the howling of the storm! Oh, glorious faith, that from the bottom of the sea can shoot its arrows to the heights of heaven! Oh, masterpiece of faith, that from a broken spirit can present prevailing prayer! Oh, glorious triumph, that from the end of the earth can send a prayer which can reach all the way to heaven! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The highest rock
This Rock is higher than thou art. All thou hast enjoyed of Christ is but as the beginning of a topless mountain. When I have been in Scotland, I have gone up some of the hills there; and I have thought, This is a very high place indeed; what a fine view there is, what a height I have reached! Ah! some one has said, but if you were to see the Alps, this hill would only seem like the beginning, you would only have got to the foot when you had climbed as high as this; and so it is with you. By your experience, your sweet enjoyment, you think you have reached the top of the mountain; but Christ comes and whispers to you, Look yonder, far above those clouds; you have only begun to go up; this hill of communion is only one step; as yet you have only taken a childs leap; you have farther to go, far higher than you could imagine or conceive. Ah! this is indeed a Rock higher than thou art, the highest in communion, and the next to the throne of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Continuance in prayer--a test of sincerity
Will the hypocrite pray always? No, as the wheel wears with turning, till it breaks at last, so doth the hypocrite. He prays himself weary of praying; something or other will in time make him quarrel with that duty, which he never inwardly liked; whereas tim sincere believer hath that in him which makes it impossible he Should quite give over praying, except he should also cease believing. Prayer is the very breath of faith; stop a mans breath, and where is he then? Tis true the believer through his own negligence may find some more difficulty of fetching his praying breath at one time than at another, as a man in a cold doth in his natural breath. Alas, who is so careful of his souls health that needs not bewail this. But faith to live and this breath of prayer to be quite cut off is impossible. The Christians wants, sins and temptations continually return upon him, he cannot but continue also to pray against them. From the ends of the earth will I call unto Thee, said David; wherever I am, Ill find Thee out; prison me, banish me, or do with me what Thou wilt, Thou shalt never be rid of me. (W. Gurnall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 61:2 the ends of the earth: This expression has…
61:2 the ends of the earth: This expression has the connotation of a cry that comes from a place far away from God. • The psalmist’s heart is overwhelmed with deep anguish.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.