Psalm 38:17

EXPOSITION

Verse 17. For I am ready to halt. Like one who limps, or a person with tottering footsteps, in danger of falling. How well this befits us all. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." How small a thing will lame a Christian, how insignificant a stumbling block may cause him to fall! This passage refers to a weakness caused by pain and sorrow; the sufferer was ready to give up in despair; he was so depressed in spirit that he stumbled at a straw. Some of us painfully know what it is to be like dry tinder for the sparks of sorrow; ready to halt, ready to mourn, and sigh and cry upon any occasion, and for any cause. And my sorrow is continually before me. He did not need to look out of window to find sorrow, he felt it within, and groaned under a body of sin which was an increasing plague to him. Deep conviction continues to irritate the conscience; it will not endure a patched up peace; but cries war to the knife till the enmity is slain. Until the Holy Ghost applies the precious blood of Jesus, a truly awakened sinner is covered with raw wounds which cannot be healed nor bound up, nor mollified with ointment.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 17. For I am ready to halt: to show my infirmity in my trials and afflictions; as Jacob halted after his wrestling with God. Genesis 32:31 . In the Greek, I am ready for scourges, that is, to suffer correction and punishment for my sins: so the Chaldee saith, for calamity. Henry Ainsworth.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 17. Mr. Ready to halt. His pedigree, and infirmity; his crutches, and his cure; his history, and safe departure.