Psalm 107:10

EXPOSITION

Verse 10. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The cell is dark of itself, and the fear of execution casts a still denser gloom over the prison. Such is the cruelty of man to man that tens of thousands have been made to linger in places only fit to be tombs; unhealthy, suffocating, filthy sepulchres, where they have sickened and died of broken hearts. Meanwhile the dread of sudden death has been the most hideous part of the punishment; the prisoners have felt as if the chill shade of death himself froze them to the very marrow. The state of a soul under conviction of sin is forcibly symbolized by such a condition; persons in that state cannot see the promises which would yield them comfort, they sit still in the inactivity of despair, they fear the approach of judgment, and are thereby as much distressed as if they were at death's door.

Being bound in affliction and iron. Many prisoners have been thus doubly fettered in heart and hand; or the text may mean that affliction becomes as an iron band to them, or that the iron chains caused them great affliction. None know these things but those who have felt them; we should prize our liberty more if we knew by actual experience what manacles and fetters mean. In a spiritual sense affliction frequently attends conviction of sin, and then the double grief causes a double bondage. In such cases the iron enters into the soul, the poor captives cannot stir because of their bonds, cannot rise to hope because of their grief, and have no power because of their despair. Misery is the companion of all those who are shut up and cannot come forth. O ye who are made free by Christ Jesus, remember those who are in bonds.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 10. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. Every son of Adam in his natural state before he is redeemed is in "darkness" and "the shadow of death", and is fast "bound" with the chains of sin and misery, and there is no help for him upon earth -- the Almighty God and Saviour alone is able to deliver him. -- William Romaine.