Morning, April 12
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Psalms 22:14
"My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul.
"The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit
who can bear?" Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all
trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry
to his God, "Be not far from me," for above all other seasons a man
needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness.
Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King
of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and
inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a
faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our
infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly
from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father's love, enter into
near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair,
since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls
may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the
light of the Lord's countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves
with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops
of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how
high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus,
like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown
all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and
float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor
broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and
only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he
will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own
love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his
feet forever.