O LORD JESUS, My Salvation

"Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me." -Psalm 38:4 [KJV]

Though there may be pleasures in sin for a season, yet at the last, “it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” O come hither and see, how the venom of sin has overspread poor David’s whole frame. Read this Psalm. Mark the anguish of his conscience, and the distress of his soul; and say, is not sin exceedingly sinful? What pain, out of hell, can be compared to the anguish of a guilty conscience? But better, infinitely better, to smart for sin here, than to cry out under the smart of sin and hell. 

Conviction of sin by the Spirit, is in order to cleansing of sin by the blood of Christ. Better to roar from disquietude of the soul on earth, than to sleep secure in sin, till we drop into and roar for sin in the bottomless pit. One or other will be the portion of all flesh. Two similes are before us, expressive of David’s distress. 

(1st.) “Mine iniquities are gone over mine head.” He was like a man in the greatest danger of drowning; overwhelmed with distress, like one whose head was under water. His iniquities caused his soul to sink within him. 

 (2d.) They were as a heavy burden. He had greater weight upon him, than he could stand under. He cries out, as though ready to be crushed by its ponderous load, “They are too heavy for me.” 

(3d.) Look at his cry, and hear upon Whom he calls. “Make haste to help me, O LORD my salvation” (vs. 22.) Though sinking under, and pressed down with his iniquities on his conscience, yet he had salvation in view, and the Lord of his salvation as his hope. O Lord, MY Jesus! Now, can you be in a worse plight than David was? Can you be under more distressing circumstances? He was sinking in deep waters, with a ponderous load upon him. In such a state, you may discover whether your convictions are evangelical, and you possess the faith of God’s elect or not. Legal convictions only fill the soul with terror, drive it from God, and leave it in despair without hope. 

Convictions from the Spirit, the Comforter, lead the soul to Christ: and the faith, hope, and cry of the soul will be, after the help and salvation of Jesus only. For He is “the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world.” Behold Him, O my soul, under every sense of guilt. Believe Him, under every dejection of soul; for He hath assured us, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” -Matthew 12:31

 

When sin does weigh my spirits down, 

And dread besets my soul; 

Lord, then Thy sacrifice I’ll own, 

Thy blood can make me whole. 

I bless the Spirit’s holy grace, 

Who doth convince of sin, 

And leads me to my Saviour’s face, 

For pard’ning love within.

 

-preacher Wm. Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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