Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 142:4

(last clause). The burden of souls.

1. What is meant by care for souls? a) To have a firm conviction of their value. b) To cherish tender solicitude for their welfare. c) To feel alarming apprehensions of their danger. d) To make zealous exertions for their salvation.

2. Who ought specially to exercise this care? a) Parents. b) Teachers. c) Ministers. d) Members.

3. The criminality of neglect. a) It is ungrateful. b) It is cruel. c) It is fatal. —W.W. Wythe, in "The Pulpit Analyst", 1870.

Verses 4-5.

1. A terrible plight; no friend, no helper, no pitying heart.

2. A touching prayer. A cry and a saying.

Verses 4-5.

1. Human help fails most when most needed. a) In outward troubles: "I looked", etc. b) In soul troubles: "No man cared for my soul."

2. Divine help is most given when most needed. A refuge and a portion when all others fail. Man has many friends in prosperity, one only in adversity. —G.R.

Verses 4-5.

1. Why the saints make God their refuge, and the object of their faith and hope in their greatest afflictions. a) God has given himself to the saints, in the covenant of grace, to be their God, and has promised that they shall be his people. b) God stands in a most near relation to the saints, and condescends to sustain many endearing characters of love, which he fulfils to their advantage. c) The saints, through the power of God's grace upon their souls, have chosen him for their portion, and their highest felicity.

2. What perfections there are in God that render him a safe refuge for the saints, and a proper object of their confidence. a) God is infinite in mercy. b) God is infallible in wisdom. c) God is boundless in power. d) God is omniscient and omnipresent. d) God is a Being whose love never changes. e) God is an independent Being, and the Governor and Director of all things.

3. The many sweet advantages, arising to the saints, from this practice of making God their refuge, in their greatest troubles. a) They have been preserved from fainting under their heavy burdens. b) They have derived from God new and seasonable supplies of divine grace and strength for service. c) God has refreshed his saints with divine consolations for the future. —John Farmer, 1744.