The throng of our thoughts.
It is not difficult to see how the experiences which are more or less plainly referred to in this psalm should produce a "multitude of thoughts." The text reminds us that—
I. THOUGHTS COME IN THRONGS. To one standing on the golden gallery that surmounts the dome of St. Paul's in London, and looking down on the streets below, the sight of the thronging multitudes of people, hastening hither and thither, each intent on his or her own business, the traffic never ceasing, is very striking. How the people come and, some one way, some another, crossing and recrossing each other, never still for a moment,—it is all a picture of the minds of most men. Who could count or remember the multitude of thoughts that pass and repass, that come and go across the pathways of the mind? It is an incessant traffic, a concourse that is never still. And they are of all kinds, good, bad, and indifferent, grave and gay, coming one scarce knows whence, and going one as little knows whither.
II. MANY OF THEM OFTEN LEAVE THE SOUL SAD. There are those of an opposite character, and by God's mercy they are the most numerous and ordinary. And there are people who seem never to think seriously at all—the mere butterflies of life. But the Christian cannot be one of them. We know what our Lord said of the "wayside" hearers. The good seed never takes root there. But the soul awakened to things that are eternal must often think seriously, and, not seldom, sadly likewise. It was so with the writer of this psalm. To him also the enigmas of this unintelligible world came clamouring for solution, as they do still. "Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph?" (Psalms 94:3). That was to him one of the many inexplicable and heart saddening facts of life. And how many minds are today agitated, perplexed, well nigh shipwrecked, and their lives darkened by the mysteries they must meet, but cannot comprehend? But—
III. GOD HAS PROVIDED RELIEF FOR SUCH SOULS. Indeed, much more than simply relief. He has provided "delight" for them. Unquestionably—blessed be his holy Name for it!—God has done this. The testimony of saints in all ages has shown that God giveth "songs in the night." See the life and letters of men like Paul; above all, listen to "the Man of sorrows" himself telling of his "joy," and praying that it may "be fulfilled" in his disciples. And there are children of God now plunged in poverty or pain, or both, and yet who know and confess that God is their "exceeding Joy."
IV. THIS IS ACCOMPLISHED BY MEANS OF HIS "COMFORTS." "Thy comforts delight," etc.
1. They are of God. Those that this world supplies could never accomplish this.
2. They come through various channels. Sometimes through Nature—her calm and beauty and grandeur uplift the soul. Or through revelation. Think of all the "exceeding great and precious promises." Or through providence. Or by his Spirit in the soul. This best of all.
V. THE CONDITION IS—TRUST IN GOD.—S.C.