"Here deep calls to deep. Yet in the midst of those deeps faith is not drowned. You see it lifts its head above water."--_Bishop Hall._
"We perceive the Psalmist full of perplexed thought, and that betwixt strong desires and griefs, and yet in the midst of them intermixing strains of hope with his sad complaints.... What is the whole thread of our life but a chequered twist, black and white, of delights and dangers interwoven? And the happiest passing of it is, constantly to enjoy and to observe the experiences of God's goodness, and to praise Him for them."--_Archbishop Leighton_, 1649.
"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of the water-spouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."--_Verses 7, 8._
In the previous chapter we spoke of the two verses which form the turning-point in the Psalm,--the climax of the conflict therein so strikingly described between belief and unbelief. We referred to the boldness and expressiveness of the figure: the troubles of the believer, like the billows of the ocean calling on one another to unite their strength that they might effect his overthrow, but faith rising triumphant above them all. At times, when all human comfort gives way, God himself appears. "_The voice of the Lord is upon the waters._"[78] _He_ not only "commands His loving-kindness in the day-time," but "_in_ THE NIGHT _His song is with us_." Our heavenly Parent comes in earth's darkest, most tempestuous hours, sits by our side, sings His night-song--His own lullaby--"PEACE, BE STILL!" "_So giveth He His beloved sleep!_"[79] God's "songs" sound always sweetest "_by night_"--the deep, dark night of affliction. The nightingale's notes are nothing by day--they would be lost in the chorus of other birds; but when these have retired to their nests, she prolongs her tuneful descant, and serenades, with her warblings, the silent earth. The world can only give _its_ song _by day_. It can speak only in the sunshine of prosperity. But "God our Maker giveth _songs in the night_!"[80] His promises, like the nightingale, sound most joyously, and, like the glow-worm, shine most brightly, in _the dark_!