Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom,
prisoners suffering in iron chains,
for they had rebelled against the words of God
and despised the counsel of the Most High.
Psalm 107:10,11
The cell is dark of itself, and the fear of
execution casts a still denser gloom over the
prison. Such is the cruelty of man to man that
tens of thousands have been made to linger in
places only fit to be tombs; unhealthy, suffocating,
filthy sepulchres, where they have sickened and
died of broken hearts.
The state of a soul under
conviction of sin is forcibly symbolized by such a
condition; persons in that state cannot see the promises
which would yield them comfort, they sit still in the
inactivity of despair, they fear the approach of judgment,
and are thereby as much distressed as if they were at
death’s door.
God’s words are not to be trifled with, and those who
venture on such rebellion will bring themselves into bondage.
When men do not follow the divine counsel they give the most
practical proof of their contempt for it. Those who will not
be bound by God’s law will, ere long, be bound by the fetters of
judgment. There is too much contemning of the divine counsel,
even among Christians, and hence so few of them know the liberty
where with Christ makes us free.
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) From The Treasury of David p.401 on Psalm 107:10,11
