Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. – Psalm 38:4
Though there may be pleasures in sin for a season, yet, at the last, "it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like au 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 "exceeding sinful?" What pain out of hell can be compared to the pain of a guilty conscience? But better, infinitely better, to smart for sin here, than to cry out of the smart of sin in hell. Conviction of sin by the Spirit is in order to cleansing from sin by the blood of Christ. Better to weep from the disquietude of one's soul on earth, than to sleep secure in sin till we weep for sin in the bottomless pit: one or other will be the portion of all flesh.
Two comparisons are before us expressive of David's distress. "Mine iniquities are gone over mine head." He was like a man m the greatest danger of drowning: overwhelmed in distress, like one whose head was under water: his iniquities caused his soul to sink within him. They were "as a heavy burden." He had greater weight upon him than he could bear. He cries out, as though ready to be crushed by its ponderous load, "they are too heavy for me."
Look at his cry, and hear upon whom be calls: "Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation." Psalm 38:22. Though pressed down with iniquities on his conscience, yet he had salvation in view, and the Lord of his salvation as his hope. O Lord, my salvation. Now, can you be in a worse state than David wast. Can you be in more distressing circumstances? He was sinking in deep waters. 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. Convictions from the Spirit, the Comforter, lead the soul to Christi 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." Matt. 12:31.