I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
The verse is gladness and rejoicing in mercy because trouble has been considered and the soul has been known in adversities. That knowing is personal, a taking notice of the speaker and an acquaintance with the inner life through times of adversity. What comes immediately after makes the mercy concrete, for the troubled one is not abandoned into the hand of the enemy but is brought into a broad place of safety and freedom.
The same words belong to Christ in his sharing of human suffering and affliction. The whole psalm is a prophetic word-picture uncovering his inner experience in his struggles with the enemy. Read alongside the Gospels it discloses what he felt under temptations like those others face, deepening knowledge of him as a close and sustaining friend.
The verse is gladness and rejoicing in mercy because trouble has been considered and the soul has been known in adversities. That knowing is personal, a taking notice of the speaker and an acquaintance with the inner life through times of adversity. What comes immediately after makes the mercy concrete, for the troubled one is not abandoned into the hand of the enemy but is brought into a broad place of safety and freedom.
The same words belong to Christ in his sharing of human suffering and affliction. The whole psalm is a prophetic word-picture uncovering his inner experience in his struggles with the enemy. Read alongside the Gospels it discloses what he felt under temptations like those others face, deepening knowledge of him as a close and sustaining friend.