Psalms 116:3-4

Psalms 116:3-4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

He felt as if he had been hunted. As in hunting, they sometimes surround the stag with dogs as with a cordon, so he says, "the sorrows of death compassed me. There was no getting away. I was in a circle of sorrow." Worse than that, his pains of conscience and heart were so great that he says, "The pains of hell gat hold upon me" - got the grip of him, as though he were arrested by them - as though those dogs had come so close as to seize and grasp him. "Then," says he, "I called." At the worst extremity he prayed. There is no time too bad to pray in. When it is all over with you, still pray. Often the end of yourself is the beginning of your God. He means to get you away from every other confidence, that you may fling yourself upon him. "Then called I upon the name of the Lord." And what was the prayer? A very short one: "O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my soul." God does not measure prayers by the yard. It is not by the length but by the weight. If there is life, earnestness, heart in your prayer, it is all the better for being short. Read the Bible through, and you will scarcely find a long prayer. Prayers that come from the soul are often like arrows shot from the bow - quick, short, sharp; and God hears such prayers as these - "O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my soul."