[James 4:3-5] pictures the church as the wife of God. God has made us for Himself and has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Therefore it is adultery when we try to be “friends” with the world. If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows. And, what’s worse, when we go to our Heavenly Husband and actually pray for the resources with which to commit adultery with the world, it is a very wicked thing. It is as though we should ask our husband for money to hire male prostitutes to provide the pleasure we don’t find in Him!
John Piper

Spurgeon PS1818

Spurgeon PS1818

EXPOSITION.

It was an ill day, a day of _calamity_, of which evil foes took cruel advantage while they used crafty means utterly to ruin him, yet David could say, “_but the Lord is my stay_.” What a blessed _but_ which cuts the Gordian knot, and slays the hundred-headed hydra! There is no fear of deliverance when our stay is in Jehovah.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Verse 18.–“_They prevented me in the day of my calamity_;” i.e., came on me suddenly unawares, when I was unprovided and helpless, and must have destroyed me had not God upheld and supported me when I was in danger of perishing. God was to the Psalmist _mish