It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins—when under God's hand, we are not wholly consumed with our pain, but remember our offenses against him.

And notice this: it's wise to take both our sorrows and our sins to the same place. David brought his sorrow to God. David confessed his sin to God. The same God. The same throne.

So take your sorrows to God! Even your little sorrows you may roll upon him, for he counts the hairs of your head. Your great sorrows you may commit to him, for he holds the ocean in the hollow of his hand. Go to him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you shall find him able and willing to relieve you.

But we must take our sins to God too. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt and destroy their defiling power.

Now here is the special lesson of this text—we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit. Watch how David approaches God with both. When it comes to his suffering, all David says is: "Look upon mine affliction and my pain." That's it. But the next petition? Vastly more express, definite, decided, plain: "Forgive all my sins."

Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins." But David does not say so! He cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to thy wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to thee. I should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as thou wilt. But as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I must have them forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment."

A Christian counts sorrow lighter in the scale than sin; he can bear that his troubles should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.