This verse is one of the greatest testimonies ever written regarding the effectiveness of God’s work on our behalf during times of crisis. It is a statement of thanksgiving for having been set free not from suffering but rather through suffering.

In stating, “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress,” the psalmist is declaring that the sorrows of life have themselves been the source of life’s enlargement.

Haven’t each of us experienced this a thousand times and found it to be true? Someone once said of Joseph that when he was in the dungeon, “iron entered his soul.” And the strength of iron is exactly what he needed, for earlier he had only experienced the glitter of gold. He had been rejoicing in youthful dreams, and dreaming actually hardens the heart. Someone who sheds great tears over a simple romance will not be of much help in a real crisis, for true sorrow will be too deep for him. We all need the iron in life to enlarge our character. The gold is simply a passing vision, whereas the iron is the true experience of life. The chain that is the common bond uniting us to others must be one of iron. The common touch of humanity that gives the world true kinship is not joy but sorrow—gold is partial to only a few, but iron is universal.

Dear soul, if you want your sympathy for others to be enlarged, you must be willing to have your life narrowed to certain degrees of suffering. Joseph’s dungeon was the very road to his throne, and he would have been unable to lift the iron load of his brothers had he not experienced the iron in his own life. Your life will be enlarged in proportion to the amount of iron you have endured, for it is in the shadows of your life that you will find the actual fulfillment of your dreams of glory. So do not complain about the shadows of darkness—in reality, they are better than your dreams could ever be. Do not say that the darkness of the prison has shackled you, for your shackles are wings—wings of flight into the heart and soul of humanity. And the gate of your prison is the gate into the heart of the universe. God has enlarged you through the suffering of sorrow’s chain.

If Joseph had never been Egypt’s prisoner, he would have never been Egypt’s governor. The iron chain that bound his feet brought about the golden chain around his neck.

It is a little thing to trust God as far as we can see Him, as far as the way lies open before us; but to trust Him when we are hedged in on every side and can see no way to escape, this is good and acceptable with God. This is the faith of Abraham, our father.

“Under . . . hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed” (Romans 4:18 WNT).

Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, once said: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”

The greatest men, without God, are nothing but dismal failures.

The devil may wall you ’round But he cannot roof you in; He may fetter your feet and tie your hands And strive to hamper your soul with bands As his way has ever been; But he cannot hide the face of God And the Lord shall be your light, And your eyes and your thoughts can rise to the sky, Where His clouds and His winds and His birds go by, And His stars shine out at night.

The devil may wall you ’round; He may rob you of all things dear, He may bring his hardest and roughest stone And thinks to cage you and keep you alone, But he may not press too near; For the Lord has planted a hedge inside, And has made it strong and tall, A hedge of living and growing green; And ever it mounts and keeps between The trusting soul and the devil’s wall.

The devil may wall you ’round, But the Lord’s hand covers you, And His hedge is a thick and thorny hedge, And the devil can find no entering wedge Nor get his finger through; He may circle about you all day long, But he cannot work as he would, For the will of the Lord restrains his hand, And he cannot pass the Lord’s command And his evil turns to good.

The devil may wall you ’round, With his gray stones, row on row, But the green of the hedge is fresh and fair, And within its circle is space to spare, And room for your soul to grow; The wall that shuts you in May be hard and high and stout, But the Lord is sun and the Lord is dew, And His hedge is coolness and shade for you, And no wall can shut Him out.