…but He hath not given me over unto death. – Psalm 118:18

Our Father’s anger at our sin will never blaze into wrath against us, though in mercy He will smite our sins. Remember, then, this gracious boundary. “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death.” We have never yet experienced a trouble which might not have been worse. One affliction kills another: the wind never blows east and west at the same time. When the Lord smites you abound, so do consolations abound through Christ Jesus. The whole band of troubles never comes forth at once. Everything painful is graded and proportioned to the man and his strength, and the object for which it is sent. With the trial the Lord makes the way of escape that we may be able to bear it. Faith can see an end and limit where nature’s dim eye sees endless confusion. Where carnal sense-

“Sees every day new straits attend,
And wonders where the scene will end,”

faith looks over the intervening space, and comforts herself with that which is yet to come. Faith sings pleasant songs when she foots it over weary roads.

“The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,
So let’s smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song.”

The Lord keep your faith alive, my brethren and sisters, and then whatever trials surge around you, you will sit on the Rock of ages, above the waves, and joyfully sing praises unto your divine Deliverer! Oh, how sweet to say, as I now do, “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death”! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm