Paul here makes a general observation and then shares a specific testimony. First, he says, God comforts those who are cast down.
Over and over in Scripture we are reminded that it is precisely those who have fallen on their face before God who will be lifted up. It is the humble who will be exalted, and it is those who lose their life who will find it.
God, it seems, delights to show his abounding sufficiency in the weakness and shortcomings of his people. Therefore, we can rest assured that God will come to those who are spiritually cast down and will lift them up by his grace.
Paul further offers this, not only as a general observation concerning the goodness of God, but as a particular experience of his own life. This was, in other words, not a theoretical contention for Paul. “God comforts the disheartened,” Paul says; “I know, because He has comforted me.”
Paul himself knew what it was to be cast down, to be discouraged, to have doubts and fears. Believer, perhaps you have been thinking you are the only one who wrestles with such obstacles to joy. Not so… every Christian must learn over and again to live by faith, and not by sight.
When we do so, and look to Christ for our sufficiency, our experience will be the same as Paul’s — God will comfort us, as he does all who are cast down.
