God of my life, to Thee I call,
Afflicted at Thy feet I fall;
When the great water-floods prevail,
Leave not my trembling heart to fail!

Friend of the friendless and the faint!
Where should I lodge my deep complaint?
Where but with Thee, whose open door
Invites the helpless and the poor?

Did ever mourner plead with Thee,
And Thou refuse that mourner's plea?
Does not the word still fixed remain
That none shall seek Thy face in vain?

That were a grief I could not bear,
Didst Thou not hear and answer prayer;
But a prayer-hearing, answering God,
Supports me under every load.

Fair is the lot that's cast for me,
I have an Advocate with Thee:
They whom the world caresses most,
Have no such privilege to boast.
   
Poor though I am, despised, forgot,
Yet God, my God, forgets me not;   
And he is safe, and must succeed,
For whom the Lord vouchsafes to plead.
                       William Cowper


Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.  Psalms 130:1

.....surely God’s children are often cast into very desperate cases, and plunged into deep miseries, to the end that they may send out of a contrite and feeling heart such prayers as may mount aloft and pierce the heavens.  When we are in prosperity our prayers come from our lips; and therefore the Lord is forced to cast us down, that our prayers may come from our hearts, and that our senses may be wakened from the security in which they are lying.  Albeit the throne of God be most high, yet he delighteth to hear the petition of hearts that are most low, that are most cast down by the sight of sin.  There is no affliction, neither any place so low (yea, if as low as the belly of the whale wherein Jonah lay) which can separate us from the love of the Lord, or stay our prayers from coming before him.  Those that are farthest cast down, are not farthest from God, but are nearest unto him.  God is near to a contrite heart, and it is the proper seat where his Spirit dwelleth:  Isaiah 46:2.  And thus God dealeth with us, as men do with such houses that they are minded to build sumptuously and on high; for then they dig deep grounds for the foundation.  Thus God purposing to make a fair show of Daniel, and the three children in Babel; of Joseph in Egypt; of David in Israel; he first threw them into the deep waters of afflictions.  Daniel is cast into the den of lions; the three children are thrown into the fiery furnace; Joseph is imprisoned; David exiled.  Yet all those he exalted and made glorious temples to himself.  Mark hereby the dulness of our nature, that is such, that God is forced to use sharp remedies to awaken us.  Jonah lay sleeping in the ship, when the tempest of God’s wrath was pursuing him:  God therefore threw him into the belly of the whale, and the bottom of the deep, that from those deep places he might cry to him.  When, therefore, we are troubled by heavy sickness, or poverty, or oppressed by the tyranny of men, let us make profit and use thereof, considering that God hath cast his best children into such dangers for their profit;and that it is better to be in deep dangers praying, than on high mountains of vanity playing.   
                                                                                                                                  Archibald Symson