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For evermore? - ודר לדר ledor vador, "to generation and generation." From race to race. Shall no mercy be shown even to the remotest generation of the children of the offenders?

Is his mercy clean gone for ever? - The word rendered “clean gone” means to fail; to fail utterly. The idea is, Can it be that the compassion of God has become exhausted - that no more mercy is to be shown to mankind - that henceforth all is to be left to stern and severe justice? What would the world be if this were so! What must be the condition of mankind if mercy were no more to be shown to the race!

Doth his promise fail for evermore? - Margin, as in Hebrew, “to generation and generation.” The original Hebrew rendered “promise” means “word;” and the question is, whether it can be that what God has spoken is to be found false. Can we no longer rely on what he has said? All the hopes of mankind depend on that, and if that should fail, all prospect of salvation in regard to our race must be at an end.

Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. In the day of his trouble the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must pray it away. He pored upon the trouble; the methods that should have relieved him did but increase his grief. When he remembered God, it was only the Divine justice and wrath. His spirit was overwhelmed, and sank under the load. But let not the remembrance of the comforts we have lost, make us unthankful for those that are left. Particularly he called to remembrance the comforts with which he supported himself in former sorrows. Here is the language of a sorrowful, deserted soul, walking in darkness; a common case even among those that fear the Lord, Isa 50:10. Nothing wounds and pierces like the thought of God's being angry. God's own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make wrong conclusions about their spiritual state, and that of God's kingdom in the world. But we must not give way to such fears. Let faith answer them from the Scripture. The troubled fountain will work itself clear again; and the recollection of former times of joyful experience often raises a hope, tending to relief. Doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith. Despondency and distrust under affliction, are too often the infirmities of believers, and, as such, are to be thought upon by us with sorrow and shame. When, unbelief is working in us, we must thus suppress its risings.