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經文：「我在困苦中，祢曾使我寬廣。」（詩4:1） 這是一個最偉大的見證；他的感謝不是因為脫離苦難才被釋放，而是因為身處苦難卻得釋放：「我在困苦中，祢曾使我寬廣。」；他說的是：人生的困苦本身，就是人生寬廣的來源。 聖經上記載約瑟在牢獄中「...被鐵捆拘」（詩105:18）；約瑟當時所需要的正是鐵；因為他年少時所專注的，只有黃金的燦爛；所享受的，只是少年的夢幻；人生的悲哀，他卻沒有能力想像。而我們也就像約瑟，也都需要鐵來使我們寬廣；金不過是夢幻，鐵才是經歷。 親愛的讀者，如果你想要寬廣，就必須先受苦楚；約瑟的牢獄是他昇上高位的路徑。你如果沒有自己被鐵荷捆綁，你就無法取下你弟兄的鐵荷。神用悲哀的鐵鍊約束你，是為了使你寬廣。--馬德勝 Geo. Matheson 如果約瑟不做埃及的囚犯，他就絕不能做埃及的宰相；正是他腳上的鐵鏈，才能換得他頸上的金鏈。--選 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress" (Ps. 4:1). This is one of the grandest testimonies ever given by man to the moral government of God. It is not a man's thanksgiving that he has been set free from suffering. It is a thanksgiving that he has been set free through suffering: "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress." He declares the sorrows of life to have been themselves the source of life's enlargement. And have not you and I a thousand times felt this to be true? It is written of Joseph in the dungeon that "the iron entered into his soul." We all feel that what Joseph needed for his soul was just the iron. He had seen only the glitter of the gold. He had been rejoicing in youthful dreams; and dreaming hardens the heart. He who sheds tears over a romance will not be most apt to help reality; real sorrow will be too unpoetic for him. We need the iron to enlarge our nature. The gold is but a vision; the iron is an experience. The chain which unites me to humanity must be an iron chain. That touch of nature which makes the world akin is not joy, but sorrow; gold is partial, but iron is universal. My soul, if thou wouldst be enlarged into human sympathy, thou must be narrowed into limits of human suffering. Joseph's dungeon is the road to Joseph's throne. Thou canst not lift the iron load of thy brother if the iron hath not entered into thee. It is thy limit that is thine enlargement. It is the shadows of thy life that are the real fulfillment of thy dreams of glory. Murmur not at the shadows; they are better revelations than thy dreams. Say not that the shades of the prison-house have fettered thee; thy fetters are wings--wings of flight into the bosom of humanity. The door of thy prison-house is a door into the heart of the universe. God has enlarged thee by the binding of sorrow's chain.--George Matheson If Joseph had not been Egypt's prisoner, he had never been Egypt's governor. The iron chain about his feet ushered in the golden chain about his neck.--Selected ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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