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Lamentations
Chapter Two
Lamentations 2
Chapter Contents
Lamentation for the misery of Jerusalem.
Commentary on Lamentations 2:1-9
(Read Lamentations 2:1-9)
A sad representation is here made of the state of God's
church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand
of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he
is angry with them and corrects them. And gates and bars stand in no stead when
God withdraws his protection. It is just with God to cast down those by
judgments, who debase themselves by sin; and to deprive those of the benefit
and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed
them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those
who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though
painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted up
against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries.
Commentary on Lamentations 2:10-22
(Read Lamentations 2:10-22)
Causes for lamentation are described. Multitudes perished
by famine. Even little children were slain by their mother's hands, and eaten,
according to the threatening, Deuteronomy 28:53. Multitudes fell by the sword.
Their false prophets deceived them. And their neighbours laughed at them. It is
a great sin to jest at others' miseries, and adds much affliction to the
afflicted. Their enemies triumphed over them. The enemies of the church are apt
to take its shocks for its ruins; but they will find themselves deceived. Calls
to lamentation are given; and comforts for the cure of these lamentations are
sought. Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest; a remedy for every
malady, even the most grievous. Our business in prayer is to refer our case to
the Lord, and leave it with him. His will be done. Let us fear God, and walk
humbly before him, and take heed lest we fall.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Lamentations》
Lamentations 2
Verse 1
[1] How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a
cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of
Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
His footstool — His temple; but suffered the
Chaldeans to destroy it.
Cast down — That is, thrown them down from
the highest glory and honour, to the meanest degree of servitude.
Verse 2
[2] The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob,
and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the
daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted
the kingdom and the princes thereof.
Polluted — Dealt with them as with a polluted thing; cast them
off, brake them in pieces.
Verse 3
[3] He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of
Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned
against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
The horn — All their beauty and strength.
Drawn back — God hath drawn back his
assistance which he was wont to give the Jews against their enemies.
Round about — God consumed them, not in this or
that part, but round about, as a fire seizing an house at once on all sides.
Verse 4
[4] He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his
right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the
tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.
He — That is, God, (whom by their sins they had provoked
and made their enemy) behaved himself as an enemy.
And slew — All their young men, and maidens who were pleasant to
look upon.
Verse 6
[6] And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if
it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD
hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath
despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
His tabernacle — His temple.
The places — The synagogues.
The king — By the king and the priests are meant persons of
greatest rank and eminency, though it is thought here is a special reference to
Zedekiah the king of Judah, and Seraiah who was the high priest; the former of
which was miserably handled, the latter slain.
Verse 7
[7] The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his
sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her
palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a
solemn feast.
They — The enemies with their triumphs and blasphemies, made
as great a noise, as those that sang holy songs, or played on instruments, were
wont to make to the glory of God.
Verse 8
[8] The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the
daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand
from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they
languished together.
The wall — The strength and security of the Jews.
A line — Artificers used with lines not only to mark out places
for building, but also for destruction, to direct them what to cut off; and
such a line is here meant.
Verse 9
[9] Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed
and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law
is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
Among the Gentiles — In miserable
captivity.
The law — Is no more read, opened or observed.
Her prophets — They had but very few prophets,
from this time to the time of the gospel, and very few of those at this time
alive had any revelation from God.
Verse 10
[10] The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground,
and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded
themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to
the ground.
The virgins — The whole city is in a mournful
posture.
Verse 11
[11] Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my
liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my
people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the
city.
Mine eyes — This whole verse is but
expressive of the prophets great affliction for the miseries come upon the
Jews. He wept himself almost blind.
Bowels — His passion had disturbed his bodily humours, that his
bowels were troubled.
Liver — His gall lying under his liver. All these are
expressions of great affliction and sorrow.
Swoon — During the famine, occasioned by the long siege.
Verse 12
[12] They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when
they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was
poured out into their mothers' bosom.
Bosom — When they died in their mother's arms.
Verse 13
[13] What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing
shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee,
that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great
like the sea: who can heal thee?
Who — There was no people whose condition was in any degree
parallel to the misery of the Jews: nor was there any cure for them, their
breach was like a sea breach where the waters come in with such a torrent, that
there is no making any defence against them.
Verse 14
[14] Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee:
and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but
have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
The prophets — False prophets told you vain
stories.
Not discovered — Whereas they ought to have made
you sensible of your sins, and this might have prevented your captivity.
False burdens — False stories to encourage you in
sin, and so cause your banishment.
Verse 18
[18] Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter
of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest;
let not the apple of thine eye cease.
O wall — That is, those that are upon it.
Verse 20
[20] Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done
this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the
priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Whom — Not the Heathen, but to thy own people.
Women — Wilt thou suffer women to satisfy their hunger with
the fruit of their own bodies?
Verse 22
[22] Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round
about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: those
that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
My terrors — As my people were wont to be
called together from all parts in a solemn day, so now my terrible enemies, or
terrible things are by thee called together.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Lamentations》
02 Chapter 2
Verses 1-9
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in ms
anger.
Chastisements
1. It is our duty to strive with ourselves to be affected with the
miseries of God’s people.
2. The chastisements and corrections that God layeth upon His Church
are most wonderful.
3. God spareth not to smite His dearest children when they sin
against Him.
4. The higher God advanceth any, the greater is their punishment in
the day of their visitation for their sins.
5. The most beautiful thing in this world is base in respect of the
majesty and glory of the Lord.
6. God’s anger against sin moveth Him to destroy the things that He
commanded for His own service, when they are abused by men. (J. Udall.)
The Lord hath swallowed up
all the habitations of Jacob.
Spoiled habitations
1. It is the hand of God that taketh away the flourishing estate of a
kingdom (Daniel 4:29).
2. As God is full of mercy in His long-suffering, so is His anger
unappeasable when it breaketh out against the sons of men for their sins (Jeremiah 4:4).
3. God depriveth us of a great blessing when He taketh from us our
dwelling places.
4. There is no assurance of worldly possessions and peace, but in the
favour of God.
5. God overthroweth the greatest strength that man can erect, even at
His pleasure.
6. It is a mark of God’s wrath, to be deprived of strength, courage,
or any other necessary gift, when we stand in need of them.
7. It is the sin of the Church that causeth the Lord to spoil the
same of any blessing that she hath heretofore enjoyed.
8. These being taken away in God’s anger, teacheth us that it is the
good blessing of God to have a kingdom, to have strongholds, munitions, etc.,
for a defence against their enemies.
9. The more God honoureth us with His blessings, the greater shall be
our dishonour if we abuse them, when He entereth “into judgment” with us for
the same. (J. Udall.)
He hath cut off in His
fierce anger all the horn of Israel.--
Strength despoiled
1. Strength and honour are in the Lord’s disposition, to be given,
continued, or taken away at His pleasure.
2. When God’s favour is towards us, it is our shield against our
enemies; but when He meaneth to punish us, He leaveth us unto ourselves.
3. Though God’s justice be severe against sin in all men, yet is it
most manifest in His Church, having sinned against Him.
Verses 1-9
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in ms
anger.
Chastisements
1. It is our duty to strive with ourselves to be affected with the
miseries of God’s people.
2. The chastisements and corrections that God layeth upon His Church
are most wonderful.
3. God spareth not to smite His dearest children when they sin
against Him.
4. The higher God advanceth any, the greater is their punishment in
the day of their visitation for their sins.
5. The most beautiful thing in this world is base in respect of the
majesty and glory of the Lord.
6. God’s anger against sin moveth Him to destroy the things that He
commanded for His own service, when they are abused by men. (J. Udall.)
The Lord hath swallowed up
all the habitations of Jacob.
Spoiled habitations
1. It is the hand of God that taketh away the flourishing estate of a
kingdom (Daniel 4:29).
2. As God is full of mercy in His long-suffering, so is His anger
unappeasable when it breaketh out against the sons of men for their sins (Jeremiah 4:4).
3. God depriveth us of a great blessing when He taketh from us our
dwelling places.
4. There is no assurance of worldly possessions and peace, but in the
favour of God.
5. God overthroweth the greatest strength that man can erect, even at
His pleasure.
6. It is a mark of God’s wrath, to be deprived of strength, courage,
or any other necessary gift, when we stand in need of them.
7. It is the sin of the Church that causeth the Lord to spoil the
same of any blessing that she hath heretofore enjoyed.
8. These being taken away in God’s anger, teacheth us that it is the
good blessing of God to have a kingdom, to have strongholds, munitions, etc.,
for a defence against their enemies.
9. The more God honoureth us with His blessings, the greater shall be
our dishonour if we abuse them, when He entereth “into judgment” with us for
the same. (J. Udall.)
He hath cut off in His
fierce anger all the horn of Israel.--
Strength despoiled
1. Strength and honour are in the Lord’s disposition, to be given,
continued, or taken away at His pleasure.
2. When God’s favour is towards us, it is our shield against our
enemies; but when He meaneth to punish us, He leaveth us unto ourselves.
3. Though God’s justice be severe against sin in all men, yet is it
most manifest in His Church, having sinned against Him.
Verse 4-5
He hath bent His bow like an enemy.
God as an enemy
If God is tormenting His people in fierce anger, it must be
because He is their enemy--so the sad-hearted patriot reasons. First, we have
the earthly side of the process. The daughter of Zion is covered with a
cloud--a metaphor more striking in the brilliant East than in our habitually
sombre climate. There it would suggest unwonted gloom--the loss of the
customary light of heaven, rare distress, and excessive melancholy. But there
is more than gloom. A mere cloud may lift, and discover everything unaltered by
the passing shadow. The distress that has fallen on Jerusalem is not thus
superficial and transient. She herself has suffered a fatal fall. The Language
is now varied; instead of “the daughter of Zion” we have “the beauty of
Israel.” The use of the larger title, Israel, is not a little significant. It
shows that the elegist is alive to the idea of the fundamental unity of his
race, a unity which could not be destroyed by centuries of intertribal warfare.
It has been suggested with probability that by the expression “the beauty of
Israel” the elegist intended to indicate the temple. This magnificent pile of
buildings, crowning one of the hills of Jerusalem, and shining with gold in
“barbaric splendour,” was the central object of beauty among all the people who
revered the worship it enshrined. Its situation would naturally suggest the
language here employed. Still keeping in mind the temple, the poet tells us
that God has forgotten His footstool. He seems to be thinking of the mercy seat
over the ark, the spot at which God was thought to show Himself propitious to
Israel on the great day of atonement, and which was looked upon as the very
centre of the Divine presence. No miracle intervenes to punish the heathen for
their sacrilege. Yes, surely God must have forgotten His footstool! So it seems
to the sorrowful Jew, perplexed at the impunity with which this crime has been
committed. But the mischief is not confined to the central shrine. It has
extended to remote country regions and simple rustic folk. The shepherd’s hut
has shared the fate of the temple of the Lord. All the habitations of Jacob--a
phrase which in the original points to country cottages--have been swallowed
up. The holiest is not spared on account of its sanctity, neither is the
lowliest on account of its obscurity. The calamity extends to all districts, to
all things, to all classes. If the shepherd’s cot is contrasted with the temple
and the ark because of its simplicity, the fortress may be contrasted with this
defenceless hut because of its strength. Yet even the strongholds have been
thrown down. More than this, the action of the Jews’ army has been paralysed by
the God who had been its strength and support in the glorious olden time. It is
as though the right hand of the warrior had been seized from behind and drawn
back at the moment when it was raised to strike a blow for deliverance. The
consequence is that the flower of the army, “all that were pleasant to the
eye,” are slain. Israel herself is swallowed up, while her palaces and fortresses
are demolished. The climax of this mystery of Divine destruction is reached
when God destroys His own temple. The elegist returns to the dreadful subject
as though fascinated by the terror of it. According to the strict translation
of the original, God is mid to have violently taken away His tabernacle “as a
garden.” At the siege of a city the fruit gardens that encircle it are the
first victims of the destroyer’s axe. Lying out beyond the walls they are
entirely unprotected, while the impediments they offer to the movements of
troops and instruments of war induce the commander to order their early
demolition. Thus Titus had the trees cleared from the Mount of Olives, so that
one of the first incidents in the Roman siege of Jerusalem must have been the
destruction of the Garden of Gethsemane. Now the poet compares the ease with
which the great, massive temple--itself a powerful fortress, and enclosed
within the city wails--was demolished, with the simple process of scouring the
outlying gardens. The deeper thought that God rejects His sanctuary because His
people have first rejected Him is not brought forward just now. Yet this
solution of the mystery is prepared by a contemplation of the utter failure of
the old ritual of atonement. Evidently that is not always effective, for here
it has broken down entirely; then can it ever be inherently efficacious? It
cannot be enough to trust to a sanctuary and ceremonies which God Himself
destroys. The first thing to be noticed in this unhestitating ascription to God
of positive enmity is the striking evidence it contains of faith in the Divine
power, presence, and activity. The victorious army of the Babylonians filled
the field as completely in the old time as that of the Germans in the modern
event. Yet the poet simply ignores its existence. He passes it with sublime
indifference, his mind filled with the thought of the unseen Power behind. He
knows that the action of the true God is supreme in everything that happens,
whether the event be favourable or unfavourable to His people. Perhaps it is
only owing to the dreary materialism of current thought that we should be less
likely to discover an indication of the enmity of God in some huge national
calamity. Still, although this idea of the elegist is a fruit of his unshaken
faith in the universal sway of God, it startles and shocks us, and we shrink
from it almost as though it contained some blasphemous suggestion. Is the
elegist only expressing his own feelings? Have we a right to affirm that there
can be no objective truth in the awful idea of the enmity of God? In the first
place, we have no warrant for asserting that God will never act in direct and
intentional opposition to any of His creatures. There is one obvious occasion
when He certainly does this. The man who resists the laws of nature finds those
laws working against him. The laws of nature are, as Kingsley said, but the
ways of God. If they are opposing a man, God is opposing that man. But God does
not confine His action to the realm of physical processes. His providence works
through the whole course of events in the world’s history. What we see
evidently operating in nature we may infer to be equally active in less visible
regions. Then, if we believe in a God who rules and works in the world, we
cannot suppose that His activity is confined to aiding what is good. It is
unreasonable to imagine that He stands aside in passive negligence of evil. And
if He concerns Himself to thwart evil, what is this but manifesting Himself as
the enemy of the evil-doer? It may be contended, on the other side, that there
is a world of difference between antagonistic actions and unfriendly feelings,
and that the former by no means imply the latter. Still, for the time being,
the opposition is a reality, and a reality which to all intents and purposes is
one of enmity, since it resists, frustrates, hurts. Nor is this all. We have no
reason to deny that God can have real anger. We must believe that Jesus Christ
was as truly revealing the Father when He was moved with indignation as when He
was moved with compassion. His mission was a war against all evil, and
therefore, though not waged with carnal weapons, a war against evil men. The
Jewish authorities were perfectly right in perceiving this fact. They
persecuted Him as their enemy; and He was their enemy. This statement is no
contradiction to the gracious truth that He desired to save all men, and
therefore even these men. If God’s enmity to any soul were eternal, it would
conflict with His love. But if He is at the present time actively opposing a
man, and if He is doing this in anger, in the wrath of righteousness against
sin, it is only quibbling with words to deny that for the time being He is a
very real enemy to that man. (W. P. Adeney, M. A.)
The Divine anger
1. Where God is angry, there is nothing to be looked for but
destruction and ill success in all things.
2. God punisheth sin in His children in this world as severely as ii
they were reprobates.
3. Though God show all outward signs of enmity against His Church,
yet is His love everlasting thereunto.
4. God’s anger is never in vain, but effecteth punishment upon them
with whom He is angry.
5. God regardeth not the most precious things that are amongst the
sons of men, in respect of declaring His justice against sin. (J. Udall.)
The Lord was as an enemy.
Divine displeasure
I. This oft
repeating of one thing teacheth that it is hard to persuade God’s people
rightly to judge of and he afflicted with the afflictions that are upon them.
2. God hath no need of any people, but all have need of Him.
3. God will increase His plagues upon His children, where sin without
repentance is increased.
4. God giveth many causes of sorrow when He punisheth His people.
(a) Labour with ourselves that we may be affected with the crosses
that are upon us.
(b) Seek to Him alone for succour in the time of our sorrow. (J.
Udall.)
Verses 6-9
He hath violently taken away His tabernacle.
Divine destruction
Jehovah is here represented as throwing down His own temple, as
treating it as if it were a temporary shelter, as disregarding all its glory,
and merely throwing it from Him as men might tear down and east away a shed
from an orchard, a garden, or a field. Who can set a measure to the wrath of
God? Continually does the Lord assert that He will have nothing to do with mere
form or ceremony, with mere locality or consecration; He will only accept
living obedience, living faithfulness, living sacrifice. He will have no mercy
upon polluted temples and polluted altars; nor will His own Book be spared ii
men have used it as an idol: He will destroy and utterly drive away everything
that once was sacred if it has been perverted to unholy purposes. Let not men
say that they will be safe in God’s temple from God’s wrath, because when law
has been violated there is no sanctuary where God will regard man as safe from
the visitation of His penal sword. How living and real does all this make the
providence of heaven! How near does this bring God to our daily life and
conduct! (J. Parker, D. D.)
God destroying His own ordinances
1. It is the Lord alone that giveth safety unto His Church, or layeth
His people open to spoilers (Isaiah 5:5-6; Psalms 80:12-13).
2. No place on earth hath any holiness in it, or promise of a
continuance, further than it is holily used.
3. God is angry with His own ordinances, and layeth a curse upon
them, for the sins of those that abuse them (Psalms 74:5-7; Isaiah 1:13; Isaiah 6:10).
4. The Church of God on earth is not always visible and apparent to
the eyes of men (Revelation 12:14).
5. When God will afflict a people, He will spoil them of the means of
their peace and comfort (Isaiah 3:1-5).
6. It is a grievous plague of God for a people to be spoiled of their
rulers; and to enjoy them is a great blessing.
7. It is the heaviest judgment that God’s Church can have falling
upon her in this life, to be deprived of that holy ministry which should build
her up in true religion (Psalms 74:9; Micah 2:6). (J. Udall.)
The Lord hath cast off His
altar.
Altars destroyed
1. It is the duty of God’s people to labour their affections, that
they may be rightly touched with the loss of the outward exercises of religion.
2. When God is angry with His people, He will take from them the
outward signs of His favour.
3. When God’s people grow obstinate in their sins, He spoileth them
of all those things wherein they trust.
4. when the Church is spoiled, the commonwealth cannot go free.
5. The wicked could never prevail against the godly, but that God
giveth them into their hands.
6. God giveth the wicked (for the sins of His people) occasion to
blaspheme His name and to deride His holy ordinances. (J. Udall.)
The Lord hath purposed to
destroy the wall . . . of Zion.--
Privileges no protection
1. No privilege can free the impenitent sinners from the plague that
God meaneth to bring upon them, though they persuade themselves otherwise (Jeremiah 7:4).
2. The ruins of kingdoms and strong cities come to pass only by the
immutable decree of God; and not by fortune, man’s power, or any other thing (Daniel 4:22; 1 Samuel 15:26; 1 Samuel 15:28).
3. The Lord doth both decree his judgments and also determine the
measure of them (Daniel 4:29).
4. The dumb and senseless creatures do mourn according to their kind
when we are punished in them for our sins (Romans 8:22).
5. The sin of men bringeth strongest things to nothing when God
calleth them to an account (Isaiah 13:19-20).
6. God’s hand prevaileth as easily against the strongest and most as
the weakest and fewest. (J. Udall.)
Her gates are sunk into
the ground.--
Gates sunk
1. When God punisheth His people, He will especially destroy those
things wherein they put most confidence.
2. When God meaneth thoroughly to afflict a people, He will spoil
them of the means of their peace and comfort.
3. When God by punishments showeth His anger against a people, He
especially plagueth their princes and rulers,
4. It is a grievous punishment unto the godly to live with or to
serve them that are wicked (Psalms 120:4-5).
5. It is a fearful judgment to have the ministry of the Word that
heretofore we enjoyed, taken away from us (Psalms 74:9; Mark 6:10-11). (J. Udall.)
The desolations of Zion
I. The present
desolate and miserable state of the Hebrew nation. No people, since the
creation, are in so anomalous a state as the Jews--without a country or a city,
a temple or a service, a priest or a sacrifice, worthy of the name. Enter a
Jewish synagogue, and you will see “Ichabod is written on its walls”--“the
glory has departed”: it is no longer the “house of God” or “of prayer,” but “a
house of merchandise,” if not worse.
II. For such
stupendous evils “is there not a cause”? If the heinousness of sin he in
proportion to the favours which the sinner has received, or to the light
against which it has been committed, no ingratitude seems to be so great as
that of the Jewish nation.
III. The only remedy.
God, by the prophet Hosea, after charging Israel with complicated guilt, gives
a gleam of hope and a ray of mercy. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but
in Me is thy help.” This is the burden of my message today, that “with God
there is mercy, yea, plenteous redemption”; and that, though others can neither
profit nor deliver, He can and shall “redeem Israel from all his sins.”
IV. Answer
objections. One says, “This is not the time.” But who, I ask, is God’s time
keeper? Times and events are in God’s hands; and it is neither in our power,
nor would it be for our good, to know them. Who, then, can say what is not,
when he confessedly knows not what is the time? Again I ask, “For what is it
not the time?” For reaping?--for triumph? We never led you to expect it was;
but, for breaking up the ground it is always opportune. Again, “we shall
probably never live to see any fruits of our labours.” This we cannot know for
certain; and if we could, it is as selfish and ungenerous, as it is unwise, to
use such an argument. We may set up the hoard, or erect the scaffolding, or lay
the foundation: another generation may carry up the walls; and a third may put
the finishing stroke with shoutings, songs, and triumphs. “After all,” says
another, “you will do no real good you may make hypocrites of your converts,
and those only of the poorest, but you will not make Christians: the prejudices
of the Jew are too deeply rooted to be removed by a tract, or even by the New
Testament; your labour will therefore be in vain.” Formidable as this objection
is, it is as flimsy as it is false. We make Christians! We make no such
pretensions: it is not in us: this is God’s work--His high and exclusive
prerogative. Believers “are God’s husbandry, and God’s building.” “Is anything
too hard for the Lord?” is a key which will open any lock which unbelief shall
place in its way. One class of objectors, of all others the most to be lamented
and feared, is that who say, respecting the Jews, “Let them alone: do not
meddle with them: they will not attend to your instructions, nor have they any
wish to change their religion; besides, what need? one religion is as good as
another, if a man does but act up to that he has, and does as well as he can!
Bigotry and intolerance will do them more harm than good.” To this specious
reasoning I reply, It is criminal indifference, and cruel inhumanity, to let
men live and die in sin. True charity will make an effort to save those it
loves. We know, from bitter experience, in our own cases, that, if left to themselves,
the Israelites will not attend to us but God, who commanded, has promised his
blessing on our labours. Sinners must not be left to themselves. (J. W.
Niblock, D. D.)
Her prophets also find no
vision from the Lord.--
Prophets without a vision
In deploring the losses suffered by the daughter of Zion, the
elegist bewails the failure of her prophets to obtain a vision from Jehovah. To
understand the situation, we must recollect the normal place of prophecy in the
social life of Israel. The great prophets whose names and works have come down
to us in Scripture were always rare and exceptional men--voices crying in the
wilderness. Possibly they were not more scarce at this time than at other
periods. This was not an age like the time of Samuel’s youth, barren of Divine
voices. Yet the idea of the elegist is that the prophets who might be still
seen at the site of the city were deprived of visions. These must have been the
professional prophets, officials who had been trained in music and dancing to
appear as choristers on festive occasions, the equivalent of the modern
dervishes; but who were also sought after like the seer of Ramah, to whom young
Saul resorted for information about his father’s lost asses, as simple
soothsayers. Such assistance as these men were expected to give was no longer
forthcoming at the request of troubled souls. The low and sordid uses to which
everyday prophecy was degraded may incline us to conclude that the cessation of
it was no very great calamity, and perhaps to suspect that from first to last
the whole business was a mass of superstition affording large opportunities for
charlatanry. But it would be rash to adopt this extreme view without a fuller
consideration of the subject. The prophets were regarded as the media of communication
between heaven and earth. It was because of the low and narrow habits of the
people that their gifts were often put to low and narrow uses which savoured
rather of superstition than of devotion. The belief that God did not only
reveal His will to great persons and on momentous occasions, helped to make
Israel a religions nation. That there were humble gifts of prophecy within the
reach of the many, and that these gifts were for the helping of men and women
in their simplest needs, was one of the articles of the Hebrew faith. When we
have succeeded in recovering this Hebrew standpoint, we shall be prepared to
recognise that there are worse calamities than bad harvests and seasons of
commercial depression; we shall be brought to acknowledge that it is possible
to be starved in the midst of plenty, because the greatest abundance of such
food as we have lacks the elements requisite for our complete nourishment. As
we look across the wide field of history, we must perceive that there have been
many dreary periods in which the prophets could find no vision from the Lord.
Now what is the explanation of these variations in the distribution of the
spirit of prophecy? Why is the fountain of inspiration an intermittent spring,
a Bethesda? We cannot trace its failure to any shortness of supply, for this
fountain is fed from the infinite ocean of the Divine life. Neither can we
attribute caprice to One whose wisdom is infinite, and whose will is constant.
It may be right to say that God withholds the vision, withholds it
deliberately; but it cannot be correct to assert that this fact is the final
explanation of the whole matter. God must be believed to have a reason, a good
and sufficient reason, for whatever He does. Can we guess what His reason may
be in such a case as this? It may be conjectured that it is necessary for the
field to lie fallow for a season in order that it may bring forth a better crop
subsequently. Incessant cultivation would exhaust the soil. The eye would be
blinded if it had no rest from visions. Until we have obeyed the light that has
been given us, it is foolish to complain that we have not more light. Even our
present light will wane if it is not followed up in practice. But while such
considerations must be attended to, they do not end the controversy, and they
scarcely apply at all to the particular illustration of it that is now before
us. There is no danger of surfeit in a famine; and it is a famine of the word
that we are now confronted with. Moreover, the elegist supplies an explanation
that sets all conjectures at rest. The fault was in the prophets themselves.
Addressing the daughter of Zion, the poet says: “Thy prophets have seen visions
for thee.” The visions were suited to the people to whom they were
declared--manufactured, shall we say?--with the express purpose of pleasing
them. Such a degradation of sacred functions in gross unfaithfulness deserved
punishment; and the most natural and reasonable punishment was the withholding
for the future of true visions from men who in the past had forged false ones.
There is nothing so blinding as the habit of lying. People who do not speak
truth ultimately prevent themselves from perceiving truth, the false tongue
leading the eye to see falsely. This is the curse and doom of all insincerity. It
is useless to inquire for the views of insincere persons; they can have no
distinct views, no certain convictions, because their mental vision is blurred
by their long-continued habit of confounding true and false. Then, if for once
in their lives such people may really desire to find a truth in order to assure
themselves in some great emergency, and therefore seek a vision of the Lord,
they will have lost the very faculty of receiving it. (W. F. Adeney,
M. A.)
Verse 9
Verses 10-17
Verse 10
The elders . . . keep silence.
Overwhelming judgments
1. The wisest of God’s servants are at their wit’s end, or fall into
despair, if they be deprived of their hope, in the promise of God’s assistance
(Psalms 119:92).
2. Bodily exercises do profit to further lamentations in the day of
heaviness, but are no part of God’s service in themselves.
3. The extremity of God’s judgments do for the time overwhelm God’s
dearest children in the greatest measure of grief that can be in this life (Psalms 6:3; Psalms 22:1).
4. The most dainty ones are made to stoop when God’s hand is heavy
upon them for their sins. (J. Udall.)
Verses 11-13
Mine eyes do fail with tears.
The miseries of the Church taken to heart
1. The true ministers of God do take the miseries of the Church to
heart in the greatest measure.
2. Our sorrow, humiliation, earnest prayer, and all other means of
extraordinary calling upon God, must increase in us, so long as God’s heavy
hand is upon us.
3. Hearty sorrow for spiritual miseries distempereth the whole body.
4. The sorrows of the soul will easily consume the body.
5. A lively member is grieved with the hurt of the body, or any
member thereof.
6. The ministers of Christ should have a tender affection to the
members of the Church, as a man hath to his daughter.
7. There is no outward thing so much cause of sorrow, as the miseries
laid upon our children in our sight. (J. Udall.)
Compassion for sinners
It is the missionary with the fountain of pity that reaches the
deepest place in the native’s heart. When Livingstone was found dead on his
knees in the heart of Africa, his head was resting over his open Bible, and his
finger was pointing to the last words he ever penned in his diary: “Oh, God,
when will the open sore of the world be healed?” That was the profound pity
which commenced the redemptive work in Africa, and which lives in emancipating
influence today. (Hartley Aspen.)
They say to their mothers,
Where is corn and wine?--
Great grief
1. It is the greatest grief that can be, to have them whom we would
gladly pleasure, seek that at our hands which we cannot help them unto.
2. When God would have us profit by any work of His, He will let us
see the true cause of it.
3. The grief that is seen with the eye is the heaviest unto us of all
other things that fall upon our friends.
4. When God meaneth to humble us, He will use most effectual means to
bring it to pass. (J. Udall.)
What thing shall I take to
witness for thee?--
Plain ministries
Ministers must be studious in the Word, to find out everything
that may fit the Church’s present condition (Isaiah 50:4; Matthew 13:52).
2. It is the greatest grief that can be, to fall into a trouble that
hath not been laid upon others before.
3. That minister loveth us best, that dealeth most plainly with us.
4. The visible state of the Church of God may come to be of a
desperate condition, every way vexed more and more. (J. Udall.)
Verse 14
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee.
Prophetic fidelity
The crying fault of the prophets is their reluctance to preach to
people of their sins. Their mission distinctly involves the duty of doing so.
They should not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. It is not within the
province of the ambassador to make selections from among the despatches with
which he has been entrusted in order to suit his own convenience. One of the
gravest possible omissions is the neglect to give due weight to the tragic fact
of sin. All the great prophets have been conspicuous for their fidelity to this
painful and sometimes dangerous part of their work. If we would call up a
typical picture of a prophet in the discharge of his task, we should present to
our minds Elijah confronting Ahab, or John the Baptist before Herod, or
Savonarola accusing Lorenzo de Medici, or John Knox preaching at the court of
Mary Stuart. He is Isaiah declaring God’s abomination of sacrifices and incense
when these are offered by blood-stained hands, or Chrysostom seizing the
opportunity that followed the mutilation of the imperial statues at Antioch to
preach to the dissolute city on the need of repentance, or Latimer denouncing
the sins of London to the citizens assembled at Paul’s Cross. The shallow
optimism that disregards the shadows of life is trebly faulty when it appears
in the pulpit. It falsifies facts in failing to take account of the stern
realities of the evil side of them; it misses the grand opportunity of rousing
the consciences of men and women by forcing them to attend to unwelcome truths,
and thus encourages the heedlessness with which people rush headlong to ruin;
and at the same time it even renders the declaration of the gracious truths of
the Gospel, to which it devotes exclusive attention, ineffectual, because
redemption is meaningless to those who do not recognise the present slavery and
the future doom from which it brings deliverance. (W. F. Adeney, W. A.)
False teachers
1. False teachers are as grievous a plague as can be laid upon a
people. They bring with them inevitable destruction (Matthew 15:14).
2. They that refuse to receive the true ministers, God will give them
over to be seduced by false teachers and to believe lies (2 Chronicles 36:15; Proverbs 1:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
3. It is a certain note of a false prophet, to speak such things in
the name of the Lord as are untrue, or misalleged to please the carnal desires
of the people (Jeremiah 14:13-15).
4. It is not sufficient for a true minister not to flatter; he must
also discover the people’s sins unto them (Ezekiel 13:4; 1 Kings 18:18; Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:8; Matthew 14:4).
5. The only way to avoid God’s plagues is gladly to suffer ourselves
bitterly to be reproved by God’s ministers.
6. The falsehood that is taught by false prophets, and believed by a
seduced people, is the cause of all God’s punishments that light upon them. (J.
Udall.)
False spiritual guides lead to ruin
A short time back the papers told of a vessel that had a most
unfortunate trip. The captain became blind three days after leaving St.
Pierre-Martinique and no one on board was capable of navigating the ship. The
mate did his best and after drifting about for twenty-seven days came in sight
of Newfoundland, where some fishermen saw her signals of distress and piloted
her into port. If a ship with a blind captain is poorly off, what of a nation,
a church, a village, where blind men are in charge: some born blind and by
nature unqualified: others blind through worldly interests and a false
learning! “Blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch.” (Footsteps of Truth.)
Verse 14
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee.
Prophetic fidelity
The crying fault of the prophets is their reluctance to preach to
people of their sins. Their mission distinctly involves the duty of doing so.
They should not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. It is not within the
province of the ambassador to make selections from among the despatches with
which he has been entrusted in order to suit his own convenience. One of the
gravest possible omissions is the neglect to give due weight to the tragic fact
of sin. All the great prophets have been conspicuous for their fidelity to this
painful and sometimes dangerous part of their work. If we would call up a
typical picture of a prophet in the discharge of his task, we should present to
our minds Elijah confronting Ahab, or John the Baptist before Herod, or
Savonarola accusing Lorenzo de Medici, or John Knox preaching at the court of
Mary Stuart. He is Isaiah declaring God’s abomination of sacrifices and incense
when these are offered by blood-stained hands, or Chrysostom seizing the
opportunity that followed the mutilation of the imperial statues at Antioch to
preach to the dissolute city on the need of repentance, or Latimer denouncing
the sins of London to the citizens assembled at Paul’s Cross. The shallow
optimism that disregards the shadows of life is trebly faulty when it appears
in the pulpit. It falsifies facts in failing to take account of the stern
realities of the evil side of them; it misses the grand opportunity of rousing
the consciences of men and women by forcing them to attend to unwelcome truths,
and thus encourages the heedlessness with which people rush headlong to ruin;
and at the same time it even renders the declaration of the gracious truths of
the Gospel, to which it devotes exclusive attention, ineffectual, because
redemption is meaningless to those who do not recognise the present slavery and
the future doom from which it brings deliverance. (W. F. Adeney, W. A.)
False teachers
1. False teachers are as grievous a plague as can be laid upon a
people. They bring with them inevitable destruction (Matthew 15:14).
2. They that refuse to receive the true ministers, God will give them
over to be seduced by false teachers and to believe lies (2 Chronicles 36:15; Proverbs 1:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
3. It is a certain note of a false prophet, to speak such things in
the name of the Lord as are untrue, or misalleged to please the carnal desires
of the people (Jeremiah 14:13-15).
4. It is not sufficient for a true minister not to flatter; he must
also discover the people’s sins unto them (Ezekiel 13:4; 1 Kings 18:18; Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:8; Matthew 14:4).
5. The only way to avoid God’s plagues is gladly to suffer ourselves
bitterly to be reproved by God’s ministers.
6. The falsehood that is taught by false prophets, and believed by a
seduced people, is the cause of all God’s punishments that light upon them. (J.
Udall.)
False spiritual guides lead to ruin
A short time back the papers told of a vessel that had a most
unfortunate trip. The captain became blind three days after leaving St.
Pierre-Martinique and no one on board was capable of navigating the ship. The
mate did his best and after drifting about for twenty-seven days came in sight
of Newfoundland, where some fishermen saw her signals of distress and piloted
her into port. If a ship with a blind captain is poorly off, what of a nation,
a church, a village, where blind men are in charge: some born blind and by
nature unqualified: others blind through worldly interests and a false
learning! “Blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch.” (Footsteps of Truth.)
Verse 15
An that pass by clap their hands at thee.
Deriding the distressed
1. God is wont to whip His children for their sins, by the multitude
of unbelievers that hate the truth (Isaiah 10:5-6; Jeremiah 25:9; Exodus 1:13-14).
2. It is a property of a wicked heart, to insult over the distressed,
whom we should pity and relieve (Psalms 35:15; Psalms 79:4; 2 Samuel 16:7-8; Matthew 27:39).
3. The wicked seeing the godly afflicted, take occasion thereby to
blaspheme God and His truth (Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:18; 2 Kings 18:30; 2 Kings 18:35; 2 Kings 19:12).
4. There only is true joy and excellency where God’s truth is rightly
preached, and His name called upon (Psalms 50:2; Ezekiel 47:8-9; Ezekiel 47:12). (J. Udall.)
Exultation over the fallen
Men are always ready to remind the fallen of the days of prosperity.
It is hard to pass by a man who is thrown down without telling him what he
might have been, what he once was, and how foolishly he has acted in forsaking
the way in which he found prosperity and delight. We must expect this from all
men. It is not in their nature to heal our diseases, to comfort our sorrows, to
sympathise with us in the hour of desolation. The Psalmist complained, “Thou
makest us a by-word among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.”
Wonderful things had been spoken of Zion in the better days. In proportion to
our exaltation is our down throwing. “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the
whole earth, is mount Zion,” etc. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God
hath shined.” “How great is His goodness! and how great is His beauty! “But all
this will go for notching where there has been moral apostasy, spiritual
disobedience, or spiritual idolatry. Decoration is vanity. All that men can do
in the beautifying of their lives is as rottenness if the heart itself be not
in a healthy condition. Add to the bitterness of self-remorse the triumphant
exultation of enemies who pass by, and say whether any humiliation can be
deeper or more intolerable. Where, then, is hope to be found? In heaven. The
God whom we have offended must be the God who can forgive us. Do not let us
seek to placate our enemies, or turn their triumphing into felicitation: we
have no argument with them; not a word ought we to have to say to such mockers;
we must acquaint ourselves with God, and make ourselves at peace with heaven,
and if a man’s ways please the Lord, the Lord will make that man’s enemies to
be at peace with him. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The call to prayer
This is not the first occasion on which the elegist has shown his
faith in the efficacy of prayer. But hitherto he has only uttered brief
exclamations in the middle of his descriptive passages. Now he gives a solemn
call to prayer, and follows this with a deliberate full petition, addressed to
God. This new and more elevated turn in the elegy is itself suggestive. The
transition from lamentation to prayer is always good for the sufferer. The
trouble that drives us to prayer is a blessing, because the state of a praying
soul is a blessed state. Like the muezzin on his minaret, the elegist
calls to prayer. But his exhortation is addressed to a strange object--to the
wall of the daughter of Zion. This wall is to let its tears flow like a river.
Browning has an exquisitely beautiful little poem apostrophising an old wall;
but this is not done so as to leave out of account the actual form and nature
of his subject. Walls can not only be beautiful and even sublime, as Mr. Ruskin
has shewn in his Stones of Venice; they may also wreath their
severe outlines in a multitude of thrilling associations. This is especially so
when, as in the present instance, it is the wall of a city that we are
contemplating. Such a wall is eloquent in its wealth of associations, and there
is pathos in the thought of its mere age when this is considered in relation to
the many men and women and children who have rested beneath its shadow at noon,
or sheltered themselves behind its solid masonry amid the terrors of war. The
walls that encircle the ancient English city of Chester and keep alive memories
of medieval life, the bits of the old London wall that are left standing among
the warehouses and offices of the busy mart of modern commerce, even the remote
wall of China for quite different reasons, and many another famous wall,
suggest to us multitudinous reflections. But the walls of Jerusalem surpass
them all in the pathos of the memories that cling to their old grey stones. In
personifying the wall of Zion, however, the Hebrew poet does not indulge in
reflections such as these, which are more in harmony with the mild melancholy
of Gray’s “Elegy” than with the sadder mood of the mourning patriot. He names
the wall to give unity and concreteness to his appeal, and to clothe it in an
atmosphere of poetic fancy. But his sober thought in the background is directed
towards the citizens whom that historic wall once enclosed. Let us look at the
appeal in detail. First the elegist encourages a free outflow of grief, that
tears should run like a river, literally, like a torrent--the allusion being to
one of those steep watercourses which, though dry in summer, become rushing
floods in the rainy season. This introduction shews that the call to prayer is
not intended in any sense as a rebuke for the natural expression of grief, nor
as a denial of its existence. The sufferers cannot say that the poet does not
sympathise with them. There may be a deeper reason for this encouragement of
the expression of grief as a preliminary to a call to prayer. The helplessness
which it so eloquently proclaims is just the condition in which the soul is
most ready to cast itself on the mercy of God. The first step towards
deliverance will be to melt the glacier. The soul must feel before it can pray.
Therefore the tears are encouraged to run like torrents, and the sufferer to
give himself no respite, nor let the apple of his eye cease from weeping. Next
the poet exhorts the object of his sympathy--this strange personification of
the “wall of the daughter of Zion,” under the image of which he is thinking of
the Jews--to arise. The weeping is but a preliminary to more promising acts.
The sufferer must be roused if he is to be saved from the disease of
melancholia. He must be roused also if he would pray. True prayer is a
strenuous effort of the soul, requiring the most wakeful attention and taxing
the utmost energy of will. Therefore we must gird up our loins to pray just as
we would to work, or run, or fight. Now the awakened soul is urged to cry out
in the night, and in the beginning of the night watches--that is to say, not
only at the commencement of the night, for this would require no rousing, but
at the beginning of each of the three watches into which the Hebrews divided
the hours of darkness--at sunset, at ten o’clock, and at two in the morning.
The sufferer is to keep watch with prayer--observing his vespers, his nocturns,
and his matins, not of course to fulfil forms, but because, since his grief is
continuous, his prayer also must not cease. Proceeding with our consideration
of the details of this call to prayer, we come upon the exhortation to pour out
the heart like water before the face of the Lord. The image here used is not
without parallel in Scripture (see Psalms 22:14). But the ideas are not just
the same in the two cases. While the Psalmist thinks of himself as crushed and
shattered, as though his very being were dissolved, the thought of the elegist
has more action about it, with a deliberate intention and object in view. His
image suggests complete openness before God. Nothing is to be withheld. The
sufferer should tell the whole tale of his grief to God, quite freely, without
any reserve, trusting absolutely to the Divine sympathy. The attitude of soul
that is here recommended is in itself the very essence of prayer. The devotions
that consist in a series of definite petitions are of secondary worth, and
superficial in comparison with this outpouring of the heart before God. To
enter into relations of sympathy and confidence with God is to pray in the
truest, deepest way possible, or even conceivable. Even in the extremity of
need, perhaps the best thing we can do is to spread out the whole case before
God. It will certainly relieve our own minds to do so, and everything will
appear changed when viewed in the light of the Divine presence. Perhaps we
shall then cease to think ourselves aggrieved and wronged; for what are our
deserts before the holiness of God? Passion is allayed in the stillness of the
sanctuary, and the indignant protest dies upon our lips as we proceed to lay
our case before the eyes of the All-Seeing. We cannot be impatient any longer;
He is so patient with us, so fair, so kind, so good. Thus, when we cast our
burden upon the Lord, we may be surprised with the discovery that it is not so
heavy as we supposed. The secret of failure in prayer is not that we do not ask
enough; it is that we do not pour out our hearts before God, the restraint of
confidence rising from fear or doubt simply paralysing the energies of prayer.
Jesus teaches us to pray not only because He gives us a model prayer, but much
more because He is in Himself so true and full and winsome a revelation of God,
that as we come to know and follow Him our lost confidence in God is restored.
Then the heart that knows its own bitterness, and that shrinks from permitting
the stranger even to meddle with its joy--how much more then with its
sorrow?--can pour itself out quite freely before God, for the simple reason
that He is no longer a stranger, but the one perfectly intimate and absolutely
trusted Friend. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
Verses 18-22
Verse 19
Arise, cry out in the night.
Watchnight service
Methinks I might become a Jeremiah tonight, and weep as he, for
surely the Church at large is in almost as evil a condition. Oh, Zion, how hast
thou been veiled in a cloud, and how is thy honour trodden in the dust! Arise,
ye sons of Zion, and weep for your mother, yea, weep bitterly, for she hath
given herself to other lovers, and forsaken the Lord that bought her. We leave
Zion, however, to speak to those who need exhortation more than Zion does; to
speak to those who are Zion’s enemies, or followers of Zion, and yet not
belonging to her ranks.
1. It is never too soon to pray. You are lying on your bed; the
gracious” Splint” “ whispers--“Arise, and pray to God.” Well, there is no
reason why you should, delay till the morning light; in the beginning of the
watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord.” Need we
remind, you that “delays are dangerous”? Need we tell you that those are the
workings of Satan? For the Holy Ghost, when He strives with man, says, “Today,
if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.”
2. Again, it is not too late to cry to the Lord; for if the sun be
set, and the watches of the night have commenced their round, the mercy seat is
open. There have been some older than you can be; some as sinful and vile, and
heinously wicked, who have provoked God as much, who have shined against him as
frequently, and yet they have found pardon.
3. We cannot pray too vehemently, for the text says, “Arise, cry out
in the night.” God loves earnest prayers. He loves impetuous prayers--vehement
prayers. “Arise, cry out in the night,” and God will hear you, if you cry out
with all your souls, and pour out your hearts before Him.
4. We cannot pray too simply. Just hear how the Psalmist has it:
“Pour out your hearts before Him.” Not “pour out your fine words,” not “pour
out your beautiful periods,” but “pour out your hearts.” Pour out your heart
like water. How does water run out? The quickest way it can; that’s all. It
never stops much about how it runs. That is the way the Lord loves to have it.
Pour out your heart like water; pour it out by confessing all your sins; pour
it out by begging the Lord to have mercy upon you for Christ’s sake; pour it
out like water. And when it is all poured out, He will come and fill it again
with “wines on the lees, well refined.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Night cries
“Pull the night bell.” This is the inscription we often see
written on the doorpost of the shop in which medicines are sold. Some of us
have had our experiences with night bells when sudden illness has overtaken
some member of our households, or when sickness has rapidly grown worse. How
have we hurried through the silent streets, when only here and there a light
glimmered from some chamber window! How eagerly have we pulled the night bell
at our physician’s door, and then, with prescription in hand, have sounded the
alarm at the place where the remedy was to be procured. Those of us who have
had these lovely midnight walks, and have given the summons for quick relief,
know the meaning of that text, “Arise, cry out in the night.” (T. L. Cuyler.)
Verse 20
Behold, O Ford, and consider to whom Thou hast done this.
Fervent prayer
1. The only way of remedy in our greatest miseries is to call upon
God in fervent prayer.
2. By this vehement kind of speech we learn that in right prayer to
God the frame of our words must be according to our affection.
3. The chief reason to move the Lord to pity us is the remembrance of
His covenant of mercy in Christ.
4. God’s wrath overturneth the course of nature in those against whom
it is bent.
5. There is sufficient cause and matter in all the infants of God’s
people, why God should in His justice destroy them (Psalms 51:5).
6. Cruelty exercised by the hands of the wicked upon children and
ministers is a special means to move God to hear us when we pray for them.
7. There is no privilege of peace that can free us from punishment
when we sin against the Lord. (J. Udall.)
Verse 21
The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets.
Unburied
1. When God punisheth a people for sin, He spareth neither age nor
sex.
2. It is a sign of God’s anger upon a people, when they want decent
burial (Psalms 79:3).
3. The wicked will do most barbarous things, when God bridleth them
not.
4. As God is full of mercy in His longsuffering, so is His anger
unappeasable when it breaketh out. (J. Udall.)
Verse 22
Thou hast called . . . my terrors round about.
The wicked instruments of punishment
1. God raiseth up the wickedest, and employeth them to punish His own
servants when they sin (Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 8:7).
2. None can escape God’s punishments, whom He meaneth to punish (Psalms 139:7).
3. The children of impenitent sinners are often taken away, and
prosper not to their comfort. In God’s displeasure all things are accursed unto
us (Deuteronomy 28:15). (J. Udall.)
The ministry of terror
At Dunkeld there is a high rock, forming a conspicuous feature in
the landscape, It is covered at the top with pine trees, which stand out like
spears against the skyline, and only here and there can you see the grey face
of the rock itself, showing how steep and dangerous it is. At one time the rock
was perfectly bare; and one of the Dukes of Athole, who had a perfect passion
for planting trees everywhere, wished to cover it like the other heights around
with wood. But it was found impossible to climb up to the crevices and ledges
of the huge rock, in order to plant the young trees. One day, Alexander
Naismith, the father of the great engineer, paid a visit to the duke’s grounds;
and when told about his grace’s wish to adorn the rock with trees, he suggested
a plan by which this might be accomplished. In front of the duke’s castle he
noticed an old cannon, which had been used for firing salutes on great
occasions. He got this cannon removed to a convenient point near the rock; and
then putting a large quantity of the seeds of pine and fir trees into a round
tin canister, he rammed it into the mouth of the cannon with a charge of
gunpowder, and fired it at the top of the rock. The canister, when it struck
the rock, broke into bits and scattered the seeds in every direction. A great
many of them fell into the nooks and crannies of the rock, where a little moss
or soil had gathered; and with the first showers they began to sprout and send
up their tiny shoots, which took firm hold of the rock. After years of slow and
steadfast growth, for they had exceedingly little soil, they became trees which
completely clothed the naked rock and made it one of the most picturesque parts
of the landscape. Now, this was a very strange use to make of a cannon, and a
very strange way of sowing seed. A cannon is usually employed to cause death
and destruction. But on this occasion it was used to do good, to clothe a naked
rock with beauty and fertility, to bring life out of death. It made a loud
terrifying noise; it broke the rock in splinters, it burst the canister into
fragments, but it scattered the seeds of life where they were wanted. Never was
gunpowder employed in a more beneficent work! Now, God sometimes sows his seeds
of eternal life by means of a cannon; He persuades men by terror. He says,
indeed, of Himself, “Fury is not in Me.” It is contrary to His nature; for He
is love. And yet He is sometimes obliged to do things that terrify for His
people’s good. There are proud, lofty natures, full of conceit and
self-sufficiency, that rise above their fellows in their own esteem, and lord
it over them, and yet are bare and barren of any spiritual good thing, neither
profitable to God nor man. If the seed of eternal life is to be sown at all in
such lofty, inaccessible natures, it must be by means of a cannon. They must be
persuaded by terror. God must thunder forth to them His warnings and
invitations. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》