_For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob_ GOD’S MERCY AND ISRAEL’S CONVERTS I. THE PRINCIPLE OF GOD’S MORAL GOVERNMENT--Mercy. This people had grievously sinned. 1. They had sinned against light. The direct revelation of heaven had been given to them as a nation 2. They rebelled amid privileges. T... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow_ SORROW’S CROWN I. SORROW IS THE COMMON LOT. Though nobody is always sorrowful, there is in every life many a time when the mind is sore and the heart bruised. Yet people with a sore heart often sing; they find relief in breathing a hymn of prayerful t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt take up this proverb against the King of Babylon_ THE “PROVERB AGAINST THE KING OF BABYLON” Lowth is generally thought not to speak with exaggeration when he calls it the finest [song] of its kind extant in any language. It is a song of triumph in the form of a dirge, and therefore in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hell from beneath is moved for thee_ THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES AFTER DEATH There is a very well-known story told of a man who had served his king and country in many a distant land, and in many a strange experience, coming back home, and talking to his friends of the wonderful sights which he had se... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass_ GOD’S INFINITE INTELLIGENCE To think and to purpose are the attributes of all rational beings, whether created or uncreated. I. God is such an infinitely perfect being, that His thoughts and purposes are CO-ETERNAL WITH HIMSELF. God cannot poss... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina_ PHILISTIA Philistia was the southwest coast of the land of Canaan, to the whole of which it afterwards gave its name in the Greek form of Palestine, and was nominally included in the tribe of Judah. It was originally inhabited by the Avites, who were expelled b... [ Continue Reading ]
_What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation?_ GOD’S WORK IN FOUNDING ZION The kingdom of Judah was low and broken; foreign invasions and intestine divisions had made it so. In this state of things God takes notice of the joy and triumphing of the Philistines. To take them off from the... [ Continue Reading ]