_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. (1) The Lord will in His... [ Continue Reading ]
_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... [ Continue Reading ]
_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... [ Continue Reading ]
_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,... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 lo... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 th... [ Continue Reading ]
_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; Jeremiah 25:9; Exodus 1:13). 2. It is a property of a wicked heart, to insult over the distressed, whom we shou... [ Continue Reading ]
_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... [ Continue Reading ]
_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. (1) It declareth that we are humbled and our pride broken, in confessing no power to be in ourselves, and seeking help elsewhere. ... [ Continue Reading ]
_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... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 child... [ Continue Reading ]