CONTENTS There can be but little question concerning the date of this Psalm: speaking, as it doth at the opening of it, of Babylon, it seems very plainly to refer to the time of the Church's captivity there. In reading or singing this Psalm, it would be profitable to have the mind suitably affected... [ Continue Reading ]
We may form some idea of a poor captive minstrel, hanging up his harp as useless, by the representation of the far more deplorable state of an enslaved soul, led away captive by the enemy, or fallen into a, state of deadness and indifferency to divine things. Creature enjoyments, nay, even ordinance... [ Continue Reading ]
God's people are still subject to insult; but it is impossible to feel warmth at all times in the Lord's service where scoffers are. Sometimes, indeed, a holy indignation, and a zeal for Jesus, give freedom and liberty to the soul; but a cold frigid atmosphere of hearers, will make a minister's spir... [ Continue Reading ]
I hope the Lord's Israel at all times feels somewhat of this same spirit. It is blessed to feel the love of Jesus in seasons when Jesus is opposed, and to have this testimony in the worst of times. Peter, though he had been led captive by Satan for the moment, could, and did appeal to Jesus, who kne... [ Continue Reading ]
These words are both a prayer and a prophecy. Edom is the seed of Esau, and as such there was, and is, and ever will be, the same hatred subsisting. But the Church looketh forward to the hour, when Edom shall be ruined; Babylon must fall; Israel shall be delivered. And as these events were typical o... [ Continue Reading ]
REFLECTIONS MY soul! canst thou behold the sorrows and miseries of Israel in their captivity, and not call to mind that more horrible vassalage and slavery in which sin and Satan bound thee for many a year? Did Israel weep by the waters of Babylon, and hang their harps upon the willows, under a sens... [ Continue Reading ]