(9) В¶ By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. (10) But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; (11) Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven? (12) There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men. (13) Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it. (14) В¶ Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him. (15) But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
How awfully is this scripture verified in the daily experience of mankind. Men under the various oppressions of life will cry out; some under sickness, some under want; some under one affliction, and some under another. But none of their cries are directed unto the LORD. Go wheresoever you may, in prisons, in sick rooms, in poor houses, or even among the rich under disappointment or trouble, yet, though you may hear one saying, O my child, my brother, my husband, my father, my friend! O my head, my heart, my body; or, O the cruelty of this or that; yet, amidst all these wailings and bitter Lamentations, which are all the cry of nature, not of grace, you never heard among them the voice of an awakened soul, crying out, Where is GOD my maker, who giveth song in the night? What an awful blindness hath the fall induced in the circumstances of all mankind by nature! To behold men thrown into prison, on dying beds, under bereaving providences; and all complaining, yet none crying to GOD, though all disposed to complain of GOD. Reader, do mark the difference. The people of GOD, if in sorrow, affliction, sickness, on a bed of languishing, they have their songs in the night; and, from the sweet visits of JESUS, can and do say, In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, thy comforts have refreshed my soul. Psalms 94:19.