Thou, O LORD, remainest forever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
How blessedly the Prophet here takes hold of the eternity, and unchangeable nature and purposes of God's faithfulness and mercy in Christ. And how earnestly on these grounds doth he plead for grace, being given to the Church, that the Church thereby may be turned unto God. And like another powerful pleader among the Prophets, how passionately doth he plead for God's sore wrath to be taken away. Isaiah 63:15-19. May the Lord write upon the heart of both Writer and Reader, a deep sense of these several pleas: and yet more especially lead them to see, that the whole is only founded in Christ Jesus!
REFLECTIONS.
I CANNOT prevail upon myself to close this Book of Lamentations, without once again blessing the Lord for having endued the mind of his servant the Prophet with such large portions of grace, so to take part in the afflictions of his people. And I take occasion therefrom, to beg the Reader to join my spirit in prayer also, that He would of his infinite grace and mercy, give to his praying people now, large portions of the same precious frame of mind, that all selfish considerations may be lost in the view of the present languishing state of Zion. Surely there never was a period when her interests were less regarded. Where are the praying seed of Jacob to be found? Who is there that lays it at heart, how very low she now is? Moreover, are not, as in Jeremiah's days, the Lord's judgments in the earth? And may we not, without danger of committing an error, trace up the cause to the Lord's jealousy for his Zion? Did Jesus purchase the Church with his blood; and can he be indifferent to her best interests? My soul! lay these things to heart. Reader! I charge it upon you, do the same! Whatever the event of the present commotions of the earth may be, let a throne of grace be enabled to witness for both, that Zion is there remembered by us in our warmest prayers, and her welfare preferred above our chief joy. Oh! that every nerve was exerted, and every heart-affection on the stretch, under the Holy Ghost's influence, and that we entered into the retirings of our God in Christ, to plead with him for Zion. Spare Lord, I would say, spare thy people, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Reader! the Lord prepare both for his holy will and pleasure, that we may sing our song upon Alamoth, what was composed for the Lord's hidden ones, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Amen.