I. In the day of judgment will be fulfilled, once and for ever, all the sayings and prophecies of our Lord and His Apostles concerning the exaltation of the lowly and the humiliation of the high and lofty ones. Recollect what are the things which we naturally most admire in this world, and see if they will not one and all come to an end in that day. (1) "All cedars of Lebanon which are high and lifted up," that is, the great and high-born persons, to whom God has given a place in the world above others. (2) "The high mountains and the hills that are lifted up." All this show of visible glories will have an end; and so will the kingdoms and empires, the companies and cities of men, to which in Scripture these mountains are compared. (3) In the next sentence the prophet passes from the creations of God to those of men: from the trees and mountains to "high towers and fenced walls," to the "ships of Tarshish and to pleasant pictures," i.e.,to all those works and contrivances which we most admire when they belong to others, and on which, being our own, we are most tempted to rely. All these things the prophet speaks of, to warn us that the day of the Lord of hosts is fast coming upon them; that day which will put an end to them all.
II. Consider how the poor and lowly will be exalted in that day, if they be poor and lowly in heart. The great pattern and example of God's favour to the poor, towards which all eyes and hearts will be drawn, will be the appearance of the lowly Son of Mary, of Him who had not where to lay His Head, the rejected, the mocked, the scourged and crucified One, upon His throne of glory, judging the world. We shall see "all things put under Him" who was a "very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people." And together with Him we shall see His saints crowned and glorious. There will be a great multitude of poor persons, such as Lazarus in the parable, who lived and died unknown among men, slighted, perhaps ill-used, by those who were most bound to help them; but because they had faith and patience and obedience, Christ will own them in that day as His own members, His own poor.
J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Advent to Christmas Eve,p. 279.