Where Is the Lord?

Where Is the Lord?

(No. 2258)

NTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 29, 1892.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 4, 1890.

"Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying,
Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of
His flock? Where is He that put His holy Spirit within him? That led
them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the
water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? That led them
through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not
stumble? As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord
caused him to rest: so did You lead Your people, to make Yourself a
glorious name." Isaiah 63:11-14.

I told you, in the reading, that Israel had a golden age, a time of
great familiarity with God, when Jehovah was very near to His people in
their sufferings and was afflicted in their affliction–when He helped
them in everything they did and the Angel of His Presence saved them.
But after all that the Lord had done for them, there came a cold
period. The people went astray from the one living and true God. They
fell into the ritualism of the golden calf. They must have something
visible, something that they could see and worship. Even after they
were brought into the Promised Land and the Lord had worked great
wonders for them, they turned aside to false gods till they worshipped
strange deities that were no gods and provoked Jehovah to jealousy.
"They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be
their enemy and He fought against them." Not that He ceased to love His
chosen, but He must be just and He could not patronize sin–so He sent
their enemies against them and they were sorely smitten, and brought
very low. Then it was that they began to remember the days of old and
to sigh for Him whom they had treated so evilly. And they said, one to
another, "Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the
shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His holy Spirit within him?
That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm,
dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?
That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that
they should not stumble? As a beast goes down into the valley, the
Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so did You lead Your people to
make Yourself a glorious name."

I have but a short time, as the Communion Service is to follow and,
therefore, I must leave much unsaid that I think your own imagination
will make up to you at home.

But I shall ask you to notice, first, that the text contains a sacred,
loving remembrance. It dwells very much upon what God did in the old
times, when He was familiar with His people and they walked in the
light of His Countenance. After that, I shall call your attention to an
object clearly shining in the text. We get it twice over. In the 12th
verse we read, "To make Himself an everlasting name." In the 14th
verse, "To make Yourself a glorious name." When I have spoken of those
two things, I shall dwell more at length upon an anxious enquiry, which
is put here twice–"Where is He?" In the 11th verse you get this
repeated question, "Where is He? Where is He?"

So then, to begin with, we go back to God's dealings with His people
and with us–and we have A SACRED, LOVING REMEMBRANCE. The people
remembered what God did to them. What was it? As it is here described,
He, first of all, gave them leaders. "Where is He that brought them up
out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock?" Moses and Aaron, and a
band of godly men who were with them, were the leaders of the people
through the sea and through the wilderness. Brothers and Sisters, we
are apt to think too little of our leaders! First of all we think too
much of them and afterwards we think too little of them. We seem to
swing like a pendulum between these two extremes. Man is reckoned as

if he were everything to some and God becomes nothing to such, but,
without unduly exalting man, we can truly say that it really is a great
blessing to the Church when God raises up men who are qualified to lead
His people.

Israel did not go out of Egypt as a mob–they were led out by their
armies. They did not plunge into the Red Sea as an undisciplined crowd,
but Moses stood up there with his uplifted rod and led them on that
memorable day. We may as well sigh for the glorious days of old when
God gave His people mighty preachers of His Word. There have been
epochs in history that were prolific of great leaders of the Christian
Church. No sooner did Luther give his clarion call, than God seemed to
have a bird in every bush–and Calvin, and Farel, and Melancthon, and
Zwingli and so many besides that I will not attempt to make out the
list–joined with him in his brave protest against the harlot Church of
Rome. "The Lord gave the Word: and great was the company of those that
published it." The Church remembers those happy days, with earnest
longing for their return! They were giants in those days–mighty men of
renown–well fitted by the Lord to lead His people.

We are next told that God put His spirit within these shepherds. They
would have been nothing without it. Where is He that put His Holy
Spirit within them? A man with God's Holy Spirit within him–can
anybody estimate his worth? God says that He will make a man more
precious that the gold of Ophir, but, to a man filled with His Spirit,
mines of rubies or of diamonds cannot be set in comparison! When the 11
Apostles went forth on the day of Pentecost, endowed by the Spirit of
God, there were forces in the world whose very marching might make it
quiver beneath their feet! God send us once more many of His servants,
within whom He has put His Spirit in an eminent and conspicuous manner,
and then we shall see bright days, indeed! The command to such is
still, "Tarry until you be endued with power from on

high."

Then there was, in the next place, as a happy memory for the Church, a
great manifestation of the Divine Power. "That led them by the right
hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to
make Himself an everlasting name." "The right hand of Moses," by
itself, was no more than your right hand or mine! But when God's
glorious arm worked by the right hand of Moses, the sea divided and
made a way for the hosts of Israel to pass over! As the Psalmist sings,
"He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the
waters to stand as a heap." The right hand of Moses could not have
worked that miracle! But the glorious arm of the Lord did. What we need
today, Brothers and Sisters, is a manifestation of Divine Power! Some
of us are praying for it day and night. We have expected it. We do
expect it! We are longing for it with an insatiable hunger and thirst.
Oh, when will Jehovah pluck His right hand out of His bosom? When will
He make bare His arm, as one that goes to His work with might and main?
Pray, O you servants of God, for leaders filled with the Spirit and
with the power of God working with them, that multitudes may be
converted unto Christ and the sea of sin be dried up in the advance of
His Kingdom!

Then, there came to God's people a very marvelous deliverance–"That
led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they
should not stumble." Understand by the word, "wilderness," here, an
expansive grassy plain–a place of wild grass and herbs, for so it
means. And as a horse is led where it is flat and level and he does not
stumble, so were the hosts of Israel led through the Red Sea. The
bottom of the sea may be stony or gravelly, or it may be full of mire
and mud. Probably there will be huge rocks standing up in the middle of
the stream. There may be a sudden fall from one stratum of rock to the
other–and to come up from the sea on the further bank would be hard
work for struggling people carrying burdens, as these Israelites
did–for they went out of Egypt harnessed and laden, bearing their
kneading troughs in their clothes upon their shoulders. But God made
that rough sea bottom to be as easy traveling for them as when a horse
is led across a flowery meadow! Beloved, God has done so with His
Church in all time. Her seas of difficulty have had no difficulty about
them. He has come in all the Glory of His power and smoothed the way
for the ransomed to pass over. Has it not been so with you, my Brothers
and Sisters?

And, as a blessed ending to their trials, God brought them into a place
of rest–"As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord
causes him to rest: so did You lead Your people." In the desert they
rested a good deal, but in Canaan they rested altogether. As the cattle
come down from the mountains where they have been picking up their
food, when the plains are fat with grass, and they feed to their full,
and lie down and rest, so did God deal with His people, bringing them
from all the mountains of their trouble into a sweet valley, a land
that flowed with milk and honey, where they might rest. This is a
memorial, a sketch of the past.

I read it, first, literally as a sketch of Israel's history. I read it,
next, as a sketch of the Church's history. There have been times with
the Church as at Pentecost and the Reformation, when, though she had
wandered, God returned to her, made bare His arm, raised up shepherds,
put His Spirit upon them and then led His people straight ahead through
every difficulty and gave them rest. You are, most of you, acquainted
with the history of the period before Luther's day. It did not seem
likely, then, that the Gospel would be preached everywhere throughout
Northern Europe, but it was so, and God singularly preserved the first
Reformers' lives when they were very precious. Zwingli died in battle,
but he should not have been fighting, and he might have died a natural
death. But Calvin, Luther and the rest of them, for the most part,
remained until their work was done and then quietly passed away. And
the Churches, despite long persecution, had comparative rest. It was so
here and it was so across the border in our sister Church of Scotland.
She cannot forget the covenanting blood and the putting to death of
those who were for the Crown Rights of King Jesus, but, at last, she
had her time of rest. Time would fail me to tell you the long list of
shepherds that God gave to His covenanting Church, the mighty men who,
being dead, yet speak to us by their works and who, while they lived,
made the Church of God in Scotland to be glorious with the Presence of
her Lord!

Well now, the same thing has happened also to us as individuals! We
have had our cloudy and dark days, but God has appeared for our help.
Some of you could tell how God led you through the deep as through a
prairie. You went a way that you never knew, a new way, an untrod path,
as though it were the bottom of a sea but newly dry–but the Lord led
you as a groom leads a horse, so that you did not stumble–and before
long you came up out of the depths unharmed! With Moses and the
children of Israel, you sang the praises of Him who had triumphed
gloriously. And then you began to learn another song, not so martial,
but very sweet–"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me
to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters." In
conflicts for the God of Israel and His everlasting Truth, some of us
have been counted as the mire of the streets–but in that we rejoice,
and will rejoice–for Jehovah lives and He will bring up His people
again from Bashan! He will bring them up from the depths of the sea and
there shall be rest, again, in the midst of Israel, if men are but
faithful to God and faithful to His Truth. Thus much upon the sacred
memory of the past.

II. But now, in the second place, I want you to notice AN OBJECT
CLEARLY SHINING, like the morning star. I see, through the text, God's
great motive in working these wonders for His people. It was God who
did it all– my text is full of God. He brought them up out of the sea.
He put His Holy Spirit within them. He led them with His glorious arm.
He led them through the deep. He caused them to rest. He did it all!
When the history of the Church is written, there will be nothing on the
page but God. I know that her sin is recorded, but He has blotted that
out and, at the end, there will remain nothing but what God has done.
When your life and mine shall ring out as a Psalm amid the harps of
Glory, it will be only, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us, be glory
and dominion forever and ever." "Non nobis, Domine." "Not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name give glory." So will sing all of
us who are the Lord's redeemed, when we have come up out of the great
tribulation and have washed our robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb!

But then, why had God done all this? Did He do it because of His
people's merits, or numbers, or capacities? He tells them, many a time,
"Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord God, be it known unto you:
be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." God
finds in Himself the motive for blessing men who have no merits. If God
looked for any motive in us, He would find none. He would see in us
many reasons why He should condemn us, but only in Himself could He
discover the motive for His matchless mercy.

God works His great wonders of Grace with the high motive of making
known to His creatures His own Glory, manifesting what He is and who He
is, that they may worship Him. He tells us in the text that He "led
them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the
water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name." So He has
done, for to this day the highest note of praise to God that we know of
is the one that tells of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt–and
when this world is burnt up, the song that will go up to God in Heaven
will be the song of Moses–the servant of God and of the Lamb! Still,
if we want a figure and a foretaste of the ultimate victories of God
over all His people's enemies, we have to go back to the Red Sea and
look at Miriam's twinkling feet, and hear her fingers making the
timbrel sound as she cries, "Sing you to the Lord, for He has triumphed
gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." He did
it to make Himself an ever-enduring name–and He has succeeded in that
objective.

Isaiah adds that the Lord led His people and brought them into their
rest to make Himself "a glorious name." God is glorious in the history
of Israel. God is glorious in the history of His Church. God is
glorious in the history of every Believer. The life of a true Believer
is a glorious life! For himself he claims no honor, but by his holy
life he brings great glory to God. There is more glory to God in every
poor man and woman saved by Grace and in the one unknown obscure
person, washed in the Redeemer's blood, than in all the songs of
cherubim and seraphim who know nothing of Free Grace and dying love! So
you see, Beloved, the motive of God in all that He did, and I dwell
upon it, though briefly, yet with much emphasis because this is a
motive that can never alter! What if the Church of today is reduced to
a very low condition and the Truth of God seems to be ebbing out from
her shores, while a long stretch of the dreary mud of modern invention
lies reeking in the nostrils of God? He that worked such wonders, to
make Himself a name, still has the same objective in view! He will be
glorious! He will have men know that He is God and beside Him there is
none else! Thus says the Lord God, "All flesh shall know that I the
Lord am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." "The
earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea."

O Brothers and Sisters, He is still a jealous God, and when the
precious blood of Christ is insulted, God hears it and forgets it not!
When the Inspiration of the blessed Book is denied, the Holy Spirit
hears it and is grieved–and He will yet bestir Himself to defend His
Truth. When we hear the Truth of God that we love, the dearest and most
sacred Revelations from our God, treated with a triviality that is
nothing less than profane, if we are indignant, so is He! And shall not
God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him? I tell you
that He will avenge them speedily, though He bears long with His
adversaries. God's motive is His own Glory. He will stand to that and
He will vindicate it! And we need to have no doubt, nor even the shadow
of a fear about the ultimate result of a collision between God and the
adversaries of His Truth. Shall not the moth that dashes at the candle,
die in that flame? How shall the creatures of a day stand out against
our God who is a consuming fire? Here, then, is the hope of the people
of God–the constant persistent, invariable motive of God to make
Himself glorious in the eyes of men!

III. My third point is AN ANXIOUS ENQUIRY which I find twice over in my
text. Believing in what God has done, and believing that His motive
still remains the same, we begin to cry, "Where is He that brought them
up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put
His holy Spirit within him?"

This question suggests that there is some faith left. "Where is He?" He
is somewhere. Then, He lives! Beloved, the Lord God Omnipotent still
lives and reigns. Many usurpers have tried to turn Him from His Throne,
but He still sits upon it and reigns gloriously among His ancients. He
was, and is, and is to come–the Almighty–"Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever."

He is, but where is He? The question implies that some were beginning
to seek Him. Where is He? Those were brave days when He was here on the
moors, or on the hills of Scotland, or at the stakes of Smithfield, or
the prisons of Lambeth Palace! Those were glorious days when Christ was
here and His people knew it and rejoiced in Him. Then the virgin
daughter of Zion shook her head at the harlot of Rome and laughed her
to scorn–for she lay in the bosom of her King, and rejoiced in His
love! O Beloved, do we begin to long after Him again? I hope that we
do. I trust the cry of many loyal hearts is, "Come back, King Jesus!
When You are away, all things languish. Ride again down the streets of
Mansoul, O Prince Emmanuel! Then shall the city ring with holy song and
every house shall be bedecked with everything that is beautiful and
fair. Only come back!" If the King may but have His own again, I shall
be content to sing old Simeon's song, "Lord, now let Your servant
depart in peace, according to Your Word!" The Church longs for the
King's coming. Where is He? Where is He?

It shows now, dear Friends, that she has begun to mourn over His
absence. I like the reduplicated word. "Where is He? Where is He?" Not,
"Where is Moses? Where are the leaders? The fathers, where are they?"
Let them stay where they are. But where is He that made the fathers?
Where is He that sent us Moses and Aaron? Where is He that divided the
waters and led His people safely? Where is He? Oh, it is a question
that I put to all your hearts! Oh, if only He were here! One hour of
His glorious arm; just a day of His almighty working and what should we
not see? We will not ask for tongues of fire, or mighty rushing winds.
Let Him be here as He may, but if He is only here, the battle is turned
at the gate and the day of His redeemed is come! We sigh for His
appearing.

Where is He, then? As the text asks. Well, He is hidden because of our
sins. The Church has been tampering with His Truth. She has given into
the hands of critics the Word of God, to cut it with a penknife, to cut
away this and tear out

that. She has been dallying with the world! She has tried to gain money
for her objectives by the basest of means. She has played the harlot in
what she has done, for there are no amusements too vile or too silly
for her. Even her pastors have filled a theater of late, to sit there
and mark with their applause the labors of the actors! To this pass
have we come at last, to which we never came before–no, not in Rome's
darkest hour–and if you, who profess to be God's servants, do not love
Christ enough to be indignant about it, the Lord have mercy upon you!
The time has surely come when there should go up one great cry unto the
Lord Jehovah that He would make bare His arm again, for well may we
say, "Where

is He? Where is He?"

For your comfort, the next verse to my text tells you where He is. He
is in Heaven. They cannot expel Him from His Throne. "Yet have I set My
King upon My holy hill of Zion." By every possible contrivance, in
these modern days, they have tried to drive Christ out of His own
Church! A Christless, bloodless Gospel defiles many a pulpit, and
Christ is thus angered–but He is still in Heaven. At the right hand of
God He sits! And let this be our continual prayer to Him, "Look down
from Heaven, O Lord! Cast an eye upon Your failing, faltering, fickle
Church. Look down from Heaven."

"Where is He?" Well, He is, Himself, making an enquiry, for, as some
read the whole passage, it is God Himself speaking. He remembered the
days of old–Moses and his people. And when He hid Himself and would
not work in wrath, yet He said to Himself, "Where is He that brought
them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock?" When God
Himself, who is always a stranger here–for are we not strangers with
Him and sojourners, as all our fathers were?–When God Himself begins
to ask where He is and to regret those happier days, something will
come of it! "You that make mention of the Lord–you that are the Lord's
remembrances–keep not silence and give Him no rest–take no rest, and
give Him no rest–till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a
praise in the earth." "That little cloud," said one of old, when Julian
the apostate threatened to extirpate Christianity, "That little Church
will soon be gone." All that I see today of darkness is but a wave of
smoke. Behold, the Lord God Himself shall chase it away with a strong
west wind! He does but blow with His wind and the clouds disappear! And
what stands before us today shall be as nothing.

I thought, as I came here tonight, that the man who drives the tram car
gave me a lesson on how I should look upon all future time. He starts,
say at Clapham, with his car. If he could have a view of all that was
on the road between Clap-ham and the Elephant and Castle–the carts,
the wagons and other traffic that are exactly where he wants to go–and
he were to add all those obstacles together, He might be foolish enough
to say, "I shall not complete my course tonight." But, you see, he
starts, and if anything is on the rails, it moves off! And if, perhaps,
some sluggish, heavily-laden coal wagon is slow to move, he puts his
whistle to his mouth and gives a shrill blast or two, and lo, it is
gone!

So when the Church, serving her God, begins to look far ahead through
prophecy–which she never did understand and never will–she will think
she will never reach her journey's end. But she will, for God has laid
the line! We are on the rails and the rails do not come to an end till
the journey's end is reached! And as we go along, we shall find that
everything in our way will move before us–and if it does not, we will
pray a bit. We will blow our whistles and the devil himself will have
to move, though all his black horses shall be dragging along the
brewer's dray, or what else belongs to him! He will have to get off our
track, assuredly as God lives, for if Jehovah sends us on His errands,
we cannot fail. The old Romans picture Jove as hurling thunderbolts.
Sometimes God makes His servants, thunderbolts, and when He hurls them,
they will go crashing through everything until they reach their mark!
Therefore be not, for a moment, discouraged, but trust in God and be
glad without a shadow of fear!

If any here have never trusted in God, never made Him their Friend, or
been reconciled to Him by the death of His Son, I pray them to think of
their present condition. Opposed to God? You are standing in the way of
an express train! You are urged to get out of the way. You will not?
You are going to throw that train off the rails, you say? Poor fool, I
could put my arms about your neck and forcibly drag you from the iron
way, for assuredly, if you remain there, nothing can come of it but
your everlasting destruction! Therefore, flee, flee, I pray you, from
the wrath to come! The train of Divine Judgment comes thundering along
the iron road even now! It shakes the earth. Awake! Rise! Flee! God
help you to do so! Behold, the Savior stands with open arms to be your
shelter. Fly to Him and trust in Him, and live forever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON

ISAIAH63-64

Isaiah 63:1-6. Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments
from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the
greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to
save. Why are You red in Your apparel, and Your garments like him that
treads in the wine vat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the
people there was none with Me; for I will tread them in My anger, and
trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My
garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is
in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come. And I looked, and
there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:
therefore My own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld
me. And I will tread down the people in My anger, and make them drunk
in My fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. It is a
dark and terrible time–no one at God's side, His people discouraged,
Edom triumphant. Then comes the one great Hero of the Gospel, the
Christ of God, and by His own unaided strength He wins for His people a
glorious victory. He is as terrible to His foes as He is precious to
His friends. He stands before us as the one hope of His ancient Church.
There is a picture Isaiah was inspired to paint. Now the Prophet goes
on to say–

7. I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord. Are you, dear
Friends, mentioning the loving kindnesses of the Lord, or are you
silent about them? Learn a lesson from the Prophet Isaiah. Talk about
what God has done for you and for His people in all time–"I will
mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord." Let this be the resolve of
everyone of us who has tasted that the Lord is gracious–

"Awake, my Soul, in joyful lays,

And sing your great Redeemer's praise!

He justly claims a song from me,

His loving kindness, oh, how free!

He saw me ruined in the Fall,

Yet loved me, notwithstanding all;

He sa ved me from my lost estate,

His loving kindness, oh, how great!"

7. And the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has
bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according
to the multitude of His loving kindnesses. This is a verse full of
sweets, but I must not dwell upon it. My objective at this time is to
read much and to say little by way of comments, so I cannot stay to
pick out the sweetnesses here. There are very many. This passage is a
piece of a honeycomb. Read it when you get home. Pray over it, suck the
honey out of it, and praise the Lord for it.

8. For He said. In the old time, when God called His people out of
Egypt, He said this–

8. Surely they are My people, children that will not lie. Or, children
that will not act deceitfully, or, will not deal falsely.

8. So He was their Savior. He thought well of them. He treated them as
though they were trustworthy. He took them into His confidence. He
said, "Surely they will not deceive Me." This is speaking after the
manner of men, of course, for God knows us and is never deceived by us.
We may deceive others–we may even deceive ourselves–but we can never
deceive Him.

9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His
Presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and
He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. Happy Israel! These
were her golden days, when she was faithful to God, and God communed
very closely with her. Then God was very near to His people, so near
that He is represented as carrying them in His arms. He could be seen
in a bush! He could be seen in a cloud! He could be seen working with a
rod! He was very familiar with His people.

10. But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit. Therefore He was
turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. This was a great
change in dispensation, though there was no change in the heart of God.
He deals roughly with His people when they rebel against Him. They
would not be improved by tenderness, so now they must be scourged by
His rod and come under His displeasure. When men turn from God, He is
"turned to be their enemy."

11. Then He remembered the days of old. His people were never out of
His mind, even when they wandered away from Him. He remembered the love
of their espousals, when they went after Him into the wilderness. He
remembered the days of old, the happier days, when His people walked
closely with Him. They also remembered these days. It is strange that
they should ever have forgotten them.

11 – 14. Moses, and his people, saying, Where is He that brought them
up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put
His holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses
with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself
an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the
wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goes down into the
valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so did You lead Your
people, to make Yourself a glorious name. Now comes a prayer suggested
by their condition of sorrow and desertion.

15. Look down from Heaven. You are still there, though we have
wandered. Look down upon us from Heaven, O,

Lord!

15 – 16. And behold from the habitation of Your holiness and of Your
glory: where is Your zeal and Your strength, the sounding of Your heart
and of Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained? Doubtless You are
our Father, though Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us
not; You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer; Your name is from
everlasting. That last sentence may be read, "Your name is Our
Redeemer, from Everlasting." This is a sweet plea with God–"We have
offended You, but we are still Your children. We have wandered from
You, but we are still Your own, bought with a price. Your name of
'Redeemer' is not a temporary one–it is from everlasting to
everlasting–therefore look on Your poor children again. Leave us not
to perish."

17 – 18. O Lord, why have You made us to err from Your ways, and
hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants' sake, the
tribes of Your inheritance. The people of Your holiness. Or, "Your holy
people."

18 – 19. Have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have
trodden down Your sanctuary. We are Yours: You never ruled over them;
they were not called by Your name. "You did give us the land by an
everlasting Covenant; but we have had it only a little while. Lo, the
enemy has come in and driven Your Israel away from her heritage! Can it
be so, always, O Lord?" Happy times seem very short when they are over
and, when they are succeeded by dark trials, we say, "The people of
Your holiness, Your holy people have possessed it but a little while.
Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary. We are now become
(for this is the true rendering of the passage) like those over whom
You have never ruled, those who were never called by Your name." That
is a sad condition for the Church of God to be in and I am afraid that
it is now getting into that condition, sinking to a level with the
world, leaving its high calling, quitting the path of the separated
people and becoming just like those whom God never knew and who were
never called by His name. It is a pitiful case–and here comes a prayer
like the bursting out of a volcano, as though the hearts of gracious
men could hold in the agonizing cry no longer–

Isaiah 64:1, 2. Oh that You would rend the heavens, that You would come
down, that the mountains might flow down at Your Presence, as when the
melting fire burns, Or, much better, "as when the brushwood burns," for
if God does but come to His people, they are ready to catch on fire,
like the dry twigs which are soon ablaze. And His enemies also shall be
like brushwood before the fire.

3. The fire causes the waters to boil, to make Your name known to Your
adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your Presence! When You
did terrible things which we looked not for, You came down, the
mountain flowed down at Your Presence. O Lord, come again! You came in
the past; repeat Your former acts and let us see what You can do for
the avenging of Your people.

4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor
perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside You, what
You have prepared for him that waits for You. God is ready to help. He
has everything in preparation before our needs begin. He has laid in
supplies for all our needs. Before our prayers are presented, He has
prepared His answers to them! Blessed be His name! You remember how
Paul uses this passage, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for
them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit."
The spiritual man is a privileged man!

5. You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that
remember You in Your ways. God does not wait for us to return to Him.
He meets us. He comes to us the moment that we turn our feet towards
His Throne. While we are, like the prodigal, a great way off, He sees
us, and has compassion upon us and runs to meet us.

5. Behold, You are angry, for we have sinned: in these we continue and
we shall be saved. In Your faithfulness, in Your love, in Yourself, in
Your ways of mercy there is continuance. This is our safety! What are
we? Here is the answer–

6. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
the wind, have taken us away. It is not a flattering picture that the
Prophet draws! Even our righteousnesses are like filthy rags, fit only
for the fire–what must our righteousnesses be like? We, ourselves, are
like the sere leaves on the trees and just as the wind carries away the
faded leaves of autumn, so our sins, like a mighty blast, carry us
away.

7. And there are none that call upon Your name, that stirs up himself
to take hold of You. That is a wonderful description ofprayer. When a
man wakens himself from sinful lethargy and stirs himself up to take
hold of God in prayer, he will become an Israel, a prince prevailing
with God!

7, 8. For You have hid Your face from us, and have consumed us, because
of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, You are our Father. Adoption does
not come to an end because of sin. Regeneration or sonship does not die
out–it cannot die out! I am my father's son, and so I always shall be.
And if I am my heavenly Father's son, I shall never cease to be so.
"Now, O Lord, You are our Father!" This Truth of God must not be
perverted into an argument for sinning–it ought, rather, to keep us
from sinning, lest we should offend such wondrous love.

8 – 12. We are the clay, and You our potter; and we all are the work of
Your hands. Be not furious, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever:
behold, see, we beseech You, we are all Your people. The holy cities
are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our
holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, is burned
up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Will you
refrain Yourself for these things, O Lord? Will You hold Your peace,
and afflict us very severely? The Prophet touches the minor key and
weeps and wails for the sorrows of his people, but he does not neglect
to pray. In the next chapter God breaks out and says, "I am sought of
them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not." How
much more quickly is He found of them who seek Him! Verily, God does
hear prayer! And He will hear prayer–let us not cease to pray to Him
as we look round on the sad state of the professing Church at this
time–and with Isaiah let us cry, "Will You refrain Yourself for these
things, O Lord? Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very
severely?"