Comfort for Those Whose Prayers Are Feeble

Comfort for Those Whose Prayers Are Feeble

(No. 3083)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1908.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Hide not Your ear at my breathing." Lamentations 3:56.

YOUNG beginners in Grace are very apt to compare themselves with
advanced disciples and so to become discouraged. And tried saints fall
into the same habit. They see those of God's people who are upon the
mountain, enjoying the light of their Redeemer's Countenance and,
comparing their own condition with the joy of the saints, they write
bitter things against themselves and conclude that surely, they are not
the people of God! This course is as foolish as though the lambs should
suspect themselves not to be of the flock because they are not sheep,
or as though a sick man should doubt his existence because he is not
able to walk or run as a man in good health. But since this evil habit
is very common, it is our duty to seek after the dispirited and
cast-down ones and comfort them. That is our errand in this short
discourse. We hear the Master's words, "Comfort you, comfort you My
people," and we will endeavor to obey them with His Spirit's help.

Upon the matter of prayer, many are dispirited because they cannot yet
pray as advanced Believers do, or because, during some peculiar crisis
of their spiritual history, their prayers do not appear to them to be
so fervent and acceptable as is the case with other Christians. Perhaps
God may have a message to some troubled ones in the present address and
may the Holy Spirit apply it with power to them!

"Hide not Your ear at my breathing." This is an amazing description of
prayer, is it not? Frequently, prayer is said to have a voice–it is so
in this verse–"You have heard my voice." Prayer has a melodious voice
in the ear of our Heavenly Father. Frequently prayer is expressed by a
cry. It is so in this verse–"Hide not Your ear at my cry." A cry is
the natural, plaintive utterance of sorrow and has as much power to
move the heart of God as a babe's cry to touch a mother's tenderness.
But there are times when we cannot speak with the voice, nor even cry.
And then a prayer may be expressed by a moan, or a groan, or a
tear–"the heaving of a sigh, the falling of a tear." But possibly we
may not even get as far as that and may have to say, like one of old,
"Like a crane or a swallow, so do I chatter." Our prayer, as heard by
others, may be a kind of irrational utterance. We may feel as if we
moaned like wounded beasts rather than prayed like intelligent men. And
we may even fall below that, for in the text we have a kind of prayer
which is less than a moan or a sigh. It is called a breathing–"Hide
not Your ear at my breathing." The man is too far gone for a glance of
the eye, or the moaning of the heart–he scarcely breathes, but that
faint breath is prayer! Though unuttered and unexpressed by any sounds
which could reach a human ear, yet God hears the breathing of His
servant's soul and hides not His ear from it.

We shall teach three or four lessons from the present use of the
expression, "breathing."

I. WHEN WE CANNOT PRAY AS WE WOULD, IT IS GOOD TO PRAY AS WE CAN.

Bodily weakness should never be urged by us as a reason for ceasing to
pray. In fact, no living child of God will ever think of such a thing.
If I cannot bend the knees of my body because I am so weak, my prayers
from my bed shall be on their knees–my heart shall be on its knees and
pray as acceptably as before. Instead of relaxing prayer because the
body suffers, true hearts, at such times, usually double their
petitions. Like Hezekiah, they turn their face to the wall that they
may see no earthly object and then they look at the invisible things
and talk with the Most High. Yes, and often in a sweeter and more
familiar manner than they did in the days of their health and strength.
If we are so faint that we can only lie still and breathe, let every
breath be a prayer!

Nor should a true Christian relax his prayer through mental
difficulties. I mean those perturbations which distract the mind and
prevent the concentration of our thoughts. Such ills will happen to us.
Some of us are often much depressed and are frequently so tossed to and
fro in mind that if prayer were an operation which required the
faculties to be all at their best, as in the working of abstruse
mathematical problems, we could not, at such times, be able to pray at
all. But, Brothers and Sisters, when the mind is very heavy, then is
not the time to give up praying, but rather to redouble our
supplications! Our blessed Lord and Master was driven by distress of
mind into the most sad condition–He said, "My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even unto death"–yet He did not, for that reason say, "I
cannot pray" but, on the contrary, He sought the well-known shades of
the olive grove and there unburdened His heavy heart and poured out His
soul like water before the Lord! Never let us consider ourselves to be
too ill or too distracted to pray. A Christian ought never to be in
such a state of mind that he feels bound to say, "I do not feel that I
could pray" or, if he does, let him pray till he feels he canpray. Not
to pray because you do not feel fit to pray is like saying, "I will not
take medicine because I am too ill." Pray for prayer! Pray yourself, by
the Spirit's assistance, into a praying frame! It is good to strike
when the iron is hot, but some make cold iron hot by striking. We have
sometimes eaten till we have gained an appetite, so let us pray till we
pray. God will help you in the pursuit of duty, not in the neglect of
it.

The same is the case with regard to spiritual sicknesses. Sometimes it
is not merely the body or the mind which is affected, but our inner
nature is dull, stupid, lethargic, so that when it is time for prayer,
we do not feel the spirit of prayer. Moreover, perhaps our faith is
flagging and how shall we pray when faith is so weak? Possibly we are
suspicious as to whether we are the people of God at all and we are
molested by the recollection of our shortcomings. Now the tempter will
whisper, "Do not pray just now–your heart is not in a fit condition
for it." My dear Brothers and Sisters, you will not become fit for
prayer by keeping away from the Mercy Seat! But to lie groaning or
breathing at its foot is the best preparation for pleading before the
Lord. We are not to aim at a self-worked preparation of our hearts that
we may come to God aright, but "the preparations of the heart in man
and the answer of the tongue are from the Lord." If I feel myself
disinclined to pray, thenis the time when I need to pray more than
ever! Possibly when the soul leaps and exults in communion with God, it
might more safely refrain from prayer than at those seasons when it
drags heavily in devotion. Alas, my Lord, does my soul go wandering
away from You? Then come back, my heart! I will drag you back by force
of Divine Grace! I will not cease to cry till the Spirit of God has
made you return to your allegiance. What? My Christian Brother, because
you feel idle, is that a reason why you should stay your hand and not
serve your God? No, but away with your idleness and resolutely bend
your soul to service! So, under a sense of prayerlessness, be more
intent on prayer. Repent that you cannot repent, groan that you cannot
groan and pray until you do pray–in so doing God wil help you.

But, it may be objected, that sometimes we are placed in great
difficulty as to circumstances s o that we may be excused from prayer.
Brothers and Sisters, there are no circumstances in which we should
cease to pray in some form or other. "But I have so many cares." Who
among us has not? If we are never to pray till all our cares are over,
surely then we shall either never pray at all, or pray when we have no
more need for it! What did Abram do when he offered sacrifice to God?
When the Patriarch had slaughtered the appointed creatures and laid
them on the altar, certain vultures and kites came hovering around,
ready to pounce upon the consecrated flesh. What did the Patriarch do?
"When the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away."
[See Sermons #420, Volume 7–abram and the ravenous birds and #1993,

Volume 33–DRIVING AWAY THE VULTURES FROM THE SACRIFICE] So must

we ask for Grace to drive our cares away from our devotions.

That was a wise direction which the Prophet gave to the poor woman when
the Lord was about to multiply her oil. "Go, take the cruse," he said,
"pour out the oil, and fill the borrowed vessels." But what else did he
say? "Shut the door behind you." If the door had been open, some of her
gossiping neighbors would have looked in and said, "What are you doing?
Do you really hope to fill all those jars out of that little oil cruse?
Why, woman, you must be mad!" I am afraid she would not have been able
to perform that act of faith if the objectors had not been shut out. It
is a grand thing when the soul can bolt the doors against distractions
and keep out intruders–for then it is that prayer and faith will
perform their miracle and our soul shall be filled with the blessing of
the Lord! Oh, for Grace to overcome circumstances and at least to
breathe out prayer if we cannot reach to a more powerful form of it!

Perhaps, however, you declare that your circumstances are more
difficult than I can imagine, for you are surrounded by those who mock
you and, besides, Satan, himself, molests you. Ah, then dear Brother or
Sister, under such circumstances, instead of restraining prayer, be ten
times more diligent! Your position is pre-eminently perilous–you
cannot afford to live away from the Throne of Grace–do not, therefore,
attempt it. As to threatened persecution, pray in defiance of it.
Remember how Daniel opened his window and prayed to his God as he had
done before? Let the God of Daniel be your God in the chamber of prayer
and He will be your God in the lions' den! As for the devil, be sure
that nothing will drive him away like prayer. That couplet is correct
which declares that–

"Satan trembles when he sees

The weakest saint upon his knees!" Whatever your position, if you
cannot speak, cry. If you cannot cry, groan. If you cannot groan, let
there be "groans which cannot be uttered." And if you cannot even rise
to that point, let your prayer be at least a breathing–a vital,
sincere desire–the outpouring of your inner life in the simplest and
weakest form, and God will accept it. In a word, when you cannot pray
as you would, take care to pray as you can!

II. But now, a second word of instruction. It is clear from the text,
from many other passages of Scripture and from

general observation that THE BEST OF MEN HAVE USUALLY FOUND THE
GREATEST FAULT WITH THEIR OWN PRAYERS.

This arises from the fact that they present living prayers in real
earnest and feel far more than they can express. A mere formalist can
always pray so as to please himself. What has he to do but to open his
book and read the prescribed words, or bow his knee and repeat such
phrases as suggest themselves to his memory or his fancy? Like the
Tartarian Praying Machine, give but the wind and the wheel, and the
business is fully arranged! So much knee-bending and talking and the
prayer is done! The formalist's prayers are always good, or, rather,
always bad, alike. But the living child of God never offers a prayer
which pleases himself–his standard is above his attainments. He
wonders that God listens to him and though he knows he will be heard
for Christ's sake, yet he accounts it a wonderful instance of
condescending mercy that such poor prayers as his should ever reach the
ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth!

If it is asked in what respect holy men find fault with their prayers,
we reply, that they complain of the narrowness of their desires. O God,
You have bid me open my mouth wide and you will fill it, but I do not
open my mouth! You are ready to bestow great things upon me, but I am
not ready to receive great things! I am straitened, but it is not in
You–I am straitened in my own desires! Dear Brothers and Sisters, when
we read of Hugh Latimer on his knees perpetually crying out, "O God,
give back the Gospel to England," and sometimes praying so long that he
could not rise, being an aged man–and they had to lift him up from the
prison floor–and he would still keep on crying, "O God, give back the
Gospel to poor England," we may well wonder that some of us do not pray
in the same way! The times are as bad as Latimer's and we have as great
a need to pray as he had, "O God, drive away this Popery once again,
and give back the Gospel to England." Then, think of John Knox. Why,
that man's prayers were like great armies for power and he would
wrestle all night with God that he would kindle the light of the Gospel
in Scotland. He asserted that he had gained his desire and I believe he
had, and that the Light of God which burns so brightly in Scotland is
much to be attributed to that man's supplications. We do not pray like
these men. We have no heart to ask for great things. A revival is
waiting, the cloud is hovering over England, but we do not know how to
bring it down! Oh, that God may find some true spirits who shall be as
conductors to bring down the Divine Fire! We need it much, but our poor
breathings–they do not come to much more–have no force, nor
expansiveness, no great-heartedness, no prevalence in them!

Then, how far we fail in the matter of faith! We do not pray as if we
believed. Believing prayer is a grasping and a wrestling, but ours is a
mere puffing and blowing, a little breathing–not much more. God is
true and we pray to Him as if He were false. He means what He says, and
we treat His Word as if it were spoken in jest. The master-fault of our
prayer is lack of faith.

How often do we lack earnestness! Such men as Luther had their will of
Heaven because they would have it! God's Spirit made them resolute in
intercession and they would not come away from the Mercy Seat till
their suit was granted. But we are cold, and consequently feeble, and
our poor, poor prayers in the Prayer Meeting, in the closet and at the
family altar languish and almost die!

How much, alas, is there of impurity of motive to mar our prayers! We
ask for revival, but we want our own Church to get the blessing that we
may have the credit of it. We pray God to bless our work and it is
because we wish to hear men say what good workers we are. The prayer is
good in itself, but our smutty fingers spoil it. Oh, that we could
offer supplication as it should be offered! Blessed be God, there is
One who can wash our prayers for us but, truly, our very tears need to
be wept over and our prayers need praying over again. The best thing we
ever do needs to be washed in the Fountain filled with blood, or God
can only look upon it as a sin.

Another fault good men see in their supplications is that they stand at
such a distance from God in praying, they do not draw near enough to
Him. Are not some of you oppressed with a sense of the distance there
is between you and God? You know there is a God and you believe He will
answer you, but it is not always that you come right up to Him, even to
His feet and, as it were, lay hold upon Him and say, "O my Father,
listen to the voice of Your chosen and let the cry of the blood of Your
Son come up before You!" Oh, for prayers which enter within the veil
and approach the Mercy Seat! Oh, for petitioners who are familiar with
the cherubim and the brightness which shines between their wings! May
God help us to pray better! But this I feel sure of–you who plead most
prevalently are just those who will think the least of your own prayers
and be most grateful to God that He deigns to listen to you–and most
anxious that He would help you to pray after a nobler sort.

" III. A third lesson is this–THE POWER OF PRAYER IS NOT TO BE
MEASURED BY ITS OUTWARD EXPRESSION.

A breathing is a prayer from which God does not hide His ear. It is
undoubtedly a great Truth of God, and full of much comfort, too, that
our prayers are not powerful in proportion to their expression, for, if
so, the Pharisee would have succeeded since he evidently had greater
gifts than the Publican had. I have no doubt, if there had been a
regular Prayer Meeting, and the Pharisee and the Publican had attended,
we would have called on the Pharisee to pray. I do not think the people
of God would have enjoyed his prayer, nor have felt any kinship of
spirit with him and yet, very naturally, on account of his gifts, he
would have taken upon himself to engage in public devotion or, if that
Pharisee would not have done so, I have heard of other Pharisees who
would. No doubt the man's spirit was bad, but then his expression was
good–he could put his oration so neatly and pour it out so accurately.
Let all men know that God does not care for that! The sigh of the
Publican reached His ear and won the blessing but the boastful phrases
of the Pharisee were an abomination to Him!

If our prayers were forcible according to their expression, then
rhetoric would be more valuable than Grace and a scholastic education
would be better than sanctification–but it is not so. Some of us may
be able to express ourselves very fluently from the force of natural
gifts, but it should always be to us an anxious question whether our
prayer is a prayer which God will receive, for we ought to know and
must know by this time, that we often pray best when we stammer and
stutter–and we pray worst when words come rolling like a torrent, one
after another! God is not moved by words–they are but a noise to Him.
He is only moved by the deep thought and the heaving emotion which
dwell in the innermost spirit. It were a sorry business for you, who
are poor, if God only heard us according to the beauty of our
utterances, for it may be that your education was so neglected that
there is no hope of your ever being able to speak grammatically. And,
besides, it may be, from your limited information, that you could not
use the phrases which sound so well. But the Lord hears the poor, the
ignorant and the needy! He loves to hear their cry. What cares He for
the grammar of the prayer? It is the soul of it that He wants! And if
you cannot string three words of the Queen's English together
correctly, yet if your soul can breathe itself out before the Most High
anyhow–if it is but warm, hearty, sincere, earnest petitioning–there
is power in your prayer and none the less power in it because of its
broken words, nor would it be an advantage to you, so far as the Lord
is concerned, if those words were not broken, but were well composed!
Ought not this to comfort us, then?

Even if we are gifted with facility of expression, we sometimes find
that our power of utterance fails us. Under very heavy grief, a man
cannot speak as he is known to do. Circumstances can make the most
eloquent tongue grow slow of speech. It matters not–your prayer is as
good as it was before. You call upon God in public and you sit down and
think that your confused prayer was of no service to the Church. You
know not in what scales God weighs your prayer–not by quantity, but by
quality–not by the outward dress of verbiage, but by the inner soul
and the intense earnestness that was in it does He compute its value!
Do you not sometimes rise from your knees in your little room and say,
"I do not

think I have prayed, I could not feel at home in prayer"? Nine times
out of every ten, those prayers are most prevalent with God which we
think are the least acceptable. But when we glory in our prayer, God
will have nothing to do with it! If you see any beauty in your own
supplication–God will not–for you have evidently been looking at your
prayer and not at Him! But when your soul sees so much of His Glory
that she cries, "How shall I speak unto You–I who am but dust and
ashes?" When she sees so much of His goodness that she is hampered in
expression by the depth of her own humiliation, oh, then it is that
your prayer is best! There may be more prayer in a groan than in an
entire liturgy. There may be more acceptable devotion in a tear that
dampens the floor of yonder pew than in all the hymns we have sung, or
in all the supplications which we have uttered! It is not the outward,
it is the inward! It is not the lips, it is the heart which the Lord
regards! If you can only breathe, your prayer is still accepted by the
Most High!

I desire that this Truth may come home to any one of you who says, "I
cannot pray." It is not true. If it were necessary that in order to
pray, you should talk for a quarter of an hour together, or that you
should say pretty things, why then I would admit that you could not
pray! But if it is only to say from your heart, "God be merciful to me
a sinner," yes, and if prayer is not saying anything at all, but
desiring, longing, hoping for mercy, for pardon, for salvation, no man
may say, "I cannot," unless he is honest enough to add, "I cannot
because I willnot. I love my sins too well and have no faith in Christ.
I do not desire to be saved." If you will to pray, O my Hearer, you can
pray! He who gives the will joins the ability to it!

And oh, let me say, do not sleep this night until you have tried and
proved the power of prayer! If you feel a burden on your heart, tell
the Lord! Cover your face and speak with Him. Even that you need not
do, for I suppose that Hannah did not cover her face when Eli saw her
lips move and supposed that she was drunk. No, your lips need not even
move! Your soul can now say, "Save me, my God! Convict me of sin, lead
me to the Cross! Save me tonight! Let me not end another day as Your
enemy! Let me not go into the cares of another week unforgiven, with
Your wrath hanging over me like a thunder-cloud! Save me, save me, O my
God!" Such prayers, though utterly wordless, shall not be powerless,
but shall be heard in Heaven!

IV. We will close with a fourth practical lemon–FEEBLE PRAYERS ARE
HEARD IN HEAVEN.

Why is it that feeble prayers are understood of God and heard in
Heaven? There are three reasons.

First, the feeblest prayer, if it is sincere, is written by the Holy
Spirit upon the heart, and God will always acknowledge the handwriting
of the Holy Spirit Frequently, certain kind friends from Scotland send
me for the Orphanage some portions of what one of them called, the
other day, "filthy lucre"–namely, dirty £1 notes. Now these £1 notes
certainly look as if they were of small value. Still, they bear the
proper signature and they pass well enough– and I am very grateful for
them. Many a prayer that is written on the heart by the Holy Spirit
seems written with faint ink and, moreover, it appears to be blotted
and defiled by our imperfection. But the Holy Spirit can always read
His own handwriting. He knows His own notes and when He has issued a
prayer, He will not disown it. Therefore, the breathing which the Holy
Spirit works in us will be acceptable with God.

Moreover, God, our ever-blessed Father, has a quick ear to hear the
breathing of any of His children. When a mother has a sick child, it is
marvelous how quick her ears become while attending it. Good woman, we
wonder she does not fall asleep. If you hired a nurse, it is ten to one
she would. But the dear child, in the middle of the night, does not
need to cry for water, or even speak–there is a little quick
breathing–who will hear it? No one would except the mother! But her
ears are quick, for they are in her child's heart. So, if there is a
heart in the world that longs for God, God's ear is already in that
poor sinner's heart! He will hear it. There is not a good desire on
earth but the Lord has heard it. I recollect when, at one time, I was a
little afraid to preach the Gospel to sinners as sinners, and yet I
wanted to do so, so I used to say, "If you have but a millionth part of
a desire, come to Christ." I dare say more than that now, but, at the
same time, I will say that at once–if you have a millionth part of a
desire, if you have only a little breathing–if you desire to be
reconciled, if you desire to be pardoned, if you would be forgiven, if
there is only half a good thought formed in your soul, do not check it,
do not stifle it and do not think that God will reject it!

And, then, there is another reason, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ
is always ready to take the most imperfect prayer and perfect it for
us. If our prayers had to go up to Heaven as they are, they would never
succeed. But they find a Friend on the way and, therefore, they
prosper. A poor person has a petition to be sent in to some government
agency. If he had to write it himself, it would puzzle all the officers
in Downing-Street to make out what he meant. But he is wise enough to
find a friend who can write, or he comes round to his minister and
says, "Sir, will you make this petition right for me? Will you put it
into good English, so that it can be presented? And then the petition
goes in a very different form. Even thus, the Lord Jesus Christ takes
our poor prayers, fashions them over again and presents the petition
with the addition of His own signature–and the Lord sends us answers
of peace.

The feeblest prayer in the world is heard when it has Christ's seal to
it. I mean He puts His precious blood upon it. And wherever God sees
the blood of Jesus, He must and will accept the desire which it
endorses. Go to Jesus, Sinner, even if you cannot pray, and let the
breathing of your soul be, "Be merciful to me, wash me, cleanse me,
save me," and it shall be done, for God will not hear your prayer so
much as hear His Son's blood, "which speaks better things than that of
Abel." A louder voice than yours shall prevail for you! And your feeble
breathings shall come up to God covered over with the Omnipotent
pleadings of the Great High Priest who never asks in vain!

I have been aiming thus to comfort those distressed ones who say they
cannot pray, but before I close, I must add how inexcusable are those
who, knowing all this, continue prayerless, Godless and Christless! If
there were no mercy to be had, you could not be blamed for not having
it. If there were no Savior for sinners, a sinner might be excused for
remaining in his sin. But there is a Fountain and it is open–why,
then, do you not wash in it? Mercy is to be had "without money and
without price"–it is to be had by askingfor it. Sometimes poor men are
shut up in the condemned cell, sentenced to be hanged. But suppose they
could have a free pardon by asking for it and they did not do so–who
would pity them? God will give His blessing to everyone who is moved to
seek for it sincerely at His hands on this one and only condition–that
the soul will trust in Jesus! And even that is not a condition, for He
gives repentance and faith and enables sinners to believe in His dear
Son! Behold Christ crucified, the saddest and yet the gladdest sight
the sun ever beheld! Behold the eternal Son of God made flesh and
bleeding out His life! A surpassing marvel of woe and love! A look at
Him will save you! Though you are on the borders of the grave and on
the brink of Hell, by one look at Jesus crucified your guilt shall be
cancelled, your debts forever discharged before the Throne of God and
yourselves led into joy and peace. Oh, that you would give that look!

Breathe the prayer, "Lord, give me the faith of Your elect and save me
with a great salvation!" Though it is only breathing, yet, as the old
Puritan says, when God feels the breath of His child upon His face, He
smiles. And He will feel your breath and smile on you, and bless you.
May He do so, for His name's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LAMENTATIONS3:1-36.

The first part of this chapter is one of the saddest in the whole Book
of God, yet I expect it has ministered as much consolation as some of
the brightest pages of Holy Writ because there are children of God who
are the subjects of great suffering and sorrow–and when they turn to
such a passage as this, they see that one of the Lord's own Prophets
had gone that way before them. And when they see the footprints of
another of God's people in the dark and gloomy valley that they are
traversing, they are encouraged. Besides, the chapter does not end as
it begins. There is daylight for the poor sufferer after all, so we
shall read the sad utterances of the Prophet in the hope that if we
have ever known experiences similar to his, we may learn where to find
comfort even as he did.

Verses 1, 2. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His
wrath He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into
light.This seems to be the hardest part of our lot–that God should
lead us into darkness–"He has led me and brought me into darkness."
Yet dear Brothers and Sisters, that is, on the other hand, the sweetest
thing about our trial, because if the darkness is in the place where
God has led us, it is best for us to be in the dark! A child of God in
the dark should derive much comfort from the thought, "My father
brought me here and He loves me so much that He would not bring me
where I would be in danger. He must have had some good end and
objective in view in what He has done." Surely, there is something
comforting to the tried child of God in that thought.

3-5. Surely against me is He turned; He turns His hand against me all
the day. My flesh and my skin has He made old; He has broken my bones.
He has besieged me, and compassed me with gall and woe. "I am like a
besieged city that has strong forts built all round it to shut it in on
all sides."

6, 7. He has set me in darkplaces, as they that are dead of old. He has
hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He has made my chains heavy.Ah,
dear Friends, it is easy for some people to read such a passage as
this, but there are others who have read it with aching brows and eyes
red with weeping! And often, I doubt not, as they have read the
Prophet's descriptions of just such sorrows as they are themselves
feeling, they have said, "Then after all, we are not alone in our
griefs, and we may yet be delivered even as Jeremiah was"

8. Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer What a sorrow is
this–to feel that even prayer itself is unavailing! Yet this suppliant
was no graceless sinner–he was a dear child of God, one of the noblest
of the Lord's ancient Prophets, one of the most faithful of His
ministers! You must not think, because sometimes your prayers seem to
be unheard or unheeded, and you are allowed to continue in sorrow, that
therefore the Lord does not love you. "Whom the Lord loves He chastens,
and scourges every son whom He receives." And that word, "scourges," is
a very strong one, meaning much more than just an ordinary whipping.

9. He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone. "The Lord has shut me right
up, as if He had built a wall around me on every side."

9-13. He has made mypaths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in
wait, and as a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways, and
pulled me in pieces: He has made me desolate. He has bent His bow, and
set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver
to enter into my reins. The King's arrows had wounded him to the very
quick. Perhaps some of you may know what it is to go to the Bible and
yet to find no comfort in it, for the precious promises have seemed to
be too good to be true to you, and you seem to have hunted out every
dark and threatening passage at once–and you have said, "Ah, that
belongs to me!" You have written bitter things against yourself and
have thought that surely you were the target at which God was shooting
His sharpest arrows. [See Sermon #3039, Volume 53–THE

KING'S SHARP ARROWS]

14-17. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood.
He has also broken my teeth with gravel, He has coveredme with ashes.
And You have removed my soul far off from peace: I have forgotten
prosperity. "It seems so long since I have had any prosperity that I
have forgotten it. I have become so accustomed to trouble and sorrow
that it seems as if I had never known what joy was." The original is
even more sad, "I forget good."

18-21. And I said, Your strength and my hope is perished from the LORD;
remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall My
soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall
to my mind, therefore have I hope.And as long as your afflictions, poor
troubled Souls, have really humbled you, you may have hope! Recall to
mind the fact that God's chastising blows have brought you down to His
feet in humble submission and ended all your boasting–and therein you
may have hope. [See Sermon #654, Volume 11–memory–the handmaid of
hope–

Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at
http://www.spurgeongems.org.]

22. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His
compassions fail not See where Jeremiah gets his comfort! He seems to
say, "Bad as my case is, it might have been worse, for I might have
been consumed, and I should have been consumed if the Lord's
compassions had failed." Ah, Brothers and Sisters, and we, too, might
have been in Hell at this very moment! Amidst the hottest flames of
that hopeless place we might have been enduring the wrath of God, but
we are not there and, blessed be His name for that! "It is of the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail
not." He still has compassion upon us! If He had not, He would have
given us up altogether! But there is love in His heart, even while
there is a frown upon His brow–and while His hand is smiting us, His
heart is still loving us.

23. They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness. If every
day brings its trouble, every day also brings its mercy. Up to this
day, at all events, we have not perished. The Lord has chastened us,
but He has not crushed us. We have been cast down, but we have not been
destroyed. "Great is Your faithfulness." No man can say that so truly
as the one who has known what it is to prove that great faithfulness in
great affliction. But when there has been a great trial, the believing
soul has cast itself upon the ever-faithful God and so has been able to
set its seal to this Truth of God, "Great is your faithfulness."

24. The LORD is my portion, says my soul What? With His mouth full of
gravel stones, and made drunk with wormwood, overwhelmed with sorrow,
yet he says, "the Lord is my portion"? Oh, yes, Beloved, whatever else
we have

lost, we have not lost our God! The thieves have robbed us of our
little spare cash, but they could not get at the gold that we have in
the bank, they could not break into the great treasure house of
everlasting love. John Bunyan says, "LittleFaith lost his spending
money, but the thieves could not find his jewels." Nor can they find
ours! They are all safe. "The Lord is my portion, says my soul."

24. Therefore will I hope in Him. If I cannot cast the anchor of hope
anywhere else, I may "hope in Him." And what better hope do I need than
that?

25. The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that
seeks Him. Do not be in a hurry. Do not expect to be delivered out of
your trouble the first time you begin to cry unto God. Oh, no–"the
Lord is good unto them that

wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him." [See Sermon #2436, Volume
41–"HOW GOOD TO THOSE WHO SEEK"].

26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the LORD. God's time is always the best time. To deliver
you just now might be to deprive you of the benefit of the trouble. You
must bear it till it produces "the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
When the doctor puts on a blister, we are not to take it off the next
minute. No, patience must have her perfect work, that we "may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

27, 28. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. [See
Sermon #1291, Volume 22–the best burden for young

upon him.When it makes a man get alone to contemplate and meditate,
affliction is already doing him good.

29. He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. [See
Sermon #2468, Volume 42–solitude, silence, submission] That is the way
to find it-not lifting your mouth up to defy

the Lord, or to murmur at Him, nor yet opening your mouth in
boastfulness, but putting your mouth in the dust–that is the way to
find hope! A humble, penitent, resigned, silent, submissive spirit will
soon find hope.

30, 31. He gives his cheek to him that smites him: he is filled full
with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. Oh, get a grip
of that blessed Truth of God! I pray you, O you sons of trouble, lay
hold of it and never let it go! The Lord may, to all appearance, cast
off for a little while, but He will not cast off forever!

32-34. But though He causes grief, yet will He have compassion
according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict
willingly nor grieve the children of men. To crush under His feet all
theprisoners of the earth. That is not God's way of acting. Tyrants may
do so, but the tender, compassionate God–our gracious, loving
Father–will never do that. If you lie in the dust before Him, He will
not tread on you.

35, 36. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most
High, to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approves not. Again I
say, that is not God's way of acting.

free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.]

SHOULDERS] He sits alone and keeps silence