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Praise for Deliverance from Oppression

25

O L ord, you are my God;

I will exalt you, I will praise your name;

for you have done wonderful things,

plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

2

For you have made the city a heap,

the fortified city a ruin;

the palace of aliens is a city no more,

it will never be rebuilt.

3

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;

cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

4

For you have been a refuge to the poor,

a refuge to the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.

When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,

5

the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place,

you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;

the song of the ruthless was stilled.

 

6

On this mountain the L ord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,

of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

7

And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;

8

he will swallow up death forever.

Then the Lord G od will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the L ord has spoken.

9

It will be said on that day,

Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.

This is the L ord for whom we have waited;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

10

For the hand of the L ord will rest on this mountain.

 

The Moabites shall be trodden down in their place

as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit.

11

Though they spread out their hands in the midst of it,

as swimmers spread out their hands to swim,

their pride will be laid low despite the struggle of their hands.

12

The high fortifications of his walls will be brought down,

laid low, cast to the ground, even to the dust.

 


3. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee. This is the end which I mentioned; 139139    {Bogus footnote} for if the Lord should destroy the world, no good result would follow, and indeed destruction could produce no feeling but horror, and we would never be led by it to sing his praise; but, on the contrary, we must be deprived of all feeling, when we perceive nothing but wrath. But praises flow from a sense of grace and goodness. It is therefore as if he had said, “Thou wilt not only strike and afflict, O Lord, but wilt cause the chastisements to be not without effect; for by them thou wilt subdue the fierceness of men, so that those who were formerly estranged from thee shall bend their neck to thee.” This passage should lead us to observe how much we need chastisements, which train us to obedience to God; for we are carried away by prosperity to such an extent, that we think that we have a right to do anything, and we even grow wanton and insolent when God treats us with gentleness.

The city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. When the Prophet next mentions fear, he shews that this praise does not consist in words or outward gestures, but in the sincere feeling of the heart. Hence we infer that he now speaks of the entire worship of God; but, as many persons think that they have fully discharged their duty, as soon as they have made a confession with the mouth, he adds, for the sake of explanation, “The nations shall fear thee.” When he calls them strong and powerful, by these epithets he denotes their pride and arrogance; for they were elated by their prosperity. They rebel against God, and cannot be made humble or submissive, unless they have been deprived of all things. To such views, therefore, ought our thoughts to be directed amidst those calamities which we perceive. The fierceness of men must be restrained and subdued, that they may be prepared for receiving doctrine and for rendering true obedience. So long as they shall be blinded by their wealth and vain confidence, they will fearlessly mock at the judgments of God, and will never yield subjection to him.


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