Psalms 137:9

REFLECTIONS

MY soul! canst thou behold the sorrows and miseries of Israel in their captivity, and not call to mind that more horrible vassalage and slavery in which sin and Satan bound thee for many a year? Did Israel weep by the waters of Babylon, and hang their harps upon the willows, under a sense of the bondage into which their rebellion and ingratitude had brought them; and canst thou forget the wormwood and the gall, when, in a state of unawakened nature, thou wast fast bound in the misery and iron of a captivity, from which none but the arm of Jehovah could have delivered thee? Apply this view of the Church's history to thine own state and circumstances, in what is past, in what is now, and in which thou mayest be blessed in the review of it hereafter. Think what thou once wast, when like the Church in Babylon, the strong man armed kept the house, and thou wast the servant and bondsman of sin. See by whose grace and mercy it is that thou art brought out. Remember who it is that hath said, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And call to mind to whose grace and finished salvation it must alone be ascribed, that the hopes of being brought home to the heavenly Jerusalem now arise, in looking forward to all the blessings of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Hail, thou holy, thou gracious, thou almighty Saviour! Blessed Jesus! when the seventy years of the desolation of thy church and people are accomplished; when the Lord, who hath in his own glorious person finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for and brought in an everlasting righteousness, shall finally and fully turn the captivity of his redeemed; then, Lord, thou wilt call all thy people home, and plant them in thy holy mountain, even in heaven itself, which thou hast taken possession of in their name: and then shall all the Edomites, and the haters of the Lord, be driven from thy presence, while thy people shall rejoice before thee in everlasting hallelujahs, and endless happiness.