August 3

I will look unto the Lord. - Micah 7:7.

THE Church here resolves to look unto the Lord; that is, to seek him in prayer, for his help and relief. The Jews looked to the brazen serpent to obtain relief. God, in the prophecies of Isaiah, says, “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” David, speaking of the righteous, says, “They looked unto him and were lightened.” And thus we are to look to the Lord: First, For explanation under our afflictions. “Of all troubles,” says an old writer, “my dumb ones are the most distressing; they strike, but say nothing; I put my ear down close to them, I listen, and hear nothing.” This was the case with Job. He could neither find comment nor commentator. But he says, “He knoweth the way that I take”-though he did not know it himself. This was a very trying state, and a very disadvantageous one; for if we know not in our afflictions for what it is that God designs to reprove us, what it is that he would wean us from, what it is that he would urge us to pursue, how is it possible for us to apply ourselves to the purpose? We should therefore go to him for information, and address him as did Job: “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.”

Secondly, We are to look to the Lord for support in our trouble. It is very honourable to religion when we can possess our souls in patience-when we can say, “I know, O Lord, thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me; let thy loving-kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.” The Christian feels under the dispensation; and this is allowable, and even necessary -morally necessary. There is no grace in bearing what we do not feel-there is no submission or resignation where there is no sensibility. But sensibility may be excessive- may be breaking down our Spirits; and while we do not “despise the chastening of the Lord,” on the one hand, we may, on the other, “faint when we are rebuked of him.” What is to prepare us for this? “If we faint in the day of adversity our strength is small.” What is to prevent this? What prevented it in David? “In the day that I cried,” said he, “thou heardest me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.”

Thirdly, We are to look to him that our afflictions may be sanctified. That these afflictions, which are “the fruit of sin,” may have the effect to “take away sin”-that from the sins of our condition we may be preserved-that all the graces becoming the condition may be exercised and improved by us-that we may “glorify God in the fires,” and that we may come forth as gold purified and refined, and be “found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Fourthly, We are to look to him for deliverance from our afflictions. This is allowable. Afflictions are not immutable dispensations. Our Saviour himself prayed, “Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me,” with perfect .submission; and we may do the same if we can add, as he did, “nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” To this we are encouraged by God himself in his promise to prayer, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” And we have records in the Scriptures of deliverances which he has wrought for his people in adversity. And his power and grace are still the same.

If we look unto him as the God of salvation, we shall find that he knows how to deliver- that “nothing is too hard” for him, and we shall exemplify the language of Watts-the “beautiful language of Watts,” as Cowper calls it (how capable was he of judging!)-

“The Lord can clear the darkest skies,

Can give us day for night,

Make drops of sacred sorrow rise

To rivers of delight.”