Psalm 71:20 You, which have showed me great and sore troubles, shall quicken me again, and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth. "What a lamentable change has taken place in my condition," said the frozen brook. "Only a short time ago I ran along, a lively stream, glistening in the sunshine, dancing in the shade, and doing my work with joyous pleasure; but now, alas! I am cold and motionless — what a melancholy change has come over me, and oh, what if I should never recover from this torpor — never flow again." A sturdy oak that had outlived a hundred winters, and now also stood bare and comparatively leafless, overhearing, tried to comfort it. "Don't despair," said the oak; "these changes are common, and affect you now so powerfully because you are so shallow. As long as streams have been exposed to climates of this nature, they have endured what you now suffer. But the glorious sun retains his power in the heavens; and depend upon it that by and by we shall both again feel his quickening influence — myself to put on a new dress of foliage, and you to flow with freedom and freshness." The old oak was not mistaken. In due time the sun poured forth bright beams from the sky, the air became soft and balmy, and the little rivulet burst its icy bonds and coursed again through the meadows. The Christian has his wintry season, when cold and lifeless, as it were, and lamenting the absence of former spiritual enjoyments, he cries, "Quicken me in Thy way. Thou who hast showed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again." (W. Bowden.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. |
    |