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This is what is portrayed to us in these lamentations over the desecrations and destructions wreaked upon the temple at Jerusalem, probably at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion (see 2 Chronicles 36:17, etc.). As the destroyer acted then, so he acts now when the like work is on hand of profaning God's sanctuary. What the ancient temple was, the Church of God is - the sanctuary of God. And it has once and again come under the destroyer's power.

I. THE TEMPLE IS LAID WASTE. (Ver. 3.)

1. That at Jerusalem was. The sacred service had come to an end; the throng of worshippers were driven away: the ministers of the temple no longer served at the altar; there was desolation everywhere. "The holy and beautiful house wherein the fathers of Israel had worshipped has been plundered and desecrated by a heathen soldiery. Instead of the psalms and hymns and sacred anthems which once echoed within those walls, has been heard the brutal shout of the fierce invaders, roaring like lions over their prey."

2. And there have been similar desecrations. Our own land, and other's, are sprinkled over with the ruins of desecrated shrines. They are beautiful even now in their decay, and suggest to us how glorious they must have been when they stood erect and complete in all their grandeur; when, instead of being given over, as now, to mouldering ruin, they were thronged with devout worshippers, and the sublime music of the praises of God reverberated through their high-roofed naves and choirs, and down the long vistas of their vaulted aisles. One can, even now, scarce keep back the bitter curse upon those brutal iconoclasts who in these once magnificent houses of God have wrought such cruel havoc and desolation, and the effects of whose blind fanaticism or wanton wickedness and greed can now never be repaired. The sacred rage which breathes in this psalm finds place yet in many hearts against those detestable destroyers of the most beautiful products of God-inspired genius and devotion that the world has ever seen or will see.

3. But the desolation of the spiritual temple is worse still, and what most concerns us all. And the wasters of that are not wicked men who assail us from without, but spiritual foes whom we have sheltered within. It is unbelief which lays waste the spiritual temple. Worse than fire, or axe, or sword, it makes havoc of the soul. And wickedness following hard on its footsteps completes the work which it has begun. Then comes -

II. THE EXULTATION OF THE ADVERSARY. (Ver. 4.) No doubt this literally occurred at Jerusalem, as it has in many another sanctuary of God which has been brought to ruin. But most assuredly that "roar" has been heard when the Church of God - his temple in the soul - has been laid waste. The adversaries of God point the finger of scorn; they scoff and jibe and mock; they never weary of holding up to contempt the loud, lofty pretensions and vast claims of the Christian Church, as they bid all men see what a wretched fraud she has at last proved to be. They contrast what she said and what she is, and the roar of execration and exultation over her is heard far and wide as that contrast is seen. Let none of us by our infidelities add to that bitter shame.

III. THEY SET UP THEIR STANDARDS AS TRUE. (Ver. 4.) In the temple at Jerusalem the invaders, no doubt, piled their military trophies, banners, and ensigns; or the "signs" spoken of may mean religious emblems, heathen rites and ceremonies (cf. 1 Macc. 1:54, 59 1 Macc. 3:48). But both meanings may be combined, as the temple may have been turned both into a barrack and heathen altar at the same time. The incident, however, suggests what is so continually seen when the spiritual temple of God is laid waste. Then men take their standards of truth for those of God; they assert their miserable theories of things for the verities which the Holy Scriptures have taught us; they bid us welcome some age of reason instead of the time-honoured truths on which the Church is founded. Their ensigns for signs, man's speculations for God's revelations.

IV. THE BEAUTY AND GRACE OF THE TEMPLE THEY BREAK DOWN. (Ver. 6.) So has it been with material sanctuaries of God, and the like has been done in those which are spiritual. For a while the unbeliever filches from the fair fabric of Christian truth those gracious and winsome doctrines which have ever commended the faith of Christ to men, and he claims them as the mere product of reason, as evolved by the processes of human thought. But when his work of destruction is complete, and the spiritual sanctuary of God is all laid waste, faith utterly gone, then it will be found that this "carved work of the sanctuary" will be broken down, and the love and care of men will depart with the love and faith of God.

V. THE WORK GOES ON UNTIL ALL IS DESTROYED. (Ver. 7.) It was so with the material temple; but, thank God, all is not lost in the spiritual There may be, however, individuals and groups of men in which the dread work is complete, and "God is not in all their thoughts."

VI. EVERY RELIC AND TRACE OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD IS GOT RID OF. (Ver. 8.) Besides the temple, there were, doubtless, synagogues, places of assembly, where religious men met for worship, though we do not meet with the actual mention of synagogues until the times of the New Testament. And when the first temple was destroyed, we may reasonably believe that such places existed, as we know they did afterwards. But there are, alas! places and human hearts where every relic and trace of God's worship have been swept utterly away, as if burned with fire. So long as any place where the soul can meet with God is left, the great enemy's triumph is not complete; he is not satisfied till what is said in ver. 8 has been done. But from this may God keep us all! - S.C.

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KJV: Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

WEB: Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.