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The prophet now turns from the people of Judah, with whom he could prevail but little, and cries to God as he stands in the midst, of the universal plague. It is often a relief for Christian workers to leave the society of hardened men for communion with Jehovah. Prayer is sometimes their only refuge and strength.

I. THAT THIS PRAYER WAS WISELY DIRECTED TO THE ONLY GIVER OF THE TRUE REMEDY

. "O Lord, to Thee will I cry."

1. It was wisely directed. He sought unto God in this time of peril. He did not pray unto any idols, but unto the true God, the Maker of the heaven and the earth. Jehovah had sent the calamity, and He only could remove it. Sorrow should send us to God.

2. It was earnestly presented. The prophet cried unto the Lord with all the energy of his being. His was no languid petition. Sorrow should make men earnest in devotion.

3. It was widely representative. The prophet did not merely pray on his own behalf; he remembered the universal woe around him, and caught up the pain-cry of nature and of the brute, and expressed it in his own prayer. He prayed as the groaning herds could not. A good man is the priest of the universe, especially in the hour of calamity.

II. THAT THIS PRAYER WAS PROMPTED BY A SAD APPRE HENSION OF THE CALAMITY IT SOUGHT TO REMOVE. "For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field." The prophet recognised the severity of the calamity which had come upon the nation. And it is essential to prayer that we should have a clear apprehension of the sorrow to be relieved, of the sin to be removed, and of the want to be supplied; prayer should always include a good knowledge of the conditions and circumstances under which it is presented and which it hopes to ameliorate.

III. THAT IN THIS PRAYER WAS UNITED THE INARTICULATE PLEADINGS OF SUFFERING BRUTES. "The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up," etc. We are not to suppose that the cry of the brutes was one with the cry of the prophet; one was the outcome of pious intelligence, the other was the outcome of blind instinct (Psalm 147:9; Job 30:41). Lessons —

1. That a sorrowful soul should pray to God for aid.

2. That the soul must feel its need before it can expect relief.

3. That man should consider the pain of the inferior creatures, and never render himself liable to their rebuke.

(J. S. Exell, M. A.)

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KJV: O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

WEB: Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.