Isaiah 62:6-7 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of the LORD… In its present position, Jerusalem is at once a witness for God and a type of man — a witness to God's truth and justice, and a type of man's sin and sorrow. Prayer to God is enjoined as a means to secure the renovation and blessing of the temporal Jerusalem; and prayer is still one of the mightiest forces which can be brought to bear on the waste places and ruined magnificence of man's spiritual nature. I. A CHARACTER WE MUST ENDEAVOUR TO DESERVE. The prophet describes God's servants as those who "make mention of the Lord," or, in other words, are "the Lord's rembrancers." Not that they had need to remind Him of their needs or His fulness, but that their business was to bring Him to the remembrance of those about them. II. If we are thus to be the Lord's remembrancers THERE IS A DANGER WE MUST SEEK TO AVOID. This is, the danger of keeping silence, of withholding our testimony, or giving it half-heartedly and in a perfunctory manner. There are not a few roads which end at this habitation of "silence. 1. Doubt. 2. Despair, whether it be despair of ourselves or of others. Hopefulness is as necessary as faithfulness. 3. We shall "keep silence" if we grow weary in well-doing; if patience gives place to fretfulness, and love of ease cries out against the practice of self-denial; if the crown is longed for while the cross is shunned, and the reaping is desired while the sowing is neglected. III. In connection with all this, THERE IS A DUTY WE MUST FAITHFULLY PERFORM. "Give Him no rest." No rest for the servant, and no rest for the Master. Surely this means: "Be earnest in supplication." IV. A RESULT IN WHICH WE MUST STEADFASTLY BELIEVE. We are to be "remembrancers" and "pleaders" till He establish, and "till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." That He will do these great things we are devoutly to believe; that He may do them we are earnestly to pray. The early verses of our chapter draw a picture already seen by the prophetic eye. Righteousness, bright as the light going forth with salvation, clear as the burning lamp. The new name given to betoken the new nature. The joy of wedding festivity celebrating the union of the once forsaken city- with her new-found Lord and King. Glowing picture this; yet to be fully realized in the capital of the Holy Land, and yet to be spiritually realized in the fulness of blessing which shall crown all faithful labour, and be the answer to every earnest prayer. (W. J. Mayers.) Parallel Verses KJV: I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, |
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