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I. THE PROPHET'S DESCRIPTION OF JEHOVAH. God, he says, is his Strength, his Fortress, and his Refuge.

1. The way in which the deserter individualizes himself. To the prophet individually Jehovah has a satisfactory relation. So far as external sufferings and losses are concerned, the prophet cannot escape some share; but so far as concerns his most important interests, he is effectually separated from his fellow-countrymen. When the invader comes they lose everything; but just then the prophet will be able to say more than ever that Jehovah is his Strength, Fortress, and Refuge. What he has learned to value most cannot be spoiled by any human hand whatever, and so it is seen that each one of us may be in the midst of a perishing multitude and yet not of them. These people had long boasted of their resources, their securities, and their satisfaction in life. They had virtually said to the prophet, "What better are you than us? Though you speak differently and live differently, your end will be the same." But the end was not the same. The invaders took from the people all that was precious to them, and then it was made evident that what was most precious to the prophet remained secure and uninjured with him.

2. The necessity that the prophet should be able to say this. Strength, defense, and security for the individual - even in the midst of a nation having none of these things - was not only possible but necessary. In the last resort, no amount of strength in the community in which we live will do us any good. There may be strength of a certain kind all around, but that may only emphasize our own weakness. Suppose the position of Jeremiah reversed. Actually he was living almost a solitary believer amid a nation of unbelievers; and yet this was far better than to have been an unbeliever amid a nation of believers. There is no way to make God our Strength, Fortress, and Refuge, save by personal trust and obedience.

3. The sufficiency of that in which the prophet here expresses his confident. It is when we really address Jehovah, thinking of what we need and of what he is, that the feeling of an inexhaustible sufficiency will come to us. And this is the way one may come to speak who knows history, who has had somewhat in personal experience both of need and supply, and, above all, who looks heavenward, assured by a feeling of the heart which rises above all reasoning, that he is connected with One able to do exceeding abundantly beyond any conceivable need of man.

II. THE ANTICIPATED CONFESSION OF THE GENTILES. The words here are words of strong contrast. The Gentile is openly mentioned, but the children of Israel are thought of at the same time.

1. The Gentiles are represented as coming to Jehovah. They have groped their way out of darkness and disentangled themselves from superstitions, while the very people whom Jehovah had brought to himself with so much power and patience, making their way clear and safe, would not inwardly come, even though they were outwardly brought. Their hearts were not changed with their changed circumstances. And it is a thing which cannot be too much remarked, that the Gentiles have long had an understanding, not only of the New Testament, but equally of the Old, which the children of Israel have been utterly unable to reach. And not only are these Gentiles to come; they are to come from the ends of the earth. God's drawing power is felt everywhere. Jerusalem is the center from which light and truth in their great historical manifestations nave gone out. But God can make his center of spiritual light anywhere, according to the necessities of the individual and of the time.

2. When these Gentiles come they have a confession to make. They have to confess the utter emptiness and falsehood of their idolatries. They have, indeed, been taught all these things; sucked them in with their mothers' milk; but this makes their own turning from them all the more remarkable, for what a man is taught he too often clings to, just because he has been taught. It is to be further noticed that these idolatries have always had the same character. The conception is not of gods who once were strong and true, but who have at last come into dotage and are unable to help their worshippers. The lies that tend to deceive and ruin the present generation have actually deceived and ruined many generations before. And yet those things which the Gentiles show signs of forsaking Israel clings to with a mad persistency. Israel has chosen lying, vanity, and loss, and forsaken that great Jehovah whom their fathers inherited. The lesson is, not to value tradition for its own sake, seeing it may only hand down lies. A tradition is nothing unless it is something more than a tradition. There must be the personal experience of God, the personal reception of truth. Every man must come out of Egypt, cross the flood, and come to Sinai for himself. To every such one tradition will become invaluable; for of the things handed down he will know which to receive and transmit, and which to reject. Each of us who comes to reject - intelligently and decidedly, courageously and openly - a lying and empty tradition, at the same time weakens the force of that tradition just as far as our individual influence may extend. - Y.

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KJV: O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

WEB: Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in which there is no profit.