May the groans of the captives reach You; by the strength of Your arm preserve those condemned to death. Sermons
I. THE SIGH OF THE CAPTIVE. The restraint of personal liberty is a most grievous distress. Man loves his freedom, and cannot endure bondage. There is the captivity of the body, but there is also a captivity of opinion, and a captivity of habits. When men are awakened, they begin to sigh under these bondages. "He is the free man whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves besides." Illustrate by the condition of captive Israel in Babylon. One psalmist pictures their distress in a very touching way (Psalm 137:1, 2), "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." Not captives in the bodily or in the national sense, we may be captives to sin; then what is the sigh we breathe, and the cry we make, and into whose ears will our cry enter? There is One whose work concerns the "freeing of them that are bound." There is a trumpet voice which proclaims for all who sigh and cry in the prison house - "The year of jubilee is come, Return, ye ransomed sinners, home." II. THE SIGH OF THE EXILE. Where patriot feeling is strong, it is an inconceivable distress to be away from one's own land. At least it is to be compelled to be away. We may leave home pleasantly at our own will; we never leave home pleasantly against our will. Illustrate by the passionate yearning of the Babylonian exiles for Jerusalem. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." See Daniel, the exile, praying with his window open toward Jerusalem. And yet here is a most strange and unnatural thing - so many souls are exiled by the compulsions of sin and self-will from their true home in God, and yet they neither sigh nor cry for their return. For all who do sigh there is a Divine Zerubbabel, ever ready to lead them back. III. THE SIGH OF THE OPPRESSED. For the captive life in Babylon was a life of stern trials and hardships. There were even some "appointed to die," placed in peril of life. To whom should they cry in their time of sore need, save to the God of their fathers? Like Samson, blind and oppressed, they could find a way to God. And sin is an oppression and humiliation. They who live in sin find it, as the prodigal son did, a hard lot; and presently they cry for home and father and God, even as he did. - R.T. I. THE PRISONER. 1. There is the prisoner under forced bondage to sin, who is held in degrading thraldom against his will, perhaps by some peculiar effort of the devil, perhaps by some evil habit which he has allowed to become ascendant in his heart. Be encouraged, we say to such an one, with all your sins you are not shut out from life and hope, your state is dangerous but it is not desperate, provided that you make God's throne the destination of these sighs. 2. The prisoner under the bondage of conviction. Whilst you are sighing in your captivity, our message is to sustain you, not to do away with your convictions, or bid you cease to sigh, but to make your convictions lead you to the Cross, and to tell you that your sighs are surely heard. 3. The prisoner in the dungeon of despair. We approach such an one and say, "How earnest thou in hither? Who has denied the entrance of hope into thy cell, and fast bound thy soul in iron? Why shouldest thou at one time rage, and at another time be sullen? Hast thou ever petitioned for thy relief?" We tell this man of Christ, and of the free love of God, and of mercy shown to such sinners as David and myriads more, and exalting the power of the Cross; we show how "Jesus is able to save even to the very uttermost all that, come unto God by Him"; but what the immediate effect of this might be none can tell. At the sound of this Gospel's trump, the walls of some men's dungeons will immediately fall fiat, as Jericho's fell prostrate at the sounding of the priests. Then the captive of despair, seeing that there is salvation in Christ, will be set free by the Son, and so be free indeed. II. THE PRISONER'S APPLICATION FOR RELIEF. 1. A sigh is an unexpected declaration. Although we do not speak, still we can tell a long tale of sorrow with a sigh. 2. An unexpressed with for deliverance. A sigh indicates a condition of the mind: it tells us that there is sorrow there. Do you indeed feel this? If you do, is it possible that you can thus express your sadness without God's being well acquainted with it all? Surely not; and if God knows this, is His heart hardened that He will not feel; is His hand shortened that it cannot save? III. THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THIS PRISONER LOOKED FOR HELP. "According to the greatness of Thy power." This preservation shall be vouchsafed to every one of you who sigh for it to God. He Will deliver you from the place where you are confined with a sentence of death upon you, and will altogether reverse the sentence itself. It were of no use to escape from the prison-house with our sentence still impending over us; we might be apprehended again, and lose our life at last. Deliverance, however, and remission, shall both be yours; and the greatness of the power you have invoked shall be seen in each. And who will come forth, and bring you from your captivity, but Jesus Christ Himself? (P. B. Power, M. A.) II. WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES TO DELIVERANCE? In the King who can reprieve he sees the adversary whom he has wronged, and the Judge who has appointed him to die. Omnipotent power, injured dignity, and immutable justice are leagued against him. What can the prisoner do? III. That there is A WAY OF ESCAPE. In the face of every obstacle, deliverance is attainable. In proof of this we may notice — 1. The infinite knowledge of God. "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee." From whatever depth of guilt and misery you breathe the prayer of a broken and contrite heart, that prayer is heard by a gracious God. 2. The Almighty power on which the plea is founded — "According to the greatness of Thy power." This must be exercised. (Anon.) People Asaph, Jacob, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Appointed, Arm, Condemned, Cry, Death, Die, Doomed, Free, Greatness, Groaning, Groans, Leave, Power, Preserve, Prisoner, Prisoners, Sentenced, Sighing, Sons, Strength, StrongOutline 1. The psalmist complains of the desolation of Jerusalem8. He prays for deliverance 13. and promises thankfulness Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 79:11 5461 prisoners Library The Attack on the Scriptures[Illustration: (drop cap B) A Greek Warrior] But troubled times came again to Jerusalem. The great empires of Babylon and Assyria had passed away for ever, exactly as the prophets of Israel had foretold; but new powers had arisen in the world, and the great nations fought together so constantly that all the smaller countries, and with them the Kingdom of Judah, changed hands very often. At last Alexander the Great managed to make himself master of all the countries of the then-known world. Alexander … Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making How they are to be Admonished who Lament Sins of Deed, and those who Lament Only Sins of Thought. Period ii. The Church from the Permanent Division of the Empire Until the Collapse of the Western Empire and the First Schism Between the East and the West, or Until About A. D. 500 The Formation of the Old Testament Canon A Summary of the Christian Life. Of Self-Denial. Psalms Links Psalm 79:11 NIVPsalm 79:11 NLT Psalm 79:11 ESV Psalm 79:11 NASB Psalm 79:11 KJV Psalm 79:11 Bible Apps Psalm 79:11 Parallel Psalm 79:11 Biblia Paralela Psalm 79:11 Chinese Bible Psalm 79:11 French Bible Psalm 79:11 German Bible Psalm 79:11 Commentaries Bible Hub |