Isai. xxxiii. 20 — 22. Look upon Zion, the city of our solem- nities : thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king ; he will save us.
IN times of national calamity or danger, if we do not immediately see the means of our preservation, " our hearts are apt to meditate terror," and to tremble even for the ark of God. But, though we ought to mourn for the desolations of Zion, and to desire its prosperity, we may safely leave the concerns of the church to him who has founded it on a rock, and who is incessantly engaged for its defence. God may purge his floor, and burn up the chaff; but he will not suffer one grain of pure wheat to be lost. This was the consolatory truth with which the pro- phet encouraged the godly, while he foretold the miseries which the Jewish nation should endure in the Babylonish captivity : and it is equally applicable to the church of God in all ages. In the words before us are contained,
I. The promise which God makes to his Church —
The Church is here compared to Jerusalem and the tabernacle, particularly with a view to its weak- ness and danger —
[Jerusalem was " the city of their solemnities," whither all the tribes went up at stated seasons to worship God : and the tabernacle was the place where God in a more especial manner revealed himself to his believing people. But though, in these points of view, they were objects of God's peculiar regard, they were at the same time peculiarly exposed to danger. Jerusalem was encompassed with enemies, who incessantly sought its destruction: and the tabernacle (which on this account is men- tioned rather than the temple) was assailed by storms and tem- pests, in the wilderness, and in Shiloh, for many hundred years.