Times of relative peace for God’s people are always eventually broken by the hostility of evil forces and people who, one way or another, would prefer no trace of God’s presence and promises to exist. God’s people, until Jesus came, were more or less identified with the people of Israel. Now that Jesus has come, God’s people are defined in spiritual rather than ethnic terms (Philippians 3:3), yet as Christians we still owe ethnic Israel our respect and gratitude (Romans 3:2) and our love (Romans 11:28). When the wicked forces of barbarism attack, as happened on 7 October 2023, we recognise the ages-old struggle of evil against the word and work of God and we react with horror against the brutality and savagery inflicted on Jewish people simply for being Jews. We denounce the increasing incidence of appalling anti-Semitic attitudes and actual violence, even in the UK, as seen in the recent deadly attack at a Manchester synagogue. Many of the Psalms memorialise previous similar incidents in history and provide a framework for us to bear witness to the atrocity while appealing to God for help, both in the sense of bringing justice and deliverance from evil and also help to become more devoted to God and godliness. In the following updated extract from his commentary on the Psalms, the Covenanter David Dickson (who knew that Christians can also be the subjects of barbaric and unreasoned persecution) takes us through Psalm 74, a psalm of lamentation and appeal arising in the aftermath of enemy attack.

There are three parts to Psalm 74. The first is the pitiful lamentation presented to God because of the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple by the Chaldeans (v.1–11). Next is the strengthening of the faith and hope of God’s people, that God would send a deliverance (v.12–18). In the third, there are various petitions for the relief of His people, the restitution of His own work, and the suppression of His enemies (v.19–23).

Lamenting towards God

The psalm opens in v.1–2 with lamentation and prayer for relief in general. In all judgements, inflicted by whatsoever instruments, the Lord’s people must look first to God. Even when wrath, and fear of utter wrath, stare them in the face, they must make their appeal to God, however angry He seems to be.

The Lord does not want His people to yield to oppressive thoughts of being “cast off”. Instead, He allows us to question everything that might hint at this, and to debate that point with him, and not to endure it. We are permitted to say, “Why hast thou cast us off for ever?”

Although by our sins we have provoked the Lord to fall upon us, as if we were His enemies, yet we must not quit the least connection we have with Him, not even the external covenant. Instead we must make use of it for supporting of our faith in Him. Here, they call themselves “the sheep of thy pasture,” reminding Him that He has taken on the care of them, as a shepherd over his flock. Whatever the Lord does to His people, they must pray to Him, and make use of all the ties that bind Him and them. “Remember thy congregation,” they pray, “which thou hast purchased” by price and conquest, and “of old,” from a long time ago. He has measured them out, and they are His inheritance, not to dispose of or put away (“the rod of thine inheritance”). They remind Him that He has granted them deliverances out of terrible trouble before (“which thou hast redeemed”), and that He had taken up residence among them in His public ordinances (“this Mount Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt”).

Testifying against the enemy

Among all the calamities of Gods people, nothing afflicts them so much as the insolent profanation of the worship and name of God among them. In the first petition of their prayer (v.3), they lament how the enemies have spoiled the temple, and dwell most insistently on this, “Even all that the enemies have done wickedly in the sanctuary.”

When the wicked are let loose on God’s people, they are most insolent, cruel and savage in how they treat them. “Thy enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations” (v.4). It is not enough for these enemies to insult God’s people, but they will insult their way of religion, and the God whom they worship. “They set up their ensigns” (v.4), displaying their banners on the ruins of God’s temple, as signs of their victory over that religion which is professed there, and over God’s worship there.

When the Lord is provoked by His people’s evil behaviour towards Him, it is only justice if He permits them to be maltreated by enemies. Yet the Lord’s purpose is only to correct His people, by letting them see the sinfulness of how they have provoked Him. The enemies whom He uses as instruments in their correction, however, have in mind their utter destruction. They want them rooted out of the world. “They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them” (v.8).

Praying for justice to be done

Our patience is much shorter than God’s long-suffering and forbearance. The suffering people here ask, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?” (v.10), when with God it is not yet time to act against them.

Yet the Lord’s long-suffering patience greatly hardens the adversaries in their insolent mocking of God’s people.

The godly can endure their own troubles better than they can bear the open dishonouring and blaspheming of God which arises out of their trouble. “Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?”

Worldly wisdom may imagine that God is idle when He permits His enemies to trample on His people and on His glorious name. Yet faith will not admit of such a thought, but goes and appeals to God by prayer to let His strength and power be displayed, so that the world will not think that He is keeping His hands in His pockets. “Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom.”

Fortifying faith and hope in God

Relations between God and His people (especially the fact that He has made Himself their “king,” v.12), are pledges that God defends His kingdom and His injured subjects, and punishes His enemies. And the more time has passed since God avowed Himself king of His church (“God is my king of old”), the more confident later generations may be to find new evidences of His royal actions for them and against their enemies.

New troubles must not make us forget old mercies. Instead, we should call them to memory, to make use of them afresh as pledges that what He has done before, He will do again. The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and the destruction of the Egyptians, is a pledge to God’s people in every subsequent age that God will destroy their enemies, however strong and terrible they may be, and will deliver His church (v.13–15).

Faith is so thrifty that it will not even let the works of creation and common providence pass by, without making use of them (day and night, light and darkness, summer and winter, v.16–17).

Redoubling prayer for deliverance

Although sins, and especially the persecution of God’s people and blasphemy against God, are not punished immediately, yet they shall not be forgiven. “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord” (v.18). All sins, and especially blasphemy against God’s name, are aggravated by the folly of the sinner, and the excellency of God (“Remember that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name,” v.18).

In comparison with her many and strong enemies, the church of God is like a solitary, weak, desolate turtle-dove, harmless, meek, lowly, patient in desolation, easing her grief by sighing, and exposed to a multitude of ravenous birds. “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked!” (v.19).

Yet however weak the church is, and however many and strong the enemies are, they all cannot all devour the church, unless the Lord were to deliver them over into their hands. Against which the church may confidently pray, “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked!” for He has given His people wings, and a hiding place too, to use.

Although the Lord’s people deserve to be excluded many times over from the covenant of grace, yet the Lord will never debar them from their right to it, when in their need they draw near to Him and plead for the benefit of it, “Have respect to the covenant” (v.20).

Places which lack the light of the Lord’s presence in His ordinances are dark and uncomfortable places, where it is no less dangerous for the people of God to remain than for sheep to be in the midst of the dens of cruel lions and ravenous beasts. When God casts His people into such places, there is much need to make use of God’s covenant for preservation.

When supplicants come to God, especially when over-loaded with troubles, they shall find comfort, and shall not be disappointed (v.21). The sense of need and emptiness is the best disposition for prayer, and the best preparation for praises also. Those who are poor in their prayers shall be rich in their praises. “Let the poor and needy praise thy name” (v.21).

Remembering who will win in the end

The church’s cause is the Lord’s cause. The wicked do not malign the godly for their sins, but for their righteousness, and so the quarrel is the Lord’s. He will and must maintain her, even if He seems to sit still a while. “Arise, O Lord, plead thine owne cause” (v.22).

The Lord’s enemies are all foolish people; for they beat out their brains on the church’s bulwark. Because the Lord holds off from responding for a time, they go on to blaspheme Him daily to His face, but they shall find at length that God has all their reproaches on record. “Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily” (v.22).

Every sin is fearful, and especially enmity against God and His church. But openly glorying in it is worse, and God will take knowledge of this, and punish it. “Forget not the voice of thine enemies” (v.23).

Sin, and especially persecution gloried in, grows daily more and more. Yet the growing of sin, and especially of persecution, only hastens the deliverance of the godly, and the destruction of the enemies. “The tumult of those that arise against thee increaseth continually” (v.23).

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In stark contradiction of God’s requirement to care for the vulnerable and carry one another’s burdens, the month of June 2025 has seen Westminster vote in favour of legalising assisted suicide and decriminalising abortion up to birth. How can we fail to mourn? Meanwhile there is small hope that those responsible for the grooming gangs scandal will be dealt with justly, while another month of Pride has perpetuated the normalisation and celebration of a variety of perverted behaviours. The church is muted and slow to point out obedience to God’s ways in response to any of these instances of moral decay, limping on in our own religiosity and underestimating how much we need to humble ourselves before God. Yet some of this sounds familiar when we look in the Book of Lamentations. In a situation of multiple devastating judgements, Jeremiah has somewhere to turn. He tells God all about it and asks God for mercy. Jeremiah’s laments are God-facing. David Dickson, exploring Lamentations in the context of the Thirty Years War and persecution of the Covenanters, finds echoes in his own time of the miseries experienced by Jeremiah’s people. In the following updated extract from Dickson’s comments on Lamentations 5, we see that, far from inducing apathy and a resigned shrug, the penitent acceptance of God’s just judgments means an energetic kind of patience, which never gives up on confessing guilt and appealing to God for relief and restoration.

A place to turn in trouble

In Chapter 5, Jeremiah closes the Book of Lamentations by laying out the miseries of the church before God in prayer. When they have grieved their fill, he lets their pitiful state lie before the Lord. This lets us see that God is the first and the last and the surest refuge of the distressed in their trouble, and there is no true relief for a sorrowful soul except in Him.

Do not lament needlessly in trouble, but fly to God. One says, “I have terrible problems in my marriage.” Another says, “I have wicked children.” Another says, “I have terrible problems at work.” Another complains of bad neighbours, another of sickness, another of physical pain, another of the sense of God’s wrath.

In all these, go to God. He is the only refuge. And let your prayer lie there, for prayer should be how you close your lamentation. Any worldly person, in sore trouble, will take a worldly courage, and cheer himself up, and take whatever comes his way. But that is not the right way to respond to trouble. Go and pour out your heart before God, and quietly and patiently wait for His time for deliverance. If some new reason for grief comes, mourn over again in His bosom, because there is no deliverance except in Him.

A detailed list

The prophet counts out the miseries which the church was experiencing. Misery is a small thing to hear of, but hard to be borne.

“Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens” (verse 2). Jeremiah complains that their houses and lands were taken by strangers who had paid nothing for them. The housing and property markets are in unprecedented turmoil in our times [when Dickson was writing].

“We are orphans …” (v.3). The sword, famine and pestilence have made so many children fatherless, so many wives widows, so many a doleful mother sonless. Those who are left alive are left in misery, when those who could have been a comfort to them are taken away.

“We have drunk our water for money …” (v.4). Time was when they had wine enough of their own to drink and paid nothing for it, but now they labour hard all day and only earn a penny, and they are forced to spend it on water.

When people abuse what God has given, it is righteous with God to take it from them and punish the abuse of plenty with poverty. You who can now wear nicer clothes and have nicer food than your neighbour, be sober with it and use God’s gifts appropriately. You who spend lavishly now, beware of coming poverty. Do you think these things will last for ever? That you will always have wine for carousing and money for a flutter? You spend more money at the bookies than you would give to charity in half a year. Let the poor members of Christ’s body get the benefit of your disposable income instead of indulging yourself, in case you end up forced to buy the essentials which you now get cheaply.

“We have given our hand to the Egyptian …” (v.6). This could mean ratifying subservience to foreign powers, or begging aid from them. It is justice with God to make those who refuse to serve Him or depend on Him serve their enemies and beg their bread from them. They refused to be in God’s debt for His gifts — now they are forced to be in debt to those they love least.

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not” (v.7). Many, when they see their parents getting away unpunished in this world for being drunkards, oppressors, deceivers, think they will follow in their footsteps and also escape. Well, possibly your fathers escaped, but what assurance do you have that you will get similar mercies? Maybe they sinned in ignorance, while you are sinning wilfully and contrary to light?

“We got our bread with peril of our lives …” (v.9). Soldiers waited in the wilderness to catch people trying to escape to seek bread by night. They had been well clothed and well fed at home, drinking their wine from bowls, singing to the viol and harp, lying on beds of ivory (Amos 6:4–6), and now for their abuse of these benefits, they cannot get hold of a bit of bread. Those who will not be won to God by gentle dealing may expect to have to fend for themselves in harder conditions.

“They ravished the women in Zion” (v.11). The profane soldiers took them and abused them, and when they fled to the temple, they abused them in the temple. See how many evils come with the sword, which cannot be imagined till it comes. Goods, children, heritage are taken away by sword, and lives, wives, daughters exposed to the soldiers’ villainy, when an army comes in like a flood.

“The elders have ceased from the gate” (v.14). There is no judge sitting in the seat of justice, so anybody could wrong you and nobody would intervene — there was no magistrate to complain to. It is a heavy plague to lack a magistrate, or to have a magistrate who is ineffective.

“The young men have ceased from music” (v.14). Before now, they never knew what distress meant. They gave themselves to recreation and delighting in music, in which is something lawful, although the excess is a fault. When these recreations are taken away, and sorrow is given instead, it is a token of God’s anger.

An expression of guilt

“Woe to us, for we have sinned” (v.16). They grant that sin is the cause of all their misery and disgrace. With misery lying hard on them because of sin, now they curse their sins. Every sinner will be forced to curse their sins either sooner or later, whether they repent or not.

“Woe to us that we have sinned,” they say, and not, “woe to us that we are miserable.” Sin is a greater evil than any misery, if we only realised it, for we may blame ourselves and our sins for all our misery and the feeling of misery. Misery should make us turn all our grief on our sin. You who cry, “Woe is me for my affliction,” change it to, “Woe is me for sin!” Be more sorry for sin than for the judgment it has brought on.

An appeal to God

Eventually the prophet lifts up his heart and refreshes himself a little in the midst of his grief with the consideration, “Thou, O Lord, remainest forever” (v.19). Although Zion, the temple and all is gone and the commonwealth decayed, yet the Lord remains for ever to right all wrongs and take reparations from all oppressors. He can still set in order everything that is out of order.

After such a long lamentation, Jeremiah taking this view of God’s goodness, mercy and unchangeableness (lest he should be swallowed up by too much despair and sorrow) shows us that even when the church itself provokes God to change her from prosperity to adversity, yet He remains still unchangeable and as kind and loving to those who seek to Him as He ever was. Change in the church demonstrates no change in God. He remains the same, both when He plagues sinners and when He pities them. God’s unchangeableness is a basis of hope that the church will be restored and changed from a worse condition to a better.

“Wherefore dost thou forget us forever?” (v.20). Although the captivity was only newly begun, the Lord’s wrath began 12 years before city was taken, and before that there was a great decay. God has been saying a long goodnight to them, and it makes them think He has forsaken them for ever. Also, a short time in trouble seems long. When God forsakes, a short time seems a lifetime. Supposing the trouble was never so short, we cannot help finding it long if God withdraws. Resolve then to bear it patiently.

Jeremiah pours out this matter to God and tells God that he thinks God has forsaken them. When we think God has forsaken us, we may tell Him, and pray Him to help.

“Renew our days as of old” (v.21). When God gives repentance to an afflicted church, or person, He can make their condition as good as it ever was. God can repair all the church’s ruins and wash the dirt off her face and rub away her shame.

A sad note to end on

“But thou hast utterly rejected” (v.22). Jeremiah closes up his lamentation with sorrow, as if to say, “We must take it as a given that the time appointed for our trouble must expire before God restores us. We need not think that God will look upon us for the time being.” Maybe, in his grief, Jeremiah is expressing his own fear of being rejected. Like him, David and Jonah feared, “I am cut off” (Lamentations 3:54; Psalm 32:22; Jonah 2:3–4).

Or we may take it that Jeremiah is confessing, not a rejection of the Lord’s people’s full salvation, but a rejection of their natural prosperity. God may and will reject a people or a person in a particular state about a temporal benefit, and yet will not forsake them about their salvation. God will not reject a prayer for salvation, even if He rejects a prayer for a temporal benefit.

Mourn before God as you like. His decree about the temporal judgment will continue in force. This people did not need to think that God would restore them to their previous condition of prosperity for the time being, because He had a special anger at them.

If God has resolved to let temporal trouble lie on us all our days, we should yield, stoop and submit to Him, and bear the indignation of the Lord until He is pleased to send relief. Jeremiah says, “I don’t need to say any more. God has rejected this people and He will not restore us till the appointed time. I will stop here, and we will sit still and mourn all our days.”

Having drawn down a great blow from God’s hand, stoop and bear it. Be quiet and do not fret. Drink what you have brewed, for God will not hear you asking for removal of the temporal judgment. Pray that if He is going to let the trouble lie on you, that He would still keep your soul from perishing, and not take His loving kindness from you.

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When the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus asking a favour, her request was that her two sons would be allowed to sit on either side of Jesus in His kingdom (Matthew 20). As the conversation proceeds, it becomes clear that for several reasons, this was a very inappropriate request. Yet it expresses an aspiration that is still familiar in the church today. The desire for a place of honour in Christ’s kingdom can too often come from a spirit of competitiveness, one or two striving for preeminence over the other brothers. It mistakenly conflates spiritual greatness with earthly, worldly prominence, so that the glory of struggling and suffering is eclipsed by the glory of recognition and other people’s acclaim. In his commentary on this episode, David Dickson exposes this ambitiousness, and identifies the solution which Jesus provides. An updated excerpt is as follows.

The lengths people will go to get ahead

From this request to Christ for preferential treatment for the two apostles, James and John, we can learn, for one thing, how hard a thing it is to be rid of the love of this world, and of pleasant dreams about it. The apostles and their friends were still dreaming of an earthly kingdom of Christ, and of worldly honour for His servants, even though Christ told them the opposite so often, and was careful to prepare them rather for the cross in this world.

How necessary it is, too, for all to watch over their hearts, so that the love of the honour of this world does not creep in on them, when a bait presents itself! In hope of prevailing by means of their mother’s intervention, these two chiefe apostles are thus tickled and entangled with a vain and corrupt lust.

What means and instruments people will employ, to gain any earthly thing which they love! They would even play on their mother’s natural relationships to get her to make suit, and, for fear of being refused if she makes her specific request to start with, she opens with a general preface to oblige Christ first. “I desire a certain thing of thee,” she says, “Grant that these my sons may sit …” (Matt. 20:20–21)

The little they know of Christ’s ways

But Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (v.22)

Christ’s answer shows us that when ministers of the gospel hunt for high places in the world, they do not know what they are doing, nor how foolish they are in so doing. Christ says here, “Ye know not what ye ask.”

But they replied to Him, “We are able.” It’s those who are least acquainted with the cross who are the most confident about taking it on.

Instead, the promotion and the kingdom which we must set our hearts on is another world — and we must prepare ourselves for the cross with Christ, before we come into the kingdom with Him.

Christ puts them in mind of suffering, rather than reigning — and of suffering in this world, before they could reign in the world to come.

Those who suffer for Christ, suffer no other thing but what Christ suffered also. “Ye shall drink,” He says, “of my cup.” A certain measure of affliction was fitted and measured out for Christ and His followers, and Christ esteemed it to be only light, and of the shortest endurance. He calls it “a cup,” soon drunk up, a dipping, or a sprinkling with affliction, a baptism, as the original means.

The disproportionateness of any reward

Jesus said, “To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father” (v.23). It was not part of Christ’s commission, when He was sent into the world, to appoint what degrees of reward every believer will have in glory, in comparison one of another, or who shall have less, and who shall have more. This does not appertain to Christ. Again, it is not His without the Father. “It is not mine to give, save to those for whom it is prepared of my Father.” He said this likewise, speaking as a man, more closely related to one than to another (as here He was looked on), or as if at His own pleasure, for gratifying of friends, He might distribute degrees of glory in heaven, “It is not mine to give …”

The Lord does not deny that there shall be degrees of glory in heaven, comparable to sitting on the right hand to some, and on the left hand to others; rather He implies it in manner of His answer. However, these degrees of glory shall not be distributed with respect to people’s works or deservings, or anything in the persons to be glorified, but merely according to the good pleasure of God, and His decree, preparing and predetermining what shall be every individual’s measure. “It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.” In this sort of distribution, Christ does not deny that it belonged to Him to give degrees of glory in that He was one in substance and government with the Father, but says, “It is not mine to give, save to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”

Christ’s solution for ambitiousness in the church

We see next that the rest of the apostles were no less ambitious than James and John on this point, yet they were angry with them. “When the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren” (v. 24).

People will be angry at others for a fault for which they themselves are guilty, and be nothing grieved for it in themselves. That is how diversely sin is shaped in our own persons, and in others.

But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them … ” (v.25) Our Lord takes the opportunity to beat down and root out this wicked weed of prelacy [or any form of preeminence in the church].

Isn’t it hard to root out the seed of a beloved sin! and especially the root of ambition for power in the church. It cannot be drawn out till it is repented of, for it is hard to put it out of even the apostles’ hearts.

What our Lord saw as a fit means of cutting off strife was, to take away all domination in the church, and all ranking among the men of one office in His house. “Whosoever shall be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (v. 26–27). Where there is no higher place, where no greater power belongs to one than to another, then all strife for the place of more power ceases.

Although the Lord allows dominion, and principality, and greatness, and the exercising of authority, in the civil state, He will not allow it among the ministers of the gospel. Granting the exercise of domion among princes and civil governors, He says, “It shall not be so among you.”

It is not the abuse of power which our Lord forbids in His ministers, but simply and absolutely He excludes all greatness of jurisdiction of one over the rest. He curbs the very wish and will to be great among their fellow ministers, speaking to every one of His ministers, saying, “Whosoever will be great among you …”

Christ’s insistence on His servants serving

So far must the apostles and ministers of the gospel be from affecting state, and positions of power over the rest, that, as they would please our Lord, they must set themselves to serve the rest of their brethren. Each is to promote the work of Christ done by the others’ hands, by each maintaining the credit of the others’ ministry. “Let him be your minister, or servant.”

Not only does our Lord forbid all positions of power among the apostles and among the preachers of the gospel, but also all stately primacy, or dignitary priority. He forbids all “chiefness,” even without jurisdiction (such as a constant and unchangeable precedence in church assemblies). He prescribes for any inclination to this by requiring them to put effort into mutual submission, each man serving the rest, for the furtherance of the common work.

If this command does not prevail with someone who is ambitious, but simply has to act on his ambitious desires, then the rest of the ministers are warranted to diminish that man’s estimation, and to account the less of him, correspondingly as he is ambitiously inclined to a position of superiority over the rest. “Let him be your servant,” i.e., esteemed your servant, and no more than that.

Christ’s own example

Our Lord supports His doctrine by His own example, showing them how He humbled Himself for the public good. “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (v.28).

The example of our Lord’s humiliation of Himself serves to curb all ambition in His ministers. If it does not prevail with them, it shall shall bear witness against them.

Christ did not come to take up an earthly dominion, or a stately pre-eminence, as His disciples imagined. Instead, He came in the shape and state of a servant, and behaved Himself in such a way that He was ready, for the good of His disciples, to wash their feet. He did not come to reign in a worldly manner, but to serve in the outward ministry of the gospel.

Ministers should not only quit prelacy and seeking pre-eminence for the good of the church, but they should quit their life also, if need be. Christ, out of love to our salvation, not only emptied Himself of stately dominion, but also emptied Himself of liberty and life, “gave himself a ransom for many.”

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While we wait for the dust to settle after the General Election, we are both comforted and challenged by the truth that the Lord is still in power and looking after the whole of human history for His own glory. This is not merely a platitude for Christians to use to soothe themselves after unwelcome election results. It is an understanding that should shape everything, including when things are going the way we would like. Those who are now in power in the nation must take account of this too. The gospel requirement remains in force, that whoever we are and whatever position we hold, we must all trustingly and penitently acknowledge the Lord in His glory sitting king for ever. As David Dickson shows in the following extract from his comments on Psalm 29, the gospel confronts those in positions of authority, the “mighty” and the “potentates” in our nation.

In Psalm 29, David directs his exhortation to the potentates of the earth, “O ye mighty,” in order that they may humble themselves before God, and give Him the glory of all power, and authority, and excellency, above themselves, and above all other creatures.

Although princes should be most careful of all people to glorify God, yet it is most rare to see them humble themselves before Him. Natural corruption is as strong in them as in others, and their education breeds them to high and stately thoughts of themselves, while their riches and power puff them up, and the flatterers who ordinarily attend them make them forget themselves and God also. Therefore they are thrice exhorted here to give glory to God (v1–2).

It is most necessary that potentates humble themselves before God, and be singled out to be challenged to do so, because their example and authority prompt many outwardly to submit to God. That is why David speaks to them in their grandeur, “Give glory to God, O ye mighty” (v.1).

To the extent that men are great in the world, they are ready to think much of their own strength, of what their power is able to reach to, and what honour is due to them. But if they reckon right, strength and glory belong to God. And according as He is above them in power and excellency, so should He proportionably be magnified. “Give unto the Lord glory and strength, and give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (v.2).

The glory which God wants is what He has prescribed in His own ordinances, given forth in His Word to His church. “Worship him in the beauty of holiness,” that is, in the glorious sanctuary, the place of public meeting, beautiful indeed, not so much for timber or stones, but because there are the holy and beautiful means of grace to us, and God’s worship showing forth His glory.

Because He has more power and majesty than them

David’s proof for the claim that strength and glory belong to the Lord is just the one single work of thundering (v.3–9).

Though the standing works of creation speak most of God, yet such is our foolishness that we apprehend least what is seen daily, and a lesser work which occurs more rarely will move more people, as for example, the thunder, or the eclipse of the sun or moon.

No work of the Lord is rightly grasped till He Himself be looked to as the immediate worker of it. This is why David points out the sound of the thunder, as the voice of the Lord upon many waters.

Though the Lord should be observed as the worker of every work, yet He is not at first seen in His work to any purpose, till by often reviewing His operation about it, we become somewhat affected with His glory and power in them. David repeats the second time, “the God of glory thundereth,” and the third time, “the Lord is upon many waters” (v.3–4).

When the thunder (or any work of God) is well considered, some invisible thing of God will appear in it; as for example, His power and majesty (v.4).

Then David goes into more detail on the subject, and shows the effects of God’s voice on trees (v.5), mountains (v.6), the lightning (v.7), the waste wilderness (v.8), the animals and the woods which are their habitat (v.9).

Human senselessness is greater than that of the brute creatures. They are all more moved with the thunder than are human hearts, for the most part. Yet one work of God that you dwell on, shows more of God than many of His works which you looked at slightly and pass over. Indeed, one sensitive and understanding person will discover more of God in one work of God, than will many in their ordinary mood, either in that work, or in any other, or in all His works.

Because He shows His glory best in His church

David gives a second reason for his exhortation to the mighty to worship God in the beauty of holiness, because “in his temple every one doth speak of his glory” (v.9).

Although the glory of the Lord is displayed in all the earth, and in all His works, yet it is in His temple, in His church, that His works are displayed expressly and fully. For there, by His Word, His counsel is opened, and His holiness, His goodness, justice, mercy, and all His attributes are declared.

Outside the church, people are compelled to acknowledge His glory now and then, but in His church, people declare His glory distinctly and willingly. “In his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” All there confess His praise, and everything in the temple holds out something of Christ and His benefits, to the glory of God’s mercy. This is more than the world can understand.

Because He reigns supreme

A third reason to motivate princes to give to God glory and strength, is, because His kingdom reaches to the ruling of the waters (“the Lord sits on the flood”), and because He is a king immortal (“the Lord sits king for ever”) (v.10).

As the strength of the Lord appears in all His works, so it is especially apparent that He rules the raging sea. Once He drowned the world with it, and now He binds it up, that it should never do so again. No king is king over every kingdom and king, but God is King above all kings. No king is of long continuance, but the Lord is the everlasting king. Every mighty one should do Him homage, as his king, his lord, and his supreme superior.

Because He will bless His people

Fourthly, those who humbly submit themselves to the Lord, and worship Him as His people should do, shall be equipped with abilities for every good work, and shall be abundantly blessed (v.11). Potentates should be motivated to give all glory to God, and to join with His people in glorifying him, because of the blessedness of His people, who worship Him in His holy temple.

The power of the Lord is not against His people, but for His people, against His and their enemies. “He gives strength to his people,” i.e., against their enemies, and to equip them to every part of His service He calls them to. The Lord’s people give the glory of power and strength to the Lord, and the Lord will give strength to his people.

The true worshippers of God, whatsoever may be their exercise in the world, may be sure of reconciliation with Him, and of true blessedness, for the Lord will bless His people with peace (v.11).

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When earthly power is within reach, people vie for it with enthusiasm, competing sometimes ruthlessly to be able to lord it over others. In our nation although we have seen how some in power can act with integrity, genuinely in the public interest as they see it, yet there are plenty examples of those who are merely venal, using their position and privileges for manifestly self-serving reasons. This is so different from the lordship and reign of Jesus Christ in His own church. Although all power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, the way He treats us is in keeping with Him being meek and lowly in heart. David Dickson finds this principle illustrated in Christ’s last journey to Jerusalem before His death. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem was not on a splendid war horse but on an ordinary donkey. In the following extract from his writings on Matthew 21, David Dickson demonstrates that as Jesus was on His way to sacrifice Himself to gift His people with salvation, His greatness is seen in the care He shows for the little ones.

Christ is resolved to lay down His life, and now, the nearer He draws to His suffering, the more He reveals himself to be the promised Messiah, in whom the promises were accomplished. Also, lest anyone made a mistake about the nature of His kingdom, He gives evidence in His poverty that His kingdom is not of this world, borrowing an ass to ride on (Matthew 21:1–11).

He wants His people’s willing loyalty

Jesus has the right to use whatsoever it pleases Him to make use of, as He shows in commanding the disciples to “loose the ass and her colt, and to bring them to him” (v.1–3). Also, whatsoever impediment can occur to any of His servants in the course of their obedience to Him, He foresees it, and provides for it to be removed. “If any say ought unto you …” etc. He knows that the owner of the ass will be there, and what he will say, and foretells how He shall dispose his will, and move him to let them go without any more ado, for the hearts of kings and all are in His hand.

In this way He lets His disciples see a glimpse of His Godhead, saying, “Straightway he shall send them.” Yet although He is Lord of all, yet He wants to make use of what His friends have with their own consent, so that they may be reasonable servants, bestowing with good will what He calls for.

Also, He is not ashamed both to profess Himself Lord and Master, and yet to be so far emptied as to have need of the service of an ass. “Say,” saith he, “the Lord hath need of them.”

He is true to His promises

Matthew then makes an observation on this passage from Zechariah, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (v.4–5). From this we learn that our Lord will see to it that all things written of Him shall be fulfilled. He is the promise-maker, and the promise-performer also. That is why it says, “This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.”

It is not our deserving, but God’s purpose and promise, which is the cause of our Lord’s gracious behaviour toward the world. For now, as He is about to be killed in Jerusalem, yet He rides in as king, to accomplish promises made to the church by the prophet Zechariah. To know of Christ, and of His coming to His people, is the very essence of the church’s joy and gladness. Whatsoever their grief may be, this is sufficient to be their comfort. The Spirit says for comfort, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh.” It doesn’t matter how the world fares, it is “the daughter of Zion,” the company of the blessed and believers in Jesus, whose comfort God has a care for.

He makes Himself accessible to the least deserving

However, not only the dull multitude, but even the daughter of Zion is asleep to the gracious tidings of the gospel, and needs to be stirred up by a “Behold!” to observe the Messiah coming. “Behold thy king!” Our Lord is a king, however lowly He looks – in fact, the Lord of lords, and King of kings.

The church has a special interest in Christ, and He has interest in His church as His own special subjects, for whose good He governs all the matters of the world. “Thy King cometh unto thee.” This is the glory of His crown, that He is so gentle and merciful to us that He will not forsake the work of our redemption, neither for our mis-deservings and provocations, nor for the injuries done to Him by His adversaries because of us. He is “meek.” The manner of His kingdom is spiritual, not like the pomp of this world, for He sits on no stately horse, but “on an ass’s colt,” so that the poorest of His subjects should not be deterred or debarred from access to Him.

He accepts the little things His people do for him

Matthew then notes the disciples’ obedience and success. “And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon” (v.6–7).

When we have a clear call, our part is ready obedience, without troubling ourselves what may be the success of the outcome. It is our part to honour Christ, as far as we can — and to lay aside our ornaments to glorify Him, like they put their clothes on the ass and the colt. Christ is content with any state which is to keep in His kingdom here on earth, with what His disciples can provide for Him. “They set him thereon,” and so He rode.

“And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way” (v.8). The people are moved, and do honour unto Christ. However base our Lord’s kingdom may seem to spectators, yet He can bring to Himself as many subjects as He pleases, and so purchase Himself glory, not only before a spiritual eye, but also in the sight of the world. “Great multitudes spread their garments in the way.” It is each one’s part to honour our Lord, and promote His kingdom as they are enabled, some one way, some another, some spreading their garments, others cutting down branches of trees, and strawing them in the way.

He makes ordinary people fearless about confessing Him

The multitudes (v.9) took in their mouths words of Psalm 118, where it is prophesied of the coming of Christ, to shew himself king.

The Lord can open the eyes of whomsoever He will, to see His glory, and to give Him honour as the true king of Israel, and to perceive the predictions of prophecies to be accomplished in him.

Usually the more insignificant sorts of people are the ones whom the Lord chooses to set forth His glory, and to trumpet His praise. When those who ought to know Christ and honour Him, do not, God can raise up others to glorify Him. Here the church-men mis-regard Christ, and God stirs up the multitudes to confess Him.

When it pleases Christ to display His kingly power, He can cause the meanest of His subjects avow him, and set forth His glory, even in the faces of His raging enemies. Here (without fear of the corrupt church-men’s excommunication) the people make joyful acclamation to His honour, they pray for the prospering of His kingdom, and they confess that salvation is its fruit (for “Hosanna” in the Hebrew means, “Give now salvation, we pray”). They acknowledge Christ to be the promised Messiah, “the son of David,” to be sent by God, and in God’s name, into the world, to be the Blessed, and the fountain of blessing, to His subjects. “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” (v.9).

His glory will be unavoidably obvious to His enemies

So Christ enters openly, in state, into Jerusalem (v.10).

When it pleases Christ to take to Him His kingdom, He will avow Himself king in the midst of His enemies, just as He here rides in this glory into Jerusalem.

Yet, where the greatest show of religion is, it is no new thing to see Christ to be least known. The city of Jerusalem asks, “Who is this?” (v.10). Where He is minded to honour Himself in suffering, He shows Himself so evidently that even His enemies must take notice of Him.

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