We have heard of a bell, set in a lighthouse, rung by the sweep of the winds and the dash of the billows. In the calm, stormless sea, it hung mute and motionless; but when the tempest was let loose and the ocean fretted, the benighted seaman was warned by its chimes; and beating hearts ashore, in the fisherman's lonely hut, listened to its ominous music. We read in the previous verse, of the lighthouse of FAITH, built on the rock of HOPE. God has placed bells there. But it needs the storms of adversity to blow ere they are heard. In the calm of uninterrupted prosperity, they are silent and still. But the hurricane arises. The sea of life is swept with tempest, and, amid the thick darkness, they ring the peal of heavenly confidence, "MY GOD, MY GOD!"
_My God!_ What a heritage of comfort do these words contain--in all time of our tribulation--in all time of our wealth--in the hour of death, and at the day of judgment! They describe the great Being who fills heaven with His glory, as the covenant portion and heritage of believers. His attributes are embarked on their side; His holiness and righteousness, and justice and truth, are the immutable guarantees and guardians of their everlasting well-being. Hear His own gracious promise--"_I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God._"[54] Moreover, He is the only possession which is theirs _absolutely_. All else they have, is in the shape of a loan, which they receive as stewards. Their time, their talents, their possessions, their friends, are only _leased_ by them from the Great Proprietor of life and being. But they _can_ say unreservedly, "_The Lord is my portion._" "_God, even our_ OWN _God, shall bless us._" Ay, and we are told, "_God is not ashamed to be called_ THEIR GOD."[55] "The _name_ of the Lord" is thus "a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."[56] That salvation purchased by Jesus,--the amazing method by which every attribute of the Divine nature has been magnified, and every requirement of the Divine law has been met,--is "for walls and bulwarks." The believer not only can lay hold on higher blessings--"the good hope through grace," "glory, honour, immortality, eternal life,"--but even with regard to the circumstantials of the present, the appointments and allotments in the house of his pilgrimage, he can feel that they are so regulated and overruled as best to promote his spiritual interests; and that "all things" (yes, "ALL things") are "working together for his good." Take then, desponding one! the opening words of David's lamentation. They quiet all apprehensions. This all-gracious Being who gave His own Son for thee, must have some wise reason in such discipline. Oh, confide all thy perplexities, and _this_ perplexity, into His hands, saying, "_I am oppressed, undertake_ THOU _for me!_" Who can forget that it was this same monosyllable of comfort that cheered a greater Sufferer at a more awful hour? The two most memorable spots in His midnight of agony,--Gethsemane and Calvary, the Garden and the Cross,--have this solitary gleam of sunshine breaking through the darkness, "O MY FATHER!" "MY GOD, MY GOD!"