073. Prayer Of The Church For Deliverance From Her Enemies.

Prayer Of The Church For Deliverance From Her Enemies. The Prayer as recorded..—Isaiah 51:9-11. In the first part of the chapter of which this prayer forms a part, are many assurances of help and protection; and the Church, encouraged by these, offers her petition. By the “arm of the Lord,” is meant his power, and by “the ancient days,” the former generations of Israel. As the Jews of old returned from Babylon to Zion with songs of joy, so that nation will be delivered and restored to the promised land. The Church reposes in confidence in God’s promises; from every land the voice of prayer for her prosperity enters the ear of the Almighty. “The Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance; he found him in a desert land, he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” For the safety of his chosen people, and for their deliverance from oppression, God has overthrown nations and destroyed kings. There is a light in every page of history to the spiritual vision of the child of God; he reads in its records the annals of Infinite Wisdom and Mercy as blended and developed in the great work of human redemption. Let not the children of God faint and grow weary, for “the pillar of cloud and of fire,” guards them as safely as it did of old; “the vine brought out of Egypt” can never be uprooted, for the “Christian Church is the favorite child of an ever-watchful Providence.”