Hints to Preachers

Verse 1.—A Sermon for afflicted souls. I. God’s twofold dealings. (1) Rebuke by a telling sermon, a judgment on another, a slight trial in our own person, or a solemn monition in our conscience by the Spirit. (2) Chastening. This follows the other when the first is disregarded. Pain, losses, bereavements, melancholy, and other trials. II. The evils in them to be most dreaded, anger and hot displeasure. III. The means to avert these ills. Humiliation, confession, amendment, faith in the Lord, etc.

Verse 1.—The believer’s greatest dread, the anger of God. What this fact reveals in the heart? Why it is so? What removes the fear?

Verse 2.—The argumentum ad misericordiam.

Verse 2.—First sentence—Divine healing. 1. What precedes it, my bones are vexed. 2. How it is wrought. 3. What succeeds it.

Verse 3.—The impatience of sorrow; its sins, mischief, and cure.

Verse 3.—A fruitful topic may be found in considering the question, How long will God continue afflictions to the righteous?

Verse 4.—“Return, O Lord.” A prayer suggested by a sense of the Lord’s absence, excited by grace, attended with heart searching and repentance, backed by pressing danger, guaranteed as to its answer, and containing a request for all mercies.

Verse 4.—The prayer of the deserted saint. 1. His state: his soul is evidently in bondage and danger: 2. His hope: it is in the Lord’s return. 3. His plea: mercy only.

Verse 5.—The final suspension of earthly service considered in various practical aspects.

Verse 5.—The duty of praising God while we live.

Verse 6.—Saints’ tears in quality, abundance, influence, assuagement, and final end.

Verse 7.—The voice of weeping. What it is.

Verse 8.—The pardoned sinner forsaking his bad companions.

Verse 9.—Past answers the ground of present confidence. He hath, he will.

Verse 10.—The shame reserved for the wicked.