He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
Teachableness bears its fruit in silence: when God weighs heavily on His children, they do not rebel but willingly submit. The truly patient man sits alone and holds his tongue even when no witness is by; he proves his patience not by grand display but by calm submission to God's yoke when all eyes are turned away.
AI summary
Here the clouds disperse and hope returns to save the heart from breaking. The church is like Moses's bush: burning yet unconsumed, persecuted by men but not forsaken by God. Though cast down, it is not destroyed, refined as silver in the furnace but never consumed as dross.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 3:21-36
He putteth his mouth in the dust,.... Of self-abhorrence; sensible of his own vileness and nothingness, his unworthiness, and the unprofitableness of all his duties; ascribing the whole of his salvation to the free grace of God, Job 42:6; humbling himself under the mighty hand of God; not daring to open his mouth in a complaining way against him; but prostrating himself before him to...