Adam Clarke - Poéticos Jó a Cantares de Salomão

685
1. He was angry, but his anger endured but a moment; but life, and a
continuance of it, are from his favor.
2. And justly angry he was for his sin and carnal confidence: “In my
prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.”
3. The effect of his anger was: “He hid his face, and I was troubled.”
This is the example that he sets before the saints, that they be not seeure
when the world goes well with them; lest they have experience of God’s
displeasure, as he had.
Next he shows the means he used to avert God’s wrath; and this he
proposes as a pattern for all to follow in like cases.
1. He betook himself to prayer. 2. He sets down the form he used.
1. He that is ill sends for the physician-so did 1:This was the fruit of
my chastisement; I cried unto thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I
made supplication.
2. And the form he used was this: — I earnestly pleaded with God
thus: 1. “What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the
pit?” 2. “Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” 3.
Can a dead man praise thee, or canst thou make good thy promises
to the dead? 4. And he concluded with, “Hear, O Lord, and have
mercy upon me; O Lord, be thou my helper.”
3. He shows the effect of his prayer: “Thou hast turned my mourning
into dancing, thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with
gladness.”
4. For what end God did this: “That my glory may sing praise to thee,
and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee for
ever.”
Now, O ye saints, 1. You see my case; 2. You see what course I took; 3.
You see the effect; 4. You see the end why God was so good to me that I
should praise him. To you, who are in my state, I propose my example.
Betake yourselves to God in your necessities; and, having obtained
deliverance by earnest prayer and faith, remember to return praise to God
for his ineffable goodness.