Job's Lamentation FROM THE BIBLICAL SERIES BY GUSTAVE DORÉ. "Let the day perish wherein I was born."—Job, 3, 3. A STOUNDED, overwhelmed, the three friends of Job sat down beside him during seven days and seven nights, "and none spake a word unto him; for they saw that his grief was very great." In this seeming exaggeration of the period of silence, we have the poet's attempt to express the tremendous magnitude of all the suffering which Job had undergone. Then after seven days, he lifted up his voice, to give expression to what he felt. In the tragic and poetical lament which follows, Job finds no direct fault with God. Yet he regrets the fact of his own existence. He curses the day that he was born: "Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it." He describes his misery, and he prays for death to put an end to his intolerable pain. After death, says he, peace may come to him; for "there the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest." Then Job asks the great question, the kernel of the book. "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?" PSALM CVII- OF TRAVELLERS AND CAPTIVES 1025 45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 46 He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. 47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. 48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting; and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.1 Psalm 107 1 The psalmist exhorleth the redeemed, in praising God, to observe his manifold providence, 4 over travellers, 10 over captives, 17 over sick men, 23 over seamen, 33 and in divers varieties of life. GIVE thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. 4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. 5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. 6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. 8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. 10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: 12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. 13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. and brake their bands in sunder. 15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.. 'Here closes the fourth section or book of the Psalter. |