O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people? Sermons
I. GOD NEVER REFUSES PRAYER IN "MERE SOVEREIGNTY." Caprice or jealous feeling must never be associated in our minds with God. "We speak of the Divine sovereignty; but sovereignty is not an arbitrary, capricious thing; it is a righteous and holy thing; and God must ever act in conformity with the unalterable principles of his character." "There is no mystery in those temporary desertions with which God sometimes visits his own people. The reason of them is to be found in themselves - in their sinfulness, in their unsteadfastness, in their unfaithfulness." All Divine withdrawals and temporary refusals mean discipline. II. GOD MAY HOLD ALOOF UNTIL JUDGMENT HAS DONE ITS WORK. Note that this involves uncertainty as to time of restoration. Judgment acting on different moral natures is prolonged according to the response different natures make to it. It would be no kindness to resume gracious relations before the disciplinary work was complete. III. GOD MAY HOLD ALOOF UNTIL HUMILITY TONES THE PRAYER. Take humility as representing the state of mind when self-win and self-pleasing are mastered. Humility is holding our will in submission to God's will. IV. GOD MAY HOLD ALOOF UNTIL MAN IS UNITED IN HIS PRAYER. Part of a man may pray for, and part of him may pray against. Will may pray for, heart may pray against. Duty may pray for, feeling may pray against. Illustrate by the figure in Hosea 2:21, 22. V. GOD MAY HOLD ALOOF UNTIL HIS ANSWER CAN BE THE FULLEST BLESSING. Oftentimes to give too soon would but be to give a part. God waits till we are empty of self, and can be filled with himself. - R.T.
O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? The Lord God of hosts is not properly a title of creation, but of providence. All creatures have their existence from God as their Maker; but so have they also their order from Him as their Governor. So that here, God would be respected, not as a creator, but as a general. His anger, therefore, seems so much the more fearful, as it is presented to us under so great a title, "The Lord God of hosts is angry." They talk of Tamerlane, that he could daunt his enemies with the very look of his countenance. Oh! then what terror dwells in the countenance of the offended God!I. GOD MAY BE ANGRY; and sin the cause of His anger. He hath scourged some in very mercy, till they have smarted under His rod (Job 6:4; Psalm 88:15, 16). If He will do thus much in love, what shall be the terrors of His wrath? If the sun were wanting, it would be night for all the stare; and if God frown upon a man, for all the glittering honours of this world, he sits in the shadow of death. Thus terrible is the anger of God; now, what is He angry withal but sin? That is the perpetual make-bate between God and us; the fuel of the fire of His indignation (Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 63:10). II. GOD MAY BE LONG ANGRY. It is some favour when we have the respite to cry, "How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry with us?" There is some hope of remedy when we once complain of our sickness. Yet God may be long angry, and long continue sensible testimonies of His anger (Psalm 95:10). But how, then, doth the prophet say "that he retaineth not anger"? Well enough; for He never retaineth it one moment longer than we retain the cause of it. So soon as we ever cease sinning against Him, He ceaseth to be angry with us. III. GOD MAY BE ANGRY WITH THE WHOLE PEOPLE. The universality of sin calls for the universality of repentance, or else it will provoke God's anger to strike us with universal judgments. If the whole people be guilty, the whole people must fall to deprecation. Such was the Ninevite's repentance, "every man turning from his evil ways." IV. GOD MAY BE ANGRY WITH HIS OWN PEOPLE. Yea, their sins anger Him most of all, because, together with wickedness, there is unkindness. As dearly as He loves them, their sins may provoke Him. Our interest in God is so far from excusing our iniquities, that it aggravates them. The nearer we are to Him, the nearer do our offences torch Him; as a man more takes to heart a discourtesy done by a friend than a great injury by a stranger. V. GOD MAY BE ANGRY WITH HIS PEOPLE THAT PRAYETH. 1. There may be infirmities enough in our very prayers to make them unacceptable. 2. But such is the mercy of our God, that He will wink at many infirmities in our devotions, and will not reject the prayer of an honest heart because of some weakness in the petitioner. It must be a greater cause than all this that makes God angry at our prayers. In general, it is sin (John 9:31; Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 1:15). God will have none of those petitions that are presented to Him with bloody hands. 3. In particular, it is the hypocrisy of sin, or the sin of hypocrisy, that makes God so angry with our prayers. (T. Adams.) Essex Remembrancer. I. IN WHAT SENSE GOD MAY BE SAID TO BE ANGRY WITH OUR PRAYERS.1. When He denies our requests. 2. When He delays His answers. 3. When He bestows blessings under a different form, and in a different manner from what we expected. II. SOME OF THE CAUSES FOR THIS. 1. Our desires may be, and no doubt often are, improper. 2. Desires, not in themselves improper, may be unsuitable to us, such as would not, if granted, become our case or circumstances. 3. Prayers may be ill-timed. 4. They may be polluted and spoiled by sins. 5. They may be incompatible with the plans of infinite wisdom. III. IMPROVEMENT. 1. Instead of restraining prayer, this should make us more importunate. 2. Though we should not give over praying, we ought to give over sinning. 3. Acquiesce in all the Divine proceedings. 4. Be thankful that whatever favours God may see fit to withhold or suspend, He bestows far more than we have deserved. (Essex Remembrancer.) People Asaph, Benjamin, Joseph, Manasseh, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Almighty, Anger, Angry, Armies, Burned, Burning, Hast, Hosts, O, People's, Prayer, Prayers, Rest, Smoke, Smolder, Till, Wilt, WrathOutline 1. The psalmist in his prayer complains of the miseries of the church8. God's former favors are turned into judgments 14. He prays for deliverance Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 80:4 5821 criticism, among believers Library One Antidote for Many IllsThis morning's sermon, then will be especially addressed to my own church, on the absolute necessity of true religion in our midst, and of revival from all apathy and indifference. We may ask of God multitudes of other things, but amongst them all, let this be our chief prayer: "Lord, revive us; Lord, revive us!" We have uttered it in song; let me stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance, to utter it in your secret prayers, and make it the daily aspiration of your souls. I feel, beloved, that … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859 Dishonest Tenants The Blessing of God. Period iii. The Critical Period: A. D. 140 to A. D. 200 The Wicked Husbandmen. Discourse on the Good Shepherd. Homiletical. Rules to be Observed in Singing of Psalms. The Shepherd of Our Souls. Farewell Discourse to Disciples. 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