18. This shall be written for the generation to come. A note shall be made of it, for there will be destitute ones in future
generations. Registers of divine kindness ought to be made and preserved: we
write down in history the calamities of nations; how much rather should we set
up memorials of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses! Those who have in their own souls
endured spiritual destitution, and have been delivered out of it, cannot forget
it; they are bound to tell others of it, and especially to instruct their
children in the goodness of the Lord. And the people which shall be createdshall praise the Lord. The
rebuilding of Jerusalem would be a fact in history for which the Lord would be
praised from age to age. Revivals of religion not only cause great joy to those
who are immediately concerned in them, but they give encouragement and delight
to the people of God long after, and are indeed perpetual incentives to
adoration throughout the church of God. This verse teaches us that we ought to
have an eye to posterity, and especially should we endeavor to perpetuate the
memory of God’s love to his church and to his poor people, so that young people
as they grow up may know that the Lord God of their fathers is good and full of
compassion. Sad as the psalmist was when he wrote the dreary portions of this
complaint, he was not so absorbed in his own sorrow as to forget the claims of
coming generations; this, indeed, is a clear proof that he was not without hope
for his people, for he who is making arrangement for the good of a future
generation has not yet despaired of his nation. The praise of God should be the
great object of all that we do, and to secure him glory both from the present
and the future is the noblest aim of intelligent beings.
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