The Apple of His Eye - Psalm 74The Apple of His Eye ... commentary of Psalm 74

The Apple of His Eye
… A commentary of Psalm 74

Verse One


The Apple of His Eye … A commentary of Psalm 74

Zechariah 2:8

“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

A psalm is a song.  It is a hymn!

“Maschil of Asaph.”

Maschil= מסיל = instruction

Who is Asaph … who gives thisMaschil”? 

For this background information we will turn to the First Book of The Chronicles, and read from there in chapter six, verses thirty-one and thirty-two:

And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the LORD, after that the ark had rest. And they ministered before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation with singing, until Solomon had built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem: and then they waited on their office according to their order.” [1 Chronicles 6:31-32]

The “these are they” are the Levites.  The Levites are the ones who appointed Asaph [along with Heman and Ethan] as a singer and the player of an instrument.  This instrument Asaph played were the “cymbals of brass”.

“Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obededom: and Jeiel with psalteries and with harps; but Asaph made a sound with cymbals;” [1 Chronicles 16:5].  Also, see [1 Chronicles 15:17, 19].

Asaph was the receiver of this instruction from David.  We see this transactional process illustrated by the First Book of The Chronicles, chapter sixteen, verse seven.  We read: Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the LORD into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.” [1 Chronicles 16:7]

This psalm of instruction was placed “into the hand of Asaph” for the purpose to give instruction to the people… to prophesy to the people.

This ministry of the instruction of the people was to form for Asaph [and his brethren] the very purpose for his life.  We can see this truth in several verses of the Scripture … all found in the first book of the Chronicles.  Let us read them:

·         “So he left there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required:” [1 Chronicles 16:37].

·         “Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was: Of the sons of Asaph; Zaccur, and Joseph, and Nethaniah, and Asarelah, the sons of Asaph under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king.” [1 Chronicles 25:1-2]

·         “All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king's order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.” [1 Chronicles 25:6]

Asaph sees something before it happens [in B.C. 1040] because the Spirit of God is in him [the prophet].

God concurrently sees the beginning and the end of all things

HE puts future things into the prophet.


Psalm 74:1 “O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?”


  The Apple of His Eye

“O God”


In this psalm [or song] a question is addressed to “God”.

Now, who is “God”?  

This question is in reference to the true GOD!

“But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.”  [Jeremiah 10:10] [2 Chronicles 15:3]

Are you ready?

“God” is a supernatural triune Person [Notice the great “us” in Genesis 1:26].

1.       The Father [John 1:14]

2.       The Son [John 1:18]

3.       The Holy Spirit [Holy Ghost] [1 Corinthians 12:3]

THESE THREE ARE ONE!!!

1 John 5:7: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

This true supernatural triune Person has had no beginning, and this true supernatural triune Person has no end. 

Furthermore, this true God has never evolved to one level of being from another level of being.  The BIBLE reveals this supernatural triune Person that inhabiteth eternity!

We find this in the book of Isaiah: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” [Isaiah 57:15]

The ONE who is HIGH and is LOFTY and is HOLY is same ONE who was found in fashion as a man who humbled himself to die on the cross of Calvary for our sins. 

 Let the Spirit of God connect the HIGH and LOFTY ONE to the contrite and humble ONE seen in The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to The Philippians: “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  [Philippians 2:8]  

This is the true God!!!

The true God is the: “I AM”: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” [Exodus 3:14]

Therefore, the true God is eternal, infinite and boundless and HE exists outside of the bounds of time!

Now, this “God” is called by many names.  [I am sure this list is not complete.]:

         i.            “God” is called: JEHOVAH in Exodus 6:3.

“And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”

        ii.            “God” is called: JEALOUS in Exodus 34:14.

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:”

      iii.            “God” is called: ADVOCATE in 1 John 2:1.

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:”

      iv.            “God” is called: LAMB OF GOD in John 1:29.

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

        v.            “God” is called: THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE in John 11:25.

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”

      vi.            “God” is called: SHEPHERD & BISHOP OF SOULS in 1 Peter 2:25.

“For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

     vii.            “God” is called: JUDGE in Acts 10:42.

“And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.”

   viii.            “God” is called: Potentate, King of Kings, LORD OF LORDS in 1 Timothy 6:15.

“Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;”

      ix.            “God” is called: MAN OF SORROWS in Isaiah 53:3.

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

        x.            “God” is called: HEAD OF THE CHURCH saviour of the body in Ephesians 5:23.

“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.”

      xi.            “God” is called: MASTER in Matthew 8:19.

“And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”

     xii.            “God” is called: FAITHFUL & TRUE WITNESS in Revelation 3:14.

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;”

   xiii.            “God” is called: ROCK in 1 Corinthians 10:4.

“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

   xiv.            “God” is called: HIGH PRIEST in Hebrews 6:20.

“Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

     xv.            “God” is called: THE DOOR in John 10:9.

 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

   xvi.            “God” is called: LIVING WATER in John 4:10.

“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

  xvii.            “God” is called: BREAD OF LIFE in John 6:35.

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

xviii.            “God” is called: ROSE OF SHARON - lily of the valleys in Song of Solomon 2:1.

“I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”

   xix.            “God” is called: ALPHA and OMEGA in Revelation 22:13.

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

     xx.            “God” is called: TRUE VINE in John 15:1.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

   xxi.            “God” is called: MESSIAH and PRINCE in Daniel 9:25.

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

  xxii.            “God” is called: Rabbi [or teacher] in John 3:2.

“The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”

xxiii.            “God” is called: HOLY ONE in Mark 1:24.

“Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.”

xxiv.            “God” is called: MEDIATOR in 1 Timothy 2:5.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”

  xxv.            “God” is called: THE BELOVED in Ephesians 1:6.

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

xxvi.            “God” is called: ROD and BRANCH in Isaiah 11:1.

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:”

xxvii.            “God” is called: CARPENTER in Mark 6:3.

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”

xxviii.            “God” is called: GOOD SHEPHERD in John 10:11.

“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”

xxix.            “God” is called: LIGHT OF THE WORLD in John 8:12.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

  xxx.            “God” is called: IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD in Colossians 1:15

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”

xxxi.            “God” is called: THE WORD in John 1:1.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

xxxii.            “God” is called: CHIEF CORNERSTONE in Ephesians 2:20.

“And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;”

xxxiii.            “God” is called: CHRIST and SAVIOR in John 4:42.

“And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

xxxiv.            “God” is called: SERVANT in Matthew 12:18.

“Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.”

xxxv.            “God” is called: AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH in Hebrews 12:2.

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

xxxvi.            “God” is called: Alpha and Omega - THE ALMIGHTY in Revelation 1:8.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

xxxvii.            “God” is called: WONDERFUL, COUNSELLER, MIGHTY GOD, PRINCE OF PEACE, EVERLASTING FATHER in Isaiah 9:6.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

xxxviii.            “God” is called: SHILOH in Genesis 49:10.

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

xxxix.            “God” is called: LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDA – ROOT OF DAVID in Revelation 5:5.

“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”

      xl.            “God” is called: I AM in John 8:58.

“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

     xli.             “God” is called: BRIDEGROOM in Matthew 9:15.

“And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.”

   xlii.            “God” is called: ONLY BEGOTTEN SON in John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

  xliii.            “God” is called: IMMANUEL in Matthew 1:23.

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

  xliv.            “God” is called: SON OF MAN in Matthew 20:28.

“Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

   xlv.            “God” is called: DAYSPRING in Luke 1:78.

“Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,”

  xlvi.            “God” is called: THE AMEN in Revelation 3:14.

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;”

xlvii.            “God” is called: KING OF THE JEWS in Mark 15:26.

“And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

xlviii.            “God” is called: PROPHET in Matthew 21:11.

“And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.”

  xlix.            “God” is called: REDEEMER in Job 19:25.

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:”

         l.            “God” is called: ANCHOR in Hebrews 6:19.

“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”

        li.            “God” is called: ROOT AND OFFSPRING - BRIGHT MORNING STAR in Revelation 22:16.

“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”

      lii.            “God” is called: THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE in John 14:6.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

     liii.            “God” is called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS in Jeremiah 23:6.

“In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”


The Wide Side note:


What have we learned?  What is greatly evident is God is known by NAMES.  It follows also, that men [who are created in the image of God] have names.

Genesis 1:27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

NAMES signify the presence of a PERSONALTY … a PERSON!

You know a person by their name in God’s purview.  God knew Jeremiah before he was born: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” [Jeremiah 1:5]

John Dewey

Enter John Dewey.  [Oct 20, 1859 - Jun 01, 1952] John Dewey demoted the worth of the individual to the level of an insignificant number or of an animal.  Hence, the name of the person is repressed.

Here is John Dewey’s agenda.  This atheistic John Dewey, who was one of the fathers of the American progressive socialists, totally remade the public school system [in his image as an animal] with his inverse placement of the collective over the individual

In total contrast, God emphasizes the individual person over the collective.   Proof?

This personal relationship [with the individual person] [by a personal God] is the theme seen throughout the Bible.   

This is why in the 1960’s the Bible in the schools in America had to be gotten rid of!  God’s word simply stood in their way!!!

A person to person relationship!

For example: in the Gospel according to John, we have this: Judas [who is a person] [who is an individual] saith unto him [who is a person] [who is an individual], not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

Jesus answered and said unto him [who is a person] [who is an individual], If a man [who is a person] [who is an individual], love me, he [who is a person] [who is an individual], will keep my words: and my Father will love him [who is a person] [who is an individual], and we will come unto him [who is a person] [who is an individual], and make our abode with him [who is a person] [who is an individual].” [John 14:22-23]   

In the last part of the nineteenth century, John Dewey, and his socialist adherents formulated a long-term conspiracy with the end goal to radically change America by imposition of their utopian vision of a collectivist society.

Dumb it down! 

A collectivist society is likened [within the progressive socialist’s philosophy] as to a herd of animals, or as like bees of the beehive, or as like the ants of an ant colony. 

But to God, there is a radical difference.   A human being [mankind] is a PERSON, and is likened to GOD [WHO is a PERSON]. Man was created in the image of God.   

Now, it is as plain as the nose on your face as to what has happened since the nineteenth century.  

Search God’s words to get your bearings, and read in the First Book Moses called the Genesis, the book of beginnings, to see just how special man is in his attributes, and how much man is like God.  

Genesis 1:26:And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:27:So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Therefore, Satan has lied to us [down through the years], and especially in the last century.  He found some dupes to use in his master plan to bring man to the PIT, and has been successful in injecting his poison into the minds of Charles Darwin, and John Dewey, and all their blind adherents.  These men literally believe they are ANIMALS.

THE TRUTH is: Man is over the animals, and is not an animal!  Man was created to commune and fellowship with God.   Whereas, by DESIGN, the rest of God’s creation is bereft of this attribute [an eternal soul].  [The rest of God’s creation = the grass, the trees, the fish, the birds and the animals.]

John Dewey, and his dupes, therefore, surmised the surest way [the ultimate way] to undermine individualism was to conduct a multipoint subtle war against individualism through the America’s public school system.   The game plan involved getting rid of the emphasis the primary schools placed on the development of high literacy and independent intelligence.

“Why? Because both of these sustained individualisms.

What was needed, they believed, was a new curriculum that emphasized socialization and taught children to read by a whole-word method that would lower the nation’s literacy level and make its children more amenable to collectivist values…They considered themselves peerless intellects and socialism a morally superior way of life.”1 [1. Most of us Attended John Dewey’s Socialist Public Schools by mydixieAdmin, Feb 7, 2019, Al Benson, Revised History]

John Dewey boldly stated: “Change must come gradually. To force it unduly would compromise its final success by favoring a violent reaction.”

In other words: The goal was to fool the people, and to sneak these changes into the land’s schools, and to perform this inside job to convert the nation composed of individuals into one herd of animals.

Now, John Dewey spawned his adherents. Then in the 1940’s and the 1950’s these adherents, with Charles Darwin’s toxin embedded within them, gave us the whole word method approach of the Dick, Jane and Spot readers in the effort to dehumanize the person or repress individualism.

Now the following is quoted from an American educator, Samuel L. Blumenfeld:


The Ox You Slaughter


 

“Another important component of the progressive curriculum was behavioral psychology. It was Edward L. Thorndike, a strong believer in evolution and eugenics, who stressed the notion that children were animals and could be trained like animals. He wrote in 1928:

Our experiments on learning in the lower animals have probably contributed more to knowledge of education, per hour or per unit of intellect spent, than experiments on children. The best way with children may often be, in the pompous words of an animal trainer, "to arrange everything in connection with the trick so that the animal will be compelled by the laws of his own nature to perform it."

But it was John B. Watson, the most arrogant behaviorist of them all, who revealed the true contempt that he and his fellow behaviorists had toward their fellow human beings when he wrote in his book, Behaviorism:

Human beings do not want to class themselves with other animals. They are willing to admit that they are animals but "something else in addition." It is this "something else" that causes the trouble. In this "something else" is bound up everything that is classed as religion, the life hereafter, morals, love of children, parents, country, and the like. The raw fact that you, as a psychologist, if you are to remain scientific, must describe the behavior of man in no other terms than those you would use in describing the behavior of the ox you slaughter.”2

2. The Victims of Dick and Jane, By Samuel L. Blumenfeld, September 01, 2002

Oh, Jane.

See Spot and Tim.

See Spot run.

Little did I know what they were doing to me as a little first grader student at the Burnside Elementary School on Burnside Avenue in East Hartford, Connecticut in the 1950’s?  

Thus, we have here in all the foregoing seen John Dewey’s subtle work performed in the dark.

John Dewey has offended all the little children in the United States of America for four generations.

Luke 17:1-2:Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

We are now ready to go back into our psalm, continuing with verse one.

 “O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” 

“Why?”

This whole thing is prophetic! 

1.       Why have you cast us away? [Israel]   Answer: You turned away from me! 

It is as clear as a bell as it is declared in the BOOK: “But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.” [2 Chronicles 7:19-20] 

The consequences for this SIN was this:

·         The destruction of Jerusalem and the seventy-year captivity of the people by Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon [in B.C. 606].

·          The destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersal of the Jews as a nation by Emperor Titus [in A.D. 70.]  There would no home for the Jews for eighteen hundred and seventy-eight years!

·         The destruction of Jerusalem in the future great tribulation. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” [Matthew 24:21]

2.       Again:why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” 

Why are you angry with us [with Israel]?  Answer:  You rejected me [you rejected my knowledge]: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” [Hosea 4:6]

In the book of Isaiah, in chapter fifty-nine, God lays out HIS case very carefully, and in a very concise detail, as to the reasons why HE was hiding HIS face from them and why HE was not willing to even hear from them.  Please turn to there and we will read.  

Isaiah 59:1-8

“Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.”

SIN CERTAINLY has its consequences!

The Lamentations of Jeremiah [in chapter two, verse ten through verse twenty-two] transports us to the scene where the apple of His eye is seen in grievous lamentations:

“The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this.

Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed. [Lamentations 2:10-22]

Israel’s lamentations over sin begins their journey back to a three-letter word:

[B-U-T]

But God works things out for the apple of His eye [for her good!] even though the apple of His eye disobeyed

Friend, just read, study, and believe The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans in chapter eleven, for there we will find the happy ending for both Jew and Gentile.

Here is the lesson to be learned.  The judgment of one people may occasion the redemption of another people: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” [Romans 11:15]

In the end Israel will be saved!  “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” [Romans 11:26]

3.        “…the sheep of thy pasture?” 

Where there are sheep there will be a shepherd.  The people of Israel are God’s flock of sheep“For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,” [Psalm 95:7]

However, blindness in part has happened to Israel and the people were cast out. [Romans 11:25]

They may have lost their way through the wilderness, because they left their Shepherd, yet they shall be recovered.  Recovery is a beautiful thing.  What was lost will be found.  There will not be any sad ending to the nation of Israel.  Amen!

We come now to the great shepherd passage in the Bible which is located in the Gospel of according to John, chapter ten, verse, sixteen: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” [John 10:16]  

The other sheep are the Gentiles.  They will be added to the sheep of the flock of Israel

That’s US!!  The Christians, the believers in Jesus Christ, are sheep

We are now ready to go to the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians, chapter two, starting with verse twelve: “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” [Ephesians 2:12-22]