Charles H. Spurgeon

Whole Psalm. On a survey of this Psalm, it would seem not to admit of a doubt that the speakers are of the race of Israel; and yet expositors for the most part have found much difficulty in so understanding it, in this—the natural sense—so as even to be compelled to abandon it, owing to the impossibility of fixing on any period in the history of that people which would furnish an occasion for it, and verify its language. Thus, it cannot be referred to the times of the Babylonish captivity; for to this it is objected, and with reason; first, that Ps 44:11 4:14 represent the speakers as "scattered among the nations, "and "a byword among the peoples, "whereas their exile was then confined to one country; and, secondly, that in Ps 44:17-21 there is an assertion of faithful adherence to the worship of the true God, which he is called to witness as acquitting the sufferers of having brought the evil on themselves, while that captivity was a punishment of the nation for their apostasy, and especially for the grievous sin of idolatry. And the same objections lie to interpreting it with reference to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees; beside that, the history of the canon of Scripture is decisive against assigning so late a date to any of the Psalms. Still less can the times of David be looked to for the occasion, since, though religion was then pure, there was, on the other hand, no dispersion of the nation nor any calamity such as to warrant the lamentation, "Thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame. ...Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat, "etc. Whence it appeared that there was no alternative but to consider the Psalm as exclusively the language of the Christian church, and, in her primitive days, as the period at once of her greatest purity and suffering. William de Burgh.

Whole Psalm. S. Ambrose observes, that in former Psalms we have seen a prophecy of Christ's passion, resurrection, and ascension and of the coming of the Holy Ghost, and that here we are taught that we ourselves must be ready to struggle and suffer, in order that these things may profit us. Human will must work together with divine grace. Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 1. We have heard with our ears, i.e., we have both heard and heeded it with utmost attention and affection. It is not a pleonasmus, but an emphasis that is here used. John Trapp.

Verse 1. Our fathers have told us. Hear this, saith Basil, ye fathers that neglect to teach your children such things as may work his fear and love in them, and faith to rely upon and seek to him in all times of danger. They made their mouths, as it were, books, wherein the mighty deeds of the Lord might be read to his praise, and to the drawing of their children's hearts unto him. John Mayer.

Verse 1. What work thou didst. Why only work in the singular, when such innumerable deliverances had been wrought by him, from the passage of the Red Sea to the destruction of the hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians? Because all these were but types of that one great work, that one stretching forth of the Lord's hand, when Satan was vanquished, death destroyed, and the kingdom of heaven opened to all believers. Ambrose.

Verse 1. What work thou didst. While the songs of other nations sing of the heroism of their ancestors, the songs of Israel celebrate the works of God. Augustus F. Tholuck.

Verse 1. Three necessary requirements for learning well: 1. Intention and attention in him who hears, we have heard with our ears. 2. Authority in him that teaches, our fathers have told us. 3. Love between the teacher and the taught, "our fathers." Hugo (Cardinal), quoted in Neale's Commentary.

Verses 1-2, 4-8. Children are their parent's heirs; it were unnatural for a father before he dies to bury up his treasure in the earth, where his children should not find or enjoy it; now the mercies of God are not the least part of his treasure, nor the least of his children's inheritance, being both helps to their faith, matter for their praise, and spurs to their obedience. Our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, how thou didst drive out the heathen, etc. Ps 44:1-2; from this they ground their confidence; Ps 44:4: Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob; and excite their thankfulness, Ps 44:8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Indeed, as children are their parent's heirs, so they become in justice liable to pay their parents' debts; now the great debt which the saint at death stands charged with, is that which he owes to God for his mercies, and, therefore it is but reason he should tie his posterity to the patent thereof. Thus mayest thou be praising God in heaven and earth at the same time. William Gurnall.

Verse 3. They got not the land in possession by their own sword. The Lord's part in a work is best seen when man's part, and all that he as an instrument hath done, or could have done in it, is declared null; being considered as separate from God who moved the instruments, and did work by them what he pleased. David Dickson.

Verse 3. Because thou hadst a favour unto them. Free grace was the fundamental cause of all their felicity. God loved them because he loved them. De 7:7. He chose them of his love, and then loved them for his choice. John Trapp.

Verse 3. God's love to Israel was free, unmerited, and amazing, and he gave them a land for which they did not labour, and cities which they built not, and vineyards and oliveyards which they planted not. Jos 24:13. In some cases neither sword nor bow were used, but hornets were the instruments of conquest. Jos 24:12. Since the fall of Adam all good things in the lot of any mere man are undeserved kindnesses. William S. Plumer.

Verse 3. (last clause). The prophet does not suppose any worthiness in the person of Abraham, nor imagine any desert in his posterity, on account of which God dealt so bountifully with them; but ascribes the whole through the good pleasure of God...Nor does the psalmist here treat of the general benevolence of God, which extends to the whole human race: but he discourses of the difference which exists between the elect and the rest of the world, and the cause of this difference is here referred to the mere good pleasure of God. John Calvin.

Verse 5. Through thee will we push down our enemies:, literally, "We will toss them in the air with our horn; "a metaphor taken from an ox or bull tossing the dogs into the air which attack him. Adam Clarke.

Verse 6. I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. By bow and sword, he meaneth all manner of weapons and warlike instruments whatsoever; and by "saving, "he meaneth delivering from dangers, speaking under the person of one (because all the faithful are but one body), in the name of all the rest. Thomas Wilcocks.

Verse 6. I will not trust in my bow, etc. I will not trust in my own sword or bow, but in the sword of the Divine Warrior, and in the bow of the Divine Archer, whose arrows are sharp in the heart of his enemies as described in the next Ps 45:3-5, which is connected by that imagery with this Psalm, as well as by its inner meaning. Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 6. The less confidence we have in ourselves or in anything beside God, the more evidence have we of the sincerity of our faith in God. David Dickson.

Verses 6-7. The two verses correspond exactly to Ps 44:3. As there, in reference to the past, the salvation was ascribed wholly to God, so here in reference to the future. E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 11. Like sheep appointed for meat. This very strongly and strikingly intimates the extent of the persecution and slaughter to which they were exposed; there being no creature in the world of which such vast numbers are constantly slaughtered as of sheep for the subsistence of man. The constancy of such slaughter is also mentioned in Ps 44:22 as illustrating the continual oppression to which the Hebrews were subject. Kitto's Pictorial Bible.

Verse 11. Like sheep appointed for meat, and not reserved for breeding or for wool. Arthur Jackson.

Verse 12. Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price. The sense is: Thou hast given thy people unto the power of their enemies without trouble, without causing the victory even to be clearly bought, as one who parts with a good for any price, which he despises and hates, desiring merely to get rid of it. E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 12. Thou sellest thy people for nought, etc. Referring to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, Eusebius says: "Many were sold for a small price; there were many to be sold, but few to buy."

Verse 12. And dost not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou hast not advanced thy honour and service thereby; for thy enemies do not serve thee more and better than thy people, nor yet so much. Matthew Pool.

Verse 12. (last clause). Takest no money for them; literally, enhances not the price of them, as a seller usually does to the buyer. Daniel Creswell.

Verse 14. Thou makest us a byword; literally, for a similitude, (lvm) stands here, as in the original passage De 28:37, in the common signification, similitude. The misery of Israel is so great, that people would figuratively call a miserable man a Jew, just as liars were called Cretans; wretched slaves, Sardians. So far as the people from being now "blessed of the Lord" in whom according to the promise, all the heathen are to be blessed. E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 15. My confusion in continually before me. When the visible church is visited with sad calamities, the true members thereof are partakers of the trouble, and sorrow, and shame of that condition. David Dickson.

Verse 17. Eusebius, narrating the cruelties inflicted upon the Christians by the Eastern tyrant, Maximinus, says: "He prevailed against all sorts of people, the Christians only excepted, who contemned death and despised his tyranny. The men endured burning, beheading, crucifying, ravenous devouring of beasts, drowning in the sea, maiming and broiling of the members, goring and digging out of the eyes, mangling of the whole body; moreover, famine and imprisonment: to be short, they suffered every kind of torment for the service of God rather than they would leave the worship of God, and embrace the adoration of idols. Women also, not inferior to men through the power of the word of God, put on a manly courage, whereof some suffered the torments with men, some attained unto the like masteries of virtue." From "The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus."

Verse 17. Yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Although we cannot excuse ourselves from many other sins for which thou hast justly punished us, yet this we must say for ourselves, that through thy grace we have kept ourselves from apostasy and idolatry, notwithstanding all the examples and provocations, rewards proposed and promised, or punishments threatened to induce us thereunto; which we hope thou wilt graciously consider, and not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear. Matthew Poole.

Verse 17. If any of you would abide by Jesus Christ in this storm, try how ye have covenanted with him, and how ye have closed the bargain with him, and upon what terms. But I trow there are many of you in this age that are like young wanton folk, that run fast together and marry, but never take any account of how they will keep house, but presently go to poverty and beggary. I trow it falls out so with many of you that are professors in this generation. Ye take up your religion, and ye wot not how, and ye cannot give an account how ye came by it. I will tell you, sirs; ye will abide no longer by Christ than till a storm blow, and then ye will quit him and deny his cause. Ye have need to take heed to this, for it will ruin your souls in the end of the day. But I shall tell you, sirs, the right way of covenanting with God. It is when Christ and the believer meet. Our Lord gives him his laws, statutes, and commands, and he charges him not to quit a hoof of them. No; though he should be torn into a thousand pieces; and the right covenanter says, Amen. Alexander Peden's Sermon, 1682.

Verses 17-19. Neither the persecuting hand of men, nor the chastising hand of God, relaxed ancient singular saints. Believers resemble the moon, which emerges from her eclipse by keeping her motion, and ceases not to shine because the dogs bark at her. Shall we cease to be professors because others will not cease to be persecutors? William Secker.

Verses 17-19. The church having reported her great troubles, speaks it as an argument of much sincerity towards God, and strength of grace received from him: All this has come upon us (that is, all these common calamities and afflictions), yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; as if she had said, These afflictions have been strong temptations upon us to cause us to decline from thy ways, but through grace we have kept our ground and remained constant in thy covenant, yea, though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. As many, yea, most of the saints have improved under the cross, so there have been some, who either through their present unbelief, or forgetfulness of "the exhortation which" (as the apostle saith, Heb 12:5); "speaketh unto them as unto children, " have had their faintings or declinings under it. Joseph Caryl.

Verse 19. Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, etc. Where men, comparable to dragons for their poison and cruelty, dwell, particularly in Rome, and the Roman jurisdiction, both Pagan and Papal, the seat of Satan the great red dragon, and of his wretched brood and offspring, the beast, to whom he has given his power; where the saints and followers of Christ have been sorely afflicted and persecuted, and yet have held fast the name of Christ, and not denied his faith. See Re 2:13 12:3. The wilderness is the habitation of dragons; and this is the name of the place where the church is said to be in the times of the Papacy, and where she is fed and preserved for a time, and times, and half time. Re 12:6,14. And covered us with the shadow of death. As the former phrase denotes the cruelty of the enemies of Christ's church and people, this their dismal afflictions and forlorn state and condition; and may have some respect to the darkness of Popery, when it was at the height, and the church of Christ was covered with it, there being very little appearances and breakings forth of gospel light anywhere. John Gill.

Verse 19. Dragons. The word rendered dragons—(Mynt), tannim—means either a great fish, a sea monster, a serpent, a dragon, or a crocodile. It may also mean a jackal, a fox, or a wolf. De Wette renders it here jackals. The idea in the passage is essentially the same, whichever interpretation of the word is adopted. The "place of dragons" would denote the place where such monsters are found, or where they had their abode; that is to say, in desolate places, wastes, deserts, old ruins, depopulated towns. Albert Barnes.

Verse 20. Stretched out our hands to a strange god. The stretching out the hand towards an object of devotion, or an holy place, was an ancient usage among the Jews and heathens both, and it continues in the East at this time, which continuance I do not remember to have seen remarked. That this attitude in prayer has continued among the Eastern people, appears by the following passage from Pitts, in his account of the religion and manners of the Mohammedans. Speaking of the Algerians throwing wax candles and pots of oil overboard, as a present to some marabbot (or Mohammedan saint), Pitt goes on, and says, "When this is done, they all together hold up their hands, begging the marabbot's blessing, and a prosperous voyage." In the same page he tells us, "the marabbots have generally a little neat room built over their graves, resembling in figure their mosques or churches, which is very nicely cleaned, and well looked after." And in the succeeding page he tells us, "Many people there are who will scarce pass by any of them without lifting up their hand, and saying some short prayer." In like manner, he tells us, that at quitting the Beat, or holy house at Mecca, to which they make devout pilgrimages, "they hold up their hands towards the Beat, making earnest petitions." Harmer's "Observations."

Verse 21. Shall not God search this out? etc. Are there such variety of trials appointed to examine the sincerity of men's graces? How great a vanity, then, is hypocrisy! and to how little purpose do men endeavour to conceal and hide it! We say, murder will out; and we may as confidently affirm, hypocrisy will out. When Rebekah had laid the plot to disguise her son Jacob, and by personating his brother to get the blessing, Jacob thus objects against it: "My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing." As if he should say, But what if my father detect the cheat? How, then, shall I look him in the face? How shall I escape a curse? After the same manner every upright soul scares itself from the way of hypocrisy. If I dissemble, and pretend to be what I am not, my Father will find me out. There is no darkness nor shadow of death that can conceal the hypocrite; but out it will come at last, let him use all the art he can to hide it...If men's works be not good, it is impossible they should be hid long. A gilded piece of brass may pass from hand to hand a little while, but the touchstone will discover the base metal; and if that does not, the fire will. John Flavel.

Verse 21. A godly man dares not sin secretly. He knows that God sees in secret. As God cannot be deceived by our subtlety, so he cannot be excluded by our secrecy. Thomas Watson.

Verse 21. In time of persecution for religion, nothing can counterbalance the terrors and allurements of the persecutors, and make a man steadfast in the cause of God, save the fear of God, and love to God settled in the heart; for the reason of the saint's steadfastness in this Psalm, is because God would have searched out their sin if they had done otherwise, for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. David Dickson.

Verse 22. Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long, etc. Leonard Schoener left, amongst other papers, the following admonition, to comfort all who were suffering for Christ's name:

"We pray thee, O eternal God, to bow down thy gracious ear. Lord of Sabaoth, thou Lord of hosts, hear our complaint, for great affliction and persecution have prevailed. Pride has entered thine inheritance, and many supposed to be Christians, have united themselves therewith, and have thus brought in the abomination of desolation. They waste and destroy the Christian sanctuary. They have trodden the same under foot, and the abomination of desolation is worshipped as God. They have troubled thy holy city, thrown down thy holy altar, and slain her servants when they could lay their hands upon them. And now that we as a little flock are left, they have driven us into all thy lands with contempt and reproach. We are scattered as sheep having no shepherd. We have been compelled to forsake house and home. We are as night ravens which abide in the rocks; our chambers are in holes and crags. They watch for us as fowls that fly in the air. We wander in the woods, they hunt us with dogs. They lead us away, seized and bound, as lambs that open not their mouths. They cry out against us as seditious persons and heretics. We are brought like sheep to the slaughter. Many sit oppressed, and in bonds which even decay their bodies. Some have sunk under their sufferings, and died without fault. Here is the patience of the saints in the earth. We must be tried by suffering here. The faithful have they hanged on trees, strangled, hewn in pieces, secretly and openly drowned. Not only men, but likewise women, and maidens have borne witness to the truth, that Jesus Christ is the truth, the only way to eternal life. The world still rages, and rests not; it raves as if mad. They invent lies against us. They cease not their fires and murders. They make the world too narrow for us. O Lord, how long wilt thou be silent? How long wilt thou not judge the blood of thy saints? Let it come up before thy throne. How precious in thine eyes is the blood of thy holy ones! Therefore have we comfort in all our need, a refuge in thee alone, and in none besides; but neither comfort, nor rest, nor peace on this earth. But he who hopeth in thee shall never be confounded. O Lord, there is no sorrow so great that can separate us from thee; therefore, without ceasing we call upon thee, through Christ thy Son our Lord, whom thou of thy free grace hast given us for our comfort. He hath prepared and made known to us the straight path, and the way to eternal life. Everlasting glory and triumph, honour and praise, be given unto thee, both now and to eternity, and let thy righteousness remain for ever. Let all the people bless thy holy name, through Christ the righteous Judge, who cometh to judge the whole world. Amen." From "A Martyrology of the Churches of Christ, commonly called Baptists. Edited by E. B. Underhill," 1850.

Verse 22. For thy sake are we killed. It is mercy to us, that when God might punish us for our sins, he doth make our correction honourable, and our troubles to be for a good cause. For thy sake, etc. David Dickson.

Verse 22. For thy sake. This passage is cited by St. Paul, Ro 8:36, apparently from the LXX, in illustration of the fact that the church of God has in all ages been a persecuted church. But there is this remarkable difference between the tone of the psalmist and the tone of the apostle: the former cannot understand the chastening, and complains that God's heavy hand has been laid without cause upon his people; the latter can rejoice in persecutions also, and exclaim, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us." J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 22. Killed. The word here used is not from (ljq), but from (grh), which means to strangle: this is the rendering given in "Lange's Bibelwerk."

Verse 23. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? and Ps 121:4, "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." If God at no time sleep, why doth the church call on him so often to awake? If he must be awakened from sleep, why doth the psalmist say he never sleeps? Are not these places contradictory?

ANSWER: It is one thing what the afflicted church cries in the heat of her sufferings, another thing what the Spirit of truth speaks for the comfort of the saints. It is ordinary for the best of saints and martyrs, during the storm, to go to God as Peter did to Christ at sea (sleeping in the stern of the ship), with such importunity in prayer as if the Lord were no more sensible of their agony than Jonah was of the mariners' misery, ready to perish in the turbulent ocean, and he cried out, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise! Saints are so familiar with God in prayer, as if they were at his bedside. THE SOUL'S APPLICATION.—O thou never slumbering Watchman of the house of Israel, carest not thou that we perish? Awake, awake! put on strength, gird thyself, O thou arm of God! I know thou art up, but what am I the better except thou help me up? I know thou sleepest not as man doth, but what advantage hath my soul by that, except thou show thyself, that I may know thou art waking? Oh, it is I that am asleep! You seem to sleep only to awaken me. O that I could watch with thee one hour, as you bid me; I should soon perceive that thy vigilance over me for ever. William Streat in "The Dividing of the Hoof." 1654.

Verse 23. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? etc. The weakness of our faith is open to the temptation of supposing that God regards not the situation of his people in the world; and the Spirit, who knows our infirmities, provides a petition suited to this trial, which expresses at the same time an expectation that God will arise to claim his people as his own. W. Wilson.

Verse 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. We are as to body and soul, smitten and thrown down, glued as it were to the ground, so that we cannot raise ourselves up. E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust, etc. The speech is metaphorical, expressing the depth of their misery, or the greatness of their sorrow and humiliation. 1. The depth of their misery, with the allusion to the case of a man overcome in battle, or mortally wounded, and tumbling in the dust, or to a man dead and laid in the earth; as, "Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Ps 22:15. Sure we are, the expression imports the extremity of distress and danger, either as a man dead or near death. 2. The greatness of their sorrow and humiliation; and so the allusion is taken from a man prostrate and grovelling on the ground, which was their posture of humbling themselves before the Lord, or when any great calamity befell them. As when Herod Agrippa died, they put on sackcloth and lay upon the earth weeping. Thomas Manton.

Verse 1. The encouraging traditions of church history. The days of yore.

Verse 1. The parent's duty, and the children's privilege.

Verse 1. Family conversation, the most profitable subject for it.

Verse 1. The true glory of the good old times.

Verse 2. The contrast; or, the dealings of God with saints and sinners.

Verse 3. Free grace exalted.

1. In putting a negative upon human power.
2. In manifestations of divine energy.
3. In its secret source, Because thou hadst a favour unto them.

Verse 3.

1. The creature laid low.
2. The Lord exalted.
3. Discriminating grace revealed.

Verse 3. (last clause). The eternal well spring of all mercy.

Verse 4.

1. Divine royalty acknowledged.

2. Royal interposition entreated.

3. Divine covenant hinted at, Jacob; or, the loyal subject seeking royal aid for the royal seed.

Verse 4. Personal allegiance and pleading intercession.

Verse 4. My King. This intends—

1. My Ruler.
2. My Honour.
3. My Leader.
4. My Defender.

Verse 4. The deliverances of Jacob, illustrated by his eventful life.

Verse 5. Our enemies, in what ways we push them down, by what strength, and in what spirit.

Verse 5. Our enemies, their activity, the closeness of their approach, the certainty of their overthrow, the secret of our strength.

Verse 6. Relinquishment of outward trusts. My bow may miss its aim, may be broken, may be snatched away. My sword may snap, or grow blunt, or slip from my hold. We may not trust in our abilities, our experience, our shrewdness, our wealth, etc.

Verse 6. Self renunciation—the duty of saint and sinner.

Verse 7. Accomplished salvation. How never achieved, But. By whom wrought, thou. When performed, hast. For whom, us. To what extent, from our enemies.

Verse 7. Salvation completed, hell confounded, Christ exalted.

Verse 8. Praise, its continuance—how to make it continual, how to manifest it perpetually, influence of its continuance, and reasons to compel us to abide in it.

Verse 9. A lament for the declension of the church.

Verse 9. In what sense God casts off his people, and why.

Verse 9. (last clause). The greatest of all calamities for our churches.

Verse 12. The human and divine estimate of the results of persecution.

Verse 12. In answer to this complaint.

1. God's people lose nothing eventually by their privations.

2. The wicked gain nothing by their triumphs.

3. God loses none of his glory in his dealings with either. —George Rogers.

Verse 13. Trial of cruel mockings; our conduct under them, comfort in them, and crown from them.

Verse 14. Unholy proverbs or godless bywords.

Verse 15. Confessions of a penitent.

Verse 17. The trial, truth, and triumph of the godly.

Verse 17. The faithful soul holding fast his integrity.

Verse 17. What it is to be false to our covenant with God.

Verse 18. (first clause). When we may be sure that our heart has not apostatised.

Verse 18.

1. The position of the heart in religion—it comes first.

2. The position of the outer moral life in religion—it follows the heart.

3. Necessity of the agreement of the two.

4. The need that both should be faithful to God.

Verse 18. Connection between the heart and the life, both in constancy and apostasy.

Verse 18. God's delight in the progress of the upright. Thomas Brooks.

Upright hearts will hold on in the ways of God, and in the ways of well doing, notwithstanding all afflictions, troubles, and discouragements, they meet withal. Thomas Brooks.

Verse 18. Thy ways. The ways of God are

(1) righteous ways;
(2) blessed ways;
(3) soul refreshing ways;
(4) transcendent ways—ways that transcend all other ways;
(5) soul strengthening ways; and
(6) sometimes afflicted, perplexed, and persecuted ways. —Thomas Brooks.

Verse 21. Can he not? Will he not?

Verse 21. A question and an assertion.

Verse 22.

1. Innocence in the midst of suffering, sheep.
2. Honour in the midst of shame, for thy sake. G. Rogers.

Verse 23. The cry of a church in sad circumstances. The complaint of a deserted soul.

Verse 24. Reasons for the withdrawal of divine comfort.

Verse 25. The great need, the great prayer, the great plea.

Verse 26. A fit prayer for souls under conviction, for saints under trial or persecution, and for the church under oppression or decay.