The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 26:16
Prayer forced by trouble. One of the commonest, and often one of the most painful, of human experiences. The scoffer bends the knee when life is placed in sudden peril. The prayerless cry mightily when death stares them in the face. Prayerlessness is only a fair-weather attainment. Like the children who do not seem to care for mother when health abounds, but run to her at once when the head is aching; so we can bravely do without God while the sun shines, but want him when the black... read more
The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 26:16
Prayer in trouble. "Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them." The "other lords," mentioned in the thirteenth verse, are all impotent in the hour of tribulation. Truly they are dead, as Carlyle says. "These idols of yours are wood; you pour wax and oil on them; the flies stick on them; they are not God, I tell you; they are black wood." So at the Reformation. Speaking of Luther, he says, "The quiet German heart; modest, patient of... read more