O Lord, be gracious unto us
This is a prayer of the church under the persecutions of
antichrist, imploring the grace and favour of God in their
miserable and distressed circumstances; desiring his gracious
help, assistance, and deliverance; pleading not any merits of
their own, but casting themselves upon the mercy and kindness of
God: we have waited for thee;
time after time, year after year, in the use of means; hoping for
the manifestations of thyself, and kind appearance for us;
expecting help and salvation, and still continue to wait,
believing the time will come when favour will be shown: be
thou their arm every morning;
when they pray unto thee, the morning being the time of prayer;
and also be their arm all the day long, to lean and depend upon,
to support, protect, and defend them; there is a change of person
from the first to the third, usual in prophetic and poetic
writings: some take them to be the words of the Old Testament
church, praying for the New Testament church; and others a prayer
of the church for her children and members. The Vulgate Latin
version renders it, "our arm"; and the Syriac version, "our
helper"; and the Targum,
``our strength:''some read the words in connection with the following clause, thus, "be thou", who wast "their arm every morning", referring to their forefathers, whose strength and support the Lord was, our salvation also in the time of trouble
F19; the deliverer of us from the antichristian yoke of bondage, from all his persecutions and oppressions, from the last struggle of the beast, from that hour of trouble and temptation that shall come upon all the earth.
F19 So some in De Dieu.
