For the Lord heareth the poor
The prayer of the poor, as the Targum; of the poor disciples of
Christ, who were together mourning, weeping, and praying, when
their Lord was dead, and laid in the sepulchre, ( Mark 16:10 ) ( Luke 24:10 Luke 24:33 ) ; this
epithet agrees with all the followers of Christ, who for the most
part are literally poor, and are all of them so in a spiritual
sense; they are poor in spirit, and are sensible of it; they are
full of wants, and these daily return upon them; wherefore they
constantly apply to the throne of grace for help in time of need;
and the Lord regards them, his eye is upon them, his heart is
towards them, his thoughts are about them, his ears are open to
their cries, and his hand is ready to supply their wants;
and despiseth not his prisoners;
the same disciples of Christ; who being assembled together, the
doors were shut for fear of the Jews, ( John 20:19 ) ; it may be
applied to such who are the Lord's prisoners; that is, for his
sake, in a literal sense, as the Apostle Paul is called the
prisoner of the Lord, ( Ephesians
3:1 ) ( 4:1 ) ; and
there were many, both under the Old and under the New Testament,
that suffered imprisonment for their profession of religion; and
these the Lord despises not, though men may, but highly esteems
and honours; and it may be understood mystically and spiritually
of such as are, in their nature state, prisoner of sin and Satan,
and the law, and, when called, are prisoners of hope; these the
Lord has a regard unto, and opens the prison doors and sets them
at and directs them to the strong hold, ( Isaiah 49:9 ) (
61:1 ) (
Zechariah 9:11 Zechariah
9:12 ) .