David prayed, ‘Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation,’ he did not mean that these words should be spoken audibly to his ear. But he did mean that the assurance of God’s salvation should be applied by the Holy Spirit to his heart. And so when God drew near to Jeremiah and said, ‘Fear not,’ we are not to understand that His person was visible to the eye, or the sound of His voice perceptible to the ear. But we are to understand that He so spoke to his heart as to assure him of His nearness, and to still his fears. And so it is with us. We do not look for anything perceptible by outward sense, but we do look for a rest from fear in the heart through the divine application of the Lord’s grace and very present help to the soul. (3.) And now consider, thirdly, the practical result in Jeremiah’s attitude of mind. He could look calmly up to Him who had drawn nigh unto Him, and say, ‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.’ It is difficult to determine exactly whether this was his language in the low dungeon, or after he was taken out of it. We read in Jer. xxxviii., that Ebed-melech, one of the king’s eunuchs, obtained permission to draw him up out of the dungeon, and he was subsequently confined in the court of the prison. As I have frequently pointed out, the word redemption sometimes stands simply for deliverance, and it is possible that it may do so here, and refer to the deliverance by Ebed-melech. But I do not think it does, for the latter part of the chapter seems clearly to teach that when Jeremiah wrote these words he was not yet delivered, but was still enduring the bitter hostility of his revengeful enemies. I am, therefore, rather disposed to regard these words as the utterance of a trusting heart when he was still in the low dungeon. I look on them, not as the effect of Ebed-melech pulling him out, but of God drawing near to him when he was in it, and saying to his soul, ‘Fear not.’ I think the passage is faith’s reply to God’s address. God drew near, and said, ‘Fear not,’ and faith accepted it at once, though still in the pit, and said, ‘Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.’ The language seems to lead us far beyond anything done by Ebed-melech, to a divine redemption, and a divine pleading of his cause. They remind us of those other words of Jeremiah, ‘Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name; he shall thoroughly plead their cause;’ Jer. L. 34; and I cannot help thinking that Jeremiah looked forward, as David did, to the great redemption by the Lord Jesus, as purposed from eternity, and promised in the sure word of God. As David said, ‘Thou hast redeemed me;’ so he said, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life.’ It was the Redeemer Himself that drew near to him in his low estate, and as it were said unto his soul, ‘I am thy salvation.’ The promised work was not yet accomplished, but it was brought home to