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Mic_7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD [shall be] a light unto me.
Ver. 8. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy] Here is the triumph of faith, in the fail of outward comforts, in the midst of the world’s insultations and irrisions. Ne laeteris de me. O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed, thou that art victrix gentium, captiva vitiorum (as Austin said of Rome in her pride), thou that for present carriest the ball upon the foot, and none can come near thee: Rejoice not against me, as forlorn and hopeless; say not, "This is Zion, the outcast, whom no man seeketh after," Jer_30:17. For assure thyself, The right hand of the Lord will change all this, and
“ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur. ”
When I fall, I shall arise] Because fall I never so low, I cannot fall below the supporting hand of God, which will help me up again, Psa_37:24. The wicked fall and never rise, Amo_8:14, they shall drink of the cup of God’s wrath, "and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more," Jer_25:27; their carcases shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them, Jer_9:22. This is fearful. If Haman fall before Mordecai the Jew, he shall not easily stop, or step back, Est_6:13. A Jew may fall before a Persian and get up and prevail. But if a Persian or other persecutor begin to fall before a Jew, he can neither stay nor rise. There is an invisible hand of omnipotence that strikes in for his own, and confounds their opposites.
When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me] He can lighten the greatest darkness, as be did the dungeons to the martyrs. From the delectable orchard of the Leonine dungeon, so Algerius, an Italian martyr, dated his heavenly epistle. I am now in the Bishop of London’s coal house (saith Mr Philpot), a dark and ugly brison as any is about London; but my dark body of sin hath well deserved the same; and the Lord now hath brought me into outer darkness, that I might be the more lightened by him; as he is most present with his children in the midst of darkness. And in his letter to the Lady Vane, I thank the Lord, saith he, I am not alone, but have six other faithful companions, who in our darkness do cheerfully sing hymns and praises to God for his great goodness. We are so joyful that I wish you part of my joy. The posy of the city of Geneva stamped round about their money was formerly out of Job, Post tenebras spero lucern, After darkness I look for light; but the Reformation once settled among them, they changed it into Post tenebras lux (Scultet. Annul.), Light after darkness. Like as the Saxon princes, before they became Christians, gave for their arms a black horse; but being once baptized, a white.