A Song-Sermon explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Suffering and Purification

  The speaker endures divine wrath with patience, seeing the grave as a place of waiting and purification.

• Redemption and Grace

  Hope that God will remember and call forth the speaker from the grave, reflecting a desire for restoration.

Characters to notice

• God

  Implied as the one whose wrath is endured and whose remembrance is sought.

• Death

  Personified as a gaoler who keeps the speaker in the grave.

• Unknown

  The speaker who longs for the grave and hopes for God's call.

Key passages

• “Would that thou hid me in the grave And kept me with death’s gaoler-care; Until thy wrath away should wear A sentence fixed thy prisoner gave!”

  I wish you would hide me in the grave and keep me under death's guard until your anger fades and the punishment you decreed is fulfilled.

  Expresses a desire for temporary refuge in death to escape divine wrath.

• “To see thy creature thou wouldst crave⁠— Desire thy handiwork so fair; Then wouldst thou call through death’s dank air And I would answer from the cave!”

  You would long to see your creation, your beautiful handiwork, and then you would call through the dark air of death, and I would answer from the grave.

  Highlights the hope that God will eventually seek out and restore the speaker.