Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 63:18-19

"Thy holy people possessed [it] but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule, as they that were not called by thy name." — Isaiah 63:18-19 (ASV)

"You gave us the land by an everlasting covenant; but we have had it only a little while. Look, the enemy has come in, and driven your Israel away from her heritage! Can it always be so, O Lord?" Happy times seem very short when they are over; and when they are succeeded by dark trials, we say, "The people of thy holiness, thy holy people have possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary."

"We are now become (for this is the true rendering of the passage) like those over whom thou hast never borne rule, those who were never called by thy name." That is a sad condition for the church of God to be in; and I am afraid that it is getting into that condition now, sinking to a level with the world, leaving its high calling, quitting the path of the separated people, and becoming just like those whom God never knew, and who were never called by his name. It is a pitiful case; and here comes a prayer like the bursting out of a volcano, as though the hearts of gracious men could hold in the agonizing cry no longer—