Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 14:7

"When the Lord turneth the captivity of his people: then shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." Notice that by Israel we are to understand those other sheep which the Lord has that are not of this fold, but which he must also bring, that they may hear his voice. For it is Israel, not Judah; Sion, not Jerusalem. "When the Lord turneth the captivity of his people." "Then," as it is in the parallel passage, "were we like unto them that dream." A glorious dream indeed, in which, fancy what we may, the half of the beauty, the half of the splendour, will not be reached by our imagination. "The captivity" of our souls to the law of concupiscence, of our bodies to the law of death; the captivity of our senses to fear; the captivity, the conclusion of which is so beautifully expressed by one of our greatest poets: namely, Giles Fletcher (1588-1623), in his "Christ's Triumph over Death."

"No sorrow now hangs clouding on their brow;

No bloodless malady impales their face;

No age drops on their hairs his silver snow;

No nakedness their bodies doth embase;

No poverty themselves and theirs disgrace;

No fear of death the joy of life devours;

No unchaste sleep their precious time deflower;

No loss, no grief, no change, wait on their winged hours." John Mason Neale, in loc.