681 Let God be seen, and let his haters be put to flight; let those who are against him be turned back before him. 2 Let them be like smoke before the driving wind; as wax turning soft before the fire, so let them come to an end before the power of God. 3 But let the upright be glad; let them have delight before God; let them be full of joy. 4 Make songs to God, make songs of praise to his name; make a way for him who comes through the waste lands; his name is Jah; be glad before him. 5 A father to those who have no father, a judge of the widows, is God in his holy place. 6 Those who are without friends, God puts in families; he makes free those who are in chains; but those who are turned away from him are given a dry land.
7 O God, when you went out before your people, wandering through the waste land; (Selah.) 8 The earth was shaking and the heavens were streaming, because God was present; even Sinai itself was moved before God, the God of Israel. 9 You, O God, did freely send the rain, giving strength to the weariness of your heritage. 10 Those whose resting-place was there, even the poor, were comforted by your good things, O God. 11 The Lord gives the word; great is the number of the women who make it public. 12 Kings of armies quickly go in flight: and the women in the houses make a division of their goods. 13 Will you take your rest among the flocks? like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and its feathers with yellow gold. 14 When the Most High put the kings to flight, it was as white as snow in Salmon.
15 A hill of God is the hill of Bashan; a hill with high tops is the hill of Bashan. 16 Why are you looking with envy, you high hills, on the hill desired by God as his resting-place? truly, God will make it his house for ever. 17 The war-carriage of God is among Israel's thousands; the Lord has come from Sinai to the holy place. 18 You have gone up on high, taking your prisoners with you; you have taken offerings from men; the Lord God has taken his place on the seat of his power. 19 Praise be to the Lord, who is our support day by day, even the God of our salvation. (Selah.) 20 Our God is for us a God of salvation; his are the ways out of death. 21 The heads of the haters of God will be crushed; even the head of him who still goes on in his evil ways.
22 The Lord said, I will make them come back from Bashan, and from the deep parts of the sea; 23 So that your foot may be red with blood, and the tongues of your dogs with the same. 24 We see your going, O God: even the going of my God, my King, into the holy place. 25 The makers of songs go before, the players of music come after, among the young girls playing on brass instruments. 26 Give praise to God in the great meeting; even the Lord, you who come from the fountain of Israel. 27 There is little Benjamin ruling them, the chiefs of Judah and their army, the rulers of Zebulun and the rulers of Naphtali. 28 O God, send out your strength; the strength, O God, with which you have done great things for us, 29 Out of your Temple in Jerusalem. 30 Say sharp words to the beast among the water-plants, the band of strong ones, with the lords of the peoples, put an end to the people whose delight is in war. 31 Kings will give you offerings, they will come out of Egypt; from Pathros will come offerings of silver; Ethiopia will be stretching out her hands to God.
32 Make songs to God, you kingdoms of the earth; O make songs of praise to the Lord; (Selah.) 33 To him who goes or the clouds of heaven, the heaven which was from earliest times; he sends out his voice of power. 34 Make clear that strength is God's: he is lifted up over Israel, and his power is in the clouds. 35 O God, you are to be feared in your holy place: the God of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to God.
691 Be my saviour, O God; because the waters have come in, even to my neck. 2 My feet are deep in the soft earth, where there is no support; I have come into deep waters, the waves are flowing over me. 3 I am tired with my crying; my throat is burning: my eyes are wasted with waiting for my God. 4 Those who have hate for me without cause are greater in number than the hairs of my head; those who are against me, falsely desiring my destruction, are very strong; I gave back what I had not taken away. 5 O God, you see how foolish I am; and my wrongdoing is clear to you. 6 Let not those who have hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord God of armies: let not those who are waiting for you be made low because of me, O God of Israel. 7 I have been wounded with sharp words because of you; my face has been covered with shame. 8 I have become strange to my brothers, and like a man from a far country to my mother's children. 9 I am on fire with passion for your house; and the hard things which are said about you have come on me. 10 My bitter weeping, and my going without food, were turned to my shame. 11 When I put on the clothing of grief, they said evil of me. 12 I am a cause of wonder to those in authority; a song to those who are given to strong drink.
13 But as for me, let my prayer be made to you, O Lord, at a time when you are pleased; O God, give me an answer in your great mercy, for your salvation is certain. 14 Take me from the grip of the sticky earth, so that I may not go down into it; let me be lifted up from the deep waters. 15 Let me not be covered by the flowing waters; let not the deep waters go over my head, and let me not be shut up in the underworld. 16 Give an answer to my words, O Lord; for your mercy is good: be turned to me, because of your great pity. 17 Let not your face be covered from your servant, for I am in trouble; quickly give me an answer. 18 Come near to my soul, for its salvation: be my saviour, because of those who are against me. 19 You have seen my shame, how I was laughed at and made low; my haters are all before you. 20 My heart is broken by bitter words, I am full of grief; I made a search for some to have pity on me, but there was no one; I had no comforter. 21 They gave me poison for my food; and bitter wine for my drink.
22 Let their table before them be for their destruction; let their feasts become a net to take them. 23 Let their eyes be blind so that they may not see; let their bodies for ever be shaking. 24 Let your curse come on them; let the heat of your wrath overtake them. 25 Give their houses to destruction, and let there be no one in their tents. 26 Because they are cruel to him against whom your hand is turned; they make bitter the grief of him who is wounded by you. 27 Let their punishment be increased; let them not come into your righteousness. 28 Let their names be taken from the book of the living, let them not be numbered with the upright. 29 But I am poor and full of sorrow; let me be lifted up by your salvation, O Lord.
30 I will give praise to the name of God with a song; I will give glory to him for what he has done. 31 This will be more pleasing to the Lord than an ox, or a young ox of full growth. 32 The poor will see it and be glad: you who are lovers of God, let your hearts have life. 33 For the ears of the Lord are open to the poor, and he takes thought for his prisoners. 34 Let the heavens and the earth give praise to him, the seas, and everything moving in them. 35 For God will be the saviour of Zion, and the builder of the towns of Judah; so that it may be their resting-place and heritage. 36 The seed of his servants will have their part in it, and there the lovers of his name will have rest.
81 For this cause those who are in Christ Jesus will not be judged as sinners. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was not able to do because it was feeble through the flesh, God, sending his Son in the image of the evil flesh, and as an offering for sin, gave his decision against sin in the flesh: 4 So that what was ordered by the law might be done in us, who are living, not in the way of the flesh, but in the way of the Spirit. 5 For those who are living in the way of the flesh give their minds to the things of the flesh, but those who go in the way of the Spirit, to the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace: 7 Because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is not under the law of God, and is not able to be: 8 So that those who are in the flesh are not able to give pleasure to God. 9 You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is not one of his.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him who made Jesus come again from the dead is in you, he who made Christ Jesus come again from the dead will in the same way, through his Spirit which is in you, give life to your bodies which now are under the power of death. 12 So then, my brothers, we are in debt, not to the flesh to be living in the way of the flesh: 13 For if you go in the way of the flesh, death will come on you; but if by the Spirit you put to death the works of the body, you will have life. 14 And all those who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not get the spirit of servants again to put you in fear, but the spirit of sons was given to you, by which we say, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit is witness with our spirit that we are children of God:
17 And if we are children, we have a right to a part in the heritage; a part in the things of God, together with Christ; so that if we have a part in his pain, we will in the same way have a part in his glory. 18 I am of the opinion that there is no comparison between the pain of this present time and the glory which we will see in the future. 19 For the strong desire of every living thing is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope 21 That all living things will be made free from the power of death and will have a part with the free children of God in glory.
(Read Romans 8:1-9)
Believers may be chastened of the Lord, but will not be condemned with the world. By their union with Christ through faith, they are thus secured. What is the principle of their walk; the flesh or the Spirit, the old or the new nature, corruption or grace? For which of these do we make provision, by which are we governed? The unrenewed will is unable to keep any commandment fully. And the law, besides outward duties, requires inward obedience. God showed abhorrence of sin by the sufferings of his Son in the flesh, that the believer's person might be pardoned and justified. Thus satisfaction was made to Divine justice, and the way of salvation opened for the sinner. By the Spirit the law of love is written upon the heart, and though the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled by us, yet, blessed be God, it is fulfilled in us; there is that in all true believers, which answers the intention of the law. The favour of God, the welfare of the soul, the concerns of eternity, are the things of the Spirit, which those that are after the Spirit do mind. Which way do our thoughts move with most pleasure? Which way go our plans and contrivances? Are we most wise for the world, or for our souls? Those that live in pleasure are dead, 1 Timothy 5:6. A sanctified soul is a living soul; and that life is peace. The carnal mind is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself. The carnal man may, by the power of Divine grace, be made subject to the law of God, but the carnal mind never can; that must be broken and driven out. We may know our real state and character by inquiring whether we have the Spirit of God and Christ, or not, ver. 9. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Having the Spirit of Christ, means having a turn of mind in some degree like the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and is to be shown by a life and conversation suitable to his precepts and example.
(Read Romans 8:10-17)
If the Spirit be in us, Christ is in us. He dwells in the heart by faith. Grace in the soul is its new nature; the soul is alive to God, and has begun its holy happiness which shall endure for ever. The righteousness of Christ imputed, secures the soul, the better part, from death. From hence we see how much it is our duty to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. If any habitually live according to corrupt lustings, they will certainly perish in their sins, whatever they profess. And what can a worldly life present, worthy for a moment to be put against this noble prize of our high calling? Let us then, by the Spirit, endeavour more and more to mortify the flesh. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit brings a new and Divine life to the soul, though in a feeble state. And the sons of God have the Spirit to work in them the disposition of children; they have not the spirit of bondage, which the Old Testament church was under, through the darkness of that dispensation. The Spirit of adoption was not then plentifully poured out. Also it refers to that spirit of bondage, under which many saints were at their conversion. Many speak peace to themselves, to whom God does not speak peace. But those who are sanctified, have God's Spirit witnessing with their spirits, in and by his speaking peace to the soul. Though we may now seem to be losers for Christ, we shall not, we cannot, be losers by him in the end.
(Read Romans 8:18-25)
The sufferings of the saints strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning the sufferings of this present time! Indeed the whole creation seems to wait with earnest expectation for the period when the children of God shall be manifested in the glory prepared for them. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has come upon the creature by the fall of man. There is an enmity of one creature to another. And they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. Yet this deplorable state of the creation is in hope. God will deliver it from thus being held in bondage to man's depravity. The miseries of the human race, through their own and each other's wickedness, declare that the world is not always to continue as it is. Our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, quickens our desires, encourages our hopes, and raises our expectations. Sin has been, and is, the guilty cause of all the suffering that exists in the creation of God. It has brought on the woes of earth; it has kindled the flames of hell. As to man, not a tear has been shed, not a groan has been uttered, not a pang has been felt, in body or mind, that has not come from sin. This is not all; sin is to be looked at as it affects the glory of God. Of this how fearfully regardless are the bulk of mankind! Believers have been brought into a state of safety; but their comfort consists rather in hope than in enjoyment. From this hope they cannot be turned by the vain expectation of finding satisfaction in the things of time and sense. We need patience, our way is rough and long; but He that shall come, will come, though he seems to tarry.
