An Appeal to God against the Enemy

741 Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care? 2 Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of Zion, which has been your resting-place. 3 Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which your haters have done in the holy place; 4 Sending out their voices like lions among your worshippers; they have put up their signs to be seen. 5 They are cutting down, like a man whose blade is lifted up against the thick trees. 6 Your doors are broken down with hammers and iron blades. 7 They have put on fire your holy place; they have made the place of your name unclean, pulling it down to the earth. 8 They have said in their hearts, Let us put an end to them all together; they have given over to the fire all God's places of worship in the land. 9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet, or anyone among us to say how long. 10 O God, how long will those who are against us say cruel things? will the hater go on looking down on your name for ever? 11 Why are you keeping back your hand, and covering your right hand in your robe?

12 For from the past God is my King, working salvation in the earth. 13 The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken. 14 The heads of the great snake were crushed by you; you gave them as food to the fishes of the sea. 15 You made valleys for fountains and springs; you made the ever-flowing rivers dry. 16 The day is yours and the night is yours: you made the light and the sun. 17 By you all the limits of the earth were fixed; you have made summer and winter.

18 Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour. 19 O give not the soul of your dove to the hawk; let not the life of the poor go out of your memory for ever. 20 Keep in mind your undertaking; for the dark places of the earth are full of pride and cruel acts. 21 O let not the crushed be turned back in shame; let the low man and the poor give praise to your name. 22 Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against you every day. 23 Keep in mind the voice of your haters; the outcry of those who come against you goes up every day.

God Abases the Wicked and Exalts the Righteous

751 To you, O God, we give praise, to you we give praise: and those who give honour to your name make clear your works of power. 2 When the right time has come, I will be the judge in righteousness. 3 When the earth and all its people become feeble, I am the support of its pillars. (Selah.) 4 I say to the men of pride, Let your pride be gone: and to the sinners, Let not your horn be lifted up. 5 Let not your horn be lifted up: let no more words of pride come from your outstretched necks.

6 For honour does not come from the east, or from the west, or uplifting from the south; 7 But God is the judge, putting down one, and lifting up another. 8 For in the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red; it is well mixed, overflowing from his hand: he will make all the sinners of the earth take of it, even to the last drop. 9 But I will ever be full of joy, making songs of praise to the God of Jacob. 10 By him will all the horns of the sinners be cut off; but the horns of the upright will be lifted up.

The God of Victory and Judgment

761 In Judah is the knowledge of God; his name is great in Israel, 2 In Salem is his tent, his resting-place in Zion. 3 There were the arrows of the bow broken, there he put an end to body-cover, sword, and fight. (Selah.) 4 You are shining and full of glory, more than the eternal mountains. 5 Gone is the wealth of the strong, their last sleep has overcome them; the men of war have become feeble. 6 At the voice of your wrath, O God of Jacob, deep sleep has overcome carriage and horse.

7 You, you are to be feared; who may keep his place before you in the time of your wrath? 8 From heaven you gave your decision; the earth, in its fear, gave no sound, 9 When God took his place as judge, for the salvation of the poor on the earth. (Selah.) 10 The ... will give you praise; the rest of ... 11 Give to the Lord your God what is his by right; let all who are round him give offerings to him who is to be feared. 12 He puts an end to the wrath of rulers; he is feared by the kings of the earth.

16 So then, it is not by the desire or by the attempt of man, but by the mercy of God. 17 For the holy Writings say to Pharaoh, For this same purpose did I put you on high, so that I might make my power seen in you, and that there might be knowledge of my name through all the earth. 18 So then, at his pleasure he has mercy on a man, and at his pleasure he makes the heart hard. 19 But you will say to me, Why does he still make us responsible? who is able to go against his purpose? 20 But, O man, who are you, to make answer against God? May the thing which is made say to him who made it, Why did you make me so? 21 Or has not the potter the right to make out of one part of his earth a vessel for honour, and out of another a vessel for shame? 22 What if God, desiring to let his wrath and his power be seen, for a long time put up with the vessels of wrath which were ready for destruction: 23 And to make clear the wealth of his glory to vessels of mercy, which he had before made ready for glory, 24 Even us, who were marked out by him, not only from the Jews, but from the Gentiles?

25 As he says in Hosea, They will be named my people who were not my people, and she will be loved who was not loved. 26 And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be named the sons of the living God. 27 And Isaiah says about Israel, Even if the number of the children of Israel is as the sand of the sea, only a small part will get salvation: 28 For the Lord will give effect to his word on the earth, putting an end to it and cutting it short. 29 And, as Isaiah had said before, If the Lord of armies had not given us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Righteousness Based on Faith

30 What then may we say? That the nations who did not go after righteousness have got righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: 31 But Israel, going after a law of righteousness, did not get it. 32 Why? Because they were not searching for it by faith, but by works. They came up against the stone which was in the way; 33 As it is said, See, I am putting in Zion a stone causing a fall, and a rock in the way: but he who has faith in him will not be put to shame.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 9:16-33

Commentary on Romans 9:14-24

(Read Romans 9:14-24)

Whatever God does, must be just. Wherein the holy, happy people of God differ from others, God's grace alone makes them differ. In this preventing, effectual, distinguishing grace, he acts as a benefactor, whose grace is his own. None have deserved it; so that those who are saved, must thank God only; and those who perish, must blame themselves only, Hosea 13:9. God is bound no further than he has been pleased to bind himself by his own covenant and promise, which is his revealed will. And this is, that he will receive, and not cast out, those that come to Christ; but the drawing of souls in order to that coming, is an anticipating, distinguishing favour to whom he will. Why does he yet find fault? This is not an objection to be made by the creature against his Creator, by man against God. The truth, as it is in Jesus, abases man as nothing, as less than nothing, and advances God as sovereign Lord of all. Who art thou that art so foolish, so feeble, so unable to judge the Divine counsels? It becomes us to submit to him, not to reply against him. Would not men allow the infinite God the same sovereign right to manage the affairs of the creation, as the potter exercises in disposing of his clay, when of the same lump he makes one vessel to a more honourable, and one to a meaner use? God could do no wrong, however it might appear to men. God will make it appear that he hates sin. Also, he formed vessels filled with mercy. Sanctification is the preparation of the soul for glory. This is God's work. Sinners fit themselves for hell, but it is God who prepares saints for heaven; and all whom God designs for heaven hereafter, he fits for heaven now. Would we know who these vessels of mercy are? Those whom God has called; and these not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles. Surely there can be no unrighteousness in any of these Divine dispensations. Nor in God's exercising long-suffering, patience, and forbearance towards sinners under increasing guilt, before he brings utter destruction upon them. The fault is in the hardened sinner himself. As to all who love and fear God, however such truths appear beyond their reason to fathom, yet they should keep silence before him. It is the Lord alone who made us to differ; we should adore his pardoning mercy and new-creating grace, and give diligence to make our calling and election sure.

Commentary on Romans 9:25-29

(Read Romans 9:25-29)

The rejecting of the Jews, and the taking in the Gentiles, were foretold in the Old Testament. It tends very much to the clearing of a truth, to observe how the Scripture is fulfilled in it. It is a wonder of Divine power and mercy that there are any saved: for even those left to be a seed, if God had dealt with them according to their sins, had perished with the rest. This great truth this Scripture teaches us. Even among the vast number of professing Christians it is to be feared that only a remnant will be saved.

Commentary on Romans 9:30-33

(Read Romans 9:30-33)

The Gentiles knew not their guilt and misery, therefore were not careful to procure a remedy. Yet they attained to righteousness by faith. Not by becoming proselytes to the Jewish religion, and submitting to the ceremonial law; but by embracing Christ, and believing in him, and submitting to the gospel. The Jews talked much of justification and holiness, and seemed very ambitious to be the favourites of God. They sought, but not in the right way, not in the humbling way, not in the appointed way. Not by faith, not by embracing Christ, depending upon Christ, and submitting to the gospel. They expected justification by observing the precepts and ceremonies of the law of Moses. The unbelieving Jews had a fair offer of righteousness, life, and salvation, made them upon gospel terms, which they did not like, and would not accept. Have we sought to know how we may be justified before God, seeking that blessing in the way here pointed out, by faith in Christ, as the Lord our Righteousness? Then we shall not be ashamed in that awful day, when all refuges of lies shall be swept away, and the Divine wrath shall overflow every hiding-place but that which God hath prepared in his own Son.