741 Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 3 Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed. 4 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs. 5 [A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees; 6 And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers. 7 They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground. 8 They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all God's places of assembly in the land. 9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever? 11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
12 But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth. 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters: 14 Thou didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert. 15 Thou didst cleave fountain and torrent, thou driedst up ever-flowing rivers. 16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the moon and the sun: 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter—thou didst form them.
18 Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name. 19 Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever. 20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence. 21 Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name. 22 Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day; 23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.
751 To the chief Musician. 'Destroy not.' A Psalm of Asaph: a Song. Unto thee we give thanks, O God, we give thanks; and thy name is near: thy marvellous works declare it. 2 When I shall receive the assembly, I will judge with equity. 3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I have established its pillars. Selah. 4 I said unto the boastful, Boast not; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 5 Lift not up your horn on high; speak not arrogantly with a [stiff] neck.
6 For not from the east nor from the west, nor yet from the south doth exaltation [come]: 7 For God is the judge; he putteth down one and exalteth another. 8 For in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and it foameth with wine, it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same; yea, the dregs thereof shall all the wicked of the earth drain off, [and] drink. 9 But as for me, I will declare for ever; I will sing psalms to the God of Jacob. 10 And all the horns of the wicked will I cut off; [but] the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
761 To the chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph: a Song. In Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel; 2 And in Salem is his tent, and his dwelling-place in Zion. 3 There broke he the flashings of the bow, shield and sword and battle. Selah. 4 More glorious art thou, more excellent, than the mountains of prey. 5 The stout-hearted are made a spoil, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. 6 At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7 Thou, thou art to be feared, and who can stand before thee when once thou art angry? 8 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from the heavens; the earth feared, and was still, 9 When God rose up to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah. 10 For the fury of man shall praise thee; the remainder of fury wilt thou gird on thyself. 11 Vow and pay unto Jehovah your God: let all that are round about him bring presents unto him that is to be feared. 12 He cutteth off the spirit of princes; [he] is terrible to the kings of the earth.
16 So then [it is] not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shews mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very thing I have raised thee up from amongst [men], that I might thus shew in thee my power, and so that my name should be declared in all the earth. 18 So then, to whom he will he shews mercy, and whom he will he hardens. 19 Thou wilt say to me then, Why does he yet find fault? for who resists his purpose? 20 Aye, but thou, O man, who art thou that answerest again to God? Shall the thing formed say to him that has formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? 22 And if God, minded to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; 23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, 24 us, whom he has also called, not only from amongst [the] Jews, but also from amongst [the] nations?
25 As he says also in Hosea, I will call not-my-people My people; and the-not-beloved Beloved. 26 And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, Ye [are] not my people, there shall they be called Sons of [the] living God. 27 But Esaias cries concerning Israel, Should the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved: 28 for [he] is bringing the matter to an end, and [cutting [it] short in righteousness; because] a cutting short of the matter will [the] Lord accomplish upon the earth. 29 And according as Esaias said before, Unless [the] Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and made like even as Gomorrha.
30 What then shall we say? That [they of the] nations, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, but [the] righteousness that is on the principle of faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to [that] law. 32 Wherefore? Because [it was] not on the principle of faith, but as of works. They have stumbled at the stumblingstone, 33 according as it is written, Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and rock of offence: and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.
(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.
(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.
(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.
