811 To the chief Musician. Upon the Gittith. [A Psalm] of Asaph. Sing ye joyously unto God our strength, shout aloud unto the God of Jacob; 2 Raise a song, and sound the tambour, the pleasant harp with the lute. 3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the set time, on our feast day: 4 For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob; 5 He ordained it in Joseph [for] a testimony, when he went forth over the land of Egypt, [where] I heard a language that I knew not. 6 I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the basket. 7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
8 Hear, my people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wouldest hearken unto me! 9 There shall no strange ·god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any foreign ·god. 10 I am Jehovah thy God, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people hearkened not to my voice, and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' stubbornness: they walked after their own counsels. 13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, that Israel had walked in my ways! 14 I would soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of Jehovah would have come cringing unto him; but their time would have been for ever. 16 And he would have fed them with the finest of wheat; yea, with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied thee.
821 God standeth in the assembly of God, he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the person of the wicked? Selah. 3 Judge the poor and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and the destitute; 4 Rescue the poor and needy, deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are moved.
6 I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High; 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for thou shalt inherit all the nations.
831 A Song; a Psalm of Asaph. O God, keep not silence; hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God: 2 For behold, thine enemies make a tumult; and they that hate thee lift up the head. 3 They take crafty counsel against thy people, and consult against thy hidden ones: 4 They say, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be mentioned no more. 5 For they have consulted together with one heart: they have made an alliance together against thee. 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites; 7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Asshur also is joined with them: they are an arm to the sons of Lot. Selah.
9 Do unto them as to Midian; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the torrent of Kishon: 10 Who were destroyed at Endor; they became as dung for the ground. 11 Make their nobles as Oreb and as Zeeb; and all their chiefs as Zebah and as Zalmunna. 12 For they have said, Let us take to ourselves God's dwelling-places in possession. 13 O my God, make them like a whirling thing, like stubble before the wind. 14 As fire burneth a forest, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire, 15 So pursue them with thy tempest, and terrify them with thy whirlwind. 16 Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah. 17 Let them be put to shame and be dismayed for ever, and let them be confounded and perish: 18 That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches have been broken out in order that I might be grafted in. 20 Right: they have been broken out through unbelief, and thou standest through faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: 21 if God indeed has not spared the natural branches; lest it might be he spare not thee either. 22 Behold then [the] goodness and severity of God: upon them who have fallen, severity; upon thee goodness of God, if thou shalt abide in goodness, since [otherwise] thou also wilt be cut away. 23 And they too, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able again to graft them in. 24 For if thou hast been cut out of the olive tree wild by nature, and, contrary to nature, hast been grafted into the good olive tree, how much rather shall they, who are according to nature be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that ye may not be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the nations be come in; 26 and so all Israel shall be saved. According as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Zion; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 27 And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins. 28 As regards the glad tidings, [they are] enemies on your account; but as regards election, beloved on account of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God [are] not subject to repentance. 30 For as indeed ye [also] once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy through the unbelief of these; 31 so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that they also may be objects of mercy. 32 For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that he might shew mercy to all.
33 O depth of riches both of [the] wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways! 34 For who has known [the] mind of [the] Lord, or who has been his counsellor? 35 or who has first given to him, and it shall be rendered to him? 36 For of him, and through him, and for him [are] all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.
(Read Romans 11:11-21)
The gospel is the greatest riches of every place where it is. As therefore the righteous rejection of the unbelieving Jews, was the occasion of so large a multitude of the Gentiles being reconciled to God, and at peace with him; the future receiving of the Jews into the church would be such a change, as would resemble a general resurrection of the dead in sin to a life of righteousness. Abraham was as the root of the church. The Jews continued branches of this tree till, as a nation, they rejected the Messiah; after that, their relation to Abraham and to God was, as it were, cut off. The Gentiles were grafted into this tree in their room; being admitted into the church of God. Multitudes were made heirs of Abraham's faith, holiness and blessedness. It is the natural state of every one of us, to be wild by nature. Conversion is as the grafting in of wild branches into the good olive. The wild olive was often ingrafted into the fruitful one when it began to decay, and this not only brought forth fruit, but caused the decaying olive to revive and flourish. The Gentiles, of free grace, had been grafted in to share advantages. They ought therefore to beware of self-confidence, and every kind of pride or ambition; lest, having only a dead faith, and an empty profession, they should turn from God, and forfeit their privileges. If we stand at all, it is by faith; we are guilty and helpless in ourselves, and are to be humble, watchful, afraid of self-deception, or of being overcome by temptation. Not only are we at first justified by faith, but kept to the end in that justified state by faith only; yet, by a faith which is not alone, but which worketh by love to God and man.
(Read Romans 11:22-32)
Of all judgments, spiritual judgments are the sorest; of these the apostle is here speaking. The restoration of the Jews is, in the course of things, far less improbable than the call of the Gentiles to be the children of Abraham; and though others now possess these privileges, it will not hinder their being admitted again. By rejecting the gospel, and by their indignation at its being preached to the Gentiles, the Jews were become enemies to God; yet they are still to be favoured for the sake of their pious fathers. Though at present they are enemies to the gospel, for their hatred to the Gentiles; yet, when God's time is come, that will no longer exist, and God's love to their fathers will be remembered. True grace seeks not to confine God's favour. Those who find mercy themselves, should endeavour that through their mercy others also may obtain mercy. Not that the Jews will be restored to have their priesthood, and temple, and ceremonies again; an end is put to all these; but they are to be brought to believe in Christ, the true become one sheep-fold with the Gentiles, under Christ the Great Shepherd. The captivities of Israel, their dispersion, and their being shut out from the church, are emblems of the believer's corrections for doing wrong; and the continued care of the Lord towards that people, and the final mercy and blessed restoration intended for them, show the patience and love of God.
(Read Romans 11:33-36)
The apostle Paul knew the mysteries of the kingdom of God as well as ever any man; yet he confesses himself at a loss; and despairing to find the bottom, he humbly sits down at the brink, and adores the depth. Those who know most in this imperfect state, feel their own weakness most. There is not only depth in the Divine counsels, but riches; abundance of that which is precious and valuable. The Divine counsels are complete; they have not only depth and height, but breadth and length, Ephesians 3:18, and that passing knowledge. There is that vast distance and disproportion between God and man, between the Creator and the creature, which for ever shuts us from knowledge of his ways. What man shall teach God how to govern the world? The apostle adores the sovereignty of the Divine counsels. All things in heaven and earth, especially those which relate to our salvation, that belong to our peace, are all of him by way of creation, through him by way of providence, that they may be to him in their end. Of God, as the Spring and Fountain of all; through Christ, to God, as the end. These include all God's relations to his creatures; if all are of Him, and through Him, all should be to Him, and for Him. Whatever begins, let God's glory be the end: especially let us adore him when we talk of the Divine counsels and actings. The saints in heaven never dispute, but always praise.
