A Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

791 A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance; they have defiled thy holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 2 They have given the bodies of thy servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. 4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those round about us. 5 How long, O Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever? Will thy jealous wrath burn like fire?

6 Pour out thy anger on the nations that do not know thee, and on the kingdoms that do not call on thy name! 7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation. 8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers; let thy compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. 9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake! 10 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of thy servants be known among the nations before our eyes! 11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before thee; according to thy great power preserve those doomed to die! 12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted thee, O Lord! 13 Then we thy people, the flock of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever; from generation to generation we will recount thy praise.

A Prayer for Restoration

801 To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony of Asaph. A Psalm. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou who leadest Joseph like a flock! Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 2 before E'phraim and Benjamin and Manas'seh! Stir up thy might, and come to save us! 3 Restore us, O God; let thy face shine, that we may be saved! 4 O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people's prayers? 5 Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 6 Thou dost make us the scorn of our neighbors; and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

8 Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt; thou didst drive out the nations and plant it. 9 Thou didst clear the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; 11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. 12 Why then hast thou broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it. 14 Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, 15 the stock which thy right hand planted. 16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance! 17 But let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself! 18 Then we will never turn back from thee; give us life, and we will call on thy name! 19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

The Remnant of Israel

111 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Eli'jah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." 4 But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba'al." 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day." 9 And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs for ever."

The Salvation of the Gentiles

11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 11:1-18

Commentary on Romans 11:1-10

(Read Romans 11:1-10)

There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of grace. If then this election was of grace, it could not be of works, either performed or foreseen. Every truly good disposition in a fallen creature must be the effect, therefore it cannot be the cause, of the grace of God bestowed on him. Salvation from the first to the last must be either of grace or of debt. These things are so directly contrary to each other that they cannot be blended together. God glorifies his grace by changing the hearts and tempers of the rebellious. How then should they wonder and praise him! The Jewish nation were as in a deep sleep, without knowledge of their danger, or concern about it; having no sense of their need of the Saviour, or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin. David, having by the Spirit foretold the sufferings of Christ from his own people, the Jews, foretells the dreadful judgments of God upon them for it, Psalm 69. This teaches us how to understand other prayers of David against his enemies; they are prophecies of the judgments of God, not expressions of his own anger. Divine curses will work long; and we have our eyes darkened, if we are bowed down in worldly-mindedness.

Commentary on Romans 11:11-21

(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.