The God of Sinai and of the Sanctuary

681 Let God arise!
Let his enemies be scattered!
Let them who hate him also flee before him. 2 As smoke is driven away,
so drive them away.
As wax melts before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 3 But let the righteous be glad.
Let them rejoice before God.
Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. 4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name!
Extol him who rides on the clouds:
to Yah, his name!
Rejoice before him! 5 A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows,
is God in his holy habitation. 6 God sets the lonely in families.
He brings out the prisoners with singing,
but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.

7 God, when you went forth before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness... Selah. 8 The earth trembled.
The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai—
at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9 You, God, sent a plentiful rain.
You confirmed your inheritance, when it was weary. 10 Your congregation lived therein.
You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor. 11 The Lord announced the word.
The ones who proclaim it are a great company. 12 “Kings of armies flee! They flee!”
She who waits at home divides the spoil, 13 while you sleep among the campfires,
the wings of a dove sheathed with silver,
her feathers with shining gold. 14 When the Almighty scattered kings in her,
it snowed on Zalmon.

15 The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains.
The mountains of Bashan are rugged. 16 Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains,
at the mountain where God chooses to reign?
Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever. 17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands.
The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary. 18 You have ascended on high.
You have led away captives.
You have received gifts among men,
yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there. 19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens,
even the God who is our salvation. Selah. 20 God is to us a God of deliverance.
To Yahweh, the Lord, belongs escape from death. 21 But God will strike through the head of his enemies,
the hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness.

22 The Lord said, “I will bring you again from Bashan,
I will bring you again from the depths of the sea; 23 That you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood,
that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.” 24 They have seen your processions, God,
even the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. 25 The singers went before, the minstrels followed after,
in the midst of the ladies playing with tambourines, 26 “Bless God in the congregations,
even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!” 27 There is little Benjamin, their ruler,
the princes of Judah, their council,
the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. 28 Your God has commanded your strength.
Strengthen, God, that which you have done for us. 29 Because of your temple at Jerusalem,
kings shall bring presents to you. 30 Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds,
the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples.
Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver.
Scatter the nations that delight in war. 31 Princes shall come out of Egypt.
Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.

32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth!
Sing praises to the Lord! Selah. 33 To him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old;
behold, he utters his voice, a mighty voice. 34 Ascribe strength to God!
His excellency is over Israel,
his strength is in the skies. 35 You are awesome, God, in your sanctuaries.
The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people.
Praise be to God!

A Cry of Distress

691 Save me, God,
for the waters have come up to my neck! 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary with my crying.
My throat is dry.
My eyes fail, looking for my God. 4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty.
I have to restore what I didn’t take away. 5 God, you know my foolishness.
My sins aren’t hidden from you. 6 Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies.
Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel. 7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s children. 9 For the zeal of your house consumes me.
The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. 10 When I wept and I fasted,
that was to my reproach. 11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them. 12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me.
I am the song of the drunkards.

13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time.
God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. 14 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me,
neither let the deep swallow me up.
Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. 16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. 17 Don’t hide your face from your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me speedily! 18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it.
Ransom me because of my enemies. 19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My adversaries are all before you. 20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none. 21 They also gave me gall for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

22 Let their table before them become a snare.
May it become a retribution and a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see.
Let their backs be continually bent. 24 Pour out your indignation on them.
Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. 25 Let their habitation be desolate.
Let no one dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime.
Don’t let them come into your righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
and not be written with the righteous. 29 But I am in pain and distress.
Let your salvation, God, protect me.

30 I will praise the name of God with a song,
and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 It will please Yahweh better than an ox,
or a bull that has horns and hoofs. 32 The humble have seen it, and are glad.
You who seek after God, let your heart live. 33 For Yahweh hears the needy,
and doesn’t despise his captive people. 34 Let heaven and earth praise him;
the seas, and everything that moves therein! 35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah.
They shall settle there, and own it. 36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those who love his name shall dwell therein.

Life in the Spirit

81 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. [1] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; 4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, 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 hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. 8 Those who are in the flesh can’t please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. 15 For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba [2]! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. 19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 8:1-21

Commentary on Romans 8:1-9

(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.

Commentary on Romans 8:10-17

(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.

Commentary on Romans 8:18-25

(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.