791 God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
They have defiled your holy temple.
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. 2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. 3 Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem.
There was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. 5 How long, Yahweh?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you;
on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name; 7 For they have devoured Jacob,
and destroyed his homeland. 8 Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
for we are in desperate need. 9 Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. 10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out. 11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death. 12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord. 13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
We will praise you forever, to all generations.
801 Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock,
you who sit above the cherubim, shine forth. 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might!
Come to save us! 3 Turn us again, God.
Cause your face to shine,
and we will be saved. 4 Yahweh God of Armies,
How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in large measure. 6 You make us a source of contention to our neighbors.
Our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Turn us again, God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine,
and we will be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations, and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground for it.
It took deep root, and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shadow.
Its boughs were like God’s cedars. 11 It sent out its branches to the sea,
Its shoots to the River. 12 Why have you broken down its walls,
so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? 13 The boar out of the wood ravages it.
The wild animals of the field feed on it. 14 Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies.
Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, 15 the stock which your right hand planted,
the branch that you made strong for yourself. 16 It’s burned with fire.
It’s cut down.
They perish at your rebuke. 17 Let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. 18 So we will not turn away from you.
Revive us, and we will call on your name. 19 Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
111 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.” [1] 4 But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” [2] 5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. 7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened. 8 According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.” [3] 9 David says,
“Let their table be made a snare, and a trap,
a stumbling block, and a retribution to them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see.
Bow down their back always.” [4]
11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. 12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? 13 For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them. 15 For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead? 16 If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree; 18 don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.
(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.
(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.
