811 Sing aloud to God, our strength!
Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob! 2 Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine,
the pleasant lyre with the harp. 3 Blow the trumpet at the New Moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day. 4 For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5 He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony,
when he went out over the land of Egypt,
I heard a language that I didn’t know. 6 “I removed his shoulder from the burden.
His hands were freed from the basket. 7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you.
I answered you in the secret place of thunder.
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah.
8 “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you,
Israel, if you would listen to me! 9 There shall be no strange god in you,
neither shall you worship any foreign god. 10 I am Yahweh, your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people didn’t listen to my voice.
Israel desired none of me. 12 So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts,
that they might walk in their own counsels. 13 Oh that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever. 16 But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat.
I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”
821 God presides in the great assembly.
He judges among the gods. 2 “How long will you judge unjustly,
and show partiality to the wicked?” Selah. 3 “Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless.
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. 4 Rescue the weak and needy.
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” 5 They don’t know, neither do they understand.
They walk back and forth in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods,
all of you are sons of the Most High. 7 Nevertheless you shall die like men,
and fall like one of the rulers.” 8 Arise, God, judge the earth,
for you inherit all of the nations.
831 God, don’t keep silent.
Don’t keep silent,
and don’t be still, God. 2 For, behold, your enemies are stirred up.
Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. 3 They conspire with cunning against your people.
They plot against your cherished ones. 4 “Come,” they say, “and let’s destroy them as a nation,
that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 5 For they have conspired together with one mind.
They form an alliance against you. 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites;
Moab, and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek;
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also is joined with them.
They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.
9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon; 10 who perished at Endor,
who became as dung for the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb;
yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna; 12 who said, “Let us take possession of God’s pasturelands.” 13 My God, make them like tumbleweed;
like chaff before the wind. 14 As the fire that burns the forest,
as the flame that sets the mountains on fire, 15 so pursue them with your tempest,
and terrify them with your storm. 16 Fill their faces with confusion,
that they may seek your name, Yahweh. 17 Let them be disappointed and dismayed forever.
Yes, let them be confounded and perish; 18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh,
are the Most High over all the earth.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.” 20 True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, [1] of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written,
“There will come out of Zion the Deliverer,
and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 27 This is my covenant to them,
when I will take away their sins.” [2] 28 Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy. 32 For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?” [3] 35 “Or who has first given to him,
and it will be repaid to him again?” [4] 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the 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.
