A53721:1022
A practical exposition on the 130th Psalm
A practical exposition on the 130th Psalm wherein the nature of the forgiveness of sin is declared, the truth and reality of it asserted, and the case of a soul distressed with the guilt of sin and relieved by a discovery of forgiveness with God is at large discoursed / by John Owen.
London: printed by Robert White for Nathaniel Ponder, 1669
AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. › General Scope of the whole Psalm. › Verses 7, 8
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. What it is that he professeth as the great encouragement unto the duty mentioned, and that is Redemption; the Redemption that is with God; upon the matter the same with the forgiveness before mentioned; Mercy, Pardon, Benignity, Bounty. He doth not bid them hope in the Lord, because they were the seed of Abraham, the peculiar people of God made partakers of privileges above all the people in the world; much less because of their worthiness, or that good that was in themselves, but merely upon the account of mercy in God; of his Grace, Goodness and Bounty. The Mercy of God, and the Redemption that is with him, is the only ground unto sinners for hope and confidence in him.
1. What it is that he professeth as the great incouragement unto the duty mentioned, and that is Redemption; the Redemption that is with God; upon the matter the same with the forgiveness before mentioned; Mercy, Pardon, Benignity, Bounty. He doth not bid them hope in the Lord, because they were the seed of Abraham, the peculiar people of God made partakers of priviledges above all the people in the world; much less because of their worthiness, or that good that was in themselves, but meerly upon the account of mercy in God; of his Grace, Goodness and Bounty. The Mercy of God, and the Redemption that is with him, is the only ground unto sinners for hope and confidence in him.
2. There are two great Concernments of this Grace, the one expressed, the other implied in the words. The first is, that it is much, plenteous, abundant. That which principally discourageth distressed souls from a comfortable waiting on God, is, their fears lest they should not obtain mercy from him, and that because their sins are so great, and so many; or attended with such circumstances and aggravations, as that it is impossible they should find acceptance with God. This ground of despondency and unbelief, the Psalmist obviates, by representing the fullness, the plenty, the boundless plenty of the mercy that is with God. It is such as will suit the condition of the greatest sinners in their greatest depths; the stores of its treasures are inexhaustible. And the force of the exhortation doth not lie so much in this, that there is Redemption with God, as that this Redemption is plenteous or abundant.