A53721:955
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 5, 6 › Section
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.
11. Let us consider the infinite glorious Being of Jehovah, with his absolute incommunicable essential Excellencies; and then try whether it doth not become us in every condition to wait for him, and especially in that under consideration. This course God himself took with Job to recover him from his discontents and complaints, to reduce him to quietness and waiting, He sets before him his own Glorious Greatness, as manifested in the works of his power, that thereby being convinced of his own ignorance, weakness and infinite distance in all things from him, he might humble his soul into the most submissive dependence on him, and waiting for him. And this he doth accordingly, ⟨p. 377⟩chap. 42. 6. I abhor, saith he, my self, and repent in dust and ashes. His soul now comes to be willing to be at Gods disposal, and therein he found present rest, and a speedy healing of his condition. It is the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is holy, Isa. 57. 15. with whom we have now to do: He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants of it are as Grasshoppers before him; yea, the Nations are as the drop of the bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; he takes up the Isles as a very little thing; all Nations before him are as nothing, they are counted unto him less than nothing and vanity, Isa. 40. 15, 17, 22. To what end doth the Lord set forth and declare his glorious Greatness and Power? It is that all might be brought to trust in him, and to wait for him, as at large is declared in the close of the chapter. For shall Grasshoppers, a drop of the bucket, dust of the balance, things less than nothing, repine against, or wax weary of the Will of the immense, glorious and lofty One? He that taketh up all Isles as a very little thing, may surely, if he please, destroy, cast and forsake one Isle, one City in an Isle, one Person in a City; and we are before him but single persons. Serious thoughts of this Infinite All-Glorious Being, will either quiet our souls, or overwhelm them. All our weariness of his dispensations towards us, arises from secret imaginations, that he is such a one as our selves; one that is to do nothing but what seems good in our eyes. But if we cannot comprehend his Being, we cannot make Rules to judge of his ways and proceedings. And how small a portion is it that we know of God?