Psalms 81

(Proverbs 1:24). I have called, and you refused. (Psalm 81:11). Israel would none of me. God is not bound to force his mercies upon men: if they willfully oppose the offer of grace, their sin is to be taxed as the cause of their perishing, and not God's justice.

He counterworks his enemies, he pulls down their flags and banners of pride, infatuates their counsels, breaks their forces; and he does it with ease: with the turning of his hand (Psalm 81:14). with his breath (Isaiah 40:24).

5. God shows mercy in restraining us from sin: lusts within are worse than lions without. The greatest sign of God's anger is to give men up to their sins (Psalm 81:12): So I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts; let them sin themselves to hell. But God has laid the bridle of…

Spiritual judgments are sorest. (Psalm 81:12) So I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts. A sear in the conscience is a brand-mark of reprobation.

The will is not only full of impotency, but obstinacy. Psalms 81:11: Israel would none of me. The will hangs forth a flag of defiance against God.

Q. What else may be said for the clearing of God's justice herein? A. God being the Judge of the world may punish sin with what punishment he sees meet, and so by giving sinners up to further sin (Psalm 81:11, 12; Romans 1:24, 25, 26, &c.; 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12). Q. What may…

The Scriptures give us a contrary assertion to this of our brethren here; for they tell us, that to deny the children of the church, to have any part in the Lord, has a strong tendency in it, to make them cease from fearing the Lord, or to harden their hearts from his fear (Josh…

He does never force nor incline the will to sin, but leaves it to the corrupt habits it has settled in itself. (Psalm 81:12) So I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels — counsels of their own framing, not of God's. He moves the will which…

And the more men are set upon their own Counsels the more it is like to bring shame in the conclusion. And besides, There's a judgment of God upon mens spirits, that if they will set upon their own Counsels, I say, there's ordinarily a judgment of God upon men to leave them to f…

I answer, he is undervalued: 1. When he is not matched with or married, when you match with himself, of which he makes offer, is not closed with upon his own terms; for what I pray can hinder the ending of a bargain, or finishing a marriage contract, especially when it's so full…

The force of the argument is this, if you will make this gospel welcome, you may get a hearing, for now is the day of salvation, therefore do not neglect it. So (Psalm 81:10-11), (where God makes the offer of Himself, and that very largely,) Open your mouth wide and I will fill…

This turning to our own way, holds out two things. 1. It is called our own way, to distinguish it from God's way, as it is, Psalm 81:11. He gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels, That is, in their own inventions, or according to their own…

To make out, and prove this a little further, we would consider this complaint, with these aggravations of it, which will make it the more clear, and so the more to be wondered at. As, 1. Those of whom the complaint is made, it is not heathens, but God's own people, as the Lord…

That unbelief though there were no other sin, is exceeding sinful, and is first. The great ground that makes God expostulate with the hearers of the Gospel, and that makes them come under the complaint, (John 5:40) "You will not come to me that you may have life," and (Matthew 2…

And if it be so to others, ought it not to be a sufficient warrant and encouragement to you? When He says (Psalm 81:10), "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it," what excuse can you have to shift or refuse the offer? If you think Christ real in His commands, is He not as real…

But observe here more particularly, 1. That all the elect people of God are lying under iniquity even as others; this we spoke to the last day, and shall not repeat what was then said; it's with respect to iniquity in the elect that all the business of redemption is transacted,…

"His citizens hated him" (Luke 19:14; John 15:24). And especially these speeches carry allusion to (Psalm 81:11): "Israel would have none of me" [illegible]. Israel had no liking of me, no will of me.

But then the question is, whether these means be the preaching of the Gospel, or of the same God revealed as Creator, by the Sun, Moon, and Stars, who is revealed in the Gospel, and salvation by him. Now the Sun, and Stars, and heaven declare the glory of God, and sound forth hi…

They say to the Almighty depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of your law (Job 21:14). Of such God says, They would have none of me (Psalm 81:11), not only have him, but none of him; that is, nothing that was his, not any saving benefit of his; the world we would have…

Oh Christian, the time may come, or is already, when men may stop your mouth, and will not suffer you to witness a good confession, withdraw yourself from men, and retire to your God, who will make you freely welcome, to pour out your soul to him in secret. He'll neither stop yo…

Thus the Prophet further aggravates the woeful estate of this people, that by contraries he might let them perceive, how exceeding bountiful God was towards them, when he delivered them out of so great a fear. As in another place the Holy Ghost magnifies the grace of God, in tha…

For so he said to Moses (Exodus 4): I will be in your mouth. And in (Psalm 81): Open your mouth wide: that is, show forth boldly, speak out, be hungry and I will fill it, I myself being present with you, will speak enough. So also Christ in (John 14) says: I am the way, the trut…

There is a truth in it, take it in the easiest sense that can be, if God does but lightly touch the estate of a man, it will soon fall in pieces. God is not put to any stress to afflict and punish, as Psalm 81:14: I should soon have subdued their enemies and have turned my hand…

His great end for which he knocks, is in that word open; which, as it implies her case, that her heart was in a great measure shut upon him, and that by some carnal indisposition he was kept out of it, and was not made welcome; So it requires the removing of all that stopped his…

Though I will not say with the Arminians, upon our endeavor God is bound to give grace; yet he is not wanting to them that seek his grace. In fact, he denies his grace to none but them that willfully refuse it (Psalm 81:11), Israel would none of me. 2. But this offering violence…

Be convinced of the amazing danger which you have exposed your self to, by your fearful hardness of heart; and tremble to think, that this hardness that you are under the power of, may be judicial. I am sure it is so sometimes, in God's righteous judgment, with such as God has s…

There is a deep of sovereignty between the Lord's withdrawing from Hezekiah, and Hezekiah's pride. God hardens Pharaoh's heart, and Pharaoh hardens his own heart (Joshua 11:19, 20; Isaiah 57:17; Psalm 81:11, 12). Qu. But what shall be done under deadness?

Influences in perseverance in the way of God, by God's counselling and leading, are here insinuated; and beside that a spiritual desire (v. 25): "Whom have I in Heaven but you? and in the Earth (there is) none I desire beside you." 15. Self-love is a note of apostates in the las…

8. The spirit is contrary to the flesh (Galatians 5:17), and when fire and water yoke in the cloud there is thunder, and nature suffers pain; and there are actions and passions, and reactions on both sides, and finally the habit of grace so far never rests, as the flesh cannot g…

2. There should be an eike made to the working of the spirit; there is needful a sort of helping of the spirit by widening, opening and enlarging the heart; the extending of love, desires, faith, fear to their outmost borders. There is an opening of the mouth wide commanded (Psa…

How little a portion of him do we see? We are not straitened in the Lord's heart, but in ourselves: He calls for wider hearts, Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it (Psalm 81:10), not the mouth, but the heart. Our narrow heart, and narrow faith, is like the little hand of the…

Again, look upon the spirits of other men, they are fashioned a contrary way, to deny themselves, to seek grace, and avoid sin; to be content to have God alone, to do his work, and to leave their wages to God, to live a painful life, serving God, and men with their sweetness: th…

What Creature then is able to stand before them! Even God's own dear Children have felt such Terrours, as have distracted them, Psalm 81:15. Conscience is the seat of Guilt. It is like a Burning-glass, so it contracts the Beams of the Threatnings, twists them together, and refle…

It was but to leave them inexcusable, that his power, and wrath against sin, might be manifested in their destruction. And therefore he calls it, a suffering of them to walk in their own ways (Acts 14:16), which elsewhere he holds out as a most dreadful judgment, to wit, in resp…

Use 1. For information, in two branches. First; That God will give his people temporal things: Not only pardon, and grace, and glory; but no good thing will he withhold (Psalm 81:11). Many say, they can trust God for eternal life, but cannot trust him for daily bread.

You will be at the beck of every lust and carnal motion, and the Devil will be your master to purpose; for upon the refusal of Christ's government, there is a judicial tradition, you are given up to your own hearts' lusts. (Psalm 81:12) Israel would none of me; so I gave them up…

3. To be given up to our own will, is a great judgment. When the Lord has a mind to destroy a people, he gives them up to their own will (Psalm 81:12): Israel would none of me; so I gave them up to their own heart's lust: and they walked in their own counsels. It is the greatest…

God offers Christ to a sinner, and promiseth to entail all the riches of Heaven upon him, but wanting the Fear of God he refuseth this Great offer. Psalm 81:11. Israel would none of me: Is not this a Prodigy of madness? may not the Devil beg every sinner for a Fool at the last d…

This is so great an evil, that God punishes it with itself. When men will not take God's counsel, then it is the most dreadful judgment he can lay upon us, to give us up to our own counsel (Psalm 81:11). O what a heavy judgment was it, to be given up to the counsels of their own…

So (Psalm 18:44): Strangers shall submit themselves to me. (Psalm 66:3; Psalm 81:15) and many other places. The word implies feigned submission.

Look as the influences of heaven pass through the air, but they produce their effects in the earth; they do not make the air fruitful, but the earth; so do the influences of grace pass through the understanding, but they produce their fruit in the will, and show forth their stre…

For as nature grows into a custom; so by our sinful customs God is provoked, and does withdraw those common influences of grace, by which our condition might be bettered, and in justice he gives up our hearts to their own sway (Hosea 4:17). Ephraim is joined to idols, let him al…

Those that are hungry, and have a strong desire upon them he will fill (Luke 1:51). And open your mouth wide and I will fill it (Psalm 81:10). They that open to him as the thirsty land for the rain.

Indeed if we had a perfect holy understanding to guide us, the danger would not be so great; but now it is the greatest misery that can befall a man to be at his own dispose, to do lawlessly what he will. Therefore God's fearful and dreadful judgment, after all other courses tri…

He does invite you to come and choose him. He complains and takes it grievously when he offers himself in the gospel (Psalm 81:11), Israel would none of me. O shall the God that made us thus passionately offer himself to us, and shall he be refused?

He keeps a constant eye of providence, and if the desire be great, he does not frustrate the natural expectation of hungry creatures, but gives them that sort of food which is fit for them. Now God expects the same from new creatures, if necessity and vehement desire meet; he pr…

It is a great curse for a man to be left to his own ways (Hosea 4:17): Let him alone. So (Psalm 81:12): I gave them up to their own hearts' lust: men must needs perish when left to their selves, without this wholesome, profitable discipline of the cross. 2. It is good, because t…

After deep and sore troubles you shall increase my greatness and comfort me on every side (Psalm 71:21). So, show me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me (Psalm 81:17). So, in that day you shall s…

2. It smites at the Essence of the Almighty and the desire of the sinner is not only that God should not be supreme but that indeed he should not be at all, and therefore it would destroy the being of Jehovah. (Psalm 81:15) Sinners are called the haters of the Lord. (John 15:24)…

To be severed from God, and never to be severed from his sins, is the greatest plague in the world: But [reconstructed: a] man naturally will never be severed from his sins, this is the desire of his heart: therefore to have this, is the heaviest plague that can befall a man in…