"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

" And he said unto them, Say now unto her, Behold; thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people." -II Kings 4:13 [KJV] What an interesting account, though short, is here given of the Shunamite. The sacred historian calls her "a great woman,"  and certainly, she here manifests that she had a great mind. What she had done for the prophet, she sought no recompence for. Neither the favours of the king, nor the captain of his host, were of any value to her and her husband. Dwelling with content in what she had, and "among her own people,"  was in her view enough of earthly enjoyment.   But is there not a spiritual improvement to be made of the passage? Do not the people of our God "dwell alone?"  And have they not been from everlasting so appointed, in the purposes of God their Father...

"I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him." -Micah 7:9 [KJV]  It is a view of our sins against God that enables us to bear the indignation of the Lord against us and them. As long as we are left to a spirit of pride and self-righteousness, we murmur at the Lord's dealings when His hand lies heavy upon us. But let us only truly feel what we rightly deserve: that will silence at once all murmuring. You may murmur and rebel sometimes at your hard lot in providence; but if you feel what you deserve, it will make you water with tears of repentance the hardest cross. So in grace, if you feel the weight of your sins, and mourn and sigh because you have sinned against God, you can lift up your hands sometimes with holy wonder at God's long suffering mercy that He has borne with you so long; that He has not smitten you to the earth, or sent your guilty soul to hell. You will see, too, that the heaviest strokes were but fatherly c...

"O LORD, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, and every one mocketh me." - Jeremiah 20:7 [KJV]   A poor deluded perfectionist lately made a great noise in London: he blasphemously pretended to be as holy as God Himself, to have revelations from Him, and peremptorily fixed upon a day when the world was to be destroyed. He deceived many, and alarmed more. But time proved how artfully he had been deceived himself; and now, what is most awful, he has cast off all sense of religion, ridicules it, charges all his delusion upon God, and quotes these very words of Jeremiah, to prove that God had deceived him. One would not mention this by way of reflection, or triumph over this unhappy man; but, as a caution against this mad, wildfire notion of sinless perfection, which so spreads itself among a certain description of professors. But did God really deceive Jeremiah?    Can we suppose that ...

"Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ."   -I Corinthians 9:21 [KJV]   Sit down my soul, this evening, and ponder over this blessed distinction which the apostle makes between the lawless conduct of those, who, from a mere conviction of the truth in the head, but who never felt the influences of it in their heart, hold the truth in unrighteousness; and those who, while conscious of being under the law to Christ, are not without law to God.   To thee, my soul, who hast been brought under the condemnation of God's holy law, and hast been enabled, through sovereign grace, to take refuge in the person, blood, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; to thee, justification by faith, so far from relaxing thine obedience to the law of God, has proved the best of all motives to the practice of it. Thou knowest thyself to be bought with a price; and therefore, as the Lord's property, both by His purchase, and thy voluntary surrender, it is ...

"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." -Galatians 2:20 [KJV] Many of the saints of God may not be so highly favoured as to take up into their lips Paul's language of strong, personal assurance. They may hope, and at times may rise beyond a hope, into a sweet confidence, by the shining in of the Sun of righteousness, that the Son of God has loved them, and given Himself for them. But the strength of Paul's persuasion and the full expression of his confidence so far outstrip both their assurance and their language, that many real saints of God confess they come short both in heart and tongue. Yet their coming short of this blessed certainty as an enjoyed reality in the heart, and as a declared confidence by the mouth—for conscience and tongue must move together where God works—does not affect the fact.  Clouds and mists sometimes obscure the sun, but they do not blot Him out of the sky. So the mists and fogs of unbelief may obscure the Sun of righteousne...

"He hath put a new song in my mouth."   - Psalm 40:3 [KJV] Some sing, when they have cause to be sad: others are sad, when they have reason to sing and rejoice. Some go on merrily to hell; others go on sorrowing to heaven. When the grace of Jesus is in the heart, a new song is put into the mouth. This is a song of new covenant love. This we are to sing all our days on earth, and for ever and ever in glory. In passing the streets, we meet with many occurrences, which remind us of our Beloved. It is sweet to spiritualize carnal things. I was much delighted with a carnal song, which concludes thus:  "All the time is thrown away, But what is spent in love."   I thought this was very true of the love of our Saviour. This Psalm is applied to Christ in His manhood state (see Hebrews ch. 10.) A new song was put in His mouth on our accounts. He says, “Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the LORD.” See hence, our spiritual joy springs from seeing Christ’s ...