mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 95.xml

<div2 id="Ps.xcvi" n="xcvi" next="Ps.xcvii" prev="Ps.xcv" progress="54.94%" title="Chapter XCV">
<h2 id="Ps.xcvi-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.xcvi-p0.2">PSALM XCV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.xcvi-p1">For the expounding of this psalm we may borrow a
great deal of light from the apostle's discourse, <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.3.1-Heb.4.16" parsed="|Heb|3|1|4|16" passage="Heb 3:1-4:16">Heb. iii. and iv.</scripRef>, where it
appears both to have been penned by David and to have been
calculated for the days of the Messiah; for it is there said
expressly (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.4.7" parsed="|Heb|4|7|0|0" passage="Heb 4:7">Heb. iv. 7</scripRef>) that
the day here spoken of (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.7" parsed="|Ps|95|7|0|0" passage="Ps 95:7">ver.
7</scripRef>) is to be understood of the gospel day, in which God
speaks to us by his Son in a voice which we are concerned to hear,
and proposes to us a rest besides that of Canaan. In singing psalms
it is intended, I. That we should "make melody unto the Lord;" this
we are here excited to do, and assisted in doing, being called upon
to praise God (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.1-Ps.95.2" parsed="|Ps|95|1|95|2" passage="Ps 95:1,2">ver. 1, 2</scripRef>)
as a great God (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.3-Ps.95.5" parsed="|Ps|95|3|95|5" passage="Ps 95:3-5">ver. 3-5</scripRef>)
and as our gracious benefactor, <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.6-Ps.95.7" parsed="|Ps|95|6|95|7" passage="Ps 95:6,7">ver.
6, 7</scripRef>. II. That we should teach and admonish ourselves
and one another; and we are here taught and warned to hear God's
voice (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.7" parsed="|Ps|95|7|0|0" passage="Ps 95:7">ver. 7</scripRef>), and not to
harden our hearts, as the Israelites in the wilderness did
(<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.8-Ps.95.9" parsed="|Ps|95|8|95|9" passage="Ps 95:8,9">ver. 8, 9</scripRef>), lest we fall
under God's wrath and fall short of his rest, as they did,
<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.10-Ps.95.11" parsed="|Ps|95|10|95|11" passage="Ps 95:10,11">ver. 10, 11</scripRef>. This psalm
must be sung with a holy reverence of God's majesty and a dread of
his justice, with a desire to please him and a fear to offend
him.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.xcvi-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95" parsed="|Ps|95|0|0|0" passage="Ps 95" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.xcvi-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.1-Ps.95.7" parsed="|Ps|95|1|95|7" passage="Ps 95:1-7" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.95.1-Ps.95.7">
<h4 id="Ps.xcvi-p1.12">Invitation to Praise God; Motives to
Praise.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xcvi-p2">1 O come, let us sing unto the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xcvi-p2.1">Lord</span>: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of
our salvation.   2 Let us come before his presence with
thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.  
3 For the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xcvi-p2.2">Lord</span> <i>is</i> a great
God, and a great King above all gods.   4 In his hand
<i>are</i> the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills
<i>is</i> his also.   5 The sea <i>is</i> his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry <i>land.</i>   6 O come, let us
worship and bow down: let us kneel before the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xcvi-p2.3">Lord</span> our maker.   7 For he <i>is</i> our
God; and we <i>are</i> the people of his pasture, and the sheep of
his hand.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p3">The psalmist here, as often elsewhere,
stirs up himself and others to praise God; for it is a duty which
ought to be performed with the most lively affections, and which we
have great need to be excited to, being very often backward to it
and cold in it. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p4">I. How God is to be praised. 1. With holy
joy and delight in him. The praising song must be <i>a joyful
noise,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.1" parsed="|Ps|95|1|0|0" passage="Ps 95:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef> and
again <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.2" parsed="|Ps|95|2|0|0" passage="Ps 95:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. Spiritual
joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise. It is the will of God
(such is the condescension of his grace) that when we give glory to
him as a being infinitely perfect and blessed we should, at the
same time, <i>rejoice in him</i> as our Father and King, and a God
in covenant with us. 2. With humble reverence, and a holy awe of
him (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.6" parsed="|Ps|95|6|0|0" passage="Ps 95:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): "<i>Let
us worship, and bow down, and kneel before him,</i> as becomes
those who know what an infinite distance there is between us and
God, how much we are in danger of his wrath and in need of his
mercy." Though <i>bodily exercise,</i> alone, <i>profits
little,</i> yet certainly it is our duty to glorify God with our
bodies by the outward expressions of reverence, seriousness, and
humility, in the duties of religious worship. 3. We must praise God
with our voice; we must speak forth, sing forth, his praises out of
the abundance of a heart filled with love, and joy, and
thankfulness—<i>Sing to the Lord; make a noise, a joyful noise to
him, with psalms</i>—as those who are ourselves much affected with
his greatness and goodness, are forward to own ourselves so, are
desirous to be more and more affected therewith, and would
willingly be instrumental to kindle and inflame the same pious and
devout affection in others also. 4. We must praise God in concert,
in the solemn assemblies: "<i>Come, let us sing;</i> let us join in
singing to the Lord; not others without me, nor I alone, but others
with me. <i>Let us come</i> together <i>before his presence,</i> in
the courts of his house, where his people are wont to attend him
and to expect his manifestations of himself." Whenever we come into
God's presence we must come with thanksgiving that we are admitted
to such a favour; and, whenever we have thanks to give, we must
<i>come before God's presence,</i> set ourselves before him, and
present ourselves to him in the ordinances which he has
appointed.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p5">II. Why God is to be praised and what must
be the matter of our praise. We do not want matter; it were well if
we did not want a heart. We must praise God,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p6">1. Because he is <i>a great God,</i> and
sovereign Lord of all, <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.3" parsed="|Ps|95|3|0|0" passage="Ps 95:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>. He is great, and therefore <i>greatly to be
praised.</i> He is infinite and immense, and has all perfection in
himself. (1.) He has great power: <i>He is a great King above all
gods,</i> above all deputed deities, all magistrates, to whom he
said, <i>You are gods</i> (he manages them all, and serves his own
purposes by them, and to him they are all accountable), above all
counterfeit deities, all pretenders, all usurpers; he can do that
which none of them can do; he can, and will, famish and vanquish
them all. (2.) He has great possessions. This lower world is here
particularly specified. We reckon those great men who have large
territories, which they call their own against all the world, which
yet are a very inconsiderable part of the universe: how great then
is that God whose <i>the whole earth is, and the fulness
thereof,</i> not only under whose feet it is, as he has an
incontestable dominion over all the creatures and a propriety in
them, but in whose hand it is, as he has the actual directing and
disposing of all (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.4" parsed="|Ps|95|4|0|0" passage="Ps 95:4"><i>v.</i>
4</scripRef>); even <i>the deep places of the earth,</i> which are
out of our sight, subterraneous springs and mines, <i>are in his
hand;</i> and <i>the height of the hills</i> which are out of our
reach, whatever grows or feeds upon them, <i>is his also.</i> This
may be taken figuratively: the meanest of the children of men, who
are as the low places of the earth, are not beneath his cognizance;
and the greatest, who are as the strength of the hills, are not
above his control. Whatever strength is in any creature it is
derived from God and employed for him (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.5" parsed="|Ps|95|5|0|0" passage="Ps 95:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): <i>The sea is his,</i> and all
that is in it (the waves fulfil his word); it is his, for <i>he
made it,</i> gathered its waters and fixed its shores; <i>the dry
land,</i> though given to the children of men, is his too, for he
still reserved the property to himself; it is his, for <i>his hands
formed</i> it, when his word made <i>the dry land</i> appear. His
being the Creator of all makes him, without dispute, the owner of
all. This being a gospel psalm, we may very well suppose that it is
the Lord Jesus whom we are here taught to praise. He <i>is a great
God;</i> the mighty God is one of his titles, and <i>God over all,
blessed for evermore.</i> As Mediator, he is <i>a great King above
all gods;</i> by him kings reign; and angels, principalities, and
powers, are subject to him; <i>by him,</i> as the eternal Word,
<i>all things were made</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:John.1.3" parsed="|John|1|3|0|0" passage="Joh 1:3">John i.
3</scripRef>), and it was fit he should be the restorer and
reconciler of all who was the Creator of all, <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Col.1.16 Bible:Col.1.20" parsed="|Col|1|16|0|0;|Col|1|20|0|0" passage="Col 1:16,20">Col. i. 16, 20</scripRef>. To him all power is given
both in heaven and in earth, and into his hand all things are
delivered. It is he that sets one foot on the sea and the other on
the earth, as sovereign Lord of both (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p6.6" osisRef="Bible:Rev.10.2" parsed="|Rev|10|2|0|0" passage="Re 10:2">Rev. x. 2</scripRef>), and therefore to him we must sing
our songs of praise, and before him we must <i>worship and bow
down.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p7">2. Because he is our God, not only has a
dominion over us, as he has over all the creatures, but stands in
special relation to us (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.7" parsed="|Ps|95|7|0|0" passage="Ps 95:7"><i>v.</i>
7</scripRef>): <i>He is our God,</i> and therefore it is expected
we should praise him; who will, if we do not? What else did he make
us for but that we should <i>be to him for a name and a praise?</i>
(1.) He is our Creator, and the author of our being; we must
<i>kneel before the Lord our Maker,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.6" parsed="|Ps|95|6|0|0" passage="Ps 95:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. Idolaters kneel before gods which
they themselves made; we kneel before a God who made us and all the
world and who is therefore our rightful proprietor; for his we are,
and not our own. (2.) He is our Saviour, and the author of our
blessedness. He is here called <i>the rock of our salvation</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.1" parsed="|Ps|95|1|0|0" passage="Ps 95:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>), not only the
founder, but the very foundation, of that work of wonder, on whom
it is built. <i>That rock is Christ;</i> to him therefore we must
sing our songs of praises, <i>to him that sits upon the throne and
to the Lamb.</i> (3.) We are therefore his, under all possible
obligations: <i>We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of
his hand.</i> All the children of men are so; they are fed and led
by his Providence, which cares for them, and conducts them, as the
shepherd the sheep. We must praise him, not only because he made
us, but because he preserves and maintains us, and our breath and
ways are in his hand. All the church's children are in a special
manner so; Israel <i>are the people of his pasture and the sheep of
his hand;</i> and therefore he demands their homage in a special
manner. The gospel church is his flock. Christ is the great and
good Shepherd of it. We, as Christians, are led by his hand into
the green pastures, by him we are protected and well provided for,
to his honour and service we are entirely devoted as a peculiar
people, and therefore to him must be <i>glory in the churches</i>
(whether it be in the world or no) <i>throughout all ages,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Eph.3.21" parsed="|Eph|3|21|0|0" passage="Eph 3:21">Eph. iii. 21</scripRef>.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.xcvi-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.7-Ps.95.11" parsed="|Ps|95|7|95|11" passage="Ps 95:7-11" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.95.7-Ps.95.11">
<h4 id="Ps.xcvi-p7.6">Warning against Hardness of
Heart.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xcvi-p8">7—To day if ye will hear his voice,   8
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, <i>and</i> as
<i>in</i> the day of temptation in the wilderness:   9 When
your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.   10
Forty years long was I grieved with <i>this</i> generation, and
said, It <i>is</i> a people that do err in their heart, and they
have not known my ways:   11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p9">The latter part of this psalm, which begins
in the middle of a verse, is an exhortation to those who sing
gospel psalms to live gospel lives, and to hear the voice of God's
word; otherwise, how can they expect that he should hear the voice
of their prayers and praises? Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p10">I. The duty required of all those that
<i>are the people of</i> Christ's <i>pasture and the sheep of his
hand.</i> He expects that they <i>hear his voice,</i> for he has
said, <i>My sheep hear my voice,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:John.10.27" parsed="|John|10|27|0|0" passage="Joh 10:27">John x. 27</scripRef>. <i>We are his people,</i> say
they. Are you so? Then <i>hear his voice.</i> If you call him
<i>Master,</i> or <i>Lord,</i> then <i>do the things which he
says,</i> and be his willing obedient people. Hear the voice of his
doctrine, of his law, and, in both, of his Spirit; hear and heed;
hear and yield. <i>Hear his voice,</i> and not the <i>voice of a
stranger. If you will hear his voice;</i> some take it as a wish,
<i>O that you would hear his voice!</i> that you would be so wise,
and do so well for yourselves; like that, <i>If thou hadst
known</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Luke.19.42" parsed="|Luke|19|42|0|0" passage="Lu 19:42">Luke xix. 42</scripRef>),
that is, O that thou hadst known! Christ's voice must be heard
<i>to-day;</i> this the apostle lays much stress upon, applying it
to the gospel day. While he is speaking to you see that you attend
to him, for this day of your opportunities will not last always;
improve it, therefore, <i>while it is called to-day,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Heb.3.13 Bible:Heb.3.15" parsed="|Heb|3|13|0|0;|Heb|3|15|0|0" passage="Heb 3:13,15">Heb. iii. 13, 15</scripRef>. Hearing the
voice of Christ is the same with believing. <i>To-day,</i> if by
faith you accept the gospel offer, well and good, but to-morrow it
may be too late. In a matter of such vast importance nothing is
more dangerous than delay.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p11">II. The sin they are warned against, as
inconsistent with the believing obedient ear required, and that is
hardness of heart. <i>If you will hear his voice,</i> and profit by
what you hear, then do <i>not harden your hearts;</i> for the seed
sown on the rock never brought any fruit to perfection. The Jews
<i>therefore</i> believed not the gospel of Christ because <i>their
hearts were hardened;</i> they were not convinced of the evil of
sin, and of their danger by reason of sin, and therefore they
regarded not the offer of salvation; they would not bend to the
yoke of Christ, nor yield to his demands; and, if the sinner's
heart be hardened, it is his own act and deed (he hardening it
himself) and he alone shall bear the blame for ever.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p12">III. The example they are warned by, which
is that of the Israelites in the wilderness.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p13">1. "Take heed of sinning as they did, lest
you be shut out of the everlasting rest as they were out of
Canaan." <i>Be not, as your fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.8" parsed="|Ps|78|8|0|0" passage="Ps 78:8">Ps. lxxxviii.
8</scripRef>. Thus here, <i>Harden not your heart as</i> you did
(that is, your ancestors) <i>in the provocation,</i> or in
<i>Meribah,</i> the place where they quarrelled with God and Moses
(<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.17.2-Exod.17.7" parsed="|Exod|17|2|17|7" passage="Ex 17:2-7">Exod. xvii. 2-7</scripRef>), <i>and
in the day of temptation in the wilderness,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.8" parsed="|Ps|95|8|0|0" passage="Ps 95:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>. So often did they provoke God by
their distrusts and murmurings that the whole time of their
continuance in the wilderness might be called a <i>day of
temptation,</i> or <i>Massah,</i> the other name given to that
place (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.17.7" parsed="|Exod|17|7|0|0" passage="Ex 17:7">Exod. xvii. 7</scripRef>),
because they tempted the Lord, saying, <i>Is the Lord among us or
is he not?</i> This was in the wilderness, where they could not
help themselves, but lay at God's mercy, and where God wonderfully
helped them and gave them such sensible proofs of his power and
tokens of his favour as never any people had before or since. Note,
(1.) Days of temptation are days of provocation. Nothing is more
offensive to God than disbelief of his promise and despair of the
performance of it because of some difficulties that seem to lie in
the way. (2.) The more experience we have had of the power and
goodness of God the greater is our sin if we distrust him. What, to
tempt him in the wilderness, where we live upon him! This is as
ungrateful as it is absurd and unreasonable. (3.) Hardness of heart
is at the bottom of all our distrusts of God and quarrels with him.
That is a hard heart which receives not the impressions of divine
discoveries and conforms not to the intentions of the divine will,
which will not melt, which will not bend. (4.) The sins of others
ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The
murmurings of Israel <i>were written for our admonition,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p13.5" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.10.11" parsed="|1Cor|10|11|0|0" passage="1Co 10:11">1 Cor. x. 11</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p14">2. Now here observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p15">(1.) The charge drawn up, in God's name,
against the unbelieving Israelites, <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.9-Ps.95.10" parsed="|Ps|95|9|95|10" passage="Ps 95:9,10"><i>v.</i> 9, 10</scripRef>. God here, many ages after,
complains of their ill conduct towards him, with the expressions of
high resentment. [1.] Their sin was unbelief: they <i>tempted</i>
God and <i>proved</i> him; they questioned whether they might take
his word, and insisted upon further security before they would go
forward to Canaan, by sending spies; and, when those discouraged
them, they protested against the sufficiency of the divine power
and promise, and would make a captain and return into Egypt,
<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.3-Num.14.4" parsed="|Num|14|3|14|4" passage="Nu 14:3,4">Num. xiv. 3, 4</scripRef>. This is
called <i>rebellion,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Deut.1.26 Bible:Deut.1.32" parsed="|Deut|1|26|0|0;|Deut|1|32|0|0" passage="De 1:26,32">Deut. i.
26, 32</scripRef>. [2.] The aggravation of this sin was that they
<i>saw God's work;</i> they saw what he had done for them in
bringing them out of Egypt, nay, what he was now doing for them
every day, this day, in the bread he rained from heaven for them
and the water out of the rock that followed them, than which they
could not have more unquestionable evidences of God's presence with
them. With them even seeing was not believing, because they
<i>hardened their hearts,</i> though they had seen what Pharaoh got
by hardening his heart. [3.] The causes of their sin. See what God
imputed it to: <i>It is a people that do err in their hearts, and
they have not known my ways.</i> Men's unbelief and distrust of
God, their murmurings and quarrels with him, are the effect of
their ignorance and mistake. <i>First,</i> Of their ignorance:
<i>They have not known my ways.</i> They saw his work (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.9" parsed="|Ps|95|9|0|0" passage="Ps 95:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>) and he <i>made known his
acts to them</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.103.7" parsed="|Ps|103|7|0|0" passage="Ps 103:7">Ps. ciii.
7</scripRef>); and yet they <i>did not know his ways,</i> the ways
of his providence, in which he walked towards them, or the ways of
his commandments, in which he would have them to walk towards him:
they did not know, they did not rightly understand and therefore
did not approve of these. Note, The reason why people slight and
forsake the ways of God is because they do not know them.
<i>Secondly,</i> Of their mistake: <i>They do err in their
heart;</i> they wander out of the way; in heart they turn back.
Note, Sins are errors, practical errors, errors in heart; such
there are, and as fatal as errors in the head. When the corrupt
affections pervert the judgment, and so lead the soul out of the
ways of duty and obedience, there is an error of the heart. [4.]
God's resentment of their sin: <i>Forty years long was I grieved
with this generation.</i> Note, <!-- <sic> -->The<!-- </sic> --> sins of God's professing people
do not only anger him, but grieve him, especially their distrust of
him; and God keeps an account how often (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p15.6" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.22" parsed="|Num|14|22|0|0" passage="Nu 14:22">Num. xiv. 22</scripRef>) and how long they grieve him.
See the patience of God towards provoking sinners; he was grieved
with them forty years, and yet those years ended in a triumphant
entrance into Canaan made by the next generation. If our sins have
grieved God, surely they should grieve us, and nothing in sin
should grieve us so much as that.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p16">(2.) The sentence passed upon them for
their sin (<scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.95.11" parsed="|Ps|95|11|0|0" passage="Ps 95:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>):
"<i>Unto whom I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my
rest,</i> then say I am changeable and untrue:" see the sentence at
large, <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.21" parsed="|Num|14|21|0|0" passage="Nu 14:21">Num. xiv. 21</scripRef>,
&amp;c. Observe, [1.] Whence this sentence came—from the wrath of
God. He <i>swore solemnly in his wrath,</i> his just and holy
wrath; but let not men therefore swear profanely in their wrath,
their sinful brutish wrath. God is not subject to such passions as
we are; but he is said to be angry, very angry, at sin and sinners,
to show the malignity of sin and the justice of God's government.
That is certainly an evil thing which deserves such a recompence of
revenge as may be expected from a provoked Deity. [2.] What it was:
<i>That they should not enter into his rest,</i> the rest which he
had prepared and designed for them, a settlement for them and
theirs, that none of those who were enrolled when they came out of
Egypt should be found written in the roll of the living at their
entering into Canaan, but Caleb and Joshua. [3.] How it was
ratified: <i>I swore it.</i> It was not only a purpose, but a
decree; the oath showed the <i>immutability of his counsel; the
Lord swore, and will not repent.</i> It cut off the thought of any
reserve of mercy. God's threatenings are as sure as his
promises.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xcvi-p17">Now this case of Israel may be applied to
those of their posterity that lived in David's time, when this
psalm was penned; let them hear God's voice, and not harden their
hearts as their fathers did, lest, if they were stiffnecked like
them, God should be provoked to forbid them the privileges of his
temple at Jerusalem, of which he had said, <i>This is my rest.</i>
But it must be applied to us Christians, because so the apostle
applies it. There is a spiritual and eternal rest set before us,
and promised to us, of which Canaan was a type; we are all (in
profession, at least) bound for this rest; yet many that seem to be
so come short and shall never enter into it. And what is it that
puts a bar in their door? It is sin; it is unbelief, that sin
against the remedy, against our appeal. Those that, like Israel,
distrust God, and his power and goodness, and prefer the garlick
and onions of Egypt before the milk and honey of Canaan, will
justly be shut out from his rest: so shall their doom be; they
themselves have decided it. <i>Let us therefore fear,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xcvi-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.4.1" parsed="|Heb|4|1|0|0" passage="Heb 4:1">Heb. iv. 1</scripRef>.</p>
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