Call to Worship January 25, 2026
Psalm 104:30
Commentary by Matthew Poole, “30 You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.
Thy spirit; either, 1. That spirit by which they live, which is called the spirit of a beast, Eccles. 3:21, which is called their breath or spirit, (for the word is the same there and here,) ver. 29, and here may be called God’s spirit, because it was given and preserved by him. Or rather, 2. Thy quickening spirit; for here seems to be an opposition between their spirit, ver. 29, and thy spirit here, and this latter is mentioned as the creating or productive cause of the former. And this may be understood either, 1. Of the Holy Ghost; to whom, no less than to the Father and the Son, the work of creation is ascribed, Job 33:4; Psal. 33:6. Or rather, 2. That quickening power of God by which he produces life in the creatures from time to time. For he speaks not here of the first creation, but of the continued and repeated production of living creatures. They are created; either, 1. The same living creatures which were languishing and dying are strangely revived and restored; which may not unfitly be called a creation, as that word is sometimes used, because it is in a manner the giving of a new life and being to a creature. Or, 2. Other living creatures are produced or generated; the word created being taken in its largest sense for the production of things out of indisposed matter by second causes, as it is used Isa. 41:20; 54:16, &c. You renew the face of the earth; and thus by your wise and wonderful providence you preserve the succession of living creatures upon the earth, which otherwise would be desolate or without inhabitants.”[1]
Thoughts on Ezekiel 36 by John Berridge, “Sin makes a sinner guilty before God…
…filthy in ourselves; both a guilty and filthy creature: guilty, as being contrary to the authority of God; filthy, as being contrary to the holiness of God. Guilt produces fear; filth produces shame.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall he clean. —A fountain is opened for sin and uncleanness—a type of the blood of Christ. This must be sprinkled on the unclean: an application must be made of the blood of Christ, and made by the Spirit of God. This typified by the water of purification: Num. 19. This cleanseth from all filthiness, and from all idols. Henceforth the sprinkled sinner saith, What have I to do any more with idols ? Hos. 14:8. The Lord is my God.
A new heart will I give you. —A heart devoted to the Lord; devoted to the love and service of God.
A new spirit will I put within you. —A meek and lowly spirit; a child-like teachable spirit; a kind and brotherly spirit; a forgiving merciful spirit.
I will take away the stony heart. —Insensible of its own hardness, and of sin, and of God’s love; unapt to receive divine impressions, or to return devout affections, inflexible.
And give you a heart of flesh. —A tender heart; sensible of sin; mourning for it; humbled under it; fearful of God’s displeasure; feeling the power of God’s word; and sensible of spiritual pleasure and pain.
Now God makes this wholly his own act. He does not say, I will take away the stony heart, if you do not resist me; nor yet, I will earnestly persuade you to take it away : but he says absolutely, I, myself, will take it away, making it wholly his own act. Hence the event is certain; for God by the sweet and powerful operations of his Spirit effectually overcomes the resistance of the will. Hence renovation ensues, and conversion to God. Is nothing then to be done by the sinner? Yes, he says, For this will be inquired of; and a spirit of prayer is given for this purpose.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. —Now a spiritual nature is received, capable of spiritual worship and service. The wheels of obedience are how made, and set in order; but a spring is yet wanting to set them a-going, which the Lord here promises to bestow. I will put my Spirit within you. Will before was given, now power; and constant additional supplies of his Spirit are needful to keep the wheels going. Then shall ye loathe yourselves: ver. 31.
Self-loathing is not only consistent with a sense of pardon, but is the fruit of it. While we feel sin within us to condemn us, faith discovers a righteousness without us, which can justify us; and while we rejoice in Christ, as the Lord our righteousness, we shall ever have cause enough in ourselves for humiliation. The gospel teaches men to feel sin, and believe for righteousness.
Faith will carry heaven in one hand, and hell in the other: hell as deserved by us; heaven as purchased for us. It will also powerfully incline us to respect all the commandments of God.” (John Berridge on Ezekiel 36, https://www.monergism.com/new-heart-%E2%80%93brief-comments-ezekiel-3