Calls to Worship

“Jeremiah 1: 4–10 Here is, I. Jeremiah’s early designation to the work and office of a prophet, which God gives him notice of as a reason for his early application to that business (v. 4, 5): The word of the Lord came to him, with a satisfying assurance to himself that it was the word of the Lord and not a delusion; and God told him, 1. That he had ordained him a prophet to the nations, or against the nations, the nation of the Jews in the first place, who are now reckoned among the nations because they had learned their works and mingled…

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“Psalm 145:1–9 The entitling of this David’s psalm of praise may intimate not only that he was the penman of it, but that he took a particular pleasure in it and sung it often; it was his companion wherever he went. In this former part of the psalm God’s glorious attributes are praised, as, in the latter part of the psalm, his kingdom and the administration of it. Observe, I. Who shall be employed in giving glory to God. 1. Whatever others do, the psalmist will himself be much in praising God. To this good work he here excites himself, engages himself,…

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“Psalm 119:89–91 Here, 1. The psalmist acknowledges the unchangeableness of the word of God and of all his counsels: ‘For ever, O Lord! thy word is settled. Thou art for ever thyself (so some read it); thou art the same, and with thee there is no variableness, and this is a proof of it. Thy word, by which the heavens were made, is settled there in the abiding products of it;’ or the settling of God’s word in heaven is opposed to the changes and revolutions that are here upon earth. All flesh is grass; but the word of the…

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“2 Timothy 4:1–6 Observe, I. How awfully this charge is introduced (v. 1): I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Observe, The best of men have need to be awed into the discharge of their duty. The work of a minister is not an indifferent thing, but absolutely necessary. Woe be to him if he preach not the gospel, 1 Co. 9:16. To induce him to faithfulness, he must consider, 1. That the eye of God and Jesus Christ was upon him: I…

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1. ALEPH. [Psalm 119] Verses 1–3 The psalmist here shows that godly people are happy people; they are, and shall be, blessed indeed. Felicity is the thing we all pretend to aim at and pursue. He does not say here wherein it consists; it is enough for us to know what we must do and be that we may attain to it, and that we are here told. All men would be happy, but few take the right way; God has here laid before us the right way, which we may be sure will end in happiness, though it be…

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“Psalm 65, Verses 6–13 That we may be the more affected with the wonderful condescensions of the God of grace, it is of use to observe his power and sovereignty as the God of nature, the riches and bounty of his providential kingdom. I. He establishes the earth and it abides, Ps. 119:90. By his own strength he setteth fast the mountains (v. 6), did set them fast at first and still keeps them firm, though they are sometimes shaken by earthquakes… The lightning blasts and loftiest hills. Hence they are called everlasting mountains, Hab. 3:6. yet God’s covenant with his people is said to stand more…

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Isaiah 53 “II. A full account of the meaning of his sufferings. It was a very great mystery that so excellent a person should suffer such hard things; and it is natural to ask with amazement, “How came it about? What evil had he done?” His enemies indeed looked upon him as suffering justly for his crimes; and, though they could lay nothing to his charge, they esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, v. 4. Because they hated him, and persecuted him, they thought that God did, that he was his enemy and fought against him; and therefore they…

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“Psalm 118:1–9 It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David had his heart full of the goodness of God. He loved to think of it, loved to speak of it, and was very solicitous that God might have the praise of it and others the comfort of it. The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God’s goodness the more they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience. In these verses, I. He celebrates God’s mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (v. 1): O give thanks…

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“Job 40:1–5 Here is, I. A humbling challenge which God gave to Job. After he had heaped up many hard questions upon him, to show him, by his manifest ignorance in the works of nature, what an incompetent judge he was of the methods and designs of Providence, he clenches the nail with one demand more, which stands by itself here as the application of the whole. It should seem, God paused awhile, as Elihu had done, to give Job time to say what he had to say, or to think of what God had said; but Job was in…

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“Isaiah 10:1–9 That particular instance of God’s care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is, I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him, v. 1. Is is renewed (v. 21): Produce your cause. The court is set, summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out of God’s jurisdiction, for he…

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