12-11-09

PSALMS 78:41  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

PROVOKING GOD, BY REMEMBERING NOT HIS HAND NOR HIS DELIVERANCE IS A SURE WAY TO LIMIT WHAT THE LORD WOULD DO IN OUR LIVES. WE KNOW THAT THE LORD IS ABLE TO DO ALL THINGS IN OUR LIVES EXCEEDING ABUNDANT ABOVE ALL THAT WE COULD ASK OR THINK AND YET WE CAN ACTUALLY LIMIT THAT BY OUR FORGETFULNESS AND UNBELIEF IN HIS GOODNESS AND PREVIOUS PROVISIONS. GOD MY DEAR GOD AND FATHER, PLEASE LET THIS NOT BE SO WITH ME. HELP ME FATHER TO NEVER FORGET YOU AND YOUR MARVELOUS DELIVERANCE AND SALVATION SO RICH AND SO FULL. GOD YOU HAVE DELIVERED ME FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS AND HAVE INDEED TRANSLATED ME INTO THE KINGDOM OF YOUR DEAR SON, IN WHOM I HAVE REDEMPTION IN  HIS BLOOD AND THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS!

LET ME NEVER FORGET THAT I AM YOURS AND YOU ARE MINE AND THAT YOU ARE INDEED NOT ONLY ABLE TO DO EXCEEDING ABUNDANT BUT THAT YOU DESIRE TO DO FAR BEYOND WHAT I AM ABLE TO THINK OR IMAGINE BY THE POWER THAT WORKS IN ME! FATHER REMOVE THE DOUBT FROM MY HEART AND MIND AND LET ME ONLY BE A MAN OF FAITH, TRUSTING IN THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT AND STRENGTH. IN JESUS NAME, AMEN. ~EMY~

“And limited the Holy One of Israel.”

Doubted his power and so limited him, dictated to his wisdom and so did the same.

To chalk  out a path for God is arrogant impiety.

The Holy One must do right, the covenant God of Israel must be true, it is profanity itself to say unto him thou shalt do this or that, or otherwise I will not worship thee.

Not thus is the Eternal God to be led by a string by his impotent creature.

He is the Lord and he will do as seemeth him good.  ~Spurgeon~

Verse 41.  Limited the Holy One of Israel. They limited either

1. God’s power, as above, Psalms 78:19-20. Or,

2. God’s will, directing and prescribing to him what to do, and when, and in what manner; and murmuring at him if he did not always grant their particular and various desires. ~Matthew Poole~

Verse 41.  They limited the Holy One of Israel.

Here, then, is an awful charge, and mysterious it seems to us as awful.

How dreadful that man, the worm, should arrogate to himself that, to say to him that made him, “Thus far shalt thou go and no farther.”

Amazing, I say, the charge! to contract the dimensions and operations of the Deity.

Amazing insolence, to draw a boundary line, beyond which the Creator himself must not pass, to define and prescribe to the Lawgiver of nature himself the pathway of his providence!  ~E. Paxton Hood~

Verse 41.  They limited the Holy One of Israel. God cannot bear it with patience, that we should limit him, either to the time, or manner, or means of help.

He complains of the Jews for this presumption, they limited the Holy One of Israel. It is insufferable to circumscribe an infinite wisdom and power.

He will work, but when he pleases, and how he pleases, and by what instruments he pleases, and if he please, without instruments, and if he please by weak and improbable, by despised and exploded instruments.

Joseph Caryl, in a “Sermon before the House of Commons,” entitled, “The Works of Ephesus.”  ~Joseph Caryl~