Psalm XLVI
11. “Come and see the works of the Lord” (ver. 8). Now of this taking up, what hath the Lord done? Consider the whole world, come and see. For if thou comest not, thou seest not; if thou seest not, thou believest not; if thou believest not, thou standest afar off: if thou believest thou comest, if thou believest thou seest. For how came we to that mountain? Not on foot? Is it by ship? Is it on the wing? Is it on horses? For all that pertain to space and place, be not concerned, trouble not thyself, He cometh to thee. For out of a small stone He hath grown, and become a great mountain, so that He hath filled all the face of the earth. Why then wouldest thou by land come to Him, who filleth all lands? Lo, He hath already come: watch thou. By growing He waketh even sleepers; if yet there is not in them so deep sleep, as that they be hardened even against the mountain coming; but they hear, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” For it was a great thing for the Jews to see the stone. For the stone was yet small: and small they deservedly despised it, and despising they stumbled, and stumbling they were broken; remains that they be ground to powder. For so was it said of the stone, “Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” It is one thing to be broken, another to be ground to powder. To be broken is less than to be ground to powder: but none grindeth He coming exalted, save whom He brake lying low. For now before His coming He lay low before the Jews, and they stumbled at Him, and were broken; hereafter shall He come in His Judgment, glorious and exalted, great and powerful, not weak to be judged, but strong to judge, and grind to powder those who were broken stumbling at Him. For “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence,” is He to them that believe not. Therefore, brethren, no wonder if the Jews acknowledged not Him, whom as a small stone lying before their feet they despised. They are to be wondered at, who even now so great a mountain will not acknowledge. The Jews at a small stone by not seeing stumbled; the heretics stumble at a mountain.
For now that stone hath grown,
now say we unto them, Lo, now is fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel, “The stone that was small became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Wherefore stumble ye at Him, and go not rather up to Him? Who is so blind as to stumble at a mountain? Came He to thee that thou shouldest have whereat to stumble, and not have whereto to go up? “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” Isaiah saith this: “Come ye, and let us go up.” What is, “Come ye, and let us go up”? “Come ye,” is, Believe ye. “Let us go up,” is, Let us profit. But they will neither come, nor go up, nor believe, nor profit. They bark against the mountain. Even now by so often stumbling on Him they are broken, and will not go up, choosing always to stumble. Say we to them, “Come ye, and see the works of the Lord:” what “prodigies He hath set forth through the earth.” Prodigies are called, because they portend something, those signs of miracles which were done when the world believed. And what thereafter came to pass, and what did they portend?
12. “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth” (ver. 9). This not yet see we fulfilled: yet are there wars, wars among nations for sovereignty; among sects, among Jews, Pagans, Christians, heretics, are wars, frequent wars, some for the truth, some for falsehood contending. Not yet then is this fulfilled, “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;” but haply it shall be fulfilled. Or is it now also fulfilled? In some it is fulfilled; in the wheat it is fulfilled, in the tares it is not yet fulfilled. What is this then, “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth”? Wars He calleth whereby it is warred against God. But who warreth against God? Ungodliness. And what to God can ungodliness do? Nothing. What doth an earthen vessel dashed against the rock, however vehemently dashed? With so much greater harm to itself it cometh, with how much the greater force it cometh. These wars were great, frequent were they. Against God fought ungodliness, and earthen vessels were dashed in pieces, even men by presuming on themselves, by too much prevailing by their own strength. This is that, the shield whereof Job also named concerning one ungodly. “He runneth against God, upon the stiff neck of his shield.” What is, “upon the stiff neck of his shield”? Presuming too much upon his own protection. Were they such who said, “God is our refuge and strength, a Helper in tribulations which have found us out too much”? or in another Psalm, “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.” When one learneth that in himself he is nothing, and help in himself has none, arms in him are broken in pieces, wars are made to cease. Such wars then destroyed that Voice of the Most High out of His holy clouds, whereby the earth was moved, and the kingdoms were bowed. These wars hath He made to cease unto the end of the earth. “He shall break the bow, and dash in pieces the arms, and burn the shield with fire.” Bow, arms, shield, fire. The bow is plots; arms, public warfare; shields, vain presuming of self-protection: the fire wherewith they are burned, is that whereof the Lord said, “I am come to send fire on the earth;” of which fire saith the Psalm, “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” This fire burning, no arms of ungodliness shall remain in us, needs must all be broken, dashed in pieces, burned. Remain thou unharmed, not having any help of thine own;
and the more weak thou art, having no arms thine own, the more He taketh thee up, of whom it is said, “The God of Jacob is our taker up.”…But when God taketh us up, doth He send us away unarmed? He armeth us, but with other arms, arms Evangelical, arms of truth, continence, salvation, faith, hope, charity. These arms shall we have, but not of ourselves: but the arms which of ourselves we had, are burnt up: yet if by that fire of the Holy Spirit we are kindled, whereof it is said, “He shall burn the shields with fire;” thee, who didst wish to be powerful in thyself, hath God made weak, that He may make thee strong in Him, because in thyself thou wast made weak.
13. What then followeth? “Be still.” To what purpose? “And see that I am God” (ver. 10). That is, Not ye, but I am God. I created, I create anew; I formed, I form anew; I made, I make anew. If thou couldest not make thyself, how canst thou make thyself anew? This seeth not the contentious tumult of man’s soul; to which contentious tumult is it said, “Be still.” That is, restrain your souls from contradiction. Do not argue, and, as it were, arm against God. Else yet live thy arms, not yet burned up with fire. But if they are burned, “Be still;” because ye have not wherewith to fight. But if ye be still in yourselves, and from Me seek all, who before presumed on yourselves, then shall ye “see that I am God.” “I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Just before I said, by the name of earth is signified the nation of the Jews, by the name of sea the other nations. The mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; the nations are troubled, the kingdoms are bowed; the Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved. “The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our taker up” (ver. 11). Miracles are done among the heathen, fulfilled is the faith of the heathen; burned are the arms of human presumption. Still are they, in tranquillity of heart, to acknowledge God the Author of all their gifts. And after this glorifying, doth He yet desert the people of the Jews? of which saith the Apostle, “I say unto you, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” That is, until the mountains be carried hither, the clouds rain here, the Lord here bows the kingdoms with His thunder, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” And what thereafter? “And so all Israel shall be saved.” Therefore, here too observing the same order, “I will be exalted” (saith He) “among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth;” that is, both in the sea, and in the earth, that now might all say what followeth: “the God of Jacob is our taker up.”