ZION JUXTAPOSED WITH ZAPHON: ‘North’ is a surprising reference to associate with Jerusalem on Mount Zion which was situated in, what would eventually be, the southern kingdom of Judeah. This language in Psalm 48 actually refers to the superiority of Zion with respect to pagan claims of divine rule. The idea in verse 2 is: “Mount Zion beyond the far north”, or “surpassing the far north”. Sumerian influenced...
Matthew Henry on Marriage in Matthew 19 (extra reading for “1 Man, 1 Woman Under God” sermon) & Albert Mohler On a Hermeneutic of Submission….
Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YLKCrwn8vU4 “Christ’s answer to this question; though it was proposed to tempt him, yet, being a case of conscience, and a weighty one, he gave a full answer to it, not a direct one, but an effectual one; laying down such principles as undeniably prove that such arbitrary divorces as were then in use, which made the matrimonial bond so very precarious, were by no means lawful. Christ himself would...
John Gill on the Forgiveness of God & Chrysostom vs. Eutropius (Extra Reading for “$12 Billion Debt” Sermon)…
“Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion,…. Or had compassion on him, showed pity to him, and extended mercy towards him; not that he was moved hereunto by any actions of his, as his prostrating himself before him, and his worshipping him, nor by his cries and entreaties, nor by his promises, which were not at all to be depended on, but by his own goodness, and will; for not to anything that this man said, or did,...
Excerpt of the History of Chrysostom and Eutropius…
“Whither could the poor wretch fly who was thus in a moment hurled from the pinnacle of power into the lowest depths of degradation and destitution. There was but one place to which he could naturally turn in his distress–the sanctuary of the Church; but by the cruel irony of his fate, a law of his own devising here barred his entrance. Yet he knew that the law prohibiting asylum had been resented and resisted by the Church and it...
John Wells on Worship and the Psalms (extra reading for “Theocratic Patriotism” sermon)…
“Sing ye praises with understanding. How may we make melody in our hearts to God in singing of Psalms? We must sing with understanding. We must not be guided by the time, but the words of the Psalm; we must mind the matter more than the music, and consider what we sing, as well as how we sing; the tune may affect the fancy, but it is the matter affects the heart, and that God principally eyes. The psalmist advises us in this particular,...