Psalm 81:11-12

“But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.”

The history of the Jews is not a mere record of times and people far distant from us, but a display of the Divine procedure towards others, as a pledge of a similar procedure towards us. The Jews were intended as examples to the Church of God in all ages: their prosperity while serving God, and their adversity when they had departed from him, were designed to show us what blessings we may expect at God’s hands, if we serve him acceptably; and what judgments we may expect at God’s hands, if we rebel against him. See 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 and Hebrews 3:16-19; Hebrews 4:1. In this view it will be profitable to consider the words before us:

I. The perverseness complained of.

Nothing could exceed the kindness of God towards his people of old.

How tender and affectionate is his address to them, verse 8; He entreats them not to look to any strange god, since he alone has an exclusive right to their regard, verses 9, 10. He assures them also, that whatever they shall ask at his hands, he will do it for them, verse 10 with Deuteronomy 4:7.

And is it not precisely in the same way that he addresses us? He invites us:
to look to him, Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 55:1-3,
and to come unto him, Matthew 11:28,
and to ask of him whatever we will, with an assurance that we shall not be disappointed of our hope, John 14:13-14; John 15:7.

There is no limitation or exception, provided only the things we desire are agreeable to his holy will. If we plead with him in earnest—then there is:
no sin that shall not be forgiven, Isaiah 1:18,
no corruption that shall not be mortified, Micah 7:19,
no need that shall not be supplied, Philippians 4:19.

He engages, that, to whatever temptation we may be exposed, his grace shall be sufficient for us! 2 Corinthians 12:8-9.

But their obstinacy was incorrigible.

The Jews, with but few exceptions, “would not hearken to his voice.” His precepts, his promises, his threatenings, were alike disregarded by them! They would have nothing to do with him, but said to his messengers whom he sent to reclaim them, “Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us!”

And is it not thus with us? Is not his authority trampled on by us? Are not both his mercies and judgments almost universally despised? We will have other objects of our affections in preference to him. We will not open our mouths in prayer, though we know that nothing is to be obtained without it. The language of our hearts and actions is, “We will not have this man to reign over us! Luke 19:14.” Notwithstanding all that he has done to redeem us from death and Hell, we will not take upon ourselves his light and easy yoke.

While we thus imitate the perverseness of the Jews, let us tremble for fear of:

II. The judgments God inflicted on account of their perverseness .

Consider:

1. What a loss they sustained.

He would have preserved them in Canaan, and loaded them with all imaginable blessings, even as he had done in former times, Deuteronomy 32:29.

But this was a very faint shadow of what he would do for us. What victory would he have given us over all our spiritual enemies! What a fullness of consolation and joy also would he have bestowed upon us, in the communications of his grace, and the manifestations of his love! Surely his Spirit, as “a Spirit of adoption,” would have “witnessed with our spirits that we were his,” and would have “sealed us unto the day of redemption”.

2. What misery they incurred.

God gave them up to idolatry, and to their own hearts’ lusts; and left them to “walk in their own counsels. See Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28. “So I gave them up!”

And this is the curse which he denounces against us also. “His Spirit will not always strive with us.” If he sees that we are bent upon our evil ways, he will abandon us to our own delusions! 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, and will say, “He is joined to idols, let him alone! Hosea 4:17.” A greater curse than this God cannot inflict, because our remaining days will be occupied only in augmenting our guilt and worsening our condemnation! Romans 2:5. To give us over to the uncontrolled influence of self, is a certain prelude to our everlasting damnation! It is, in fact, the very beginning of Hell, where it will be said to the unhappy souls, “He who is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he who is unjust, let him be unjust still! Revelation 22:11.”

Hence it appears,

1. Whose fault it will be, if any be lost.

None can lay it to the charge of God that he is unwilling to save them. He has sworn with an oath that he wills not the death of any sinner, Ezekiel 33:11. 1 Timothy 2:4. And in the Psalm before us he takes up a lamentation over those who obstinately compel him to give them up, verse 13. Thus did our blessed Lord weep over the murderous Jerusalem, Luke 19:40-41; and thus does he bemoan over all impenitent transgressors, “You will not come unto me that you may have life John 5:40.” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you—how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Matthew 23:37.”

And what a bitter source of self-condemnation will this be to us, that God would have saved us, but we would not be saved by him! The language which God now uses over us, we shall then use in reference to ourselves, “O that I had hearkened to his voice! O that I had walked in his ways!” How should I have been at this instant triumphing over my cruel adversary, and feasting on all the richest fruits of paradise, instead of dwelling with everlasting burnings, without one drop of water to cool my tongue! Surely this reflection will be the bitterest ingredient in that bitter cup, which those who perish will be drinking of to all eternity!

2. Whose will be the glory, if any are saved.

We never come to Christ, until the Father, by the mighty working of his power, draws us to him. Such is the pride of the human heart, that no man will submit to be saved by grace alone, until God has made him “willing in the day of his power.” If therefore we have been brought to hearken to his voice, let us remember Who it is that has unstopped our ears.

If it is said, We prayed for these blessings; and therefore we at least may glory that the blessings do not come to us unsolicited; we would ask, Who inclined or enabled us to pray? We should never have been inclined to pray, if God had not given us a spirit of grace and of supplication, “nor should we have known what to pray for as we ought, if He by his Spirit had not helped our infirmities.”

If it is still said, “Yet we prayed.” Be it so; but how long were you before you prayed at all? And what have been your prayers since ever you began to pray? Are you not amazed when you review your prayers, and see how cold, and dead, and formal they have been?

What if a beggar had asked of you in the way that you have but too often asked of God? Would you have granted his request? Or, if you had granted his request, and not only relieved his present necessities, but conferred upon him one half of your fortune, would you not be surprised, if he, instead of admiring your unequaled generosity, were taking credit to himself for asking relief from you? Know then, that if you are partaking of God’s mercy, you are no other than “beggars, who have been taken from the dunghill, and set among the princes!” Know that you are altogether debtors to the sovereign grace of God, and must ascribe to him “the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”

Charles Simeon