January 14, 2012

• Can our God forget! O! Covenant grace! ~ Jeremiah 31:20

  "Was ready to give up in despair; .... and had scarcely any hope that I should ever again behold the light of God's countenance. Yet such is the inconceivable goodness of God to his perverse and froward children, that he was pleased, even then, to melt my stubborn heart with the displays of his love. Felt so overwhelmed with a sense of his goodness and my own ingratitude, that I could not look up, or hardly venture to throw myself at his feet. My heart was broken within me, to think that I should still ungratefully requite such infinite goodness."

  ~ Edward Payson
  

  Jeremiah 31:20
  Is Ephraim my dear son?
  Is he my darling child?
  For as often as I speak against him,
  I do remember him still.
  Therefore my heart yearns for him;
  I will surely have mercy on him,
  declares the LORD.

  How can God forget?
  But how can He bless
  Children so froward
  Children so perverse
  Fallen and falling
  Creatures unworthy
  Nothing good in us
  No pleasantness

  Can our God forget!
  O! Covenant grace!
  Exceeding jealous!
  For His Church, zealous!
  Inconceivable!
  Be silent! Tremble!
  Abundant goodness
  Grace to the ruthless!
  To His remnant peace
  From the prison release
  Granting repentance
  Dance! O daughter, dance!
  The Beloved's heart yearns!
  His bowels – O! how they stir!
  Favors ever heaping
  My wand'ring heart keeping!
  
  How can God forget?
  O! How He must bless
  Wondrous remembrance
  Fervent earnestness
  From heavenly heights
  Drops mercy's delights
  Not for our own sake
  But for Jesus Christ!
  
  Can our God forget!
  O! Covenant grace!
  Exceeding jealous!
  For His Church, zealous!
  Inconceivable!
  Be silent! Tremble!
  Abundant goodness
  Grace to the ruthless!
  To His remnant peace
  From the prison release
  Granting repentance
  Dance! O daughter, dance!
  The Beloved's heart yearns!
  His bowels – O! how they stir!
  Favors ever heaping
  My wand'ring heart keeping!

  How can God forget?
  In Christ He must grace
  Infinite goodness
  Shining countenance
  "Is there injustice?"
  Be silent, all flesh!
  Jacob He has loved
  Esau He has hated

  Can our God forget!
  O! Covenant grace!
  Exceeding jealous!
  For His Church, zealous!
  Inconceivable!
  Be silent! Tremble!
  Abundant goodness
  Grace to the ruthless!
  To His remnant peace
  From the prison release
  Granting repentance
  Dance! O daughter, dance!
  The Beloved's heart yearns!
  His bowels – O! how they stir!
  Favors ever heaping
  My wand'ring heart keeping!
  
  

  
  "All my days, I have grieved, provoked, and dishonored God, and he has done nothing but heap favors, and pardons, and honors upon me. O, it affects me, to think of his goodness. O that all the world knew how vile I have been, and how good he has been in return. Could Christians know his dealings with such a wretch, they would surely never, never distrust him again. And yet I, who do know it, shall distrust him again. I shall again grieve and provoke him, as in times past, and perhaps, be left to bring a reproach upon religion. I never felt myself to be so much in danger as at this moment. I am happy in my own soul—happy in my external circumstances; but I rejoice with trembling. I dare not resolve that I will not suffer myself to be led away or lifted up. I dare not say, that, by to-morrow, I shall not feel stupid and ungrateful as a block; or even full of rage and enmity as a devil. But I never felt more able to hang upon Christ, and trust him to keep me up. He knows, I trust, it is my earnest desire to be stripped of all my blessings, and left utterly destitute, rather than be drawn by them away from him."

  ~ Edward Payson

  
  Romans 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion...”
  
  
  Acts 5:30  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31  God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32  And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
  
  
  Deuteronomy 7:6  For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8  but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9  Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10  and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11  You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
  
  
  Zechariah 2:10  Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD. 11  And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 12  And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
  
  13  Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

  Psalm 31:19
  Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
  which you have stored up for those who fear you
  and worked for those who take refuge in you,
  in the sight of the children of mankind!

  * * *

  Acts 20:20  ... how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21  testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

  ---

  Source: Edward Payson in "Memoir, select thoughts and sermons of the late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1 by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings," 171 and 213-214.

  Related posts ....

  on Edward Payson...

  • The Watchman's Song – "Day and night, night and day"
  • "My situation was so dangerous, so hopeless, that nothing less than the incarnation..." (Payson)
  • "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
  • "Who wants candles when he has the sun?" ~ Edward Payson | letter 124 on assurance & joy
  • Simeon's waiting / Payson's waiting / our waiting

  A New Year's Eben-ezer (Morning by morning I do awake ... O! the mystery of sovereign grace)
  In loss and grief ... "You maun just go the mair to Jesus." ~ James Laing
  don't waste your new year ~ teach us, satisfy us, make us glad (Psalm 90:12-15)
  Though the waves arose
  John 3:36a Whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life (letter 64 on assurance & joy)
  "give me also springs of water" - Will you be an Achsah? (letter 66 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  Can there be more? | letter 113 on assurance & fighting for joy
  Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
  Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
  we did not choose, He chose us, worthy the Lamb, solus Christus
  Wake up and tremble, rightly ascribe
  when grace delays, has Love gone astray? ~ a hymn of assurance
  In hope against hope believe, Blessed are all who believe
  even in my disappointment - still blessed by my Father
  As the Visible Disappoints

  Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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