God’s sacraments enrich His Word by pointing us away from ourselves. Each sign – the water, the bread, and the wine – directs us to Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. The sacraments are visible means through which Christ invisibly communes with us and we with Him. They spur us to Christlikeness and therefore to holiness.

Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory, Loc. 2736.

Psalm 2:3 “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

Self-will rejects restraint. Pride will not yield to rule. Licentiousness surmounts all barriers. Conceited reason lifts up defiant head.The gentle scepter of Christ’s kingdom, His sweet, His light, His easy, and His loving yoke, are hated as bands which curb and cords which fetter. When Jesus came, earth raised the cry, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” It still resounds. When will man learn that widest liberty is true submission to the Gospel sway? He is a free man whom the Son makes free.

Henry Law, Daily Prayer and Praise: The Book of Psalms Arranged for Private and Family Use, 6.

The names of the elect are said to be “written in heaven,” and to be “in the book of life.” Phil. iv. 3; Heb. xii. 23.

The blessings to which men are elected are such as pertain to individuals, not to communities; and they are represented as elected to these spiritual qualifications, and not because they belong to the class which possesses them. They are elected “to salvation,” “to the adoption of sons,” “to be holy and without blame before him in love.” (2 Thess. ii. 13; Gal. iv. 4, 5; Eph. i.4.)

This election is unchangeable. This is self-evident.

It is not conditioned upon foreseen faith or repentance, but in each case upon sovereign grace and personal love, according to the secret counsel of his will.

A. A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith, 70.

The Calvinist holds that God has elected certain individuals to eternal life, and all the means and conditions thereof, on the ground of his sovereign good pleasure. He chooses them to faith and repentance, and not because of their faith and repentance. That God does choose individuals to eternal life is certain.

A. A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith, 70.

The fact that the Bible is one book should have big implications for the way we read it. The way you read a book depends on the kind of book you think it is. . . . With the exception of the Proverbs, the Bible does not contain isolated sayings. I should be wary about dipping into it at random and extracting individual verses without regard for their context. I am almost bound to misunderstand the Bible if I read it in that way. Each verse needs to be understood in the context of the chapter in which it appears, and each chapter in light of the book as a whole. And there is a wider context we must consider as well: the whole Bible.

Vaughan Roberts, God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible, 18-19.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Amid all their trials, sorrows, pains, reproaches, let the righteous lift up rejoicing heads. The eye of God rests on their way. He called them to the narrow road. He upholds their feeble steps. He safely leads them to the glorious end. Unfailing watchfulness surrounds them. But the broad road with its unrighteous throng, goes down assuredly to hell.

Holy Spirit, give us the portion of the blessed man! May we escape the doom of the ungodly!

Henry Law, Daily Prayer and Praise: The Book of Psalms Arranged for Private and Family Use, 4.

Religion will cease to be the pervading element in the house in which the inmates fail thus to present themselves together at the throne of grace. It is impossible to over-estimate the blessings which may be expected from such family solemnities. They sweetly sanctify the home, and are a holy picture of celestial oneness. Love will then cement the hearts which together seek a heavenly Father’s face — together vow obedience to His will — together consecrate their every faculty to His service — together bless Him for their common hope — together adore Him for the gift of Jesus, and all the preciousness of the Gospel-revelation.

Henry Law, Daily Prayer and Praise: The Book of Psalms Arranged for Private and Family Use, v-vi.

Life in the OT is especially characteristic of Yahweh. He “lives” (Ps 18:46) and never dies (Ps 121:4). He is the God of life (Pss 36:9; 42:8), the “Living God” (Josh 3:10; Pss 42:3; 84:3; Hos 2:1 [1:10]; 2 Kgs 19:4, 16 = Isa 37:4, 17; Deut 5:23 [26]; 1 Sam 17:26, 36; Jer 10:10; 23:36), and the power of life flows from him (Ps 145:16; 36:8–10; 80:18; 1 Sam 2:6; Deut 32:39; cf. Jer 2:13; 17:13). Those who are far from him will perish (Ps 73:27). He provides the “Way (or Path) of Life”: Ps 16:11; Prov 5:6; 6:23; 15:24; Jer 21:8; cf. Prov 2:19; 10:17. Thus all of life is a gift and a trust from Yahweh . . .

MARVIN TATE, PSALMS 51-100, VOLUME 20 (WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY), 373.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

John 1:1-4

Let the people of God whenever they are ringed about with threatening foes lift up their hearts. The king of all nations and the judge of all the earth hears prayer and will in his own time and ways sweep his foes away as a fire roars through a forest and sweeps over the mountains in blazing fury. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the LORD.”

MARVIN TATE, PSALMS 51-100, VOLUME 20 (WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY), 349.

Ps 83 merits our consideration from at least two perspectives. First, it is a good example of relatively late Hebrew poetry. Its style is not marked by great subtlety; it is rather straightforward and simple. The fine distinctions and intricate patterns of some psalms are missing. However, it is effective and expresses prayer with both economy of words and well-crafted figures of speech.

Second, the psalm serves as a paradigmatic prayer of lament and complaint for a people surrounded by hostile nations and threatened with overwhelming force. The psalm reminds us that the greatest resource of the people of Yahweh is prayer, which appeals both directly to him and is based on his powerful acts of intervention and deliverance in the past.

MARVIN TATE, PSALMS 51-100, VOLUME 20 (WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY), 349.