All Articles For Vos, Gerrit

Many, many years ago, it happened that a piercing, thrice-repeated cry ascended to the heavens. It was David, and, as was very often the case, David in trouble. Thrice repeated is his crying to God. We refer to the opening of the seventeenth psalm. Hear! Attend! Give ear! Involuntarily we will repeat our cries of anguish. And in the same measure that we are in trouble, we will also repeat our cries for help. So also David, He was in great trouble. We do not know the historical background. It may have been at the time that he had to...

Mr. President, Rev. and Mrs. Hoeksema, Beloved in the Lord: It would not do to begin my speech somewhat on this order—On this joyful occasion I am very glad to be in your midst, and as I look upon your smiling and happy faces, etc., etc. No, that would be the wrong approach. The truth of the matter is that I am about 2,500 miles away from you as I speak these words, and I am looking into a little instrument which seems to have a great power to embarrass me. Moreover, I am far from looking into any smiling...

At sundry times and in divers manners I have heard a question asked which I here find in the 15th Psalm. Some put it this way: Where will you spend eternity? I know, I know: the question put into that form usually comes from the corner of those that dilute the Gospel of God; they present the race to eternity as a game of chance; they emphasize the responsibility of man at the expense of God’s Sovereign counsel. I know all that. But the question itself is not necessarily wrong. It may be a theme that is pregnant with meaning....

The thirteenth Psalm is, first, the outcry of a heart that is overburdened with grief, chief of which is the feeling of forsakenness; second, the prayer for relief in the face of jeering enemies; and, third, the song of a grateful saint. In the first part of the Psalm, that speaks of forsakenness, we hear the cry: How long? four times. The first cry sounds strange. There is a great contradiction in it. Or so it seems. Attend to this: “How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou forget me perpetually? It seems to us that if Jehovah would forget us perpetually, there...

More and more it seems as though equity, truth and wisdom have fled from the face of the earth, never to return. The very foundations of human relationship seems to be so shaken that only cruel might, total deception and ludicrous folly seem to reign supreme. However, nothing is farther from the truth. Even now, God lives and all is well. Even now, as ever, all things happen according to a very fixed plan and for a very determinate purpose. Moreover, that plan and that purpose are strictest justice and divine truth and wisdom. At all times God says: “These...

More and more it seems as though equity, truth and wisdom have fled from the face of the earth, never to return. The very foundations of human relationship seems to be so shaken that only cruel might, total deception and ludicrous folly seem to reign supreme. However, nothing is farther from the truth. Even now, God lives and all is well. Even now, as ever, all things happen according to a very fixed plan and for a very determinate purpose. Moreover, that plan and that purpose are strictest justice and divine truth and wisdom. At all times God says: “These...

This is also a great evil upon the earth. Then our enemy is not after our body so much as he sets himself to tear our soul in pieces. And the damage is done. And there is almost no remedy against its devilish poison. You can cry against it and give testimony of the truth of the matter: it is of no avail. At least as long as the Judgment Day is far away. There is nothing the devil invented that is as efficient as slander. It is gladly believed by all of us. We are inclined rather to believe...

The fifth psalm is a morning meditation. Many years later we find a quotation taken from this psalm and quoted in the New Testament. (Rom. 3:13). I cannot help but think: how few people will to-day meditate like the saint in this psalm. To-day there is a very different tenor in the meditations of those who “look up” and “direct their prayer in the morning.” There are not a few divines who explain (?) this psalm as a sinful outburst of selfishness on the part of David. Some do not try to explain it at all. Some think it a...

It is often emphasized within the church of Jesus Christ that truth is eternal. Rightly so. We were reminded of this when our thoughts turned to the second psalm and, looking up, thought on the devastating war in Europe. Surely truth is eternal. This second psalm fits even now. The heathen rage in Europe and the people imagine a vain thing. This second psalm has a threefold application. It certainly refers historically to David, vis. Acts 4:25ff. It also refers to his Anti-type, the Lord Jesus Christ, vis. Acts 4:25ff.; 13:38; Heb. 1:5; 5:5. But it also refers to the...

Dear Editor-in-Chief: On the very surface, your outline of the proposed change of the Standard Bearer is better than we have now. However, I think that we should add one more department, that is, if we will not get a Church paper. And the proposed addition is a department for the news of our churches. There is a lack now. With news, I refer to trios, calls, and other pertinent items about the life of our churches. Yours sincerely, Rev. G. Vos. Note: Thanks Rev. Vos for your suggestion. I suppose that if the proposed plan meets with general favor,...