Interpret → Preach
For the service
John Wesley’s own Explanatory Notes Upon the Old and New Testament on the day’s readings — his verse-by-verse commentary, not a summary of it. Read the full edition ↗
first Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24
no note on this passage
psalm Psalm 30
- v.5Cometh — Speedily and in due season.
- v.7Mountain — My kingdom: kingdoms are usually called mountains in prophetical writings.
- v.9Profit — What wilt thou gain by it? The dust - Shall they that are dead celebrate thy goodness in the land of the living? Or, shall my dust praise thee?
- v.11Sackcloth — Given me occasion to put off that sackcloth, which they used to wear in times of mourning, Esth iv, 1 chap. xxxv, 13 Isaiah xxxii, 11 Joel i, 13. Girded - With joy, as with a garment, surrounding me on every side.
- v.12My glory — My tongue. David professes his confidence in God, intermixing prayer to him, ver. 1-8. Complains to God and prays for deliverance, ver. 9-18. Concludes with giving glory to God, and encouraging others to trust him, ver. 19-24. To the chief musician, A psalm of David.
second 2 Corinthians 8:7-15
- v.9For ye know — And this knowledge is the true source of love. The grace - The most sincere, most free, and most abundant love. He became poor - In becoming man, in all his life; in his death. Rich - In the favour and image of God.
- v.12A man — Every believer. Is accepted - With God. According to what he hath - And the same rule holds universally. Whoever acknowledges himself to be a vile, guilty sinner, and, in consequence of this acknowledgment, flies for refuge to the wounds of a crucified saviour, and relies on his merits alone for salvation, may in every circumstance of life apply this indulgent declaration to himself.
- v.14That their abundance — If need should so require. May be - At another time. A supply to your want: that there may be an equality - No want on one side, no superfluity on the other. It may likewise have a further meaning:-that as the temporal bounty of the Corinthians did now supply the temporal wants of their poor brethren in Judea, so the prayers of these might be a means of bringing down many spiritual blessings on their benefactors: so that all the spiritual wants of the one might be amply supplied; all the temporal of the other.
- v.15As it is written, He that had gathered the most had nothing over; and he that had gathered the least did not lack — That is, in which that scripture is in another sense fulfilled. Exod. xvi, 18
gospel Mark 5:21-43
- v.21Luke viii, 40.
- v.22One of the rulers of the synagogue — To regulate the affairs of every synagogue, there was a council of grave men. Over these was a president, who was termed the ruler of the synagogue. Sometimes there was no more than one ruler in a synagogue. Matt. ix, 18; Luke viii, 41.
- v.25Matt. ix, 20; Luke viii, 43.
- v.37John, the brother of James — When St. Mark wrote, not long after our Lord's ascension, the memory of St. James, lately beheaded, was so fresh, that his name was more known than that of John himself.
- v.40Them that were with him — Peter, James, and John.
- v.43He charged them that no man should know it — That he might avoid every appearance of vain glory, might prevent too great a concourse of people, and might not further enrage the scribes and Pharisees against him; the time for his death, and for the full manifestation of his glory, being not yet come. He commanded something should be given her to eat - So that when either natural or spiritual life is restored, even by immediate miracle, all proper means are to be used in order to preserve it.