When the Waters are Deep, Billowy & Dark

The language of David, and of David's Lord, is that of all the spiritual seed of David: 'Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterspouts: all your waves and your billows are gone over me.' Deep and billowy and dark are often the waters through which the saints wade to glory.

'The Lord tries the righteous'; and he tries them because they are righteous, and to make them yet more righteous still. It was deep in the fathomless depths that Jonah learned the most precious of all truths: 'Salvation belongs to the Lord.' It was in the cave of Adullam - in the lion's den - in the noisome pit - in the jail of Philippi - in the isle of Patmos - in the garden of Gethsemane; that David, and Daniel, and Jeremiah, and Paul, and John and JESUS, were brought into the richest teaching, holiest lessons, and most blessed experience of their lives.

And shall we, beloved, plead exemption from these depths of trial, tribulation, and sorrows? Ah no! what losers should we be were it so! Who would not follow in the footsteps of the flock? Above all, who would not walk in the footsteps of the Shepherd of the flock, who, though he were a Son, 'yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered'? Look up, then, you sinking child of sorrow! Are you enquiring of the Lord, 'Why am I thus tried, thus afflicted, thus chastened?' Listen to his answer: 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.'

~ Octavius Winslow, Soul-Depths & Soul-Heights: Sermons on Psalm 130 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2006), p. 17.

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My heart has been ministered to as I've been reading this series of sermons on one of the most familiar of the Penitential psalms. Winslow's nine-part sermon series on Psalm 130 has been re-typeset and reprinted. According to Winslow's Preface, the only other exposition of this particular psalm that was available to him, was that of John Owen (which can be found in Volume 6 of The Works of John Owen [read online at CRTA]). Due to Owen's "peculiar style" (ie. difficult) Winslow thought that a more popular exposition would be of benefit to the Church. Thus, in 1874, this more simple exposition was published.

Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) was a descendant of Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrim Fathers. Through his prolific writing and passionate, gospel-centered preaching, Winslow came to be held in high esteem as a nonconformist preacher in nineteenth century. Having followed his brothers into the Gospel ministry, Winslow pastored/preached for a short season at Second Baptist Church, Brooklyn, NY. In 1839, he returned to England where he pastored in Leamington Spa, Bath, and Brighton.

Winslow, Octavius. Soul-Depths & Soul-Heights: Sermons on Psalm 130. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2006. Paperback, viii + 135 pages.

When the Waters are Deep, Billowy & Dark

Jesus' Mysterious Incarnation, the first step in the humiliation of the Son of God

Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

From The Glory of the Redeemer in His Person and Work. r.p. Pittsburgh, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, n.d., pp. 126-128.

"Now, the great glory which gilds this dark part of the Redeemer's humiliation consists in the lowering of the infinite to the scale of the finite--the bringing down of the Godhead to a level with the manhood. In this lay His real humiliation, and from this springs His true glory. Had our Lord assumed our nature, descending from the highest order of angelic being, He would but have exchanged one form of created existence for another; and although made a "little lower than the angels," there would have been no such relinquishment of previous dignity, as could justify the term thus applied to Him by the Holy Spirit, "He humbled Himself." If, as a finite creature, it were possible for me to assume the incarnation of an insect, there would be in the act but the mere semblance of humility,--the appearance, and not the true virtue itself: because, there being some proportion between the form relinquished and the form assumed, the step would be but a lower one in the same scale of finite being. But how vastly different in the case of our adorable Redeemer! As we have just remarked, between two finite things there is always some relative proportion; thus a grain of sand bears some proportion to the Alps, and a drop of water bears some proportion to the ocean; but between the finite and the infinite there can be no possible proportion whatever. Now, in the person of the Son of God, the two extremes of being--the infinite and the finite,--meet in strange and mysterious, but close and eternal, union. The Divine came down to the human,--Deity humbled itself to humanity. This was humiliation indeed! It was not the creature descending in the scale of creation, but is was the Creator stooping to the creature. "God was manifest in the flesh,"--"He humbled Himself." Oh, it is an amazing truth! So infinitely great was He, He could thus stoop without compromising His dignity, or lessening His glory."

John Owen (1616-1683)

From The Glory of Christ. Edited by Wilbur M. Smith. r.p. Chicago: Moody Press, 1980, pp. 99-100.

"This, then, is the foundation of the glory of Christ in this condescension, the life and soul of all heavenly truth and mysteries: that the Son of God becoming in time to be what He was not, the Son of Man, ceased not thereby to be what He was, even the eternal Son of God."

Jesus' Mysterious Incarnation, the first step in the humiliation of the Son of God