that not a bone of him should be broken, nor any of his servants perish; but the wicked one, and all his followers, the enemies of the Just One, must perish.

VER. 1. "I will bless the Lord at all times."]-For all spiritual blessings; and that continually, because these last always; they are irreversible, unchangeable, and without repentance; yea, saints have reason to bless God in times of adversity as well as prosperity, since it might have been worse with them than it is; they have a mixture of mercy in all, and all things work together for their good.

Ver. 2. "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord."] In the Lord Jesus Christ; in his wisdom, strength, riches, righteousness, redemption, and salvation; in an interest in him, and communion with him.

Ver. 3. "O magnify the Lord with me."]-The psalmist invites the humble ones, who he knew would rejoice at the goodness of God to him, to join with him in ascribing greatness to the Lord, which is meant by magnifying him.

Ver. 5. "They looked unto him, and were lightened."] -That is, the humble ones, ver. 2. It denotes both the numbers of them that looked up to the Lord in their distress, and the swiftness of their motion to him, and their earnest ness and fervour of mind; so faith is not only a looking to Christ, but a going forth unto him.

"And their faces were not ashamed."]-Having what they prayed and looked for, and what they hoped and believed they should have; namely, deliverance and salvation, and so peace and pleasure.

Ver. 6. This poor man cried."]-Some think Jesus Christ is intended by this poor man, who was poor in temporals, though rich, and Lord of all; and was greatly afflicted, both in body and soul; and who, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, Heb. v. 7.

And the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."]-So the Lord always heard his Son Jesus Christ, and especially in the day of salvation, and delivered him out of all his troubles, both of body and soul, when he raised him from the dead, and gave him glory.

Ver. 7. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear bim."]-By whom may be meant, the uncreated angel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of God's presence, and of the covenant, the captain of salvation, the

leader and commander of the people; and whose salvation is as walls and bulwarks about them; or as an army surrounding them.

Ver. 8. "O taste and see that the Lord is good."-He is essentially, infinitely, perfectly, immutably, and solely good in himself; and he is communicatively and diffusively good to others; he is the author of all good, but not of any evil, in a moral sense; this chiefly regards his special grace and goodness through Christ: all the divine persons in the Godhead are good; the Father is good, he has good designs towards his people, has provided good things for them, made good promises to them, and bestows good gifts on them: the Son is good; the good shepherd that has laid down his life for the sheep; he is the fountain of all grace and goodness to his churches, and to particular believers; he has wrought a good work for them, the work of redemption, and he speaks a good word on their behalf in the in court of heaven: the Spirit is good; he shews good things unto men; and gracious souls, such as the psalmist here calls upon, are capable of tasting and discerning how good the Lord is in some measure.

Ver. 15. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righte ous."It is only by the righteousness of Christ that men are righteous before God: and upon these the eyes of the Lord are; not only his eye of providence, to watch over them, protect them, and supply them with good things, but his eye of love; with complacency and delight he looks upon them, as clothed with the righteousness of his Son; and it is with pleasure he looks upon them, that being wellpleasing in his sight; seeing by it the law is magnified and made honourable.

Ver. 18. "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart."]-Not in a general way only, as he is to all men, being God omnipresent, but in a special manner; he comes and manifests himself to them in a gracious way, pours in the oil and wine of his love, and binds up their broken hearts.

Ver. 19. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous."] -The Lord Jesus Christ may here be designed, who is eminently and emphatically the righteous; he is righteous both as God and man, and as mediator, in the discharge of every branch of his office; and his afflictions were many, which he endured from men, from devils, and from God himself; many were the afflictions of his body, which he bore when buffeted, scourged, and crucified; and many

were the afflictions of his soul, when he bore the sins of his people, endured the wrath of God for them, and was forsaken by him, though none of these were for any sins of his own, but for the sins of others; and out of them all the Lord delivered him at last, and set him at his own right hand or this may be understood of every one of the righteous; who, though they are justified from sin, and are saved from wrath, yet have many afflictions.

Ver. 20. "He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken."]-This is literally true of Christ, in whom the type of the passover lamb had its accomplishment, and this passage also; see Exod. xii. 46. John xix. 31-36. and seems better to agree with him than with any of his members.

Ver. 22. "And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate."]-Or, be guilty, or condemned, or damned; because they are justified from all the sins they have been guilty of, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; and having believed in him, they shall not be damned, Mark xvi. 16. and they shall be far from being desolate, and alone, and miserable; they shall stand at Christ's right band, be received into his kingdom and glory, and be for ever with him.

PSALM XXXV.

Here plainly the prophet David is speaking in the person of Christ, wrestling not only with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, those rulers of the darkness of this world, who (as being all combined under their proud bead) are here represented as a "stronger one," who is to have an unexpected fall, and from whom that meek and poor one, the blessed man Christ Jesus, expected to be delivered, ver. 1-10. complaining in the mean time of false witness, and gathering in multitudes to tear and insult him, though he clothed himself with the sackcloth of our flesh, mourning and fasting for the healing of their souls, ver. 11-16. praying to the Father, in full assurance that he (with that hody of his peaceful quiet ones, for which as head he was thus making intercession) shall find deliverance, and rejoice in his mercy. Here therefore, and every where, when he is thus making intercession for us, as for himself, may our hearts be lifted up, and humbly say, 'Lord! hear the voice of the Mediator.'

VER. 9. "And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord."] -The Targum is, 'In the word of the Lord' the essential Word of God, the promised Messiah, Saviour, and

Redeemer. Christ is the object of a believer's joy; he rejoices in his person, as he is the mighty God, able to save him, and to keep what he has committed to him, and to preserve him from falling; as he is God and man in one person, and so fit to be a mediator between God and man.

Ver. 10. "Which delivereth the poor from him that is too strong for him; yea, the poor and the needy, from him that spoiled him."]-Satan is the strong man armed, and is an over match for the poor and needy; but Christ the mighty God, is stronger than he, and has ransomed them out of the hands of him that was stronger than they; and the prey, or they that were made a spoil by him, are taken out of the hands of the mighty, and the lawful captive is delivered: they are, indeed, assaulted by his temptations, in which he would be too many for them, but that they are strengthened against him by the Lord, and are enabled to withstand him, who, in the issue, flees from them; nor can he do as he pleases with them, nor re-assume his power over them he once had, nor lead them captive at his will as he once did: God is on their side; Christ is their patron and defender, that pleads their cause against him; the Spirit that is within them is greater than be that is in the world; angels are all around them, and in a little while these poor and needy will be in heaven.

Ver. 20. "For they speak not peace."]-Meaning to himself, or any good man, as Joseph's brethren could not to him, Gen. xxxvii. 4. Such were the men David had to do with, Psalm cxx. 6, 7. and such were the enemies of Christ, who could not give him a good word, nor speak one to him, John x. 20. and such are the enemies of his people, who breathe out nothing but threatenings and slaugh ter, and not any thing that tends to peace.

Ver. 24. "Judge me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness."]-Namely, that righteousness of his, by which he justifies his people, which Christ has wrought out, God has accepted of, and imputes, and which, though revealed in the gospel, was witnessed to by the law and prophets, and was known to the saints under the old testament, and particularly to David; see Rom. iv. 6.

PSALM XXXVI.

The prophet here, having represented the desperate and incurable wickedness of that enemy of souls, the wicked one, ver. 1-4. turns his eyes, and sets before us the beautiful, opposite character, in that wondrous mercy of the great Lover of souls, under the shadow of whose wing there is refuge even to the poor fallen sons of Adam, with the hope of partaking also in that torrent of joys which flows from the light of his presence, ver. 5-9. and then prays, in the name of the church, for mercy to all the true in heart, and foresees the utter destruction of the wicked, in ver. 10-12.

VER. 6. "Thy righteousness is like the great moun-tains."]-By which he justifies sinners, which may be said to be as the mountains of God, because of the dignity of his person who has wrought it out, and because of the clear manifestation of it, the gospel, and so visible as high mountains, and because of the immoveableness and duration of it.

"Thy judgments are a great deep."]-Both in a way of providence, many of them being at present not to be traced, though 'ere long they will be made manifest; and in a way of grace, such as the choice of some, and the leaving of others, the rejection of the Jews, and call of the gentiles; see Rom. xi. 33.

Ver. 7. "How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God!"]-Which has appeared to men and not angels, to some and not others; to the chief of sinners, who are by nature children of wrath as others; in choosing, redeeming, and calling them, taking them into his family, and making them heirs of eternal glory; and all this of his sovereign good-will and pleasure, there being nothing in them that could move him to it; which loving-kindness was in his heart from everlasting, and will never change in him, nor depart from them; and hence it must be most excellent and precious.

Ver. 8. "And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasure."]-The love of God, whose streams. make glad the city of God; or the fulness of grace which is in Christ, out of which believers draw with joy, and drink with pleasure; or eternal glory and happiness, enjoyed in the presence of God, in which is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore.'

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