Ver. 9. "For with thee is the fountain of life."]—Or, lives. The phrase denotes that life is originally in God as in its fountain, and that both the fulness of it is with him, and the freeness of it in the communication of it to others, as well as its continuance and duration.

"In thy light shall we see light."]-God is light itself, the Father of lights, and the former of it in every sense; in the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love, they that trust in him see light, or enjoy comfort; and in the light of his Son Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness and light of the world, they see the face of God, and enjoy his favour, and behold the glory and excellency of Christ himself.

Ver. 10. "O continue thy loving-kindness to them that know thee."-That is, spiritually and experimentally, and such as they that trust in him and love him; and these are the objects of the love of God; not that their knowledge, faith, or love, are the cause of his love to them; but these things describe and point manifestly at the objects of it; and this request regards the open discovery of it to them.

PSALM XXXVII.

This psalm is a sermon, and an excellent useful sermon it is, calculated not (as most of the psalms) for our devotion, but for our conversation; there is nothing in it of prayer or praise, but it is all instruction; it is Maschil, a teaching psalm. The prophet is here calling us to patience in the evil days, or present corrupt state of the world, in full assurance that all the wicked will be rooted out, and that they that trust in the Lord, and wait his coming, shall inherit the earth. He foresees, and foretels also, the plots and contrivances of the wicked one against the Just One; that is, against Christ and his mystical body; and assures us that how much soever the wicked one may flourish for the present, his end is rooting out: but the Just One's end shall be peace, and the deliverance of all that trust in him.

VER. 5. "Commit thy way unto the Lord."]-Not that God is ignorant of the ways of men, and of their affairs, and of. their wants and necessities, but it is their duty to ask, and it is his delight to hear; they may come and use freedom with him, and tell him their whole case, and leave it with him, believing he will supply all their need; or, as others render it, roll thy way on the Lord;' see Psalm lv. 22. meaning not the burden of sin, nor the weight of afflic

tion only, but any affair that lies heavy upon the mind; it is an ease to the mind to spread it before the Lord, who sympathizes with his people, supports them under and brings them through their difficulties.

Ver. 23. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."]-Or, of a man; such a man as is blessed of the Lord; the steps which he takes in life are ordered by the Lord, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual: his good conduct is not of himself, it is a blessing of the Lord, who directs and keeps the feet of his saints, and inclines them to take such steps, and pursue such methods, which he makes to succeed and prosper.

"And he delighteth in his way."]-Which he knows and approves of, guides and directs him in; see Psalm i. 6.

Ver. 24. "Though he fall," &c.]-Into temptation, and by it into sins, and these very great ones, from a lively and comfortable exercise of grace, and a degree of sted fastness in the doctrine of grace.

"He shall not be utterly cast down."]-Because he is in the arms of everlasting love, and in the hands of Christ Jesus; is on him as the sure foundation, and is kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, and so shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Ver. 28. "And forsaketh not his saints."]-His holy ones, who are called with an holy calling, are created in righteousness and true holiness, and have principles of grace and holiness wrought in them; or whom he prosecutes with his favour and goodness, with his everlasting love and mercy, with spiritual blessings, with the blessings of justification, pardon, adoption, and a right to eternal life: these he never forsakes in life, nor at death, nor at judgment; nor does he ever forsake the work of his own hands in them, but performs it until the day of Christ.

PSALM XXXVIII.

The title of this psalm supposes it to be offered in the way of remembrance, or for the confession of sin, and the obtaining a remembrance in mercy. The person whom the prophet personates in it (according to Austin, and as ver. 11-14. seems to prove) is the blessed second Adam, begging mercy for his mystical body, and lamenting that corruption of our nature, those putrifying sores, and that fire of worldly affection in our hearts, which sin has brought upon it. For these he

was to answer, and bear them in his own body, and for that reason is represented speaking of them as his own, and what he felt the sad effects of, as he certainly did in his bitter agony, and the pains of the cross, when all his disciples, his lovers and friends, forsook him and fled, and he stood as one that is dumb before his false accusers. These his prayers, therefore, were both to ascend as a memorial before God on our behalf, and also as monitors to lead us to confess and lament the corruption of our nature. He speaks, we are to remember, in this and all like cases, as representative and head, to teach us what care we had need to take to avoid all occasions of triumph to the adversaries of his blessed name, by our frailty and great aptness to slip. And this also, as head of the body he vouchsafes to charge upon himself, calling it" the grief which he never forgot," and which therefore we are much concerned to remember, humbling our hearts with the consideration that it was his grief, and so had need be both lameuted and strictly guarded against by us.

VER. 4. "For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me."]— The guilt of sin upon the conscience, without a view of pardon, lies heavy indeed, and makes a man a burden to himself, as it did Job, chap. vii. 20, 21. yea, sin is not only grieving and afflicting to pardoned ones, and who know they are pardoned, but it is a burden to them under which they groan; nor is it possible for any so to bear it, as to satisfy and make atonement for it, but Christ has done it: nor is there any relief for burdened souls, but by looking to a sin-bearing and sin-atoning Saviour, and by casting the burden upon him who invites them to him for rest.

Ver. 22. "Make haste and help me."]-Or, for my help; his case required haste, and God does help his people when none else can, and that right early.

"O Lord, my salvation."]-By which it appears that his prayer was a prayer of faith; he saw that his salvation was in the Lord, and in no other; and though he had been and was in such a low condition, both in soul and body, yet his faith was not lost; that is an abiding grace, and will continue under the influence of the author and finisher of it, until the end of it is received, the salvation of the soul.

PSALM XXXIX.

The prophet is here setting before us a most perfect pattern of watchfulness, humility, and resignation. And so perfect, that, as a sequel to the foregoing psalm, it seems to have been designed by the holy Spirit for him, whose pity for our souls was such, that, for their re

demption, he submitted to the vanity of a mortal state, and even to become the scorn of fools; bearing also the strokes of God's mighty hand, while he dwelt a stranger here on earth; ever interceding for his body the church, in words suited to our condition, and leading us to consider the vanity and frailty of our present state, and therefore to beg for a renewal of our spiritual strength, before we go hence and be seen here no more.

VER. 8. "Deliver me from all my transgressions."] -Which were the cause and occasion of all his distresses, inward and outward; and the deliverance prayed for includes a freedom from the dominion of sin, which is by the power of efficacious grace, and from the guilt of sin, which is by the application of the blood of Christ; and from obligation to punishment for it, or deliverance from wrath to come which is through Christ's being made a curse, and enduring wrath in the room and stead of his people; and from the very being of sin, which, though it cannot be expected in this life, is desirable.

Ver. 9. "I was dumb, I opened not my month."]-It is a quieting consideration to a child of God under affliction that it comes from God who is a sovereign Being, and does what he pleases; and does all things well and wisely, in truth and faithfulness, and in mercy and loving-kindness. This some refer to the rebellion of Absalom, and the cursing of Shimei, 2 Sam. xii. 11. and xvi. 10, 11. or it may refer to the death of his child, 2 Sam. xii. 22, 23. or rather to some sore affliction upon himself.

PSALM XL.

Here plainly the prophet is speaking in the person of Christ, whom he represents professing subjection, while he dwelt among us in the form of a servant, in a patient waiting on the Lord, even though he laid him in the pit of the grave; but rejoicing, and giving thanks also, in a view of the great things which God by him would do for men, ver. 1–5. declaring then the insufficiency of the legal sacrifices, and his own readiness to fulfil the will of God by offering a better, and preaching righteousness to the great congregation or church of his people, ver. 6-10 begging protection under those innumerable troubles which he was to endure for our sins, which as head of the body, he vouchsafes to take upon himself, and speak of as his own, ver. 11-13. and then foresees that all his enemies will be confounded, but all that seek the Lord, shall rejoice and triumph in his salvation; which happy time he prays may not be delayed.

VER. 1. "I waited patiently for the Lord."-]Or, waiting I waited; which denotes continuance, constancy, and patience, and which Christ exercised in the garden, when he submitted himself entirely to the will of God, and on the cross, when he continued in sure hope and firm expectation of his help and assistance, though he was for a while forsaken by him: see Isaiah 1. 7, 8, 9.

"And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry."]-In the garden, by delivering him from fear of death, and on the cross, by upholding, helping, and assisting him, by carrying him through his sufferings and death, and raising him from the dead: see Isaiah xlix. 8. Heb. v. 7.

"Ver. 2. "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit."]-Which, with the following phrase, "out of the miry clay," expresses the state and condition Christ was in at the time of his bloody sweat, his crucifixion, and his lying in shoel, the pit or grave, sometimes rendered hell, which these figurative phrases fitly signify; when it is ob served that he was made sin, and had the sins of all his people on him, and, as the type of Joshua, was clothed with their filthy garments, he might be truly said to be in the miry clay; and also that he was made a curse for them, and bore the wrath of God in their room and stead, and was forsaken by his God and Father, and so endured both-the punishment of loss and sense.

Ver. 3. "And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God."]-Sung by him in the midst of the great congregation of angels and saints, upon his resur rection, ascension, and session at the right band of God; see Psalm xxii. 22, 25. when he went to his God and our's, to his Father and our's; and in which song he is joined by all his people above and below, Rev. v. 9-13.

"Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord."]-Even all the elect of God, as many as are ordained to eternal life; the many whose sins Christ bore, for whom he became a ransom, whom he justifies and brings to glory; these all see him in the horrible pit and miry clay, in his state of humiliation, as bearing their sins, and the punishment due unto them; as wounded, bruised, and crucified, as rising again for their justification, and as on mount Zion crowned with glory and honour, and a multitude of harpers with him, singing the new song: these see the salvation he has wrought out, the glory, fulness, and suitableness of it, and their interest in it.