venant with him in him, blessed him with all spiritual blessings in him, and made unto him exceedingly great and precious promises; provided a Redeemer and Saviour for him, whom he had made known unto him, having enlightened, quickened, and converted him.

Ver. 10. "I believed, therefore have I spoken."]He believed the Lord would deliver him out of all his troubles; that he should walk before him, and see his goodness in the land of the living; he believed a future state of happiness he should hereafter enjoy. The apostle Paul quotes this passage, and applies it to himself and other gospel ministers; declaring their faith in the resurrection of the dead, and an eternal weight of glory they were looking for, 2 Cor. iv. 13, 14. and therefore spake so freely about these things. Faith gives boldness and freedom of speech to men; which believers use with God in prayer, in the believing views of him, as their God in Christ; and of Christ, his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice: it gives ministers boldness and freedom to speak out plainly, constantly, and boldly, the gospel of Christ; it gives the same to private christians, to speak freely one to another of their gracious experiences, and to declare publicly to the churches of Christ, what God has done for their souls.

Ver. 11. "I said in my haste, all men are liars."]— However degenerate the age was in which David lived, and the faithful among men were few, yet there were some to whom this imputation did not belong; and therefore on cool reflection, he owned it was said in haste; not with thought and deliberation, but rashly, precipitately, and unadvisedly. Some take the words in a quite different sense, as an instance of his great faith; that when he was so greatly afflicted, and obliged to fly, yet declared, that every man that should say he should not come to the kingdom was a liar: so Kimchi: and others think his meaning is, that every man is a liar in comparison of God, who is true and faithful to his promises, and not a man that he should lie. Men of both high and low degree, are a lie and vanity, and not to be trusted and depended upon; but a man may safely put con fidence in the Lord; to this agrees Romans iii. 4. where the apostle seems to have some respect to this passage.

Ver. 12. “ What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?"]-Or, all his benefits are upon me. These benefits were the blessings of nature and provi dence; his being, and the preservation of it, food, raiment, &c. and the blessings of grace; spiritual blessings, all

things pertaining to life and godliness, sanctification, adop tion, pardon, justification, and eternal life. These may well be called benefits, since they spring entirely from the free grace of God; and they were many, more than could be counted and reckoned up, and set in order before the Lord; and yet he was desirous that none of them might be forgotten, but that praise might be rendered to the Lord for them all.

Ver. 13. "I will take the cup of salvation."]-Or, salvations: not the eucharistic cup, or the cup in the Lord's supper, which the apostle calls "the cup of blessing, 1 Cor. x. 16. though some so think, and that the psalmist personates the saints under the gospel dispensation; nor the cup of afflictions, or martyrdom for the sake of Christ; being willing, under a sense of mercies received, to bear or suffer any thing for his sake, knowing it would be a token to him of salvation, and work for his good: but rather an offering of praise for temporal, spiritual, and eternal salvation; in allusion to a master of a family, who, at the close of a feast or meal, used to take up a cup in his hands, and give thanks; Matt. xxvi. 27.

Ver. 15. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."]-Saints are precious to him, living and dying; there is something in their death, or that attends it, that is delightful to him, and of high esteem with him; as when they are in the full exercise of grace at such a season; when they die in faith, and have hope in their death; and their love is drawn out unto him, and they long to be with him besides, they die in the Lord, and sleep in Jesus, in union with him; with whom he is well pleased, and all in him; and they die unto him, according to his will, and are resigned unto it; and so glorify him in death, as well as in life. It is the time of their ingathering to him; at death be comes into his garden, and gathers his flowers, and smells a sweet savour in them; their very dust is precious to him, which he takes care of and raises up at the last day. The words will bear to be rendered, Precious in the sight of the Lord is that death, or death itself, for his saints: that very remarkable and observeable death, even the death of his Son, which was not only for the good of his saints, for their redemption, salvation, justification, pardon, and eternal life; but in their room and stead; and which was very acceptable unto God, of high esteem with him, of a sweet-smelling savour to him: not that he took pleasure in it, simply consi dered; for he that hath no pleasure in the death of him that

dieth, even of a sinner, could have none in the death of bis Son; but as hereby his justice was satisfied, his law fulfilled, the salvation of his people procured, and his covenant, counsels, purposes, and decrees, accomplished.

PSALM CXVII.

The Israel of God (looking on him whom they pierced, as even the natural Israel shall do in the latter days) are here confessing themselves overcome by his mercies and never-failing truth; and therefore calling all nations to join in his praise.

VER. 2. "For his merciful kindness is great towards us."]-It prevailed over us, as it may be rendered: the word is used of the prevailing of the waters of the flood over the earth, Gen. vii. 18. and so may denote the exuberancy of the grace of God, of the abounding and superabounding of it. There is an abundance of it in the heart of God, in his covenant, and in his Son; which is displayed in redemption by him; in the forgiveness of sin; in the conversion of sinners, and their everlasting salvation: particularly there has been an inundation or deluge of it in the gentile world, where it has flowed and overflowed; where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded; and therefore the Lord is to be praised.

PSALM CXVIII.

This was the last of those Psalms which the Jews reckoned into their great Hallel, or what they sang after their passover; and was therefore probably the conclusion of that hymn, which the blessed man Christ Jesus and his disciples sang after his last pass-over. Most suitable to the occasion it plainly is: and the learned Jews, both aucient and modern, are said to agree in confessing it to speak of the Messiah. And indeed, he seems to be not only the subject, but the person speaking; calling his Israel to praise the Lord for his never-failing mercies, ver. 1-4 professing trust in him, in the greatest of his distresses, ver. 5-9. foresecing that all nations would fight against him (in his body, the church) but he should prevail, ver. 10-12. that, though satan pressed hard to cast him down, the Lord would be his salvation, ver. 13-16. that though he was to be humbled, yet he (and therefore his body, the church also,) should be delivered, not remaining under the power of death, but living to declare the works of the Lord, ver. 17-21. After which his church seems to speak, rejoicing that he, though rejected by the builders, is become the head of the corner; praying also for

support, and celebrating him that came in the name of the Lord to shew us light; acknowledging him to be her God, and that his mercy is for ever for the people, the priest, and the psalmist himself, triumph in the prospect of the Redeemer's kingdom.

VER. 5. "I called upon the Lord in distress."]— This may respect the Messiah, and may design his distresses in the garden, when surrounded with sorrow, and being in an agony prayed the more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood; and may be applied to his members, as it often is their case to be in distress, straits, and difficulties, through outward afflictions and pressures, inward corruptions, temptations, and desertions, and through the low exercise of grace; when they are as it were imprisoned, and so straitened they cannot come forth in the free exercise of it: at all which seasons prayer is necessary; and nothing is more proper than to call upon the Lord, which is both duty and privilege, and often attended with success.

Ver. 6. "The Lord is on my side."]-Or, for me. He was on the side of David, bence all his prosperity and victories, the wonderful things done by him, his exaltation to the throne, and the establishment of it; and so he was on the side of Christ, he was near unto him, at his right hand, to guide, direct, and assist him as man; and he is likewise on the side of his people, to fight their battles for them, to support them under all their afflictions, to supply all their wants, to deliver them from all evil, to carry on the work of grace in their souls, and to bring them to glory.

Ver. 7. "Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me."-This was desired by the Messiah, and by the saints; not for the sake of itself, but for the glory of divine justice. David saw this, Psalm liv. 7. so will the Messiah, when all his enemies, that will not have him to reign over them, will be slain before him; and so will the people of God, when antichrist is destroyed.

Ver. 10. But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them."]-Thus our Lord Jesus Christ, his antitype, as Mediator, stood in the strength and in the majesty of the name of the Lord, calling upon him to glorify him; and trusting in his help and power, he attacked all his and our enemies, and obtained an entire victory over them, to the utter demolition of them; sin, satan, death, and bell. The word used has the signification of concision or circumcision, and may have a peculiar regard to the Jews, who boasted of

their circumcision, and were the implacable enemies of Christ, and who were destroyed by him, when wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

Ver. 11. "They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about."]-Which is repeated not only for the confirmation of it, but to denote the frequency and fury of their attacks, and their obstinate persisting therein.

"But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them."]— Which also is repeated to shew the strength of his faith, and the continuance of it, notwithstanding his numerous enemies, and their violent efforts against him.

Ver. 12. "They compassed me about like bees."]This denotes the numbers of the enemies of David and of Christ, and of his church and people, and the wrath and fury of them against them, as well as their fruitless and unsuccessful attempts upon them; for though they rage, what they contrive and endeavour to put in execution are vain things, and in the issue end in their own ruin and destruction.

Ver. 15. "The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous."]-There is occasion of joy in the dwelling-places of the saints, though but _cottages, and in the churches of God, the tabernacles of the Most High, on account of the spiritual and eternal salvation Christ is the author of; which joy is inwardly felt in the heart, and outwardly expressed by one saint to another, and in vocal prayer to God, and in singing his praises; which may be done in the houses of the saints, as well as in the house of God.

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Ver. 16. "The right hand of the Lord is exalted."] This is three times mentioned, and may have respect to the three divine persons in the Godhead, whose right hand or power is the same and as the right hand of the Father has done powerfully in the instances given, so the right hand of the Son has worked mightily in vanquishing all enemies, sin, satan, death, and the world, in obtaining the salvation of his people, and in raising himself from the dead and so the right hand of the Holy Spirit has wrought powerfully on Christ, on whom he rested as the Spirit of might, and through whom Christ offered himself to God, and by whom he was raised from the dead; and also in the conversion of sinners, and in helping, assisting, strengthening, and protecting the saints.

Ver. 17. "I shall not die, but live."]-These words may be considered as the words of Christ, who, though he