The bow he breaks, the spear he cuts, In fire the chariot burns. 10 Be still, and know that I am God; Among the Heathen I Will be exalted; I on earth Will be exalted high. 11 Our God, who is the LORD of hosts, Is still upon our side; The God of Jacob our refuge For ever will abide. Verses 8, 9. Come, behold the works of the LORD, &c. These works are called desolations made by him in the earth, the Chaldean and Roman earth, in the first place, and the Jewish earth, when corrupted like the nations. He will also make desolations in the modern earth, which is to be thrice overturned by Ilim, to bury the idols, and to prepare it for receiving the appointed seed. In Psalm xxviii. 5. we see the extreme danger of disregarding these desolating operations of his hand, that destruction, as in the case of the Jews, and not tranquility and establishment, shall be the awful consequence. Verse 10. Be still, and know that I am God; &c. What he commands here, his power and providence will effect; whence he will be exalted among the heuthen, or nations, he will be exalted in the earth, as distinct from the Church, or as comprising the site of the once Roman empire. Here is a change of person, and Jehovah himself is introduced, as commanding the nations to cease their rage and opposition to his counsels, humbly and reverently to acknowlege his divine power, and sovereignty over all the kingdoms of men; which are thus to become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, when his blessed reign shall commence.What a blessed period when the people, or mankind, shall be gathered together, and the kingdoms of the world, not to make war upon one another, as now, but to serve Jehovah, the Highest Lord! Psal. cii. 22. The reader may see in Zech. xiii. a prediction of the overthrow of modera idolatry, and of the dreaful waste of mankind, to which it will give birth; and in the xivth what shall succeed, in regard of the Jews, when restored to their own land. As the inhabitants of the tenth part of the city, revolutionized in a political earthquake, are to be affrighted, and then to give glory to the God of heaven; so the same must take place in regard of the nations at large, Rev. xi. 13. Modern France is allowed to be that tenth part of mystical Babylon; whence we dread her most terrible judgments are yet to come. If that nation suffer so much before they are brought to give glory to the Most High, the God of heaven and earth; what may be apprehended before the other ten parts of that city, and the cities of the PSALM XLVII. This Psalm is thought to have been composed to celebrate the removal of the ark from Obed-Edom's house into the city of Zion. As David presided at that solemnity, so it is probable this psalm was prepared by him, to be used upon the joyful occasion by the sons of Korah, to whose chief or prefect it was inscribed. The want of his name in the title is no proof that it is not his composition. The prophetic description of our LORD's ascension in this psalm, is borrowed evidently from the ascent of the ark into Zion, and the temple, the probable occasion of it, when it would be sung by the whole assembly. 1 ALL people, clap your hands; to God nations that support it, be overthrown in earthquakes also! As the psalm refers to a terrible destruction brought probably by David upon the idolaters of his day; so it evidently predicts the fearful fate of modern idolaters, and of all that make a common cause with them; and that by the true David the Judge of all the earth. In Psalm cv. 22. see in his type Joseph, his power and office in Egypt, the land of idols-To bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his senators wisdom; the blessed result of his terrible judgments. While we pen these things, we feel the most solemn awe of these impending judgments; for God's hand is stretched out still. It is recorded of the famous Luther, that when heavy tidings reached him of the bloody battles of the Roman Catholics in his day, won over Protestants, he usually said to his friends-Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm; in which let all that fear God and his judgments, still seek comfort in the day of trouble. Notes on Psalm XLVII. Versc 1. O clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God, or cclebrate a jubilce &c. That all nations are here invited to celebrate the grand festival of our Lord's exaltation with the voice of triumph, is evident from the use of the plural-all ye peoples. And does not this say, that all nations, or the whole human race, have an intercst in Christ's ascension to heaven, or the benefits which thence result? In his future jubilce Jews and Gentiles have a concern, to celebrate which they are all here invited. Remission of debts, release from bondage, and the recovery of lost patrimony, were the blessings for which the Jews gladly praised the God of Israel at the memorable festival of the jubilee. But it is evident, that the king, the princes, the heads of tribes, and the priests, had no need of those benefits, or concern in them, except so far as they felt their happiness promoted in seeing their poor brethren made happy. It is then plain that the grand Jubilee of the uni. verse must be intended, not for the elect, these kings and priests, but for the rest of mankind, the poor and miserable, the wretched, the blind and naked; and is it not worthy of God to bless such? 2 For dreadful is the LORD most high, And he shall make the nations 4 The lot of our inheritance Choose out for us will he, Of Jacob, whom he loved well, 5 God is with shouts gone up, the LORD Verse 2. For the LORD most high &c. or is most high, above all that are called gods. He is terrible to all his enemies, a consumming fire to all, to destroy whatever cannot abide the trying fire, and is much to be feared of all that are round about him. He is a great King over all the earth, or all mankind, The universal monarch of the whole world, and not only of Israel,' as Poole remarks. Of this truth the Jews were frequently reminded, and Christians need to be reminded of it also. this psalin celebrates in its evangelical sense, our Lord's ascension, He is therefore Jehovah most high, who then 'began to display the excellent majesty of his universal kingdom, to which he was then inaugurated, being crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.' Dr. H. As Verse 3. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. This holds true only of the spiritual Israel, to whom the rest of mankind will be finally subdued, so as to become the mystical moon under the feet of Messiah's royal spouse. Rev. xii. 2. Mr. Poole renders the first clause; He shall lead, viz. like sheep, the peoples, as in the Hebrew, or bring into the fold; to justify which rendering he refers to Isa. v. 17. Mic. ii. 12. where the original verb occurs. This is a victory worth coveting; but such honour shall be the attainment of all the saints. Verse 4. He shall choose our inheritance for us, &c. or He hath chosen. The Chaldaic version renders the verse-He will take pleasure in us, so as to give us our inheritance. This inheritance is called the excellency of Jacob whom he loved; which appears to intend, in the highest sense, the rest of mankind, or the peoples aud the nations mentioned in the preceding verse. The priests were the Lord's inheritance, the people theirs, The term excellency, denotes royal dignity and dominion, as in Jacob's blessing of Reuben. Gen. xlix. 3. The first fruit of Jacob's excellency was the conquest of Esau and his armed men; a pledge of the future conquest of the mystical goats, and their leader; which will be granted in answer to prayer to the true Isracl. 6 Sing praise to God, sing praise, sing praise, 7 For God is King of all the earth; 9 The princes of the people are Ev'n of the God of Abraham For why? the shields that do defend They to the LORD belong; yea, he Verse 5. God is gone up with a shout &c. Here is another proof of Messiah's proper diety; for he is called God and Jehovah. Local motion or ascension is not ascribed to the Father, nor did the ark represent the properly invisible Diety. Verses 6, 7. Sing praises to God, &c, Here divine praises are commanded to be presented to him in the Church, as God, and King of all the earth, or of all mankind. This is to be done with understanding; whence those who deny him divine homage, discover no true understanding in their worship. And is He the God and King of all nations, or of the whole human race, and will He bestow upon them no corresponding blessings? Verse 8. God reigneth over the heathen, or nations &c. even that God who is anointed in Jacob, to reign to the ends of the earth. In his Mediatory administration, this God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness, manifested to be so by making all his subjects holy. Verse 9. The princes of the people &c. The heads of the tribes of Israel, or, in the evangelical sense, the faithful in Christ Jesus. But the o iginal term is rendered Ps. cx. 3. willing, and so here might be translated, the voluntary or willing, viz. of the people, as it follows.. Poole remarks, It is observable, he doth not say the people of Abraham, lest this should be appropriated to the Israelites; but the people of the God of Abraham, that is, Messiah, whose people or subjects are all mankind, though the great mass of them yet know him not, and are in arms against him; for He is truly the Father of many nations, the God who shall reign over the heathen, or nations, and be King over all the earth. Hos. ii. 14. The shields of the earth which belong to God, are princes, or rulers of the kingdoms of the world, who are so by office. Hos. iv. 18. Here is Christ's claim to them as his subjects. In the highest sense the elect are intended, who are to be shields to the rest of mankind, as Joseph was. PSALM XLVIII. THE writer of this Psalm, whoever he was, describes the glory, the beauty, and the strength of the Christian Church, that city and temple of Messiah, under images borrowed from the earthly Jerusalem, lately delivered from the attacks of her enemies, who envied her prosperity, by her Almighty King, who had there fixed his special residence, and sat emblematically inthroned between the cherubims, and over the mercy-seat, 1 GREAT is the LORD, and greatly he 2 Mount Sion stands most beautiful, On her north side doth stand. in Egypt, Mordecai and Esther were in Persia, Daniel and his friends in Babylon, &c. By this wise and benign arrangement, that God to whom princes and people belong, is, or shall be, greatly exalted, when this glorious prediction shall be fully accomplished. May God grant the reader and the writer the honour of being princes at that all-auspicious period! Notes on Psalm XLVIII. Verse 1. Great is the Loan, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, &c. That Messiah is here intended, he being the only anointed and official King of Israel, we have good reason to conclude. In his Church, that Metropolis, he is greatly to be praised as Jehovah the Saviour, whose throne is fixed in this mountain of his holiness. Verse 2. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, &c. As Jerusalem was the joy and boast of the whole earth, in the prosperous days of Solomon; so will the Church of Christ prove to the rest of mankind, by means of these good tidings of great joy which issue from her walls, and saving agency in restoring the world to God. The spiritual Zion is styled, the city of the great King, her gates are twelve in number, open night and day hen the times of restitution come, contrasted with which she has now but an open and narrow door.-She bears a friendly aspect towards the north, the region of celd, storms and tempests. |