Into thy bottle put my tears: Are they not in thy book? 9 My foes shall, when I cry, turn back; 10 In God his word I'll praise; his word 11 In God I trust; I will not fear 12 Thy vows upon me are, O God: 13 Wilt thou not, who from death me sav'd, To walk before God in the light Shepherd, like Joseph in Dothan, wandered for a season in the wilderness of this world, till his Jewish brethren sold him to the Heathen, and ended his wanderings by his death. All this is predicted in the book of life. Verse 9. When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back; &c. By prayer David overcame his enemies, so that they turned their back upon his pursuing troops. But they turned back also from their revolt to a state of dutiful alegiance, and that when he cried, or issued his proclamation, promising pardon to those who submitted to his authority. Reading the clause without the supplement, unto thee, this sense cannot be excluded, and fact justifies it. As the phrase turn back, equally implies this sense, without which the other is incomplete, why not admit it, especially as common systems allow it, so far as respects the elect, or those who believe in the present state? The evangelical sense in Messiah's mouth is, In consequence of my intercession, and of the promulgation of my gospel, mine enemies shall return to the path of duty, and become willing subjects. This I know, adds David, for God is for me; and his faith and experience teach us to know it also, in the sense above given. Is not God in, and with Christ in accomplishing all this? Verses 10-13. In God will I praise his word; &c. Throughout this Psalm the term rendered God is Elohim, the mighty ones. The sense then appears to be, in the undivided Deity comprehensive of Father, Son, and Spirit, I will celebrate the Divine Word, Messiah, existing in Jehovah by an essential union, though distinct in point of subsistence. God's vows lay upon him, thy vows are upon me O God, and by performing them he glorified his Father. As Messiah's soul was delivered from death, and his feet also, or assuredly from falling, that he might walk before God, in the light of the living, or in the true Church; will not he so deliver his whole mystical body, down to the feet, and the heel that treads in the mire? When so delivered, the affections these feet of the soul, will assuredly Le PSALM LVII. Tuis Psalm is also ascribed to David, and supposed to have been drawn up in his mind, and expressed in prayer, when he escaped the danger he was in from Saul, while hid in the cave of Engedi, or fled from him to that of Adullam. See 1 Sam. xxiv. 5. xxii. 1. The word Al-taschith, signifies-Destroy not,-which may have been the burden of his prayer while in the cave. And may we not suppose that our Lord has been in similar situations? 1 BE merciful to me, O God; Do thou extend; because my soul 2 My cry I will cause to ascend, To God, who doth all things for me kept from falling, or swerving into any forbidden path. Then his whole restored flock, sheep and goats, will walk before God, their good Shepherd and King, in the land of the living. Notes on Psalm LVII. Verse 1. Be merciful unto, me O God, &c. In all our distresses. like David and his Lord, let mercy Le our only plea. The perfections of Diety. through the mediation of Christ, constitute these wings under the shadow, or protection of which we may ever find our refuge amidst present calamities. And blessed be God that calomities and his indignation shall be overpast in due time, that in every case in which he causeth grief, he will have compassion. Lament. iii. 52. When eur Lerd would have gathered the Jews, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, had they obeyed, the Romans would not have prevailed against them, nor destroyed their city and temple. Verse 2. I will cry unto God most high, &c. The prayer of faith is an effectual reedy in the time of trouble. So David found it to beso did our Lord, and so will all his people. What David said by fa'thGod that performath all things for me, may we all say; and unbelief will 3 From heav'n he shall send down, and me That would devour me; God his truth And mercy forth shall send. My soul among fierce lions is, Men's sons, whose teeth are spears and darts, 5 Be thou exalted very high Above the heav'ns, O God; O'er all the earth abroad. 6 My soul's bow'd down; for they a net For me, they fallen are. ་་་་་་་ not prevent his doing so'finally for all his offspring, though, while indulged, it will prevent their enjoyment of the benefit. Verse 3. He shall send from heaven &c. What Saul was to David, that and more was Satan to our Lord, and will be to all his people, who are not ignorant of his devices. God sends forth his mercy and truth in connection, in saving his people from these destructions that would otherwise swallow them up without end. But to represent divine threatnings as executing without end, while mercy is totally excluded from the awful procedure, is to destroy this connection and substitute the reverse. God's mercy endureth for ever, or never fails which could not be did misery survive its exercise in the universe. Psal. cxviii. 1-4. and 29. Psal. cxxxvi. throughout. Verse 4. My soul is among lions, &c. In such a state was David, while surrounded by Saul and his emissaries-Daniel literally in the lions' den, the three children in the fiery furnace; and in such a state our Lord appears to have been on this and on the other side of the grave, that he might deliver those who are actually subjected to such punish ment. Verse 5. Be thou, or, thou shalt be exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory, or, thy glory shall be abore the earth. Understanding the heavens as including, or chiefly intending, the churches of the saints, and the earth as denoting the rest of mankind, the evangelical import of these terms, and we see the view given of the preceding verse illustrated and rablished. Verse 6. They have prepared a net for my steps, &c. Here Saul and wicked men are represented as treating David, our Lord, and d 7 My heart is fix'd, my heart is fix'd, 8 My glory, wake; wake psalt'ry, harp; 9 I'll praise thee 'mong the people, LORD, 10 For great to heav'n thy mercy is, 11 O LORD, exalted be thy name Do thou thy glory far advance Above both sea and land. ་་་་་་་་་ righteous, as men do birds, which they intangle in nets spread for them, and wild beasts that are caught in pits dug for that purpose; but in these they insnare and destroy themselves. In order to justify themselves in persecuting the godly, the wicked ever represent them in a false and noxious character, as the worst of men. Verse 7. My heart is fixed, O God, &c. Such a frame is favourable for receiving deliverance from trouble and danger, and the result when obtained by the prayer of faith, and patience of hope. Verse 8. Awake up, my glory, &c. The soul, or the organs and powers of speech, are here excited to engage in the divine praises. Will awake early, or awaken the morning; which was fulfilled when our Lord rose from the dead, and employed his human soul, and the organs of speech in celebrating Jehovah's praise. Verses 9, 10. I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people, Here all mankind are included, the people, Jews and Christians, and the nations, the rest of mankind. The heavens correspond to the first, towards which his mercy is great: the clouds to the last, unto which his truth is to be also great, in fulfiling divine promises. Verse 11. Be thou exalted O God, &c. This verse occurred already, and the repetition of it as the chorus of the Psalm, marks its vast importance and comprehensive nature. The Lord saith, Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people, or all mankind, Isa. liv. 7. Hence as in next verse, he will gather the outcasts of Israel, and others besides those that are gathered to him under this dispensation. Our creeds must in some things change before churches can thus pray, for according to these Messiah's glory, as the King of nations as well as of saints, shall never be exalted above all the earth, or the rest of mankind, as distinguished from the churches, these mystical heavens, PSALM LVIII. In the person of Saul and his wicked advisers Christ's enemies, and those of his Church in all ages, are here described and reproved. 1 Do ye, O congregation, O ye that are the sons of men, 2 Yea, ev'n within your very hearts And ye the vi'lence of your hands Do weigh the earth upon. 3 The wicked men estranged are, They, speaking lies, do stray as soon 4 Unto a serpent's poison like Verses 1, 2. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, &c. When the Church does not speak," righteousness in her doctrine, or judge uprightly, with respect to truth and characters, and in regard of her discipline, it is a proof her members are but sons of men, or of Adam, as in the original, that the mystical Saul, or Herod the Edomite, with his fraternity, are her shepherds. Verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb &c. Though the field existed, and had wheat sown upon it, as in the case of Adam, before the enemy sowed tares, yet these begin to show themselves very early, That foolishness is early bound up in our hearts from our youth, and that we are early estranged from original truth and righteousness, is so confirmed by universal experience from the beginning, that no small hardihood is necessary to call the humbling truth in question. If there are any who have escaped this contagion, they need not be born again to fit them for the kingdom of heaven, need no laver of regeneration, no renewing of the Holy Spirit. But when a house is actually on fire, it is more wise to attempt to extinguish the devouring element, than to lose time inquiring how it came to be set on fire, or in denying the fact. Verses 4, 5. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; &c. The |