Those calves which people have forth sent, O Lord our God, rebuke, The people that delight in war 31 Those that be princes great shall then And Ethiopia to God Shall soon stretch out her hands. 32 O all ye kingdoms of the earth, Sing praises to this King; 1 In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be a court for reeds and rushes, which grow not in a cultivated garden, to which the church is compared. The court of the Gentiles of old was such, which the priests profaned by converting it into a house of merchandise, and a den of thieves, instead of regarding the temple, of which it made part, as a house of prayer for all people. This traffic is alas! too much practised still; but God will overturn their tables, who deal in this craft, and drive them out of his house with a scourge of his own framing when none shall be found able to help them. Satan is ultimately the beast of the reeds, of whom Pharaoh, and other persecuting powers, are a figure; but as God rebuked him, and his company of spearmen; so shall he all these, head and tail, in the Red-sea of his wrath. It Verse 31. Princes, or ambassadors shall come out of Egypt; &c. Here we have a prediction of the future conversion of those who have been most hostile to God's people, and to the truth of his word. Some learned men suppose Egypt to be called the land of the sistrum, Isa. xviii. 1. was represented on an ancient coin, under the figure of a woman holding this musical instrument in her hand. In the last clause it is added-Ethiopia, the land of the people with the scorched countenance, as the name signifies, shall soon stretch out her hands unto God, or, as Mr. Merrick renders it, shall make her hands run to God, and another critic, Ethiopia shall make haste to lift up her hands to God. That the expression alludes to the lifting up of the hands in acts of devotion, and imports a solemn obligation of fidelity to him, is obvious from the use of such phrases in Scripture. As the bride gives her hand to the bridegroom, and may be. supposed to do it with cordial consent; so this prophecy plainly imports that the Egyptians, and the swarthy tribes of Ethiopia and Africa, will yet willingly receive Messiah as the Lord their Husband; a good reason why all professed Christians should abbor the traffic in slaves, and remon-* strate against it. The two nations mentioned are evidently put for all the idolatrous nations, the very worst and most abject of them not excepted. The next verse leads to this conclusion. For he is Lord that ruleth all, Unto him praises sing. 33 To him that rides on heav'ns of heav'ns, Lo, he sends out his voice, a voice 34 Strength unto God do ye ascribe; Verse 32. Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: &c. as distinguished from Jews and Christians. The command amounts to a prediction of the certainty of the event. This includes not only the kingdoms that shall exist in the millenium, but all these that constituted kingdoms of the earth from the beginning, being equally Messiah's heritage and reward. Hence we read, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, for the ages of ages, as in Greek, that is, over these kingdoms, or all their inhabitants, Rev. xi. 15. Did David and his people utter this song on a very solemn occasion, in the faith of the full accomplishment of the whole; and shall not Christians be ashamed to give it the lie in their doctrine, except in their mutilated contracted sense, and to brand the glorious truths of God, and all that believe and declare them, as heresy and heretics? Let them go on in this popular way, till this iniquity find them out; with David and the faithful in Israel of old, we believe and declare that all the people of these kingdoms without the exception of one individual, shall sing praises unto the LORD, as his people Israel did on the solemn occasions to which this sublime Psalm refers, but with a joy more unspeakable and full of glory. Verse 33. To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens, &c. That Messiah is intended by Jehovah in the foregoing verse, who is here said to ride upon, or to rule the heaven of heavens, as an expert rider does his horse, appears evident from the whole Psalm, and the nature of the subject. He reigns in and over the highest heaven, and all the inferior ones; reigns also in the supreme heaven, the church of the first-born, and in all the subordinate heavens, or other churches. His voice is powerful in all, as we see from Psal. xxix. and the gospel is his voice in the sublimest sense. When he sends it out as the ministration of the Spirit, how mighty its power, how efficacious its operation, and how truly important its effects! A specimen of this we have in the days of his flesh-Young man, arise; Lazarus, come forth; Peace, be still; and it will farther appear, when all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and come forth. In this, we believe, every grave is included, in which human beings shall be found confined. Verse 34. Ascribe ye strength unto God: Sec.. To him is to be ascribed the kingdom of heaven, and of universal nature, the fulness of Almighty power, so beneficially exerted therein, and the glory of infinite perfection, and of all his works. His excellency denotes his kingly government, that Is over Israel, his strength Is in the clouds most high. 35 Thou'rt from thy temple dreadful, Lord, Who gives his people strength and pow'r; PSALM LXIX. Various parts of this Psalm are applied in the New Testament to Christ, by himself and his apostles, so that we are at no loss in the application of the whole. As it is allowed to be prophetically descriptive of his sufferings, and hence so nearly resembles the xxiid, a short analisis of its contents may suffice. In verses 1-5. He describeth his sufferings, borne for the sins of the world, partly in metaphoric language, partly in literal, to inforce his prayer for support and deliverance.--In verses 6 and 7. He prays that none of his people may be stumbled at the shame and pain which attended his crucifixion, or to which they may be exposed for his sake. By enduring such things, He restores, as the Second Adam, what the first wok away, purity and bliss. The foolishness and sins of his people he reckons his own, and as such presents them to the Father for expiation, bearing them as a victim on the tree. As a public Representative, he divine Theocracy; as appears from Jacob's benediction of Reuben, in which the royal dignity, and the priest-hood are called, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, Gen. xlix. 3. As in the literal, so especially in the mystical clouds or skies, his glorious might is manifested, and the Church is injoined to ascribe to him the glory. Verse 55. O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places; &c. As in Psal. Ixvi. 3. so here, the term terrible is to be understood in such a sense as imports the final exercise of mercy, or the recovery of those to moral rectitude, and endless happiness, as appears from the 4th verse of that psalm, who are made the subjects of these terrible works; the ultimate of ject of which is, That through the greatness of bis power his enemies may submit themselves to him. The God of Israel shall thus appear terrible out of his holy places, the mansions of the blessed. Hence the Church, and every intelligent being, will joyfully adopt the conclusion of this Psalm-Blessed be God, by acknowledging him to be infinitely blessed in himself, and the Author of happiness to them without exception. views his subjects as members, and himself as afflicted in all their afflic tions. In verses 8-12. we have an account of the usage which our Lord received from the Jews, and is much more applicable to him than it could be to David. He owns them, however, as his brethren, and as the children of his mother the Jewish church. So much did they treat him as a stranger and alien, that when he came to his own land, his own people and brethren received him not. We know, said they, that God spake unto Moses, but as for this fellow we know not from whence he is. And again, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil; Away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him. In verses 13-19. He prays to his heavenly Father, and inforces his supplications by a moving description of what he suffered; in which he also hath an eye to the sufferings of his body mystical in all their stages. -In verses 20, 21. He complains of the unfeeling conduct of his enemies, their bitter reproaches, and their wanton insults and cruelty, in offering him gall and vinegar in his extreme thirst.- -From the 22d to the 28th he proceeds, not to imprecate, but to foretel the awful judgments that were ready to fall upon the Jewish nation for their various crimes, and especially for that which filled up the measure of their iniquity, the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. Neither David speaking by the Spirit, nor our Lord prefigured by him, devotes his enemies to destruction in these verses, as the contents of this Psalm make him to have done; but only foretels that destruction which Judas and the Jews brought upon themselves; to foresee and predict which corresponded to the prophetic character of both. The foreknowlege of their impending calamities made him weep. The terrible and continued execution of these judgments sounds an alarming warning in the ears of Christians, which too few are disposed to hear. See 1 Thess. ii. 16. Ezek. xiii. 9. and Luke xxi. In verses 29-31. He returns to the consideration of his mournful case, prayeth for deliverance, and returns praises to God for it, as foreseen and expected. Thus the Psalm, like the xxiid. and many others, passes from the description of sorrow and suffering, to that of joy and tri☀ umph; corresponding to the gracious plan adopted by our Heavenly Father in all his dealings with his lost offspring. This joy and triumph after their once afflicted state, as in the case of our Lord, is more pleasing to him than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices. Towards the close of the Psalm men are exhorted to seek God, with an assurance of life or happiness, because he heareth the prayer of the poor, and despiseth not his prisoThe whole creation is invited to join in a chorus of thanksgiving on this account. The salvation, edification, and perpetuity of the church, are foretold under the figure of what God did for Sion, and the ruined cities of Judah, after the return from the captivity in Babylon. ners. 26 Within the congregations Bless God with one accord: Of Judah were, there Zebulon's ་་་ Verse 26. Bless ye God in the congregations, &c. In this divine song did they mutually exhort this great assembly to bless and praise Jehovah, the God of Israel. The phrase-from the fountain of Israel, is on margin, ус that are of the fountain of Israel, his stock or family. See Isa. xlviii. 1. As the Jewish church proved a fountain that sent forth streams to water the parched wilderness of the Heathen world; so the catholic or universal church is to prove a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon, Song iv. 15. For this reason probably are they exhorted to bless God in the congregations &c. as more than one is intended. Verse 27. There is little Benjamin with their ruler, or literally rendered, Benjamin their ruler, the princes of Judah their council, the princes of Zebulon, and the princes of Naphtali. As Saul the first king of Israel was a Benjamite, his tribe is first mentioned as ruler, and connected with Judab, the chosen royal tribe, contigious to whose lot that of Benjamin lay. Judah succeeded to the privilege forfeited by Reuben's instability, that of having the chief Ruler and the Messiah of his line, and the holy and royal city, Jerusalem, in the lot of their inheritance. Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob, yet the son of the right hand, as his name bears, and so was a figure of the blessed, though Saul the first king of Israel, forfeited his crown and kingdom. Judah and Benjamin, as the two most southern tribes, that lay nearest to Jerusalem, are mentioned; and Zebulon and Naphtali, as two of the most northern and remote, to include them all, like the phrase, from Dan to Beersheba. These two last tribes. were greatly reputed for their learning and knowledge, Gen. xlix. 21. Judg. v. 14. By assembling on this solemn occasion, all the tribes testified their willingness to submit to David as their king, and also their choice of Jerusalem as the capital, and the city of their solemnities, where all their grand festivals were appointed to be celebrated. King David reigned seven years and six months in Hebron a priests' city, over Judah and Benjainin only; but now all the tribes of Israel, the late subjects of Saul and his house, voluntarily own him as their lawful Prince, by divine appointment. Who does not see in all this a figure of the period during which Messiah shall reign over the faithful exclusively, whom these two tribes prefigured; and also a pledge of the subsequent voluntary subjection of the rest of mankind, typified by the other tribes that clave to Saul's house, the figure of that king who first rules over all men, in opposition to the true David, and before they submit to his yoke. These ancient shadows |