dance on God as their sovereign governor and judge; ver. 1, 6. (2) Their duty; ver. 3, 4. (3) Their too frequent degeneracy and mischievousness, and the just punishment thereof; ver. 2, 5, 7. (4) The saint's request for the establishment of God's kingdom in the world; ver. 8. While I sing, let me stand in awe of JEHOVAH's authority and presence. Let me remember I must be answerable to him for all my conduct. Let me be affected with my meanness and corruption. Let me revere magistrates as the deputies of God on earth. And in every station in which God hath placed me let my care be, in all things to live honestly, and to cry mightily that the kingdoms of this world may quickly be made the king doms of my Lord and of his Christ. gods' assembly God doth stand he judgeth gods among. 2 How long accepting persons vile, 3 Defend the poor and fatherless; 5 They know not, nor will understand; 6 I said that you are gods, and are 7 But ye shall die like men, and as one of the princes fall. 8 O God, do thou raise up thyself, the earth to judgment call; For thou, as thine inheritance, shalt take the nations all. PSALM LXXXIII. A Song or Psalm of ASAPH. This Psalm relates to some combination of the heathens around, against the Hebrews, either in the days of David, 2 Sam. viii. or x. or of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. And contains, (1) A solemn remonstrance to God, concerning their malicious designs against his church and honour; ver. 1-8 (2) Fervent supplications to God that he would defeat these attempts; protect and preserve his church; humble his enemies, and glorify himself in the world; ver. 9—18. While I sing, let me be affected with the inward combinations of my own lusts with Satan and the world, and with the joint endeavours of open enemies and naughty professors, against the church and interests of Christ; and commit the cause to God who judgeth righteously. K EEP not, O God, we thee intreat, O keep not silence now : Do thou not hold thy peace, O God, and still no more be thou. 2 For lo, thine enemies a noise, And they that haters are of thee, 3 Against thy chosen people they And they against thy hidden ones do consultation make. 4 Come, let us cut them off, said they, from being a nation : That of the name of Isr'el may no more be mention. 5 For with joint heart they plot, in league against thee they combine. 6 The tents of Edom, Ishma❜lites, Moab's and Hagar's line. 7 Gebal, and Ammon, Amalek, Philistines, those of Tyre; 8 And Assur join'd with them; to help Lot's children they conspire.. 9 Do to them as to Midian, 10 And Sis'ra, which at Endor fell, 12 Who said, for our possession 13 My God, them like a wheel, as chaff before the wind, them make. 14 As fire consumes the wood, as flame doth mountains set on fire, 15 Chase and affright them with the storm. and tempest of thine ire. 16 Their faces fill with shame, O Lord, that they may seek thy name. 17 Let them confounded be, and vex'd, and perish in their shame : 18 That men may know, that thou to whom alone doth appertain The name JEHOVAH, dost most high PSALM LXXXIV. To the chief Musician, upon Gittith. A Psalm for the sons of KORAH. This Psalm is much like the 27th, 42d, 43d, and 63d, and may have been composed on the same occasion with the former, when David was banished from Jerusalem by Absalom his son; 2 Sam. xv. xvi. We have here, (1) David's ardent affection towards the public ordinances of God, and sense of their happiness who enjoyed them; ver. 1-7, 10. (2) His heart-burning desire to the God of ordinances; ver. 8, 9. (3) His assured faith of God's kindness, and persuasion of the happiness of such as trust in him; ver. 11, 12. So let my heart cry out for God, the living God. So let me covet earnestly intimate fellowship with him in his ordinances. So let me praise his name, and hold on in his way, till I arrive at the Zion above. So let God be my friend, my protector, my supplier, my store, and the everlasting rock of my rest. [OW lovely is thy dwelling-place, Ho O Lord of hosts, to me! The tabernacles of thy grace, how pleasant, Lord, they be! 2 My thirsty soul longs veh❜mently, yea, faints thy courts to see: My very heart and flesh cry out, O living God, for thee. 3 Behold the sparrow, findeth out hath purchased a nest; Ev'n thine own altars,* where she safe * To me, it is inconceivable, how sparrows or swallows could fix their nests in the altars of God, which were of brass or rough stones, and had a fire perpetually burning upon them, and multitudes of Priests and Levites crouding around them. God did not allow of any trees to be planted near them. I cannot believe God's tabernacle or temple was polluted with the nests and ordure of birds, in the manner of our ruinous churches, Nor, can I see this idea answerable to the context, or scope of the psalm. Might not the verse be rather trans. T O thou almighty Lord of hosts, 4 Bless'd are they in thy house that dwell, they ever give thee praise. 5 Blest is the man whose strength thou art, in whose heart are thy ways. 6 Who passing through Baca's vale, Also the rain that falleth down 7 So they from strength unwearied go Until in Zion they appear 8 Lord God of hosts, my prayer hear: 9 See, God, our Shield, look on the face of thine anointed dear. 10 For in thy courts one day excels My God's house will I keep a door, 11 For God the Lord's a sun and shield: And will with-hold no good from them lated, “As the sparrow findeth the house, and the swal"low the nest for herself, where she hath put her young ones, my soul findeth thine altars, O Lord of hosts, "my King, and my God :"-i. c. with inexpressible ardor I long for, and desire them; and with ineffable pleasure I approach them, in order to intimate fellowship with my God.-Compare ver. 1, 2, 10, of this psalm, with psalms xlii. 1, 2.-xliii. 3, 4. |