flesh, as a penitential garment: he fasted, and prayed, and mourned, and wept, and humbled himself to the dust, as if he had been the offender, and we the righteous persons that needed no repentance. And what return was made him? It was to his reproach, and he became a proverb to them' for whom he suffered. They that sat in the gate,' or, on the judgment-seat,' which used to be in the gates of cities, even the senators and judges of the land, the chief priests and elders, spake against him,' with cool and deliberate malice; while he was the song of the drunken' and profligate, who more grossly insulted and derided him. The true followers of the holy Jesus will often experience the like treatment, from an evil and adulterous ge

neration.

13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercies hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

The Son of God himself, in the midst of sorrows and sufferings, has recourse to prayer, pleading for his church the mercies' of the Father, set forth in the promises, and his 'truth,' engaged to make those promises good, in the 'salvation' of his chosen, through their head and representative. The acceptable time' in which Christ prayed, was the time when he offered the great propitiatory sacrifice. Through the merit of that sacrifice it is that we have an acceptable time, and a day of salvation,' allowed us. Behold, now is that time, behold now is that day! Let us not delay one moment to use and improve it aright.

14. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not

sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

Messiah petitions for deliverance from calamities, under the same images which were employed at the beginning of the Psalm, to describe those calamities. The purport of the petition is, that the sins of the world, and the sufferings due to them, may not finally overwhelm him, nor the grave shut her mouth upon him' for ever; but that the morning of his resurrection may at length succeed the night of his passion. Such is also the hope and the prayer of the church, and of the Christian here below.

16. Hear me, O Lord, for thy loving kindness is good; turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. 17. And hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily. 18. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it; deliver me because of mine enemies. 19. Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before me.

As afflictions increase, the prayers are redoubled. Christ pleads with the Father for redemption from death on account of his divine 'loving kindness and mercy;' of his own great trouble;' of his 'enemies,' that they might be either converted or confounded; of the reproach, shame, and dishonour,' undergone by him, that they might be wiped off, and done away; of the wrong he suffered from his adversaries, whose iniquitous proceedings were 'all before God,' and known unto him. Deliverance from tribulation and persecution is prayed

for by the church, and by her faithful children, upon the same grounds.

20. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21. They gave me also gall for my meat, and thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

in

my

The argument urged by Christ, in these most affecting words, is, that in the extremity of his passion, he was left alone, without a comforter, a friend, or an attendant; while all that were round about him studied to infuse every bitter and acrimonious ingredient into his cup of sorrows. This was literally as well as metaphorically true, when they gave him to drink vinegar mingled with gall.' See Matt. xxvii. 34; John, xix. 28. Such are the comforts often administered by the world to an afflicted and deserted soul.

22. Their table' shall become a snare before them; and that which should have been for their welfare, Heb. their peace offerings, shall become a trap.

At this verse beginneth a prediction of those dreadful judgments which Heaven has since in

I have taken the liberty to give a future rendering to the verbs in this and the following verses. That they are to be so understood, saith Dr. Hammond, i. e. in the future sense, by way of prediction, and not as an imprecation, see St. Aug. de Civ. 1. xvii. c. 19. "Hæc non optando sunt dicta, sed optandi specie, prophetando. These things are not said by the way of wishing, but under the show or scene of wishing by prophecy." And indeed, the Hebrew is in the future, and is most fitly rendered, 'shall be.' And so doth the Jewish Arab interpreter observe, that such seeming imprecations as here and elsewhere occur in this book of Psalms are not so much by way of imprecation, as by way of prophecy or prediction of what in God's best judgments would certainly befall man.-Ham. in loc.

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flicted upon the crucifiers of the Lord of glory. By their table becoming a snare, and their peaceofferings a trap,' is pointed out the consequence of the Jews' adhering to the legal services, in opposition to him who is 'the end of the law, for righteousness.' After his sufferings and exaltation, to continue under the law, became not only unprofitable, but destructive, inasmuch as it implied a denial of Messiah's advent, and a renunciation of every evangelical benefit and blessing. The religion of God's own appointment was an abomination to him, when reduced to the form of godliness, deserted by its power. Christians, who pride themselves in the one, while they deny and deride the other, would do well to consider this.

23. Thou wilt darken their eyes that they shall not see; and make their loins continually to shake.

They who loved darkness rather than light, by the righteous judgment of God were permitted to walk on in darkness, while the blind led the blind. And such still continues to be the state of the Jews, notwithstanding that intolerable weight of woe which made ‘their loins to shake,' and bowed down their backs to the earth. The veil remaineth yet upon their hearts,' in the reading the Old Testament; nor can they see therein the things which belong unto their peace.' These last two verses are cited, as spoken of Israel, by St. Paul, Rom. xi. 9, 10. Afflict us, blessed Lord, if thou seest it good for us to be afflicted; only take not from us, in our affliction, the 'light' of thy truth, and the strength' of thy grace.

24. Thou wilt pour out thine indignation upon them, and thy wrathful anger will take hold of them.

Never was 'indignation so poured out,' never did wrath so take hold' on any nation as on that which once was, beyond every other, beloved and favoured. 'The wrath,' says St. Paul, 1 Thess. ii. 16, 'is come upon them to the utmost,' ε Teλos, 'to the end,' to the very last dregs of the cup of fury. Let every church which boasteth of favours bestowed, and privileges conferred upon her, remember the consequences of their being abused by Jerusalem; and let every individual do the same.

25. Their habitation shall be desolate, and none shall dwell in their tents.

Our Lord seems to have had this passage in his view, when he said to the Jews, 'Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.' Matt. xxiii. 38. Jerusalem was by the Roman armies destroyed from the foundations. It hath been since indeed rebuilt, and inhabited by Gentiles, by Christians, and by Saracens, but no more by the Jewish people. It is remarkable, that this verse is applied, Acts, i. 20, to Judas, considered as the head and representative of that apostate nation which rejected and delivered up its Prince and Saviour to be crucified. 'He was guide to them that took Jesus.' Acts, i. 16. The punishment therefore, as well as the sin of Israel, is portrayed in his person, and the same prophecy is applicable to him and to his countrymen.'

26. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten,

Fiat habitatio eorum deserta'-De Juda proditore exponiture, Act. i. 20. Congruit etiam Judæis, eversa Hierosolyma, quod Christus prædixerat: Ecce relinquetur vobis domus vestra deserta.' Luc. xiii. 35.-Bossuet.