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future, every objection against the Scripture imprecations would vanish at once, and they would appear clearly to be what they are, namely, prophecies of the divine judgments, which have been since executed against the Jews, and which will be executed against all the enemies of Jehovah and his Christ, whom neither the works' of creation, nor those of redemption, can lead to repentance.

6. Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. 7. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: and therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

The scene now changes from the humiliation and sufferings, to the glory and triumph of Christ, our head, who, through the power of the Divinity, having overcome his enemies, may be supposed, at his resurrection from the dead, to have sung this strain; a strain which they who have been delivered from sin and sorrow, will best understand by using it.

8. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his Anointed, or, Christ.

He who saved and exalted the Head, will also save and exalt the members; or, as St. Paul expresseth it, If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you: he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit, that dwelleth in you:' Rom. viii. 11. And for the accomplishment of this glorious salvation, the salvation of his church, the Redeemer intercedeth in the remaining verse of this Psalm.

9. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.

Save us, O Lord Jesu, from our sins; bless us, O thou Son of Abraham, with the blessing of righteousness; feed us, O thou good Shepherd of the sheep; and lift us up for ever from the dust, O thou who art the resurrection and the life!

PSALM XXIX.

ARGUMENT.-In this Psalm, the prophet, 1, 2. calleth the kings of the earth to give glory to Jehovah, and to the voice, or word, of his power; the effects of which, in the world and in the church, are most magnificently described; the same things being true of thunder and lightning in the former, and of the Word of God in the latter; as each of them is styled the Voice of the Lord;' and both, 3, 4. are mighty in operation; both, 5. rend, and, 6, 7. shake, and, 8. pierce, and melt, and, 9. make manifest. The Psalm concludes with, 10. an acknowledgment of the extent and glory of God's kingdom, and, 11. a promise of victory and peace through

him.

1. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. 2. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

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The prophet addresseth himself to the 'mighty' ones of the earth, exhorting them to 'give' God the 'glory,' and to submit themselves to the kingdom of Messiah, to honour that holy name,' by which they must be saved; to bow before his altars, by whom kings reign;' and to cast down their crowns at the foot of the eternal throne.

3. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thundereth; the Lord is upon many

waters.

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The reason why the mighty are exhorted to serve Jehovah is, because of his wondrous works in the world, and in the church. By the voice,' or,' word,' of God, the waters' were driven down into the deep, and forbidden to overflow the earth any more; by the voice of God, the tumultuous and raging nations subsided, and the church was immovably fixed upon the rock of her salvation; and by the gospel of the God of glory,' all those effects were produced in the hearts of men, which are wrought upon terrestrial substances, by its well known and most significant emblem in the material heavens.

4. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

Of the power and majesty of God's voice, when he speaketh from heaven in thunder, few hearts are insensible; of the power and majesty of his voice, when he spoke from heaven by his apostles, those 'sons of the spiritual thunder,' the world was once fully sensible. O may the evangelical Boanerges' so cause the glorious sound of the gospel to be heard, under the whole heaven, that the world may again be made sensible thereof; before that voice of the Son of Man, which hath so often called sinners to repentance, shall call them to judgment.

5. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea the Lord breaketh the cedars of Libanus.

The force of lightning is known to rend in

pieces the tallest and strongest trees in a moment; nor is the word of God less effectual in bringing down the loftiest pride and rending the hardest heart of man, by the Spirit which accompanieth it. Thus was the persecuting Saul humbled and converted, by a 'light' and a 'voice' from 'heaven ;' so that, instead of breathing out threatenings and slaughters,' he asks, like a meek and dutiful child, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts, ix. 1, 6.

6. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Thunder not only demolisheth the cedars, but 'shaketh the mountains' on which they grow. Thus by the Gospel, 'every mountain and hill was shaken, and made low; every high thing, which exalted itself against the knowledge of Christ, was cast down, and brought into subjection.' Isa. xl. 4; 2 Cor. x. 5.

7. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.

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By the power of God, the flames of fire' are 'divided' and sent abroad from the clouds upon the earth, in the terrible form of lightning, that sharp and glittering sword of the Almighty, which no substance can withstand. The same power of God goeth forth by his word, 'quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,' penetrating, melting, enlightening, and inflaming the hearts of men. Acts ii. 3; Heb. iv. 12.

8. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

The wilderness of Kadesh was a part of that

wilderness through which the Israelites passed, in their way to Canaan; see Numb. xiii. 26. Thunder shaketh those wide-extended deserts, as well as Lebanon and Sirion, mountains of Judea. The Gospel was first preached in Palestine, but from thence it went forth into the Gentile world, that dry, barren, and desolate 'wilderness.' The wilderness is yet once again to be shaken by the voice of God,' and to be removed for ever, that paradise may succeed in its place.

9. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, or, the oaks to tremble,' and discovereth the forests; and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.

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Storms of thunder and lightning, attended often with whirlwinds, strip the trees of their leaves and bark, and disclose the recesses of forests. It is by the word of God,' that the hidden 'things of darkness are manifested,' and the counsels of all hearts revealed' for all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' 1 Cor. iv. 5; Heb. iv. 13. For these his marvellous works, in the natural and spiritual world, God is daily 'glorified' in the church.'

10. The Lord sitteth upon the flood: yea, the Lord sitteth a King for ever.

The Lord Jesus sitteth on his throne, having all

1 So Bishop Lowth renders the clause in his Lectures. Aristotle, Plutarch, and Pliny, as cited by Mr. Merrick, mention the case of abortion being sometimes caused among cattle by thunder. Whatever terrifies to any degree, may certainly produce such an effect. But the bishop's interpretation is, in every respect, the most eligible. The evident connexion with the words that follow-discovereth the forests,'-forbids us to doubt of its being right.

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