The Treasury of David (Psalms)

Whole Psalm. — In this Psalm we have especial reason to condemn or to admire the timidity, or the caution and delicacy of our translators, whichever it may he considered, for the manner in which they have rendered the names of the Almighty. They almost universally translate them " God " or " Lord; " whereas, it has been ohserved that, almost all the remarkable titles of the Deity are employed in describing and praising the person addressed here. He is called " Elohim " in verse 2; " Adonai," verse 12; " Shaddai," verse 15; " Jehovah," verse 17; " Jah," verse 19; and " Al," verse 20. The Hebrew names of God have, each of them, a distinct and peculiar meaning. No one word will suffice for them all. The vague use of the terms " God " and " Lord " in our translation can never convey to the reader's mind the important ideas which the original expressions, if properly translated, would bear, and we have lost a strong additional confirmation of the deity of Messiah, by abandoning the testimony which the ascription to him of God's peculiar titles would give to this great truth. — R. H. Ryland.

Whole Psalm. — As Ixvii. opened with a reference to the form of blessing (Numb. vi. 24-26), so this with a reference to the prayer used when the cloud-pillar summoned the camp to commence a march. There the presence (panim) of God shed saving light on his people; here his enemies flee from it (mippanayv, ver. 1).... In the Jewish ritual the Psalm is used at Pentecost, the Anniversary of the Giving of the Law, and the Feast of Finished Harvest.... The remarkable character of the Psalm is indicated by the fact that there are no fewer than thirteen words in it which are not found elsewhere. The Pentecostal Gift of Tongues seems needed for its full exposition. — William Kay.

Whole Psalm. — By many critics esteemed the loftiest effusion of David's lyrical muse. — William Binnic.

Whole Psalm. — To judge from the antiquity of its language, the concise description, the thoroughly fresh, forcible, and occasional artlessly ironical expression of its poetry, we consider this poem as one of the most ancient monuments of Hebrew poetry. — Bocttchcr.

Whole Psalm. — It must be confessed that in this Psalm there are as many pre cipices, and as many labyrinths, as there are verses, or even words. It has not inappropriately been designated the cross of critics, the reproach of interpreters. — Simon de Muis.

Whole Psalm. — The beginning of this Psalm clearly intimates that the inspired Psalmist had light given him to see the march of Israel through the wilderness, the ark of the covenant moving before the people to find a resting place. The Psalmist is filled with praise, when he is enabled to see that God revealed his Fatherly love in the whole of that movement — that his eye was upon the fatherless, the widow, the solitary, and afflicted; but David is also carried by the Spirit to the Mount of Olives, where he sees the ascending Lord; he sees the triumphal chariots, with an innumerable company of angels, and then beholds the Lord welcomed in glory as the mighty Conqueror; and not only so, but as having received or purchased gifts for men, even the rebellious (ver. 18), " that the Lord God might dwell among them," or within them. " Wherefore," the command of our Father is, " come out from among them, and be ye separate," etc. (2 Cor. vi. 17-18). The doxology of God's people is, " Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with his benefits." Our blessed Master attends day by day to all our wants, and causes his love to flow to us, because he is God our Salvation — Selah. What comfort ought this to afford under every condition! for the Lord Jesus goes before us through the desert. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The widow, the fatherless, the desolate, are all the objects of his care and love. He has gone before us to prepare our heavenly rest; the work is finished. He now comes, day by day, to load us with blessings, and at the last will carry us safely through death into life and glory. To the Lord our Saviour belong the issues from death; then, " Death, where is thy sting? " etc. — Ridley H. Herschell, in " Strength in Weakness. Meditations on some of the Psalms in time of Trial." 1860.

Verse 1. — " Let God arise," etc. The moving ark * is a type of Jesus going forth to cast down rebel foes. It is high joy to trace the Antitype's victorious march.

How mightily the Lord advanced I The strength of God was in his arm. His sword was Deity. His darts were barhed with all Jehovah's might. " He had on his vc-sture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of Lords." Rev. xix. 16. His foes, indeed, strove mightily. It was no easy work to rescue souls from Satan's grasp, or to lay low the prison-house of darkness. The enemy rushed on, clad in his fiercest armour, wild in his keenest rage, wily in his deadliest crafts. He plied his every temptation, as a terrific battery. But the true Ark never quailed. The adversary licked the dust. Malignant passions maddened in opposing breasts. The kings stood up; rulers took counsel; all plots were laid; the ignominious death was planned and executed. But still the Ark moved on. The cross gave aid, not injury. The grave could not detain. Death could not vanquish. The gates of hell fly open. The mighty conqueror appears. And, as in Canaan, the ark ascended Zion's hill amid triumphant shouts, so Jesus mounts on high. The heaven of heavens receives him. The Father welcomes the all-conquering Saviour. Angelic hosts adore the glorious God-man. The Rising Prayer has full accomplishment, " Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee."

And now, from glory's throne, he cheers his humble followers in their desert march. Their toils, their conflicts, and their fears are many. They ofttimes seem as a poor worm beneath the crushing feet. But they survive, they prosper, they lift up the head. As of old the ark was victory, so Jesus is victory now. Yes, every child of faith shall surely set a conquering foot upon the host of foes. Hear this, ye mad opposers, and desist. Where are the nations who resisted Israel? Where are the Pharaohs, the beleaguered kings, the Herods, the chief-priests, the Pilates? Share not their malice, lest you share their end. Read in this word your near destruction, " Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee."

And, as the Rising Prayer has never failed, so, too, the Resting Prayer now teems with life. " Return, O Lord." Jesus is ready to fly back. Israel's many thousands wait, but wait not in vain. " Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry," Heb. x. 37. O joyful day, triumphant sight I What ecstacy, what shouts, what glory! Salvation's Lord returns. Welcome, welcome to him! — Henry Law, in " 'Christ is All.' The Gospel of the Old Testament." 1858.

Verse 1. — "Arise." The mercifulness of God is seen in his patience toward the •wicked, implied in the word " arise," for he seemeth, as it were, to sleep (Psalm xliv. 23), and not to mark what is done amiss. The Lord is patient, and would have none to perish, but would have all men to come to repentance. He was longer in destroying one city (Jericho, Joshua vi. 4), than in building the whole world; slow to wrath, and ready to forgive, desiring not the death of a sinner, but rather he should amend. He doth not arise to particular punishments, mucli less to the general judgment, but after long suffering and great goodness. " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I," quoth our Lord, " have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Matt, xxiii. 37. — John Boys.

Verse 1. — "Let his enemies be scattered." You may, if you please, take the words either as a prayer, or as a prophecy: as a prayer that they may; or as a prophecy, that they shall be scattered. Or, you may read it, Surgcnte Domino. As soon as the Lord shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and so make it a theological axiom: and so it is a proposition a-ternx veritatis, everlastingly true, true in the first age of the world, and true in the last age of the world, and will be true to the world's end. We may make it our prayer, that they may be destroyed; and we may prophesy, that they shall be destroyed. Summa votorum est, non ex incerto poscentis, sed ex cognilione scientiaque sperantis, saith Hilary. It is a prayer not proceeding from a doubting and wavering heart, as if God did at sometimes deliver his church, and at others fail and leave her to the will of her enemies; but grounded upon certain knowledge and infallible assurance that he will " arise, and not keep silence," and avenge himself of his enemy. For there is a kind of presage and prophecy in prayer: if we pray as we should, he hath promised to grant our request; which is a fairer assurance than any prophet can give us. " Let God arise," and God will arise, it is but the difference of a tense, and the Hebrews commonly use the one for the other

In this prayer or prophecy, or conclusion, you may, as in a glass, behold the providence of God over his people, and the destiny and fatal destruction of wicked men. Or, you may conceive God sitting in heaven, and looking down upon the children of men, and laughing to scorn all the designs of his enemies; his exsurgat, his rising, as a tempest to scatter them, and as a fire to melt them. And these two, exsurgat and dissipabuntur, the rising of God and the destruction of his enemies, divide the text, and present before our eyes two parties or sides, as it were, in main opposition. Now, though the exsurgat be before the dissipabuntur, God's rising before the scattering, yet there must be some persons to rouse God up and awake him before he will arise to destroy. We will, therefore, as the very order of nature required, consider first the persons which are noted out unto us by three several appellations, as by so many marks and brands in their forehead. They are, 1. Enemies; 2. Haters of God; 3. Wicked men. But God, rising in this manner, is more especially against the fact than the person, and against the person only for the fact. \Ve must, therefore, search and inquire after that; and we find it wrapt up and secretly lurking in the dissipabuntur, in their punishment; for scattering supposeth a gathering together, as corruption doth generation. That, then, which moved God to rise is this: his enemies, they that hated him, the wicked, were gathered together, and consulted against God and his church, as we see it this day; and, seeing it, are here met together to fall down before God in all humility, that he may arise and scatter them. This is nunc opportunilalis, the very time and appointed time for God to arise. In which phrase is implied a kind of pause and deliberation, as if God were not always up, and ready to execute judgment. And, hereby, he manifesteth — 1. His patience to the wicked: he is not always up, as it were, to destroy his enemies; 2. His justice, which cometh at length, though it come not so soon as men in misery expect; 3. His mercy to his children: though for a while he seem to sleep, and not to hearken to the voice of their complaints, yet, at last, he rises up and helps them. Lastly, we shall take notice of the effect, or end, of this rising; and that is the destruction of his enemies, here drawn out to our view, in four several expressions, as in so many colours: — 1. Dissipabuntur, they shall be scattered; 2. Fugient, they shall fly; 3. Deficient, they shall vanish like smoke; 4. Liqueflent, they shall be melted as wax; which all meet and are concentred in peribunt, they shall perish at the presence of God. — Anthony Farindon.

Verses 1 — 3. — Whether the Jewish Church fully comprehended the meaning of the predictions or not, it is absolutely certain that her members were taught, in more places than one, earnestly to pray for Christ's second advent; and to one of these prayers I would now direct your attention, considering, I. The Prayer of the Jewish Church for the Second Advent of Christ. II. The duty of the Christian Church to join in it. The Psalmist, moved by the Spirit of God, adopts the words used by Moses in the wilderness, when the ark, in which God dwelt between the cherubim, set forward; for we read in the 10th of Numbers, " It came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel." But the wanderings of Israel were now over, and the ark of the Lord had found a place of rest. The people of God were in the land promised to their fathers; their enemies were subdued; and the ark went forth no more with the armies of Israel. It is not, therefore, the removal of the ark to which the prophet alludes in his prayer. The context of the Psalm, and the expressions used, carry us on far beyond the days of David, and refer us to times still future. David prays for the return of him of whom the ark was a type, whose glorious advent he beheld by the spirit of prophecy. The words of the text contain a prayer for the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never has this prayer been yet answered in its full extent. The Lord has oft interfered in behalf of his people, or to rouse the wicked to repentance; but these interpositions were temporary, and the world was left again to the government of his providence. God has often given tokens sufficient to show the world what he will do when the day of his wrath is come.... But yet the world and the church abound with wickedness, and mourn because of sin. They that hate the Lord flee not before him, but are still suffered to open their mouths in blasphemy; nor have the wicked perished in the presence of God.... This rising up, for which the Psalmist prays, is connected with the restoration of Israel, the establishment of universal peace, and the conversion of all nations: ver. 22, 29, 30, 31. II. As members of the Christian Church, we continually profess our faith in the second coming of Christ; and, it may be, that we sometimes meditate upon his glorious appearance; but have we, like David, adopted it as one of the subjects of our addresses at the throne of grace?.... Has our faith ever enabled us to take up the language of the text, and say, " Let God arise, lei his enemies be scattered: let them also that hale him flee before him "? This leads me, in the second place, to point out our duty to join in the Psalmist's petitions. If it were a prayer suited only to the individual case of David, no obligation could rest upon us to unite in it; but it is a prayer for the universal church, for every one who loves the Saviour, and desires to see " the King in his beauty," for every one who mourns over the state of the world and the church. It is a prayer frequently repeated in Holy Scripture of the Old Testament taught by our Lord, now offered up by saints in the presence of God, and with which the Scriptures of the New

It is remarkable that only one prayer of the departed saints has been made known to us, and that this one should be a prayer to the same effect. In the 5th Chapter of the Revelation, the Lord is pleased to give us a view of the state of those who have died as martyrs. St. John says, " I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? " Though removed from this scene of woe and misery, safe from all the attempts of the wicked, and in the enjoyment of God's presence, their happiness is not yet complete, and they still find subject matter for prayer and supplication. They still long for that day when the Lord shall arise to judgment, and put an end to the triumph of the wicked. With this prayer also the New Testament concludes We cannot,

therefore, doubt, but that it is our duty to join in a prayer which the Holy Ghost has dictated, which our Lord has appointed, which the saints in heaven use, and which the beloved disciple offered up. The nature of the prayer presents another argument to enforce this duty. We are bound to pray for those things which promote the honour of Christ, and the eternal happiness of his people. But never shall the honour of Christ be complete, nor his people happy, nor the righteous be glad and rejoice exceedingly, until God arise and his enemies be scattered. — Alexander M'Caul, D.D., in " Plain Sermons on Subjects Practical and Prophetic." 1840.

Verse 2. — "As smoke is driven away," etc. The Psalmist adds a striking figure to illustrate how easily God can overthrow the machinations of our enemies, com paring them to smoke which vanishes away when blown upon by the wind, or wax which melts before the fire. We consider it utterly incredible that such a formidable array of opposition should be made to disappear in a moment. But the Spirit takes this method of chiding the fearfulness of our carnal minds, and teaching us that there is no such strength in our enemies as we suppose — that we allow the smoke of them to blind our eyes, and the solid mass of resistance which they present to deceive us into a forgetfulness of the truth, that the mountains themselves flow down at the presence of the Lord. — John Calvin.

Verse 2. — "As smoke is driven away," etc. " Their end was bitter as the smoke," said an aged teacher. What meanest thou, O Master? asked his young disciple. " I was thinking of the end of the unrighteousness," replied the old man, " and of how too often I, like the Psalmist, have been envious when they were in prosperity. Their lives have seemed so bright and glowing that I have thought they resembled the blaze of a cheerful fire on a winter's night. But, as I have watched them, they have suddenly vanished like the flame that fades into black and bitter smoke; and I have ceased to envy them. Trust not, O my scholar, only to that which appears brilliant; but watch also for its ending, lest thou be deceived." — Hubert Bower, in " Parables and Similitudes of the Christian Life." 1871.

Verse 3. — "But let the righteous be glad." The wicked flee from the presence of God, since it inspires them with terror; the righteous on the other hand rejoice in it, because nothing delights them more than to think that God is near them. — John Calvin.

Verse 4.— "Extol him that rideth upon the heavens." Or, as Symmachus, Jerome, Bishop Lowth, Merrick, and others render, " Prepare the way for him who rideth through the deserts: winy, aravoth; i.e., who rode through the wilderness on the cherubim; alluding to the passage of the ark.—" Comprehensive Bible."

Verse 4. — " Rideth." Said, perhaps, with allusion to the cherubim on which

Jehovah was borne (xviii. 10), God himself being the Leader and Captain of his people, riding as it were at their head as an earthly captain might lead his army, riding on a war-horse. — J. J. Stewart Perownc.

Verse 4. — "Upon the heavens." The ancient versions in general render the word nta-ja?, super occasus, or occasum. The desert or solitude is the proper and general meaning of it, and there is no authority to render it by the heavens, but that of the Rabbins, which, indeed, is little or none; and of the Chaldee paraphrase which gives it ni:nj£3 anij; a'p~!» ^y, super thronam glorize ejus in nono c<rlo: who sits upon the throne of his glory in the ninth heaven. The Psalmist here alludes, as I appre hend, to the passage of the Israelites through the deserts in their way to the promised land, and describes it in many of the principal circumstances of it in the following verses; and God is said to ride, or, be carried through the deserts, as the ark of his presence was carried through them, and accompanied the Israelites in all their various stages during their continuance and pilgrimage in them. — Samuel Chandler.

Verse 4. — God always goes at the head of his people through the deserts of suffering and need; in the deserts of trouble they find in him a true leader. — E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 4. — "His name JAH." JAH, as the concentration of Jehovah, is the more emphatic term (Stier.) It occurs for the first time in Ex. xv. 2. — Frederic Fysh, in "A Lyrical Literal Version of the Psalms." 1850.

Verse 5. — "A father of the fatherless." In a spiritual sense, the orphans, whose father God is, says Hilary, are those who have renounced their father the Devil, and those to whom Christ, at his departure, sent another Comforter, according to his promise — " I will not leave you orphans." — Lorinus.

Verse 5. — Does not James i. 27, refer to this verse, for we have " the fatherless," " the widow," and then the " holiness," of the God we serve? — Andrew A. Bonar.

Verse 5. — "God in his holy habitation." Albeit the Lord be infinite and uncomprehended by any place, yet hath he appointed a trysting-place where his people shall find him by his own ordinance, to wit, the assembly of his saints, his holy temple shadowing forth Christ to be incarnate, who now is in heaven, now is incarnate, and sitting at the right hand of God, in whom dwells the Godhead; here, here is God to be found. — David Dickson.

yerse 6. — "God sttteth the solitary in families." It may be interpreted of the fruitfulness and increase of the church with converts, under the gospel dispensation, even from among the Gentiles, who were before solitary, or were alone, without God and Christ, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; but, being called and converted by the ministry of the word, were brought into and placed in gospel churches, or families Gospel churches, like families, have a master over them, who is Christ the Son and firstborn, of whom they are named; where are saints of various ages, sizes, and standing; some fathers, some young men, and some children; where are provisions suitable for them, and stewards to give them their portion of meat in due season, who are the ministers of the word; and laws and rules, by which they are directed and regulated, and everything is kept in good decorum. — John Gill

Verse 8. — "The God of Israel." Sinai was the seat not only of God, but of the covenant God of the people of Israel; from which the law was proclaimed, and the covenant struck between God and his people. — Hermann Venema.

Verse 9. — The "Thou" in the Hebrew is emphatic: "Thine inheritance, even when it was wearied (i.e., worn out) thou didst confirm; " or, " fortify it." Thou who alone couldst strengthen one worn out, didst so for thy people. — A. R. Fausset.

Verse 9. — "A liberal rain." The words translated a liberal rain, read literally in the Hebrew a rain of freenesses; and I agree with interpreters in thinking that he alludes to the blessing as having come in the exercise of free favour, and to God, as having of his own unprompted goodness provided for all the wants of his people. Some read, a desirable rain; others, a rain flowing without violence, or gentle; but neither of these renderings seems eligible. Others read, a copious or plentiful rain; but I have already stated what appears to me to be the preferable sense. — John

Verse 9— "Rain." One fountain, says Cyril, waters thy paradise, and the rain that falls upon all the world is the same; it is white in the bloom of the hawthorn, red in the rose, purple in the hyacinth, and diverse in diverse kinds, and all in all;

yet it itself is the same and of the same kind So also the Holy Spirit, though he is one and the same and not divisihle, yet to every one he divideth grace according as he wills. — Thomas Le Blanc.

Verse 9. — "A plentiful rain." Thy love has been as a shower 1 The returns, but a dew-drop, and that dew-drop stained with sin. — James Harrington Evans. 1785 — 1849.

Verse 10. — " Thy congregation." The words are choice and expressive. Addressing God, (the poet) intentionally and emphatically calls the people of Israel i™ thy combined congregation, in contrast to former divisions and various dissensions, to signify, that the people was now welded together, formed into one society, and united at the same time, that it was well ordered, and constituted as the society of God, wherein his laws flourished and were wont to be observed. — Hermann Venema.

Verse 10. — "Thy congregation." Or, Thy living creatures, i?:?, ^A f<ia LXX., animalia, Vulgate; probably a reference to the immense number of quails which were miraculously brought to the camp of the Israelites, and, in a manner, dwell around it.— Note in the " Comprehensive Bible."

Verse 10. — "Thy congregation." Or, Thy living creatures. That desolate place, where only wild beasts before could live, was now by those showers of manna (verse 9) enabled to sustain a multitude of other tamer living creatures, even of men and all their flocks and herds. — Henry Hammond.

Verse 10 (first clause). — Rather: — " As for thy food (manna and quails), they dwelt in the midst of it. — Edmund Law.

Verse 10 (first clause). — As to thy food, they dwelt amidst it. The ambiguity of the word ™ has occasioned various renderings of this line. Parkhurst considers the radical sense of *:*} is " to be vigorous, strong; " hence the noun denotes force, a body of men (2 Sam. xxiii. 13); and also that which gives strength, the means of support, or food (Judg. vi. 4 and xvii. 10); and compare Neh. ix. 6. Our trans lators took the term in the first sense; I take it in the second, because the connection seems to require it, and because n%n refers always to a body of men, as soldiers, as actually engaged in some kind of warfare. Hence what is called the troop of Philistines (2 Sam. xxiii. 13) is called the camp of the Philistines. 1 Chron. xi. 15. And, lastly, because the common version has no antecedent to which aj, in it, or amidst it, can refer; but this version has one in the noun food. I think there is then a reference not only to the manna, but to the quails, which God brought in abundance around the camp. Exod. xvi. 13; Num. xi. 31. Thus he prepared in his goodness for the poor. — Benjamin Boothroyd.

Verse 10. — "Thou hast prepared in thine own sweetness for the poor, O God." In thine own sweetness, not in his sweetness. For the needy he is, for he hath been made weak, in order that he may be made perfect: he hath acknowledged himself indigent, that he may be replenished. — Augustine.

Verse 11. — "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it." You shall find, when the enemies of the church are destroyed, that God hath

many preachers made that do teach his praises The words in the original are very significant, and do note two things. First, the word which you read " company," in the Hebrew it is " army," " great was the army of preachers." An army of preachers is a great matter; nay, it is a great matter to have seven or eight good preachers in a great army; but to have a whole army of preachers that is glorious. Secondly, it doth note out the heartiness of this preaching army, for the word r«, soul, is to be understood as in that place of Ecclesiastes; it is said there, " The words or book of the preacher," which, being in the feminine gender, doth suppose nephesh, and as if he should say, as Vatablus hath it: the words or book of him that hath a preaching soul or heart, or the words of a preaching soul or heart. So here where it is said, great is the army of preachers, the word being in the feminine gender, it is as if he should say, great is the army of preaching souls, whose very hearts within them shall preach of the Lord's works. Now, my brethren, it is much to have a preaching army; but if this army shall with heart and soul preach of God's praise, O that is a blessed thing. Yet thus shall it be when the enemies of God shall be destroyed. And, therefore, seeing God will not lose all those sermons of his own praises, in due time the enemies of the church shall be scattered. — William Bridge, in " The True Soldier's Convoy." 1640.

Verse 11. — It is owing to the word, the appointment, and power of God, that any persons are induced or enabled to preach the gospel. — John Neivlon (1725 — 1807), in "Messiah."

Verses 11, 12. — This account of Israel's victories is applicable to victories obtained by the exalted Redeemer, when the enemies of man's salvation were vanquished by the resurrection of Christ, and the heathen nations were compelled to own his power; and this great victory was first notified by women to the disciples. — From "A Practical Illustration of the Book of Psalms; by the Author of the Family Com mentary on the New Testament." [Mrs. Thomson.] 1826.

Verses 11, 12. — The Lord did give his word at his ascension, and there were a multitude of them that published it, and by this means kings of armies were put to flight: they conquered by the word: there is not such another way to rout kings and their armies. — William Strong. — 1654.

The Lord giveth the word!

A great company of women announce the glad tidings!

Kings with their armies flee — they flee!

And those, who dwell within the house, divide the spoil!

Although they lie among the hearth-stones,

They are become like a dove's wings overlaid with silver,

And like her pinions overlaid with yellow gold.

When the Almighty scattereth kings,

They glisten therein, as snow upon Salmon.

Those who dwell within the house — i.e., the women. They are thus described in allusion to their retired habits of life, in eastern countries. Lie among the hearth stones — i.e., are habitually employed in the lowest domestic offices, and whose ordinary dress, therefore, is mean and soiled. The hearth-stones — Hebrew rests (for boilers). They are become — by being decked in the spoils of the enemy. — Glisten as snow — Hebrew (each woman) is snowy: therein — i.e., in the spoils distributed amongst them. — French and Skinner's Translation and Notes.

Verse 12. — "Kings of armies did flee apace." In the Hebrew it is, they fled, they fled; fled is twice. Why so? That is, they did flee very hastily, and they fled most confusedly, they fled all ways; they fled, they fled, noting the greatness of the flight. — William Bridge.

Verse 12. — "The kings of hosts shall flee." — The "hosts" are the numerous well-equipped armies which the kings of the heathen lead forth to the battle against the people of God. The unusual expression, " kings of hosts," sounds very much like an ironically disparaging antithesis to the customary " Jahve of Hosts." — Bollcher, quoted by Delitzsch.

Verse 12. — "She that tarried at home." That is, all the noncombatants, saith Kimchi. Or, the women also (those domi portse) came forth to pillage. These days of the gospel do abound with many godly matrons and holy virgins. And it is easy to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women than the old. — John Trapp.

Verse 12. — "Divided the spoil," not merely (as Hupfeld) " receives her portion of the spoil," but rather " distributes among her daughters and handmaidens, etc., the share of the spoil " which her husband has brought home. — J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 13. — It would neither be profitable nor possible to give the reader all the conjectures with which learned men have illustrated or darkened this passage. My aim has been to give a selection, not perhaps what may be called a judicious one, but a sort of sample selection, containing specimens of interpretations. Hammond, who is a very high authority, collects what are probably the best suggestions; we, therefore, give the substance of his long note upon this place. Solomon Jarchi and others see in the word the idea of boundaries, ways, and paths which serve as divisions of land, hence the divergence of the Scptuagint into the meaning of portions and inheritances. The boundaries were usually heaps of stones, broken bricks, and rubbish, hence another meaning. But stones, bricks, etc., were often used to support pots in the open-air cookery of the orientals, hence we come to the meaning of " among the pots." And, as Job on his dunghill sat among ashes, and scraped himself with a potsherd, we see that sitting among such rubbish was a conspicuous image of the most dejected and squalid condition. In the wings of a dove, Hammond sees an allusion to the golden cherubic wings which covered the ark, whereby God's presence was exhibited to his people, and their prosperity secured. His explanation of the whole is as follows: — " The Israelites that were oppressed, and long lay in a sad and black, destitute, despised condition, were now at length advanced to all prosperity, splendour, and glory (as was remarkable in their coining out from the kilns of Egypt, with the jewels and wealth of the Egyptians, and afterward more illustriously at their enjoying of Canaan). And so, under Christ's kingdom, the heathenish idolaters that were brought to the basest and most despicable condition of any creatures, worshipping wood and stone, etc., and given up to the vilest lusts, and a reprobate mind (Rom. i.), should from that detestable condition be advanced to the service of Christ, and practice of all Christian virtues, charity, meekness, etc., the greatest inward beauties in the world." — C. H. S.

Verse 13. — "Though ye have lien among the pots," etc. That is, probably, though ye have laboured and lain down between the brick-kilns in Egypt, — a poor, enslaved, and oppressed people, yet ye shall gradually rise to dignity, prosperity, and splendour; as a dove, which has been defiled with dirt, disordered, and dejected, by washing herself in a running stream, and trimming her plumage, gradually recovers the serenity of her disposition, the purity of her colour, and the richness and varied elegance of her appearance. — W. Greenfield, in "Comp. Bible."

Verse 13. — "Though ye have lien among the pots; " or, between two rows of stones (understand hearth-stones), as in camps, and elsewhere also, which even to this day used to be laid and disposed to make fire between them to dress meat by, setting on or hanging over it pots and kettles, etc. Others, between or among dripping-pans, or pots, the sense being all one, and this — though you should be cast or thrust out into the uttermost slavery, or vilest condition (as in Egypt), all besmoked and besmutted, like cooks and scullions, yet shall God through his gracious blessing make you to shine again like a goodly flying dove, which glistereth as if it were of silver and gold. — Theodore Haak's "Translation of the Dutch Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of Dort in 1618." London, 1657.

Verse 13. — "Though ye had lain among the folds." Though ye had been treated by the Egyptians as a company of contemptible shepherds, and were held in abomina tion by them as such. See Genesis xlvi. 34. — William Green, in "A New Translation of the Psalms, with Notes," etc. 1762.

Verse 13. — "Will ye lie down among the sheepfolds?" A sharp remonstrance. Will ye lie at ease, in the quiet of your pastoral life, as the dove with unsoiled plumage in her peaceful nest, while your brethren are in the tumult and dust of the conflict! Compare Judges v. 16 (from which this allusion is taken) and 17. — Thomas J. Conanl.

Verse 13. — "Though ye have lien among the pots," etc. Here is one Hebrew word in the original which especially renders the Scripture intricate; namely z'tsv, shephattajim; which, being a word of divers significations and translations, occasions various interpretations. It is rendered, I. limits or bounds; II. lots or inheritances; III. pots or pot-ranges. 1. Some render it two limits, or two bounds (the word being of the dual number); »iz., the two limits, bounds, or coasts of the enemies, ready to afflict, vex, and infest them on each hand. Or, two confines of the country where they fortified themselves against their enemies. This sense some later writers embrace: and it's one of the interpretations which Ainsworth gives, though not in the first place. But this version seems here very unsuitable, for that it quite destroys the elegance and fitness of the opposition between the two metaphors, representing Israel's different conditions, before and under David's Government. Some render it two lots, or two inheritances. So the LXX., dva ptaw rCiv K\^puv; that is, amidst the lots, or between the inheritances; inheritances, as in Canaan, being anciently set out by lots. This Hierom seems to follow, turning it, Si dormialis inter medios cleros: and thus he expounds it: " When thou believest the two Testaments, in both thou shalt find the Holy Ghost. And though there be a beauty, even according to the letter, to know what thou readest, the force of all the comeli ness is in the sense. Therefore, the outward ornament of the words is demonstrated by the name of silver; but the more secret mysteries are contained in the hidden

gifts of gold, etc. So that, with him, the two lots are the two Testaments; the dove is the Holy Ghost; her wings covered with silver, the outward letter of the Testaments, the feathers of yellow gold, the inward, spiritual, and mysterious sense. But this is rather a witty allegorical allusion, than a judicious and solid exposition. Augustine also expounds the words much to this effect, but altogether as unsatisfactorily. The ancient Fathers are not always the best expositors. 3. But most do render the word pots or pot-ranges. Thus: " Although ye have lien among the pots (or, between the pot-ranges; or, between the two banks or rows — viz., of stone to hang pots on in the camp or leaguer), yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered (or decked) with silver, and her feathers with yellow-greenish gold." And they observe in the words a double metaphor: (1.) The one of Israel's lying among the pots, as scullions lie among the pots, kettles, or cauldrons in the camp or leaguer in time of war, and so are blacked, soiled, smutted, deformed; denoting Israel's abject, low, mean» sullied, deformed, and despicable condition under afflictions and extreme distresses in time past in Egypt, the wilderness, Canaan, and in the time of the Judges. (2.) The other of Israel's being like the wings of a dove (which is of very speedy flight for escape), of bright silver and beauteous golden colour; representing their escape and deliverance at last out of all their blacking, smutting, and deforming afflictions^ into the contrary, beauteous, prosperous, and happy state under the kingdom of David, especially of Jesus Christ the true David. Blackness notes extreme affliction^ affliction and misery; doves' wings, escape; white silver-colour and beauteous golden colour, prosperity and felicity. Thus the metaphors are elegantly opposed one to another, and very significantly set forth the several conditions of Israel; first, as lying among the pots of deep afflictions in former times, but after as assured of deliverance, of better days, and that they should be as a silver-winged and golden* feathered dove, full of beauty, comeliness, prosperity, and felicity. To this effect R. David Kimchi, Pagnin, Calvin, Muis, Foord, Ainsworth, and others expound these words. — Francis Roberts, in a Sermon entitled "The Checquer-Work of God's. Providences, towards His Own People, made up of Blacks and Whites," etc. 1657.

Verse 13. — "Though ye have lien among the pots," etc. Miss Whately, in her work, " Ragged Life in Egypt," describing some of the sights witnessed from the flat roofs of the houses in Cairo, among other interesting objects, states: — The roofs are usually in a great state of litter, and were it not that Hasna, the seller of geeleh, gets a palm-branch, and makes a clearance once in a while, her roof would assuredly give way under the accumulation of rubbish. One thing never seemed cleared away, and that was the heaps of old broken pitchers, sherds, and pots, that in these and similar houses are piled up in some corner; and there is a curious observation in connection with this. A little before sunset, numbers of pigeons suddenly emerge from behind the pitchers and other rubbish, where they have been sleeping in the heat of the day, or pecking about to find food. They dart upwards, and career through the air in large circles, their outspread wings catching the bright glow of the sun's slanting rays, so that they really resemble bright " yellow gold; " then, as they wheel round, and are seen against the light, they appear as if turned into molten silver, most of them being pure white, or else very light coloured. This may seem fanciful, but the effect of light in these regions is difficult to describe to those who have not seen it; and, evening after evening, we watched the circling flight of the doves, and always observed the same appearance. It was beautiful to see these birds, rising clean and unsoiled, as doves always do, from the dust and dirt in which they had been hidden, and soaring aloft in the sky till nearly out of sight among the bright sunset clouds. Thus a believer, who leaves behind him the corruptions of the world, and is rendered bright by the Sun of Righteousness shining upon his soul, rises higher and higher, nearer and nearer to the light, till, lost to the view of those who stay behind, he has passed into the unknown brightness above f — Miss Whately, in "Ragged Life in Egypt."

Verse 13. — "Silver " and "yellow gold." The changing colours of the dove's, plumage are here described. Mant reads it —

" Whose wings, a silver light illumes, And gleams of verdant gold play o'er her burnished plumes I "

It will illustrate the variety of the translations, if we add that of Keble:

' His plumes inlaid with silver sheen, His pinioas of the pale pure gold."

Personally, I have had cause to remark the flash of the wing of a pigeon, for, in passing before my study window, that bird has often led me to imagine that some unusual light had flashed across the sky; in every case, a mild and silvery light. As to the varying hues of the plumage of birds, Mr. Gosse, after quoting from Sonnerat's Voyage in New Guinea, says, " In reference to the brilliant metallic hues of the cpimachus and other birds, the traveller takes occasion to notice the iridisccnt effect which is produced by the different angle at which light falls on the feathers. The emerald green, for instance, will often fling out rays of its two constituent primary colours, at one time being blue-green, at another gold-green, while in certain lights all colour vanishes, and a velvet-black is presented to the eye." This it seems to me is a very natural and complete explanation of the poetic language here employed. — C. H. S.

Verse 14. — "Salmon " or Zalmon, properly Tsalmon, pSf a woody hill near Shechem (Judges ix. 48). Whether it is this that is referred to in Psalm Ixviii. 14, is disputed. Some interpreters take \*b* here in its etymological meaning of darkness, =nj|; thus Luther renders the clause " so wird es helle wo es dunkel ist," thus it be bright where it is dark, and understands it with a Messianic reference. Ewald adopts much the same rendering. The majority, however, retain the name as a proper name, but exhibit great variety in their explanation of the passage. Hengstenberg thinks that the phrase, " it snows on Tsalmon," is equivalent to " there is brightness where there was darkness," the hill, originally dark with wood, is now white with snow. De Dieu supposes a comparison: Tsalmon is white with the bones of the slaughtered kings, as if with snow. Some suppose that there is here a mere note of time: it was winter, the snow was on Tsalmon (Herder); and this Hupfeld adopts, with the explanation that the statement is made derisively, with reference to those who tarried at home, deterred by the winter's snow. He considers the passage (12 — 14) as a fragment of an ancient song, celebrating some of the early conquests of Israel in Canaan, and deriding those, who, from indolence or fear, shrank from the enterprise. He translates thus:

" The kings of the armies, flee, flee, And the housewife shares the spoil!

Will ye lie among the shippens?

Pigeon feathers decked with silver.

And their wings with yellow gold! As the Almighty scattered kings therein, It was snowing on Tsalmon."

Verse 14. — The verb may be viewed as in the second person — Thou, O God! didst make it fair and white as Mount Salmon with snow. The reader may adopt either construction, for the meaning is the same. It is evident that David insists still upon the figure of the whiteness of silver, which he had previously introduced. The country had, as it were, been blackened or sullied by the hostile confusion into which it was thrown, and he says that it had now recovered its fair appearance, and resembled Salmon, which is well known to have been ordinarily covered with snows. Others think that Salmon is not the name of a place, but an appellative, meaning a dark shade. I would retain the commonly received reading. At the same time, I think that there may have been an allusion to the etymology. It conies from the word clv, tselem, signifying a shade, and Mount Salmon had been so called on account of its blackness. This makes the comparison more striking; for it intimates that as the snows whitened this black mountain, so the country had resumed its former beauty, and put on an aspect of joy, when God dispelled the darkness which had lain upon it during the oppression of enemies. — John Calvin.

Verse 14. — "// was as white as snow in Salmon." That is, this thine inheritance, thy peculiar people, appeared as bright and glorious in the sight of their neighbours, as the snowy head of Salmon glisters by the reflection of the sunbeams. — Thomas Fenlon.

Verse 14. — "White as snow in Salmon." The expression here used seems to denote, that everything seemed so bright and cheerful to the mind of God's people, as Salmon does to their eyes, when glistening with snow. As snow is much less common, and lies a much shorter time in Judaea than in England, no wonder that it is much more admired; accordingly, the son of Sirach speaks of it with a kind of rapture. " The eye will be astonished at the beauty of its whiteness, and the heart transported at the raining of it." Ecclus. xliii. 18 or 20. — Samuel Burder.

Verse 14. — "Salmon." Dean Stanley conjectures that Salmon is another name for Mount Ebal; it was certainly near Shechem (see Judges ix. 48), but it is almost hopeless to expect to identify it, for Mr. Mills, the industrious author of " Nablus and the modern Samaritans," could not find any one who knew the name of Salmon, neither could he discover any traditions in reference to it, or indeed any allusions to it in Samaritan literature. The word signifies a shade, and may, perhaps, popularly be accepted as identical with the name the " Black Forest." — C. H. S.

Verse 15. — "Hill of Bashan." The world's physical greatness must yield to the church's spiritual grandeur. The " hill of God " is here an emblem of the worldkingdoms, which (Psalm Ixv. 6) are great only by the grace of God. A great hill reminds us of the creative power of God. Hence, " the hill of Elohim " (the general name of God as the Creator) stands in contrast to the hill which (verse 16) " the Lord " (Jehovah) will dwell in for ever. It lay in the north, in the region east of Jordan, or the land of Hermon, the kingdom of Og, the most formidable enemy whom Israel encountered on their march to Canaan. " The hill of Bashan is the high snowsummit of Anti-Lebanon, or Hermon, the extreme limit of Bashan. There was a peculiar propriety, from its position on the boundary between Judcea and the heathen world, in employing it as a symbol of the world's might (verse 22; Psalm xlii. 6; Ixxxix. 12) " (Hengstenberg). The original name of Hermon was Sion; i.e., lofty (Deut. iv. 48); allied in sound to Zion, which suggested the contrast here between the world-hills and the Lord's hill. — A. R. Fausset. Verses 15, 16—

A mountain of peaks Mount Bashan is.

Why are ye piqued, ye peaked mountains?

At the mountain which God desires to dwell in?

Yea, Jehovah will dwell therein for ever."

Verse 16. — "Why leap ye? " As triumphing, and making a show of your natural advantages over Sion. Or, to insult over it, and compare and equalise yourselves in honour with it; poetical kind of speeches. Others translate it, Why gaze you, as though you were ravished with admiration? — John Diodati.

Verse 16. — "This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in." This low, little, barren hill of Zion; and God's election maketh the difference, as it did of Aaron's rod from the rest, and doth still of the church from the rest of the world. The Lamb Christ is on Mount Zion. Rev. xiv. 1. — John Trapp.

Verse 17. — "The chariots of God." What are these " chariots of God? " Come, we will not stand to mince the matter, look but round about thee, and thou shalt see those innumerable chariots and angels here spoken of; for so many creatures as thou seest, so many angels and chariots of God thou seest; they are all his host, they are all his chariots wherein he rides; and, whether you see it or no, "The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place." The glory of the Lord fills them all (had we but our eyes open to see it so), and they are all at his command, and there is not one creature but doth his pleasure. Oh, brethren 1 how glorious and blessed a thing it is, that looking round about us to behold and see, that look how many creatures visible and invisible thou seest or conceivest in thy mind to be, for thy soul now to look on them as so many fiery chariots and horsemen for its defence, protection, and preservation! And, on the other hand, " How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God," who hath all these chariots and horsemen at his command to execute his will and vengeance on those that neglect, hate, and oppose him. — John Everard, in "Militia Ccelestis, or the Heavenly Host." 1653.

" About his chariot numberless were pour'd Cherub, and seraph, potentates, and thrones, And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots win From the armoury of God, where stand of old Myriads."

Verse 17. — "Twenty thousand;" rather, two myriads, o'na-i singular1^; for nixi only here in the dual, the infinite number doubled. "Thousands of angels," lit., thousands of iteration; i.e., with marg., many thousands (Bythner, Gesenius, etc.), ]*w only here, from *&, to repeal. The rendering of angels was probably sug gested by the references to Sinai, next clause (see Deut. xxxiii. 2, where for saints read holy ones); "chariots " (a;n) being used collectively for those who rode in them, as often elsewhere. — William de Burgh.

Verse 18. — "Thou hast ascended on high," etc. Some think it refers to God's goings forth on behalf of his people Israel, leading them forth to victory, taking their enemies captive, and enriching them with the spoils. Suppose it be so, we are warranted to consider it as mainly referring to Christ, for so the apostle has applied it. Ephesians iv. 8.

The apostle not only applies it to Christ, but proves it applicable. Thus he reasons (verses 9, 10), " Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended," etc. The captivity which he led captive was our spiritual enemies who had led us captive — Satan, death; and, having obtained the victory, he proceeds to divide the spoils. Gifts to men — as David made presents. And hence comes our ordinances, ministers, etc. There was a glorious fulfilment immediately after his ascension, in a rich profusion of gifts and graces to his church, like David's presents. Here it is "received;" in Ephesians, "gave." He received that he might give; received the spoil that he might distribute it. But, as I wish to appropriate the passage to the work allotted me, the whole of that to which I would at this time call your attention will be contained in two things: —

I. The great blessings of the Christian ministry.

1. Ministers are received for, and are given to, you by Christ. As men, and as sinful men, ministers are as nothing, and wish not to make anything of themselves; but, as the gifts of Christ, it bcomes you to make much of them. (1.) If you love Christ, you will make much of your minister, on account of his being his gift — a gift designed to supply Christ's absence in a sort. He is gone (" ascended "), but he gives you his servants. By-and-by you hope to be with him, but as yet you are as sheep in the wilderness. He gives you a shepherd. (2.) If you fear God, you will be afraid of treating your pastor amiss, seeing he is the gift of Christ. God took it ill of Israel for despising Moses. Numbers xii. 8. He is "my servant."

2. Ministers are not only given to, but received for you, of God the Father, as a covenant blessing, among the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In this view, consider that Christ received nothing at his Father's hand but what cost him dear — cost him his life. Or, if the allusion be to the dividing of the spoils, suppose we say, he received them as a conqueror receives the spoils at the hand of the foe. Your minister was one of those who, like yourselves, were brands consuming in the fire. Christ took him from your enemies and gives him to you. Make much of the gift on this account. " This I received of the Amorite."

3. Consider your unworthiness of such a blessing. You are men, mere men, and what is more, rebellious men, who had joined with Satan. And must you share the spoils? It is not usual to divide the spoils amongst rebels.... Men that put him to death had these gifts given to them; and we should all have done the same. Some of you, it is likely, have been vile and abandoned characters, and yet, etc

4. The end of it: " That the Lord God might dwell among them." " But will God, indeed, dwell with men? " God had not dwelt with the world, nor in it, while sin bore the rule; but Christ's mediation was for the bringing it about. " Will God, indeed, dwell with men? " He will; and how? It is by the means of ordinances and ministers. A church of Christ is God's house; and where any one builds a house, it is a token that he means to dwell there. What a blessing to a village, a country, for God to build a house in it. It is by this that we may hope for a blessing upon the means to the conversion of our children and friends, and for the edification of believers.

II. Point out some corresponding duties as answering to these your privileges.

1. Constant and diligent attendance at the house of God. If the house of God be God's dwelling, let it be yours, your home. If God gives you a pastor, do you thankfully receive and prize him. He hath not dealt so with every village.

2. Cheerfully contribute to his support. Christ has given you freely, and you ought to give him freely. Consider it is not a gift, but as a debt, and not as done to him, but to Christ.

3. Follow these things which make for peace, with which the presence and blessing of God are connected.

4. Shun those things that tend to provoke the Lord to withdraw his gifts, and to cease to dwell among you. — Andrew Fuller's Sketch of a Sermon, addressed to the Church at Moulton, on the Ordination of Mr. (since Doctor) Carey, August 1st, 1787.

Verse 18. — But who is he of whom it is written, that "he ascended up on high? " I confess that the sixty-eighth Psalm, wherein these words are first written, is literally to be understood, not of any triumph for the slaughter of the host of Sen nacherib, which was done in the time of kingHezekias (as the Jews do most fabulously dream), when the very title of this Psalm, that ascribeth it unto David, doth sufficiently confute this vanity; nor yet for any of the victories of David which he obtained against his bordering enemies, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Idumaeans, and the Philistines (as some would have it); but of that great and glorious pomp which was then done and showed, when king David with great joy and triumph did bring the ark of the covenant into the hill of Sion; and, therefore, these words, "Thou art gone up on high," do signify that the ark, which formerly had lain in an obscure place, and was transported from one place to another, was now ascended and seated in a most illustrious and conspicuous place, even in the kingly palace; and these words, "thou hast led captivity captive," do signify those enemies which formerly had spoiled and wasted divers countries; but now, being vanquished by king David, were led captive in this triumph (for so it was the manner of those times, as Plutarch doth excellently declare in the life of Paulus ^Emilius); and the other words, "thou hast received gifts for men," do signify those spoils that were freely offered for conditions of peace, and were triumphantly carried about in this pompous show, for the greater solemnity of the same; and then (as the manner was among the chieftains when they triumphed, Bellica laudatis dona dcdisse viris, to bestow warlike gifts upon worthy men), gifts were bestowed on several men, in several manner, as Sigonius sheweth. Yet I say that, mystically, this Psalm is an tviviKiov, or a triumphal song, penned by king David upon the foresight of Jesus Christ arising from the dead, and with great joy and triumph ascending up into heaven, and thence sending his Holy Spirit unto his apostles and disciples; and, having overcome all his enemies, collecting by the ministry of his preachers, his churches and chosen people together, and so guiding and defending them here in this life, until he doth receive them into eternal glory. — Griffith Williams. 1636.

Verse 18. — "Thou hast led captivity captive." The expression is emphatical. He has conquered and triumphed over all the powers wrhich held us in captivity, so that captivity itself is taken captive. The spirit and force of it is destroyed; and his people, when released by him, and walking in his ways, have no more to apprehend from those whose captives they were, than a conqueror has to fear from a prisoner in chains. The energy of the phrase is not unlike that of the apostle: " Death is swallowed up in victory." — John Newton.

Verse 18. — "Thou hast led captivity captive," etc. The ancient prophecy of David is fulfilled here on the foot of mount Olivet. To take " captivity captive," signifies that Christ conquered the allied principalities and powers, the devil, sin, death, and hell; and that he deprived them of the instruments wherewith they enslaved men. He not only silenced the cannon on the spiritual Gibraltar, but he took rock, fortification, and all. He not only silenced the horrible and destructive battlements of the powerful and compactly-united ghostly enemies, but he threw down the towers, razed the castles, and took away the keys of the dungeons. He is the Master henceforth, and for ever. He did, also, at the same time, save his people. Where, O Jesus, is the army of which thou art the Captain? " Here I all the names are written in pearls on the breastplate which I wear as a high-priest." He had no sooner left the grave than he began to distribute his gifts, and did so all along the road on his way to his Father's house; and, especially after he entered the heaven of heavens, did he shower down gifts unto men, as a mighty conqueror loaded with treasures with which to enrich and adorn his followers and people. They were gifts of mercy: gifts to the rebellious; to those who threw down their arms at his feet in penitent submission, " that the Lord God may dwell among them." The apostle shows that a portion of these gifts are gifts of ministry. Accordingly, whenever God condescends to dwell among a people and in a country, he gives that people and country his ministry. He sends them his gospel in the mouths of faithful servants. He establishes there his house; the board and the candlestick; and then, in his Spirit, he dwells there and blesses his heritage.— Christmas Evans. 1766—1838.

Verse 18. — The apostle (Eph. iv. 8) does not quote the words of the Psalm literally, but according to the sense. The phrase, "Thou hast received gifts," as applied to Christ at his glorification, could only be for the purpose of distribution, and hence the apostle quotes them in this sense, "He gave gifts to men." This Hebrew phrase may be rendered either, " Thou hast received gifts in the human nature," or, " Thou hast received gifts for the sake of man " (see Gen. xviii. 28; 2 Kings xiv. 6.) The apostle uses the words in the sense of the purpose for which the gifts were received, and there is no contradiction between the Psalmist and the apostle. Thus, the difficulties of this quotation vanish when we examine them closely, and the Old and New Testaments are in complete harmony. Rosenmiiller expounds Ps. xviii., and never mentions the name of Christ; and the neologists in general see no Messiah in the Old Testament. To these, indeed, Eph. iv. 8, if they had any modesty, would present a formidable obstacle. Paul asserts the Psalm belongs to Christ, and they assert he is mistaken, and that he has perverted (De Wette) and destroyed its meaning. They assert that Lamarom, " on high," means the heights of Mount Zion, and Paul says it means heaven. Which is right? (see the scriptural usage of the word, Ps. vii. 7; xviii. 16; xciii. 4; cii. 19; Jer. xxv. 30; Is. xxxvii. 23). These passages connect the word with the heavenly mansions, and justify the appli cation of the apostle. — William Graham, in "Lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians."

Verse 18. — No sooner is Christ inaugurated in his throne, but he scatters his coin, and gives gifts. He gives gifts, or the gift of gifts, the gift of the Holy Ghost. " If thou knewest the gift of God," said Christ to the Samaritan woman (John iv. 10): that gift was the water of life, and that water of life was the Spirit, as John, who knew best his mind, gave the interpretation, " This spake he of the Spirit." John vii. 39. O my soul, consider of this princely gift of Christ! Such a gift was never before, but when God gave his Son. "God so loved the world, that he gave his Son; " and Christ so loved the world, that he gave his Spirit. But, O my soul, consider especially to whom this Spirit was given; the application of the gift is the very soul of thy meditation; " unto us a Son is given," said the prophet (Isa. ix. 6); and " unto us the Holy Ghost is given," saith the apostle (Rom. v. 5); and yet above all consider the reasons of this gift in reference to thyself. Was it not to make thee a temple and receptacle of the Holy Ghost? Stand a while on this! Admire, O my soul, at the condescending, glorious, and unspeakable love of Christ in this 1 It was infinite love to come clown into our nature when he was incarnate; but this is more, to come down into thy heart by his Holy Spirit: he came near to us then, but as if that were not near enough, he comes nearer now, for now he unites himself unto thy person, now he comes and dwells in thy soul by his Holy Spirit. — Isaac Ambrose. 1592 — 1674.

Verse 18. — "Thou hast received gifts for men," The glorious ascending of God from Mount Sinai, after the giving of the law, was a representation of his " ascending up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things," as Eph. iv. 10. And, as God then " led captivity captive " in the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who had long held his people in captivity and under cruel bondage; so dealt the Lord Christ now in the destruction and captivity of Satan and all his powers (Col. ii. 15); only, whereas it is said in the Psalm that he "received the gift for men," aere (Eph. iv.) it is said that " he gave gifts to men," wherein no small mystery is couched; for, although Christ is God, and is so gloriously represented in the Psalm, yet an intimation is given that he should act what is here mentioned in a condition wherein he was capable to receive from another, as he did in this matter. Acts ii. 33. And so the phrase in the original doth more than insinuate: o^? ^U=Q 9"P^ " Thou hast received gifts in Adam," — in the man, or human nature. And npS signifies as well to give as to receive, especially when anything is received to be given. Christ received this gift in the human nature to give it unto others. Now, to what end is this glorious theatre, as it were, prepared, and all this preparation made, all men being called to the preparation of it? It was to set out the greatness of the gift he would bestow, and the glory of the work which he would effect; and this was to furnish the church with ministers, and ministers with gifts for the discharge of their office and duty. And it will one day appear that there is more glory, more excellency, in giving one poor minister unto a congregation, by furnishing him with spiritual gifts for the discharge of his duty, than in the pompous instal-

ment of a thousand popes, cardinals, or metropolitans. The worst of men, in the observance of a few outward rites and ceremonies, can do the latter; Christ only can do the former, and that as he is ascended up on high to that purpose. — John Owen.

Verse 18. — As the passage which we have now been considering is applied by Paul in a more spiritual sense to Christ (Eph. iv. 8), it may be necessary to show how this agrees with the meaning and scope of the Psalmist. It may be laid down as an incontrovertible truth, that David, in reigning over God's ancient people, shadowed forth the beginning of Christ's eternal kingdom. This must appear evident to every one who remembers the promise made to him of a never-failing succession, and which received its verification in the person of Christ. As God illustrated his power in David, by exalting him with the view of delivering his people, so has he magnified his name in his only begotten Son. But let us consider more particularly how the parallel holds. Christ, before he was exalted, emptied himself of his glory, having not merely assumed the form of a servant, but humbled himself to the death of the cross. To show how exactly the figure was fulfilled, Paul notices, that what David had foretold was accomplished in the person of Christ, by his being cast down to the lowest parts of the earth in the reproach and ignominy to which he was subjected, before he ascended to the right hand of his Father. Ps. xxii. 7. That in thinking upon the ascension, we might not confine our views to the body of Christ, our attention is called to the result and fruit of it, in his subjecting heaven and earth to his government. Those who were formerly his inveterate enemies he compelled to submission and made tributary; this being the effect of the word of the Gospel, to lead men to renounce their pride and their obstinacy, to bring down every high thought which exalteth itself, and reduce the senses and the affections of men to obedience unto Christ. As to the devils and reprobate men who are instigated to rebellion and revolt by obstinate malice, he holds them bound by secret control, and prevents them from executing intended destruction. So far the parallel is complete. Nor, when Paul speaks of Christ having given gifts to men, is there any real inconsistency with what is here stated, although he has altered the words, having followed the Greek version in accommo dation to the unlearned reader. It was not himself that God enriched with the spoils of the enemy, but his people; and neither did Christ seek, or need to seek, his advancement, but made his enemies tributary, that he might adorn his Church with the spoil. From the close union subsisting between the head and members, to say that God manifest in the flesh received gifts from the captives, is one and the same thing with saying that he distributed them to his Church. What is said in the close of the verse is no less applicable to Christ: that he obtained his victories that as God he might dwell among us. Although he departed, it was not that he might remove to a distance from us, but, as Paul says, " that he might fill all things." Eph. iv. 10. By his ascension to heaven, the glory of his divinity has been only more illustriously displayed; and, though no longer present with us in the flesh, our souls receive spiritual nourishment from his body and blood, and we find, not withstanding distance of place, that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed. — John Calvin.

Verse 18. — "Thou hast received gifts for men." Heb. 0-1*3, in man; "in human nature," says Dr. Adam Clarke, " and God, manifest in human flesh, dwells among mortals." " The gifts which Jesus Christ distributes to man he has received in man, in and by virtue of his incarnation, and it is in consequence of his being made man that it may be said, ' the Lord God dwells among them; ' for Jesus was called Immanuel, ' God with us,' in consequence of his incarnation." — Ed. Note to Calvin in loc.

Verse 18. — "Yea, for the rebellious also." I feared, also, that this was the mark that the Lord did set on Cain, even continual fear and trembling under the heavy load of guilt that he had charged upon him for the blood of his brother Abel. Thus did I wind and twine and shrink under the burden that was upon me, which burden also did so oppress me, that I could neither stand, nor go, nor lie, either at rest or quiet. Yet that saying would sometimes come to my mind, He hath received gifts for the rebellious. Psalm Ixviii. 18. " The rebellious," thought I; why, surely, they are such as once were under subjection to their prince, even those who, after they have sworn subjection to his government, have taken up arms against him; and this, thought I, is my very condition; once I loved him, feared him, served him; but now I am a rebel; I have sold him. I have said, let him go if he will; but yet he has gifts for rebels, and then why not for me? — John Bunyan, in " Grace Abounding."

Verse 18 (last clause). — Thou didst not regard their former disobedience, but, even although seeing them contradicting, thou didst continue to do them good, until thou madest them thine own abode (mfr^Mr). — Theodorel.

Verse 18 (last clause). — The Chaldee has, " Upon the rebellious, who become proselytes and return by repentance, the Schechinah of the glory of the Lord God dwelleth."

Verse 19. — "Blessed be the Lord," etc. Methinks the sweet singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the choir of heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs; yea, let me say, now that he sings above in that blessed consort of glorious spirits, his ditty cannot be better than this that he sang here upon earth, and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time. Prepare, I beseech you, both your ears for David's song, and your hearts and tongues for your own. And first, in this angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe the descant and the ground. The descant of gratulation, "Blessed be the Lord" wherein is both applause and excitation; an applause given to God's goodness, and an excitation of others to give that applause. The ground is a threefold respect. Of what God is in himself, Gorf and Lord; of what God is and doth to us, " which loadeth us daily with benefits; " of what he is both in himself and to us, " the God of our salvation; " which last (like to some rich stone) is set off with a dark foil: "To God the Lord belong the issues from death." So, in the first for his own sake, in the second for our sakes, in the third for his own and ours; as God, as Lord, as a benefactor; as a Saviour and deliverer. "Blessed be the Lord." It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more than his Hosannas, his thanks more than his suits. Ofttimes doth he praise God when he begs nothing; seldom ever doth he beg that favour, for which he doth not raise up his soul to an anticipation of thanks; neither is this any other than the universal undersong of all his heavenly ditties, "Blessed be the Lord." Praises (as our former translation hath it) is too low; honour is more than praise; blessing is more than honour. Neither is it for nothing that from this word T3?, to bless, is derived TP, the knee, which is bowed in blessing; and the crier before Joseph pro claimed Abrech, calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders. Gen. xli. 43. Every slight, trivial acknowledgment of worth is a praise; blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude, that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kind of divine rapture. Praise is a matter of compliment; blessing of devotion. The apostle's rule is, that the less is blessed of the greater, Abraham of the King of Salem, the prophet's charge is, that the greater should be blessed of the less, yea, the greatest of the least, God of man. This agrees well; blessing is an act that will bear re ciprocation; God blesseth man, and man blesseth God. God blesseth man im peratively; man blesseth God optatively. God blesseth man in the acts of mercy; man blesseth God in the notions, in the expressions of thanks. God blesses man when he makes him good and happy; man blesseth God when he confesseth how good, how gracious, how glorious he is; so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition,* in celebration: in the one we acknowledge the bounty of God to us; in the other we magnify him vocally, really, for that bounty. O see, then, what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor, silly, earth-creeping creatures; that he gives us in them power to bless himself, and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us. David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man; how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God, that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man, a worm, an atom, a nothing? Yet both, James tells us, that with the tongue we bless God; and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation, "Blessed be the Lord." Even we men live not (chameleon like) upon the air of thanks, nor grow the fatter for praises; how much less our Maker? O God, we know well that whatsoever men or angels do, or do not, thou canst not but be infinitely blessed in thyself; before ever any creature was, thou didst equally enjoy thy blessed self from all eternity: what can this worthless, loose film of flesh either add to or detract from thine infiniteness? Yet thou, that humblest thyself to behold the things that are done in heaven and earth, humblest thyself also to accept the weak breath of our praises, that are sent up to thee from earth to heaven. How

* Agnition, acknowledgment.

should this encourage the vows, the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness, to see them graciously taken? If men would take up with good words, with good desires, and quit our bonds for thanks, who would be a debtor? With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current. If he, then, will honour us so far as to be blessed of us, Oil let us honour him so far as to bless him. — Joseph Hall, in "A Sermon of Public Thanksgiving for the Wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortality." 1625.

Verse 19.— "Blessed be the Lord." It is not a little remarkable to see the saints so burdened and overcharged with the duty of singing his praise, that, 1. They are forced to come off with an excess of praise, and offer to praise him, and even leave it, as it were, as they found it, and say no more, lest they should spill his praises; but, as Rev. v. 12, " Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory and honour," though I be not worthy or able to give it to him. 2. That they speak broken language and half sentences in their songs, when they are deeply loaden witli the deep sense of his love, as "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadelh us with benefits; " there is no more in the original but "Blessed be the Lord, that loadeth us." — John Spalding, in "Synaxis Sacra." 1703.

Verse 19. — "Who daily loadeth us with benefits." Though some may have more than others, yet every one hath his load, as much as he can carry. Every vessel cannot bear up with the like sail, and therefore God, to keep us from oversetting, puts on so much as will safest bring us to heaven, our desired port. — Ezekiel Hopkins.

Verse 19. — "Who daily loadeth us with benefits." Such is man's self-love that BO inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence. While thou makest much of thyself, every one shall speak well of thee; how much more while thou makest much of them 1 Here God hath met with us also. Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm, above all other of David's, to abound; see here, I beseech you, a four-fold gradation of divine bounty. First, here are " benefits." The word is not expressed in the original, but necessarily implied in the sense: for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God, favours, precepts, punishments, the other two are out of the road of gratulation. When \ve might therefore have expected judgments, behold benefits. And those, secondly, not sparingly hand-fulled out to us, but dealt to us by the whole load: " loadelh with benefits." Whom, thirdly, doth he load but " us "? Not worthy and well-deserving subjects, but " us," c-rfo, rebels. And, lastly, this he doth, not at one dole and no more (as even churls' rare feasts use to be plentiful), but cv cv successively, unweariedly, perpetually. One favour were too much, here are " benefits; " a sprinkling were too much, here is a load; once were too oft, here is daily largition.* Cast your eyes, therefore, a little upon this threefold exaggeration of beneficence; the measure, a load of benefits; the subject, unworthy " us; " the time, "daily." " Who daily loadeth us with benefits." Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of mercies? Were it no more, but that he hath given us a world to live in, a life to enjoy, air to breathe in, earth to tread on, fire to warm us, water to cool and cleanse us, clothes to cover us, food to nourish us, sleep to refresh us, houses to shelter us, variety of creatures to serve and delight us; here were a just load. But now, if we yet add to these, civility of breeding, dearness of friends, competency of estate, degrees of honour, honesty or dignity of vocation, favour of princes, success in employments, domestic comforts, outward peace, good reputation, preservation from dangers, rescue from evils; the load is well mended. If yet, ye shall come closer, and add due proportion of body, integrity of parts, perfection of senses, strength of nature, mediocrity of health, sufficiency of appetite, vigour of digestion, wholesome temper of seasons, freedom from cares; this course must needs heighten it yet more. If still ye shall add to these, the order, and power, and exercise of our inward faculties, enriched with wisdom, art, learning, experience, expressed by a not un-handsome elocution, and shall now lay all these together that concern estate, body, mind; how can the axle-tree of the soul but crack under the load of these favours? But, if from what God hath done for us as men, we look to what he hath done for us as Christians; that he hath embraced us with an everlasting love, that he hath moulded us anew, enlivened us by his Spirit, fed us by his word and sacraments, clothed us with his merits, bought us with his blood, becoming vile to make us glorious, a curse, to invest us with blessedness; in a word, that he hath given himself to us, his Son for us; Oh the height, and depth, and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh

the boundless, topless, bottomless, load of divine benefits, whose immensity reaches from the centre of this earth, to the unlimited extent of the very empyreal heavens 1 "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men." — Joseph Hall.

Verse 20. — "Our God is the God of salvation " (that is of deliverance, of outward deliverance); " and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death," or the goings out from death; that is, God hath all ways that lead out from death in his own keeping, he keepeth the key of the door that lets us out from death. When a man is in the valley of the shadow of death, where shall he issue out? Where shall he have a passage? Nowhere, saith man, he shall not escape. But God keepeth all the passages; when men think they have shut us up in the jaws of death, he can open them, and deliver us. "To him belong the issues from death;" it is an allusion to one that kecpetli a passage or a door: and God is a faithful keeper, and a friendly keeper, who will open the door for the escape of his people, when they cry unto him. — Joseph Caryl.

Verse 20. — "And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death." Buildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them, support them; and of their buttresses that comprehend them, embrace them; and of their contignations * that knit and unite them. The foundation suffers them not to sink; the buttresses suffer them not to swerve; the contignation and knitting suffer them not to cleave. The body of our building is in the former part of this verse; it is this; He that is our God is the God of salvation; ad salutes, of salvations, in the plural, so it is in the original; the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too. But of this building, the foundation, the buttresses, the contignation, are in this part of the verse, which constitutes our text, and in the three diverse acceptations of the words amongst our expositors, "Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death." For, first, the foundation of this building (that our God is the God of all salvation) is laid in this, "That unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death; " that is, it is in his power to give us an issue and deliverance, even then, when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death, and to the lips of that whirlpool, the grave; and so, in this acceptation, this exilus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio a morte, a deliverance from death; and this is the most obvious and most ordinary acceptation of these words, and that upon which our translation lays hold: "the issues from death." And then, secondly, the buttresses that comprehend and set le this building; that, "He that is our God is the God of salvation," are thus raised; "Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death," that is, the disposition and manner of our death, what kind of issue and transmigration we shall have out of this world, whether prepared or sudden, whether violent or natural, whether in our perfect senses or shaked and disordered by sickness; there is [no] condemnation to be argued out of that, no judgment to be made upon that; for howsoever they die, precious in his sight is the death of his saints, and with him are the issues of death, the ways of our departing out of this life are in his hands; and so in this sense of the words, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio in morte, a deliverance in death; not that God will deliver us from dying, but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death, of what kind soever our passage be; and this sense and acceptation of the words, the natural frame and contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us. And then, lastly, the contignation and knitting of this building, that He that is our God, is the God of all salvation, consists in this, Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, that this God the Lord, having united and knit both natures in one, and being God, having also come into this world, in our flesh, he could have no other means to save us, he could have no other issue out of this world, no return to his former glory, but by death. And so in this sense, this exilus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by death, by the death of this God our Lord, Christ Jesus; and this, St. Augustine's acceptation of the words, and those many and great persons that have adhered to him. In all these three lines then, we shall look upon these words, first, as the God of power, the Almighty Father, rescues his servants from the jaws of death; and then, as the God of mercy, the glorious Son rescued us by taking upon himself the issue of death; and then (between these two), as the God of comfort, the Holy Ghost rescues us

* Contignation, a framing together; from contigno, to join together, or lay with beams and rafters.

from all discomfort, by his blessed impressions before; that what manner of death soever be ordained for us, yet this exitus mortis shall be introitus in vitam, our issue in death shall be an entrance into everlasting life. And these three considerations, our deliverance a morle, in morte, per mortem, from death, in death, and by death, will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation, of the buttresses, of the contignation of this our building, that "He that is our God is the God of salvation," because "Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death." — John Donne.

Verse 20. — "The issues from death." That is, the issue, or escape, from death, both in the resurrection and in the various perils of our present life. — Thomas Le Blanc.

Verse 20. — "Issues from death." The English version cannot be sustained by the Hebrew; for *> has never the force of from, and, therefore, the expression, as Dr. Hammond observes, must signify the several plagues and judgments inflicted by God on impenitent enemies — such as drowning in the sea, killing by the sword, etc.; which were the ways of punishing and destroying the Egyptians and Canaanites. Thus the two members of the verse are antithetical: the first speaks of God as a deliverer, and the second as a punisher; and in this respect the verse corresponds with the preceding. — George Phillips, in "The Psalms with a Critical, Exegctical

and Philological Commentary." 1846.

Verse 21. — "The hairy scalp." That is, even the most fearful enemies, that with their ghastly visage, deformed with long hair, would strike a terror into the hearts of beholders. — Edward Leigh.

Verse 21. — "Hairy scalp." It was a practice among some of the ancient in habitants of Arabia to allow the hair to grow luxuriantly on the top of the head, and to shave the head in other parts. — Francis Hare. 1740.

Verse 22. — "/ will bring the enemy." Both the preceding and following verse prove that this is the sense, and not as many interpreters supply, my people. Bashan was east of Judaea, and the sea on the west; so that the meaning is, that God would bring his enemies from every quarter to be slain by his people. — Benjamin Boothroyd.

Verse 23. — "That thy foot may be dipped," etc. The blood of thy enemies, shed in such abundance that thy dogs shall lap and drink it, shall be the sea in which thou shalt pass, and that red without a figure. And, proportionably shall be the destructions on the enemies of Christ and Christians in the age of the Messiah. — Henry Hammond.

Verses 26 — 28. — This Psalm was sung, it is probable, on the removal of the ark into the City of David. Numb. x. It was now that the ark had rest, and the tribes assembled three times a year at Jerusalem, the place that God had chosen. The text is a lively description of their worship.

I. Offer a few remarks by way of expounding the passage. 1. Israel had their lesser congregations in ordinary every Sabbath-day, and their national ones three times a year. Their business in all was to bless God. 2. This business was to be carried on by all Israel, beginning at the fountain head, and proceeding through all its streams. God has blessed Israel; let Israel bless God. 3. All the tribes are supposed to be present; four are mentioned in the name of the whole, as inhabiting the confines of the land. Their union was a source of joy; they had been divided by civil wars, but now they are met together. 4. Those tribes which are named had each something particular attending it. Little Benjamin (see Judges xxi.) had nearly been a tribe lacking in Israel, but now appears with its ruler. Judah had been at war with Benjamin: Saul was a Benjamite; David was of Judah: yet they happily lost their antipathies in the worship of God. Zebulun and Naphtali were distant tribes; yet they were there! dark, too, yet there. 5. The princes and the people were all together. 6. They were supposed to be strong, but were reminded that what they had of strength was of God's commanding. Their union and success, as well as that degree of righteousness among them which exalted the nation, was of God. They are not so strong, but that they need strengthening, and are directed to pray as well as praise: "Strengthen, 0 God, that which thou hast wrought for us."

II. Apply the subject. Two things are here exemplified, namely — diligence and brotherly union; and three things recommended, namely — united praise; united acknowledgment that, for what they are, they are indebted to God; and united

prayer for future mercies. Each of these affords a rule for us. 1. The worship of God must be attended with diligence. There are the princes of Zebulun and Naphtali. They had to travel above two hundred miles three times a year, thither and back again; that is, twelve hundred in a year, twenty-four miles a week. Those who neglect the worship of God for little diflicultics show that their heart is not in it, and when they do attend cannot expect to profit: " they have snuffed at it." Those whose hearts are in it often reap great advantage. God blessed the Israelites in their journeys, as well as when there (Psalm Ixxxiv. 6): " The rain fllleth the pools; " and so the Christians. There is a peculiar promise to those that seek him early. 2. The worship of God must be attended to with brotherly love. All the tribes must go up together. It is a kind law that enjoins social worship; we need each other to stimulate. " O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." God has made us so that we shall be greatly influenced by each other, both to good and evil. It greatly concerns us to cultivate such a spirit. To this end we must cherish an affectionate behaviour in our common intercourse — bear, forbear, and forgive; and, whatever differences we may have, not suffer them to hinder our worship. The tribes, as we have seen, had their differences; yet they were there. When all Israel met at Hebron to anoint David king, what should we have said if some had kept away because others went? 3. Our business, when assembled, must be to bless God in our congregations; and a pleasant work this is. Israel had reasons, and great reasons, and Christians more. Thank him for his unspeakable gift; bless him for the means of grace, and the hopes of glory. Bless him; he " healeth all thy diseases," etc. Psalm ciii. This is an employment that fits for heaven. The tears of a mourner in God's house were supposed to defile his altar. We may mourn for sin; but a fretful spirit, discontented and unthankful, defiles God's altar still. 4. Another part of our business is to unite in acknowledging that whatever we are, we owe it to God alone; " Thy God hath commanded thy strength." We possess a degree of strength both individually and socially. Art thou strong in faith, in hope, in zeal? It is in him thou art strong. Are we strong as a society? It is God that increaseth us with men like a Hock; it is he that keeps us in union, gives us success, etc. 5. Another part of our business must be to unite in prayer for future mercies. We are not so strong, either as individuals or societies, but that there is room for increase; and this is the proper object of prayer. God has wrought a great work for us in regeneration. God has wrought much for us as a church in giving us increase, respect, and room in the earth. Pray that each may be increased; or, in the words of the text: "Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us." Are there none who are strangers to all this? — Andrew Fuller.

Verse 27. — "Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun, Naphtali." The two royal tribes, 1. that of Benjamin, from which the first king sprang; 2. that of Judah, from which the second; and the two learned tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali. And we may note, that the kingdom of the Messiah should at length be submitted to by all the potentates and learned men in the world. — Henry Hammond.

Verse 27. — "Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun, Naphtali." The same tribes are prominent in the New Testament, as foremost in the battle of the church against the world. Paul, the " least " of the apostles (1 Cor. xv. 8 — 10), was by origin Saul of Benjamin (Phil. iii. 5). Christ, " the Lion of the tribe of Judah," James and John, the brothers, the other James, Thaddeus, and Simon, were from Judah, and the other apostles were from Naphthalim and Zabulon, or Galilee (Matt. iv. 13). — A. R. Fausset.

Verse 27. — "Their ruler." The prince of that tribe. The Greek version saith, in a trance; taking the Hebrew c-n to be of 071, though it be not found elsewhere in this form; yet rare words but once used, are sundry times found in this and other Psalms. These things applied to Christ's times and after are very mystical. Benjamin, the least, is put here first; so in the heavenly Jerusalem, the first foundation is a jasper (Rev. xxi. 19), which was the last precious stone in Aaron's breastplate, on which Benjamin's name was graven (Exod. xxviii. 10, 20,21). In this tribe Paul excelled as a prince of God, though one of the least apostles (1 Cor. xv. 8 — 10), who was converted in a trance or ecstacy (Acts ix. 3, 4, etc.); and in ecstacies he and other apostles saw the mysteries of Christ's kingdom. — Henry Ainsworth.

Verses 27, 28. — There are all the twelve tribes of Israel with their rulers present, to conduct the ark of God to the hill, in which it pleased him to dwell; for, though all the tribes are not mentioned, these, which are named, include the whole, since Zebulun and Naphtali are the most remote, and Judah and Benjamin the nearest tribes to Zion. Benjamin was a dwindled family through the signal depopulation of that tribe, from which it never entirely recovered. Jud. xx. 43 — 48; 1 Chron. xii. 29. — Edward Garrard Marsh, in "The Book of Psalms translated into English Verse... with Practical and Explanatory Notes." 1832.

Verse 28. — "Thy God hath commanded thy strength." Singularly appropriate to the occasion for which they were composed are these stimulating words. The ark of God had during several years been kept in private houses. David had pitched a tent for its reception, and intended providing a better shrine, he would deposit the ark in the temporary sanctuary, and he gathers thirty thousand chosen men of Israel, and with these and with a multitude of the people he proceeds to the house in which the ark had been kept. The people can render the service of song, so " David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instru ments made of firwood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals " (2 Sam. vi. 5). The breach of Uzzah delayed the restoration of the ark three months; but David returned to the work, and with gladness, with burnt offerings and peace offerings, with feasting, dancing, and the sound of a trumpet, he brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the tabernacle he had pitched for it. David can provide a sacred place for the ark of his God, and his " God has commanded his strength." Thirty thousand chosen men ran attend on this occasion, and a multitude besides. Then, why should they tarry at home? The occasion is worthy of their presence, and their " God has commanded their strength." There are sweet singers and skilful players in Israel, and why should they be silent. The occasion calls for praise, and their " God has commanded their strength." There are cattle upon the thousand hills of Canaan, and shall no sacrifice be brought? The occasion demands oblations, and Israel's " God has commanded their strength." There is a mountain in Canaan, beautiful for situation, and rich in historic association. God's ark can be brought to this mountain, and if it can be, it ought to be, for Israel's God has commanded Israel's strength. There are twelve tribes in Israel which may unite in bringing up God's ark, then let none hold back, for their " God has commanded their strength." "Thy strength " is thy best — all that is within thee; all that thou canst do, and be, and become; and all that thoti hast — the two mites, if these be all, and the alabaster box of spikenard, very costly, if this be thy possession.... By that which God is in himself, by that which God is to us, by law on the heart, and by law oral and written, by the new kingdom of his love, and by all his benefits, "Thy God commands thy strength." He speaks from the beginning, and from the end of time, from the midst of chaos, and from the new heavens and new earth, from Bethel and from Gethsemane, from Sinai and from Calvary, and he saith to us all, " My son, give me thine heart," consecrate to me the best and, devote to me thy strength. — Samuel Martin.

Verse 30. — "Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds." This is our marginal version, which is the proper one. Most modern critics consider that the lion is here intended, which frequently makes its den among reeds or brush-wood. Innumerable lions wander about among the reeds and copses, on the borders of the rivers of Mesopotamia. The river Jordan was infested with them (Jer. iv. 7, and xlix. 19). Hence, the wild beasts of the reeds may signify the Syrian kings, who often contended with David. — Benjamin Boolhroyd.

Verse 30.— The idolatrous king of Egypt is here enigmatically represented as dwelling, like the ciDCodile, among the reeds of the Nile; and with him are intro duced the " bulls " and " calves," who were the gods of the people of Egypt, before whom they were ever dancing in their superstitious revels. " Quell these insults upon thy majesty, nor put down only the superstition of Egypt, but all their pomp of war also, that the Gentiles may be converted unto thee, and the idols be utterly abolished." — Edmard Garrard Marsh.

Verse 30. — When the enemies of God rise up against his church, it is time for the church to fall down to God, to implore his aid against those enemies. Holy prayers are more powerful than profane swords. — Thomas Wall, in "A Comment on the Times." 1657.

Verse 30. — The words contain, first, a declaration of God's enemies; secondly, an imprecation against those enemies. The enemies are marshalled into four ranks.

1. A company of spearman, or (as some translations read it) the beast of the reeds.

2. The multitude of the bulls. 3. The calves of the people. 4. The men that delight in war. The imprecation is also twofold; the first more gentle; it is but "rebuke the spearmen; " and that with a limitation too — "till they submit themselves with pieces of silver." For they that will not, but delight in war, more severely deal with such: Scatter them; "Scatter the men that delight in war."... The church of God never wanted enemies, never will. " There is no peace to the wicked," saith God: there shall be no peace to the godly, say the wicked. The wicked shall have no peace which God can give; the godly shall have no peace which the wicked can take away. — Thomas Wall.

Verse 30. — 1. Scrupulosity. 2. Envy. 3. Ignorance. 4. Ambition or pride. Upon which these four beasts in the text do act their enmity against the church: scrupulosity sets forth unto us the beast of the reeds; envy, the bulls; ignorance, the calves; the pride, the men " that delight in war." — Thomas Wall.*

Verse 31. — "Ethiopia." It is a matter of fact, familiar to the learned reader, that the names "Ethiopia," and "Ethiopians," are frequently substituted in our English version of the Old Testament, where the Hebrew preserves the proper name, " Gush." And the name, " Gush," when so applied in Scripture, belongs uniformly not to the African, but to the Asiatic, Ethiopia, or Arabia. — Charles Forster, in "The Historical Geography of Arabia."

Verse 33. — "And that a mighty voice; " or, a voice of strength; a strong and powerful voice, such as the gospel is, when accompanied with the power and Spirit of God. It is a soul-shaking and awakening voice; it is a heart-melting and a heart-breaking one; it is a quickening and an enlightening voice; it quickens dead sinners, gives life unto them, and the entrance of it gives light to dark minds: it is a soul-charming and alluring one; it draws to Christ, engages the affections to him, and fills with unspeakable delight and pleasure. — John Gill.