PSALMS. PtxWityrrtrg
‘tion, which God has appointed for walls and bul-”
ftrong and impregnable one, J/@. xxvi. 1. wife the Spirit of God, and his operations and influences, which are a ftandard againft the enemy’s warks, and which make the city, ve a flood of oppofition and perfecution; and who be- ‘ing in his church and people, is greater than he that is in the world, Ja. lix. 19. 1 Fobmiv. 4. Some’ render the words, -/er your Poeie ice. tok Chrift, who is the firength of the poor and needy in their diftrefs; the ftrength of their h a ge their lives,: and of their falyation, and the’ fecurity of the church. Others render them, /ef your hearts foldiers, ~who endure hardnefs as good foldiers of Chrift, fight the Lord’s battles, and aré'more than’ conquerors through him; and a lovely fight is’ to behold them, with Chrift at the head of them;_ fee Rev. xix. 14. Confider her palaces; for Febovab, Father, Son and Spirit, have their dwelling~ places in Ziow; and here, befides apoftles, prophets, evangelifts, and ordinary minifters of the Word, who are rulers and officers fet in the firft place,. every faint is a prince anda king; and has a place and a name here, better than that of fons and
‘daughters of the greateft potentate on earth; every’
dwelling-place in mount Zion is a palace. That yé may tell it to the generation following, that is, the beauty and glory, ftrength and fafety of the church 5’ and even all that is fpoken of her in this pfalm, as. well as what follows: this is the end propofed, by taking acircuit round Zion, and making the above
¥. 14. For this God is our God for cot Bi Hae, ing one; even unto death, or in death, or abor death *; fo as not to be hurt of the fecond d He guides not only to the brink of Fordan’s riv but thro’ the deep waters of it, and never | till he has landed them fafe.on the fhore:
nity: and fome, as Aben Ezra, as if it was pyaoqy for ever 5 a dana obferves, render it fecretly; the to them: and others give the fenfe of it,asin the days of youth; that is, God is the guide of his people in old age as in youth; he is always their guide, and ever will be: to which fenfe: incline R, Mo/es in
Aben Ezra, othas in Kimchi and. Abendana, and as alfo Farchi and the Chaldee paraphrafe; but Kimchi and Ben Melech render it as we do, unto death, or unto our death,.
PSALM XLIX, To the chief mufician, a pfalm for the fons of Korah;
A BEN EZRA {ays, this pfalm is a very excellent one, fince in it is explained the Light of | | And tho’ not many, yet fome of this fort are called the world to come, and of the rational and immortal foul; and Kimchi is of opinion, that it refpects both this world and that which is to come: and indeed it treats of the vanity of trufting in riches; of the infufficiency of them for the redemption of the foul; of the fhort continuance of worldly honour and fubftance; of the certainty of death, and of the refurrection of the dead. And the defign. of it is to expofe the folly of trufting in uncertain riches, and to comfort the people of God under the want of them.
y.1. Hear this, &c.} Not the law, as fome Jewifh writers ' interpret it, which was not defirable to be heard by thofe that did hear it; it being a voice of wrath and terror, a curfing law, anda miniftration of condemnation and death; but rather NV NPNWIN this news, as the Targum; the good news of the gofpel; the word of this falvation; the voice from heaven; the word not fpoken by angels, but by the Lord himfelf: or A377 Mt this wifdom, as Kimchi interprets it; which the pfalmift was about to fpeak of, x. 3. alfo the parable and dark faying he fhould attend unto and Open, ¥.4. and indeed it may take in the whole fubje&t-matter of the pfalm. Ai ye people; not the people of J/rael only, but all the people of the world, as appears from the following claufe; whence it is evident, that this pfalm belongs to gofpeltimes; in which the middle wall of partition is broken down, and there is no difference of people; God is the God both of Jews arid Gentiles 5, Chrift is the Saviour and Redeemer of one as well as of the other; the Spirit of God has been poured out upon the latter; the gofpel has been {ent into all the world, and all are called upon to hear it. Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, or of time; fo the word is’ rendered age, the age of a man, Pfa/. xxxix. 5. The inhabitants of this world are but for a time; wherefore Ben Melech interprets the phrafe by paw °waKN men of time, the inhabitants of times it is peculiar to the moft High to inbabit eternity, Ifa. lvii. 15. Under the gofpel-difpenfation there is no diftinétion of places; the gofpel js not confined to the land of Fudea; the found of it is gone into all the world, and men may worfhip God, and offer incenfe to his name in every place; and whoever fears him in any nation is accepted of y. 2. Both low and high, &c.) Or both the fons of Adam, and the fons of men. By the fons of Adam, are meant the multitude of the people, as Ben Melech explains it; the common people, the meaner fort, the bafe things of this world; and fuch are they, generally fpeaking, who are called by grace under the gofpel-difpenfation: and by the fons of sen, are meant the princes, nobles, and great men of the earth; men of high birth and illuftrious extraction: fo Adam is rendered, the mean man, and J/o, the word here ufed, the great man, in J a. ii. 9.
by graces and all of them have a peculiar concern in many things fpoken of in this pfalm; fee y.12, 16, 17,20. Rich and pocr together; thefe are called upon to hearken to what is after faid, that the one may not be elated with, and truft in their riches, and that the other may not be dejected on account of their poverty; and feeing both muft die, and meet together at the judgment-day; and inafmuch as the gofpel.is preached to one as to another; and for the moft part the poor hear it, receive it, and are called by it.
y. 3. My mouth fhall {peak of wifdom, &c.] Or wifdoms ”, of Chrift, who is fo called, Prov. i. 20. and ix. 1. He being as a divine perfon the wifdom of God, and the only wife God; and having all the treafures of wifdom in him, as man and Mediator: of him the prophet fpake, and of him the apoftles, and all gofpel-minifters {peak; of the glories of his perfon, of the fulnefs of his grace, and of his wonderful works; efpecially of that of redemption and falvation by him, in which there is an abounding of wifdom and prudence. Or the gofpel may be meant, and all the truths of it, in which there is.a glorious difplay of divine wifdom; it is the wifdom of God in a myftery; hidden and ancient wifdom; and which, when truly underftood, makes a man wife unto falvation; fee 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. And the meditation of my heart thall be of une derftanding; ox underftandings", and this is in order to the former 5 what the heart meditates the mouth fpeaks. If the heart meditates on underftanding, the mouth will {peak of wifdom; anda man fhould think before he fpeaks, efpecially the minifters of the gofpel: they ought to meditate on the word of God, the gofpel, and the truths of it, that their,profiting may appear to all; that they may underftand divine things themfelves, and deliver them out to the underftanding of others: their concern fhould be, that through meditation they may have a good treafure of wifdom and knowledge in their hearts, that out of it they may bring forth things pleafant and profitable unto others.
y. 4. I will incline mine ear to a parable, &c.] In which way of fpeaking the doétrines of the gofpel were delivered out by Chrift, Matt. xiii. 3, 35. Wherefore the prophet, perfonating his apoftles and difciples, fignifies that he would liften thereunto, that he might attain to the knowledge thereof, and communicate it toothers, J will open my dark faying upon the harp; the znigmas, riddles, and myfteries of the gofpel, being underftood by the minifters of it, are opened and explained ina very pleafant and delightful manner; they are made clear and evident, and are as a lovely fong upon an y. 5. Wherefore foul I fear in the days of evil, &c.] This is the principal thing that all are before called to hearken to.. This is the wifdom and underftanding the pfalmift had been meditating upon, and was about to utter; this is the parable he inclined his ear to, and the dark faying he would open; namely, that a faint has nothing to fear in® the worft of times; which is a riddle to a natural Aben Ezra interprets the days-of evil, of the.
man, days of old age, as they are called, Acclef. xii. 1. which bring on difeafes, weaknefs and death; in which a good man has no reafon to fear; as that he fhould want the neceffaries of life, fince they that fear the Lord fhall want no good thing; or that he fhould not hold out to the end, feeing God, who is the guide of youth, is the ftaff of old age, and carries to hoary hairs, and will never leave nor forfake: and though the wicked man in old age has reafon to be afraid of death and eternity at hand, the faint has not; but may fing on the borders of the grave, O death, where is thy fling! &c. Alfo days in which iniquity abounds, and error and herely prevail, are days of evil; and though the good man «may fear he fhall be led afide by the ill example of fome, or by the craft of others; yet he need not, fince the foundation of God ftands fure, and he knows them that are his, and will take care of them and preferve them. Moreover, times of affliction and perfecution are evil days; fee Ephe.
v. 16. and vi. 13. and fuch will be the hour of temptation, that fhall try the inhabitants of-the earth, Kev. ili. 10. Yet the righteous man need not fear, fince it is always well with him, let his cafe and circumftances be what they will. Yea, the day of death, and the day of judgment, are days of evil to wicked men; and therefore they put them away far from them, mos vi. 3. but believers have reafon to rejoice at them, the day of their death being better than the day of their birth; and the day of judgement will be the time of the glorious appearing of Chrift to them, It is added, when the iniquity of my heels fhall compafs me about; that is, the fins of life and converfation; Heels denote /teps, and the word is fometimes fo rendered, as in P/al. lvi. 6. and imiquity intends fin committed in walking; and fo defigns not original fin, as fome have thought, but actual fins and tranfereffions: and thefe may be faid to compa/s the faints about, when they are chaftifed for them, and fo are brought to a fenfe and acknowledgment of them, and to be humbled for them; and then they have nothing to fear in a flavifh way, fince thefe chaftifements are not in wrath, or in a way of vindictive juftice, or punifhment for fin; but the fruits of love and favour. Or the fenfe may be, when death, the fruit of iniquity, the wages of fin, furrounds and feizes upon me; 95903 2” my end, as the Targum; in my laft days, at the heel or clofe of them, I will not fear: the faint has no reafon to fear, when he walks through death’s dark valley; for death is abolifhed as a penal evil, its fting is took away, and its curfe removed.. Some render the words, when the iniquity of my fupplanters fhall “compass me about °; meaning his enemies, who either lay in wait for him privately, and endeavoured to fupplant him; or that purfued him clofely, and preffed upon his heels, juft ready to deftroy him; yet even then he fignifies he fhould not fear: and then the fenfe is the fame with P/al. xxvii. 1, 2, 3. to which agree the Syriac and Arabic verfions, which render it, the iniquity of mine enemies;
° Spy ry iniquitas fupplantatorum meorum, Gejerus; infidiatorum meorum, fome in Vatablus. ” opprediorum, i. e, iniquiflimi mei oppreflores ambiunt me, Gejerus,
Pf. xlix. 9.572 or, when my enemies furround me: and it may be literally rendered, when iniquity furrounds me at my heels?; that is, when men, who are iniquity itfelf;, encompafs me, are at my heels, ready to feize me, I will not fear. 7 ¥. 6. They that truft in their wealth, 8c.) In their outward force, power and ftrength; their horfes, chariots and armies; fee P/a/, xxxiii. 16. and xx. 7. J/a. xxxi. 1. or in their worldly goods and fubftance; which feems to be the fenfe of the word here, as appears from ¥. 10. To /ruf in them, is to fet the é¢ye and heart upon them }-or to take up reft in them, to depend on them, to the neglect of divine providence, with refpect to future living in this world; and to expect eternal happinefs hereafter, becaufe favoured with many earthly enjoyments here: fo to do is evil. Wherefore the Targum is, Wo to the wicked that tru in their fubftance. And it is alfo very weak and foolifh to truft in riches, fince they are uncertain, are here to-day and gone to-morrow; and are unfatisfying, he that has much would ftill have more: nor can they deliver from evil, from prefent judgments, from the fword, the peftilence, and famine; nor from death, nor from the future judgment, and wrath to come; and are often injurious to the fpiritual and-eternal welfare of men; fee 1 Timi. vi. 9, 10; 17. Mark x. 24. And boajt themfelves in the multitude of their riches; of their acquifition of them by their own diligence and induftry; and of their having them becaufe of fome peculiar virtue and excellency in themfelves; and of the abundance of them. Such rejoicing and boafting is evil; fince riches are the gifts of God, the bleffings of his providence; and are often beftowed on perfons neither wife nor diligent, and much lefs deferving; fee Fer. ix. 23. The whole may be applied to the Romijb Antichrift and his followers, who truft in and boaft of their temporal riches, which in one hour will come to nought, Rev. xviii, 7,17. and of the treafure of the church, of merit, and works of fupererogation; with all which they cannot redeem one foul from ruin and deftruétion, as follows: $3:4 y. 7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, &c.] That is, with their fubfiance or riches, as the Targum and Farchi fupply. Some, according to the order of the words in the original, render them, @ brother redeeming cannot redeem a man, Or any one: but, as Aben Ezra obferves, MN 2 brother, is the effect, and woe a man, is the efficient. The Zargum is, His brother that is a captive, aman redeeming cannot redeem with bis fubftance, or by any means redeem. Indeed a rich man may redeem his brother from debt, or from a prifon, into which he is caft for it, by. paying his debts for him; or from thraldom and bondage, being taken captive and becoming a prifoner of war, by giving a ranfom for him. This he may do with refpect to man; but with refpeé&t to Ge he cannot with all his riches pay the debts he owes to the law and juftice of God; nor free him from his bondage to fin, Satan, and the law, by whom he is held a captive. The fenfe here is, that he cannot redeem him from death; he cannet, with all his money, fecure him from dying; nor wher dead, bring him back from the grave; and much ~ lefs deliver him from eternal death, 01 come; this only God can do, f 15. ive to God a ranfom for him; a ranfom to redeem feos fin, and © fon the curfe of the law and e-. ternal __-® Tniguitas
# So Cocceius; and fome in Michaelis, = ternal death, muft be given to God, againft whom fin is committed, the Lawgiver that is able to fave and deftroy; whofe law is tranfgrefled by it, and mutt be fulfilled; and whofe juftice is affronted and injured, and mutt be fatisfied; and who is the creditor to whom men are debtors, and therefore the payment muft be made to him. Hence our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Redeemer of his people; paid the ranfom-price to God, and offered himéfelf a facrifice to him; fee Epbef.v. 2. Rev. v. 9, But this _ranfom is not of man’s giving, but of God’s; it is of his finding out in his infinite wifdom: he fet forth and fent forth Chrift to be the ranfom or propitiation*, as the word here ufed fignifies; and Chrift came to give his life and himfelf a ranfom for many, and is the propitiation for their fins: and this is a fufficient.one, a plenteous redemption, and there needs no other, nor is there any other; there were typical atonements under the Jaw, but there is no real atonement, propitiation or ranfom, but by the precious blood of Chrift; not by corruptible things, as filver and gold; with thefe a man cannot give to God a ranfom for himfelf, or for his brother.
¥.8. For the redemption of their foul is precious, &c.] Or heavy’, it is, as farchi obferves, beavier than their fubftance: it is too weighty a matter for the richeft man in the world to engage in; he is not equal to it; his riches are not an equivalent to the redemption of a foul which has finned, and which is of more worth than the whole world; what shall a man give in exchange for bis foul? or another for him? all the fubftance of his houfe would be utterly defpifed. It requires a greater price for the redemption of it than gold and filver, and therefore it is impoffible to be obtained by any fuch means; and which may be the fenfe of the word here, as Farchi and Kimchi interpret it; and fo it is ufed for that which is rare, difficult, yea impoffible, not to be found or come at, in 1 Sam. iii. 1, Dan. ii. 10, 11... The only price of redemption of the foul is the precious blood of Chrift, his life is the ranfom-price, yea he himfelf, 1 Peter i. 18,19. Matt. xx. 28. 1 Tim. ii. 5. nor is the redemption of the foul poffible upon any other foot. And it ceafeth for ever, that is, the redemption of the foul; it muft have ceafed, it could never have been accomplifhed, had not Chrift undertook it and performed it; he has obtained eternal redemption, and in him we have it, and in no other. Or the words may be rendered, and he ceafeth for ever; the brother whofe foul or life is to be redeemed, he dies; fee P/al. xii. 1. and dies the fecond and eternal death, for ought his brother can do for him, with all his riches; or he that attempts to redeem him, he leaves off for ever ‘*; fee Pfal.xxxvi. 3. whether he will or no, as Farchi obferves; he ceafes from redeeming his brother; he finds he cannot do it; his endeavours are vain and fruitlefs. Some join and connect thefe words with the following, and it ceafeth for ever, that be fhould ftill live for ever, &c, that is, it is impoffible that fuch an one by fuch means fhould live for ever. Guffetius * renders and interprets the words re to another fenfe, But the redemption of their foul /ball come; the true redemption-price by Chrift; and which being once paid and perfectly done, ceafeth for ever, and fhall never be required more; fo that he for whom it is made, /hall live for ever, as inthe next verfe; which is a truly evangelic fenfe.
¥. 9. That be foould fill live for ever, &c.] Or though be /bould live, &c.“ Though the rich man fhould live ever fo long, a thoufand years twice told, as in Eecle/. vi. 6. yet he could not in all this time, with all his riches, redeem his brother; and at laft muft die himfelf, and fo muft his brother too, as his own experience and obfervation may affure him, ¥.10. Or the meaning is, he cannot fo redeem his brother, or give to God a ranfom for him, that he fhould live a corporal life for ever, and never die; fince all men die, wife men and fools, rich and poor; and much lefs that he fhould live and enjoy an eternal life; as the Targum;.a life of happinefs and blifs hereafter, which is not to be obtained by gold and filver, but is the pure gift of God. And xot fee corruption; the grave, the pit of corruption, the houfe appointed for all living or the judgment of bell, according to the Chaldee paraphrafe.
y. 10. For he feeth that wife men die, &c.) This is a reafon convincing the rich man, that with all his riches he cannot redeem his brother from death; fince he muft fee, by daily and conftant experience, that none are exempted from dying, no not even the wife man; and therefore not the rich, fince wifdom is better than riches, and is faid to give life, Ecclef. vii. 12. and yet wife men die, yea Solomon, the wifeft of men died. Worldly wife men, fuch who are wifer in their generation than the children of light, know how to get money and eftates, and to provide for futurity;.and yet cannot fecure themfelves from death: men that are wife in natural things, know the fecrets of nature, the conftitution of human bodies, what is proper to preferve health and life, as philofophers and phyficians, and yet cannot deliver themfelves from death: wife politicians, prudent magittrates, inftructers of mankind in all the branches of ufeful knowledge, who are profitable to themfelves and others,.and are the moft deferving to live becaufe of ufefulnefs, yet thefe die as well as others: fuch as are, fpiritually wife, wife unto falvation, who know themielves, and know Chrift, whom to know is life eternal; and the wifeft among them, fuch as are capable of teaching others the hidden and myfterious. wifdom of God; even thefe wife men and prophets do not live for ever. The Zargum interprets this of wicked wife men, adjudged to hell;. or as it is in the king’s Bible, ‘* the wicked wife’ men, who die the fecond ‘* death 5” fee Rev. il. 14. and xx. 6, and xxi, 8. and are adjudged to hell. Likewife the fool and the brutifh perfon perifh; the worldly fool,who trufts, in his riches, and boatts of them; his foul is at once required of him. ‘The atheiftical fool, who fays there is no God, no judgment, no future ftate; has made a covenant with death, and with hell is at an agreement; this covenant does not ftand, he dies, and finds himfelf dreadfully miftaken: the fool that is fo immorally, who makes a mock at fin, a jeft of religion, and puts away the evil day far from him; his great wickednefs to which he is given, fhall not deliver him from death. Every man is become brutifh in his knowledge; but there are fome among the people more brutifh than others, who are as natural brute beafts, and thall utterly perifh in their own corruptions. The wife good man dies, but perifhes not; he inherits eternal life; but the wicked fool and brute not only perifh by death, but are punifhed with everlafting deftruction in foul and body. And leave their wealth to to others, they cannot carry it with them, fo that it will be of no fervice to them after death any more than at it: if the judge could be bribed by gold, as he cannot, they will not have it with them to do it; they came into the world naked, and fo they will go out, and carry nothing with them, but leave all behind them; either to their babes, their children and heirs, P/al. xvii. 14. or to ftrangers, they know not who; and if they do, they do not know whether they will ‘be wife men or fools, or what ufe they will make of it, P/a/. xxxix. 6. Ecelef. ii. 18, 19.
y.11. Their inward thought is, that their boufes fhall continue for ever, &c.] This is the thought of their hearts, what they fecretly imagine, and conclude within themfelves; either that their families, which may be meant by their houfes, fee 2 Sam. iii. 1. fhall continue in fucceeding ages to the end of the world, to inherit their poffeffions, and perpetuate their name; though often {o it is, that great families become extinét, and the feed of the wicked is cut off: or that their magnificent buildings, which they have erected to dwell in, and for their honour and glory, fhall abide for ever; though in a little time, fo it is by one means or another, like the buildings of the temple, not one ftone is left upon another. Or the words may be rendered, i# the midft of them (their heirs to whom they leave their wealth) their boufes /hall remain for ever, fo Aben Ezra; that is, fo they fancy they will; but this is not always true, for fine houfes and large eftates belonging to them, often pafs into other hands and families. The word epa%p rendered their inward part, by a tranfpofition of two letters in it, may be read Canap their graves, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi and Ben Melech obferve; and to this fenfe the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac and Arabic verfions render the words: and then the meaning is, that of all the houfes they have built or been poffeffed of, they have only one left, and that is the grave; in which they fhall _ dwell until the refurreétion, and therefore is called a long home, Ecclef. xii. 5. fee Fob xvii. 13. and xxx. 23. And their dwelling-places to all generations; which fignify the fame as before. They call their lands after their own names; as Egypt was called Mizraim, Ethiopia was called Cu/b, and Paleftine Canaan, from men who were the firft poffeffors of them, Gen. x. 6. Or they proclaim their names throughout the land*; they feek to get a name, and fpread and continue it in all parts of the world’; being unconcerned about their names being written in heaven, or about having an houfe not made with hands eternal there.
y. 12. Neverthele/s, man being in honour, abideth not, &c.] Or Adam: and fome underftand this of the firft man Adam, who was created and crowned with glory and honour; but it did not abide with him, nor he in that: fo fome Jewifh writers interpret it. But whether the words will admit of this fenfe or no, the general view of the pfalmift, which is to fhew the inconftancy and inftability of
-worldly honour, may be exemplified in the cafe of the firft man; he was in honour, he was created after the image and ‘likenefs of God, and fo was the glory of God, being his image; he was in friendfhip with God, as many inftances fhew, and had dominion over all the creatures below; he had much knowledge of God, and communign with him, and was a pure, holy, and upright creature;
Pixlix.y.1I—14h but he continued not long in this ftate of ‘honour and glory; be lodged not a night*, as the words - may be rendered; fee Gen, xxviii. 11. and as they - are by fome, who conclude from hence, that 4dam fell the fame day in which he was created; and which is the fenfe of the above Jewifh writers, who fay, he was driven out of paradifé the evening of that day: but though he might ftand longer, and the word is fometimes ufed of’ a longer continuance; fee Pfal. xxv. 13. yet by the aceount in Genefis, it looks as if he continued in his ftate of honour but a fhort time. He 2s like the beasts that perifo, becoming mortal in his body, and brutifh and ftupid in his underftanding. Or, be is ltke the beajts, they peri/b, or are cut off *; the word being in the plural number, which fhews that not a fingle individual perfon is meant, but men in general 5 or however, fuch of the fons of Adam that came to honour: thefe do not abide long in it, their honour is a very fhort-lived one, fometimes it does not laft their lives: they that are in high places, are in flippery ones, and are often caft down from the pinnacle of honour in a moment; and if their glory does abide with them throughout the day of life, yet it fhall not lodge with them in the night of the grave; thither their glory fhall not defeend after them, ¥. 17. and when they die, they perifh like the beafts; as they are like them in life, ftupid, brutifh and ignorant, fo in death; as the beaft dies, fo do they, Ecclef iii..19. as the one dies without any thought of or preparation for death, fo do the other; as the one carries nothing along with it, fo neither do the other: as beafts that die of themfelves, for fuch are here meant, as Junius well obferves, are good for nothing but to be caft into the ditch; fo are wicked men, notwithftanding all their riches and honour; yea, it is worfe with them than with the’ beafts, fince after death comes judgment, and after that the fecond death, the wrath of God. ¢ At ss;
¥. 13. This their way is their folly, &c.) ‘This their laft end becoming like the beafts that perifh, which is the iffte and event of all their confidence, ambition, and honour, ‘fhews’ the folly of their lives and conduct: or this their courfe of life, in trufting to their riches; boafting of their wealth; pleafing themfelves with the thoughts of the continuance of their houfes and dwelling-places to all generations; and calling their lands after their own names; all proclaim their folly. Or, as fome render the words, ¢bis their way is their hope Or confidence»; they place all their hope and confidence in their riches and honour, which is but a vain hope, and a foolifh confidence. Yet their pofterity approve their fayings. Selah, they are of the fame fentiments with their fathers; they fay the fame things, and do the fame actions; tread in their fteps, and follow the fame track; though there have been fuch innumerable inftances of the vanity and inconftancy of all worldly ich aS grandeur. | i.
¥.'14. Like fheep they are laid in the gr ue, & They are not in life like fheep, harmlefs an cent; nor reckoned as fuch for the flaugh people of God are; unlefs it be that they are them, brutifh and ftupid, thoughtlefs of death unconcerned about their eftate after it; and f and go into the grave, like natural brute bealts, made to-be taken and‘deftroyed, 2 Pet. ii, 12. or pafture in the day-time, at night are put into 4 dark and narrow pinfold; fo wicked rich men, having lived in great abundance and plenty in the day of life, when the night of death comes, they are put into the dark and narrow grave. And it is further to be obferved, tliat the comparifon. is not to fheep prepared for flaughter, and killed for food; for thefe are not laid in a ditch, to which the grave may anfwer; but, as Zunius obferves, to thofe that die of themfelves; to rotten fheep, and who are no other than carrion, and are good for nothing but to be caft intoaditch; fo wicked men are laid in the grave; but as to be laid’in the grave is common to good and bad after death, rather the words fhould be rendered, like /heep they are laid in bell *; asthe word is in P/al. ix. 17. a place of utter darknefs and mifery, where the wicked rich man was put when he died, Luke xvi. 19, 225 23: Death fhall feed on them; or rule them*; as fhepherds rule their flocks, in imitation of whom kings govern their fubjects; the fame word is ufed of both; and fo death is reprefented as a king, or rather as a tyrant reigning over the fons of men; even over kings and princes, and the great men of the earth, who have reigned over others; fee Rom, _v.14. or fhall feed them", as the fhepherd feeds the fheep; not by leading them into green paftures, into the E//ian fields; but where a drop of water cannot be obtained to cool the tongue; into utter darknefs, where are weeping, wailing, and gnafhing of teeth; into the apartments of hell, and habitations of devils, to be guefts with them, ‘and live as they do: or /hall feed on them, as the wolf on the fheep, devouring their ftrength, and confuming their bodies, Hob xviii. 13. but.as this is no other than what it does to every one, rather the fecond, or an eternal death is here meant; the wrath of God, the worm that is always gnawing, eating and confuming, and never dies. And the upright foall bave dominion over them in the morning; the upright are fuch to whom the uprightnefs, or righteoutnefs of Chrift is fhewn or imputed, and who have right fpirits Tene GA and principles of grace and holinefs formed in them, and walk uprightly in their lives and converfations; thefe, in the morning of the refurreétion-day, when Chrift the Sun of righteoufnefs hall arife, when the light of joy and gladnefs (hall break forth ‘upon his coming, at the beginning of the day of the Lord, which will laft a thoufand years; they, the dead in Chrift, rifing firft, fhall, during that time, reign with him as kings and priefts,; when the wicked, being deftroyed in the general conflagration, fhall become the footftool of Chrift, and be like afhes under the foles of the feet of his people; and the kingdom, the dominion, and the greatnefs of the ‘kingdom under the whole heaven, fhall be given to the faints; fee r Theff. iv. 16. Rev. xx. 5, 6. Mal. iv. 2, 3: Dan. vii. 27. and though this is a branch of the happinefs and. glory of the people of God, yet it is here mentioned as an ageravation of the mifery of the wicked, who,. in another ftate, will be fab- "ject to thofe they have tyrannized over heres ~And » their beauty foall confume in the grave from their dwelling; or their form’ and figure; difeafes often deftroy the beauty of a man, death changes his countenance, and makes a greater alteration ftill;
but the grave takes away the very form and figure of the man; or, as it is in the keri, or margin of the Hebrew text, and their rock foall confume*;. that is, their riches; which are their rock, fortrefs, and ftrong city, and in which they place their truft and confidence; thefe fhall fail them) when they come tothe grave, which is their dwelling, and is the houfe appointed for all living: and feeing it is fo, rather this fhould be underftood of Aell®, which will be the everlafting manfion of wicked men, and in which they will be punifhed in fou] and body for ever; though rather the fenfe is, when their rock, i. e. Chrift, fhall come to confume the grave, and deftroy its power; when he; I fay, {hall come out of bis habitation, heaven, then fhall the righteous have the dominion, 1 The//. iv. 16.-
¥. 15. But God will redeem my foul from the power of the grave, &c.| The ptalmift expréfies his faith, that though he fhould die, and for a while be under the power of the grave, yet he fhould be redeemed from it in the refurrection; which to the faints will be she day of redemption, Eph. iv. 30. their bodies then will be redeemed from mortality, wealknefs, corruption, and. difhonour, which attend them now, and in the grave; and which will be in confequence of the redemption both of their fouls and bodies; through the blood of Chrift; fee Hof. xii. 14. or the words may be rendered; but God will redeem my foul from the power of bell; and fo the Targum, ** David {aid by the fpitit of *¢ prophecy, but God will redeem my foul from “the judgment of hell;’’ that is, will keep and preferve from the fecond death, from being hurt by
}it, or from its having any power over him; and
Chrift, who is the Redeemer of his: people, and who being God over all, is an able and mighty one, has redeemed the fouls of his from wrath to come; hell; or the fecond death, by deftroying fin, the caufe of it, by fatisfying the Law, the miniftration of it, and by abolifhing death itfelf; ali which he has done by giving himfelf a ranfom-price’for them; whereby he has procured the redemption which rich men, with: all their gold and filver, could never obtain for themfelves or others. The reafon why ‘the pfalmift believed Chrift would do this for him, follows. For be hail receive me. Selab. ot, for he hath received me's into His arms of love, into his grace and favour; which ‘he does openly at. converfion, and in. effectual vocation;
}men being drawn to’ Chrift by the cords of love, /come'to him, «and are received by him, who cafts none out; and the argument from hence is very
‘trong, that, fuch whom Chrift receives: by his grace, he will redeem from the grave, or raife at the laft day to the refurrection of life: or, for be
‘will réceive me; as he does the fouls of his people to glory at death, when, during their feparate ftate, they will be happy with him, and takes their bo-. dies into his care and cuftody; from whence it may be ftrongly concluded, he will raife them up again at the refurrection-morn, and then will: receive’ them foul and body to hinvfelf, and prefent them to his'Father, and introduce them into his kingdom and glory; wherefore, as in ¥. 5. the good ‘man has no reafon to fear any thing in the day of evil; for when it goes ever fo ill with others, “ic is well with him. “Ihe Zargum in the king’s Bible ba dan ‘ gi;; is, is, ** he will lead me into his part or portion in the ** world to come.”.
y. 16, Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, &c.} Who before was poor, or not fo rich; but now become fo, either by inheritance, or by his own diligence and induftry, through the permiffion of providence. This is to be underftood, not of a good man, from whom oppreffion is not to be feared; but it may be hoped he will do good with his riches, by relieving the poor, and miniftring to the fupport of the intereft of religion, and ufing what power and authority he may have in defence of it: but it is to be interpreted of a wicked man; of one who neither fears God, nor regards man; who makes an ill ufe of his riches, power, and authority, to the oppreffion of the poor, and the perfecution of the faints, and who feeks to be feared, when he is not loved; fee Prov. xxviii. 12, 28.°and xxix. 2. but the people of God fhould not be afraid when this is the cafe, fince God is their ftrength, their light, and their falvation; and fince wicked men can go no further than permitted, and at moft can do no more than kill the body; fee Pfal. xxvii. 1—3. Matt. x. 28. thefe words are an apoftrophe of the pfalmift, either to his own foul, or to the faints, and:every particular believer. When the glory of his houfe is increafed; either the fame. with riches, focalled, Geu. xxxi. 1. Rev. Xxi. 24, 26. becaufe men are apt to glory in them, and for the moft part obtain honour and glory from men by them; or children, and an increafe of them, and efpecially. when they come to honour; as alfo the advancement of themfelves to high places of honour and truft; as well as additional buildings, large, ftately edifices, to make them look great, and perpetuate their names.
¥. 17. For when be dieth, he fall carry nothing away, &c.] Such men, with all their riches and honour, muft die; therefore why fhould men be atraid of them? or wherein are they to be accounted of, whofe breath is in their noftrils? nor can they carry either of them with them; their riches will be of no profit to them after death, when they will be upon a level with the poor, who. will have nothing to fear from them; fee 1 Tim. vi. 7. His glory foall not defcend after bim, either into the grave, the pit of corruption, the lower part of the earth, where kings, princes, counfellors and peafants, are all alike, Fob ili. 14, 15, 19. or into hell, where are no titles of honour, nor refpect of perfons; no Pharaoh king of Egypt, or Sennachevib king of Affyria there; but plain Pharaoh, &c. fee Ezek, XXXil. 31, 32.