Exposition of the Whole Bible

and good works: it may very well be underftood’ he was fo before his refurreétion from the dead, of all the citizens of Sion; fuch who are fellowcitizens with the faints, and of the houfhold of God, who being planted in the houfe of the Lord, flourifh in the court of our God, and become very fruitful in every good word and work; and flourifh like grafs of the earth for numbers, for quicknefs of growth, and for verdure and beauty; all which is owing to their being rooted in Chrift, to his coming down upon them as rain, y. 6. to the dews of his grace, and to his arifing upon them as the fun of righteoufnefs. The ancient Jews interpreted this paffage of the Meffiah: ¢ as the firft Redeem- « er, they fay %, caufed manna to defcend, as it is “ faid, Exod. xvi. 4. fo the latter Redeemer fhall «¢ caufe manna to defcend, as it is faid, there hall

* bean handful of corn in the earth.” ‘farchifays our Rabbins interpret this of the dainties in the days of the Meffiah, and the whole pfalm concerning the King Meffiah.

y.17. His name fhall endure for ever, &c.] As a King; for he is chiefly fpoken of here in his kingly office: not merely the fame of him; for fo the fame of an earthly king, even of a tyrant, may continue as long as the world does; but the meaning is, that he himfelf fhould continue in his office for ever: his throne is for ever and ever; of his government there will be no end; his kingdom is an everlafting one; he fhall reign over the houfe of Jacob, and on the throne of David, for ever and ever: he fhall have no fucceffor in this his office, any more than in the prieftly office; which is an unchangeable one, or does not pafs from one to another: his gofpel is his name, és ix. 15. and that fhall endure for ever, or to- the end of the world; until all his ele¢t are gathered in, notwithftanding the violent perfecutions of men, the cunning craft of falfe teachers, and the death of gofpelminifters and profeffors: as long as this is preached, Chrift’s name will endure, fince he is the fum and fubftance of it; and not only is his name, perpetuated in his gofpel; but alfo in his ordinances, thofe of baptifm and the Lord’s fupper, which are adminiftred in his name, and. will be unto his fecond coming. //is name hall be continued as long as the fun; or fail be fonned or filiated', that is, fhall be continued in his fons, in his fpiritual offfpring, as long as the fun lafts; as the names of parents are continued in their children; fo the name of Chrift is, and will be continued in him: he has children which the Lord has given him, a feed that he fhall fee in all periods of time, to whom he ftands in the relation of the everlafting Father; thefe bear his name, are called Chri/lians from him, and thefe his feed and offspring fhall endure for ever: for though fometimes their number may be few; yet there are always fome in the worft of times; Chrift has always had fome to bear his name, and ever will have; and in the latter day they will be very numerous, even as the fand of the fea. The Jews take the word Yinnon, here ufed, for a name of the Meffiah*, and render the words, before the fun bis name was Yinnon;, and fo the Targum, ** before the fun was, or was created, *« (as in the king’s Bible) his name was prepared,” or appointed; for they fay ‘, the name of the Meffiatt was one of the feven things created before the world was: it is certain that Chrift was the Son of God, 'from eternity, or the eternal Son of God:

when he was only declared, and did not then be-

‘come the Son of God: he was owned by his divine Father, and believed in as the Son of God by men, F before that time: he was fo before his incarnation, and not by that: he, the Son of God, was fent in Ke human nature, and made manifeft in it, and was. known by David and Solomon, under that relation; and, as fuch, he was concerned in the creation of all things; and was in the day of eternity, and from all eternity, the only begotten Son of the Father; fee Pfal. ii. 7. but the verfion and fenfe which Gujfetius* gives feem beft of all; bis name. hall generate, or beget children before the fun; that is, his name preached, as the gofpel, which is his name, ffs ix. 15. fhall be the means of begetting many fons and daughters openly and publickly, in the face of the fun, and wherever that is, Agd men fhall be bleffed in bim, men, and not angels, finful men; fuch as are by nature children of wrath, and. curfed by the law of works, yet blefled in Chrift; even all ele€t men, all that are chofen in him, whether Jews or Gentiles; for he is the feed” of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth foould be bleffed, Gen. xxii. 18. as they are ‘sn fpiritual bleffings; with redemption, peace, pard righteoufnefs, and eternal life / they are in him, and ~ bleffed in him; he is their head and reprefentative, and fo bleffed in him; he is the fountain, caufe, author and giver of all bleffings; they all come from him, through him, and for his fake, through his blood, righteoufnefs and facrifice. Or, they Joall be bleffed in him; that is, his children and fpiritual offspring, in whom his name is perpetuated. Or, they fhall ble/s themfelves in him”; reckon themfelves bleffed in him, and make their boaft of him; and glory in him. / nations /hall call him bleffed; as he is a divine perfon; not only the Son of the bleffed,; but God over all, bleffed for ever; and as man, being fet at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour, and all creatures, angels and men, fubjeét ta him; and as Mediator, acknowledging him to be the fountain of all bleffednefs to them, and, upon that account, afcribing all bleffing, honour, glory, - and praife unto him.

y. 18. Bleffed be the Lord God, &c.] The Mef= fiah, who is truly and properly God, Febovah, Lord of all, and the Lord our righteoufnefs; to whom fuch a doxology or afcription of glory and bleffing properly belongs, fince all good things are from him, and by him. The God of I/rael; that brought Tfrael out of Egypt; went before them in the Wil. dernefs; redeemed and faved them, and bore and carried them all the days of old; and in whom all the true J/rael of God are juftified, and fhall be faved with an everlafting falvation. Wo only doth wondrous things; in the creation of all things out of nothing; in the government of the world; and in the redemption and falvation of his people which is a very marvellous thing: as that God fhould become man, fuffer and die in the room of men, and-fave them from fin and ruin; this wondrous thing Chrift has done alone, and there was none with him. fo ia tal

¥.19. And bleffed be bis glorious name for eVErs &c.] Every name of Chrift is glorious in it and precious to his people; like ointment pour forth, as his name Meffiah, to which the a

7? ee ‘ /~ Philxexu. 9.20. © is in Cant.i. 3. His name Febovah our righteoufnefs, Jefus a Savi 3 well as what belongs to his royal dignity, King of kings, and Lord of Jords; a‘name above every name that is named in this world, or that to e. And let the whole earth be filled withbis glory; as it will be, when his kingdom fhall be from fea to fea, and from the river to the ends of the earth; when the little ftone cut out without hands, fhall a a gteat mountain, and fill the whole earth; when the gofpel fhall be fpread all over the world; and the earth be filled with the knowledge of Chrift, by means of it, as the waters cover the fea; and when all nations fhall come and worfhip before him. ”~ Amen, and Amen; which word added, is expreffive of the defires of the pfalmift, that all that he had _ faid might come to pafs; and of his faith, that fo _ it would be: and it is repeated, to fhew the vehemence of his defires, and the ftrength of his faith.. y¥. 20. The prayers of David the fon of Feffe are ended. The Septuagint verfion renders it, the _ hymns.. This pfalm is thought by fome to be the Jaft that was written by David, though put in this Aras; and it is certain, that the pfalms are not al- ys placed in the order of time in which they were ‘ written: this being, as is fuppofed, made by him

LM S. 793 | in his old age, when Solomon his fon was appointed and fet upon his throne by his order; on account _of which he compofed it, with a view to the Meffiah, the antitype of Solomon, Or, as others, this is the laft of the pfalms, which were put together and digefted in order by David himfelf; the reft that follow being colleéted by Hezekiah or the Levites, Aben Ezra mentions it as the fenfe of fome of their interpreters, ‘‘ then fhall be fulfilled the r prafs of the fon of Feffe;’’ that is, as R. Fo- Jeph Kimchi completed, then the prayers of David the fon of Feffe thall be fulfilled. The fenfe is, when all the things fpoken of in this pfalm, concerning the Meffiah and his kingdom, fhould be accomplithed; then the prayers of David, and fo of every good man, his hearty wifhes and defires, will then be anfwered, and have their full effect, and not till then. This verfe feems to be written not by David, for the pfalm itfelf ends with Amen and Amen; but by fome collector of the Pfalms: it is not in the 4rabic verfion, in the room of which is Hallelujah; and in the Syriac verfion it is, the end of the fecond book. ‘The firft book of Pfalms ends with the 4: ft Pfalm. The whole is divided into five parts by the Jews; obferved by Origen * and Hilarius ’, and others.

gphains it, when thofe confolations are he