2 Very excellent [Glorious] things are spoken | Isai. 6o. 1, &c. of thee, thou city of God.

3 I will think upon Rahab and Babylon Isai. 27. 13. with them, that know me.

4 Behold ye the Philistines also, and they of Ephes. 2. 19, 20. Tyre, with the Morians; lo, there was he [this man] born.

5 And of Sion it shall be reported, that he was born in her; and the most High shall stablish her.

6 The Lord shall rehearse it, when he writeth up the people, that he [this man] was born there.

7 The singers also and trumpeters shall he rehearse. All my fresh springs shall be in thee.

John 1. 12, 13.

Gal. 3. 26.

Luke 10. 20.

Gal. 4. 26.

Rev. 22. 17.

at least, built on several hills, which Jehovah had chosen from all others for this particular purpose, they are here called holy or consecrated to him. Psalm cxxv. 2.

3 I will think, &c. In this and the following verse the Psalmist clearly alludes to the natural birth-place of those nations, whose accession to the true faith, as he well knew, had often been predicted. He promises, therefore, to make so delightful and glorious a theme the subject of conversation with his acquaintances. Rahab was an ancient name for Egypt in the Hebrew language, given to it, as some persons conjecture, from the pride of its princes and inhabitants.

4 The Morians. See on Psalm Lxviii. 31.- -There was he born. Though hereafter to be incorporated among the seed of Abraham, and to become a worshipper with them of Jehovah, each individual would still belong by birth to these various heathen people. A comparison has been imagined between some illustrious inhabitants of the countries just referred to and the Messiah, as if the Psalmist desired to assert, that He was in no manner inferior to them. Ver.

5 And of Sion, &c. Whatever may be the name of the nation, whence he really sprung, it will yet be proclaimed, that he was spiritually born again at Jerusalem, and there admitted to the privileges of" the Israel of God."- -Shall stablish her. This expression, in all probability, alludes to the glory eventually accruing to Jerusalem from the vast multitude of gentile converts, who, in the days of the Messiah, would, according to the prophets, hasten thither to offer up their prayers and their adoration. Isai. ii. 2, &c.

6 When he writeth up, &c. See on Psalm LXIX. 29. God is now represented, as determining to take an accurate account of his different worshippers, and as about to enrol the heathen nations before mentioned among the citizens of Sion. Ezek. xiii. 9.

7 The singers. It is very difficult to extract any meaning from this passage, particularly as our old translators have supplied from the previous verse, the phrase "shall he rehearse," for which addition there are no corresponding words in the original. Nevertheless it may rationally

PSALM LXXXVIII.

We have here a continued detail of melancholy complaints on account of some grievous sufferings, under which the author of this composition was laboring at the time of its being written. The nature and degree of these sufferings, the strength of the expressions used to describe them, together with the consent of ancient expositors, all concur in directing us to apply the present Psalm to our blessed Lord. It is said to have proceeded from "Heman the Ezrahite;" but who he was, or when he flourished, is not known. Thus much only can, therefore, be affirmed respecting it; that it must be reckoned among those Psalms, in which the children of Israel are introduced, as one man, grieving over their pains and their miseries.

Luke 6. 12:

18.7.

Matt. 26. 38, 56.

Ps. 41. 8.

Isai. 14. 10.

Isai. 53. 8.

John 19. 40, &c.

LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: O let my prayer enter into thy presence; incline thine ear unto my calling;

2 For my soul is full of trouble, and my life draweth nigh unto hell [the grave];

3 I am counted as one of them, that go down into the pit; and I have been even as a man, that hath no strength;

4 Free among the dead; like unto them, that are wounded, and lie in the grave; who are out of remembrance, and are cut away [off] from thy hand.

be thought to imply, that there will be in the church great rejoicing, and praising of God, with vocal and instrumental music, for the glorious and stupendous work of the conversion of the gentiles.All my fresh springs, &c. The writer designed, probably, to end this Psalm with the same manifestations of rapturous delight at the approaching happiness of his native city, that he displayed, when he commenced it :-Thou, O Jerusalem, shalt furnish me, by means of the spiritual blessings conferred on thee, with a constant subject of rejoicing; day after day I will not fail to sing fresh songs to thy praise. He may, however, rather have wished to point out the manner, in which the nations themselves, when they had become members of the true Church, would express their joy, and the very words of the song, which they would then use.

2 Hell. See on Psalm xvi. 11.

3 I have been. For some time. Consequently the troubles bewailed in this Psalm were not merely in their commencement.

4 Free among the dead, &c. I am, in a manner, set at liberty from the world, and, having become as if the companion of the dead, am separated from all communication with its affairs: I may, indeed, compare myself to those, who have fallen in battle, and now" lie in

5 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, and in the deep.

6 Thine indignation lieth hard upon me, and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms [waves]. 7 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me, and made me to be abhorred of them. 8 I am so fast in prison, that I cannot get

forth.

9 My sight faileth for very trouble: Lord, I have called daily upon thee; I have stretched forth my hands unto thee.

Ps. 69. 1, 2.

Jer. 38. 6.

John 3. 36.
Rom. 2. 5, &c.
Job 19. 13, 19.
John 11. 57.
Lam. 3. 6, 7.

Job 11. 13, &c.

10 Dost [Wilt] thou shew wonders among Mark 5. 35, &c. the dead? or, shall the dead rise up again, and Luke 7. 11, &c. praise thee?

11 Shall thy loving-kindness be shewed 1 Cor. 15. 51, &c[declared] in the grave? or thy faithfulness in

destruction?

the grave," who are utterly forgotten by men, and are also for ever deprived, as living objects of divine providence on earth, of thy supporting and protecting care. Job iii. 17, &c.

5 Thou hast laid me, &c. The intensity of the sorrows then pressing upon the Israelites, is aptly placed before us, by appealing to the miserable state of that man, who is thrust down to the very bottom of a pit, who is surrounded by the horrible darkness of a dungeon, or who is cast into deep waters, whence there is no chance of getting out alive.

6 Vexed. See on Psalm xxxviii. 17.See on Psalm xviii. 3.

With all thy storms.

7 Thou hast put away, &c. The miseries, which thou hast heaped upon me, are so great, that even my acquaintance are afraid to acknowledge me, and shun me as one, whom thou hast utterly forsaken. Ver. 18.

8 In prison. Affliction, from which the Psalmist could not free himself, is here likened to a prison, in which he was so strictly confined, that he had no means of escape.

10 Dost thou shew, &c. This and the two following verses, in which it is, apparently, intimated, that the glory of God can be celebrated only in his congregations on earth, yet that the dead are never restored to life for such a purpose, imply no doubt respecting a future state. They merely contain strong pleas for the immediate relief of those sorrows, whose continuance must quickly bring all, who experience them, to the grave, when they would have no power to shew forth the divine loving-kindness and wondrous works, so as to benefit their fellow-creatures; when also they would dwell in gloomy mansions, totally unsuited even to the voice of joy and praise.

11 In destruction. In the sepulchre, where the body will be reduced to its original dust.

Eccles. 9. 5.

Isai. 38. 18, 19.

Ps. 119. 148.

Mark 1. 35.

Job 13. 24.
Ps. 43. 2.

Job 6. 4:

9. 34.

Isai. 53. 4, &c.
Rom. 8. 32.

Matt. 27. 39, &c.
John 5. 18.

Job 19. 13, &c.
John 7. 19, 20.

12 Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land, where all things are forgotten?

13 Unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and early [and in the morning] shall my prayer come

before thee.

14 Lord, why abhorrest thou my soul, and hidest thou thy face from me?

15 I am in misery, and like unto him that is at the point to die: even from my youth up thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.

16 Thy wrathful displeasure goeth over me, and the fear of thee hath undone me.

17 They came round about me daily like water, and compassed me together on every side. 18 My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me; and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight.

Evening Prayer.

PSALM LXXXIX.

WHATEVER may be the name of the author, or the occasion, of this Psalm, (for neither of these points has been ascertained,) it is a composition of great interest, as containing a commemoration of the divine attributes, especially of the covenanted mercy of God to David and his seed, which, with an account also of his threatenings and promises, occupies the larger portion of it. In the latter part there occurs a reference to some great calamity, which had befallen the chosen people, so that the government was subverted, and the royal family in danger of being extirpated. This calamity may have been the Babylonish captivity,

12 In the land, &c. In that land of darkness and oblivion, whose inhabitants are never disturbed by the concerns of this life. Job x. 21, 22. The dead, in their intermediate state, are sometimes actually described in scripture, as existing together, like a separate community, in a region expressly assigned for their abode. Isai. xiv. 9, &c.

15 Thy terrors, &c. "The fear of thee," or the apprehension of thy severity, and of the sorrow, which thou occasionally sendest upon men, has ever, "from my youth up," tormented and troubled my mind, as it does now. See on Psalm cxxix. 1. The pious Israelites might easily make this confession, for the heinousness of sin had frequently caused their nation to experience the extremity of divine wrath.

16 Goeth over me. Like an impetuous water-flood. Ver. 6.

17 They. The miseries and mental disquietude, which his fear of the "wrathful displeasure" of God had brought upon him.

which, possibly, had just then commenced; though the author, it should be remarked, mentions neither the desolation of Jerusalem and the temple, nor the captivity and dispersion of the people, which circumstances the Psalms evidently relating to Nebuchadnezzar's devastations particularly record.

MY song shall be alway of the loving-kind- Isai. 25. 1, &c. ness of the Lord: with my mouth will I Tit. 1. 2. ever be shewing thy truth [faithfulness], from one generation to another:

2 For I have said, Mercy shall be set [built] up for ever; thy truth shalt thou stablish in the heavens.

3 I have made a covenant with my chosen: I have sworn unto David my servant:

4 Thy seed will I stablish for ever, and set [build] up thy throne from one generation to another.

Ephes. 1. 7, 8.
Heb. 6. 18, 19.

Isai. 43. t.

Ezek. 34. 23.

Luke 1. 32, 33.

5 O Lord, the very heavens shall praise thy Rev. 7. 9, &c. wondrous works, and thy truth, in the congre

gation of the saints.

6 For who is he among the clouds, that Deut. 3. 24. shall be compared unto the Lord?

2 For I have said, &c. For this has always been the full persuasion of my mind, that, like a building erected on a firm and durable foundation, the divine mercy will be established and last for ever. Ver. 4. -Thy truth, &c. Thou wilt so confirm the truth of thy promises to David and his posterity, that the covenant, which thou hast made with him, will be as eternal in its duration, as the heavens appear to be. Deut. xi. 21. Perhaps the heavenly bodies themselves are alluded to, and thus the unvarying constancy of their motions is constituted an emblem of God's own immutability. Psalm cxix. 89, 90.

3 I have made, &c. In the two preceding verses the Psalmist declares his unabated confidence in the Almighty, notwithstanding the then lamentable state of the kingdom. He now introduces the divine Being himself referring to the promise, which he had originally made with David by the mouths of his prophets. 2 Sam. vii. 12.

4 Thy seed, &c. We find in the Psalm an evident distinction pointed out between David's seed and his sons, so that by the former is meant the Messiah, by the latter his earthly descendants; for to the sons the promise is only conditional, whilst to his seed it is irrevocable and absolute.

5 The very heavens, &c. Even the inhabitants of heaven, as often as they meet together in their holy assemblies, will unite in celebrating thy stupendous miracles of mercy, and thy great faithfulness. Job xv. 15. See on Psalm L. 4, 6.

6 Among the clouds. This expression, most probably, points out

L