Ex. 28. 1. Num. 16. 40. Acts 26. 22, &c. Gen. 8. 1. Mal. 4. 2. Hos. 1. 10. Zech. 8. 20, &c. Gen. 14. 19. 1 Pet. 3. 9. Jer. 27. 5, 6. Ps. 88. 10. &c. 10 Ye house of Aaron, put your trust in the Lord he is their helper and defender [and their shield]. 11 Ye that fear the Lord, put your trust in the Lord: he is their helper and defender [and their shield]. 12 The Lord hath been mindful of us, and he shall bless us; even he shall bless the house of Israel, he shall bless the house of Aaron; 13 He shall bless them, that fear the Lord, both small and great. 14 The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. 15 Ye are the blessed of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 16 All the whole heavens are the Lord's: the earth hath he given to the children of men. 17 The dead praise not thee, O Lord, neither all they that go down into silence. 18 But we will praise the Lord, from this time forth for evermore. Praise the Lord. 10 Ye house of Aaron. The Levites are probably included among the priests. Ver. 12: Psalm cxxxii. 9. 11 Ye that fear the Lord. The proselytes; who are thus described, Acts x. 22: xiii. 16, 26. Ver. 13. 12 The Lord hath been, &c. The Psalmist is incited, by the remembrance of former blessings, to have a good hope for the future. 16 The earth, &c. The present verse constitutes a proper addition to the preceding, and naturally introduces the next. For, since God gave to men the earth, which formed one part of his creation, that they might dwell there and minister to his glory (Isai. xLiii. 7), unless they were preserved from going down into the grave, this his previous appointment would be completely frustrated. Psalm vi. 5 : XXX. 9, 10. 18 But we will, &c. We must regard these words, not so much as comprising a resolution to sing the divine praises for benefits already received, as the language of humble faith and hope in the midst of appalling difficulties. THE TWENTY FOURTH DAY. Morning Prayer. PSALM CXVI. WE have here a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving, written manifestly in consequence of a signal deliverance, vouchsafed rather to the author than to his nation, but of which the particulars are unknown. It exhibits that tenderness of feeling, which the sense of past affliction is wont to inspire, especially in religious minds, a tenderness blended also with lively emotions of joy and gratitude, such as naturally spring from the consciousness of having been recently restored to peace and comfort. In the first part the Psalmist describes very pathetically the agitation of his soul, when in trouble: afterwards, he makes a devout and animated address to the Almighty, whose mercy he acknowledges, and to whom he promises, in testimony of his thankfulness, publicly to perform his vows. I AM well pleased, that the Lord hath heard | 1 Sam. 1. 26, &c. the voice of my prayer; Luke 18. 1. Col. 4. 2. Jon. 2. 2, 3. Luke 22. 44. 2 That he hath inclined his ear unto me; therefore will I call upon him, as long as I live. 3 The snares of death compassed me round about, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. 4 I shall find trouble and heaviness; and I will call upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, Ezra 9. 5, &c. our God is merciful. Isai. 37. 15, &c.: 53.3, 4. Neh. 9. 8. The pains of hell. 3 The snares of death, &c. See on Psalm xi. 7. The agonies as if of death, which made me fear, that be laid in the grave. See on Psalm xvi. 11. 4 I shall find, &c. Since, in the tenth verse, we discover an undoubted instance of a future put for a past tense, the same thing may have occurred here. The Bible version has,-I found trouble and sorrow; then called I, &c. But see on Psalm xviii. 2. Is it likely, that the whole verse, and not merely the last clause of it, comprehends the words of the Psalmist, when he found himself within the toils of death?—And I will call, &c. And I supplicated the Lord for help by his name Jehovah. See on Psalm v. 12. 5 Righteous. That is kind and just, inasmuch as he neither disdains to listen to the prayers of the miserable, nor allows the guiltless to be permanently oppressed. Psalm ciii. 8. Matt. 11. 25, 29. Jer. 6. 16. Matt. 9. 2, &c. Isai. 25. 8. Rev. 7. 17. 1 Kings 8. 25. 6 The Lord preserveth the simple: I was in misery, and he helped me. 7 Turn again, then, unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath rewarded [dealt bountifully with] thee. 8 And why? thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of Luke 1. 6, 74, 75. the living. Rom. 3. 4. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Isai. 6. 5, &c. 2 Cor. 5. 14, 15. 10 I believed, and, therefore, will I speak [have I spoken]; but I was sore troubled: I said in my haste, All men are liars. 11 What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits, that he hath done unto me? 6 The simple. Those, who commit themselves entirely to God's protection, nor attempt to use any other means for their deliverance than such as he approves. 8 And why? And whence arises so strong an exhortation to my soul? The remainder of the verse furnishes the answer to this question. 9 I will walk, &c. Therefore, in grateful remembrance of such mercies, I will not fail to conduct myself, as if in the immediate presence of God, so long as I inhabit this land of living men. 10 Will I speak. From the circumstance before mentioned (see on Psalm xxxii. 4.) we are often obliged in reading scripture to have recourse to the context, in order to determine the exact point of time, which was intended to be expressed. Particularly, however, must this be the case, when we perceive, that by the Hebrew poets (for very few instances of so curious a peculiarity are to be found in the historians,) past events, as in this verse, are occasionally related under the form of the future. The Psalmist called on God in his distress, and that, from a firm conviction of His being both able and willing to assist him. But he was so dismayed and subdued by the intensity of his grief, that, at first, through the perturbation of his mind, he felt disposed to treat those persons as liars and deceivers, who gave him hopes of brighter days, and strove to encourage him still to trust in the divine promises for relief from his trouble. Psalm xxxi. 24. He is sometimes imagined, in the latter part of the verse, to assign the reason, why he poured forth his earnest and exclusive petitions to God, namely, because, in the confusion of his mind, he concluded, that it was vain to rely on the affection and help of man, though he possibly possessed many faithful and zealous friends. For they, on whom he had formerly relied, having proved false and treacherous, he fancied that he saw cause to think the rest of the world about to disappoint his expectations, when he again needed assistance. Psalm cxviii. 8, 9: CXLVI. 2. 12 I will receive [take] the cup of salvation, Mark 14. 23, &c. and call upon the name of the Lord: 13 I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people: right dear, in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints. 14 Behold, O Lord, how that I am thy servant: I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. Luke 12. 6, 7. Isai. 61. 1, &c. Acts 2. 41, 42. 2 Chron. 6. 6. 15 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanks-Ps. 107. 22. giving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. 16 I will pay my vows unto the Lord, in the sight of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, even in the midst of thee, O Jeru salem. Praise the Lord. PSALM CXVII. LIKE the hundredth Psalm, this seems to be entirely prophetic of the joy, which all the world would experience, at the coming of the Messiah, according to the faithful promise of God, to give salvation, first, to the Jews, and then, to the Gentiles. Its shortness seems to render the suggestion very probable, that it was used in the public service of the temple, being sung, either (at the 12 The cup of salvation. The Israelites, who had escaped from any great affliction or danger, were accustomed, first, to sacrifice victims in token of gratitude, and, then, to partake of a solemn feast, which was prepared "in the courts of the Lord's house." Ver. 16. 1 Sam. ix. 12, 13. The materials for this feast consisted of what remained from the sacrifice, whilst those that feasted were the offerer, his friends, and the priests. Among other rites, the giver of the feast. took a cup of wine into his hand, called the cup of thanksgiving, of which he himself drank; when, having devoutly blessed and praised God for his late mercies, he handed it to all the guests, who, likewise, drank successively of it. The cup referred to was two-fold; one partaken of in a more solemn manner in the temple, the other more privately in families: the former is here meant. It ought, perhaps, to be added, that the Jews also observed the same ceremony at the celebration of their great national feasts, and that our Saviour is supposed, in complying with this custom, to have thence taken occasion to institute the blessed commemoration of his death. Psalm xxii. 26. 1 Cor. x. 16. 13 Right dear, &c. The reason of the Psalmist's preservation is, at length, declared. This event occurred, he says, because God does not readily abandon his sincere worshippers to the pleasure of their enemies, or permit them to be destroyed. Psalm Lxxii. 14. 14 The son, &c. See on Psalm LXXXVi. 16.-My bonds. Those chains of affliction, with which I was, as it were, bound and delivered over unto death. Job xxxvi. 8. commencement of the sacred rites, or when those rites were finished, and the people were about to be dismissed. Who the author of it was has not even been conjectured. Rev. 7. 9, 10. Luke 1. 54, 55. PRAISE the Lord, all ye heathen: praise him, all ye nations [people]; 2 For his merciful kindness is ever more and more towards us, and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise the Lord. PSALM CXVIII. AFTER a long series of sufferings and persecutions, David, being at length peacefully settled in his kingdom, makes a solemn offering of praise and thanksgiving to Jehovah, both for having delivered him from his enemies, and for enabling him to gain many glorious victories over them. He invites all his subjects to join with him on such a joyful occasion, gives a full description of his recent danger, and attributes his safety entirely to the divine favor and goodness. The Psalm was, doubtless, originally used during a public procession to the tabernacle on mount Sion. The first four verses are addressed to the whole nation by way of preface: thence to the eighteenth verse inclusive the circumstances are detailed, which caused it to be written: the three next verses appear to have been sung by David himself, whilst actually standing near the gates of the tabernacle with the twenty-second commences a kind of sacred dialogue between the people, the priests, the Levites, and David. The ancient, as well as the modern, Jews generally understand this Psalm of the Messiah; and the repeated application made of the twentysecond verse in the New Testament, must lead us to consider the whole as a triumphant hymn sung by Him at the head of "the Israel of God," on the occasion of his resurrection and exaltation. Heb. 1.1, 2. Gal. 6. 15, 16. ever. GIVE thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, because his mercy endureth for 2 Let Israel now confess, that he is gracious, and that his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Towards us. The Psalmist clearly includes his countrymen among those, whom he exhorts to praise the Lord; wherefore, by the words "all ye nations," in the former verse, are, most probably, to be understood the Israelitish tribes. See on Psalm Lix. 11. Moreover, he is to be conceived as solely looking forward to that happy period, when "the middle wall of partition" would be completely broken down (Ephes. ii. 14), and when all the people upon earth would, in heart and soul, constitute one fold under one shepherd. John x. 16. 2 Now. This is not, as it might seem to be, a particle of time, but is equivalent to the expression by all means. Ver. 3, 4. |