2. For the Lord is high and to be feared: he is the great King upon all the earth. 3 He fhall fubdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. 4 [He fhall choose out an 4*The worship of Faheritage for us: even the wor- cob; that is, The Glofhip of Jacob whom he loved.] ry and Honour of the People of Jacob; by which was meant the Ark, or the Sanctuary, wherein the Ark was placed: So it is called, Amos vi. 8. viii. 7. See the word [Worfhip] in the Vocabulary. So then this will be the fenfe of the Verfe, viz. This is the Bleffing which God fhall entail on us and our Pofterity; and, indeed, the most valuable Inheritance that he can choofe for us, that we should enjoy the Ark, the token of his Prefence, and the emblem of Heaven; which is the greatest Priviledge and Glory of the People of Ifrael, his beloved People, the thing which they chiefly value, and in which they excel all other Nations. Mem. The Ark is called the Glory, 5 [God is gone up with a merry noise and the Lord with the *found of the trump.] Sam. iv. 21, 22. Rom.ix.4. 5 [God is gone up by the fpecial token of his Prefence [the Ark] into the Hill of Zion, with Shouts of Joy and Praife; the Lord is gone up with the found of the Trump, in a folemn and pompous manner,] 2 Sam. vi. 5, 15. See Pfal. xxiv. 7, 9. 6 O fing praises, fing praifes unto our God: O fing praises, fing praises unto our King. 7 For God is the King of all the earth fing ye praifes with understanding. 8 God reigneth over the heathen: God fitteth upon his holy feat. 9 [The princes of the people are joined unto the people of the God of Abraham: for God which is very high exalted, doth braham: nor need they defend the earth, as it were with fear an Invasion, tho' a fhield.] they have left their Houfes unguarded; for God, who is the Sovereign of the World, has promised to defend and protect them.] Exod. xxxiv. 23, 25. A Song, or Pfalm, after the defeat of Some great Army, either that of Senacherib, 2 Kings xviii. 17. or those confederated Forces, 2 Chron. xx. + Ferufalem. Magnus Dominus. Pfal. XLVIII. 3 [Senacherib, and thofe other Heathen Princes who depend on him,]. x. 8. or the Reat is the Lord, highly to be praised: in the city of our God, even upon his holy hill: 2 The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth: upon the north-fide lieth † the city of the great King; God is well known in her palaces as a fure refuge. 3 For lo, [the kings* of the earth are gathered, and by together.] gone Kings of Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir 2 Chron. xx. 1, 2, &c. that Kings of the Earth fignify Heathen Kings appears from Pfal. xlvi. 6, 8. xlvii. 2, 7. xi. 18. Therefore those words [*of the Earth] are fupply'd. + As God did for us. As fear shall come upon the Mariners, and Merchants when 4 They marvelled to fee fuch things t: they were aftonifhed and fuddenly caft down. 5 Fear came there upon them, and forrow as upon a woman in her travail. 6 Thou fhalt break the fhips of the fea through the eaft-wind. 7 Like as we have heard, fo have we seen in the city of the Lord of hofts; in the city of Our our God: God upholdeth the fame for ever. 8 [We wait for thy lovingkindness, O God; in the midft of thy temple.] and patiently stay till thy time of helping 9 [O God, according to thy Name, fo is thy praife unto the worlds end thy right hand is full of righteoufnels.] 8 [Whenfoever we are in any Want or Difficulty, we always refort to thy Temple, us be come.] 9 [And we have always found by experiis the Lord of Hofts, fo ence, that as thy Name thou art acknowledged to be fo by the moft diftant People, who have heard or feen what thou haft done for us: thy Power is full of Mercy toward thy People.] Mem. Righteousness] often fignifies Mercy, Pfal. xxiv. s. 1 * 10 Let the mount Sion rejoyce, and the daughter. of Juda be glad: [becaufe of thy judgments.] II Walk about Sion, and go round about her: and tell the towers thereof. 10 The Daughters of Juda,] that is, the Cities of Juda. See Pfal, ix. 14. [Because thou haft fo happily paft Judgment for us against our Enemies.] 12 [Extol, or praise the magnificence of her Munster. 12 Mark well her bulwarks, [fet up her houses]: that ye Palaces to the height:] may tell them that come after. 13 For this God is our God for ever, and ever: he fhall be our guide unto death. This Pfalm, concerning the time and Compofer whereof all are filent, feems intended as a Song of Comfort to the Jews, when under fome great Tyranny and Oppression. The chief Confideration which he proposes to chear them with, is, the Bad End of Evil Men, and the Happy End of Good Men. Audite bac, omnes. Pfal. XLIX. O EO ple: ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the that dwell in the world.] I [Let all Mankind liften to me with the greatest diligence and application; for what I am going to fay, will not not readily be understood by a careless Hearer; and yet it much concerns every Man whatever.] 4 [I will give fpecial * attention to this Pa rable, which I am teach ing to others and to 2 High, and low, rich and poor: one with another. 3 My mouth fhall speak of wifdom and my heart fhall mufe of understanding. the 4 [I will incline mine ear to parable: and fhew my dark fpeech upon the harp.] inftil it into their Minds with the greater advantage, I will fet my Compofure to the Harp.] : s* The wickedness of my Heels,] that is, The wickednels of those who pursue me hard, or are juft at my Heels. So Patr. Vatabl. and 5 [Wherefore fhould I fear in the days of wickedness: and when the wickednefs of my heels compaffeth me round about?] others. So then the fenfe of the whole Verfe will be this: [Why fhould I be overcome with Grief and Fear, in an Age wherein Sin and Tyranny triumph over Vertue and Innocence? and when the wickedness of thofe who, like the old Serpent, lay in wait for my Heels, has furrounded me on all fides?] 6 Here he speaks of publick Oppreffors, Tyrants,common Enemies 7 † From Death. 8 [For 'tis a thing too coftly and difficult for any Mortal to purchafe perpetual Life, for himself or any other.] 9 To* fee the Grave,] 6 There be fome that put their truft in their goods: and boaft themfelves in the multitude of their riches, 7 But no Man may deliver his brother +: nor make agreement unto God for him; 8 [For it cost more to redeem their fouls]: fo that he muft let that alone for ever; 9 [Yea, though he live long: or Corruption is a He- and fee not the grave.] brew Phrafe, fignifying to dye, Pfal. xvi. 11. The fenfe of the whole 9th Verfe is: Tho' the wicked Oppreffor do live a long while, yet he cannot live always, or be wholly deliver'd from Death.] 10 For the feeth that wife men alfo die, and perifh together as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other. II And yet they think that their houses fhall continue for ever and that their dwellingplaces fhall endure from one generation to another, and call the lands after their own names, 12 Nevertheless, man will not abide in honour: feeing he may be compared unto the beafts that perifh: this is the way of them. 13 This is their foolishness : and [their pofterity praise their faying.] their Ancestors faid and did, at least, by 14 [They lie in the hell like fheep, death gnaweth upon them, and the righteous fhall have domination over them in the morning; their beauty fhall confume in the fepulchre out of their dwelling.] 10 t Tho' be fee not the Grave, yet dren cannot fee their 13 [Yet their Chil Folly,but approve what following their Example.] 14 [They go toge ther in great mimbers, and there are difpofed of like Flocks of filly Sheep, and are no more able to defend them into the other World, felves, than thofe helplefs Creatures. Death exercifes his Tyranny over them; and in the morning of the Refurrection the Righteous fhall be their Lords and Judges, Rev. iii. 21. 1 Cor. vi. 2. and long before this, their Beauty and their very Body fhall be rotted in their Graves, to which they were carried from their delightful places of habitation here on Earth. * In the Sepulchre out of their dwelling, ] is a very dark and im perfect Paffage in the Hebrew; and none of our Tranflators have thought fit to fupply the fenfe. The Paraphrafe does it in the moft obvious and received manner., 15 [But God hath delivered 15 [But tho I die my foul from the place of hell: too, yet I fhall have this for he fhall receive me.] again from the place and ftate of the himself in a moft glorious manner.] Comfort, that God will not only call me back Dead, but receive me to H 16 BC |