Psalms 16 commentary

David flees to God's protection, with cheerful, believing confidence. Those who have avowed that the Lord is their Lord, should often put themselves in mind of what they have done, take the comfort of it, and live up to it. He devotes himself to the honour of God, in the service of the saints. Saints on earth we must be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. Those renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. The saints in the earth are excellent ones, yet some of them so poor, that they needed to have David's goodness extended to them. David declares his resolution to have no fellowship with the works of darkness; he repeats the solemn choice he had made of God for his portion and happiness, takes to himself the comfort of the choice, and gives God the glory of it. This is the language of a devout and pious soul. Most take the world for their chief good, and place their happiness in the enjoyments of it; but how poor soever my condition is in this world, let me have the love and favour of God, and be accepted of him; let me have a title by promise to life and happiness in the future state; and I have enough. Heaven is an inheritance; we must take that for our home, our rest, our everlasting good, and look upon this world to be no more ours, than the country through which is our road to our Father's house. Those that have God for their portion, have a goodly heritage. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, and look no further. Gracious persons, though they still covet more of God, never covet more than God; but, being satisfied of his loving-kindness, are abundantly satisfied with it: they envy not any their carnal mirth and delights. But so ignorant and foolish are we, that if left to ourselves, we shall forsake our own mercies for lying vanities. God having given David counsel by his word and Spirit, his own thoughts taught him in the night season, and engaged him by faith to live to God. Verses 8–11, are quoted by St. Peter in his first sermon, after the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Ac 2:25–31; he declared that David in them speaks concerning Christ, and particularly of his resurrection. And Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may be applied to all Christians, guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and we may hence learn, that it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us. And if our eyes are ever toward God, our hearts and tongues may ever rejoice in him. Death destroys the hope of man, but not the hope of a real Christian. Christ's resurrection is an earnest of the believer's resurrection. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there is joy, a fulness of joy; our pleasures here are for a moment, but those at God's right hand are pleasures for evermore. Through this thy beloved Son, and our dear Saviour, thou wilt show us, O Lord, the path of life; thou wilt justify our souls now, and raise our bodies by thy power at the last day; when earthly sorrow shall end in heavenly joy, pain in everlasting happiness.

PSALM 16.

In the beginning David commends himself to the protection of God. He then meditates upon the benefits which he received from God, and thereby stirs himself up to thanksgiving. By his service, it is true, he could in no respect be profitable to God, but he, notwithstanding, surrenders and devotes himself entirely to him, protesting that he will have nothing to do with superstitions. He also states the reason of this to be, that full and substantial happiness consists in resting in God alone, who never suffers his own people to want any good thing.

Mictam of David.

As to the meaning of the word mictam, the Jewish expositors are not of one mind. Some derive it from כתם, catham, The word means gold, the finest gold, and those who understand it in this sense here, think the psalm receives this title to denote that it is fit to be written in letters of gold; and some conjecture that the psalms distinguished by this title were, on some occasion or other, thus written and hung up in the sanctuary. Others are of opinion that the word mictam is derived from כתם, catham, which signifies to mark, to engrave, to denote that the psalm is fit to be engraven on a valuable and durable pillar, to be preserved in everlasting remembrance. This is the meaning attached to the word by the Septuagint, which translates it στηλογραφία, an inscription on a pillar or monument. In either of these views the title cannot but be regarded as peculiarly appropriate to this sacred poem. “As a sepulchral inscription,” remarks Bishop Mant, “it might have been written on our Redeemer’s tomb; as a triumphal monument, it might have been sung by him in the region of departed spirits; and in either, or in any sense, it may well be considered as a golden composition, as apples of gold in network of which occur in the titles of the psalms, are the names of old melodies. as if it were a golden crest or jewel. Others think it is the beginning of a song, which at that time was very common. To others it seems rather to be some kind of tune, and this opinion I am inclined to adopt.

Psalm 16:1

1. Keep [or guard “Guard me.” The Hebrew word expresses the actions of those who watch over another’s safety, as of guards attending their king, or a shepherd keeping his flock.” — Horsley. ] me, O God; for in thee do I trust. “The Hebrew word חסיתי, chasithi, from חס, chasah, denotes to betake one’s self for refuge to anyone, under whose protection he may be safe, as chickens under the wing of the hen.” — Buxtor. ff.

This is a prayer in which David commits himself to the protection of God. He does not, however, here implore the aid of God, in some particular emergency, as he often does in other psalms, but he beseeches him to show himself his protector during the whole course of his life, and indeed our safety both in life and in death depends entirely upon our being under the protection of God. What follows concerning trust, signifies much the same thing as if the Holy Spirit assured us by the mouth of David, that God is ready to succor all of us, provided we rely upon him with a sure and steadfast faith; and that he takes under his protection none but those who commit themselves to him with their whole heart. At the same time, we must be reminded that David, supported by this trust, continued firm and unmoved amidst all the storms of adversity with which he was buffeted.

Psalm 16:2-3

2. Thou shalt say unto Jehovah, Thou art my Lord, my well-doing extendeth not unto thee. 3. Unto the saints who are on the earth, and to the excellent; all my delight is in them.

PSALM 16

Psa 16:1-11. Michtam, or, by the change of one letter, Michtab--a "writing," such as a poem or song (compare Is 38:9). Such a change of the letter m for b was not unusual. The position of this word in connection with the author's name, being that usually occupied by some term, such as Psalm or song, denoting the style or matter of the composition, favors this view of its meaning, though we know not why this and Psalms 56-60 should be specially, called "a writing." "A

golden (Psalm)," or "a memorial" are explanations proposed by some--neither of which, however applicable here, appears adapted to the other Psalms where the term occurs. According to Peter (Ac 2:25) and Paul (Ac 13:35), this Psalm relates to Christ and expresses the feelings of His human nature, in view of His sufferings and victory over death and the grave, including His subsequent exaltation at the right hand of God. Such was the exposition of the best earlier Christian interpreters. Some moderns have held that the Psalm relates exclusively to David; but this view is expressly contradicted by the apostles; others hold that the language of the Psalm is applicable to David as a type of Christ, capable of the higher sense assigned it in the New Testament. But then the language of Psa 16:10 cannot be used of David in any sense, for "he saw corruption." Others again propose to refer the first part to David, and the last to Christ; but it is evident that no change in the subject of the Psalm is indicated. Indeed, the person who appeals to God for help is evidently the same who rejoices in having found it. In referring the whole Psalm to Christ, it is, however, by no means denied that much of its language is expressive of the feelings of His people, so far as in their humble measure they have the feelings of trust in God expressed by Him, their head and representative. Such use of His language, as recorded in His last prayer (Joh 17:1-26), and even that which He used in Gethsemane, under similar modifications, is equally proper. The propriety of this reference of the Psalm to Christ will appear in the scope and interpretation. In view of the sufferings before Him, the Saviour, with that instinctive dread of death manifested in Gethsemane, calls on God to "preserve" Him; He avows His delight in holiness and abhorrence of the wicked and their wickedness; and for "the joy that was set before Him, despising the shame" [He 12:2], encourages Himself; contemplating the glories of the heritage appointed Him. Thus even death and the grave lose their terrors in the assurance of the victory to be attained and "the glory that should follow" [1Pe 1:11].

1. Preserve me, &c.--keep or watch over my interests.

in thee ... I ... trust--as one seeking shelter from pressing danger.

2. my soul--must be supplied; expressed in similar cases (Psa 42:5, 11).

my goodness ... thee--This obscure passage is variously expounded. Either one of two expositions falls in with the context. "My goodness" or merit is not on account of Thee--that is, is not for Thy benefit. Then follows the contrast of Psa 16:3 (but is), in respect, or for the saints, &c.--that is, it enures to them. Or, my goodness--or happiness is not besides Thee--that is, without Thee I have no other source of happiness. Then, "to the saints," &c., means that the same privilege of deriving happiness from God only is theirs. The first is the most consonant with the Messianic character of the Psalm, though the latter is not inconsistent with it.

3. saints--or, persons consecrated to God, set apart from others to His service.

in the earth--that is, land of Palestine, the residence of God's chosen people--figuratively for the Church.

excellent--or, "nobles," distinguished for moral excellence.

4. He expresses his abhorrence of those who seek other sources of happiness or objects of worship, and, by characterizing their rites by drink offerings of blood, clearly denotes idolaters. The word for "sorrows" is by some rendered "idols"; but, though a similar word to that for idols, it is not the same. In selecting such a term, there may be an allusion, by the author, to the sorrows produced by idolatrous practices.

5-7. God is the chief good, and supplies all need (De 10:9).

portion of mine inheritance and of my cup--may contain an allusion to the daily supply of food, and also to the inheritance of Levi (De 18:1, 2).

maintainest--or, drawest out my lot--enlargest it. Psa 16:7 carries out this idea more fully.

8. With God's presence and aid he is sure of safety (Psa 10:6; 15:5; Joh 12:27, 28; He 5:7, 8).

9. glory--as heart (Psa 7:5), for self. In Ac 2:26, after the Septuagint, "my tongue" as "the glory of the frame"--the instrument for praising God.

flesh--If taken as opposed to soul (Psa 16:10), it may mean the body; otherwise, the whole person (compare Psa 63:1; 84:2).

rest in hope--(compare Margin).

10. soul--or, "self." This use of "soul" for the person is frequent (Ge 12:5; 46:26; Psa 3:2; 7:2; 11:1), even when the body may be the part chiefly affected, as in Psa 35:13; 105:18. Some cases are cited, as Le 22:4; Nu 6:6; 9:6, 10; 19:13; Hag 2:13, &c., which seem to justify assigning the meaning of body, or dead body; but it will be found that the latter sense is given by some adjunct expressed or implied. In those cases person is the proper sense.

wilt not leave ... hell--abandon to the power of (Job 39:14; Psa 49:10). Hell as (Ge 42:38; Psa 6:5; Jon 2:2) the state or region of death, and so frequently--or the grave itself (Job 14:13; 17:13; Ec 9:10, &c.). So the Greek Hades (compare Ac 2:27, 31). The context alone can settle whether the state mentioned is one of suffering and place of the damned (compare Psa 9:17; Pr 5:5; 7:27).

wilt ... suffer--literally, "give" or "appoint."

Holy One--(Psa 4:3), one who is the object of God's favor, and so a recipient of divine grace which he exhibits--pious.

to see--or, "experience"--undergo (Lu 2:26).

corruption--Some render the word, the pit, which is possible, but for the obvious sense which the apostle's exposition (Ac 2:27; 13:36, 37) gives. The sense of the whole passage is clearly this: by the use of flesh and soul, the disembodied state produced by death is indicated; but, on the other hand, no more than the state of death is intended; for the last clause of Psa 16:10 is strictly parallel with the first, and Holy One corresponds to soul, and corruption to hell. As Holy One, or David (Ac 13:36, 37), which denotes the person, including soul and body, is used for body, of which only corruption can be predicated (compare Ac 2:31); so, on the contrary, soul, which literally means the immaterial part, is used for the person. The language may be thus paraphrased, "In death I shall hope for resurrection; for I shall not be left under its dominion and within its bounds, or be subject to the corruption which ordinarily ensues."

11. Raised from the dead, he shall die no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

Thou wilt show me--guide me to attain.

the path of life--or, "lives"--the plural denoting variety and abundance--immortal blessedness of every sort--as "life" often denotes.

in thy presence--or, "before Thy faces." The frequent use of this plural form for "faces" may contain an allusion to the Trinity (Nu 6:25, 26; Psa 17:15; 31:16).

at thy right hand--to which Christ was exalted (Psa 110:1; Ac 2:33; Col 3:1; He 1:3). In the glories of this state, He shall see of the travail (Is 53:10, 11; Php 2:9) of His soul, and be satisfied.

Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust - On the mode of interpretation which I have hinted at above, I consider this a prayer of the man Christ Jesus on his entering on his great atoning work, particularly his passion in the garden of Gethsemane. In that passion, Jesus Christ most evidently speaks as man; and with the strictest propriety, as it was the manhood, not the Godhead, that was engaged in the suffering. שמרני shomreni, keep me - preserve, sustain, this feeble humanity, now about to bear the load of that punishment due to the whole of the human race. For in thee, חסיתי chasithi, have I hoped. No human fortitude, or animal courage, can avail in my circumstances. These are no common sufferings; they are not of a natural kind; they are not proportioned to the strength of a human body, or the energy of a human spirit; and my immaculate humanity, which is subjected to these sufferings, must be dissolved by them, if not upheld by thee, the strong God. It is worthy of remark, that our Lord here uses the term, אל El, which signifies the strong God, an expression remarkably suited to the frailty of that human nature, which was now entering upon its vicarious sufferings. It will be seen with what admirable propriety the Messiah varies the appellations of the Divine Being in this address; a circumstance which no translation without paraphrase can express.

Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord - Thou hast said ליהוה layhovah to Jehovah, the supreme, self-existing, and eternal Being; Thou art my Lord, אדני אתה adonai attah, Thou art my prop, stay, or support. As the Messiah, or Son of God, Jesus derived his being and support from Jehovah; and the man Christ was supported by the eternal Divinity that dwelt within him, without which he could not have sustained the sufferings which he passed through, nor have made an atonement for the sin of the world; it is the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah in prospect of his sufferings, who here speaks.

My goodness extendeth not to thee - There are almost endless explanations of this clause; no man can read them without being confounded by them. The Septuagint read ὁτι των αγαθων μου ου χρειαν εχεις; Because thou dost not need my goods. The Vulgate follows the Septuagint. The Chaldee: My good is given only by thyself.

So the Syriac: My good is from thee. The Arabic: Thou dost not need my good works. And in this sense, with shades of difference, it has been understood by most commentators and critics.

Bishop Horsley translates, Thou art my good - not besides thee. Dr. Kennicott, My goodness is not without thee.

I think the words should be understood of what the Messiah was doing for men. My goodness, טובתי tobathi, "my bounty," is not to thee. What I am doing can add nothing to thy divinity; thou art not providing this astonishing sacrifice because thou canst derive any excellence from it: but this bounty extends to the saints - to all the spirits of just men made perfect, whose bodies are still in the earth; and to the excellent, אדירי addirey, "the noble or supereminent ones," those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The saints and illustrious ones not only taste of my goodness, but enjoy my salvation. Perhaps angels themselves may be intended; they are not uninterested in the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord. They desire to look into these things; and the victories of the cross in the conversion of sinners cause joy among the angels of God.

The קדושים kedoshim, "saints," or consecrated persons, may refer to the first planters of Christianity, evangelists, apostles, etc., who were separated from all others, and consecrated to the great important work of preaching among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. With these was all the desire, חפץ chephets, the good will and delight of Christ. In all their ministrations he was both with them and in them.

The passage, taken as referring to David, intimates that he abhorred the company of the profane and worthless, and delighted to associate with them that excelled in virtue.

On these two verses the translation and paraphrase of my old Psalter must not be forgotten: - Psa 16:1 Conserva me, Domine, etc.

Trans. Kepe me Lord, for I hoped in the; I said til Lord, my God thou ert; for, of my gudes thu has na nede.

Par - The voice of Crist in his manhede; prayand til the fader, and sayand: Lord, fader, kepe me imang peplis, for I hoped in the, noght in me. I said til the, my God, thu ert in that, that I am man; for thu has no nede of my godes; bot I haf of the, al that I haf; here is the wil pride of men confounded; that evenes that thai haf ought of tham self bot syn. Psa 16:2 Sanctis qui sunt in terra, etc.

Trans. Til halowes the qwilk er his land, he selcouthed all my willes in tham.

Par - Noght til wiked, bot til halows clene in saule, and depertid fra erdly bysynes, the qwilk er in his land: that es, that haf fested thair hope in the land of heven; and rotyd in luf: the qwilk hope es als anker in stremys of this werld. He selcouthed al my willes, that of wonderful, he made my willes, of dying and rysing, sett and fulfilled in tham: that es, in thair profete, qware in that feled qwat it profeted tham my mekenes that wild dye, and my myght to rise.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god - The Chaldee has: "They multiply their idols, and afterwards hasten that they may offer their gifts." In the Hebrew text there is no word for God, and therefore Messiah or Savior might be as well substituted; and then the whole will refer to the unbelieving Jews. They would not have the true Christ; they have sought, and are seeking, another Messiah; and how amply fulfilled has the prophetic declaration been in them! Their sorrows have been multiplied for more than 1800 years.

The Vulgate and Septuagint, and after them the Ethiopic and Arabic, have given this clause a widely different turn: "their afflictions have been multiplied, and afterwards they have run swiftly;" referring to the suffering saints: the more they were afflicted and persecuted, the more fervent and prosperous they became.

Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer - נסך nesech is a libation, whether of wine or water, poured out on the sacrifice. A drink-offering of blood is not a correct form of expression; it is rather the libation on the blood of the sacrifice already made. Coverdale translates the same; but Mathewes, who reformed his text in a few places, has Their brente offeringes of bloude, without much mending the text; though by this the exceptionable idea of a drink-offering of blood is avoided. As applicable to our Lord, here is an intimation that their libations and sacrifices should cease. None of these should exist under the Christian dispensation; Jesus Christ's offering upon the cross being the accomplishment and termination of all such sacrifices.

Nor take up their names into my lips - None of those sacrifices shall be mentioned with any kind of respect after the end of their institution shall have been accomplished; for sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, and sacrifice for sin, such as are offered according to the law, God would no longer receive; therefore Jesus said; "Lo, I come to do thy will; a body hast thou prepared me." Since that time all these sacrifices have ceased. The old Psalter is curious: - Psa 16:4 Multiplicate sunt infirmitates eorum; postea acceleraverunt.

Trans. Manyfaldend er thair sekenes: and sythen thai hasted thaim.

Par - That es at say; thai knew that thai war ful seke in body and saule, and sythen thai hasted tham til the Leche; for he that feles him seke, he sekes remedy. Il men wenes that thai er noght seke for thi that dye in thair syn.

Non congregabo conventicula eroum de sanguinibus, etc.

Trans. I sal noght gadyr the coventes of tha of blodes; ne I sal be menand of their names thurgh my lippis.

Par - That est at say, by the coventes of haly men, my servaundes sal nout fleschely, but gastly: for "blode" bytakyns syn and unclenes that that er in, that folous thair flesche, and the vanites of thair blode; that er comen of grete kyn. Ne I sal by menand of thair names; for thai er chaunged fra syn till ryghtwisnes on domesday, qwen I sal speke thrugh my lippes til thaim that haldes the name of wykednes: sa ye weryed til fyer with outen end.

The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance - The Messiah speaks. Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance; I seek no earthly good; I desire to do the will of God, and that only. It is God who has given me this lot - to redeem mankind - to have them for mine inheritance. From him I have received the cup of suffering, which I shall drink for their sake, through which I shall impart to them the cup of consolation. He, by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man; and he has instituted the cup of blessing to commemorate his passion and death.

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places - Here is an allusion to the ancient division of the land by lot among the Israelites, the breadth and length being ascertained by lines which were used in measuring. I have got a rich inheritance of immortal spirits; and I myself, as man, shall have a name above every name, and be raised to thy throne, on which I shall sit, and be admired in my saints to all eternity.

I have a goodly heritage - A Church, an innumerable multitude of saints, partakers of the Divine nature, and filled with all the fullness of God. And these shall dwell with me in the heaven of heavens to all eternity. The old Psalter: - Psa 16:5 Dominus pars hereditatis mee et calicis mei, etc.

Trans. Lord es part of myn herytage and of my chalyce; thow ert that sal restore myn herytage til me.

Par - Lord the fader es part, that es, he es porcioun and mede of myn herytage; that es of haly men, qwam I weld in herytage. Other men cheses tham what tham lyst: my part es God, and he es part of my chalyce: that es, he es my copp of al my delyte and boor. Wereldys men drynkes the venemus lustes, and the drubly delytes of lychery and covatys: I in my halows sal drynk God; for thu ert fadyr that sal restore till me, that es, til my men, myn herytage, that thai lost in Adam: that es thu restores til tham the knawyng of my bryghthede. Psa 16:6 Punes ceciderunt michi in preclaris, etc.

Trans. Strynges fel to me in ful bryght: for qwy, myn herytage is ful bryght til me.

Par - Strynges, that er merkes of my possessioun, in thi bryghtnes, fel als with cutte; als the possessioun of prestes and dekens in the alde law, was God; for qwy myn herytage, that es haly men es bryght til me of that seme layth and aute castyng til some of the werld, til me thai er fairer and bryght.

Who hath given me counsel - Jesus, as man, received all his knowledge and wisdom from God; Luk 2:40-52. And in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

My reins also instruct me - כליותי kilyothai, reins or kidneys, which from their retired situation in the body, says Parkhurst, and being hidden in fat, are often used in Scripture for the most secret workings and affections of the heart.

The kidneys and their fat were always to be burnt in sacrifice, to indicate that the most secret purposes and affections of the soul are to be devoted to God.

In the night seasons - That is, in the time of my passion, my secret purposes and determinations concerning the redemption of man support me. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame;" Heb 12:2.

I have set the Lord always before me - This verse, and all to the end of Psa 16:11, are applied by St. Peter to the death and resurreetion of Christ. Act 2:25, etc.

In all that our Lord did, said, or suffered, he kept the glory of the Father and the accomplishment of his purpose constantly in view. He tells us that he did not come down from heaven to do his own will, but the will of the Father who had sent him. See Joh 17:4.

He is at my right hand - That is, I have his constant presence, approbation, and support. All this is spoken by Christ as man.

I shall not be moved - Nothing can swerve me from my purpose; nothing can prevent me from fulfilling the Divine counsel, in reference to the salvation of men.

Therefore my heart is glad - Unutterably happy in God; always full of the Divine presence; because whatsoever I do pleaseth him. The man Christ Jesus must be constantly in communion with God, because he was without spot and blemish.

My glory rejoiceth - My tongue, so called by the Hebrews, (see Psa 57:8; Psa 30:12), because it was bestowed on us to glorify God, and because it is our glory, being the instrument of expressing our thoughts by words. See Dodd. But soul bids as fair to be the meaning. See the notes on Act 2:25, etc.

My flesh also shall rest in hope - There is no sense in which these and the following words can be spoken of David. Jesus, even on the cross, and breathing out his soul with his life, saw that his rest in the grave would be very short: just a sufficiency of time to prove the reality of his death, but not long enough to produce corruption; and this is well argued by St. Peter, Act 2:31.

Thine Holy One - This is in the plural number, חסידיך chasideycha, thy Holy Ones; but none of the versions translate it in the plural; and as it is in the singular number, חסידך chasidecha, in several ancient editions, among which is the Complutensian Polyglot, and no less than two hundred and sixty-four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in the quotation by St. Peter, in Act 2:27; Act 13:35, we may take it for granted that the present reading is a corruption; or that חסידיך is an emphatic singular.

As to leaving the soul In hell, it can only mean permitting the life of the Messiah to continue under the power of death; for שאול sheol signifies a pit, a ditch, the grave, or state of the dead. See the notes on the parallel places, Act 2:25 (note), etc.

See corruption - All human beings see corruption, because born in sin, and liable to the curse. The human body of Jesus Christ, as being without sin, saw no corruption.

Thou wilt show me the path of life - I first shall find the way out of the regions of death, to die no more. Thus Christ was the first fruits of them that slept. Several had before risen from the dead, but they died again. Jesus rose from the dead, and is alive for evermore. Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead was the first entrance out of the grave to eternal life or lives, חיים chaiyim, for the word is in the plural, and with great propriety too, as this resurrection implies the life of the body, and the life of the rational soul also.

In thy presence - פניך paneycha, thy faces. Every holy soul has, throughout eternity, the beatific vision, i.e., "it sees God as he is," because it is like him; 1Jn 3:2. It drinks in beatification from the presence of the Eternal Trinity.

Thy right hand - The place of honor and dignity; repeatedly used in this sense in the Scriptures.

Pleasures for evermore - נצח netzach, onwardly; perpetually, continually, well expressed by our translation, ever and more; an eternal progression. Think of duration in the most extended and unlimited manner, and there is still more; more to be suffered in hell, and more to be enjoyed in heaven. Great God! grant that my readers may have this beatific sight; this eternal progression in unadulterated, unchangeable, and unlimited happiness! Hear this prayer for His sake, who found out the path of life, and who by his blood purchased an entrance into the holiest! Amen and Amen.

For the application of the whole Psalm to David, see the analysis at the end, which is a little altered from David's Harp Strung and Tuned.

The remains of this Psalm in the old Psalter are worthy to be inserted: - 1Jn 3:7 Benedicam Dominum qui tribuit michi intellectum, etc.

Trans. I sal blis the Lord that gaf til me undirstandyng; and over that til the nyght, suyled me my neres.

Par - That es I sal luf the fader that hafs gyfen undyrstandyng til my servauntes, thurgh the qwilk the herytage of heven may be sene and welded; and aver that undyrstandyng, in the qwilk I saw, sais Crist, al sothefast thynges and haly. Of that I sal lof him that my nerys that es the Jewis of qwas kynd I toke flesch, that es my kyn snybbed me in wranges and temptaciounis, and passiouns, til the nyght, that es al the dede thai missaid hym, als so oure nerys; that es our fleschely delytes makes us worthy snybbyng til our dede; for perfytely may we noght be with outen syn, qwyles we lyf. 1Jn 3:8 Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo, etc.

Trans. I pervaide God ay in my syght; for he es at the ryght hand til me, that I be nout styrred.

Par - And in al thys anguys I for gatt nout God: bot I pervayde hym ay in my syght; that es, I comande o mang passand thynges: I toke nout my nee fra hym that ay es; bot I fested it in hym, so that he was ay in my sight, and he es nout fyled in synnes that assyduely with the ee of his thoght, byhaldes God, for he es at the ryght hand of me: that I be noght styred; that es, he helps me in desyre of endless gudes, that I last stabil in hym, and for thi nane il thyng may haf mayster of me. 1Jn 3:9 Propter hoc, elatum, est cor meum, et exultavit lingua mea, etc.

Trans. Thar fore gladded es my hert, and my toung joyed over that, and my flesch sal rest in hope.

Par - This es ful joy that in hert es resayved, and with toung schewed, and over that joy in hert and mouth, my flesch sal rest in hope of rysyng. 1Jn 3:10 Quoniam non derelinques in Inferno animam meam, etc.

Trans. For thow sal noght lefe my Saule in hell, ne thu sal noght gyf thi Halow to se corrupcion.

Par - That es at say, the Saule that I haf als veray man, sal noght be left in hell; and my body that thu haloued, sal noght rote. Here men may knaw that this es goddes word; for other mens bodis rotes. 1Jn 3:11 Notas michi fecisti vias vite, etc.

Trans. Knawen thu maked til me, the wayes of lyf: thou sal fil me of joy with thi face, delytynges in thi ryghth and in til the end.

Par - Knawen thu maked thurgh me till myne, the wayes of lyf, that es the wayes of mekenes and charite, that men came til heven thurgh mekenes, fra qwethyn thai fel thurgh Pryde: and thow sal ful fil me; that es, my servaundes, of joy with thi face; that es, in the syght of the, apertly; so that thai desyre nothing over, qwen thai af sene the, face til face, and ay til than delytynges til tham in way of this lyf. In thi ryght hand; that es thi favoure, and thi mercy the qwilk delytyngs ledys tham intil the ende, that es, in til perfectioun of endeles Blisfulhede.

I have given the whole of the translation and comment of this Psalm from this ancient Psalter, as a curious specimen of the doctrine and language of our northern neighbors in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

To thee - Thou dost not need me or my service, nor art capable of any advantage from it.

But - I bear a singular respect and love to all saints, for thy sake, whose friends and servants they are, and whose image they bear. This more properly agrees to David, than to Christ, whose goodness was principally designed for, and imparted to sinners.

Sorrows - Having shewed his affection to the servants of the true God, he now declares what an abhorrency he has for those that worship idols. Offerings - In which the Gentiles used sometimes to drink part of the blood of their sacrifices. Names - Of those other gods mentioned before.

The Lord - I rejoice in God as my portion, and desire no better, no other felicity. Cup - The portion which is put into my cup, as the ancient manner was in feasts, where each had his portion of meat, and of wine allotted to him. Lot - My inheritance divided to me by lot, as the custom then was.

Lines - My portion, which was measured with lines. Are fallen - In a land flowing with milk and honey, and above all, blessed with the presence and knowledge of God.

The Lord - Hath inspired that wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my portion, and am so fully satisfied with him. Reins - My inward thoughts and affections, being inspired and moved by the holy spirit. Instruct - Direct me how to please God, and put my whole trust in him. Night - Even when others are asleep, my mind is working upon God, and improving the silence and solitude of holy meditations.

I have set - I have always presented him to my mind, as my witness and judge, as my patron and protector. Hitherto David seems to have spoken with respect to himself, but now he is transported by the spirit of prophecy, and carried above himself, to speak as a type of Christ, in whom this and the following verses were truly accomplished. Christ as man did always set his father's will and glory before him. Right - hand - To strengthen, protect, assist, and comfort me: as this assistance of God was necessary to Christ as man. Moved - Though the archers shoot grievously at me, and both men and devils seek my destruction, and God sets himself against me as an enemy, yet I am assured he will deliver me out of all my distresses.

My glory - My tongue, which is a man's glory and privilege, above all other living creatures. Rejoiceth - Declares my inward joy. For this word signifies not so much eternal joy, as the outward demonstrations of it. My flesh - My body shall quietly rest in the grave. Shall rest - in confident assurance of its incorruption there, and of its resurrection to an immortal life: the flesh or body is in itself, but a dead lump of clay; yet hope is here ascribed to it figuratively, as it is to the brute creatures, Rom 8:19.

Hell - In the state of the dead. Holy one - Me thy holy son, whom thou hast sanctified and sent into the world. It is peculiar to Christ, to be called the holy one of God. To see - To be corrupted or putrefied in the grave, as the bodies of others are.

Life - Thou wilt raise me from the grave, and conduct me to the place and state of everlasting felicity. Presence - In that heavenly paradise, where thou art gloriously present, where thou dost clearly and fully discover the light of thy countenance; whereas in this life thou hidest thy face and shewest us only thy back - parts. Right - hand - Which he mentions as a place of the greatest honour, the place where the saints are placed at the last day, and where Christ himself is said to sit, Psal 110:1. Pleasures - All our joys are empty and defective: But in heaven there is fulness of joy. Our pleasures here are transient and momentary; but those at God's right hand are pleasures for evermore. For they are the pleasures of immortal souls, in the enjoyment of an eternal God.

1. PReserve me O God: for in thee do I put my trust .

From all mine Enemies.

Therefore thou art in Honour and by Promise obliged not to deceive my Trust.

2. O my soul , thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord : my goodness , extendeth not to thee ;

Which words are fitly understood: For it is manifest he speaks to one Person of another. And it is usual with David to turn his Speech to his Soul, as Psal. 42. 6. and 43. 5.

Thou hast oft times avowed and professed it, and dost still persist to do so.

By Creation and preservation and otherwise; to whom I owe all Service and Obedience upon that account.

Whatsoever Piety or Vertue, or Goodness is in me, or is done by me.

(i. e.) Doth not add any thing to thy Felicity, for thou dost not need me nor my Service, nor art capable of any advantage from it: Or, is not for thee, as this word is used, Gen. 16. 5. 2 Sam. 1. 26. (i. e.) For thy use or Benefit. Or, is not upon thee, (i. e.) It lays no Obligation upon thee, as this very word is taken, Iudg. 19. 20. Psal. 56. 12. Ezek. 45. 17. All comes to the same thing. The Sence is, God is al-sufficient and infinitely happy, and the Author of all the good that is in, or is done by any of his Creatures; and therefore cannot prevent nor oblige God any further, than he is graciously pleased to oblige himself. Thus he renounceth all Opinion of merit, and though he urged his trust in God, as a motive to perswade God to preserve him, v. 1. yet he here declares that he did not do it, as thinking that God was indebted to him for it.

Marginal references: Psal. 16. 2.; Iob. 22. 2. & 35. 7. Psal. 50. 9. Rom. 11. 35.

3. But to the Saints that are in the Earth , and to the excellent in whom is all my delight .

(i. e.) But my goodness extendeth, which is easily understood out of the former Verse: From which also there may be fetched another Supplement. O my Soul, thou hast said, to the Saints, &c.

(i. e.) To those holy and righteous Persons that live upon Earth with me: To these only or principally my goodness is extended. Because I cannot reach thee, I indeavour to pay a singular Respect and Love, and Kindness to all Saints, for thy sake whose Friends and Servants they are, and whose image they bear. This may seem more properly to agree to David, than to Christ, whose goodness was principally designed for, and imparted to Sinners, and did not find men Saints, but make them so; nor was it confined to them, that lived with him upon the Earth, but extended to all the Believers of all Ages before and after him.

Or, the magnificent, or mighty, or honourable, to wit, the Saints, as he now called them, whom, because they were mean and despicable in the Eyes of the World, he honours with their just Titles, and by appropriating them to the Saints he sufficiently intimates that all other men how great sover, are but ignoble and vile Persons, as he had called them, Psal. 15. 4.

(i. e.) Whose Company and Conversation is most Pleasant and desirable to me▪ Compare Psal. 119. 63.

4. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God : their drink offrings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

Or, that present, or endow (as this Verb signifies, Exod. 22. 16.) another God, to wit, with Oblations, as it follows. God is not expressed in the Hebrew text, but seems fitly and necessarily to be understood, because of the following Offerings, which are made to none that is not either really or by Reputation a God. The Sence is, Idolaters, notwithstanding all their zeal or cost about their Idols, gain nothing to themselves, but abundance of sorrow and misery. This he mentioneth partly as one Reason, why he would have no fellowship with them in their Idolatrous worship, which he adds in this Verse: and partly that by this Comparison he might illustrate and commend his own Happiness, in having the Lord for his Portion, of which he speaks, v. 5, 6. Or thus, let their sorrows be multiplied, &c. Having shewed his great Respect and Affection to the Saints, and excellent Servants of the true God, he now declares what an abhorrency he had for those that forsake the true God, and worship Idols. To whom he wisheth increase of their sorrows, whereby they may either be awakened and converted to the Lord again, or may be cut off; if they be impenitent and incorrigible.

Under which he comprehends all their Offerings, the reason being for Substance the same in all: but he mentions these particularly, because of a special Corruption in them above their other Sacrifices, to wit, that the very matter of them was unlawful, as we shall see: Which also might serve both to convince and deter those Israelites which harkened after Idolatry, and made no Conscience of maintaining Communion with Idolaters, which was the Case of many of them in Saul's time; and to justifie himself for his Detestation of them, and of all fellowship with them.

In which the Gentiles used (as divers learned men have observed) to Offer and sometimes to drink part of the Blood of their Sacrifices, whether of Beasts or of Men, as either of them were Sacrificed. Which must needs be very hateful to God, because he had so severely forbidden the drinking of Blood to his people either at their Sacrifices, or in their common Food.

(i. e.) Of those other Gods mentioned before. I abhor the very name and memory of them. Not that he thought it unlawful to name these Idols, which is frequently done by the holy Prophets, but to express the odiousness of the thing by his loathing of the very name and shadow of them. Compare Exod. 23. 13. Deut. 12. 3. Hos. 2. 16, 17. Eph. 5. 3. Or the Sence is, I will not swear by them: For taking up ones names is used for swearing, Exod. 20. 7.

Marginal references: Or, give gift to [illegible: 1 word].; Josh. 23. 7.

5. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance , and of my cup : thou maintainest my lot

Or, of my devision, (i. e.) Of that inheritance which God hath mercifully divided, or distributed to me, and which I by his grace have chosen for my self. I envy not the vast Riches and Glory of Idolaters, but do heartily rejoyce in God as my portion, and desire no better nor no other Felicity. God who hath suffered other Nations to walk in their own Idolatrous ways, hath granted this favour to me, to know and worship him the only true God. And as other Nations have chosen, and do adhere to their false Gods, so have I chosen God and will cleave to him.

The same thing repeated in other Words. The portion of my Cup, is the portion which is put into my Cup, as the ancient manner was in feasts, where each had his portion of Meat, and of Wine allotted to him. See Psal. 11. 6. The Cup oft denotes a Mans portion o[illegible: 1+ letters] Condition, as Mat. 20. 22. and 26. 39.

(i. e.) My inheritance divided to me by lot, as the Custome then was, Ios. 18. 11. Iudg. 1. 3.

u As thou hast given me an excellent lot, having planted me among thine own People, and in that place which thou hast chosen for thy dwelling and worship, so, I doubt not, thou wilst uphold a[illegible: 1+ letters]d preserve me there, in spight of all the malicious designs of mine Enemies that seek to drive me thence.

Marginal references: Deut. 32. 9. Psal. 73. 26. & 142. 5. [illegible: 1+ letters]am. 3. 24.; Heb. of [illegible: 1 word] pa[illegible: 1+ letters]t.

6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

(i. e.) My portion, which was measured with lines. Comp. ▪ Ios. 17. 5. Deut. 3. 4.

In a sweet land flowing with Milk and Hony, and above all blessed with the Presence and Knowledge, and Service of the true God.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 17. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Heb. Psal. 7 55▪ Mi[illegible: 1+ letters]. 2. 4. 5

7. I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel ; my reins also instruct me in the night-seasons .

Heb. consulted for me, (i. e.) By his wise and gracious Counsel hath provided so good an heritage for me, and withal inspired that Counsel and Wisdom into me, by which I have chosen the Lord for my Portion, and am so fully satisfied with him.

(i. e.) My inward thoughts and affections (which are commonly signified by the Reins, as Psal. 7. 9. and 26. 2. and 73. 21. and 139. 13. Ier. 11. 20. and 12. 2. and 17. 10.) being inspired and moved by the holy Spirit.

(i. e.) Direct me what course to take, how to please and serve God, and to put my whole Trust and Confidence in him, as it follows.

Not only in the day time, but also in the night, when others are asleep, but my mind is working upon God, and the things of God, and improving the silence and leasure, and solitude of the night to holy Meditations, and the exciting of my affections towards God.

8. * I have set the LORD always before me : because * he is at my right hand , I shall not be moved .

(i. e.) I have always presented him to my mind, as my Rule and Scope, as my Witness and Judge, as my Patron and Protector in the discharge of my Office, and in all my Actions. Hitherto David seems to have spoken in his own Person, and with special respect to himself, but now he seems to have been transported by an higher Inspiration of the Spirit of Prophecy, and to be carried above himself, and to have an Eye to the man Christ Jesus, who is and was the end of the Law, and the great Scope of all the Prophets, and to speak of himself only as a Type of Christ, and with more special respect unto Christ, in whom this and the following Verses were much more truly and fully accomplished than in himself. Christ as man did always set his Fathers will and Glory before him, as he himself oft declareth, especially in St. Iohn's Gospel.

To wit, to strengthen me, for the right hand is the chief seat of a Man's strength, and Instrument of Action, to Protect, assist and Comfort me, as this Phrase signifies, Psal. 109. 31. and 110. 5. And this assistance of God was necessary to Christ as man.

Or, removed, either from the discharge of my Duty, or from the attainment of that Glory and Happiness which is prepared for me. Though the Archers shoot grievously at me, and both men and Devils seek my Destruction, and God sets himself against me as an Enemy, withdrawing his favour from me and filling me with deadly sorrows, through the Sence of his anger; yet I do not despair but am assured that God will deliver me out of all my Distresses.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 2. 25▪ [illegible: 1 word]. 73. 23. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]1. 5.

9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoyceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope ▪

Upon this ground and Confidence.

The proper seat of joy and of all the Affections.

Either 1. my soul, which is indeed the Glory of a man. Or rather 2. my Tongue, which also is a mans Glory and Priviledge, above all other living Creatures, and the Instrument of glorifying both God and man; and which is oft called a mans Glory, as Gen. 49. 6. Psal. 30. 12. and 57. 8. and 108. 1. and 149. 5. And so this very Word is translated, Act. 2. 26. And thus the distinction between Heart and Glory, and Flesh is more certain and evident.

Or, exsulteth, (i. e.) Declares or expresseth my inward joy. For this Verb signifies not so much internal joy, as the outward and visible Demonstrations of it, in Words or Gestures and Carriages.

(i. e.) My body shall quietly and [illegible: 1 word] rest in the Grave, to which I am hastening.

(i. e.) In confident assurance of it's Incorruption there, and of it's Resurrection to a blessed and immortal Life, as it is explained v. 10, 11. The flesh or body is in it self, but a dead and senceless lump of Clay, yet Hope is here ascribed to it figuratively, as it is to the brute Creatures, Rom. 8. 19. because there is Matter and Foundation for such hope, if it were capable of it, the good promised and expected being certainly future.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span].

10. For thou will not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption .

(i. e.) My Person, as this word is every where used, by a Syne[illegible: 1+ letters]doche of the part, and then the Person by another Synecdoche of the whole is put for the Body. The soul is oft put for the Body, either for the living Body, as Psal. 35. 13. and 105. 18. or for the Carkass or dead Body, as it is taken, Levit. 19. 28. and 21. 1. Numb. 5. 2. and 6. 6. 9. 11. and 9, 10. and 19. 11. 13. And so it is interpreted in this very place, as it is produced, Act. 2. 29, &c. and 13. 36, 37.

(i. e.) In the Grave or state of the Dead, as appears, 1. From the Hebrew word Scheol, which is very frequently so understood, as is undeniably evident from Gen. 42. 38. Numb. 16. 30. Iob 14. 13. Comp. with 17. 13. Psal. 18. 5. and 30. 3. and 141. 7. Eccles. 9, 10. Ezek. 32. 21, 27. Ionab 2, 2. and many other places. 2. From the following clause of this Verse. 3. From Act. 2. and 13. where it is so expounded and applied.

(i. e.) Me thy holy Son, whom thou hast sanctified and sent into the World. It is peculiar to Christ, to be called the holy one of God, Mark. 1. 24. Luk. 4. 34.

Or Rottenness, (i. e.) To be corrupted or putrified in the Grave, as the Bodies of others are. Seeing is oft put for perceiving by experience. In which [illegible: 1 word] men are said to see good, Psal. 34. 13. and to [illegible: 1 word] Death, or the Grave, Psal. 89. 48 Luk. 2. 26. Io[illegible: 1+ letters]. 8. 51. and to see sleep, Eccles. 8. 16. And the Hebrew word [illegible: 1 word] ▪ though sometimes by a Metonymy it signifies the Pit or place of Corruption, yet properly and generally it signifies Corruption or Perdition▪ as Iob 17. 14. and 33. 18. 30. Psal. 35. 7. and 55. [illegible: 1+ letters]3. Ion[illegible: 1+ letters]. 2. 6. and is so rendred by the seventy Jewish Interpreters, Psal. 107. 20. Prov. 28. 10. Ier. 13, 14, and 15. 3 Lament. 4. 20. Ezek. 19. 4. and 21. 31. And so it must be understood here, although some of the Jews to avoid the force of this Argument render it the Pit. But in that Sence it is not true, for, whether it be meant of David, as they say, or of Christ, it is confessed that both of them did see the Pit, (i. e.) Were laid in the Grave. And therefore it must necessarily be taken in the other Sence now mentioned; and so it is properly and literally true in Christ alone, although it may in a lower and Metaphorical Sence be applied to David, who had a just and well grounded Confidence, that although God might bring him into great Dangers and Distresses, which are called the sorrows of Death, and the pains of Hell, Psal. 116. 3. yet God would not leave him to Perish in or by them.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 2. 31. ▪ 13. 35.

11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness of joy , at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore .

(i. e.) Give me an exact and experimental knowledge of it for my own Comfort, and the benefit of my People.

(i. e.) The way that leadeth to Life, not to a temporal and mortal Life here, for he is supposed to be dead and buried, v. 10. But to an endless and immortal, and blessed Life after death in the presence of God, as it followeth; the way to which is by the Resurrection of the Body. So the Sence is▪ Thou wilst raise me from the Grave▪ and Conduct me to the place and state of everlasting Felicity.

Heb With or before my Face. (i. e.) In that heavenly Paradise, where thou art graciously and gloriously present, where thou dost clearly and fully discover thy Face, and the light of thy Countenance; whereas in this Life thou hidest thy Face and shewest us only thy Back-parts, and we are in a state of absence from thee, and see thee only through a Glass darkly, and enjoy thee but in part.

(i. e.) Full and perfect joy and Satisfaction, which it is in vain to expect in this Life, and is only to be found in the sight of thee. See Exod. 33. 14. Psal. 17. 15. Mat. 5. 8. 1. Ioh. 3. 2.

Which he mentions as a place of greatest Honour, as this was Gen. 48. 13, &c. 1 Kings 2. 19. Psal. 45. 9. and the place where the Elect and Saints are placed at the last day, Mat. 25. 33, &c. and lastly, at the place where Christ himself is said to sit, Psal. 110. 1. Mat. 26. 64. Col. 3. 1. Heb. 1. 3.

Everlasting delights in the Contemplation and fruition of God.

Marginal references: Psal. 21. 6▪

Refuge in God, the Highest Good, in the Presence of Distress and of Death

The preceding Psalm closed with the words לא ימּוט; this word of promise is repeated in Psa 16:8 as an utterance of faith in the mouth of David. We are here confronted by a pattern of the unchangeable believing confidence of a friend of God; for the writer of Psa 16:1-11 is in danger of death, as is to be inferred from the prayer expressed in Psa 16:1 and the expectation in Psa 16:10. But there is no trace of anything like bitter complaint, gloomy conflict, or hard struggle: the cry for help is immediately swallowed up by an overpowering and blessed consciousness and a bright hope. There reigns in the whole Psalm, a settled calm, an inward joy, and a joyous confidence, which is certain that everything that it can desire for the present and for the future it possesses in its God.

The Psalm is inscribed לדוד; and Hitzig also confesses that “David may be inferred from its language.” Whatever can mark a Psalm as Davidic we find combined in this Psalm: thoughts crowding together in compressed language, which becomes in Psa 16:4 bold even to harshness, but then becomes clear and moves more rapidly; an antiquated, peculiar, and highly poetic impress (אדני, my Lord, מנת, נחלת, שׁפר, תּומיך); and a well-devised grouping of the strophes. In addition to all these, there are manifold points of contact with indisputably genuine Davidic Psalms (comp. e.g., Psa 16:5 with Psa 11:6; Psa 16:10 with Psa 4:4; Psa 16:11 with Psa 17:15), and with indisputably ancient portions of the Pentateuch (Exo 23:13; Exo 19:6; Gen 49:6). Scarcely any other Psalm shows so clearly as this, what deep roots psalm-poetry has struck into the Tôra, both as it regards the matter and the language. Concerning the circumstances of its composition, vid., on Psa 30:1-12.

The superscription מכתּם לדוד, Psa 16:1-11 has in common with Psa 56:1. After the analogy of the other superscriptions, it must have a technical meaning. This at once militates against Hitzig’s explanation, that it is a poem hitherto unknown, an ἀνέκδοτον, according to the Arabic mâktum, hidden, secret, just as also against the meaning keimee'lion, which says nothing further to help us. The lxx translates it στηλογραφία (εἰς στηλογραφίαν), instead of which the Old Latin version has tituli inscriptio (Hesychius τίτλος· πτυχίον ἐπίγραμμα ἔχον). That this translation accords with the tradition is shown by that of the Targum גּליפא תריצא sculptura recta (not erecta as Hupfeld renders it). Both versions give the verb the meaning כּתם insculpere, which is supported both by a comparison with כּתב, cogn. חצב, עצב, and by חתם imprimere (sigillum). Moreover, the sin of Israel is called נכתּם in Jer 2:22 (cf. Psa 17:1) as being a deeply impressed spot, not to be wiped out. If we now look more closely into the Michtam Psalms as a whole, we find they have two prevailing features in common. Sometimes significant and remarkable words are introduced by אמרתּי, וימר, דּבּר, Psa 16:2; 58:12; Psa 60:8, cf. Isa 38:10-11 (in Hezekiah’s psalm, which is inscribed מכתּב = מכתּם as it is perhaps to be read); sometimes words of this character are repeated after the manner of a refrain, as in Psa 56:1-13 : I will not fear, what can man do to me! in Psa 57:1-11 : Be Thou exalted, Elohim, above the heavens, Thy glory above all the earth! and in Ps 59: For Elohim is my high tower, my merciful God. Hezekiah’s psalm unites this characteristic with the other. Accordingly מכתם, like ἐπίγραμμα,In modern Jewish poetry מכתם is actually the name for the epigram. appears to mean first of all an inscription and then to be equivalent to an inscription-poem or epigram, a poem containing pithy sayings; since in the Psalms of this order some expressive sentence, after the style of an inscription or a motto on a monument, is brought prominently forward, by being either specially introduced or repeated as a refrain.

The strophe-schema is 5. 5. 6. 7. The last strophe, which has grown to seven lines, is an expression of joyous hopes in the face of death, which extend onward even into eternity.

Psa 16:1-3

The Psalm begins with a prayer that is based upon faith, the special meaning of which becomes clear from Psa 16:10 : May God preserve him (which He is able to do as being אל, the Almighty, able to do all things), who has no other refuge in which he has hidden and will hide but Him. This short introit is excepted from the parallelism; so far therefore it is monostichic, - a sigh expressing everything in few words. And the emphatic pronunciation שׁמרני shāmereni harmonises with it; for it is to be read thus, just as in Psa 86:2; Psa 119:167 shāmerah (cf. on Isa 38:14 עשׁקה), according to the express testimony of the Masora.The Masora observes גרשין בספרא ב, i.e., twice in the Psalter שׁמרה is in the imperative, the o being displaced by Gaja (Metheg) and changed into aa, vid., Baer, Torath Emeth p. 22f. In spite of this the grammarians are not agreed as to the pronunciation of the imperative and infinitive forms when so pointed. Luzzatto, like Lonzano, reads it shŏmereni.

The text of the next two verses (so it appears) needs to be improved in two respects. The reading אמרתּ as addressed to the soul (Targ.), cf. Lam 3:24., is opposed by the absence of any mention of the thing addressed. It rests upon a misconception of the defective form of writing, אמרתּ (Ges. §44, rem. 4). Hitzig and Ewald (§190, d) suppose that in such cases a rejection of the final vowel, which really occurs in the language of the people, after the manner of the Aramaic (אמרת or אמרת), lies at the bottom of the form. And it does really seem as though the frequent occurrence of this defective form (ידעת = ידעתי Psa 140:13; Job 42:2, בנית = בניתי 1Ki 8:48, עשׂית = עשׂיתי Eze 16:59, cf. 2Ki 18:20, אמרת now pointed אמרת, with Isa 36:5) has its occasion at least in some such cutting away of the i, peculiar to the language of the common people; although, if David wrote it so, אמרת is not intended to be read otherwise than it is in Psa 31:15; Psa 140:7.Pinsker’s view (Einleit. S. 100-102), who considers פּעלתּ to have sprung from פּללת as the primary form of the 1 pers. sing., from which then came פּלתּי and later still פּלתּי, is untenable according to the history of the language.

First of all David gives expression to his confession of Jahve, to whom he submits himself unconditionally, and whom he sets above everything else without exception. Since the suffix of אדני (properly domini mei = domine mi, Gen 18:3, cf. Psa 19:2), which has become mostly lost sight of in the usage of the language, now and then retains its original meaning, as it does indisputably in Psa 35:23, it is certainly to be rendered also here: “Thou art my Lord” and not “Thou art the Lord.” The emphasis lies expressly on the “my.” It is the unreserved and joyous feeling of dependence (more that of the little child, than of the servant), which is expressed in this first confession. For, as the second clause of the confession says: Jahve, who is his Lord, is also his benefactor, yea even his highest good. The preposition על frequently introduces that which extends beyond something else, Gen 48:22 (cf. Psa 89:8; Psa 95:3), and to this passage may be added Gen 31:50; Gen 32:12; Exo 35:22; Num 31:8; Deu 19:9; Deu 22:6, the one thing being above, or co-ordinate with, the other. So also here: “my good, i.e., whatever makes me truly happy, is not above Thee,” i.e., in addition to Thee, beside Thee; according to the sense it is equivalent to out of Thee or without Thee (as the Targ., Symm., and Jerome render it), Thou alone, without exception, art my good. In connection with this rendering of the על, the בּל (poetic, and contracted from בּלי), which is unknown to the literature before David’s time, presents no difficulty. As in Pro 23:7 it is short for בּל־תּהיה. Hengstenberg remarks, “Just as Thou art the Lord! is the response of the soul to the words I am the Lord thy God (Exo 20:2), so Thou only art my salvation! is the response to Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me (על־פּני).” The psalmist knows no fountain of true happiness but Jahve, in Him he possesses all, his treasure is in Heaven.

Such is his confession to Jahve. But he also has those on earth to whom he makes confession. Transposing the w we read: ולקדושׁים אשׁר בּארץ המּה אדּירי כל־חפצי־בם׃

While Diestel’s alteration: “to the saints, who are in his land, he makes himself glorious, and all his delight is in them,” is altogether strange to this verse: the above transfer of the WawApproved by Kamphausen and by the critic in the Liter. Blatt of the Allgem. Kirchen-Zeitung 1864 S. 107. suffices to remove its difficulties, and that in a way quite in accordance with the connection. Now it is clear, that לקדושׁים, as has been supposed by some, is the dative governed by אמרתּי, the influence of which is thus carried forward; it is clear what is meant by the addition אשׁר בארץ, which distinguishes the object of his affection here below from the One above, who is incomparably the highest; it is clear, as to what המּה defines, whereas otherwise this purely descriptive relative clause אשׁר בּארץ המּה (which von Ortenberg transposes into אשׁר ארצה בהמּה) appears to be useless and surprises one both on account of its redundancy (since המה is superfluous, cf. e.g., 2Sa 7:9; 2Sa 2:18) and on account of its arrangement of the words (an arrangement, which is usual in connection with a negative construction, Deu 20:15; 2Ch 8:7, cf. Gen 9:3; Eze 12:10); it is clear, in what sense אדירי alternates with קדושׁים, since it is not those who are accounted by the world as אדיריס on account of their worldly power and possessions (Psa 136:18, 2Ch 23:20), but the holy, prized by him as being also glorious, partakers of higher glory and worthy of higher honour; and moreover, this corrected arrangement of the verse harmonises with the Michtam character of the Psalm. The thought thus obtained, is the thought one expected (love to God and love to His saints), and the one which one is also obliged to wring from the text as we have it, either by translating with De Welte, Maurer, Dietrich and others: “the saints who are in the land, they are the excellent in whom I have all my delight,” - a Waw apodoseos, with which one could only be satisfied if it were והמּה (cf. 2Sa 15:34) - or: “the saints who are in the land and the glorious-all my delight is in them.” By both these interpretations, ל would be the exponent of the nom. absol. which is elsewhere detached and placed at the beginning of a sentence, and this l of reference (Ew. §310, a) is really common to every style (Num 18:8; Isa 32:1; Ecc 9:4); whereas the ל understood of the fellowship in which he stands when thus making confession to Jahve: associating myself with the saints (Hengst.), with (von Lengerke), among the saints (Hupf., Thenius), would be a preposition most liable to be misapprehended, and makes Psa 16:3 a cumbersome appendage of Psa 16:2. But if l be taken as the Lamed of reference then the elliptical construct ואדּירי, to which הארץ ought to be supplied, remains a stumbling-block not to be easily set aside. For such an isolation of the connecting form from its genitive cannot be shown to be syntactically possible in Hebrew (vid., on 2Ki 9:17, Thenius, and Keil); nor are we compelled to suppose in this instance what cannot be proved elsewhere, since כל־חפצי־בם is, without any harshness, subordinate to ואדירי as a genitival notion (Ges. §116, 3). And still in connection with the reading ואדירי, both the formation of the sentence which, beginning with ל, leads one to expect an apodosis, and the relation of Psa 16:3 to Psa 16:2, according to which the central point of the declaration must lie just within כל־חפצי־בם, are opposed to this rendering of the words ואדירי כל־חפצי־כם.

Thus, therefore, we come back to the above easy improvement of the text. קושׁים are those in whom the will of Jahve concerning Israel, that it should be a holy nation (Exo 19:6; Deu 7:6), has been fulfilled, viz., the living members of the ecclesia sanctorum in this world (for there is also one in the other world, Psa 89:6). Glory, δόξα, is the outward manifestation of holiness. It is ordained of God for the sanctified (cf. Rom 8:30), whose moral nobility is now for the present veiled under the menial form of the עני; and in the eyes of David they already possess it. His spiritual vision pierces through the outward form of the servant. His verdict is like the verdict of God, who is his all in all. The saints, and they only, are the excellent to him. His whole delight is centred in them, all his respect and affection is given to them. The congregation of the saints is his Chephzibah, Isa 62:4 (cf. 2Ki 21:1).

Psa 16:4-5

As he loves the saints so, on the other hand, he abhors the apostates and their idols. אהר מהרוּ is to be construed as an appositional relative clause to the preceding: multi sunt cruciatus (cf. Psa 32:10) eorum, eorum scil. qui alium permutant. The expression would flow on more smoothly if it were ירבּוּ: they multiply, or increase their pains, who..., so that אחר מהרו would be the subject, for instance like אהבו ה (he whom Jahve loves), Isa 48:14. This Psa 16:4 forms a perfect antithesis to Psa 16:3. In David’s eyes the saints are already the glorified, in whom his delight centres; while, as he knows, a future full of anguish is in store for the idolatrous, and their worship, yea, their very names are an abomination to him. The suffixes of נסכּיהם and שׁמותם might be referred to the idols according to Exo 23:13; Hos 2:19, if אהר be taken collectively as equivalent to אחר ם, as in Job 8:19. But it is more natural to assign the same reference to them as to the suffix of עצּבותם, which does not signify “their idols” (for idols are עצבּים), but their torments, pains (from עצּבת derived from עצּב), Psa 147:3; Job 9:28. The thought is similar to 1Ti 6:10, ἑαυτοὺς περιέπειραν ὀδύναις ποικίλαις. אהר is a general designation of the broadest kind for everything that is not God, but which man makes his idol beside God and in opposition to God (cf. Isa 42:8; Isa 48:11). מהרוּ cannot mean festinant, for in this signification it is only found in Piel מהר, and that once with a local, but not a personal, accusative of the direction, Nah 2:6. It is therefore to be rendered (and the perf. is also better adapted to this meaning): they have taken in exchange that which is not God (מהר like המיר, Psa 106:20; Jer 2:11). Perhaps (cf. the phrase זנה אהרי) the secondary meaning of wooing and fondling is connected with it; for מהר is the proper word for acquiring a wife by paying down the price asked by her father, Exo 22:15. With such persons, who may seem to be אדּירים in the eyes of the world, but for whom a future full of anguish is in store, David has nothing whatever to do: he will not pour out drink-offerings as they pour them out. נסכּיהם has the Dag. lene, as it always has. They are not called מדּם as actually consisting of blood, or of wine actually mingled with blood; but consisting as it were of blood, because they are offered with blood-stained hands and blood-guilty consciences. מן is the min of derivation; in this instance (as in Amo 4:5, cf. Hos 6:8) of the material, and is used in other instances also for similar virtually adjectival expressions. Psa 10:18; Psa 17:14; Psa 80:14.

In Psa 16:4 the expression of his abhorrence attains its climax: even their names, i.e., the names of their false gods, which they call out, he shuns taking upon his lips, just as is actually forbidden in the Tôra, Exo 23:13 (cf. Const. Apost. V. 10 εἴδωλον μνημονεύειν ὀνόματα δαιμονικά).; He takes the side of Jahve. Whatever he may wish for, he possesses in Him; and whatever he has in Him, is always secured to him by Him. חלקי does not here mean food (Böttch.), for in this sense חלק (Lev 6:10) and מגה   (1Sa 1:4) are identical; and parallel passages like Psa 142:6 show what חלקי means when applied to Jahve. According to Psa 11:6, כוסי is also a genitive just like חלקי; מנת חלק is the share of landed property assigned to any one; מנת כּוס the share of the cup according to paternal apportionment. The tribe of Levi received no territory in the distribution of the country, from which they might have maintained themselves; Jahve was to be their חלק, Num 18:20, and the gifts consecrated to Jahve were to be their food, Deu 10:9; Deu 18:1. But nevertheless all Israel is βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, Exo 19:6, towards which even קדושׁים and אדרים in Psa 16:3 pointed; so that, therefore, the very thing represented by the tribe of Levi in outward relation to the nation, holds good, in all its deep spiritual significance, of every believer. It is not anything earthly, visible, created, and material, that is allotted to him as his possession and his sustenance, but Jahve and Him only; but in Him is perfect contentment. In Psa 16:5, תּומיך, as it stands, looks at first sight as though it were the Hiph. of a verb ימך (ומך). But such a verb is not to be found anywhere else, we must therefore seek some other explanation of the word. It cannot be a substantive in the signification of possession (Maurer, Ewald), for such a substantival form does not exist. It might more readily be explained as a participle = תּומך, somewhat like יוסיף, Isa 29:4; Isa 38:5; Ecc 1:18, = יוסף, - a comparison which has been made by Aben-Ezra (Sefath Jether No. 421) and Kimchi (Michlol 11 a), - a form of the participle to which, in writing at least, סוכיב, 2Ki 8:21, forms a transition; but there is good reason to doubt the existence of such a form. Had the poet intended to use the part. of תמך, it is more probable he would have written אתה תּומכי גורלי, just as the lxx translators might have had it before them, taking the Chirek compaginis as a suffix: σὺ εἶ ὁ ἀποκαθιστῶν τὴν κληρονομίαν μου ἐμοί (Böttcher). For the conjecture of Olshausen and Thenius, תּוסיף in the sense: “thou art continually my portion” halts both in thought and expression. Hitzig’s conjecture תּוּמּיך “thou, thy Tummîm are my lot,” is more successful and tempting. But the fact that the תּמּים are never found (not even in Deu 33:8) without the אוּרים, is against it. Nevertheless, we should prefer this conjecture to the other explanations, if the word would not admit of being explained as Hiph. from ימך (ומך), which is the most natural explanation. Schultens has compared the Arabic wamika, to be broad, from which there is a Hiphil form Arab. awmaka, to make broad, in Syro-Arabic, that is in use even in the present day among the common people.The Arabic Lexicographers are only acquainted with a noun wamka, breadth (amplitudo), but not with the verb. And even the noun does not belong to the universal and classical language. But at the present day Arab. 'l - wamk (pronounced wumk), breadth, and wamik are in common use in Damascus; and it is only the verb that is shunned in the better conversational style. - Wetzstein.

And since we must at any rate come down to the supposition of something unusual about this תומיך, it is surely not too bold to regard it as a ἅπαξ γεγραμμ.: Thou makest broad my lot, i.e., ensurest for me a spacious habitation, a broad place, as the possession that falleth to me,It is scarcely possible for two words to be more nearly identical than גּורל and κλῆρος. The latter, usually derived from κλάω (a piece broken off), is derived from κέλεσθαι (a determining of the divine will) in Döderlein’s Homer. Glossar, iii. 124. But perhaps it is one word with גורל. Moreover κλῆρος signifies 1) the sign by which anything whatever falls to one among a number of persons in conformity with the decision of chance or of the divine will, a pebble, potsherd, or the like. So in Homer, Il. iii. 316, vii. 175, xxiii. 351, Od. x. 206, where casting lots is described with the expression κλῆρος. 2) The object that falls to any one by lot, patrimonium, e.g., Od. xiv. 64, Il. xv. 498, οἶκος καὶ κλῆρος, especially of lands. 3) an inheritance without the notion of the lot, and even without any thought of inheriting, absolutely: a settled, landed property. It is the regular expression for the allotments of land assigned to colonists (κληροῦχοι).  - a thought, that is expanded in Psa 16:6.

Psa 16:6-8

The measuring lines (הבלים) are cast (Mic 2:5) and fall to any one just where and as far as his property is assigned to him; so that נפל חבל (Jos 17:5) is also said of the falling to any one of his allotted portion of land. נעמים (according to the Masora defective as also in Psa 16:11 נעמות) is a pluralet., the plural that is used to denote a unity in the circumstances, and a similarity in the relations of time and space, Ges. §108, 2, a; and it signifies both pleasant circumstances, Job 36:11, and, as here, a pleasant locality, Lat. amaena (to which נעמות in Psa 16:11, more strictly corresponds). The lines have fallen to him in a charming district, viz., in the pleasurable fellowship of God, this most blessed domain of love has become his paradisaic possession. With אף he rises from the fact to the perfect contentment which it secures to him: such a heritage seems to him to be fair, he finds a source of inward pleasure and satisfaction in it. נחלת - according to Ew. §173, d, lengthened from the construct form נהלת (like נגינת Psa 61:1); according to Hupfeld, springing from נחלתי (by the same apocope that is so common in Syriac, perhaps like אמרתּ Psa 16:1 from אמרתּי) just like זמרת Exo 15:2 - is rather, since in the former view there is no law for the change of vowel and such an application of the form as we find in Ps 60:13 (Psa 108:13) is opposed to the latter, a stunted form of נחלתה: the heritage = such a heritage pleases me, lit., seems fair to me (שׁפר, cognate root ספר, צפר, cognate in meaning בשׂר, Arab. bs̆r, to rub, polish, make shining, intr. שׁפר to be shining, beautiful). עלי of beauty known and felt by him (cf. Est 3:9 with 1Sa 25:36 טוב עליו, and the later way of expressing it Dan. 3:32). But since the giver and the gift are one and the same, the joy he has in the inheritance becomes of itself a constant thanksgiving to and blessing of the Giver, that He (אשׁר quippe qui) has counselled him (Psa 73:24) to choose the one thing needful, the good part. Even in the night-seasons his heart keeps watch, even then his reins admonish him (יסּר, here of moral incitement, as in Isa 8:11, to warn). The reins are conceived of as the seat of the blessed feeling that Jahve is his possession (vid., Psychol. S. 268; tr. p. 316). He is impelled from within to offer hearth-felt thanks to his merciful and faithful God. He has Jahve always before him, Jahve is the point towards which he constantly directs his undiverted gaze; and it is easy for him to have Him thus ever present, for He is מימיני (supply הוּא, as in Psa 22:29; Psa 55:20; Psa 112:4), at my right hand (i.e., where my right hand begins, close beside me), so that he has no need to draw upon his power of imagination. The words בּל־אמּוט, without any conjunction, express the natural effect of this, both in consciousness and in reality: he will not and cannot totter, he will not yield and be overthrown.

Psa 16:9-11

Thus then, as this concluding strophe, as it were like seven rays of light, affirms, he has the most blessed prospect before him, without any need to fear death. Because Jahve is thus near at hand to help him, his heart becomes joyful (שׂמח) and his glory, i.e., his soul (vid., on Psa 7:6) rejoices, the joy breaking forth in rejoicing, as the fut. consec. affirms. There is no passage of Scripture that so closely resembles this as 1Th 5:23. לב is πνεῦμα (νοῦς), כבוד, ψυχή (vid., Psychol. S. 98; tr. p. 119), בּשׂר (according to its primary meaning, attrectabile, that which is frail), σῶμα. The ἀμέμπτως τηρηθῆναι which the apostle in the above passage desires for his readers in respect of all three parts of their being, David here expresses as a confident expectation; for אף implies that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life centred in the heart, and for his soul raised to dignity both by the work of creation and of grace. He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz., without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David’s hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God his own, to fall into the hands of death. For Psa 16:10 shows, that what is here thought of in connection with שׁכן לבטח, dwelling in safety under the divine protection (Deu 33:12, Deu 33:28, cf. Pro 3:24), is preservation from death. שׁחת is rendered by the lxx διαφθορά, as though it came from שׁחת διαφθείρειν, as perhaps it may do in Job 17:14. But in Psa 7:16 the lxx has βόθρος, which is the more correct: prop. a sinking in, from שׁוּח to sink, to be sunk, like נחת from נוּח, רחת from רוּח. To leave to the unseen world (עזב prop. to loosen, let go) is equivalent to abandoning one to it, so that he becomes its prey. Psa 16:10 - where to see the grave (Psa 49:10), equivalent to, to succumb to the state of the grave, i.e., death (Psa 89:49; Luk 2:26; Joh 8:51) is the opposite of “seeing life,” i.e., experiencing and enjoying it (Ecc 9:9, Joh 3:36), the sense of sight being used as the noblest of the senses to denote the sensus communis, i.e., the common sense lying at the basis of all feeling and perception, and figuratively of all active and passive experience (Psychol. S. 234; tr. p. 276) - shows, that what is said here is not intended of an abandonment by which, having once come under the power of death, there is no coming forth again (Böttcher). It is therefore the hope of not dying, that is expressed by David in Psa 16:10. for by חסידך David means himself. According to Norzi, the Spanish MSS have חסידיך with the Masoretic note יתיר יוד, and the lxx, Targ., and Syriac translate, and the Talmud and Midrash interpret it, in accordance with this Kerî. There is no ground for the reading חסידיך, and it is also opposed by the personal form of expression surrounding it.Most MSS and the best, which have no distinction of Kerî and Chethîb here, read חסידך, as also the Biblia Ven. 1521, the Spanish Polyglott and other older printed copies. Those MSS which give חסידיך (without any Kerî), on the other hand, scarcely come under consideration.

The positive expression of hope in Psa 16:11 comes as a companion to the negative just expressed: Thou wilt grant me to experience (הודיע, is used, as usual, of the presentation of a knowledge, which concerns the whole man and not his understanding merely) ארח חיּים, the path of life, i.e., the path to life (cf. Pro 5:6; Pro 2:19 with ib. Psa 10:17; Mat 7:14); but not so that it is conceived of as at the final goal, but as leading slowly and gradually onwards to life; חיּים in the most manifold sense, as, e.g., in Psa 36:10; Deu 30:15 : life from God, with God, and in God, the living God; the opposite of death, as the manifestation of God’s wrath and banishment from Him. That his body shall not die is only the external and visible phase of that which David hopes for himself; on its inward, unseen side it is a living, inwrought of God in the whole man, which in its continuance is a walking in the divine life. The second part of Psa 16:11, which consists of two members, describes this life with which he solaces himself. According to the accentuation, - which marks חיים with Olewejored not with Rebia magnum or Pazer, - שׂבע שׂמחות is not a second object dependent upon תּודיעני, but the subject of a substantival clause: a satisfying fulness of joy is את־פּניך, with Thy countenance, i.e., connected with and naturally produced by beholding Thy face (את preposition of fellowship, as in Psa 21:7; 140:14); for joy is light, and God’s countenance, or doxa, is the light of lights. And every kind of pleasurable things, נעמות, He holds in His right hand, extending them to His saints - a gift which lasts for ever; נצח equivalent to לנצח. נצח, from the primary notion of conspicuous brightness, is duration extending beyond all else - an expression for לעולם, which David has probably coined, for it appears for the first time in the Davidic Psalms. Pleasures are in Thy right hand continually - God’s right hand is never empty, His fulness is inexhaustible.

The apostolic application of this Psalm (Act 2:29-32; Act 13:35-37) is based on the considerations that David’s hope of not coming under the power of death was not realised in David himself, as is at once clear, to the unlimited extent in which it is expressed in the Psalm; but that it is fulfilled in Jesus, who has not been left to Hades and whose flesh did not see corruption; and that consequently the words of the Psalm are a prophecy of David concerning Jesus, the Christ, who was promised as the heir to his throne, and whom, by reason of the promise, he had prophetically before his mind. If we look into the Psalm, we see that David, in his mode of expression, bases that hope simply upon his relation to Jahve, the ever-living One. That it has been granted to him in particular, to express this hope which is based upon the mystic relation of the חסיד to Jahve in such language, - a hope which the issue of Jesus’ life has sealed by an historical fulfilment, - is to be explained from the relation, according to the promise, in which David stands to his seed, the Christ and Holy One of God, who appeared in the person of Jesus. David, the anointed of God, looking upon himself as in Jahve, the God who has given the promise, becomes the prophet of Christ; but this is only indirectly, for he speaks of himself, and what he says has also been fulfilled in his own person. But this fulfilment is not limited to the condition, that he did not succumb to any peril that threatened his life so long as the kingship would have perished with him, and that, when he died, the kingship nevertheless remained (Hofmann); nor, that he was secured against all danger of death until he had accomplished his life’s mission, until he had fulfilled the vocation assigned to him in the history of the plan of redemption (Kurtz) - the hope which he cherishes for himself personally has found a fulfilment which far exceeds this. After his hope has found in Christ its full realisation in accordance with the history of the plan of redemption, it receives through Christ its personal realisation for himself also. For what he says, extends on the one hand far beyond himself, and therefore refers prophetically to Christ: in decachordo Psalterio - as Jerome boldly expresses it - ab inferis suscitat resurgentem. But on the other hand that which is predicted comes back upon himself, to raise him also from death and Hades to the beholding of God. Verus justitiae sol - says Sontag in his Tituli Psalmorum, 1687 -  e sepulcro resurrexit, στήλη seu lapis sepulcralis a monumento devolutus, arcus triumphalis erectus, victoria ab hominibus reportata. En vobis Michtam! En Evangelium! -

Believing Confidence; Consecration to God.

1 Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. 2 O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord , Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; 3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. 4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. 5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. 6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 7 I will bless the Lord , who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

This psalm is entitled Michtam, which some translate a golden psalm, a very precious one, more to be valued by us than gold, yea, than much fine gold, because it speaks so plainly of Christ and his resurrection, who is the true treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament.

I. David here flies to God's protection with a cheerful believing confidence in it (v. 1): "Preserve me, O God! from the deaths, and especially from the sins, to which I am continually exposed; for in thee, and in thee only, do I put my trust." Those that by faith commit themselves to the divine care, and submit themselves to the divine guidance, have reason to hope for the benefit of both. This is applicable to Christ, who prayed, Father, save me from this hour, and trusted in God that he would deliver him.

II. He recognizes his solemn dedication of himself to God as his God (v. 2): "O my soul! thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, and therefore thou mayest venture to trust him." Note, 1. It is the duty and interest of every one of us to acknowledge the Lord for our Lord, to subject ourselves to him, and then to stay ourselves upon him. Adonai signifies My stayer, the strength of my heart. 2. This must be done with our souls: "O my soul! thou hast said it." Covenanting with God must be heart-work; all that is within us must be employed therein and engaged thereby. 3. Those who have avouched the Lord for their Lord should be often putting themselves in mind of what they have done. "Hast thou said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord? Say it again then, stand to it, abide by it, and never unsay it. Hast thou said it? Take the comfort of it, and live up to it. He is thy Lord, and worship thou him, and let thy eye be ever towards him."

III. He devotes himself to the honour of God in the service of the saints (v. 2, 3): My goodness extends not to thee, but to the saints. Observe, 1. Those that have taken the lord for their Lord must, like him, be good and do good; we do not expect happiness without goodness. 2. Whatever good there is in us, or is done by us, we must humbly acknowledge that it extends not to God; so that we cannot pretend to merit any thing by it. God has no need of our services; he is not benefited by them, nor can they add any thing to his infinite perfection and blessedness. The wisest, and best, and most useful, men in the world cannot be profitable to God, Job xxii. 2; xxxv. 7. God is infinitely above us, and happy without us, and whatever good we do it is all from him; so that we are indebted to him, not he to us: David owns it (1 Chron. xxix. 14), Of thy own have we given thee. 3. If God be ours, we must, for his sake, extend our goodness to those that are his, to the saints in the earth; for what is done to them he is pleased to take as done to himself, having constituted them his receivers. Note, (1.) There are saints in the earth; and saints on earth we must all be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. Those that are renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. (2.) The saints in the earth are excellent ones, great, mighty, magnificent ones, and yet some of them so poor in the world that they need to have David's goodness extended to them. God makes them excellent by the grace he gives them. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, and then he accounts them excellent. They are precious in his sight and honourable; they are his jewels, his peculiar treasure. Their God is their glory, and a diadem of beauty to them. (3.) All that have taken the Lord for their God delight in his saints as excellent ones, because they bear his image, and because he loves them. David, though a king, was a companion of all that feared God (Ps. cxix. 63), even the meanest, which was a sign that his delight was in them. (4.) It is not enough for us to delight in the saints, but, as there is occasion, our goodness must extend to them; we must be ready to show them the kindness they need, distribute to their necessities, and abound in the labour of love to them. This is applicable to Christ. The salvation he wrought out for us was no gain to God, for our ruin would have been no loss to him; but the goodness and benefit of it extend to us men, in whom he delighteth, Prov. viii. 31. For their sakes, says he, I sanctify myself, John xvii. 19. Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding their weaknesses and manifold infirmities, which is a good reason why we should.

IV. He disclaims the worship of all false gods and all communion with their worshippers, v. 4. Here, 1. He reads the doom of idolaters, who hasten after another God, being mad upon their idols, and pursuing them as eagerly as if they were afraid they would escape from them: Their sorrows shall be multiplied, both by the judgments they bring upon themselves from the true God whom they forsake and by the disappointment they will meet with in the false gods they embrace. Those that multiply gods multiply griefs to themselves; for, whoever thinks one God too little, will find two too many, and yet hundreds not enough. 2. He declares his resolution to have no fellowship with them nor with their unfruitful works of darkness: "Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, not only because the gods they are offered to are a lie, but because the offerings themselves are barbarous." At God's altar, because the blood made atonement, the drinking of it was most strictly prohibited, and the drink-offerings were of wine; but the devil prescribed to his worshippers to drink of the blood of the sacrifices, to teach them cruelty. "I will have nothing to do" (says David) "with those bloody deities, nor so much as take their names into my lips with any delight in them or respect to them." Thus must we hate idols and idolatry with a perfect hatred. Some make this also applicable to Christ and his undertaking, showing the nature of the sacrifice he offered (it was not the blood of bulls and goats, which was offered according to the law; that was never named, nor did he ever make any mention of it, but his own blood), showing also the multiplied sorrows of the unbelieving Jews, who hastened after another king, Cæsar, and are still hastening after another Messiah, whom they in vain look for.

V. He repeats the solemn choice he had made of God for his portion and happiness (v. 5), takes to himself the comfort of the choice (v. 6), and gives God the glory of it, v. 7. This is very much the language of a devout and pious soul in its gracious exercises.

1. Choosing the Lord for its portion and happiness. "Most men take the world for their chief good, and place their felicity in the enjoyments of it; but this I say, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, the portion I make choice of, and will gladly take up with, how poor soever my condition is in this world. Let me have the love and favour of God, and be accepted of him; let me have the comfort of communion with God, and satisfaction in the communications of his graces and comforts; let me have an interest in his promises, and a title by promise to everlasting life and happiness in the future state; and I have enough, I need no more, I desire no more, to complete my felicity." Would we do well and wisely for ourselves, we must take God, in Christ, to be, (1.) The portion of our inheritance in the other world. Heaven is an inheritance. God himself is the inheritance of the saints there, whose everlasting bliss is to enjoy him. We must take that for our inheritance, our home, our rest, our lasting, everlasting, good, and look upon this world to be no more ours than the country through which our road lies when we are on a journey. (2.) The portion of our cup in this world, with which we are nourished, and refreshed, and kept from fainting. Those have not God for theirs who do not reckon his comforts the most reviving cordials, acquaint themselves with them, and make use of them as sufficient to counterbalance all the grievances of this present time and to sweeten the most bitter cup of affliction.

2. Confiding in him for the securing of this portion: "Thou maintainest my lot. Thou that hast by promise made over thy self to me, to be mine, wilt graciously make good what thou hast promised, and never leave me to myself to forfeit this happiness, nor leave it in the power of my enemies to rob me of it. Nothing shall pluck me out of thy hands, nor separate me from thy love, and the sure mercies of David." The saints and their bliss are kept by the power of God.

3. Rejoicing in this portion, and taking a complacency in it (v. 6): The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Those have reason to say so that have God for their portion; they have a worthy portion, a goodly heritage. What can they have better? What can they desire more? Return unto thy rest, O my soul! and look no further. Note, Gracious persons, though they still covet more of God, never covet more than God; but, being satisfied of his loving-kindness, they are abundantly satisfied with it, and envy not any their carnal mirth and sensual pleasures and delights, but account themselves truly happy in what they have, and doubt not but to be completely happy in what they hope for. Those whose lot is cast, as David's was, in a land of light, in a valley of vision, where God is known and worshipped, have, upon that account, reason to say, The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; much more those who have not only the means, but the end, not only Immanuel's land, but Immanuel's love.

4. Giving thanks to God for it, and for grace to make this wise and happy choice (v. 7): "I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, this counsel, to take him for my portion and happiness." So ignorant and foolish are we that, if we be left to ourselves, our hearts will follow our eyes, and we shall choose our own delusions, and forsake our own mercies for lying vanities; and therefore, if we have indeed taken God for our portion and preferred spiritual and eternal blessings before those that are sensible and temporal, we must thankfully acknowledge the power and goodness of divine grace directing and enabling us to make that choice. If we have the pleasure of it, let God have the praise of it.

5. Making a good use of it. God having given him counsel by his word and Spirit, his own reins also (his own thoughts) instructed him in the night-season; when he was silent and solitary, and retired from the world, then his own conscience (which is called the reins, Jer. xvii. 10) not only reflected with comfort upon the choice he had made, but instructed or admonished him concerning the duties arising out of this choice, catechized him, and engaged and quickened him to live as one that had God for his portion, by faith to live upon him and to live to him. Those who have God for their portion, and who will be faithful to him, must give their own consciences leave to deal thus faithfully and plainly with them.

All this may be applied to Christ, who made the Lord his portion and was pleased with that portion, made his Father's glory his highest end and made it his meat and drink to seek that and to do his will, and delighted to prosecute his undertaking, pursuant to his Father's counsel, depending upon him to maintain his lot and to carry him through his undertaking. We may also apply it to ourselves in singing it, renewing our choice of God as ours, with a holy complacency and satisfaction.

Prophecy Relating to the Messiah; Sufferings and Consequent Glory of Christ.

8 I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. 10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

All these verses are quoted by St. Peter in his first sermon, after the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Acts ii. 25-28); and he tells us expressly that David in them speaks concerning Christ and particularly of his resurrection. Something we may allow here of the workings of David's own pious and devout affections towards God, depending upon his grace to perfect every thing that concerned him, and looking for the blessed hope, and happy state on the other side death, in the enjoyment of God; but in these holy elevations towards God and heaven he was carried by the spirit of prophecy quite beyond the consideration of himself and his own case, to foretel the glory of the Messiah, in such expressions as were peculiar to that, and could not be understood of himself. The New Testament furnishes us with a key to let us into the mystery of these lines.

I. These verses must certainly be applied to Christ; of him speaks the prophet this, as did many of the Old-Testament prophets, who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow (1 Pet. i. 11), and that is the subject of this prophecy here. It is foretold (as he himself showed concerning this, no doubt, among other prophecies in this psalm, Luke xxiv. 44, 46) that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead, 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.

1. That he should suffer and die. This is implied here when he says (v. 8), I shall not be moved; he supposed that he should be struck at, and have a dreadful shock given him, as he had in his agony, when his soul was exceedingly sorrowful, and he prayed that the cup might pass from him. When he says, "My flesh shall rest," it is implied that he must put off the body, and therefore must go through the pains of death. It is likewise plainly intimated that his soul must go into a state of separation from the body, and that his body, so deserted, would be in imminent danger of seeing corruption—that he should not only die, but be buried, and abide for some time under the power of death.

2. That he should be wonderfully borne up by the divine power in suffering and dying. (1.) That he should not be moved, should not be driven off from his undertaking nor sink under the weight of it, that he should not fail nor be discouraged (Isa. xlii. 4), but should proceed and persevere in it, till he could say, It is finished. Though the service was hard and the encounter hot, and he trod the winepress alone, yet he was not moved, did not give up the cause, but set his face as a flint, Isa. l. 7-9. Here am I, let these go their way. Nay, (2.) That his heart should rejoice and his glory be glad, that he should go on with his undertaking, not only resolutely, but cheerfully, and with unspeakable pleasure and satisfaction, witness that saying (John xvii. 11), Now I am no more in the world, but I come to thee, and that (John xviii. 11), The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? and many the like. By his glory is meant his tongue, as appears, Acts ii. 26. For our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in glorifying God. Now there were three things which bore him up and carried him on thus cheerfully:—[1.] The respect he had to his Father's will and glory in what he did: I have set the Lord always before me. He still had an eye to his Father's commandment (John x. 18, xiv. 31), the will of him that sent him. He aimed at his Father's honour and the restoring of the interests of his kingdom among men, and this kept him from being moved by the difficulties he met with; for he always did those things that pleased his Father. [2.] The assurance he had of his Father's presence with him in his sufferings: He is at my right hand, a present help to me, nigh at hand in the time of need. He is near that justifieth me (Isa. l. 8); he is at my right hand, to direct and strengthen it, and hold it up, Ps. lxxxix. 21. When he was in his agony an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, Luke xxii. 43. To this the victories and triumphs of the cross were all owing; it was the Lord at his right hand that struck through kings, Ps. cx. 5; Isa. xlii. 1, 2. [3.] The prospect he had of a glorious issue of his sufferings. It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, Heb. xii. 2. He rested in hope, and that made his rest glorious, Isa. xi. 10. He knew he should be justified in the Spirit by his resurrection, and straightway glorified. See John xiii. 31, 32.

3. That he should be brought through his sufferings, and brought from under the power of death by a glorious resurrection. (1.) That his soul should not be left in hell, that is, his human spirit should not be long left, as other men's spirits are, in a state of separation from the body, but should, in a little time, return and be re-united to it, never to part again. (2.) That being God's holy One in a peculiar manner, sanctified to the work of redemption and perfectly free from sin, he should not see corruption nor feel it. This implies that he should not only be raised from the grave, but raised so soon that his dead body should not so much as being to corrupt, which, in the course of nature, it would have done if it had not been raised the third day. We, who have so much corruption in our souls, must expect that our bodies also will corrupt (Job xxiv. 19); but that holy One of God who knew no sin saw no corruption. Under the law it was strictly ordered that those parts of the sacrifices which were not burnt upon the altar should by no means be kept till the third day, lest they should putrefy (Lev. vii. 15, 18), which perhaps pointed at Christ's rising the third day, that he might not see corruption—neither was a bone of him broken.

4. That he should be abundantly recompensed for his sufferings, with the joy set before him, v. 11. He was well assured, (1.) That he should not miss of his glory: "Thou wilt show me the path of life, and lead me to that life through this darksome valley." In confidence of this, when he gave up the ghost, he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit; and, a little before, Father, glorify me with thy own self. (2.) That he should be received into the presence of God, to sit at his right hand. His being admitted into God's presence would be the acceptance of his service and his being set at his right hand the recompence of it. (3.) Thus, as a reward for the sorrows he underwent for our redemption, he should have a fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore; not only the glory he had with God, as God, before all worlds, but the joy and pleasure of a Mediator, in seeing his seed, and the success and prosperity of his undertaking, Isa. liii. 10, 11.

II. Christ being the Head of the body, the church, these verses may, for the most part, be applied to all good Christians, who are guided and animated by the Spirit of Christ; and, in singing them, when we have first given glory to Christ, in whom, to our everlasting comfort, they have had their accomplishment, we may then encourage and edify ourselves and one another with them, and may hence learn, 1. That it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us, and to see him continually at our right hand, wherever we are, to eye him as our chief good and highest end, our owner, ruler, and judge, our gracious benefactor, our sure guide and strict observer; and, while we do thus, we shall not be moved either from our duty or from our comfort. Blessed Paul set the Lord before him, when, though bonds and afflictions did await him, he could bravely say, None of these things move me, Acts xx. 24. 2. That, if our eyes be ever towards God, our hearts and tongues may ever rejoice in him; it is our own fault if they do not. If the heart rejoice in God, out of the abundance of that let the mouth speak, to his glory, and the edification of others. 3. That dying Christians, as well as a dying Christ, may cheerfully put off the body, in a believing expectation of a joyful resurrection: My flesh also shall rest in hope. Our bodies have little rest in this world, but in the grave they shall rest as in their beds, Isa. lvii. 2. We have little to hope for from this life, but we shall rest in hope of a better life; we may put off the body in that hope. Death destroys the hope of man (Job xiv. 19), but not the hope of a good Christian, Prov. xiv. 32. He has hope in his death, living hopes in dying moments, hopes that the body shall not be left for ever in the grave, but, though it see corruption for a time, it shall, at the end of the time, be raised to immortality; Christ's resurrection is an earnest of ours if we be his. 4. That those who live piously with God in their eye may die comfortably with heaven in their eye. In this world sorrow is our lot, but in heaven there is joy. All our joys here are empty and defective, but in heaven there is a fulness of joy. Our pleasures here are transient and momentary, and such is the nature of them that it is not fit they should last long; but those at God's right hand are pleasures for evermore; for they are the pleasures of immortal souls in the immediate vision and fruition of an eternal God.

PSAL. XVI.

MIchtam of David: Preserve me O God, for I hope for safetie in thee. Thou hast said to Iehovah, thou art my Lord; my good not unto thee. To the Saints which are in earth, and the excellent, all my delight in them. Their sorrowes shal be multiplied that endow another: I will not powre out their powred out oblations of bloud, neither will I take up their names upon my lips. Iehovah the portion of my part and of my cup, thou sustainest my lot. The lines are fallen to me in the pleasant places, yea the heritage is faire for me.

I will blesse Iehovah, which hath counselled me, yea in the nights my reines doe chastise me. I have proposed Iehovah before me continually, for he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart rejoyceth, and my glory is glad; also my flesh shall dwell in confidence. For thou wilt not leave my soule to hell, thou wilt not give thy gracious Saint to see corruption. Thou wilt make me know the way of life: satietȳ of joyes before thy face; pleasures at thy right hand to perpetuitie.

Annotations. MIchtam of David:] Davids jewell, or not able song. Cethem is fine glistering gold, Psal. 45. 10. of that this Michtam may be derived, for a golden jewel: and so note the excellency of this Psalme. The like title is before the 56. 57. 58. 59. and 60. Psalmes. Preserve me O God.] Christ speaketh this Psalme by David his figure, as we are taught in the new Testament, Act. 2. 25, 31. and 13. 35. and here is handled his mediatorship, death, resurrection and ascension. in thee] Chaldee, in thy word. Vers. 2. Thou hast said] he speaketh this to him-selfe; Thou ô my soule sayest: so the Chaldee Paraphrase explaineth it; and the Greeke to make it plainer, translateth, I have said. Or, it may be spoken to the Spouse or Church of Christ. my good not unto thee] understand, extendeth not, or pertaineth not to thee, or is not for thee; which the Greeke expoundeth thus, of my goods thou hast no need. For, if man be just, what giveth he to God: or what receiveth he at his hand? Iob 35. 7. The Chaldee saith, my good is not given but of thee. Vers. 3. To the Saints] to wit, my good extendeth, as else-where Christ saith, for their sakes sanctifie I my selfe, that they also may be sanctified through the truth, Ioh. 17. 19. are in earth] such is the meaning of the Hebrew phrase, in earth they; the relative being put for the verbe, which sometime the Hebrew it selfe explaineth: as, he not the King of Israel, 1 King. 22. 33. for, it was not the King, 2 Chro. 18. 32. so he overseer, 2 King. 25. 19. for, was over-seer, Ier. 52. 25. and sundrie the like. excellent] or noble, glorious, wonderfull: an honourable title givē to Christiās. See Ps. 8. 2. The Chaldee addeth, excellent in good works. all my delight in them] or, in whom all my pleasure is; Heb. Chephtsibam, that is, my pleasure in them; so in Esay 62. 4. the Church is called Chephtsi-bah, that is, my pleasure in her. Vers. 4. Their sorrowes shall be multiplied.] This is meant of Idolaters, who hastily endow. that is, offer sacrifice to another God, and so increase their griefes; which may be understood of afflictions, or of grievous idols: for the Hebrew ghnatsabim, sorrowes, is often used for idols, as in Psal. 115. 4. and so the Chaldee Paraphrast taketh it here, saying, the wicked multiply their idols, and after they hasten to offer their gifts. Accordingly the sense may be this, They whose grievous idols are multiplied, they that endow another God; I will not powre out their oblations, that is, I will not partake with them, or be a mediatour for them. endow another] or hasten to another. A similitude from dowries given in mariages, meaning gifts and oblations hastily brought for divine worship. powred out oblations] or shed-offerings; effusions properly, put by figure of speech for effused or powred out liquour, commonly called Drinke-offerings, which were wont to bee powred out upon the sacrifices, and by Gods law were to be of wine or Shecar, Numb. 15. 5, 7, 10. and 28. 7. but among idolaters were of bloud. The Chaldee giveth this sense, I will not receive with favour their drinke-offerings, nor the bloud of their sacrifices. take up their names] that is, not mention or speake of them, according to the law, Exod. 23. 13. Ios. 23. 7. Vers. 5. of my part] or, of my partage, that is, of the inheritance parted, shared, and diealt unto me. So the Greeke turneth it, of mine nheritance. The word is generally used for lands, cities, goods, spoiles, &c. that are shared out. And this here hath reference to the law of the Priests, which had no part among the people, for that the Lord was their part and inheritance, Numb. 18. 20. The Lord is his peoples part, Ier. 10. 16. and 51. 19. and againe, his people are called his part, Deut. 32. 9. my cup] that is, measure and portion of joyes or afflictions, Psal. 23. 5. and 11. 6. my lot] this also is used for an inheritance obtained by lot, Ios. 18. 11. Iudg. 1. 3. The Apostle calleth Christs Church by this name, 1 Pet. 5. 3. The Greeke translateth, thou art he that restorest mine inheritance to me. Vers. 6. The lines] or Cords, such were used in measuring of lands or heritages, Psal. 105. 11. and 78. 55. 2 Sam. 8. 2. and figuratively a line is put for the portion measured, Jos. 17. 5, 14. [illegible: 1 word] is faire for me] or, which is faire unto mee, that is, which pleaseth me well. Vers. 7. counselled me] given me counsell by his word and Spirit, touching my sufferings, and the glory that shall follow, 1 Pet. 1. 11. Luke 24. 25, 26. God is wonderfull in counsell, and excellent in worke, Esay 28. 29. Vers. 8. I have proposed] or equally set: the Greeke (which the Apostle followeth) saith, I beheld before, Act. 1. 25. he is at my right hand] The word is is supplied, Act. 2. 25. For God to be at the right hand, is powerfully to assist and comfort: as on the contrary, for Satan to be there, is greatly to resist and annoy, Psal. 109. 6. Zech. 3. 1. I shall not be moved] or, that I be not moved, Act. 2. 25. Vers. 9. my glory] This by the Apostle is applied to the tongue, Act. 2. 26. which is the instrument wherewith we glorifie God. See Psalm. 30. 13. and 57. 9. Gen. 49. 6. dwell in confidence] or, abide with hope, that is, boldly, safely, and securely; meaning that his flesh (his body) should abide (or rest) in the grave, with sure hope of rising againe from death the third day. Vers. 10. my soule] The Hebrew Nephesh, and Greeke Psuchee, which we call soule, hath the name of breathing or respiring, and is therefore sometime used for the breath, Iob 41. 12. it is the vitall spirit that al quick things move by; therfore beasts, birds, fish and creeping things, are called in Scripture, living soules, Gen. 1. 20. 24. And this soule is sometime called the bloud, Gen. 9. 4. because it is in the bloud of all quick things, Lev. 17. 11. it is often put for the life of creatures; as, keepe his soule, Job 2. 6. that is, spare his life: a righteous man regardeth the soule of his beast, Prov. 12. 10. that is, the life: so to seeke the soule, is to seeke ones life, to take it away, Psal. 54. 5. Mat. 2. 20. It is also many times used for ones selfe; as, Iob justified his soule, that is, himselfe, Iob 32. 2. Take heed to your soules, that is, to your selves, Deut. 4. 15. so Gen. 19. 20. Luke 12. 19. And thus it is put for the person, or whole man; as, give me the soules, that is, the persons, Gen. 14. 21. so an hungrie soule, Psal. 107. 9. a full soule, Prov. 27. 7. a wearie soule, Prov. 25. 25. eight soules, 1 Pet. 3. 20. seventie five soules, Act. 7. 14. and many the like. It is used also for the lust, will or desire, as Psal. 41. 3. Exod. 15. 9. for the affections of the heart, Psal. 25. 1. for the body of man that hath life and sense, Psal. 105. 18. and 35. 13. and finally it is sometime a dead body or corps, Numb. 5. 2. and 9. 10. and 19. 11. 13. though this bee figurative and very unproper, for at ones death the soule goeth out, Gen. 35. 18. The word being thus largely used, is to be weighed according to the matter and circumstances of each text. For this here in the Psalme, compare it with the like in other places, Psalm. 30. 4. and 116. 8. and 89. 49. and 88. 4. and 94. 17. Christ gave his soule for the ransome of the world, and powred it out unto death, Isa. 53. 12. Matth. 20. 28. Ioh. 10. 11, 15, 17. and 15. 13. to hell] or in hell, in deaths estate, or deadly-hed. This word hell properly signifieth deepe, whether it be high or low; and though by custome it is usually taken for the place of devils and damned wights; yet the word is more large: and as heaven is not only the dwelling place of God and his Saints, but generally all places above us, where the stars, the clouds, the winds, the birds, &c. are, as is shewed, Psal. 8. 9. so hell is all places beneath. Wherefore it may in this large sense serve to expresse the Hebrew word Sheol here used; which Sheol is a deepe place, Iob 11. 8. Prov. 9. 18. and said in Scripture to be beneath, Psal. 86. 13. Deut. 32. 22. Isa. 14. 9. as heaven is above, and it, with the Greeke word haides, is opposed to heaven, Psal. 139. 8. Amos 9. 2. Mat. 11. 23. it commeth of Shaal, to crave, aske, or require, because it requireth all men to come unto it, and is never satisfied, Psal. 89. 49. Prov. 30. 15, 16. and 27. 20. It is a place or estate which all men, even the best, come unto; for Iakob made account to go thither, Gen. 37. 35. and Iob desired to be there, Iob 14. 13. (for he knew it should be his house, Job 17. 13.) and our Lord Christ was there, as this Psalme with Act. 2. 31. sheweth; and Solomon telleth, that all goe thither, Eccles. 9. 10. It is usually joyned with grave, pit, corruption, destruction, and the like words pertaining to death, with which Sheol or haides is joyned as a companion thereof, Rev. 1. 18. and 6 8. Dathan and Abiram, when the earth swallowed them up, are said to goe downe quicke into Sheol, Numb. 16. 30, 32, 33. Ionas in the Whales belly, was in the belly of Sheol, Ion. 2. 3. and other holy men that were delivered from great miseries and perils of death, are said to be delivered from Sheol or hell. Psal. 86. 13. and 30. 4. and 18. 6. and 116. 3. and those that are dead, are gone to Sheol, Ezech. 32. 21. 27. And as death is said figuratively to have gates, Psal. 9. 14. so Sheol, haides, hell, hath gates, Isa. 38. 10. Mat. 16. 18. and a soule, Isa. 5. 14. and a hand, Psal. 49. 16. and 89. 49. and a mouth, Psal. 141. 7. and a sting, which by Christ is done away, 1 Cor. 15. 55. so that as hee was not left to Sheol, but rose from death (from the heart of the earth, Matth. 12. 40.) the third day: so all the Saints shall likewise be delivered from Sheol, or haides, Psal. 49. 16 Hos. 13. 14. and it with death shall be abolished, Rev. 20. 14. So by the Hebrew word Sheol, the Greeke haides, and our English hell, we are to understand the place, estate, or depth of death, deadlihed. See the Annotations on Gen. 37. 35. And these words, thou wilt not leave my soule to hell, teach us Christs resurrection; as if he should say, thou wilt not leave me to the power of death or grave to be consumed, but wilt raise me from the dead, as the words following, and the Apostles explanation doe manifest, Act. 2. 24. 31. and 13. 34, 35. thou wilt not give] not grant, or suffer. An Hebrew phrase often used, as, I gave thee not to touch her, Gen. 20. 6. God gave thee not to hurt me, Gen. 31. 7. he will not give you to goe, Exod. 3. 19. So Psal. 55. 23. and 66. 9. and 118. 18. and many the like. to see corruption] that is, to feele corruption, or, to corrupt, to rot. As to see death, is to die, Psal. 89. 49. Luke 2. 26. Joh. 8. 51, 52. so, to see evill, Psal. 90. 15. and to see good, Psal. 34. 13. is to feele and enjoy it, and to see the grave, Psal. 49. 10. corruption] the Hebrew Shachath properly signifieth corruption or rottennesse; and is so to be taken here, as the Apostle urgeth the force of the word, Act. 13. 36, 37. David saw corruption, but hee whom God raised up, saw not corruption. Yet often the word is used for a pit or ditch, wherein carkasses doe corrupt. See the note on Psal. 7. 16. Vers. 11. Thou wilt make me know] or, hast made me know, (as Act. 2. 28.) that is, givest me experience of. the way of life] or journey of lives: the way or course to life from death, and to continue in life eternall; the Apostle saith, wayes of life, Act. 2. 28. And hereby, life in heaven with God is implied; as, to enter into life, Matth. 18. 9. is to enter into the kingdome of God, Mark. 9. 47. before thy face] or, with thy face, that is, in thy presence I shall have fulnesse of joyes. The Greeke, which the Apostle followeth, Act. 2. 28. saith, Thou wilt fill me with joy, with thy face. The Hebrew eth penei and liphnet, with or before the face, are both one, and sometime put one for another; as 1 King. 12. 6. with 2 Chron. 10. 6. Gods face or presence, as it is our greatest joy in this life, Exod. 33. 14, 15, 16. so shall it be in the next, Psalm. 17. 15. Wherefore the wicked shall then be punished, from his presence, 2 Thess. 1. 9. pleasures] or pleasantnesses, (that is, pleasant joyes) at thy right hand, the place of honour, delights and joyes eternall, Matth. 25. 33, 34, 46.

PSAL. XVI.

MIchtam of David] i.e. Davids precious Jewel, or Pſalm of Gold, propter mirificans ejus excellentiam, better worth than its weight in gold,Inſignis O[illegible: 1 letter] Davidis Tren [non-Latin text not transcribed] prae corona a[illegible: 1 letter] ſtimatur hic Pſalmus. R. Solomon both for the matter thereof, and the meeter. Aureum flumen orationis, ſaid Cicero concerning Ariſtotles Politicks; there is in that Book a golden flood of diſcourſe; and Liber iſte aur[illegible: 1 letter] contra non carus, ſaid Another, concerning the Lives of the Philoſophers written by Disgenes Laertius; No gold is comparable to that gallant piece. How much more may the ſame be ſaid of this notable Pſalm? as that which, beſide many other remarkable matters, lively ſetteth forth the myſterie of Chriſt his paſſion and reſurrection, with the fruit of both; this hee doth more like an Evangeliſt than a Prophet, and may therefore be called (as likewiſe Iſaiah is) the Evangelical Prophet. And whereas ſaith learned Beza, hee calleth the Meſsiah Chaſid, verſ. 10. (that is, as I interpret it, that Man, upon whom the Father hath moſt plentifully powred out all his grace and bounty, which alſo we all draw from him alone by faith) David ſeemeth in this one word to have ſummed up the whole Doctrin of the Goſpell.

Verſ. 1. Preſerve mee O God] Keep mee ſafe unto the Kingdome both temporall and eternall, which thou haſt promiſed mee; and now that I am flying to the Philiſtines for ſhelter, 1 Sam. 27.1. (for that is held to be the time when he compoſed this golden Pſalm) guard mee, guide mee, keep mee by thy power through faith unto ſalvation. This prayer of his, David was well aſſured ſhould be granted, and therefore hee giveth thanks, Verſ. 7.

For in thee do I put my truſt] This was a moſt powerfull plea, for to truſt God is the higheſt honour wee can do him, it is to ſet the Crown upon his head, See Judge 9.15. And if ſuch ſhall be forſaken, God will be a great loſer in his glory, whereof hee is very tender.

Verſ. 2. O my ſoul thou haſt ſaid unto the Lord] Or I have ſaid unto the Lord; and ſo I had rather read it, with Hierome and the Septuagint; becauſe the letter Jod may be wanting in Amarti. See the like Job 42.2. Ezek, 16.59. David was here extra ſe abreptus, carried beyond himſelf, and ſo might eaſily ſpeak ſhort, and ſay, Amart, for Amarti; like as Moſes in a paſſion ſaid to God, At for Att[illegible: 1 letter], Num. 11.15. as not able to ſpeak out. Am[illegible: 1 letter]r Dei eft ecſtaticus, &c.

Thou art my Lord] Heb. Thou my Lord, ſo the next words, My good not unto the[illegible: 2 letters] all conciſe and abrupt, out of deepeſt affection; broken language from a broken ſpirit, ſpending and exhaling it ſelf into Gods bleſſed boſome.

My goodneſſe extendeth not to thee] But if it did, I could with all my heart beteem it thee; even the very beſt of my beſt: but what can I give thee ſave only [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſith all is thine own? I Chrow, 29, 14.16. Pſal. 24.1. thou needeſt no ſacrifices Pſal. 50.8. neither art thou delighted therein. Pſal. 51.18. Iſa. 1.11. All that thou requireſt is mercy, H[illegible: 1 letter]ſ. 6.6. Mis. 6.8. Mat. 12.7. Therefore I will ſeek out thoſe thy Receivers, the Saints that are in the earth, &c. See the Note on Job 35.6, 7, 8.

Verſ. 3. Best to the Saints] The family of faith were, by a ſpeciality, the object of Davids bounty. Socrates ſeeing a certain man giving alms to all hee met, were they good or bad, ſaid, male pere as qui ex Gratiis cum ſint Virgines, facias ſcorta. David, the better to perſwade with God to preſerve him ſafe to the Kingdome, promiſeth two things; firſt, that he will cheriſh and countenance the godly party; ſecondly, that he will caſhier and caſt out all kind of Idolatry, and maintain to his utmoſt the ſincere ſervice of God. verſ. 4.

And to the excellent] Or, Noble, glorious, wonderfull, magnificent. The Saints are Princes in all lands, Pſal. 45.16. of an excellent Spirit, Prov. 17.27. More excellent than their Neighbours, dwell they whereſoever, Prov. 12.26. They are ſtiled the glory, Iſa. 4.5. a Crown of glory, Iſa. 62.3. a royall Diadem ibid. a Kingdome of Prieſts, Exod. 19.6. higher than the Kings of the earth, Pſal. 89.27. greater than the four famous Monarchies, Dan. 7.18. worthies of whom the World is not worthy, Heb. 11.38. fitter to be ſet as ſtars in Heaven. And ſurely as ſtars though ſeen ſometimes in a puddle, or ſtinking ditch, though they reflect there, yet have they their ſituation in Heaven. So the Saints, though here in a low condition, yet are they fixed in the Region of happineſſe.

In whom is all my delight] Heb. Cheptſibam; So the Church is called Gods Cheptſibah, Iſa. 62.5. Next to communion with God, the communion of Saints is moſt delectable. It is the very being bound up in the bundle of life, which was the bleſſing of Abigail upon David. Ipſe aſpectus viri boni delectat, ſaith Senecae, the very ſight of a good man (morally good) delighteth; what then of a Saint, Ezra. 10.3? This the Heathen Perſecutors knew, and therefore baniſhed and confined the Chriſtians to Iſles and Mines, where they could not one come at another, as Cyprian obſerveth.

Verſ. 4. Their ſorrows ſhall be multiplied] Many ſorrows ſhall be to thoſe wicked Idolaters,Vide Plutarch: [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Pſal. 32.10. ſome, of their own Creating by their ſuperſtitions and will-worſhips; others, from a jealous and juſt God; others, from the Devill who acteth and agitateth them, beateth and whippeth them (as at this day he doth the poor Indians, who worſhip Devills in moſt terrible figure; beleeving that they are permitted of God to puniſh or ſpare them at their pleaſure;) And ſome they ſhall beſure of from mee, whenever I come to the Kingdome. Some, after the Chaldee, read it, their Idols are multiplied. The old Heathens had thirty thouſand in Heſiods dayes; In China there are ſaid to be at this day no fewer than an hundred thouſand Idols, which they uſe to whip if they come not at a call to help them; Before a ſick man they put the Devills picture, that hee may learn to know him in another World,It is ſtoried of one King of England that he beſtowed as much upon a Croſſe as the revenues of his Kingdome came to in a year. and take him for his friend.

That haſten after another God] Or, that endow another God. Superſtition is not only painfull, but chargeable. Idolaters laviſh out of the bag, and ſpare for no coſt; witneſſe the Papiſts vowed preſents and memories as they call them hanged up in honour of their he-Saints, and ſhe-Saints, the Lady of Loretto eſpecially. But it was the Serpents grammar that firſt taught men to decline God in the plurall number, Eritis ſicut Dii, as Damianus obſerveth from Gen. 3.5. and hence that innumerable rabble. The Jeſuites boaſt of their Ignatii Apotheoſis; and Cardinall Bembus is not aſhamed to ſay of his St. Francis, quod in deorum numerum ab Eccleſia Romana ſit relatus. Hiſt. Venet, Is not this abominable Idolatry? 1 Pet. 4.3.

Their drink offerings of blood] Many Heathens ſacrifiſed to their Idols (that is, to Devils) with mans blood,Euſeb. de praep. Evangil. againſt all laws of humanity and piety. Thus they ſacrifiſed to Bell[illegible: 1 letter]na the Siſter of Mars; as alſo with blood let out of their own armes. The Prieſts of Baal (who perhaps was Mars) cut and launced themſelves; 1 King. 18. So do the Mahometan Prieſts at this day; as the Papiſts whip themſelves, &c. the old Idolaters offered their Children in ſacrifice to Moloch, or Saturn. David abhorreth the thought of ſuch inhumanities, Ne que deos illegitimos, nec illegiti[illegible: 3 letters] colans, ſaith he, I'le have no ſuch doings.

Nor take up their names into my lips] But ſpit them out of my mouth with utmoſt deteſtation, [illegible: 1 word] ad [illegible: 1 word] according to the law, Exod. 23.13. It repented Auſtin that ever hee had uſed the word Fortune, that Heathen. Goddeſſe. And Ab ſit ut de ore Chriſtian[illegible: 1 letter] ſonet Jupiter omnipatens, &c. ſaith Hier[illegible: 1 letter]me, Let no Chriſtian mouth ſay, Jupiter omnipotent, or ſwear Mehercule, Mecaſter. The Primitive Chriſtians would not call their dayes of the week, dies Martis, Mercurii, &c. as Triſmegiſt had named them; but the firſt, ſecond, third, &c, day of the week. All occaſions or ſemblances of Idolatry ſhould be ſhunned; it is not ſafe being at Satans Meſſe, though our ſpoon bee never ſo long, ſaith One. See Hof. 3.16, 17. Zach. 13.2. Deut. 12.2.

Verſ. 5. The Lord is the Portion of mine inheritance] Therefore I have neither need nor mind to run a madding after dumb Idols▪ for hee is Good originall, univerſall, all-ſufficient and ſatisfactory, proportionable, and fitting to my ſoul, ſo that having Him, I am abundantly provided for.

And of my cup] A phraſe taken from thoſe ſhares that every one had aſſigned unto him at feaſts, Gen. 43.34. 1 Sam. 1.4. & 9.23. q. d. Thou art my meat and my drink Lord, and I am very well content with my condition, bee it better or worſe. That which gives quiet in any portion, is firſt, The favour and preſence of God; ſecondly, that tis from the hand of a Father; thirdly, that it comes to us in the covenant of grace; fourthly, that tis the purchaſe of Chriſts blood; fifthly, that tis an anſwer of prayers; and a bleſſing from above on honeſt indeavours.

Thou maintaineſt my lot] Upholdeſt mee in a good condition, who ſhould otherwiſe ſoon loſe and forgoe it, were it in mine own keeping. And here the Pſalmiſt uſeth four ſeverall words, all to the ſame ſenſe, ad corroborandum ſaith R. David.

Verſ. 6. The lines are fallen] In alluſion to thoſe lines wherewith they meaſured Land, when they parted it. See Deut. 32.9. Pſal. 105.11. & 78.55. Act. 26.18. Epeſ 1.11. David, having God for his portion, could ſay with Jacob, I have all things, Gen. 33.11. Paul alſo ſaith the ſame, Phil. 4.18. and further, telleth us, that having nothing, he ſet poſſeſſed all things; for why he had got the divine art of contentation, verſ. 12. and ſo could bee either on the top of Jacobs Ladder, or at the bottome; hee could ſing either Placentia or Lachrymae, abound, or be abaſed, &c.Bern. Sine Deo omnis copia eſt egoſtas.

In pleaſant places] From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine Priſon, Quis in Deo [illegible: 1 word] po[illegible: 1 letter]tio mea, [illegible: 1 word] quaſi in loco [illegible: 1 word] maeno. R. David. ſaid that Italian Martyr, dating his Letter. Tua praeſentia, Domine, Laurentio ipſam craticulam dulcem fecit, ſaid that Ancient; Thy preſence, Lord, made Laurence his gridiron pleaſant to him.

Yea, I have a goodly heritage] I have as much (in content at leaſt) as hee who hath moſt. The Bee is as well pleaſed with feeding on the dew, or ſucking from a flower, as Behemoth that grazeth on the Mountaines. The Lark when aloſt, ſeeth further with a little eye, than the Oxe, on the ground with a greater.

Atque ſuum tirilitirilitiritirlire cantat.

Verſ. 7. I will bleſſe the Lord who hath given mee counſel] David frequently conſulted with God by Abiathar the Prieſt; whom God, by a ſweet providence, ſent unto him with an Ephod for a comfort in his baniſhment, 1 Sam. 22.20. Saul had ſlain thoſe that ware the Ephod, therefore God anſwered him not neither by dreams, nor by Vrim, nor by Prophets, 1 Sam. 28.6. as hee did his Servant David; who therefore bleſſeth him, when the other runneth from him to the Witch for counſel, and from her to the ſwords point.

My reines alſo inſtruct mee] God hath not only illuminated mee, whereby I ſhall bee the better able to endure a great fight of affliction, Heb. 10.32. but hee hath alſo ſanctified mee, and honoured mee with holy inſpirations, and feeling of the Spirit of Adoption, whereby mine internall thoughts and ſecret motions do dictate and ſuggeſt unto mee what I ought to do and undertake. Methinks I hear a ſweet ſtill voice within mee, ſaying, This is the way, walk in it; and this in the night-ſeaſon, when I am rapt in reſt and ſilence; or, night after night, the Spirit is a continuall ſpring of counſel and comfort within mee, prompting mee to make God my portion, and to chuſe this good part that ſhall never be taken away from mee.

In the night-ſeaſons] When commonly we are prone to evill (Nox & Amor, &c. Ovid. Illa pudore vacat, &c.) and which is the wicked mans fitteſt opportunity, Job 24.13, 15, 16. &c. It muſt not content us that God by his word hath given us counſel, but wee muſt labour to be inwardly taught of God. A man may read the figure upon the Diall, but hee cannot tell how the day goes, unleſſe the Sun ſhine upon the Diall; Wee may read the Bible over, and hear it opened and applied, but can learn nothing till the Spirit ſhine into our hearts, 2 Cor. 4. and ſo our reines inſtruct us, &c.

Verſ. 8. I have ſet the Lord alwaies before mee] Heb. I have equally ſet, or propoſed.Ex Syro Serm. The Apoſtle tranſlateth it, I foreſee the Lord alwaies before my face, Act. 2.25. I ſet the eye of my faith full upon him, and ſuffer it not to take to other things; I look him in the face, ocul[illegible: 1 letter]irretorto, as the Eagle looketh upon the Sun; and oculo adamantino, with an eye of Adamant, which turns only to one point: ſo here, I have equally ſet the Lord before mee, without irregular affections and paſſions. And this was one of thoſe leſſons that his reines had taught him, that the holy Spirit had dictated unto him.

Becauſe h[illegible: 1 letter]e is at my right hand] To help mee that I fall not, ſaith R. David, or as a thing that I cannot but remember, as being of continuall uſe to mee. It is as neceſſary to remember God, as to draw breath, ſaith Chryſoſtome.

I ſhall not be moved] i.e. not greatly moved, as Pſal. 62.2. though Satan ſtand at the right hand of a godly man, to reſiſt and annoy him, Zech. 3.1. yet ſo long as God is at his right hand to aſſiſt and comfort him, and hee at Gods right hand, Pſal. 45.9. (which is a place of honour and ſafety) hee cannot bee moved. The gates of Hell ſhall never prevail; Chriſt, our Sampſon, hath flung them off their hinges.

Verſ. 9. Therefore my heart is glad, &c.] That is, I am all over in very good plight, as well as heart can wiſh, or need require; I do over-abound exceedingly with joy; God forgive mee mine unthankfullneſſe and unworthineſſe of ſo great glory, (as that Martyr ſaid) In all the dayes of my life I was never ſo merry, as now I am in this dark dungeon, &c. Wicked men rejoyce in appearance, and not in heart,Mr. Philpot. 2 Cor. 5.12. their joy is but skin-deep, their mirth frothy and flaſhy, ſuch as wetteth the mouth, but warmeth not the heart. But David is totus totus, quantus quantus exultabundus, his heart, glory, fleſh, (anſwerable, as ſome think to that of the Apoſtle, 1 Theſ. 5.23. Spirit, Soul, and Body) were all over-joyed.

My fleſh alſo ſhall reſt (or confidently dwell) in hope] Namely in this World, as in a wayfaring lodging;Diod. then, in the grave as a place of ſafeguard and repoſe; and at laſt, in heaven, as in its true and eternall manſion.

Verſ. 10. For thou wilt not leave my ſoul in Hell] that is, my body in the grave, (—animam que ſepulchro condimus—) or in the State of the dead, Gen. 37.35. That Soul is ſometimes put for a carcaſs or dead corps, Virg. de Polydori funere. Aeneid. 3. See Job 14.22. Lev. 19.28. & 21. 1.11. Num. 5.2. & 6.6. & 19.13. which place is expounded, Ezek, 44.25. David can confidently write upon his grave Reſurgam, I ſhall riſe againſt. This, many Heathens had no hope of 1 Theſ. 4.13.

Cum ſemel occider is, Non Torquate, tuum genus, aut facundia, non te Reſtituet pietas, &c.Horat. lib. 4. od. 7.

Yet ſome Heathens beleeved both the immortality of the ſoul, and therefore durſt dye (—animaque capaces Mortis—) and the Reſurrection of the body, as did Zoroaſtes, Theopompus, Plato; and as do the Turks at this day.

Neither wilt thou ſuffer thine holy One, &c.] that is, the Meſſiah, that is to come out of my loines, and who ſaith to mee and all his Members (2s Iſa. 26.19.) in effect, Thy dead men ſhall live, together with my dead body ſhall they ariſe, awake and ſing ye that dwell in the duſt, &c. See the Note on the Title Michtam. The former part of this verſe ſeems to be ſpoken of David, the latter of Chriſt; like as Job. 35.15. the former part is of God, the latter of Job. See the Margin. Chriſts reſurrection is a cauſe, pledge and ſuerty of the Saints reſurrection to glory; for joy whereof Davids heart leapt within him. Chriſts body, though laid in the corrupting-pit, could not ſee, that is, feel corruption. It was therefore a pious errour in thoſe good women who brought their ſweet odours to embalm his dead body, Luke 24.1.

Verſ. 11. Thou wilt ſhew mee the path of life] This being applied to Chriſt, ſeemeth to ſhew that as man hee did not yet fully underſtand that inexplicable glory wherewith the Father would glorifie him after death with himſelf, Job. 17.5. Sure it is, that David did not, nor can any man living, 1 Cor. 2.9.Contra A[illegible: 1 letter] ron, ab [illegible: 1 word] [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word] ſit illaetab unda; vel [non-Latin text not transcribed] & (ut vule Pl[illegible: 2 letters] quòd flua[illegible: 2 letters] ctuoſis und[illegible: 2 letters] here is as much ſaid, as can be ſaid (but words are too weak to utter it:) For quality, there is in Heaven joy, and pleaſures. For quantity, a fulneſſe, a torrent, whereat they drink without let or loathing. For conſtancy, it is at Gods right hand, who is ſtronger than all, neither can any take us out of his hand; it is a conſtant happineſs without intermiſſion. And for perpetuity, it is for evermore. Heavens joyes are without meaſure, mixture, or end.

"Preserve me," keep, or save me, or as Horsley thinks, "guard me," even as bodyguards surround their monarch, or as shepherds protect their flocks. Tempted in all points like as we are, the manhood of Jesus needed to be preserved from the power of evil; and though in itself pure, the Lord Jesus did not confide in that purity of nature, but as an example to his followers, looked to the Lord, his God, for preservation. One of the great names of God is "the Preserver of men," (Job 7:20,) and this gracious office the Father exercised towards our Mediator and Representative. It had been promised to the Lord Jesus in express words, that he should be preserved, Isaiah 49:7, 8. "Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people." This promise was to the letter fulfilled, both by providential deliverance and sustaining power, in the case of our Lord. Being preserved himself, he is able to restore the preserved of Israel, for we are "preserved in Christ Jesus and called." As one with him, the elect were preserved in his preservation, and we may view this mediatorial supplication as the petition of the Great High Priest for all those who are in him. The intercession recorded in John 17 is but an amplification of this cry, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." When he says, "preserve me," he means his members, his mystical body, himself, and all in him. But while we rejoice in the fact that the Lord Jesus used this prayer for his members, we must not forget that he employed it most surely for himself; he had so emptied himself, and so truly taken upon him the form of a servant, that as man he needed divine keeping even as we do, and often cried unto the strong for strength. Frequently on the mountain-top he breathed forth this desire, and on one occasion in almost the same words, he publicly prayed, "Father, save me from this hour." (John 12:27.) If Jesus looked out of himself for protection, how much more must we, his erring followers, do so! "O God." The word for God here used is EL (Heb.), by which name the Lord Jesus, when under a sense of great weakness, as for instance when upon the cross, was wont to address the Mighty God, the Omnipotent Helper of his people. We, too, may turn to El, the Omnipotent One, in all hours of peril, with the confidence that he who heard the strong crying and tears of our faithful High Priest, is both able and willing to bless us in him. It is well to study the name and character of God, so that in our straits we may know how and by what title to address our Father who is in heaven. "For in thee do I put my trust," or, I have taken shelter in thee. As chickens run beneath the hen, so do I betake myself to thee. Thou art my great overshadowing Protector, and I have taken refuge beneath thy strength. This is a potent argument in pleading, and our Lord knew not only how to use it with God, but how to yield to its power when wielded by others upon himself. "According to thy faith be it done unto thee," is a great rule of heaven in dispensing favour, and when we can sincerely declare that we exercise faith in the Mighty God with regard to the mercy which we seek, we may rest assured that our plea will prevail. Faith, like the sword of Saul, never returns empty; it overcomes heaven when held in the hand of prayer. As the Saviour prayed, so let us pray, and as he became more than a conqueror, so shall we also through him; let us when buffeted by storms right bravely cry to the Lord as he did, "in thee do I put my trust."

"O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." In his inmost heart the Lord Jesus bowed himself to do service to his Heavenly Father, and before the throne of Jehovah his soul vowed allegiance to the Lord for our sakes. We are like him when our soul, truly and constantly in the presence of the heart-searching God, declares her full consent to the rule and government of the Infinite Jehovah, saying, "Thou art my Lord." To avow this with the lip is little, but for the soul to say it, especially in times of trial, is a gracious evidence of spiritual health; to profess it before men is a small matter, but to declare it before Jehovah himself is of far more consequence. This sentence may also be viewed as the utterance of appropriating faith, laying hold upon the Lord by personal covenant and enjoyment; in this sense may it be our daily song in the house of our pilgrimage. "My goodness extendeth not to thee." The work of our Lord Jesus was not needful on account of any necessity in the Divine Being. Jehovah would have been inconceivably glorious had the human race perished, and had no atonement been offered. Although the life-work and death-agony of the Son did reflect unparalleled lustre upon every attribute of God, yet the Most Blessed and Infinitely Happy God stood in no need of the obedience and death of his Son; it was for our sakes that the work of redemption was undertaken, and not because of any lack or want on the part of the Most High. How modestly does the Saviour here estimate his own goodness! What overwhelming reasons have we for imitating his humility! "If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?" (Job 35:7.)

"But to the saints that are in the earth." These sanctified ones, although still upon the earth, partake of the results of Jesus' mediatorial work, and by his goodness are made what they are. The peculiar people, zealous for good works, and hallowed to sacred service, are arrayed in the Saviour's righteousness and washed in his blood, and so receive of the goodness treasured up in him; these are the persons who are profited by the work of the man Christ Jesus; but that work added nothing to the nature, virtue, or happiness of God, who is blessed for evermore. How much more forcibly is this true of us, poor unworthy servants not fit to be mentioned in comparison with the faithful Son of God! Our hope must ever be that haply some poor child of God may be served by us, for the Great Father can never need our aid. Well may we sing the verses of Dr. Watts:

"Oft have my heart and tongue confess'd

How empty and how poor I am;

My praise can never make thee blest,

Nor add new glories to thy name.

Yet, Lord, thy saints on earth may reap

Some profit by the good we do;

These are the company I keep,

These are the choicest friends I know."

Poor believers are God's receivers, and have a warrant from the Crown to receive the revenue of our offerings in the King's name. Saints departed we cannot bless; even prayer for them is of no service; but while they are here we should practically prove our love to them, even as our Master did, for they are the excellent of the earth. Despite their infirmities, their Lord thinks highly of them, and reckons them to be as nobles among men. The title of "His Excellency" more properly belongs to the meanest saint than to the greatest governor. The true aristocracy are believers in Jesus. They are the only Right Honourables. Stars and garters are poor distinctions compared with the graces of the Spirit. He who knows them best says of them, "in whom is all my delight." They are his Hephzibah and his land Beulah, and before all worlds his delights were with these chosen sons of men. Their own opinion of themselves is far other than their Beloved's opinion of them; they count themselves to be less than nothing, yet he makes much of them, and sets his heart towards them. What wonders the eyes of Divine Love can see where the Hands of Infinite Power have been graciously at work. It was this quicksighted affection which led Jesus to see in us a recompense for all his agony, and sustained him under all his sufferings by the joy of redeeming us from going down into the pit.

The same loving heart which opens towards the chosen people is fast closed against those who continue in their rebellion against God. Jesus hates all wickedness, and especially the high crime of idolatry. The text while it shows our Lord's abhorrence of sin, shows also the sinner's greediness after it. Professed believers are often slow towards the true Lord, but sinners "hasten after another god." They run like madmen where we creep like snails. Let their zeal rebuke our tardiness. Yet theirs is a case in which the more they haste the worse they speed, for their sorrows are multiplied by their diligence in multiplying their sins. Matthew Henry pithily says, "They that multiply gods multiply griefs to themselves; for whosoever thinks one god too little, will find two too many, and yet hundreds not enough." The cruelties and hardships which men endure for their false gods is wonderful to contemplate; our missionary reports are a noteworthy comment on this passage; but perhaps our own experience is an equally vivid exposition; for when we have given our heart to idols, sooner or later we have had to smart for it. Near the roots of our self-love all our sorrows lie, and when that idol is overthrown, the sting is gone from grief. Moses broke the golden calf and ground it to powder, and cast it into the water of which he made Israel to drink, and so shall our cherished idols become bitter portions for us, unless we at once forsake them. Our Lord had no selfishness; he served but one Lord, and served him only. As for those who turn aside from Jehovah, he was separate from them, bearing their reproach without the camp. Sin and the Saviour had no communion. He came to destroy, not to patronize or be allied with the works of the devil. Hence he refused the testimony of unclean spirits as to his divinity, for in nothing would he have fellowship with darkness. We should be careful above measure not to connect ourselves in the remotest degree with falsehood in religion; even the most solemn of Popish rites we must abhor. "Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer." The old proverb says, "It is not safe to eat at the devil's mess, though the spoon be never so long." The mere mentioning of ill names it were well to avoid, —"nor take up their names into my lips." If we allow poison upon the lip, it may ere long penetrate to the inwards, and it is well to keep out of the mouth that which we would shut out from the heart. If the church would enjoy union with Christ, she must break all the bonds of impiety, and keep herself pure from all the pollutions of carnal will-worship, which now pollute the service of God. Some professors are guilty of great sin in remaining in the communion of Popish churches, where God is as much dishonoured as in Rome herself, only in a more crafty manner.

"The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup." With what confidence and bounding joy does Jesus turn to Jehovah, whom his soul possessed and delighted in! Content beyond measure with his portion in the Lord his God, he had not a single desire with which to hunt after other gods; his cup was full, and his heart was full too; even in his sorest sorrows he still laid hold with both his hands upon his Father, crying, "My God, my God;" he had not so much as a thought of falling down to worship the prince of this world, although tempted with an "all these will I give thee." We, too, can make our boast in the Lord; he is the meat and the drink of our souls. He is our portion, supplying all our necessities, and our cup yielding royal luxuries; our cup in this life, and our inheritance in the life to come. As children of the Father who is in heaven, we inherit, by virtue of our joint heirship with Jesus, all the riches of the covenant of grace; and the portion which falls to us sets upon our table the bread of heaven and the new wine of the kingdom. Who would not be satisfied with such dainty diet? Our shallow cup of sorrow we may well drain with resignation, since the deep cup of love stands side by side with it, and will never be empty. "Thou maintainest my lot." Some tenants have a covenant in their leases that they themselves shall maintain and uphold, but in our case Jehovah himself maintains our lot. Our Lord Jesus delighted in this truth, that the Father was on his side, and would maintain his right against all the wrongs of men. He knew that his elect would be reserved for him, and that almighty power would preserve them as his lot and reward for ever. Let us also be glad, because the Judge of all the earth will vindicate our righteous cause.

Jesus found the way of obedience to lead into "pleasant places." Notwithstanding all the sorrows which marred his countenance, he exclaimed, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." It may seem strange, but while no other man was ever so thoroughly acquainted with grief, it is our belief that no other man ever experienced so much joy and delight in service, for no other served so faithfully and with such great results in view as his recompense of reward. The joy which was set before him must have sent some of its beams of splendour a-down the rugged places where he endured the cross, despising the shame, and must have made them in some respects pleasant places to the generous heart of the Redeemer. At any rate, we know that Jesus was well content with the blood-bought portion which the lines of electing love marked off as his spoil with the strong and his portion with the great. Therein he solaced himself on earth, and delights himself in heaven; and he asks no more "GOODLY HERITAGE" than that his own beloved may be with him where he is and behold his glory. All the saints can use the language of this verse, and the more thoroughly they can enter into its contented, grateful, joyful spirit the better for themselves, and the more glorious to their God. Our Lord was poorer than we are, for he had not where to lay his head, and yet when he mentioned his poverty he never used a word of murmuring; discontented spirits are as unlike Jesus as the croaking raven is unlike the cooing dove. Martyrs have been happy in dungeons. "From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison the Italian martyr dated his letter, and the presence of God made the gridiron of Laurence pleasant to him." Mr. Greenham was bold enough to say, "They never felt God's love, or tasted forgiveness of sin, who are discontented." Some divines think that discontent was the first sin, the rock which wrecked our race in paradise; certainly there can be no paradise where this evil spirit has power, its slime will poison all the flowers of the garden.

"I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel." Praise as well as prayer was presented to the Father by our Lord Jesus, and we are not truly his followers unless our resolve be, "I will bless the Lord." Jesus is called Wonderful, Counsellor, but as man he spake not of himself, but as his Father had taught him. Read in confirmation of this, John 7:16; 8:28; and 12:49, 50; and the prophecy concerning him in Isaiah 11:2, 3. It was our Redeemer's wont to repair to his Father for direction, and having received it, he blessed him for giving him counsel. It would be well for us if we would follow his example of lowliness, cease from trusting in our own understanding, and seek to be guided by the Spirit of God. "My reins also instruct me in the night seasons." By the reins understand the inner man, the affections and feelings. The communion of the soul with God brings to it an inner spiritual wisdom which in still seasons is revealed to itself. Our Redeemer spent many nights alone upon the mountain, and we may readily conceive that together with his fellowship with heaven, he carried on a profitable commerce with himself; reviewing his experience, forecasting his work, and considering his position. Great generals fight their battles in their own mind long before the trumpet sounds, and so did our Lord win our battle on his knees before he gained it on the cross. It is a gracious habit after taking counsel from above to take counsel within. Wise men see more with their eyes shut by night than fools can see by day with their eyes open. He who learns from God and so gets the seed, will soon find wisdom within himself growing in the garden of his soul; "Thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left." The night season which the sinner chooses for his sins is the hallowed hour of quiet when believers hear the soft still voices of heaven, and of the heavenly life within themselves.

The fear of death at one time cast its dark shadow over the soul of the Redeemer, and we read that, "he was heard in that he feared." There appeared unto him an angel, strengthening him; perhaps the heavenly messenger reassured him of his glorious resurrection as his people's surety, and of the eternal joy into which he should admit the flock redeemed by blood. Then hope shone full upon our Lord's soul, and, as recorded in these verses, he surveyed the future with holy confidence because he had a continued eye to Jehovah, and enjoyed his perpetual presence. He felt that, thus sustained, he could never be driven from his life's grand design; nor was he, for he stayed not his hand till he could say, "It is finished." What an infinite mercy was this for us! In this immovableness, caused by simple faith in the divine help, Jesus is to be viewed as our exemplar; to recognize the presence of the Lord is the duty of every believer; "I have set the Lord always before me;" and to trust the Lord as our champion and guard is the privilege of every saint; "because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." The apostle translates this passage, "I foresaw the Lord always before my face;" Acts 2:25; the eye of Jesus' faith could discern beforehand the continuance of divine support to his suffering Son, in such a degree that he should never be moved from the accomplishment of his purpose of redeeming his people. By the power of God at his right hand he foresaw that he should smite through all who rose up against him, and on that power he placed the firmest reliance.

He clearly foresaw that he must die, for he speaks of his flesh resting, and of his soul in the abode of separate spirits; death was full before his face, or he would not have mentioned corruption; but such was his devout reliance upon his God, that he sang over the tomb, and rejoiced in vision of the sepulchre. He knew that the visit of his soul to Sheol, or the invisible world of disembodied spirits, would be a very short one, and that his body in a very brief space would leave the grave, uninjured by its sojourn there; all this made him say, "my heart is glad," and moved his tongue, the glory of his frame, to rejoice in God, the strength of his salvation. Oh, for such holy faith in the prospect of trial and of death! It is the work of faith, not merely to create a peace which passeth all understanding, but to fill the heart full of gladness until the tongue, which, as the organ of an intelligent creature, is our glory, bursts forth in notes of harmonious praise. Faith gives us living joy, and bestows dying rest. "My flesh also shall rest in hope."

Our Lord Jesus was not disappointed in his hope. He declared his Father's faithfulness in the words, "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," and that faithfulness was proven on the resurrection morning. Among the departed and disembodied Jesus was not left; he had believed in the resurrection, and he received it on the third day, when his body rose in glorious life, according as he had said in joyous confidence, "neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Into the outer prison of the grave his body might go, but into the inner prison of corruption he could not enter. He who in soul and body was pre-eminently God's "Holy One," was loosed from the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. This is noble encouragement to all the saints; die they must, but rise they shall, and though in their case they shall see corruption, yet they shall rise to everlasting life. Christ's resurrection is the cause, the earnest, the guarantee, and the emblem of the rising of all his people. Let them, therefore, go to their graves as to their beds, resting their flesh among the clods as they now do upon their couches.

"Since Jesus is mine, I'll not fear undressing,

But gladly put off these garments of clay;

To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing,

Since Jesus to glory through death led the way."

Wretched will that man be who, when the Philistines of death invade his soul, shall find that, like Saul, he is forsaken of God; but blessed is he who has the Lord at his right hand, for he shall fear no ill, but shall look forward to an eternity of bliss.

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life." To Jesus first this way was shown, for he is the first begotten from the dead, the first-born of every creature. He himself opened up the way through his own flesh, and then trod it as the forerunner of his own redeemed. The thought of being made the path of life to his people, gladdened the soul of Jesus. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." Christ being raised from the dead ascended into glory, to dwell in constant nearness to God, where joy is at its full for ever: the foresight of this urged him onward in his glorious but grievous toil. To bring his chosen to eternal happiness was the high ambition which inspired him, and made him wade through a sea of blood. O God, when a worldling's mirth has all expired, for ever with Jesus may we dwell "at thy right hand," where "there are pleasures for evermore;" and meanwhile, may we have an earnest by tasting thy love below. Trapp's note on the heavenly verse which closes the Psalm is a sweet morsel, which may serve for a contemplation, and yield a foretaste of our inheritance. He writes, "Here is as much said as can be, but words are too weak to utter it. For quality there is in heaven joy and pleasures; for quantity, a fulness, a torrent whereat they drink without let or loathing; for constancy, it is at God's right hand, who is stronger than all, neither can any take us out of his hand; it is a constant happiness without intermission: and for perpetuity it is for evermore. Heaven's joys are without measure, mixture, or end."

Title. There is a diversity of opinion as to the meaning of the title of this Psalm. It is called "Michtam of David," but Michtam is the Hebrew word untranslated —the Hebrew word in English letters —and its signification is involved in obscurity. According to some, it is derived from a verb which means to hide, and denotes a mystery or secret. Those who adopt this view, regard the title as indicating a depth of doctrinal and spiritual import in the Psalm, which neither the writer nor any of his contemporaries had fathomed. According to others, it is derived from a verb which means to cut, to grave, to write, and denotes simply a writing of David. With this view agree the Chaldee and Septuagint versions, the former translating it, "a straight sculpture of David:" and the latter, "an inscription upon a pillar to David." Others again, look upon "Michtam," as being derived from a noun which means gold, and they understand it as denoting a golden Psalm —a Psalm of surpassing excellence, and worthy of being written in letters of gold. This was the opinion of our translators, and hence they have rendered it on the margin —"A golden Psalm of David." The works of the most excellent Arabian poets were called golden, because they were written in letters of gold; and this golden song may have been written and hung up in some conspicuous part of the Temple. Many other interpretations have been given of this term, but at this distance of time, we can only regard it as representing some unassignable peculiarity of the composition. —James Frame, 1858. Title. Such are the riches of this Psalm, that some have been led to think the obscure title, "Michtam," has been prefixed to it on account of its golden stores. For (Heb.) is used of the "gold of Ophir" (e.g., Psalm 45:9), and (Heb.) might be a derivative from that root. But as there is a group of five other Psalms (namely, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60), that bear this title, whose subject matter is various, but which all end in a tone of triumph, it has been suggested that the Septuagint may be nearly right in their Sphlografia, as if "A Psalm to be hung up or inscribed on a pillar to commemorate victory." It is, however, more likely still that the term "Michtam" (like "Maschil"), is a musical term, whose real meaning and use we have lost, and may recover only when the ransomed house of Israel return home with songs. Meanwhile, the subject matter of this Psalm itself is very clearly this —the righteous one's satisfaction with his lot. —Andrew A. Bonar. Whole Psalm. Allow that in verse ten it is clear that our Lord is in this Psalm, yet the application of every verse to Jesus in Gethsemane appears to be farfetched, and inaccurate. How verse nine could suit the agony and bloody sweat, it is hard to conceive, and equally so it is with regard to verse six. The "cup" of verse five is so direct a contrast to that cup concerning which Jesus prayed in anguish of spirit, that it cannot be a reference to it. Yet we think it right to add, that Mr. James Frame has written a very valuable work on this Psalm, entitled "Christ in Gethsemane," and he has supported his theory by the opinion of many of the ancients. He says, "All the distinguished interpreters of ancient days, such as Eusebius, Jerome, and Augustine, explain the Psalm as referring to the Messiah, in his passion and his victory over death and the grave, including his subsequent exaltation to the right hand of God;" and, in a foot note he gives the following quotations: Jerome. —"The Psalm pertains to Christ, who speaks in it. . . . . It is the voice of our King, which he utters in the human nature that he had assumed, but without detracting from his divine nature. . . . . The Psalm pertains to his passion." Augustine. —"Our King speaks in this Psalm in the person of the human nature that he assumed, at the time of his passion, the royal title inscribed will show itself conspicuous." —C. H. S. Whole Psalm. The present Psalm is connected in thought and language with the foregoing, and linked on to the following Psalm by catchwords. It is entitled in the Syriac and Arabic versions, a Psalm on the Election of the Church, and on the Resurrection of Christ." —Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., 1868.

"Preserve me, O God." Here David desireth not deliverance from any special trouble, but generally prayeth to be fenced and defended continually by the providence of God, wishing that the Lord would continue his mercy towards him unto the end; whereby he foresaw it was as needfull for him to be safeguarded by God, his protection in the end, as at the time present; as also how he made no less account of it in his prosperity than in adversity. So that the man of God still feared his infirmity, and therefore acknowledgeth himself ever to stand in need of God his help. And here is a sure and undoubted mark of the child of God, when a man shall have as great a care to continue and grow in well-doing, as to begin; and this praying for the gift of final perseverance is a special note of the child of God. This holy jealousy of the man of God made him so desire to be preserved at all times, in all estates, both in soul and body. —Richard Greenham, 1531-1591.

"For in thee do I put my trust." Here the prophet setteth down the cause why he prayeth to God; whereby he declareth, that none can truly call upon God unless they believe. Romans 10:14. "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" In regard whereof as he prayeth to God to be his Saviour, so he is fully assured that God will be his Saviour. If, then, without faith we cannot truly call upon God, the men of this world rather prate like parrots than pray like Christians, at what time they utter these words; for that they trust not in God they declare both by neglecting the lawful means, and also in using unlawful means. Some we see trust in friends; some shoulder out, as they think, the cross with their goods; some fence themselves with authority; others bathe and baste themselves in pleasure to put the evil day far from them; others make flesh their arm; and others make the wedge of gold their confidence; and these men when they seek for help at the Lord, mean in their hearts to find it in their friends, good authority and pleasure, howsoever for fear, they dare not say this outwardly. Again, here we are to observe under what shelter we may harbour ourselves in the showers of adversity, even under the protection of the Almighty. And why? "Whoso dwelleth in the secret of the Most High, shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty." And here in effect is showed, that whosoever putteth his trust in God shall be preserved; otherwise the prophet's reason here had not been good. Besides, we see he pleadeth not by merit, but sueth by faith, teaching us that if we come with like faith, we may obtain the like deliverance. —Richard Greenham.

"O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." I wish I could have heard what you said to yourself when these words were first mentioned. I believe I could guess the language of some of you. When you heard me repeat these words, "O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord," you thought, "I have never said anything to the Lord, unless when I cried out, Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of thy ways." Has not something like this passed in your minds? I will try again. When I first mentioned the text, "Let me consider," you secretly said, "I believe that I did once say to the Lord, Thou art my Lord; but it was so long ago, that I had almost forgotten it; but I suppose that it must have been at such a time when I was in trouble. I had met with disappointments in the world; and then, perhaps, I cried, Thou art my portion, O Lord. Or, perhaps, when I was under serious impressions, in the hurry of my spirits, I might look up to God and say, Thou art my Lord. But, whatever I could or did formerly say, I am certain that I cannot say it at present." Have none of you thought in this manner? I will hazard one conjecture more; and I doubt not but in this case I shall guess rightly. When I repeated these words, "O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord;" "So have I," thought one; "So have I," thought another; I have said it often, but I said it with peculiar solemnity and pleasure, when, in an act of humble devotion, I lately threw my ransomed, rescued, grateful soul at his feet and cried, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds." The very recollection of it is pleasant; and I shall now have an opportunity of renewing my vows, and hope to recover something of the divine serenity and joy which I at that time experienced." —Samuel Lavington's Sermons, 1810.

"Thou art my Lord." He acknowledgeth the Lord Jehovah; but he seeth him not as it were then afar off, but drawing near unto him, he sweetly embraceth him; which thing is proper unto faith, and to that particular applying which we say to be in faith. —Robert Rollock, 1600.

"My goodness extendeth not to thee." I think the words should be understood of what the Messiah was doing for men. My goodness, (Heb.) tobhathi, "my bounty" is not to thee. What I am doing can add nothing to thy divinity; thou art not providing this astonishing sacrifice because thou canst derive any excellence from it; but this bounty extends to the saints —to all the spirits of just men made perfect, whose bodies are still in the earth; and to the excellent, (Heb.) addirey, "the noble or super-eminent ones," those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The saints and illustrious ones not only taste of my goodness, but enjoy my salvation. Perhaps angels themselves may be intended; they are not uninterested in the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord. They desire to look into these things; and the victories of the cross in the conversion of sinners cause joy among the angels of God. —Adam Clarke.

"My goodness extendeth not to thee;" "My well-doing extendeth not to thee." Oh, what shall I render unto thee, my God, for all thy benefits towards me? what shall I repay? Alas! I can do thee no good, for mine imperfect goodness cannot pleasure thee who art most perfect and goodness itself; my well-doing can do thee no good, my wickedness can do thee no harm. I receive all good from thee, but no good can I return to thee; wherefore I acknowledge thee to be most rich, and myself to be most beggardly; so far off is it that thou standest in any need of me. Wherefore I will join myself to thy people, that whatsoever I have they may profit by it; and whatsoever they have I may profit by it, seeing the things that I have received must be put out to loan, to gain some comfort to others. Whatsoever others have, they have not for their own private use, but that by them, as by pipes and conduits, they liberally should be conveyed unto me also. Wherefore in this strain we are taught, that if we be the children of God, we must join ourselves in a holy league to his people, and by mutual participation of the gifts of God, we must testify each to other, that we be of the number and communion of saints; and this is an undoubted badge and cognizance of him that loveth God, if he also loveth them that are begotten of God. Wherefore, if we so profess ourselves to be of God and to worship him, then we must join ourselves to the church of God which with us doth worship God. And this must we do of necessity, for it is a branch of our belief that there is a communion of saints in the church; and if we believe that there is a God, we must also believe that there is a remnant of people, unto whom God revealeth himself, and communicateth his mercies, in whom we must have all our delight, to whom we must communicate according to the measure of grace given unto every one of us. —Richard Greenham.

"My goodness extendeth not to thee." Oh, how great is God's goodness to you! He calls upon others for the same things, and conscience stands as Pharaoh's taskmasters, requiring the tale of bricks but not allowing straw; it impels and presseth, but gives no enlargement of heart, and buffets and wounds them for neglect: as the hard creditor that, taking the poor debtor by the throat, saith, "Pay me that thou owest me," but yields him no power to do it; thus God might deal with you also, for he oweth not assistance to us; but we owe obedience to him. Remember, we had power, and it is just to demand what we cannot do, because the weakness that is in us is of ourselves: we have impoverished ourselves. Therefore, when in much mercy he puts forth his hand into the work with thee, be very thankful. If the work be not done, he is no loser; if done, and well done, he is no gainer. Job 22:2; 35:6-8. But the gain is all to thee; all the good that comes by it is to thyself. —Joseph Symonds, 1639.

Verse 2 (last clause). It is a greater glory to us that we are allowed to serve God, than it is to him that we offer him that service. He is not rendered happy by us; but we are made happy by him. He can do without such earthly servants; but we cannot do without such a heavenly Master. —William Secker.

Verse 2 (last clause). There is nothing added to God; he is so perfect, that no sin can hurt him; and so righteous, that no righteousness can benefit him. O Lord, my righteousness extendeth not to thee! thou hast no need of my righteousness. Acts 17:24, 25. God hath no need of anything. —Richard Stock, 1641.

As Christ is the head of man, so is God the head of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3); and as man is subject unto Christ, so is Christ subject to God; not in regard of the divine nature, wherein there is an equality, and consequently no dominion or jurisdiction; nor only in his human nature, but in the economy of a Redeemer, considered as one designed, and consenting to be incarnate, and take our flesh; so that after this agreement, God had a sovereign right to dispose of him according to the articles consented to. In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the elect of God upon earth, he calls God by the solemn title of "his Lord." "O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth." It seems to be the speech of Christ in heaven, mentioning the saints on earth as at a distance from him. I can add nothing to the glory of thy majesty, but the whole fruit of my mediation and suffering will redound to the saints on earth. —Stephen Charnock.

"My goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints." God's goodness to us should make us merciful to others. It were strange indeed a soul should come out of his tender bosom with a hard uncharitable heart. Some children do not indeed take after their earthly parents, as Cicero's son, who had nothing of his father but his name; but God's children all partake of their heavenly Father's nature. Philosophy tells us, that there is no reaction from the earth to the heavens; they indeed shed their influences upon the lower world, which quicken and fructify it, but the earth returns none back to make the sun shine the better. David knew that his goodness extended not unto God, but this made him reach it forth to his brethren. Indeed, God hath left his poor saints to receive the rents we owe unto him for his mercies. An ingenuous guest, though his friend will take nothing for his entertainment, yet, to show his thankfulness, will give something to his servants. —William Gurnall.

"My goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints." God's goodness to us should make us merciful to others. It were strange indeed a soul should come out of his tender bosom with a hard uncharitable heart. Some children do not indeed take after their earthly parents, as Cicero's son, who had nothing of his father but his name; but God's children all partake of their heavenly Father's nature. Philosophy tells us, that there is no reaction from the earth to the heavens; they indeed shed their influences upon the lower world, which quicken and fructify it, but the earth returns none back to make the sun shine the better. David knew that his goodness extended not unto God, but this made him reach it forth to his brethren. Indeed, God hath left his poor saints to receive the rents we owe unto him for his mercies. An ingenuous guest, though his friend will take nothing for his entertainment, yet, to show his thankfulness, will give something to his servants. —William Gurnall.

"But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight." My brethren, look upon saintship as the greatest excellency to love it. So did Christ. His eye was "upon the excellent ones in the earth;" that is, upon the saints, who were excellent to him; yea, also even when not saints, because God loved them. Isaiah 43:4. It is strange to hear how men by their speeches will undervalue a saint as such, if without some other outward excellency. For whilst they acknowledge a man a saint, yet in other respects, they will contemn him; "He is a holy man," they will say, "but he is weak," etc. But is he a saint? And can there be any such other imperfection or weakness found as shall lay him low in thy thoughts in comparison of other carnal men more excellent? Hath not Christ loved him, bought him, redeemed him? —Thomas Goodwin.

"But to the saints." I understand that a man then evinces affection towards God, and towards those who love God, when his soul yearns after them —when he obliges himself to love them by practically serving and benefiting them —acting towards them as he would act towards God himself were he to see him in need of his service, as David says he did. —Juan de Valdes, 1550.

"The saints." The Papists could abide no saints but those which are in heaven; which argueth that they live in a kingdom of darkness, and err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for if they were but meanly conversant in the Scriptures, in the holy epistles, they should find almost in every epistle mention made of the saints who are thereunto called in Jesus Christ, through whom they are sanctified by the Holy Ghost. And mark, he calleth them "excellent." Some think rich men to be excellent, some think learned men to be excellent, some count men in authority so to be, but here we are taught that those men are excellent who are sanctified by God's graces. —Richard Greenham.

By David's language, there were many singular saints in his day: "To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight." Was it so then, and should it not be so now? We know the New Testament outshines the Old as much as the sun outshines the moon. If we then live in a more glorious dispensation, should we not maintain a more glorious conversation?. . . . "The excellent." Were the sun to give no more delight than a star, you could not believe he was the regent of the day; were he to transmit no more heat than a glow-worm, you would question his being the source of elementary heat. Were God to do no more than a creature, where would his Godhead be? Were a man to do no more than a brute, where would his manhood be? Were not a saint to excel a sinner, where would his sanctity be? —William Secker.

Ingo, an ancient king of the Draves, who making a stately feast, appointed his nobles, at that time Pagans, to sit in the hall below, and commanded certain poor Christians to be brought up into his presence-chamber, to sit with him at his table, to eat and drink of his kingly cheer, at which many wondering, he said, he accounted Christians, though never so poor, a greater ornament to his table, and more worthy of his company than the greatest peers unconverted to the Christian faith; for when these might be thrust down to hell, those might be his comforts and fellow princes in heaven. Although you see the stars sometimes by reflections in a puddle, in the bottom of a well, or in a stinking ditch, yet the stars have their situation in heaven. So, although you see a godly man in a poor, miserable, low, despised condition, for the things of this world, yet he is fixed in heaven, in the region of heaven: "Who hath raised us up," saith the apostle, "and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." —Charles Bradbury's "Cabinet of Jewels," 1785.

To sum up all, we must know that we neither do nor can love the godly so well as we should do; but all is well if we would love them better, and do like ourselves the less because we do love them no more, and that this is common or usual with me, then I am right: so that we are to love the godly first because God commands it, because they are good; and in these cases our faith doth work by our love to good men. Next, when I am at the worst, like a sick sheep, I care not for the company of other sheep, but do mope in a corner by myself; but yet I do not delight in the society of goats or dogs, it proves that I have some good blood left in me; it is because for the present I take little or no delight in myself or in my God, that I delight no better in the godly: yet as I love myself for all that, so I may be said to love them for all this. Man indeed is a sociable creature, a company-keeper by nature when he is himself; and if we not associate ourselves with the ungodly, though for the present, and care not much to show ourselves amongst the godly, the matter is not much, it is a sin of infirmity, not a fruit of iniquity. The disciples went from Christ, but they turned not to the other side as Judas did, who did forsake his Master, and joined himself to his Master's enemies, but they got together. Some say that Demas did repent (which I think to be the truth), and then he did "embrace this present world," but for the present fit: put case he did forsake Paul; so did better men than he. Indeed as long as a man hath his delights about him, he will embrace the delights of this present world, or the delights which belong to the world to come; join with Paul, or cleave to the world. In this temptation our stay is, first, that we care not for the company of goats; next, that as we should, so we would, and desire that we may take delight in the company of sheep, to count them the only excellent men in the world, in whom is all our delight. The conclusion is, that to love the saints as saints, is a sound proof of faith; the reason is, for that we cannot master our affections by love, but first we must master our understandings by faith, —Richard Capel, 1586-1656.

"Drink offerings of blood." The Gentiles used to offer, and sometimes drink part of the blood of their sacrifices, whether of beasts or of men, as either of them were sacrificed. —Matthew Poole.

"Drink offerings of blood." It is uncertain whether this expression is to be understood literally to be blood, which the heathen actually mixed in their libations when they bound themselves to the commission of some dreadful deed, or whether their libations are figuratively called offerings of blood to denote the horror with which the writer regarded them. —George R. Noyes, in loc. 1846.

Verse 4 (last clause). A sin rolled under the tongue becomes soft and supple, and the throat is so short and slippery a passage, that insensibly it may slide down from the mouth into the stomach; and contemplative wantonness quickly turns into practical uncleanness. —Thomas Fuller.

"The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." If the Lord be thy portion, then thou mayest conclude, omnipotentcy is my portion, immensity, all-sufficiency, etc. Say not, If so, then I should be omnipotent, etc. There is a vast difference betwixt identity and interest, betwixt conveying of a title, and transmutation of nature. A friend gives thee an invaluable treasure, and all the securities of it that thou canst desire; wilt thou deny it is thine because thou art not changed into its nature? The attributes are thine, as thy inheritance, as thy lands are thine; not because thou art changed into their nature, but because the title is conveyed to thee, it is given thee, and improved for thy benefit. If another manage it, who can do it with greater advantage to thee than to thyself, it is no infringement of thy title. . . . . The Lord is our portion, and this is incomparably more than if we had heaven and earth; for all the earth is but as a point compared with the vastness of the heavens, and the heavens themselves are but a point compared with God. What a large possession have we then! There is no confiscation of it, no banishment from it. Our portion fills heaven and earth, and is infinitely above heaven and below earth, and beyond both. Poor men boast and pride themselves of a kingdom, but we have more than all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof. Christ has given us more than the devil could offer him. —David Clarkson.

"Portion of mine inheritance and of my cup," may contain an allusion to the daily supply of food, and also to the inheritance of Levi. Deuteronomy 18:1, 2. —"Critical and Explanatory Pocket Bible." By A. R. Fausset and B. M. Smith, 1867.

"The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance: the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." "Blessed are the people that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the people whose God is the Lord." No greater mercy can be bestowed upon any people, family, or person than this, for God to dwell among them. If we value this mercy according to the excellence and worth of that which is bestowed, it is the greatest; if we value it according to the good will of him that gives it, it will appear likewise to be the greatest favour. The greatness of the good will of God in giving himself to be our acquaintance, is evident in the nature of the gift. A man may give his estate to them to whom his love is not very large, but he never gives himself but upon strong affection. God gives abundantly to all the works of his hands; he causeth the sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good, and the rain to descend upon the just and the unjust; but it cannot be conceived that he should give himself to be a portion, a friend, father, husband, but in abundance of love. Whosoever therefore shall refuse acquaintance with God, slighteth the greatest favour that ever God did bestow upon man. Now, consider what a high charge this is; to abuse such a kindness from God is an act of the greatest vileness. David was never so provoked as when the king of Ammon abused his kindness, in his ambassadors, after his father's death. And God is highly provoked when his greatest mercies, bestowed in the greatest love, are rejected and cast away. What could God give more and better than himself?. . . . . Ask David what he thinks of God; he was well acquainted with him, he dwelt in his house, and by his good will would never be out of his more immediate presence and company; enquire, I pray, what he found amiss in him. That you may know his mind the better, he hath left it upon record in more than one or two places, what a friend he hath had of God. "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Why, what is that you boast of so much, O David? Have not others had kingdoms as well as you? No, that's not the thing; a crown is one of the least jewels in my cabinet: "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup." —James Janeway.

"The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance: the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." "Blessed are the people that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the people whose God is the Lord." No greater mercy can be bestowed upon any people, family, or person than this, for God to dwell among them. If we value this mercy according to the excellence and worth of that which is bestowed, it is the greatest; if we value it according to the good will of him that gives it, it will appear likewise to be the greatest favour. The greatness of the good will of God in giving himself to be our acquaintance, is evident in the nature of the gift. A man may give his estate to them to whom his love is not very large, but he never gives himself but upon strong affection. God gives abundantly to all the works of his hands; he causeth the sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good, and the rain to descend upon the just and the unjust; but it cannot be conceived that he should give himself to be a portion, a friend, father, husband, but in abundance of love. Whosoever therefore shall refuse acquaintance with God, slighteth the greatest favour that ever God did bestow upon man. Now, consider what a high charge this is; to abuse such a kindness from God is an act of the greatest vileness. David was never so provoked as when the king of Ammon abused his kindness, in his ambassadors, after his father's death. And God is highly provoked when his greatest mercies, bestowed in the greatest love, are rejected and cast away. What could God give more and better than himself?. . . . . Ask David what he thinks of God; he was well acquainted with him, he dwelt in his house, and by his good will would never be out of his more immediate presence and company; enquire, I pray, what he found amiss in him. That you may know his mind the better, he hath left it upon record in more than one or two places, what a friend he hath had of God. "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Why, what is that you boast of so much, O David? Have not others had kingdoms as well as you? No, that's not the thing; a crown is one of the least jewels in my cabinet: "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup." —James Janeway.

Take notice not only of the mercies of God, but of God in the mercies. Mercies are never so savoury as when they savour of a Saviour. —Ralph Venning, 1620-1673.

Take notice not only of the mercies of God, but of God in the mercies. Mercies are never so savoury as when they savour of a Saviour. —Ralph Venning, 1620-1673.

"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Bitter herbs will go down very well, when a man has such delicious "meats which the world knows not of." The sense of our Father's love is like honey at the end of every rod; it turns stones into bread, and water into wine, and the valley of trouble into a door of hope; it makes the biggest evils seem as if they were none, or better than none; for it makes our deserts like the garden of the Lord, and when we are upon the cross for Christ, as if we were in paradise with Christ. Who would quit his duty for the sake of suffering, that hath such a relief under it? Who would not rather walk in truth, when he hath such a cordial to support him, than by the conduct of fleshly wisdom, to take any indirect or irregular method for his own deliverance? —Timothy Cruso.

"The lines." Probably alluding to the division of the land by lot, and the measuring of it off by ropes and lines. David believed in an overruling destiny which fixed the bounds of his abode, and his possessions; he did more, he was satisfied with all the appointment of the predestinating God. —C. H. S.

"I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel." The Holy Ghost is a spirit of counsel, powerfully instructing and convincingly teaching how to act and walk, for he directs us to set right steps, and to walk with a right foot, and thereby prevents us of many a sin, by seasonable instruction set on upon our hearts with a strong hand; as Isaiah 8:11. For, as the same prophet says (Isaiah 11:2), he is the spirit of counsel and of might. Of counsel to direct; of might, to strengthen the inner man. Such he was to Christ the Head, of whom it is there spoken. For instance, in the agony (on the determination of which our salvation depended), and conflict in the garden, when he prayed, "Let this cup pass," it was this good Spirit that counselled him to die; and he blessed God for it: "I bless the Lord that hath given me counsel." It was that counsel that in that case caused his heart to say, "Not my will, but thine." —Thomas Goodwin.

"My reins." Common experience shows that the workings of the mind, particularly the passions of joy, grief, and fear, have a very remarkable effect of the reins or kidneys, and from their retired situation in the body, and their being hid in fat, they are often used in Scripture to denote the most secret working of the soul and affections. —John Parkhurst.

"My reins also instruct me in the night seasons." This shows that God, who, he says, was always present to him, had given him some admonition in his dreams, or at least his waking thoughts by night, from whence he gathered a certain assurance of his recovery; possibly he might be directed to some remedy. Antonine thanks the gods for directing him in his sleep to remedies. —Z. Mudge, in loc, 1744.

"My reins also instruct me in the night seasons." We have a saying among ourselves, that "the pillow is the best counsellor;" and there is much truth in the saying, especially if we have first committed ourselves in prayer to God, and taken a prayerful spirit with us to our bed. In the quiet of its silent hours, undisturbed by the passions, and unharassed by the conflicts of the world, we can commune with our own heart, and be instructed and guarded as to our future course even "in the night season." David especially seems to have made these seasons sources of great profit as well as delight. Sometimes he loved to meditate upon God, as he lay upon his bed; and it was no doubt as he meditated on the Lord's goodness, and on the way by which he had led him, that he was, as it were, constrained, even at midnight, to arise and pray. While, therefore, we acknowledge the pillow to be a good counsellor, let us with David here acknowledge also that it is the Lord who gives the counsel, and sends the instruction in the night season. —Burton Bouchier.

"I have set the Lord always before me." David did not by fits and starts set the Lord before him; but he "always" set the Lord before him in his course; he had his eye upon the Lord, and so much the Hebrew word imports: I have equally set the Lord before me; that is the force of the original word, that is, I have set the Lord before me, at one time as well as another, without any irregular affections or passions, etc. In every place, in every condition, in every company, in every employment, and in every enjoyment, I have set the Lord equally before me; and this raised him, and this will raise any Christian, by degrees, to a very great height of holiness. —Thomas Brooks.

"I have set the Lord always before me." Hebrew, I have equally set, or proposed. The apostle translateth it, "I foresaw the Lord always before my face." Acts 2:25. I set the eye of my faith full upon him, and suffer it not to take to other things; I look him in the face, oculo irretorto, as the eagle looketh upon the sun; and oculo adamantino, with an eye of adamant, which turns only to one point: so here, I have equally set the Lord before me, without irregular affections and passions. And this was one of those lessons that his reins had taught him, that the Holy Spirit had dictated unto him. —John Trapp.

"I have set the Lord ALWAYS before me." Like as the gnomon doth ever behold the north star, whether it be closed and shut up in a coffer of gold, silver, or wood, never losing its nature; so a faithful Christian man, whether he abound in wealth or be pinched with poverty, whether he be of high or low degree in this world, ought continually to have his faith and hope surely built and grounded upon Christ, and to have his heart and mind fast fixed and settled in him, and to follow him through thick and thin, through fire and water, through wars and peace, through hunger and cold, through friends and foes, through a thousand perils and dangers, through the surges and waves of envy, malice, hatred, evil speeches, railing sentences, contempt of the world, flesh, and devil, and even in death itself, be it never so bitter, cruel, and tyrannical, yet never to lose sight and view of Christ, never to give over faith, hope, and trust in him. —Robert Cawdray.

"I have set the Lord always before me." By often thinking of God, the heart will be enticed into desires after him. Isaiah 26:8. "The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee;" and see what follows, verse 9: "With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early." Love sets the soul on musing, and from musing to praying. Meditation is prayer in bullion, prayer in the ore —soon melted and run into holy desires. The laden cloud soon drops into rain; the piece charged soon goes off when fire is put to it. A meditating soul is in proxima potentia to prayer. —William Gurnall.

"I have set the Lord always before me," etc. He that by faith eyes God continually as his protector in trouble "shall not be moved" with any evil that he suffers, and he that eyes God by faith as his pattern in holiness, shall not be moved from doing that which is good. This thought —the Lord is at our right hand —keeps us from turning either to the right hand or to the left. It is said of Enoch, that "he walked with God" (Genesis 5:22), and though the history of his life be very short, yet 'tis said of him a second time (verse 24), that "he walked with God." He walked so much with God that he walked as God: he did not "walk" (which kind of walking the apostle reproves, 1 Corinthians 3:3), "as men." He walked so little like the world, that his stay was little in the world. "He was not," saith the text, "for God took him." He took him from the world to himself, or, as the author to the Hebrews reports it, "he was translated that he should not see death, for he had this testimony, that he pleased God." —Joseph Caryl.

"Because he is at my right hand," etc. Of ourselves we stand not at any time, by his power we may overcome at all times. And when we are sorest assaulted he is ever ready at our right hand to support and stay us that we shall not fall. He hath well begun, and shall happily go forward in his work, who hath in truth begun. For true grace well planted in the heart, how weak soever, shall hold out for ever. All total decays come from this —that the heart was never truly mollified, nor grace deeply and kindly rooted therein. —John Ball.

"He is at my right hand." This phrase of speech is borrowed from those who, when they take upon them the patronage, defence, or tuition of any, will set them on their right hand, as in place of most safeguard. Experience confirmeth this in children, who in any imminent danger shroud and shelter themselves under their father's arms or hands, as under a sufficient buckler. Such was the estate of the man of God, as here appeareth, who was hemmed and hedged in with the power of God, both against present evils, and dangers to come. —Richard Greenham.

Even as a column or pillar is sometimes on thy right hand, and sometimes on thy left hand, because thou dost change thy standing, sitting or walking, for it is unmovable and keepeth one place; so God is sometimes favourable and bountiful unto thee, and sometimes seemeth to be wroth and angry with thee, because thou dost fall from virtue to vice, from obedience and humility to pride and presumption; for in the Lord there is no change, no, not so much as any shadow of change. He is immutable, always one and everlasting. If thou wilt bend thyself to obedience, and to a virtuous and godly life, thou shalt ever have him a strong rock, whereupon thou mayst boldly build a castle and tower of defence. He will be unto thee a mighty pillar, bearing up heaven and earth, whereto thou mayst lean and not be deceived, wherein thou mayst trust and not be disappointed. He will ever be at thy right hand, that thou shalt not fall. He will take thy part, and will mightily defend thee against all enemies of thy body and of thy soul; but if thou wilt shake hands with virtue, and bid it adieu and farewell, and, forsaking the ways of God, wilt live as thou list, and follow thy own corruption, and make no conscience of aught thou doest, defiling and blemishing thyself with all manner of sin and iniquity, then be sure the Lord will appear unto thee in his fury and indignation. From his justice and judgments none shall ever be able to deliver thee. —Robert Cawdray.

"My heart is glad." Men may for a time be hearers of the gospel, men may for order's sake pray, sing, receive the sacraments; but if it be without joy, will not that hypocrisy in time break out? Will they not begin to be weary? Nay, will they not be as ready to hear any other doctrine? Good things cannot long find entertainment in our corruptions, unless the Holy Ghost hath changed us from our old delights to conceive pleasure in these things. —Richard Greenham.

"My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth." His inward joy was not able to contain itself. We testify our pleasure on lower occasions, even at the gratification of our senses; when our ear is filled with harmonious melody, when our eye is fixed upon admirable and beauteous objects, when our smell is recreated with agreeable odours, and our taste also by the delicacy and rareness of provisions; and much more will our soul show its delight, when its faculties, that are of a more exquisite constitution, meet with things that are in all respects agreeable and pleasant to them; and in God they meet with all those: with his light our understanding is refreshed, and so is our will with his goodness and his love. —Timothy Rogers.

"Therefore my heart is glad," etc. That is, I am all over in very good plight, as well as heart can wish, or require; I do over-abound exceedingly with joy; "God forgive me mine unthankfulness and unworthiness of so great glory" (as that martyr said): "In all the days of my life I was never so merry as now I am in this dark dungeon," etc. Wicked men rejoice in appearance, and not in heart (2 Corinthians 5:12); their joy is but skin deep, their mirth frothy and flashy, such as wetteth the mouth, but warmeth not the heart. But David is totus totus, quantus quantus exultabundus; his heart, glory, flesh, (answerable, as some think to that of the apostle, 1 Thessalonians 5:23; spirit, soul, and body) were all overjoyed. —John Trapp.

"My flesh shall rest in hope." If a Jew pawned his bed-clothes, God provided mercifully that it should be restored before night: "For," saith he, "that is his covering: wherein shall he sleep?" Exodus 22:27. Truly, hope is the saint's covering, wherein he wraps himself, when he lays his body down to sleep in the grave: "My flesh," saith David, "shall rest in hope." O Christian, bestir thyself to redeem thy hope before this sun of thy temporal life goes down upon thee, or else thou art sure to lie down in sorrow. A sad going to the bed of the grave he hath who hath no hope of a resurrection to life. —William Gurnall.

"My flesh shall rest in hope." That hope which is grounded on the word, gives rest to the soul; 'tis an anchor to keep it steady. Hebrews 6:13. Which shows the unmovableness of that which our anchor is fastened to. The promise sustains our faith, and our faith is that which supports us. He that hopes in the Word as David did (Psalm 119:81), lays a mighty stress upon it; as Samson did when he leaned upon the pillars of the house, so as to pull it down upon the Philistines. A believer throws the whole weight of all his affairs and concernments, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, upon the promises of God, like a man resolved to stand or fall with them. He ventures himself, and all that belongs to him, entirely upon this bottom, which is in effect to say, if they will not bear me up, I am content to sink; I know that there shall be a performance of those things which have been told me from the Lord, and therefore I will incessantly look for it. —Timothy Cruso.

"For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," etc. The title of this golden text may be —The embalming of the dead saints: the force whereof is to free the souls from dereliction in the state of death, and to secure the bodies of God's saints from corruption in the grave. It is the art which I desire to learn, and at this time, teach upon this sad occasion [A Funeral Sermon], even the preparing of this confection against our burials. —George Hughes, 1642.

Many of the elder Reformers held that our Lord in soul actually descended into hell, according to some of them to suffer there as our surety, and according to others to make a public triumph over death and hell. This idea was almost universally, and as we believe, most properly repudiated by the Puritans. To prove this fact, it may be well to quote from Corbet's witty itinerary of,

"Foure clerkes of Oxford, doctors two, and two

That would be doctors."

He laments the secularisation of church appurtenances at Banbury, by the Puritans, whom he described as, — — — — — — —"They which tell

That Christ hath nere descended into Hell,

But to the grave." —C. H. S. The quotation is from Richard Corbet's Poems, 1632.

"My soul in hell." Christ in soul descended into hell, when as our surety he submitted himself to bear those hellish sorrows (or equivalent to them), which we were bound by our sins to suffer for ever. His descension is his projection of himself into the sea of God's wrath conceived for our sins, and his ingression into most unspeakable straits and torments in his soul, which we should else have suffered for ever in hell. This way of Christ's descending into hell is expressly uttered in the person of David, as the type of Christ. Psalm 86:13; 116:3; 69:1-3. Thus the prophet Isaiah saith, "His soul was made an offering." Isaiah 53:10. And this I take it David means, when he said of Christ, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." Psalm 16; Acts 2. And thus Christ descended into hell when he was alive, not when he was dead. Thus his soul was in hell when in the garden he did sweat blood, and on the cross when he cried so lamentably, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matthew 26:38. —Nicholas Byfield's "Exposition of the Creed," 1676.

"In hell." Sheol here, as hades in the New Testament, signifies the state of the dead, the separate state of souls after death, the invisible world of souls, where Christ's soul was, though it did not remain there, but on the third day returned to its body again. It seems best of all to interpret this word of the grave as it is rendered; Genesis 42:38; Isaiah 38:18. —John Gill.

"Thine Holy One." Holiness preserves the soul from dereliction, in the state of death, and the body of the saint from corruption in the grave. If it be desired by any that doubt of it, to see the clear issue of this from the text, I shall guide them to read this text with a great accent upon that term, "Thine Holy One," that they may take special notice of it, even the quality of that man exempted from these evils. In this the Spirit of God puts an emphasis on holiness, as counter-working and prevailing over death and the grave. It is this and nothing but this, that keeps the man, dead and buried, from desertion in death, and corruption in the grave. —George Hughes.

The great promise to Christ is, that though he took a corruptible body upon him, yet he should "not see corruption," that is, partake of corruption: corruption should have no communion with, much less power over him. —Joseph Caryl.

Quoted by the apostle Peter (Acts 2:27); on which Hackett (Com. in loc.) observes: —"The sense then may be expressed thus: Thou wilt not give me up as prey to death; he shall not have power over me, to dissolve the body and cause it to return to dust."

In this verse are four things observable:

1. A Guide, THOU.

2. A Traveller, ME.

3. A Way, THE PATH.

4. The End, LIFE, described after. For that which follows is but the description of this life.

This verse is a proper subject for a meditation. For, all three are solitary. The guide is but one, the traveller, one; the way one; and the life, the only one. To meditate well on this is to bring all together; and at last make them all but one. Which that we may do, let us first seek our Guide. The Guide. Him we find named in the first verse —Jehovah. Here we may begin, as we ought in all holy exercises, with adoration. For "unto him all knees shall bow;" nay, unto his name. For holy is his name. Glory be to thee, O God! He is Deus, therefore holy; he is Deus fortis, therefore able. "For the strength of the hills is his;" and if there be a way on earth, he can "show" it; for in his hands are all the corners of the earth. But is he willing to "show?" Yes, though he be Deus, holy (which is a word terrible to poor flesh and blood), yet he is Deus meus, my holiness. That takes away servile fear. He is meus, we have a property in him; and he is willing: "Thou wilt show," etc. And that you may know he will guide, David shows a little above, how diligently he will guide. First, he will go before, he will lead the way himself: if I can but follow, I shall be sure to go right. And he that hath a guide before him, and will not follow, is worthy to be left behind. But say, I am willing, I do desire to go, and I do follow: what if, through faintness in the long way, I fall often? or, for want of care step out of the way, shall I not then be left behind? Fear not; for "He is at my right hand, so that I shall not slip." Verse 8. This is some comfort indeed. But we are so soon weary in this way, and do fall and err so often, that it would weary the patience of a good guide to lead us but one day. Will he bear with us, and continue to the end? Yes, always; or this text deceives us; for all this is found in the eighth verse. We must have him or none; for he is one, and the only one. So confessed Asaph: "Whom have I on earth but thee? Seek this good Guide, he is easy to be found: "Seek, and ye shall find." You shall find that he is first holy; secondly, able; thirdly, willing; fourthly, diligent; and fifthly, constant. O my soul! to follow him, and he will make thee both able to follow to the end; and holy in the end. The traveller. Having found the Guide, we shall not long seek for one that wants him; for, see, here is a man out of his way. And that will soon appear if we consider his condition. For, he is a stranger ("Thou wilt show me"); and what am I? "I am a stranger, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were," says he, in another place. But this was in the old time under the law; what, are we, their sons in the gospel, any other? Peter tells us no: that we are strangers and pilgrims too; that is, travellers. We travel, as being out of our country; and we are strangers to those we converse with. For neither the natives be our friends, nor anything we possess truly our own. It is time we had animum revertendi; and surely so we have if we could but pray on the way, Converte nos Domine. But it is so long since we came hither, we have forgot the way home: obliti sunt montis mei. Yet still we are travelling; and, we think, homewards. For all hope well: oculi omnium sperant in te. But right, like pilgrims, or rather wanderers. For we scarce know if we go right; and, what is worse, have little care to enquire. "Me." David still keeps the singular number. As there is but one guide, so he speaks in the person but of one traveller. There is somewhat, peradventure, in that. It is to show his confidence. The Lord's prayer is in the plural, but the creed is in the singular. We may pray that God would guide all; but we can be confident for none but ourselves. "Thou wilt show," or thou dost, or hast, as some translate: all is but to show particular confidence. "Thou wilt show me;" me, not us, a number indefinite wherein I may be one; but me in particular that am out of the way; that am myself alone; that must walk in "the path" alone. Either I must follow, or go before others; I must work for myself alone; believe for myself alone; and be saved by one alone. The way in this text that I must walk is but one; nay, it is but a "path" where but one can go: this is no highway, but a way of sufferance by favour: it is none of ours. It is no road; you cannot hurry here, or gallop by troops: it is but semita, a small footpath for one to go alone in. Nay, as it is a way for one alone, so it is a lonely way: preparate vias ejus in solitudine, saith John, and he knew which way God went, who is our Guide in solitudine: there is the sweetness of solitariness, the comforts of meditation. For God is never more familiar with man than when man is in solitudine, alone, in his path by himself. Christ himself came thus, all lonely; without troop, or noise, and ever avoided the tumultuous multitude, though they would have made him a king. And he never spake to them but in parables; but to his that sought him, in solitudine, in private, he spake plain; and so doth he still love to do to the soul, in private and particular. Therefore well said David, "Thou wilt show me," in particular, and in the singular number. But how shall I know that I, in particular, shall be taught and showed this way? This prophet, that had experience, will tell us: mites docebit, the humble he will teach. Psalm 25:9. If thou canst humble thyself, thou mayst be sure to see thy guide; Christ hath crowned this virtue with a blessing: "Blessed are the meek;" for them he will call to him and teach. But thou must be humble then. For heaven is built like our churches, high-roofed within, but with a strait low gate; they then that enter there must stoop, ere they can see God. Humility is the mark at every cross, whereby thou shalt know if thou be in the way: if any be otherwise minded, God also shall reveal it unto you, for, "Thou wilt show." "The path." But let us now see what he will show us: "The path." We must know, that as men have many paths out of their highway —the world —but they all end in destruction; so God hath many paths out of his highway, the word, but they all end in salvation. Let us oppose ours to his (as indeed they are opposite), and see how they agree. Ours are not worth marking, his marked with an attendite, to begin withal; ours bloody, his unpolluted; ours crooked, his straight; ours lead to hell, his to heaven. Have not we strayed then? We had need to turn and take another path, and that quickly: we may well say, semitas nostrus,. . . vis tus. Well, here is the Book, and here are the ways before you; and he will show you. Here is semita mandatorum, in the one hundred-and-nineteenth Psalm, verse thirty-five: here is semita pacifica (Proverbs 3:17); here is semita aequitatis (Proverbs 4:11); here is semita justitiae (Psalm 23:3); here is semita judicii (Proverbs 17:23); and many others. These are, every one of them, God's ways; but these are somewhat too many and too far off: we must seek the way where all these meet, and that will bring us into "the path;" these are many, but I will show you yet "a more excellent way," saith Paul. 1 Corinthians 12:31.

We must begin to enter at via mandatorum; for till then we are in the dark and can distinguish no ways, whether they be good or bad. But there we shall meet with a lantern and a light in it. Thy commandment is a lantern, and thy law a light. Proverbs 6:23. Carry this with thee (as a good man should, lex Dei in corde ejus); and it will bring thee into the way. And see how careful our Guide is; for lest the wind should blow out this light, he hath put it into a lantern to preserve it. For the fear, or sanction, of the "commandments," preserves the memory of the law in our hearts, as a lantern doth a light burning within it. The law is the light, and the commandment the lantern. So that neither flattering Zephyrus, nor blustering Boreas shall be able to blow it out, so long as the fear of the sanction keeps it in. This is lucerna pedibus (Psalm 119:105); and will not only show thee where thou shalt tread, but what pace thou shalt keep. When thou hast this light, take Jeremy's counsel; enquire for semita antiqua, before thou goest any further. "Stand (saith he) in the ways, and behold and ask for the old way; which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." This will bring you some whither where you may rest awhile. And whither is that? Trace this path, and you shall find this "old way" to run quite through all the Old Testament till it end in the New, the gospel of peace, and there is rest. And that this is so Paul affirms. For the law, which is the "old way," is but the pedagogue to the gospel. This then is "a more excellent way" than the law, the ceremonies whereof in respect of this were called "beggarly rudiments." When we come there, we shall find the way pleasant and very light, so that we shall plainly see before us that very path, that only path, "the path of life" (semita vitae), in which the gospel ends, as the law ends in the gospel. Now what is semita vitae that we seek for? "All the ways of God are truth," saith David. Psalm 119:151. He doth not say they are verae, or veritates, but veritas; all one truth. So, all the ways of God end in one truth. Semita vitae, then, is truth. And so sure a way to life is truth, that John says, he had "no greater joy: than to hear that his sons "walked in truth." 3 John 1:3. "No greater joy:" for it brings them certainly to a joy, than which there is none greater. Via veritatis is "the gospel of truth," but semita vitae is the truth itself. Of these, Esay prophesied, "et erit ibi semita et via," etc. "There shall be a path, and a way;" and the way shall be called holy, the proper epithet of the gospel: "the holy gospel," that is the way. But the path is the epitome of this way (called in our text, by way of excellence, "the path," in the singular); than which there is no other. "The gospel of your salvation," saith Paul, is "the word of truth;" and "thy word is truth," saith our Saviour to his Father. Truth, then, is "the path of life," for it is the epitome of the gospel, which is the way. This is that truth which Pilate (unhappy man) asked after, but never stayed to be resolved of. He himself is the word; the word is the truth; and the truth is "the path of life," trodden by all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and confessors, that ever went to heaven before us. The abstract of the gospel, the gate of heaven, semita vitae, "the path of life," even Jesus Christ the righteous, who hath beaten the way for us, gone himself before us, and left us the prints of his footsteps for us to follow, where he himself sits ready to receive us. So, the law is the light, the gospel is the way, and Christ is "the path of life." —William Austin, 1637.

It is Christ's triumphing in the consideration of his exaltation, and taking pleasure in the fruits of his sufferings: "Thou wilt show me the paths of life." God hath now opened the way to paradise, which was stopped up by a flaming sword, and made the path plain by admitting into heaven the head of the believing world. This is a part of the joy of the soul of Christ; he hath now a fulness of joy, a satisfying delight instead of an overwhelming sorrow; a "fulness of joy," not only some sparks and drops as he had now and then in his debased condition; and that in the presence of his Father. His soul is fed and nourished with a perpetual vision of God, in whose face he beholds no more frowns, no more designs of treating him as a servant but such smiles that shall give a perpetual succession of joy to him, and fill his soul with fresh and pure flames. Pleasures they are, pleasantness in comparison whereof the greatest joys in this life are anguish and horrors. His soul hath joys without mixture, pleasures without number, a fulness without want, a constancy without interruption, and a perpetuity without end. —Stephen Charnock.

"In thy presence," etc. To the blessed soul resting in Abraham's bosom, there shall be given an immortal, impassible, resplendent, perfect, and glorious body. Oh, what a happy meeting will this be, what a sweet greeting between the soul and the body, the nearest and dearest acquaintance that ever were! What a welcome will that soul give to her beloved body! Blessed be thou (will she say), for thou hast aided me to the glory I have enjoyed since I parted with thee; blessed art thou that sufferedst thyself to be mortified, giving "thy members as weapons of righteousness unto God." Romans 6:13. Cheer up thyself, for now the time of labour is past, and the time of rest is come. Thou wast sown and buried in the dust of earth with ignominy, but now raised in glory; sown in weakness, but raised in power; sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body; sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15:43. O my dear companion and familiar, we took sweet counsel together, we two have walked together as friends on God's house (Psalm 55:14). for when I prayed inwardly, thou didst attend my devotions with bowed knees and lifted-up hands outwardly. We two have been fellow labourers in the works of the Lord, we two have suffered together, and now we two shall ever reign together; I will enter again into thee, and so both of us together will enter into our Master's joy, where we shall have pleasures at his right hand for evermore.

The saints, entered as it were into the chambers of God's presence, shall have joy to their ears in hearing their own commendating and praise, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21); and in hearing the divine language of heavenly Canaan; for our bodies shall be vera et viva, perfect like Christ's glorious body, who did both hear other and speak himself after his resurrection, as it is apparent in the gospel's history. Now, then, if the words of the wise spoken in due places be like "apples of gold with pictures of silver" (Proverbs 25:11). if the mellifluous speech of Origen, the silver trumpet of Hillary, the golden mouth of Chrysostom, bewitched as it were their auditory with exceeding great delight; if the gracious eloquence of heathen orators, whose tongues were never touched with a coal from God's altar, could steal away the hearts of their hearers, and carry them up and down whither they would, what a "fulness of joy" will it be to hear not only the sanctified, but also the glorified tongues of saints and angels in the kingdom of glory? . . . . . Bonaventure fondly reports at all adventure, that St. Francis hearing an angel a little while playing on a harp, was so moved with extraordinary delight, that he thought himself in another world. Oh! what a "fulness of joy" will it be to hear more than twelve legions of angels, accompanied with a number of happy saints which no man is able to number, all at once sing together, "Hallelujah, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all them that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 4:8; 5:13. If the voices of mortal men, and the sound of cornet, trumpet, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and other well-tuned instruments of music, passing through our dull ears in this world be so powerful, that all our affections are diversely transported according to the divers kinds of harmony, then how shall we be ravished in God's presence when we shall hear heavenly airs with heavenly ears!

Concerning "fulness of joy" to the rest of the senses, I find a very little or nothing in holy Scriptures, and therefore seeing God's Spirit will not have a pen to write, I may not have a tongue to speak. Divines in general affirm, that the smelling, and taste, and feeling, shall have joy proportionable to their blessed estate, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality; the body which is sown in weakness is to be raised in power; it is sown a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body; buried in dishonour, raised in glory; that is, capable of good, and, as being impassible, no way subject to suffer evil, insomuch that it cannot be hurt if it should be cast into hell fire, no more than Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, were hurt in the burning oven. In one word, God is not only to the souls, but also to the bodies of the saints, all in all things; a glass to their sight, honey to their taste, music to their hearing, balm to their smelling. —John Boys.

"In thy presence is fulness of joy." The saints on earth are all but viatores, wayfaring men, wandering pilgrims far from home; but the saints in heaven are comprehensores, safely arrived at the end of their journey. All we here present for the present, are but mere strangers in the midst of danger, we are losing ourselves and losing our lives in the land of the dying. But ere long, we may find our lives and ourselves again in heaven with the Lord of life, being found of him in the land of the living. If when we die, we be in the Lord of life, our souls are sure to be bound up in the bundle of life, that so when we live again we may be sure to find them in the life of the Lord. Now we have but a dram, but a scruple, but a grain of happiness, to an ounce, to a pound, to a thousand weight of heaviness; now we have but a drop of joy to an ocean of sorrow; but a moment of ease to an age of pain; but then (as St. Austin very sweetly in his Soliloquies), we shall have endless ease, without any pain, true happiness without any heaviness, the greatest measure of felicity without the least of misery, the fullest measure of joy that may be, without any mixture of grief. Here therefore (as St. Gregory the divine adviseth us), let us ease our heaviest loads of sufferings, and sweeten our bitterest cups of sorrows with the continual meditation and constant expectation of the fulness of joy in the presence of God, and of the pleasure at his right hand for evermore. "In thy presence, IS," etc., there it is, not there it was, nor there it may be, nor there it will be, but there it is, there it is without cessation or intercision, there it always hath been, and is, and must be. It is an assertion aeternae veritatis, that is always true, it may at any time be said that there it is. "In thy presence is the fulness of joy;" and herein consists the consummation of felicity; for what does any man here present wish for more than joy? And what measure of joy can any man wish for more than fulness of joy? And what kind of fulness would any man wish for rather than this fulness, the fulness kat exochn? And where would any man wish to enjoy this fulness of joy rather than in the presence of God, which is the ever-flowing and the over-flowing fountain of joy? And when would any man wish for this enjoyment of the fulness of joy in the very fountain of joy rather than presently, constantly, and incessantly? Now all these desirables are encircled within the compass of the first remarkable, to make up the consummation of true felicity. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." —The Consummation of Felicity," by Edward Willan, 1654.

The human nature of Christ in heaven hath a double capacity of glory, happiness and delight; one on that mere fellowship and communion with his Father and the other persons, through his personal union with the Godhead. Which joy of his in this fellowship, Christ himself speaks of as to be enjoyed by him: "In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." And this is a constant and settled fulness of pleasure, such as admits not any addition or diminution, but is always one and the same, and absolute and entire in itself; and of itself alone sufficient for the Son of God, and heir of all things to live upon, though he should have had no other comings in of joy and delight from any creature. And this is his natural inheritance. —Thomas Goodwin.

"In thy presence is FULNESS of joy." In heaven they are free from want; they can want nothing there is unless it be want itself. They may find the want of evil, but never feel the evil of want. Evil is but the want of good, and the want of evil is but the absence of want. God is good, and no want of good can be in God. What want then can be endured in the presence of God, where no evil is, but all good that the fulness of joy may be enjoyed? Here some men eat their meat without any hunger, whilst others hunger without any meat to eat, and some men drink extremely without any thirst, whilst others thirst extremely without any drink. But in the glorious presence of God, not any one can be pampered with too much, nor any one be pined with too little. They that gather much of the heavenly manna, "have nothing over;" and "they that gather little have no lack." They that are once possessed of that presence of God, are so possessed with it that they can never feel the misery of thirst or hunger. —Edward Willan.

"Fulness." Every soul shall there enjoy an infinite happiness, because it shall enjoy an infinite goodness. And it shall be for ever enjoyed, without disliking of it, or losing of it, or lacking any of it. Every soul shall enjoy as much good in that presence, by the presence of that good, as it shall be able to receive, or to desire to receive. As much as shall make it fully happy. Every one shall be filled so proportionably full; and every desire in any soul shall be filled so perfectly in that presence of glory, with the glory of that presence, that no one shall ever wish for any more, or ever be weary of that it has, or be willing to change it for any other. —Edward Willan.

"Fulness of joy." When a man comes to the sea, he doth not complain that he wants his cistern of water: though thou didst suck comfort from thy relations; yet when thou comest to the ocean, and art with Christ, thou shalt never complain that thou hast left thy cistern behind. There will be nothing to breed sorrow in heaven; there shall be joy, and nothing but joy: heaven is set out by that phrase, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Here joy enters into us, there we enter into joy; the joys we have here are from heaven; the joys that we shall have with Christ are without measure and without mixture. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." —Thomas Watson.

"In thy presence is fulness of joy." In this life our joy is mixed with sorrow like a prick under the rose. Jacob had joy when his sons returned home from Egypt with the sacks full of corn, but much sorrow when he perceived the silver in the sack's mouth. David had much joy in bringing up the ark of God, but at the same time great sorrow for the breach made upon Uzza. This is the Lord's great wisdom to temper and moderate our joy. As men of a weak constitution must have their wine qualified with water for fear of distemper, so must we in this life (such is our weakness), have our joy mixed with sorrow, lest we turn giddy and insolent. Here our joy is mixed with fear (Psalm 2), "Rejoice with trembling;" the women departed from the sepulchre of our Lord "with fear and great joy." Matthew 28:8. In our regenerate estate, though we have joy from Christ that is "formed in us," yet the impression of the terrors of God before the time of our new birth remains in us; as in a commotion of the sea by a great tempest after a stormy wind hath ceased, yet the impression of the storm remains and makes an agitation. The tender mother recovering her young child from danger of a fall hath joy from the recovery; but with much fear with the impression of the danger; so after we are recovered here from our dangerous falls by the rich and tender mercies of our God, sometime prevening us, sometime restoring us; though we rejoice in his mercy, and in our own recovery out of the snares of Satan, yet in the midst of our joy the remembrance of former guiltiness and danger do humble our hearts with much sorrow, and some trepidation of heart. As our joy here is mixed with fears, so with sorrow also. Sound believers do look up to Christ crucified, and do rejoice in his incomparable love, that such a person should have died such a death for such as were enemies to God by sinful inclinations and wicked works; they look down also upon their own sins that have wounded and crucified the Lord of glory, and this breaketh the heart, as a widow should mourn, who by her froward and lewd behaviour hath burst the heart of a kind and loving husband.

The sound believers look to their small beginnings of grace, and they rejoice in the work of God's hands; but when they compare it with that original and primitive righteousness, they mourn bitterly, as the elders of Israel did at the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 3:12; "They who had seen the first house wept." But in heaven our joy will be full, without mixture of sorrow (John 16:20); "Your sorrow," saith our Lord, "shall be turned into joy." Then will there be no sorrow for a present trouble, nor present fear of future troubles. Then their eye will deeply affect their heart; the sight and knowledge of God the supreme and infinite good will ravish, and take up all their heart with joy and delight. Peter in the Mount (Matthew 17), was so affected with that glorious sight, that he forgot both the delights and troubles that were below; "It is good to be here," said he. How much more will all worldly troubles and delights be forgot at that soul-satisfying sight in heaven, which is as far above that of Peter in the Mount, as the third heaven is above that Mount, and as the uncreated is above the created glory! —William Colvill's "Refreshing Streams," 1655.

"In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Mark, for quality, there are pleasures; for quantity, fulness; for dignity, at God's right hand; for eternity, for evermore. And millions of years multiplied by millions, make not up one minute to this eternity of joy that the saints shall have in heaven. In heaven there shall be no sin to take away your joy, nor no devil to take away your joy; nor no man to take away your joy. "Your joy no man taketh from you." John 16:22. The joy of the saints in heaven is never ebbing, but always flowing to all contentment. The joys of heaven never fade, never wither, never die, nor never are lessened nor interrupted. The joy of the saints in heaven is a constant joy, an everlasting joy, in the root and in the cause, and in the matter of it and in the objects of it. "Their joy lasts for ever whose objects remain for ever." —Thomas Brooks.

"Pleasures for evermore." The soul that is once landed at the heavenly shore is past all storms. The glorified soul shall be for ever bathing itself in the rivers of pleasure. This is that which makes heaven to be heaven, "We shall be ever with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Austin saith, "Lord, I am content to suffer any pains and torments in this world, if I might see thy face one day; but alas! were it only a day, then to be ejected heaven, it would rather be an aggravation of misery;" but this word, "ever with the Lord," is very accumulative, and makes up the garland of glory: a state of eternity is a state of security. —Thomas Watson.

This then may serve for a ground of comfort to every soul distressed with the tedious bitterness of this life; for short sorrow here, we shall have eternal joy; for a little hunger, an eternal banquet; for light sickness and affliction, everlasting health and salvation; for a little imprisonment, endless liberty; for disgrace, glory. Instead of the wicked who oppress and afflict them, they shall have the angels and saints to comfort and solace them, instead of Satan to torment and tempt them, they shall have Jesus to ravish and affect them. Joseph's prison shall be turned into a palace; Daniel's lions' den into the presence of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the three children's hot fiery furnace, into the new Jerusalem of pure gold; David's Gath, into the tabernacle of the living God. —John Cragge's "Cabinet of Spiritual Jewels," 1657.

This heavenly feast will not have an end, as Ahasuerus's feast had, though it lasted many days; but "At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." —William Colvill.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER Michtam of David. Under the title of "The Golden Psalm," Mr. Canon Dale has published a small volume, which is valuable as a series of good simple discourses, but ought hardly to have been styled "an exposition." We have thought it right to give the headings of the chapters into which his volume is divided, for there is much showiness, and may be some solidity in the suggestions.

Verse 1. The seeking of the gold. The believer conscious of danger, trusting in God only for deliverance.

Verses 2, 3. The possessing of the gol.d The believer looking for justification to the righteousness of God alone, while maintaining personal holiness by companionship with the saints.

Verses 4, 5. The testing of the gold. The believer finding his present portion, and expecting his eternal inheritance in the Lord.

Verse 6. The prizing or valuing of the gold. The believer congratulating himself on the pleasantness of his dwelling and the goodness of his heritage.

Verses 7, 8. The occupying of the gold. The believer seeking instruction from the counsels of the Lord by night, and realising his promise by day.

Verses 9, 10. The summing or reckoning of the gold. The believer rejoicing and praising God for the promise of a rest in hope and resurrection into glory.

Verse 11. The perfecting of the gold. The believer realising at God's right hand the fulness of joy and the pleasures for evermore.

Upon this suggestive Psalm we offer the following few hints out of many —

The prayer and the plea. The preserver and the truster. The dangers of the saints and the place of their confidence.

"Thou art my Lord." The soul's appropriation, allegiance, assurance, and avowal.

The influence and sphere of goodness. No profit to God, or departed saints or sinners, but to living men. Need of promptness, etc.

Verse 2, 3. Evidences of true faith. •

I. Allegiance to divine authority. • II. Rejection of self-righteousness. • III. Doing good to the saints. • IV. Appreciation of saintly excellence. • V. Delight in their society.

The influence and sphere of goodness. No profit to God, or departed saints or sinners, but to living men. Need of promptness, etc.

Verse 2, 3. Evidences of true faith. •

I. Allegiance to divine authority. • II. Rejection of self-righteousness. • III. Doing good to the saints. • IV. Appreciation of saintly excellence. • V. Delight in their society.

Excellent of the earth. May be translated noble, wonderful, magnificent. They are so in their new birth, nature, clothing, attendance, heritage, etc., etc.

"In whom is all my delight." Why Christians should be objects of our delight. Why we do not delight in them more. Why they do not delight in us. How to make our fellowship more delightful.

Collection sermon for poor believers. •

I. Saints. • II. Saints on the earth. • III. These are excellent. • IV. We must delight in them. • V. We must extend our goodness to them. —Matthew Henry.

Sorrows of idolatry illustrated in heathens and ourselves.

Verse 4 (Second clause). The duty of complete separation from sinners in life and lip.

Future inheritance and present cup found in God. (See exposition.)

•

I. "Pleasant places." Bethlehem, Calvary, Olivet, Tabor, Zion, Paradise, etc. • II. Pleasant purposes, which made these lines fall to me. • III. Pleasant praises. By service, sacrifice, and song.

Verse 6 (second clause). •

I. A heritage. • II. A goodly heritage. • III. I have it. • IV. Yea, or the Spirit's witness.

"A goodly heritage." That which makes our portion good is — •

I. The favour of God with it. • II. That it is from a Father's hand. • III. That it comes through the covenant of grace. • IV. That it is the purchase of Christ's blood. • V. That it is an answer to prayer, and a blessing from above upon honest endeavours.

We may put this acknowledgment into the mouth of — •

I. An indulged child of providence. • II. An inhabitant of this favoured country. • III. A Christian with regard to his spiritual condition. —William Jay.

Taking counsel's opinion. Of whom? Upon what? Why? When? How? What then?

Upward and inward, or two schools of instruction.

Set the Lord always before you as — •

I. Your protector. • II. Your leader. • III. Your example. • IV. Your observer. —William Jay.

A sense of the divine presence our best support. It yields, •

I. Good confidence concerning things without. "I shall not be moved." • II. Good cheer within. "My heart is glad." • III. Good music for the living tongue. "My glory rejoiceth." • IV. Good hope for the dying body. "My flesh also," etc.

A sense of the divine presence our best support. It yields, •

I. Good confidence concerning things without. "I shall not be moved." • II. Good cheer within. "My heart is glad." • III. Good music for the living tongue. "My glory rejoiceth." • IV. Good hope for the dying body. "My flesh also," etc.

(last clause). •

I. The saint's Sabbath (rest). • II. His sarcophagus (in hope). • III. His salvation (for which he hopes).

Jesus cheered in prospect of death by the safety of his soul and body; our consolation in him as to the same.

Jesus cheered in prospect of death by the safety of his soul and body; our consolation in him as to the same.

Jesus dead, the place of his soul and his body. A difficult but interesting topic.

Because he lives we shall live also. The believers, therefore, can also say, "Thou wilt show me the path of life." This life means the blessedness reserved in heaven for the people of God after the resurrection. It has three characters. The first regards its source —it flows from "his presence." The second regards its plenitude —it is "fulness" of joy." The third regards its permanency —the pleasures are "for evermore." —William Jay.

Because he lives we shall live also. The believers, therefore, can also say, "Thou wilt show me the path of life." This life means the blessedness reserved in heaven for the people of God after the resurrection. It has three characters. The first regards its source —it flows from "his presence." The second regards its plenitude —it is "fulness" of joy." The third regards its permanency —the pleasures are "for evermore." —William Jay.

A sweet picture of heaven. (See EXPOSITION.)