Psalms 68 commentary

None ever hardened his heart against God, and prospered. God is the joy of his people, then let them rejoice when they come before him. He who derives his being from none, but gives being to all, is engaged by promise and covenant to bless his people. He is to be praised as a God of mercy and tender compassion. He ever careth for the afflicted and oppressed: repenting sinners, who are helpless and exposed more than any fatherless children, are admitted into his family, and share all their blessings.

Fresh mercies should put us in mind of former mercies. If God bring his people into a wilderness, he will be sure to go before them in it, and to bring them out of it. He provided for them, both in the wilderness and in Canaan. The daily manna seems here meant. And it looks to the spiritual provision for God's Israel. The Spirit of grace and the gospel of grace are the plentiful rain, with which God confirms his inheritance, and from which their fruit is found. Christ shall come as showers that water the earth. The account of Israel's victories is to be applied to the victories over death and hell, by the exalted Redeemer, for those that are his. Israel in Egypt among the kilns appeared wretched, but possessed of Canaan, during the reigns of David and Solomon, appeared glorious. Thus the slaves of Satan, when converted to Christ, when justified and sanctified by him, look honourable. When they reach heaven, all remains of their sinful state disappear, they shall be as the wings of the dove, covered with silver, and her feathers as gold. Full salvation will render those white as snow, who were vile and loathsome through the guilt and defilement of sin.

The ascension of Christ must here be meant, and thereto it is applied, Eph 4:8. He received as the purchase of his death, the gifts needful for the conversion of sinners, and the salvation of believers. These he continually bestows, even on rebellious men, that the Lord God might dwell among them, as their Friend and Father. He gave gifts to men. Having received power to give eternal life, the Lord Jesus bestows it on as many as were given him, Joh 17:2. Christ came to a rebellious world, not to condemn it, but that through him it might be saved. The glory of Zion's King is, that he is a Saviour and Benefactor to all his willing people, and a consuming fire to all that persist in rebellion against him. So many, so weighty are the gifts of God's bounty, that he may be truly said to load us with them. He will not put us off with present things for a portion, but will be the God of our salvation. The Lord Jesus has authority and power to rescue his people from the dominion of death, by taking away the sting of it from them when they die, and giving them complete victory over it when they rise again. The crown of the head, the chief pride and glory of the enemy, shall be smitten; Christ shall crush the head of the serpent.

The victories with which God blessed David over the enemies of Israel, are types of Christ's victory, for himself and for all believers. Those who take him for theirs, may see him acting as their God, as their King, for their good, and in answer to their prayers; especially in and by his word and ordinances. The kingdom of the Messiah shall be submitted to by all the rulers and learned in the world. The people seem to address the king, verse 28. But the words are applicable to the Redeemer, to his church, and every true believer. We pray, that thou, O God the Son, wilt complete thine undertaking for us, by finishing thy good work in us.

A powerful invitation is given to those that are without, to join the church. Some shall submit from fear; overcome by their consciences, and the checks of Providence, they are brought to make peace with the church. Others will submit willingly, verses 29, 31. There is that beauty and benefit in the service of God, and in the gospel of Christ which went forth from Jerusalem, which is enough to invite sinners out of all nations.

God is to be admired and adored with reverence and godly fear, by all that attend in his holy places. The God of Israel gives strength and power unto his people. Through Christ strengthening us we can do all things, not otherwise; therefore he must have the glory of all we do, with our humble thanks for enabling us to do it, and for accepting the work of his hands in us.

PSALM 68

In this psalm it was David’s design to celebrate the victories which, through the blessing of God, he had gained over his enemies; As to the time and occasion of the composition of this psalm, the majority of interpreters refer it to the translation of the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to Mount Zion, and with this every part of it would, no doubt, harmonize. But other critics, as Drs Geddes, Boothroyd, and Morrison, think (and Calvin’s opinion seems to be the same) that it was penned after some great victory; probably after David’s signal victory over the Ammonites and Syrians, when the ark was brought back in triumph to Jerusalem, (1 Chronicles 19:10-19.) That the ark accompanied the army in those ways we learn from the words of Uriah to David, in 2 Samuel 11:11, compared with 2 Samuel 12:31. As every thing under that dispensation was typical or prophetical, it is very natural to regard the triumphant manner in which the ark ascended the holy mountain, as an emblem of the far more triumphant and glorious ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ (of whom the ark, and the tabernacle, and the temple itself, were all figures) to the highest heavens, after he had overcome his own and his people’s enemies; and in this application the 18th verse of this psalm is quoted by the Apostle Paul, (Ephesians 4:8, 9.)

This inspired composition, though highly sublime and beautiful, is universally acknowledged by critics to be of very difficult interpretation. Dr Adam Clarke pronounces it “the most difficult psalm in the whole Psalter;” and, after quoting the words of Simon de Muis, — who observes, that “it may not be improperly termed the torture of critics, and the reproach of commentators,” — he says, “There are customs here referred to, which I do not fully understand: there are words whose meaning I cannot, to my own satisfaction, ascertain; and allusions which are to me inexplicable. Yet of the composition itself I have the highest opinion: — it is sublime beyond all comparison; — it is constructed with an art truly admirable; — it possesses all the dignity of the sacred language; — none but David could have composed it; and, at this lapse of time, it would require no small influence of the Spirit that was upon him to give its true interpretations.” but, in the opening verses, he commends the power and goodness of God generally, as seen in the government of the world at large. From this he passes to the consideration of what God had done in redeeming his chosen people, and of the continued proofs of fatherly care which he had manifested to the posterity of Abraham. He then proceeds to the subject which he had more particularly in view, prosecuting it at length, and in terms of the most exalted description; praising the signal display of Divine power which he, and the whole nation with him, had experienced. Now that he had been made king, he infers that the Church was brought to a settled condition, and that God, who seemed to have departed, would now at length erect his throne, as it were, in the midst of it, and reign. In this it would evidently appear, that he designed, typically, to represent the glory of God afterwards to be manifested in Christ.

To the chief musician. A psalm or song of David.

Psalm 68:1-6

1. God shall arise: his enemies shall be scattered; and they who hate him shall flee before him. 2. As smoke is driven away, thou shalt drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, the wicked shall perish from the presence of God. 3. But the righteous shall be glad; they shall rejoice before God, and leap for exultation. 4. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: exalt him that rideth upon the clouds in Jah “C’est, Qui est Jah, ou l’Eternel?“ — Fr. marg. “That is, Who is Jah, or Jehovah?” Jah seems simply a contraction of the word Jehovah, the name which expresses, as far as can be expressed by words, the essence, self-existence, and eternity of the Supreme Being. his name, [or, in his name Jah,] and rejoice before him. 5. A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in the habitation of his holiness. 6. God who setteth the solitary in families, who bringeth, out those who are bound with chains; The original word בכושרות, bakosharoth, which Calvin renders, with chains, is rendered by Dathe, ad abundantiam; and by Berlin, ad opimitates; and is explained by Simeon, in his Lexicon, as “loca omnibus affluentia proprie abundantiae.” According to Gesenius, כושרה denotes “happiness, abundance, prosperity.” The LXX. render it ἐν ἀνδρέια, in strength, i e., bound firmly. Fry reads, “Bringing forth prisoners into scenes of plenty.” but the rebellious shall dwell in a dry land.

1. God shall arise: his enemies shall be scattered In this verse the Psalmist intimates, as it were by way of preface, the subject which he proposed to treat in the psalm, and which related to the truth that God, however long he may seem to connive at the audacity and cruelty of the enemies of his Church, will eventually arise to avenge it, and will prove himself able to protect it by the mere forth-putting of his hand. I agree with other interpreters in thinking that the sentiment is borrowed from Moses, (Numbers 10:35) That passage contains the words which Moses used when the ark began a procession. Whenever the tabernacle was moved, and the Levites marched onward, bearing upon their shoulders the ark of the covenant, and the whole host of Israel proceeded on their march, “Moses said, Rise up, Lord,” etc. Martin observes, that “the God whom these opening words of the psalm have in view is manifestly the same of whom it is said in verse 18, that he ascended up on high, and led captivity captive. Now he of whom that is said, being, according to the interpretation of the Apostle Paul, (Ephesians 4:8,) Jesus Christ, the Son of God, it clearly follows that it was the Son of God, the true God, Jehovah the eternal God, whom the Prophet had in his eye in the first verse and in the rest of the psalm.” See Appendix. There can be little doubt that in dictating the form of prayer there referred to, he had an eye to the instruction and comfort of all succeeding ages, and would teach the Lord’s people confidently to rely for safety upon the ark of the covenant, which was the visible symbol of the Divine presence. We may notice this difference, however, that Moses addressed the words to God as a prayer, while David rather expresses his satisfaction and delight in what he saw daily fulfilling before his own eyes. Some indeed read, Let God arise; but they appear to misapprehend the scope of the Psalmist. He means to say that observation attested the truth which Moses had declared of God’s needing only to rise up that all his enemies might be scattered before his irresistible power. Yet I see no objections to the other reading, provided the idea now mentioned be retained, and the words be considered as intimating that God needs no array of preparation in overthrowing his enemies, and can dissipate them with a breath. We are left to infer, that when his enemies at any time obtain an ascendancy, it is owing to an exercise of Divine forbearance, and that rage as they may, it is only with his permission; the time being not yet come for his rising. There is much comfort to be derived from the circumstance, that those who persecute the Church are here spoken of as God’s enemies. When he undertakes our defense, he looks upon the injuries done to us as dishonors cast upon his Divine Majesty. The Psalmist adds a striking figure to illustrate how easily God can overthrow the machinations of our enemies, comparing them to smoke which vanishes when blown upon by the wind, or wax which melts before the fire As wax melteth before the fire, “a proverbial expression, denoting speedy dissolution, consumption, and death.” — Bythner. We consider it utterly incredible that such a formidable array of opposition should be made to disappear in a moment. But the Spirit takes this method of chiding the fearfulness of our carnal minds, and teaching us that there is no such strength in our enemies as we suppose, — that we allow the smoke of them to blind our eyes, and the solid mass of resistance which they present to deceive us into a forgetfulness of the truth, that the mountains themselves flow down at the presence of the Lord. “Sed quasi fumo hebetari nostros oculos; falli etiam nos in ipsa duritie, quia non reputamus solo Dei conspectu liquefieri montes ipsos.” — Lat. “Mais qu’il y a comme une fumee qu’il nous esblouist les yeux; semblablement que nons nous abusons quant a leur durete et obstination; pource que nous ne venons point a considerer qu’au seul regard de Dieu les montagnes mesmes fondent et s’ecoulent.” Fr.

PSALM 68

Psa 68:1-35. This is a Psalm-song (see on Psa 30:1, title), perhaps suggested by David's victories, which secured his throne and gave rest to the nation. In general terms, the judgment of God on the wicked, and the equity and goodness of His government to the pious, are celebrated. The sentiment is illustrated by examples of God's dealings, cited from the Jewish history and related in highly poetical terms. Hence the writer intimates an expectation of equal and even greater triumphs and summons all nations to unite in praises of the God of Israel. The Psalm is evidently typical of the relation which God, in the person of His Son, sustains to the Church (compare Psa 68:18).

1-3. Compare Nu 10:35; Psa 1:4; 22:14, on the figures here used.

before him--as in Psa 68:2, from His presence, as dreaded; but in Psa 68:3, in His presence, as under His protection (Psa 61:7).

4. extol him ... heavens--literally, "cast up for Him who rideth in the deserts," or "wilderness" (compare Psa 68:7), alluding to the poetical representation of His leading His people in the wilderness as a conqueror, before whom a way is to be prepared, or "cast up" (compare Is 40:3; 62:10).

by his name JAH--or, "Jehovah," of which it is a contraction (Ex 15:3; Is 12:2) (Hebrew).

name--or, "perfections" (Psa 9:10; 20:1), which--

5-6. are illustrated by the protection to the helpless, vindication of the innocent, and punishment of rebels, ascribed to Him.

7-8. (Compare Ex 19:16-18).

thou wentest--in the pillar of fire.

thou didst march--literally, "in Thy tread," Thy majestic movement.

9-10. a plentiful rain--a rain of gifts, as manna and quails.

11. gave the word--that is, of triumph.

company--or, choir of females, celebrating victory (Ex 15:20).

12. Kings of armies--that is, with their armies.

she that ... at home--Mostly women so remained, and the ease of victory appears in that such, without danger, quietly enjoyed the spoils.

13. Some translate this, "When ye shall lie between the borders, ye shall," &c., comparing the peaceful rest in the borders or limits of the promised land to the proverbial beauty of a gentle dove. Others understand by the word rendered "pots," the smoked sides of caves, in which the Israelites took refuge from enemies in the times of the judges; or, taking the whole figuratively, the rows of stones on which cooking vessels were hung; and thus that a contrast is drawn between their former low and afflicted state and their succeeding prosperity. In either case, a state of quiet and peace is described by a beautiful figure.

14. Their enemies dispersed, the contrast of their prosperity with their former distress is represented by that of the snow with the dark and somber shades of Salmon.

15-16. Mountains are often symbols of nations (Psa 46:2; 65:6). That of Bashan, northeast of Palestine, denotes a heathen nation, which is described as a "hill of God," or a great hill. Such are represented as envious of the hill (Zion) on which God resides;

17. and, to the assertion of God's purpose to make it His dwelling, is added evidence of His protecting care. He is described as in the midst of His heavenly armies--

thousands of angels--literally, "thousands of repetitions," or, "thousands of thousands"--that is, of chariots. The word "angels" was perhaps introduced in our version, from De 33:2, and Ga 3:19. They are, of course, implied as conductors of the chariots.

as ... Sinai, in the holy place--that is, He has appeared in Zion as once in Sinai.

18. From the scene of conquest He ascends to His throne, leading--

captivity captive--or, "many captives captive" (Jud 5:12).

received gifts for men--accepting their homage, even when forced, as that of rebels.

that the Lord God might dwell--or literally, "to dwell, O Lord God" (compare Psa 68:16)--that is, to make this hill, His people or Church, His dwelling. This Psalm typifies the conquests of the Church under her divine leader, Christ. He, indeed, "who was with the Church in the wilderness" (Ac 7:38) is the Lord, described in this ideal ascension. Hence Paul (Ep 4:8) applies this language to describe His real ascension, when, having conquered sin, death, and hell, the Lord of glory triumphantly entered heaven, attended by throngs of adoring angels, to sit on the throne and wield the scepter of an eternal dominion. The phrase "received gifts for (or literally, among) men" is by Paul, "gave gifts to men." Both describe the acts of a conqueror, who receives and distributes spoils. The Psalmist uses "receiving" as evincing the success, Paul "gave" as the act, of the conqueror, who, having subdued his enemies, proceeds to reward his friends. The special application of the passage by Paul was in proof of Christ's exaltation. What the Old Testament represents of His descending and ascending corresponds with His history. He who descended is the same who has ascended. As then ascension was an element of His triumph, so is it now; and He, who, in His humiliation, must be recognized as our vicarious sacrifice and the High Priest of our profession, must also be adored as Head of His Church and author of all her spiritual benefits.

19-21. God daily and fully supplies us. The issues or escapes from death are under His control, who is the God that saves us, and destroys His and our enemies.

22. Former examples of God's deliverance are generalized: as He has done, so He will do.

from Bashan--the farthest region; and--

depths of the sea--the severest afflictions. Out of all, God will bring them. The figures of Psa 68:23 denote the completeness of the conquest, not implying any savage cruelty (compare 2Ki 9:36; Is 63:1-6; Jr 15:3).

24-27. The triumphal procession, after the deliverance, is depicted.

They have seen--impersonally, "There have been seen."

the goings of my God--as leading the procession; the ark, the symbol of His presence, being in front. The various bands of music (Psa 68:25) follow, and all who are--

28-29. Thanks for the past, and confident prayer for the future victories of Zion are mingled in a song of praise.

30. The strongest nations are represented by the strongest beasts (compare Margin).

31. Princes--or, literally, "fat ones," the most eminent from the most wealthy, and the most distant nation, represent the universal subjection.

stretch out her hands--or, "make to run her hands," denoting haste.

32-36. To Him who is presented as riding in triumph through His ancient heavens and proclaiming His presence--to Him who, in nature, and still more in the wonders of His spiritual government, out of His holy place (Psa 43:3), is terrible, who rules His Church, and, by His Church, rules the world in righteousness--let all nations and kingdoms give honor and power and dominion evermore.

Let God arise - This was sung when the Levites took up the ark upon their shoulders; see Num 10:35-36 (note), and the notes there.

Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Jah - "Extol him who sitteth on the throne of glory, in the ninth heaven; Yah is his name; and rejoice before him." - Targum. בערבות baaraboth, which we render in the high heavens, is here of doubtful signification. As it comes from the root ערב arab, to mingle, (hence ereb the evening or twilight, because it appears to be formed of an equal mixture of light and darkness; the Septuagint translate it dusmwn, the west, or setting of the sun; so does the Vulgate and others); probably it may mean the gloomy desert, through which God, in the chariot of his glory, led the Israelites. If this interpretation do not please, then let it be referred to the darkness in which God is said to dwell, through which the rays of his power and love, in the various dispensations of his power and mercy, shine forth for the comfort and instruction of mankind.

By his name Jah - יה Yah, probably a contraction of the word יהוה Yehovah; at least so the ancient Versions understood it. It is used but in a few places in the sacred writings. It might be translated The Self existent.

The solitary in families - יחדים yechidim, the single persons.

Is not the meaning, God is the Author of marriage; and children, the legal fruit of it, are an inheritance from him?

O God, when thou wentest forth - This and the following verse most manifestly refer to the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness.

Didst send a plentiful rain - גשם נדבות geshem nedaboth, a shower of liberality. I believe this to refer to the manna by which God refreshed and preserved alive the weary and hungry Israelites.

Thy congregation hath dwelt therein - חיתך chaiyathecha, thy living creature; τα ζωα, Septuagint; animalia, Vulgate; so all the Versions. Does not this refer to the quails that were brought to the camp of the Israelites, and dwelt, as it were, round about it? And was not this, with the manna and the refreshing rock, that goodness which God had provided for the poor - the needy Israelites?

Great was the company of those that published it - המבשרות צבא רב hammebasseroth tsaba rab; "Of the female preachers there was a great host." Such is the literal translation of this passage; the reader may make of it what he pleases. Some think it refers to the women who, with music, songs, and dances, celebrated the victories of the Israelites over their enemies. But the publication of good news, or of any joyful event, belonged to the women. It was they who announced it to the people at large; and to this universal custom, which prevails to the present day, the psalmist alludes. See this established in the note on Isa 40:9 (note).

Kings of armies did flee - Rabin and the kings of the Canaanites, who united their forces to overwhelm the Israelites.

And she - Deborah the prophetess, a woman accustomed to tarry at home, and take care of the family; she divided the spoils, and vanquished their kings.

Though ye have lien among the pots - The prophet is supposed here to address the tribes of Reuben and Gad, who remained in their inheritances, occupied with agricultural, maritime, and domestic affairs, when the other tribes were obliged to go against Jabin, and the other Canaanitish kings. Ye have been thus occupied, while your brethren sustained a desperate campaign; but while you are inglorious, they obtained the most splendid victory, and dwell under those rich tents which they have taken from the enemy; coverings of the most beautiful colors, adorned with gold and silver. The words בירקרק חרוץ birakrak charuts, native gold, so exceedingly and splendidly yellow as to approach to greenness - from ירק yarak, to be green; and the doubling of the last syllable denotes an exeess in the denomination - excessively green - blistering green. The Targum gives us a curious paraphrase of this and the following verse: "If ye, O ye kings, slept among your halls, the congregation of Israel, which is like a dove covered with the clouds of glory, divided the prey of the Egyptians, purified silver, and coffers full of the finest gold. And when it stretched out its hands in prayer over the sea, the Almighty cast down kingdoms; and for its sake cooled hell like snow, and snatched it from the shadow of death." Perhaps the Romanists got some idea of purgatory here. For the sake of the righteous, the flames of hell are extinguished!

The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan - This and the following verse should be read thus: "Is Mount Bashan the craggy mount, Mount Bashan, the mount of God? Why envy ye, ye craggy mounts? This is the mount of God in which he has desired to dwell." The Targum countenances this translation: Mount Moriah, the place where our fathers of old worshipped God, is chosen to build on it the house of the sanctuary, and Mount Sinai for the giving of the law. Mount Bashan, Mount Tabor, and Carmel are rejected; they are made as Mount Bashan."

Why leap ye, ye high hills? - "God said, Why leap ye, ye high hills? It is not pleasing to me to give my law upon high and towering hills. Behold, Mount Sinai is low; and the Word of the Lord has desired to place on it the Divine majesty. Moreover, the Lord dwells for ever in the heaven of heavens." - Targum.

The psalmist is speaking particularly of the mountains of Judea, and those of Gilead; the former were occupied by the Canaanites, and the others by Og, king of Bashan, and Sihon, king of the Amorites, whom Moses defeated.

The chariots of God are twenty thousand - רבתים אלפי שנאן ribbothayim alpey shinan, "two myriads of thousands doubled." Does not this mean simply forty thousand? A myriad is 10,000; two myriads, 20,000; these doubled, 40,000. Or thus: 10,000 + 10,000 + 20,000 = 40,000. The Targum says, "The chariots of God are two myriads; two thousand angels draw them; the majesty of God rests upon them in holiness on Mount Sinai." But what does this mean? We must die to know.

Thou hast ascended on high - When the ark had reached the top of Sion, and was deposited in the place assigned for it, the singers joined in the following chorus. This seems to be an allusion to a military triumph. The conqueror was placed on a very elevated chariot.

Led captivity captive - The conquered kings and generals were usually tied behind the chariot of the conqueror - bound to it, bound together, and walked after it, to grace the triumph of the victor.

Thou hast received gifts for men - "And gave gifts unto men;" Eph 4:8. At such times the conqueror threw money among the crowd. Thou hast received gifts among men, באדם baadam, In Man, in human nature; and God manifest in the flesh dwells among mortals! Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift! By establishing his abode among the rebellious the prophet may refer to the conquest of the land of Canaan, and the country beyond Jordan.

Yea, for the rebellious also - Even to the rebellious. Those who were his enemies, who traduced his character and operations, and those who fought against him now submit to him, and share his munificence; for it is the property of a hero to be generous.

That the Lord God might dwell among them - יה אלהים yah Elohim, the self-existing God; see on Psa 68:4 (note). The conqueror now coming to fix his abode among the conquered people to organize them under his laws, to govern and dispense justice among them. The whole of this is very properly applied by St. Paul, Eph 4:5, to the resurrection and glory of Christ; where the reader is requested to consult the note.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us - With benefits is not in the text. Perhaps it would be better to translate the clause thus: "Blessed be Adonai, our Prop day by day, who supports us." Or, "Blessed be the Lord, who supports us day by day." Or as the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic: "Blessed be the Lord daily, our God who makes our journey prosperous; even the God of our salvation." The Syriac, "Blessed be the Lord daily, who hath chosen our inheritance." The word עמס amas, which we translate to load, signifies to lift, bear up, support, or to bear a burden for another. Hence it would not be going far from the ideal meaning to translate: "Blessed be the Lord day by day, who bears our burdens for us." But loadeth us with benefits is neither a translation nor meaning.

The issues from death - The going out or exodus from death - from the land of Egypt and house of bondage. Or the expression may mean, Life and death are in the hand of God. "He can create, and he destroy."

The hairy scalp - קדקד שער kodkod sear. Does this mean any thing like the Indian scalping? Or does it refer to a crest on a helmet or headcap? I suppose the latter.

From the depths of the sea - All this seems to speak of the defeat of the Egypttians, and the miraculous passage of the Red Sea.

That thy foot may be dipped in the blood - God will make such a slaughter among his enemies, the Amorites, that thou shalt walk over their dead bodies; and beasts of prey shall feed upon them.

They have seen thy goings - These kings of the Amorites have seen thy terrible majesty in their discomfiture, and the slaughter of their subjects.

The singers went before - This verse appears to be a description of the procession.

Bless ye God - This is what they sung.

There is little Benjamin - This is a description of another part of the procession.

Thy God hath commanded - This and the following verses is what they sung.

Rebuke the company of spearmen - חית קנה chaiyath kaneh, the wild beast of the reed - the crocodile or hippopotamus, the emblem of Pharaoh and the Egyptians; thus all the Versions. Our translators have mistaken the meaning; but they have put the true sense in the margin.

Aethiopta shall soon stretch out her hands unto God - This verse had its literal fulfillment under Solomon, when Egypt formed an alliance with that king by his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter; and when the queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But as this may be a prophetic declaration of the spread of Christianity, it was literally fulfilled after the resurrection of our Lord. There were Egyptians at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, who, St. Hilary tells us, on their return to their own country proclaimed what they had seen, and became in that country the ambassadors of Christ. The Ethiopian eunuch was one of the first among the Gentiles who received the Gospel. Thus princes or chief men came out of Egypt, and Ethiopia stretched out her hands to God. The words themselves refer to the sending ambassadors, and making alliances. The Hebrew is very emphatic: כוש תריץ ידיו לאלהים cush tarits yadiav lelohim; Cush will cause her hands to run out to God. She will, with great alacrity and delight, surrender her power and influence unto God. The Chaldee paraphrases well: "The sons of Cush will run, that they may spread out their hands in prayer before God."

Sing unto God - All the inhabitants of the earth are invited to sing unto God, to acknowledge him as their God, and give him the praise due to his name.

Rideth upon the heavens - He who manages the heavens, directing their course and influence, he formed every orb, ascertained its motion, proportioned its solid contents to the orbit in which it was to revolve, and the other bodies which belong to the same system. As an able and skillful rider manages his horse, so does God the sun, moon, planets, and all the hosts of heaven.

He doth send out his voice - At his word of command they run, shed, or reflect their light; and without the smallest deviations obey his will.

Mighty voice - He thunders in the heavens, and men tremble before him.

His strength is in the clouds - This refers to the bursting, rattling, and pounding of thunder and lightning; for all nations have observed that this is an irresistible agent; and even the most enlightened have looked on it as an especial manifestation of the power and sovereignty of God.

O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places - The sanctuary and heaven. Out of the former he had often shone forth with consuming splendor; see the case of Korah and his company: out of the latter he had often appeared in terrible majesty in storms, thunder, lightning, etc.

He that giveth strength and power unto his people - Therefore that people must be invincible who have this strong and irresistible God for their support.

Blessed be God - He alone is worthy to be worshipped. Without him nothing is wise, nothing holy, nothing strong; and from him, as the inexhaustible Fountain, all good must be derived. His mercy over his creatures is equal to his majesty in the universe, and as he has all good in his possession, so is he willing to deal it out, to supply the utmost necessities of his creatures. Blessed be God! The Arabic adds, Alleluiah!

The best analysis I find of this Psalm is that by Bishop Nicholson. I shall give it at large, begging the reader to refer particularly to those passages on which the preceding notes are written, as in some of them the analysis gives a different view of the subject. The old Psalter gives the whole Psalm a spiritual and mystical interpretation. And this is commonly the ease in the commentaries of the fathers.

Jah - Is an abbreviation of the name Jehovah, which the Heathens pronounced Jao. Before him - Before the ark where he is present, as David is said to dance before the Lord, upon this occasion, 2Sam 6:14.

Habitation - In heaven.

Rebellious - Those who rebel against God.

Wentest - In the cloudy pillar, as their captain leading them up out of Egypt.

Dropped - Poured down great showers, which accompanied those mighty thunders.

Weary - Dry and thirsty, and parched with excessive heat, and ready to faint for want of rain, Psal 63:1.

Thy congregation - The people of Israel. It - This land for the use of thy people: which God did by designing it for them, and expelling the old inhabitants; by furnishing it with all sorts of provisions, and making it fruitful by his special blessing. Poor - Such thy really were, when God undertook the conduct of them into Canaan.

Gave - He put this triumphant song into their mouths.

Kings - The kings of Canaan, and other nations who came forth against the Israelites, accompanied with great and numerous armies. The spoil - There was enough, not only for those who took it, but also to be divided to their wives and children, when they came home.

Ye - Ye Israelites. Ye are - Tho' you have formerly been exposed to great reproach and misery, yet God hath changed your condition. Gold - Beautiful and glorious, like the feathers of a dove, which according to the variety of its postures, and of the light shining upon it, look like silver and gold.

Therein - In Canaan, at the coming of the Israelites. The land was as white as mount Salmon is with the snow.

The hill - Zion, the seat of God's ark. High hill - Which is not to be understood of external height, but of its spiritual height, or exaltation, in regard of the glorious privileges of God's presence, and worship.

Leap - Why do you triumph and look upon Zion with contempt? He speaks to the hills by an usual figure. Will dwell - This hill, though despicable in your eyes, is precious in God's, and chosen by him for his perpetual residence.

Chariots - The armies (whereof chariots were an eminent part in those times) which attend upon God to do his pleasure. Twenty thousand - An innumerable company, a certain number being put for an uncertain. Among them - Here the psalmist seems to be transported by the prophetic spirit, from the narration of those external successes, to the prediction of the Messiah; and of the transcendent privileges and blessings accruing to mankind thereby. As in Sinai - God is no less gloriously, though less terribly present here, than he was in Sinai, when the great God attended with thousands of his angels, solemnly appeared to deliver the law. Yea, here is a greater privilege than Sinai had, The Lord Jehovah descending from heaven into an human body, as appears by his ascending thither again, which the next verse describes.

Ascended - This has a manifest reference to Christ, and his ascension into heaven, in whom alone it is literally accomplished, and to whom therefore it is ascribed, Eph 4:8. Although the expressions are borrowed from the ancient custom of princes, who, after some glorious achievements, used to go up into their royal cities in triumphant chariots, being attended by their captive enemies, and afterward to distribute gifts to their soldiers and subjects, and sometimes to do some acts of clemency even to their rebels and enemies. Captivity - Those whom thou hast taken captive; death and sin, and the devil, and all the enemies of Christ, and of his people, whom Christ led in triumph, having spoiled them, and making a shew of them openly, Col 2:15. Received - According to thy manhood thou hast received from God all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and all those gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which are necessary either to the perfection of thy nature, or to the good of thy church and people. Rebellious - Thy most stubborn and rebellious enemies, whether Jews or Gentiles. Might dwell - That he who as man is ascended into the highest heavens, might, as God, come down to them, and dwell with them, not only in and by his ordinances in which he is present, but also by his spirit dwelling in their hearts.

Issues - Escapes or deliverances.

Hairy - In ancient times many people used to wear long and shaggy hair, that their looks might be more terrible to their enemies.

Bring again - I will give my people as great deliverances as I formerly did, when I saved them from Og, king of Bashan. The sea - From the Egyptians at the Red Sea.

That, &c. - And as it was at the Red Sea, and at Bashan before, so yet again thine enemies shall be slain in such numbers, that thou mayst wade in their blood, and thy dogs lick it up in the field.

They - Men saw and observed it. Goings - The procession of the ark to Zion, the solemnity whereof is particularly described in the following verses. The sanctuary - The tabernacle prepared for it.

Fountain - All ye people of Israel.

There is - Present in this solemn pomp of carrying the ark to Zion. Little - Called little, because it was exceedingly diminished, and almost extinguished under the Judges, Judg 20:35 21:3 &c. Ruler - The tribe which had lately swayed the scepter, but now submitted to David. Company - The people of that tribe who waited upon them. Zebulun, &c. - He mentions these tribes, because they lived in the remotest parts of the land of Canaan. And so by naming two of the nearest tribes, and two of the farthest, he intimates that the other tribes also came upon this occasion, as is manifest from 2Sam 6:15 - 19.

Thy God - Having spoken of Israel, he now directs his speech to them. Commanded - Hath ordained or effectually procured. Thy strength - all that strength and power which thou hast put forth at any time

thy temple - The temple which Solomon shall build. Kings - Kings of the Gentiles: which was done in part, in the times of Solomon and Hezekiah, but more fully when the Lord was come into his temple.

Rebuke - Chastise those that will not bring presents to thee. The bulls - The fierce and furious adversaries of God, and of his church; the calves, are people or soldiers depending upon them. Delight - That merely out of a love to mischief and spoil, make war upon others, and upon us particularly.

Ethiopia - He names these, as the ancient enemies of God, and of his people; but by them he understands all other nations of the like character. Unto God - Begging mercy of him. This prophecy, as also the next verse, evidently belongs to the times of the Messiah.

Heavens - The highest heavens; dwelling there in infinite glory, and from thence looking down upon all the inhabitants of the earth, and ruling them by his almighty power. Of old - From the beginning of the world; whereas the ark was only some hundred years old. A voice - His gospel, published by Christ and his apostles, assisted by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven; which might well be called God's voice, and that a mighty voice, because it produced such great and wonderful effects.

Ascribe - Acknowledge that he is able to do whatsoever he pleaseth. Excellency - His excellent power and goodness. Is over - Dwells among them. He is indeed the universal Lord, but in a special manner, he is the God of Israel.

Terrible - Deservedly to be feared.

1 LEt God arise , let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him , flee before him.

O that God would arise from his Seat, and bestir himself and go forth to fight with his Enemies, who, if he do so, will easily and suddenly be scattered. Or, God will arise. And so the other Verbs following may be rendred, as being of the Future Tense: Shall be scattered, shall flee, &c. Although the Futures are frequently rendred Imperatively; and so they are truly rendred, Numb. 10. 35. whence this Verse is taken.

All God's Enemies are here said to hate God, not directly and formally, for there are few such Persons, but because they hate his Laws and Government, and his People and Image, and because they fight against him and his, which is justly taken for an Evidence of Hatred.

Marginal references: Numb. 10. 35.; Heb. from his fall.

2 As smoke is driven away , so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

As smoke at first mounts high and fills a great space of Air, but speedily Vanisheth into Air, or is dispersed with the Wind.

3 But let the righteous be glad, let them rejoyce before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoyce .

For God's gracious appearance on their behalf, and for his settled Presence with them.

Marginal references: Heb. rejoyce with Gladness.

4 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name IAH , and rejoyce before him .

By praising him, of which this Verb is used, Prov. 4. 8. Or rather, raise up or prepare the way for him; For so this Word is commonly used, as Isa. 57. 14. and 61. 10. and elsewhere. And this doubtless they did for this Solemnity of bringing the Ark to Zion. Comp. Isa. 40. 3.

Which Phrase is used, below v. 33. though in differing Words. Or, that did Ride in the Desert, where the Ark was carried, and God marched along with it in the Cloudy Pillar. Or, that now Rideth as (which Particle is frequently understood) in the Desert, (i. e.) That is now carried from place to place as it was in the Desert. The word here rendred Heavens, doth generally signifie the Desert or plain Fields, as N[illegible: 1+ letters]mb. 33. 48. 50. and 36. 13. Ios. 5. 10. 2 Sam. 4. 7. Isa. 40. 3. Compared with Luk. 3. 4.

Whereby he is known and distinguished from all false Gods. For Iab is generally conceived to be an abbreviature of the Name Iehovah, which the Heathens pronounced Iab.

Before the Ark where he is present, as David himself is said to Dance before the Lord, upon this Occasion, 2 Sam. 6. 14.

Marginal references: Or, prepare the [non-Latin text not transcribed] for him. So [illegible: 1 word].

5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows , is God in his holy habitation .

He now enters upon some of the Matters or Reasons, for which God is to be extolled: Whereof this is one, that he is the Patron of such as are injured and oppressed, and have not Power to help themselves.

Either in his Tabernacle: Or in Heaven. Though he dwels there, yet the Eyes of his Fatherly Providence and Care, run to and fro to help his People when they are distressed.

Marginal references: Psal. 146. 9. Jer. 49. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].

6 God setteth the solitary in families . he bringeth out those which are bound with chains , but the rebellious dwell in a dry land .

Such as were single and Solitary, he blesseth with a Wife and Children, as he did Abraham. Houses are oft put for Posterity, as Exod. 1. 21. Ruth 4. 11. 2 Sam. 7. 11.

He setteth Captives and Prisoners at Liberty, as he did the Israelites, &c.

Those who Rebel against God, as the Egyptians did.

Are deprived of all true Comfort, and plagued with manifold Calamities.

Marginal references: Psal. 113. 9.; Heb. i[illegible: 1+ letters] a House.; Psal. 107. 10. & 146. 7.; Psal. 107. 34.

7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people , when thou didst march through the wilderness. Selah.

In the Cloudy Pillar, as their Captain leading them out of Egypt.

8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God, even Sinai it self [illegible: 1 word] moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Either, 1. Metonymically, the Inhabitants of those parts of the Earth, by Comparing Exod. 15. 14. Or, 2. Properly, by Comparing Psal. 114. 5, 6, 7. There was a great Earthquake, as a token of God's dreadful Presence.

(i. e.) Poured down great Showers, which accompanied those mighty Thunders, as usually it doth.

Or, dropped; which may be [illegible: 1 word] out of the former Clause, was even melted or dissolved with Fear. It is a poetical Representation, of the [illegible: 1+ letters]erribleness of God's appearance.

Marginal references: Exod. 19. 18. Judg. 5. 4. Isa. 64. 1. 3.

9 Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain , whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance , when it was weary .

Either, 1. In the Wilderness; where they oft wanted Water and were by God's extraordinary Care supplied with it. Or rather, 2. in the Land of Canaan, which he calls God's Inheritance in the next Words; as also Exod. 15. 17. and in many other places of Scripture, in which God's people are said to dwell in the next Verse, of which, and the things done in it, he speaks in the following Verses, and which, being Destitute of those Constant supplies, from the overflowings of a great River, which Egypt enjoyed, God took a special Care to supply with Rain asoccasion required; of which see Deut. 11. 10. 11.

Or, stablish, or support, or sustain.

Either thy People: Or rather thy Land, as was now said.

Dry and Thirsty, and Parched with excessive Heat, and ready to Faint for want of Rain; Compare Psal. 63. 1.

Marginal references: Heb. shake out.; Heb. confirm it.

10 Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor .

Thy People of Israel, who are all united into one Body, under thee their Head and Governour. For though this Word commonly signifies Living Creatures, yet sometimes it signifies a Company of Men, as here below, v. 31. and 2 Sam. 23. 13. Compared with, 1 Chron. 11. 15. and Psal. 74. 19. Or, the Proper signification of the Word may be retained, and it may be rendred, thy Flock: For God oft Compares himself to a Shepherd, and his People to Sheep, and particularly, he is said to have led his People like a Flock, by the Hand of Moses and Aaron, Psal. 77. 20. To wit, in the Wilderness: and Consequently he may be here said to have brought his Sheep into, and made them to dwell in Canaan, as in a Green and good Pasture, as God speaks of his People under this very Metaphor, Psal. 23. 2.

Or, prepared it, which Pronoun is oft understood, and here most easily out of the foregoing Clause of this Verse, where it is expressed: Prepared it, to wit, this Land for the use of thy People; which God did many ways; Partly, by designing it for them, and expelling the old Inhabitants, to make way for them; and Partly, by furnishing it with all sorts of Provisions, both for necessity and delight, and making it fruitful by his special Blessing, in giving Rain in its Proper Seasons.

By thy free and singular Goodness. Which may be referred both to the Cause of this Preparation, God did it not for their Righteousness or Worthiness, but out of his meer Mercy, as God oft telleth them; and to the manner and Measure of it, God did wonderfully increase the Fruits of it, that it might suffice for the supply of such a numerous People; which without his extraordinary Blessing it would not do, as appears by the state of that Land at this Day, as it is Reported by Travellers and Eye-Witnesses of it.

To wit, for thy People of Israel, whom he here calls Poor; Partly, to repress that Pride and Arrogance, to which they are exceeding Prone; and to mind them of the Dependence upon God, for all that they have and Hope for: and Partly, because they really were, when God undertook the Conduct of them into Canaan, a very poor and beggerly People, and so they would have still been, if God had not provided for them in a singular manner.

11 The Lord gave the word , great was the company of those that published it .

(i. e.) The Matter of the Word or Discourse here following. He put this Triumphant Song into their Mouths; he gave his People all those Successes and Victories, which are here celebrated. Or, gave the Matter or thing, which was published.

The works of God on the behalf of his People, were so glorious and wonderful that all sorts of Persons, both Men and Women, that heard of them, broke forth into Songs of Praise to God for them. The Hebrew word is of the Feminine Gender, because it was the manner of the Hebrews, that when the Men returned Victorious from the Battel, the Women went out to meet them with Songs of Triumph; Exod. 15. 20. Iudg. 11. 34. 1 Sam. 18. 6.

Marginal references: Heb. Army.

12 Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil .

The Kings of Canaan, and other Nations which came forth against the Israelites, accompanied with great and numerous Armies.

The spoil was so much, that there was enough, not onely for the Proper use of those who took it, but also to be divided to their Wives and Children, when they came home. This Verse, and that which follows may be taken; Either, 1. For the Triumphant Song sung by those Publishers mentioned, v. 11. Or, 2. For the Words of David, continuing the Relation of the Victories granted by God to Israel over their Enemies.

Marginal references: Heb. did flee, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

13 Though ye g have lien among the pots , yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold . ,

Like Scullions that commonly lye down in the Kitchin among the Pots or Hearth-stones, whereby they are very much discoloured and desormed: Which is fitly opposed to the following Beauty. Though you have been filled with Affliction, and Contempt.

Beautiful and Glorious, like the Feather of a Dove, which according to the Variety of its postures, and of the light shining upon it, look like Silver or Gold.

Ye Israelites: to whom he now turneth his Speech.

i Or, yee have been. Which may seem more suitable to the Context, both foregoing and following, wherein he doth not speak Propherically of things to come, but Historically of things past. So the Sence of the Verse is; Though you have formerly been exposed to great Servitude and Reproach, and Misery, to wit, in Egypt, yet since that time God hath changed your Condition greatly for the better.

Marginal references: Or, Ranges.

14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it , ‖ it was white as snow in Salmon .

In Canaan, at the coming of the Israelites thither.

The Land was as white as Mount Salmon is with the Snow, which falls and lyes for a long time upon it; which is opposed to the Native obscurity of that Mountain by the many shady Trees which were there, Iudg. 9. 48. But because there is nothing certain; Either, concerning the great height of this Mountain, or, concerning its Snow, as we do read of the Snow of Lebanon, Ier. 18. 14. other Interpreters, both Hebrew and Christian, and the Chaldee amongst the rest, take this Word Salmon for a Common, and not a Proper name, signifying Darkness or a Shadow, as the Root, from whence it comes, unquestionably signifies. Nor is it strange, if this Word be no where else taken in that Sence but here, because that is the Lot of many Hebrew Words, or of some significations of them, that they are to be found but in one Text of Scripture. This being granted, the Words are or may be rendred thus, it was Snow-white, or thou madest it Snow-white in Darkness, or as the Chaldee renders this Word, in the shadow of Death; (i. e.) Thou didst cause Light to shine out of Darkness; When the state of thy People, and of the Land of Canaan which thou hadst given to them, was Dark and [illegible: 1 word], or Bloody, by reason of the Wars raised against them, by the Canaanitish Kings, thou didst quickly change it, and whereas it was Red like Scarlet or Crim[illegible: 1+ letters]on, thou mad'st it whiter than Snow.

Marginal references: Or, for her, [illegible: 1 word], &c. Or, thou madest it [illegible: 1+ letters]o Snow.

15 The hill of God , is as the hill of Bashan , an high hill as the hill of Bashan.

(i. e.) Of Zion, the seat of God's Ark.

Equal to it, to [illegible: 1 word], in height, as the next Clause explains it, which yet is not to be understood of an external and Visible height, for Zion was a low and little H[illegible: 1+ letters]ll, and Bashan a very high [illegible: 1 word]; but of its spiritual height, or Exaltation, in Regard of the glorious Priviledges of God's Presence, and Worship, and Blessing conferred upon it; in which Respect the Mountain of the Lords House, is said to be Established on the top of the Mountains, and exalted above the Hills, Isa. 2. 2.

16 Why leap ye , ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in, yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever .

Why do you Triumph and bo[illegible: 1+ letters]st of your height, and look upon poor Zion with Storn and Contempt, as un obscure and inconsiderable Hill, if Compared with you? He speaks to the Hills by an usual Figure called [illegible: 1 word].

This Hi[illegible: 1+ letters]l, though despicable in your Eyes, is precious and Honourable in God's Eyes, and chosen by him for his settled and perpetual Residence. For though the Ark was removed from this particular place, in which it was now to be placed, to the Hill of Moriah, upon which the Temple was built, yet it must be remembred, that Zion and Moriah stood one near to the other, being both in Ierusalem, and are by some said to have been but two Tops of one and the same Hill.

Marginal references: Psal. 87. 1. [illegible: 1 word] 132. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].

17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place .

(i. e.) The Hosts or Armies (whereof Chariots were a great and Eminent part in those times and places) which attend upon God to do his Pleasure, and to fight for him and for his People.

(i. e.) An innumerable Company, a certain number being put for an uncertain, as Psal. 3. 6. and 91. 7. and in many other places.

Here is not onely the Presence of the Angels, but of the great and blessed God himself. And here the Psalmist seems to be transported by the Prophetical Spirit, from the Narration of those external Successes, and Victories of which he had been speaking in the former part of the Psalm, unto the Prediction of higher and more Glorious things, even of the coming of the Messiah; and of the Happy and Transcendent Priviledges, and Blessings accruing to Mankind by it, described in the next Verse. And the Connexion of this new Matter with the former, is sufficiently Evident. For having preferred Zion before other Hills, v. 15, 16. he now proves its Excellency, by an invincible Argument, because this is the place to which the Lord of Hosts himself, the Messiah, God manifested in the Flesh, was to come, as is manifest from Psal. 2. 6. and 110. 2. Isa. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 3. and 23. 16. Compared with 1 Pet. 2. 6. Isa 59. 20. Compared with R[illegible: 1+ letters]m. 11. 26. and many other places of Scripture. And when he did come into the World, he was attended with a multitude of holy Angels, which celebrated his Birth, Luk. 2. 14.

t God is no less Gloriously, though less Terribly, present here then he was in Sinai, when the great God attended with Thousands of his Angels, solemnly appeared there to deliver the Law, Heb. Sinai is in the Sanctuary, or holy Place. Which is a Poetical and a very Emphatical Expression, and very Per[illegible: 1+ letters]inent to this place. For having advanced Zion above all other Hi[illegible: 1+ letters]ls, he now equals it to that venerable Hill of Sinai, which the Divine Majesty honoured with his glorious Presence. Here, saith he, you have in some sort Mount Sinai it self, to wit, all the Glories and Priviledges of it, the Presence of Iehovah attended with his Angels, and the same Law and Covenant, yea, and a greater Priviledge than Sinai h[illegible: 1+ letters]d, to wit, the Lord Iehovah descending from Heaven, into an humane Body, as appears by his ascending thither again, which the next Verse describes, and visibly coming into his own Temple, as it was Prophecied concerning him, Mal. 3. 1.

Marginal references: Deut. 33. 2. D[illegible: 1+ letters]n. 7. 10. Heb. 12. 22. Rev. 9. 16.; Or, even mary Thousands.; Heb. Thousands of doubling, or, doubt[illegible: 1+ letters] ones.

18 Thou hast ascended on high , thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men , yea, for the rebellious also , that the LORD God might dwell among them .

Having spoken of the Lord, and of his Presence upon Earth, he now turneth his Speech to him, as is most usual in this Book. And the Contents of this Verse do not agree to the present occasion of carrying the Ark to Zion, but have a manifest Reference to Christ, and to his Ascension into Heaven, in whom, and in whom alone they are literally and fully accomplished, and to whom therefore they are ascribed, Eph. 4. 8. Although the Expressions here used, are borrowed from the An[illegible: 1+ letters]ient Custom of Princes, or Generals of Armies, who, after some glorious Archievments and Victories used to go up into their Royal Cities in triumphant Chariots, being attended by their captive [illegible: 1+ letters]nemies, and afterward to distribute divers gifts to their Soldiers and Subjects, and sometimes to do some Acts of Grace and [illegible: 1+ letters]lemency even to their Rebels and Enemies, and to receive them into the number of his own people.

[illegible: 1 word] 1. Those who did formerly take thy people captives. Or rather 2. Those whom thou hast taken captive, as this word is most commonly used, as Numb. 21. 1. Deut. 21. 10. Iudg. 5. 12. &c. So poverty is put for the poor, 2 Kings 24. 14. This is meant of death and sin, and the Devil, and all the Enemies of Christ, and of his people, whom Christ led in triumph, having spoiled them, and making a shew of them op[illegible: 1+ letters]nly, as it is expressed, Col. 2. 15.

Though as thou art God thou art uncapable of receiving any thing more than thou hast, yet according to thy manhood thou hast received from God all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and all those gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit which are necessary either to the perfection of thy nature, or to the discharge of thine Office, or to the service and good of thy Church and people.

Not for thy self, for thou didst not need them, having th[illegible: 1+ letters] fulness of the God-head dwelling in thee bodily, Col. 2. 9. but for the sons of men, or which thou mightest give unto men; whence for receiving for men, the Apostle justly saith, gave unto men, Eph. 4. 8. because he received them for no other end but to give them, and in such cases receiving or taking is oft put for giving, or for taking and giving, as Exod. 25. 2. Iudg. 14. 2. 1 Kings 3. 24. and 17. 10, &c.

Nor didst thou onely receive gifts or, and give them to thy friends and people, as the manner of other Conquerors is, but also to thy most stubborn and rebellious Enemies, whether Jews or Gentiles, who resolved to break thy bands asunder, and to cast away thy cords from them: As is said Psal. 2. 3. And would not have thee to reign over them, Luk. 19. 14. Who crucified him and put him to open shame; and yet to these, as well as others, thou d[illegible: 1+ letters]dst give those saving gifts and graces, as we read Act. 2. and elsewhere.

That having received such gifts, and thereby being made fit habitations for God, he who as man is ascended into the highest Heavens might, as God, come down to them, and dwell with them, not onely in and by his Ordinances in which he is present, but also by his Spirit dwelling in their hear[illegible: 1+ letters]s by faith. Or, that they might dwell with the Lord God; the particle with being either understood, as it is in many places, or being contained in the Hebrew Verb Shacan, which, as some Hebrew Criticks observe, signifies not onely to dwell, but to dwell with another; of which the Learned may see many instances in Forsterus his Hebrew Lexicon. So the sence is, that they who were estranged, and at a distance from God, and Enemies to him, might draw near to him, and dwell with him both here and in Heaven.

Marginal references: Eph. 4. 8.; Heb. the Ma[illegible: 1+ letters].

19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, c even the God of our salvation, Selah.

The onely author and finisher both of our present and of our eternal salvation.

And besides that great and glorious blessing of his Ascension which once he wrought for us, he is daily conserring new favours upon us. Heb. Who layeth load upon us. Which may be understood either, 1. Of the burden of afflictions, for which God's people have cause to bless God upon many accounts. Or rather 2. Of mercies and favours, which is now agreeable to the Context; wherewith in common speech men are said to be loaded by another when they receive them from him in great abundance.

20 He that is our God, is the God of salvation, and unto GOD the Lord, belong the issues from death g.

(i. e.) They are onely in his hand and power to dispose them as he pleaseth.

Heb. The out-goings, or evasions, escapes, or deliverances, as a Greek word of the same signification is used, 1 Cor. 10. 13.

f Or, in (as the Hebrew Lamed is used Psal. 16. 10. and 31. 17.) death, (i. e.) the most deadly dangers, yea, even death it self, in and from which God through Christ delivers his people g.

Marginal references: Rev. 1. 18.; Or, of death. So Gr.

21 But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses .

Either 1. The political Head, their Ruler or Rulers, the devil, or other wicked Christians, or rather 2. The natural Head, as appears from the following expression added to explain this, and the hairy scalp: And he speaks of the Heads or hairy Scalps not of one, but of all his Enemies, the singular number being put for the plural, than which nothing is more frequent.

(i. e.) His most fierce and terrible Enemies. For in ancient times many people used to wear long and shaggy hair, that their looks might be more terrible to their Enemies.

Of those who persist in their enmity and rebellion against him. Whereby he opens a door of hope and mercy to his very Enemies, if they return and submit themselves to him.

22 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, , I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea .

Either within himself, he purposed or he promised: for so he had done by divers of his Prophets, though not in the same words which are here used, yet to the same purpose.

I will repeat my ancient favours and give my people as great deliverances as I formerly did, when I saved them from that great Giant Og King of Bashan, who came out against them with all his Forces, Deut. 3. 1. whom I delivered into their hand, as it there follows. Which deliverance is oft mentioned in succeeding Scriptures, as one of the most eminent.

From the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and from the Red Sea it self, through which I brought them with honour and safety, when it overwhelmed their Enemies.

Marginal references: Num. 21. 33.; Exod. 14. [illegible: 1 word].

23 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same .

And as it was at the Red Sea, and at Bashan before, so yet again thine Enemies shall be slain in such great numbers, that thou mayst wade in their blood, and thy dogs lick it up in the field.

Marginal references: Psal. 58. 10.; Or, r[illegible: 1+ letters]d.

24 They have seen thy goings, O God, even the goings of my God, my King, in the Sanctuary.

It is an indefinite expression, men saw and observed it, thy people to their comfort, and thine enemies with terror and astonishment.

Either 1. How thou didst march before them through the Red Sea and the Wilderness, even until thou didst bring them into Canaan, and afterward as occasion was, and how thou didst subdue their Enemies before them. Or rather 2. The procession of the Ark to Sion, the solemnity whereof is particularly described in the following Verses.

Or, in holiness; for it was not a light and carnal, but an holy pomp: Or, in the holy place; as the Ark, in and with which God is supposed to go, might very fitly and truly be called. Or, into the Sanctuary, or holy Tabernacle prepared for it; whither the Ark was now going.

25 The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after, amongst them were the damosels playing with timbrels .

Of which see 2 Sam. 6. 15. 1 Chron. 13. 8.

According to the usage of those times. See Exod. 15, &c.

Marginal references: 1 Chr. 15. 16. Psal. 47. 5.

26 Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel .

Or, as it is rendred in our Margent, and by many others, ye that are of or from the fountain of Israel, or Iacob, (i. e.) All ye people of Israel, who are called the fountain of Iacob, Deut. 33. 28. and said to come forth out of the waters of I[illegible: 1+ letters]dah. Isa. 48. 1. and consequently of Iacob, or Israel. See also Prov. 5. 18. Isa. 51. 1. And this sence seems to be confirmed by the following Verse, wherein this fountain is distributed into its several streams, the Tribes of Isra[illegible: 1+ letters]l. But these words may be, and are by some joyned with the former, either thus, Bless—the Lord for the fountain of Israel, (i. e.) for that fountain which God hath opened to Israel for the purging away of sin and uncleanness, as it is expressed, Zech. 13. 1. even the Blood and Spirit of Christ and all those spiritual Blessings which God confers upon his people in his Sanctuary, and by his Ordinances; which are oft compared to waters, as Isa. 12. 3. Ezek. 47. 1. and to a Fountain or W[illegible: 1+ letters]ll, as Ioel 3. 18. Ioh. 4. 14. See also Prov. 14. 27. Ier. 2. 13. Or thus, Bless—the Lord who is of the fountain of Israel, (i. e.) who though he be the most high God, yet according to the flesh is descended from Israel, as is noted Rom. 9. 5. But the first sence seems most natural and easie.

Marginal references: Or, ye that are of the fountain of Israel.

27 There is little Benjamin z with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali .

Present in this solemn pomp of carrying the Ark to Zion under the conduct of David their King.

That Tribe is called little, partly because it was the youngest, as being descended from Iacob's youngest Son Benjamin; and principally because it was exceedingly diminished and almost extinguished under the Judges, Iudg. 20. and 21. He mentions this Tribe, partly because they were nearest unto Iudah, and to the place whither the Ark was going; and partly to note their reconciliation and submission to David, against whom they had stood out with more obstinacy than any other Tribe, as having been so long used to govern, and loth to part with the Regal Dignity which was by God's appointment first scared among them.

With the Prince of their Tribe, who marched in the head of them. Heb. the ruler (i. e.) the Tribe which had lately swayed the S[illegible: 1+ letters]epter, but now submitted themselves to David, and waited upon him in this Expedition. But the first sence seems the tru[illegible: 1+ letters]st, beause the Princes of all the following Tribes are here mentioned.

Their Counsellors: or rather, their company, as it is in the Margent, the people of that Tribe who waited upon them in that action. Which may seem to be here noted to intimate, that though the Princes onely of the following Tribes be named, yet the people are comprehended under them, and were present with them in that solemnity.

He mentions these Tribes, either 1. Because they excelled in Learning and Knowledge, as is gathered from G[illegible: 1+ letters]n. 49. 21. Deut. 33. 19. Iudg. 5. 14. Or 2. Because they were more hearty and forward in complying with David, and in his service than the rest, as may [illegible: 1 word] from the great number of them which came from the ends of the Land to David in Hebron, 1 Chron. 12, 33, 34. Or 3. Because they lived in the remotest parts of the Land of Canaan. And so by naming two of the nearest Tribes, and two of the furthest, he leaves it to be understood that the other Tribes also did come upon this occasion, as is manifest from 2 Sam. 6. 15, 19. and 1 Chron. 13. 2, 5, 6, 8. and 15. 3, 28.

Marginal references: Or, with their company.

28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us .

Having spoken of Israel, and of their s[illegible: 1+ letters]veral Tribes, v. 26, 27. he now directeth his speech to them.

(i. e.) Hath ordained, or effectually procured, as this word is oft used, as Levit. 25. 21. Deut. 28. 8. Psal. 42. 8. and 44. 4.

All that strength and power which thou Last put forth at any time in fighting with thine Enemies, and which is now greatly increased by the recollection and union of all the Tribes under one head, which is the work of God himself, without whom all the differences and animosities which had for many years been among them could never have been composed and quieted.

Seeing therefore all our strength is in thee and from thee alone, we pray unto thee for the continuance and increase of our strength, and that thou wouldst proceed to finish that good work which thou hast begun among us, by preserving and confirming and perpetuating this blessed union, and by giving us a more full and universal deliverance from our Enemies.

Marginal references: Psal. 57. 2.

29 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem, shall kings bring presents unto thee.

Either 1. The old Tabernacle which then was; which is oft called by this name. But that was now at Gibeon, not at Ierusalem. Or rather 2. The Temple which Solomon should build, which David knew should be very magnifical, of same and of glory throughout all Countries, as he saith, 1 Chr. 22. 5. and such as would command esteem and reverence even from Heathenish Princes and people, and that not onely for its most splendid and glorious Structure, but especially for the wonderful works of the God of that Temple wrought by him on the behalf of his people, and in answer to the Prayers made in the Temple, of which see 1 King. 8. 41, 42, 43.

Kings of the Gentiles: which was done in part in the times of Solomon and Hezekiah, 1 King. 10, 11, 24, 25. 2 Chron. 32. 23. and afterwards by others; but more fully when the Lord Christ was come into his Temple, according to that Prophecy, Mal. 3. 1. and had built a better temple instead of it, even the Christian Church, to which the Kings and Nations of the earth were to flow in great abundance, according to the [illegible: 1+ letters]enour of many Prophecies in the Old Testament.

Marginal references: Psal. 72. 10.

30 Rebuke the company of spear-men, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people. till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in war .

To wit, really: humble and chastize those that will not bring presents to thee, as the Kings did, v. 29. till they see their error and submit themselves, as it here follows.

So this word signifies here above, v. 11. and 2 Sam. 23. 11. Psal. 74. 19. Or, the beast, or wild beast, as this word is elsewhere used. i. e. the beasts; the singular being put for the plural: so the sence is the same.

Heb. Of the reed, (i. e.) that use Spears or Arrows; which may be called reeds, either because in length and form they resemble reeds; or because anciently they were made of reeds. And this sence seems favoured by the last words of this Verse, in which he explains this and the other Metaphors of Warriors. Or the reed may be taken properly; and by the beast of the reed he may understand the King of Egypt, who then a was very potent and a most idolatrous King, and a great and old enemy to the true R[illegible: 1+ letters]ligion, and to the people of Israel, whom therefore he desires God to rebuke and humble, that he may acknowledge the true God, which is foretold that he shall do, v. 31. As for this enigmatical designation of this King, that is agreeable enough both to the usage of the Prophets in such cases, and to the rulers of prudence; and upon the same accounts the Prophet [illegible: 1 word] threatning destruction against [illegible: 1 word], calls it enigmatically [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. 25, 26. and 51. 41. and S. Paul calls Nero the Lion, 2 Ti[illegible: 1+ letters]. 4. 17. But then this one King, being eminent in his kind, is by an usual [illegible: 1 word] put for all of them which were enemies to God's people.

By which he doubtless understands men of War, as the following words expound it, the great and potent and fi[illegible: 1+ letters]rce and furious Adversaries of God, and of his Church, as this word is used, Psal. 22. 12. Isa. 34. 7. And consequently the calves must be their people or Soldiers depending upon them, and joining with them in these acts of hostility against thine Israel.

This he adds as a limitation of his request, Rebuke them, O Lord, not to utter destruction, but onely till they be humbled and submit themselves, and in token thereof bring pieces of silver for presents, as was foretold, v. 29. For [illegible: 1 word] himself it is in the Hebrew cast [illegible: 1 word] down, or offers himself to be trod upon. But because this supplement may seem too large, and not necessary, the words are and may be rendred otherwise, that tread upon, or walk proudly in, or with fragments or pieces of silver, wherewith eminent Captains used to adorn themselves and their very horses. And to this belongs to the bulls and calves, whose pride and wealth and power is described in this manner.

Heb. He hath scattered, (i. e.) He will certainly scatter, according to the Prophetical Style. So this may contain an answer, or his assurance of an answer to his prayer: I prayed, Rebuke the company, &c. and God hath heard my prayer, and, I doubt not, will rebuke or scatter them.

That without any necessity or provocation, and merely out of a love to mischief and spoil make war upon others, and upon us particularly. Now that thou hast given thy people rest, and settled the Ark in its place, O Lord rebuke all our m[illegible: 1+ letters]licious and bloody enemies, and give us assured peace that we may worship the Lord without disturbance. And withal David may seem to utter this for his own vindication. It is true, O Lord, I have been a m[illegible: 1+ letters]n of War, and therefore have lost the honour of building the Temple, and am now forced to lodge the Ark in a mean Tabernacle, which I have erected for it. But this thou knowest, that I have not undertaken any of my wars out of wantonness, or ambition, or love to war and mischief, but onely by constraint and necessity for the just defence of my self and of thy people: and therefore do not lay my wars to my charge.

Marginal references: Or, the beast if the reeds.; Or, [illegible: 1+ letters]e [illegible: 1 word].

31 Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God .

He names onely these, as the great and Ancient Enemies of God, and of his People, and as a most wicked and Idolatrous and Incorrigible sort of Men, see Ier. 13. 23. Avos 9. 7. but by them he Synecdochically understands all other Nations, and People of the like Character.

Either, in way of humble Supplica[illegible: 1+ letters]ion and Submission, begging Mercy of him: Or, to offer up the presents expressed, v. 19. But this Prophecy, as also the next Verse; Evidently belongs to the times of the Messiah, when the Gentiles were to be brought in to the knowledge and Worship of the true God: with the Thoughts and Hopes whereof David oft Comforteth himself in that Confined and Afflicted state of the Church in his time.

32 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth : O sing praises unto the Lord, Selah.

Not onely Epypt and Ethiopia, but other Kingdoms and Nations also, who shall partake of the same Grace with them.

33 To him that rideth upon the heavens , which were of old , lo, he doth send out his voyce, and that a mighty voyce .

Upon the highest Heavens, as Deut. 10. 14. his truest and best Sanctuary. By which Expressions, he prevents all mean and Carnal Conceptions of God, as if he were confined to the Ark or Tabernacle, and lifteth up the Minds, both of Iews and Genti[illegible: 1+ letters]es to Heaven, and representeth God as dwelling there in infinite Glory and Majesty and from thence looking down upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth, and Ru[illegible: 1+ letters]ing them by his Almighty Power, and therefore most fit to be owned and received by all Kings and Kingdoms, as their Lord and Governour.

(i. e.) From the very beginning of the World; whereas the Ark was onely some hundreds years Old. Or, which are everlasting; for this Hebrew word Answers to Olam, which looks not onely backward to time past, but forward to the Future, of which this Word is by divers understood, Deut. 33. 15. This is also opposed to the Condition of the Ark and Tabernacle, and Temple; all which, as David by the Spirit of Prophecy well knew, would be abolished and dissolved.

By which he understands; Either, 1. The Thunder called God's [illegible: 1 word], Psal. 29. [illegible: 1+ letters]. and elsewhere. Or rather, 2. His Word, to wit, the Gospel, published by Christ and by his Apostles, assisted by the holy Spirit sent from Heaven; which might well be called God's Voyce, and that a mighty Voyce, because it produced such great and wonderful Effects, as are here above mentioned, in converting all the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth.

Marginal references: Psal. 18. 10. a[illegible: 1+ letters]d 104. 3.; Heb. give.

34 Ascribe ye strength unto God : his excellency is over Israel , and his strength is in the clouds .

Acknowledge that he is mighty and able, to do whatsoever he pleaseth for his People, or against his and their Enemies.

His excellent Power and Goodness.

Dwels among them, and is employed for them, as occasion requires. He is indeed the universal Lord of the whole Heaven and Earth, but in a special and excellent manner, he is the God of Israel.

Or, in the Heavens. He hath two dwellings and Thrones, the one in his Church and People, and the other in Heaven. See Isa. 57. 15.

Marginal references: Or, Heavens.

35 O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places , the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people : blessed be God.

Or, Venerable, deservedly to be both Reverenced and Feared.

Or, Sanctuaries. He useth the plural Number; Either, 1. Of the Sanctuary in Zion, because the Tabernacle and Temple consisted of three Parts, the Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Or rather, 2. With respect to that two [illegible: 1+ letters]old Sanctuary here mentioned, one in Zion, and the other in Heaven. And out of both these Holy places God appeared, and put forth such Acts of his Power, as might justly, terrifie his Enemies.

The strength which the Kingdom of Israel now hath, is not to be ascribed to my Valour or Conduct, nor to the Courage or numbers of the People, nor to that happy Union now made, and Established among all the Tribes, but onely to the might and Grace of God.

Hymn of War and Victory in the Style of Deborah

Is it not an admirably delicate tact with which the collector makes the מזמור שׁיר Psa 68:1 follow upon the מזמור שׁיר Psa 67:1? The latter began with the echo of the benediction which Moses puts into the mouth of Aaron and his sons, the former with a repetition of those memorable words in which, at the breaking up of the camp, he called upon Jahve to advance before Israel (Num 10:35). “It is in reality,” says Hitzig of Psalms 68, “no easy task to become master of this Titan.” And who would not agree with him in this remark? It is a Psalm in the style of Deborah, stalking along upon the highest pinnacle of hymnic feeling and recital; all that is most glorious in the literature of the earlier period is concentrated in it: Moses’ memorable words, Moses’ blessing, the prophecies of Balaam, the Deuteronomy, the Song of Hannah re-echo here. But over and above all this, the language is so bold and so peculiarly its own, that we meet with no less than thirteen words that do no occur anywhere else. It is so distinctly Elohimic in its impress, that the simple Elohim occurs twenty-three times; but in addition to this, it is as though the whole cornucopia of divine names were poured out upon it: יהוה in Psa 68:17; אדני six times; האל twice; שׁדּי in Psa 68:15; יהּ in Psa 68:5; אדני יהוה in Psa 68:21; אלהים yh in Psa 68:19; so that this Psalm among all the Elohimic Psalms is the most resplendent. In connection with the great difficulty that is involved in it, it is no wonder that expositors, more especially the earlier expositors, should differ widely in their apprehension of it as a whole or in separate parts. This circumstance has been turned to wrong account by Ed. Reuss in his essay, “Der acht-und-sechzigste Psalm, Ein Denkmal exegetischer Noth und Kunst zu Ehren unsrer ganzen Zunft, Jena, 1851,” for the purpose of holding up to ridicule the uncertainty of Old Testament exegesis, as illustrated in this Psalm.

The Psalm is said, as Reuss ultimately decides, to have been written between the times of Alexander the Great and the Maccabees, and to give expression to the wish that the Israelites, many of whom were far removed from Palestine and scattered abroad in the wide earth, might soon be again united in their fatherland. But this apprehension rests entirely upon violence done to the exegesis, more particularly in the supposition that in v. 23 the exiles are the persons intended by those whom God will bring back. Reuss makes out those who are brought back out of Bashan to be the exiles in Syria, and those who are brought back out of the depths of the sea he makes out to be the exiles in Egypt. He knows nothing of the remarkable concurrence of the mention of the Northern tribes (including Benjamin) in Psa 68:28 with the Asaphic Psalms: Judah and Benjamin, to his mind, is Judaea; and Zebulun and Naphtali, Galilee in the sense of the time after the return from exile. The “wild beast of the reed” he correctly takes to be an emblem of Egypt; but he makes use of violence in order to bring in a reference to Syria by the side of it. Nevertheless Olshausen praises the services Reuss has rendered with respect to this Psalm; but after incorporating two whole pages of the “Denkmal” in his commentary he cannot satisfy himself with the period between Alexander and the Maccabees, and by means of three considerations arrives, in this instance also, at the common refuge of the Maccabaean period, which possesses such an irresistible attraction for him.

In opposition to this transplanting of the Psalm into the time of the Maccabees we appeal to Hitzig, who is also quick-sighted enough, when there is any valid ground for it, in finding out Maccabaean Psalms. He refers the Psalm to the victorious campaign of Joram against faithless Moab, undertaking in company with Jehoshaphat. Böttcher, on the other hand, sees in it a festal hymn of triumph belonging to the time of Hezekiah, which was sung antiphonically at the great fraternizing Passover after the return home of the young king from one of his expeditions against the Assyrians, who had even at that time fortified themselves in the country east of the Jordan (Bashan). Thenius (following the example of Rödiger) holds a different view. He knows the situation so very definitely, that he thinks it high time that the discussion concerning this Psalm was brought to a close. It is a song composed to inspirit the army in the presence of the battle which Josiah undertook against Necho, and the prominent, hateful character in Psa 68:22 is Pharaoh with his lofty artificial adornment of hair upon his shaven head. It is, however, well known what a memorably tragical issue for Israel that battle had; the Psalm would therefore be a memorial of the most lamentable disappointment.

All these and other recent expositors glory in hot advancing any proof whatever in support of the inscribed לדוד. And yet there are two incidents in David’s life, with regard to which the Psalm ought first of all to be accurately looked at, before we abandon this לדוד to the winds of conjecture. The first is the bringing home of the Ark of the covenant to Zion, to which, e.g., Franz Volkmar Reinhard (in vol. ii. of the Velthusen Commentationes Theol. 1795), Stier, and Hofmann refer the Psalm. But the manner in which the Psalm opens with a paraphrase of Moses’ memorable words is at once opposed to this; and also the impossibility of giving unity to the explanation of its contents by such a reference is against it. Jahve has long since taken up His abode upon the holy mountain; the poet in this Psalm, which is one of the Psalms of war and victory describes how the exalted One, who now, however, as in the days of old, rides along through the highest heavens at the head of His people, casts down all powers hostile to Him and to His people, and compels all the world to confess that the God of Israel rules from His sanctuary with invincible might.  A far more appropriate occasion is, therefore, to be found in the Syro-Ammonitish war of David, in which the Ark was taken with them by the people (2Sa 11:11); and the hymn was not at that time first of all composed when, at the close of the war, the Ark was brought back to the holy mountain (Hengstenberg, Reinke), but when it was set in motion from thence at the head of Israel as they advanced against the confederate kings and their army (2Sa 10:6). The war lasted into the second year, when a second campaign was obliged to be undertaken in order to bring it to an end; and this fact offers at least a second possible period for the origin of the Psalm. It is clear that in Psa 68:12-15, and still more clear that in Psa 68:20-24 (and from a wider point of view, Psa 68:29-35), the victory over the hostile kings is only hoped for, and in Psa 68:25-28, therefore, the pageantry of victory is seen as it were beforehand.  It is the spirit of faith, which here celebrates beforehand the victory of Jahve, and sees in the single victory a pledge of His victory over all the nations of the earth. The theme of the Psalm, generalized beyond its immediate occasion, is the victory of the God of Israel over the world. Regarded as to the nature of its contents, the whole divides itself into two halves, vv. 2-19, 20-35, which are on the whole so distinct that the first dwells more upon the mighty deed God has wrought, the second upon the impressions it produces upon the church and upon the peoples of the earth; in both parts it is viewed now as future, now as past, inasmuch as the longing of prayer and the confidence of hope soar aloft to the height of prophecy, before which futurity lies as a fulfilled fact. The musical Sela occurs three times (Psa 68:8, Psa 68:20, Psa 68:33). These three forte passages furnish important points of view for the apprehension of the collective meaning of the Psalm.

But is David after all the author of this Psalm? The general character of the Psalm is more Asaphic than Davidic (vid., Habakkuk, S. 122). Its references to Zalmon, to Benjamin and the Northern tribes, to the song of Deborah, and in general to the Book of Judges (although not in its present form), give it an appearance of being Ephraimitish. Among the Davidic Psalms it stands entirely alone, so that criticism is quite unable to justify the לדוד. And if the words in Psa 68:29 are addressed to the king, it points to some other poet than David. But is it to a contemporary poet? The mention of the sanctuary on Zion in Psa 68:30, 36, does not exclude such an one. Only the threatening of the “wild beast of the sedge” (Psa 68:31) seems to bring us down beyond the time of David; for the inflammable material of the hostility of Egypt, which broke out into a flame in the reign of Rehoboam, was first gathering towards the end of Solomon’s reign. Still Egypt was never entirely lost sight of from the horizon of Israel; and the circumstance that it is mentioned in the first rank, where the submission of the kingdoms of this world to the God of Israel is lyrically set forth in the prophetic prospect of the future, need not astonish one even in a poet of the time of David. And does not Psa 68:28 compel us to keep on this side of the division of the kingdom? It ought then to refer to the common expedition of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat against Moab (Hitzig), the indiscriminate celebration of which, however, was no suitable theme for the psalmist.

The Psalm begins with the expression of a wish that the victory of God over all His foes and the triumphant exultation of the righteous were near at hand. Ewald and Hitzig take יקום אלהים hypothetically: If God arise, He enemies will be scattered. This rendering is possible in itself so far as the syntax is concerned, but here everything conspires against it; for the futures in Psa 68:2-4 form an unbroken chain; then a glance at the course of the Psalm from Psa 68:20 onwards shows that the circumstances of Israel, under which the poet writes, urged forth the wish: let God arise and humble His foes; and finally the primary passage, Num 10:35, makes it clear that the futures are the language of prayer transformed into the form of the wish. In Psa 68:3 the wish is addressed directly to God Himself, and therefore becomes petition. הנדּן is inflected (as vice versâ ירדף, Psa 7:6, from ירדּף) from הנּדף (like הנּתן, Jer 32:4); it is a violation of all rule in favour of the conformity of sound (cf. הקצות for הקצות, Lev 14:43, and supra on Psa 51:6) with תּנדּף, the object of which is easily supplied (dispellas, sc. hostes tuos), and is purposely omitted in order to direct attention more stedfastly to the omnipotence which to every creature is so irresistible. Like smoke, wax (דּונג, root דג, τηκ, Sanscrit tak, to shoot past, to run, Zend taḱ, whence vitaḱina, dissolving, Neo-Persic gudâchten; causative: to cause to run in different directions = to melt or smelt) is an emblem of human feebleness. As Bakiuds observes, Si creatura creaturam non fert, quomodo creatura creatoris indignantis faciem ferre possit? The wish expressed in Psa 68:4 forms the obverse of the preceding. The expressions for joy are heaped up in order to describe the transcendency of the joy that will follow the release from the yoke of the enemy. לפני is expressively used in alternation with מפני in Psa 68:2, Psa 68:3 : by the wrathful action, so to speak, that proceeds from His countenance just as the heat radiating from the fire melts the wax the foes are dispersed, whereas the righteous rejoice before His gracious countenance.

As the result of the challenge that has been now expressed in Psa 68:2-4, Elohim, going before His people, begins His march; and in Psa 68:5 an appeal is made to praise Him with song, His name with the music of stringed instrument, and to make a way along which He may ride בּערבות. In view of Psa 68:34 we cannot take צרבות, as do the Targum and Talmud (B. Chagiga 12 b), as a name of one of the seven heavens, a meaning to which, apart from other considerations, the verb ערב, to be effaced, confused, dark, is not an appropriate stem-word; but it must be explained according to Isa 40:3. There Jahve calls in the aid of His people, here He goes forth at the head of His people; He rides through the steppes in order to right against the enemies of His people. Not merely the historical reference assigned to the Psalm by Hitzig, but also the one adopted by ourselves, admits of allusion being made to the “steppes of Moab;” for the way to Mêdebâ, where the Syrian mercenaries of the Ammonites had encamped (1Ch 19:7), lay through these steppes, and also the way to Rabbath Ammon (2Sa 10:7.). סלּוּ calls upon them to make a way for Him, the glorious, invincible King (cf. Isa 57:14; Isa 62:10); סלל signifies to cast up, heap up or pave, viz., a raised and suitable street or highway, Symmachus katastroo'sate. He who thus rides along makes the salvation of His people His aim: “ä is His name, therefore shout with joy before Him.” The Beth in בּיהּ (Symmachus, Quinta: ἴα) is the Beth essentiae, which here, as in Isa 26:4, stands beside the subject: His name is (exists) in יה, i.e., His essential name is yh, His self-attestation, by which He makes Himself capable of being known and named, consists in His being the God of salvation, who, in the might of free grace, pervades all history. This Name is a fountain of exultant rejoicing to His people.

This Name is exemplificatively unfolded in Psa 68:6. The highly exalted One, who sits enthroned in the heaven of glory, rules in all history here below and takes an interest in the lowliest more especially, in all circumstances of their lives following after His own to succour them. He takes the place of a father to the orphan. He takes up the cause of the widow and contests it to a successful issue. Elohim is one who makes the solitary or isolated to dwell in the house; בּיתה with He locale, which just as well answers the question where? as whither? בּית, a house = family bond, is the opposite of יהיד, solitarius, recluse, Psa 25:16. Dachselt correctly renders it, in domum, h.e. familiam numerosam durabilemque eos ut patres-familias plantabit. He is further One who brings forth (out of the dungeon and out of captivity) those who are chained into abundance of prosperity. כּושׁרות, occurring only here, is a pluralet. from כּשׁר morf .tela, synonym אשׁר, to be straight, fortunate. Psa 68:7 briefly and sharply expresses the reverse side of this His humanely condescending rule among mankind. אך is here (cf. Gen 9:4; Lev 11:4) restrictive or adversative (as is more frequently the case with אכן); and the preterite is the preterite of that which is an actual matter of experience. The סוררים, i.e., (not from סוּר, the apostate ones, Aquila afista'menoi, but as in Psa 66:7, from סרר) the rebellious, Symmachus ἀπειθεῖς, who were not willing to submit to the rule of so gracious a God, had ever been excluded from these proofs of favour. These must inhabit צחיחה (accusative of the object), a sun-scorched land; from צחח, to be dazzlingly bright, sunny, dried or parched up. They remain in the desert without coming into the land, which, fertilized by the waters of grace, is resplendent with a fresh verdure and with rich fruits. If the poet has before his mind in connection with this the bulk of the people delivered out of Egypt, ὧν τὰ κῶλα ἔπεσαν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμω (Heb 3:17), then the transition to what follows is much more easily effected. There is, however, no necessity for any such intermediation. The poet had the march through the desert to Canaan under the guidance of Jahve, the irresistible Conqueror, in his mind even from the beginning, and now he expressly calls to mind that marvellous divine leading in order that the present age may take heart thereat.

Psa 68:7-10

In Psa 68:7. the poet repeats the words of Deborah (Jdg 5:4.), and her words again go back to Deu 33:2, cf. Exo 19:15.; on the other hand, our Psalm is the original to Hab. 3. The martial verb יצא represents Elohim as, coming forth from His heavenly dwelling-place (Isa 26:21), He places Himself at the head of Israel. The stately verb צעד represents Him as He accompanies the hosts of His people with the step of a hero confident of victory; and the terrible name for the wilderness, ישׁימון, is designedly chosen in order to express the contrast between the scene of action and that which they beheld at that time. The verb to זה סיני is easily supplied; Dachselt’s rendering according to the accents is correct: hic mons Sinai (sc. in specie ita tremuit). The description fixes our attention upon Sinai as the central point of all revelations of God during the period of deliverance by the hand of Moses, as being the scene of the most gloriously of them all (vid., on Hab. p. 136f.). The majestic phenomena which proclaimed the nearness of God are distributed over the whole journeying, but most gloriously concentrated themselves at the giving of the Law of Sinai. The earth trembled throughout the extended circuit of this vast granite range, and the heavens dropped, inasmuch as the darkness of thunder clouds rested upon Sinai, pierced by incessant lightnings (Ex. 19). There, as the original passages describe it, Jahve met His people; He came from the east, His people from the west; there they found themselves together, and shaking the earth, breaking through the heavens, He gave them a pledge of the omnipotence which should henceforth defend and guide them. The poet has a purpose in view in calling Elohim in this passage “the God of Israel;” the covenant relationship of God to Israel dates from Sinai, and from this period onwards, by reason of the Tôra, He became Israel’s King (Deu 33:5). Since the statement of a fact of earlier history has preceded, and since the preterites alternate with them, the futures that follow in Psa 68:10, Psa 68:11 are to be understood as referring to the synchronous past; but hardly so that Psa 68:10 should refer to the miraculous supply of food, and more especially the rain of manna, during the journeyings through the wilderness. The giving of the Law from Sinai has a view to Israel being a settled, stationary people, and the deliverance out of the land of bondage only finds its completion in the taking and maintaining possession of the Land of Promise. Accordingly Psa 68:10, Psa 68:11 refer to the blessing and protection of the people who had taken up their abode there.

The נחלהּ of God (genit. auctoris, as in 2 Macc. 2:4) is the land assigned by Him to Israel as an inheritance; and גּשׁם נדבות an emblem of the abundance of gifts which God has showered down upon the land since Israel took up its abode in it. נדבה is the name given to a deed and gift springing from an inward impulse, and in this instance the intensive idea of richness and superabundance is associated therewith by means of the plural; גּשׁם נדבות is a shower-like abundance of good gifts descending from above. The Hiphil הניף here governs a double accusative, like the Kal in Pro 7:17, in so far, that is, as נחלתך is drawn to Psa 68:10; for the accentuation, in opposition to the Targum, takes נחלתך ונלאה together: Thine inheritance and that the parched one (Waw epexeget. as in 1Sa 28:3; Amo 3:11; Amo 4:10). But this “and that” is devoid of aim; why should it not at once be read הנּלאה? The rendering of Böttcher, “Thy sickened and wearied,” is inadmissible, too, according to the present pointing; for it ought to be נחלתך or נחלתך. And with a suffix this Niphal becomes ambiguous, and more especially so in this connection, where the thought of נחלה, an inherited possession, a heritage, lies so naturally at hand. נחלתך is therefore to be drawn to Psa 68:10, and Psa 68:10 must begin with ונלאה, as in the lxx, καὶ ἠσθένησε σὺ δὲ κατεερτίσω αὐτήν. It is true נלאה is not a hypothetical preteriet equivalent to ונלאתה; but, as is frequently the case with the anarthrous participle (Ew. §341, b), it has the value of a hypothetical clause: “and if it (Israel’s inheritance) were in a parched, exhausted condition (cf. the cognate root להה, Gen 47:13), then hast Thou always made it again firm” (Psa 8:4; Psa 15:1-5 :17), i.e., strengthened, enlivened it. Even here the idea of the inhabitants is closely associated with the land itself; in Psa 68:11 they are more especially thought of: “They creatures dwelt therein.” Nearly all modern expositors take חיּה either according to 2Sa 23:11, 2Sa 23:13 (cf. 1Ch 11:15), in the signification tent-circle, ring-camp (root חו, Arab. ḥw, to move in a circle, to encircle, to compass), or in the signification of Arab. ḥayy (from Arab. ḥayiya = חיי, חיה), a race or tribe, i.e., a collection of living beings (cf. חיּי, 1Sa 18:18). But the Asaphic character of this Psalm, which is also manifest in other points, is opposed to this rendering. This style of Psalm is fond of the comparison of Israel to a flock, so that also in Psa 74:19 חית עניין signifies nothing else than “the creatures [Getheir, collective] of Thy poor, Thy poor creatures.” This use of חיה is certainly peculiar; but not so remarkable as if by the “creatures of God” we had to understand, with Hupfeld, the quails (Ex. 16). The avoiding of בּהמה on account of the idea of brutum (Psa 73:22) which is inseparable from this word, is sufficient to account for it; in חיה, ζῷον, there is merely the notion of moving life. We therefore are to explain it according to Mic 7:14, where Israel is called a flock dwelling in a wood in the midst of Carmel: God brought it to pass, that the flock of Israel, although sorely persecuted, nevertheless continued to inhabit the land. בּהּ, as in Mic 7:15, refers to Canaan. עני in Psa 68:11 is the ecclesia pressa surrounded by foes on every side: Thou didst prepare for Thy poor with Thy goodness, Elohim, i.e., Thou didst regale or entertain Thy poor people with Thy possessions and Thy blessings. הכין ל, as in Gen 43:16; 1Ch 12:39, to make ready to eat, and therefore to entertain; טובה as in Psa 65:12, טוּב ה, Jer 31:12. It would be quite inadmissible, because tautological, to refer תּכין to the land according to Psa 65:10 (Ewald), or even to the desert (Olshausen), which the description has now left far behind.

Psa 68:11-14

The futures that now follow are no longer to be understood as referring to previous history; they no longer alternate with preterites. Moreover the transition to the language of address in Psa 68:14 shows that the poet here looks forth from his present time and circumstances into the future; and the introduction of the divine name אדני, after Elohim has been used eleven times, is an indication of a new commencement. The prosperous condition in which God places His church by giving it the hostile powers of the world as a spoil is depicted. The noun אמר, never occurring in the genitival relationship, and never with a suffix, because the specific character of the form would be thereby obliterated, always denotes an important utterance, more particularly God’s word of promise (Psa 77:9), or His word of power (Hab 3:9), which is represented elsewhere as a mighty voice of thunder (Psa 68:34, Isa 30:30), or a trumpet-blast (Zec 9:14); in the present instance it is the word of power by which the Lord suddenly changes the condition of His oppressed church. The entirely new state of things which this omnipotent behest as it were conjures into existence is presented to the mind in v. 12 b: the women who proclaim the tidings of victory - a great host. Victory and triumph follow upon God’s אמר, as upon His creative יהי. The deliverance of Israel from the army of Pharaoh, the deliverance out of the hand of Jabin by the defeat of Sisera, the victory of Jephthah over the Ammonites, and the victorious single combat of David with Goliath were celebrated by singing women. God’s decisive word shall also go forth this time, and of the evangelists, like Miriam (Mirjam) and Deborah, there shall be a great host.

Psa 68:12 describes the subject of this triumphant exultation. Hupfeld regards Psa 68:13-15 as the song of victory itself, the fragment of an ancient triumphal ode (epinikion) reproduced here; but there is nothing standing in the way that should forbid our here regarding these verses as a direct continuation of Psa 68:12. The “hosts” are the numerous well-equipped armies which the kings of the heathen lead forth to the battle against the people of God. The unusual expression “kings of hosts” sounds very much like an ironically disparaging antithesis to the customary “Jahve of Hosts” (Böttcher). He, the Lord, interposes, and they are obliged to flee, staggering as they go, to retreat, and that, as the anadiplosis (cf. Jdg 5:7; Jdg 19:20) depicts, far away, in every direction. The fut. energicum with its ultima-accentuation gives intensity to the pictorial expression. The victors then turn homewards laden with rich spoils. נות בּית, here in a collective sense, is the wife who stays at home (Jdg 5:24) while the husband goes forth to battle. It is not: the ornament (נוה as in Jer 6:2) of the house, which Luther, with the lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac, adopts in his version,“Hausehre,” says he, is the housewife or matron as being the adornment of the house; vid., F. Dietrich, Frau und Dame, a lecture bearing upon the history of language (1864), S. 13. but: the dweller or homely one (cf. נות, a dwelling-lace, Job 8:6) of the house, ἡ οἰκουρός. The dividing of the spoil elsewhere belongs to the victors; what is meant here is the distribution of the portions of the spoil that have fallen to the individual victors, the further distribution of which is left for the housewife (Jdg 5:30., 2Sa 1:24). Ewald now recognises in Psa 68:14. the words of an ancient song of victory; but v. 13 b is unsuitable to introduce them. The language of address in Psa 68:14 is the poet’s own, and he here describes the condition of the people who are victorious by the help of their God, and who again dwell peaceably in the land after the war. אם passes out of the hypothetical signification into the temporal, as e.g., in Job 14:14 (vid., on Psa 59:16). The lying down among the sheep-folds (שׁפתּים = משׁפּתים, cf. שׁפט, משׁפּט, the staked-in folds or pens consisting of hurdles standing two by two over against one another) is an emblem of thriving peace, which (like Psa 68:8, Psa 68:28) points back to Deborah’s song, Jdg 5:16, cf. Gen 49:14. Just such a time is now also before Israel, a time of peaceful prosperity enhanced by rich spoils. Everything shall glitter and gleam with silver and gold. Israel is God’s turtle-dove, Psa 74:19, cf. Psa 56:1, Hos 7:11; Hos 11:11. Hence the new circumstances of ease and comfort are likened to the varied hues of a dove disporting itself in the sun. Its wings are as though overlaid with silver (נחפּה, not 3. praet, but part. fem. Niph. as predicate to כּנפי, cf. 1Sa 4:15; Mic 4:11; Mic 1:9; Ew. §317 a), therefore like silver wings (cf. Ovid, Metam. ii. 537: Niveis argentea pennis Ales); and its pinions with gold-green, Ewald remarks, “Arabian poets also call the dove Arab. 'l - wrq'â, the greenish yellow, golden gleaming one, vid., Kosegarten, Chrestom. p. 156, 5.” But this Arabic poetical word for the dove signifies rather the ash-green, whity blackish one. Nevertheless the signification greenish for the Hebrew ירקרק is established. Bartenoro, on Negaim xi. 4, calls the colour of the wings of the peacock ירקרק; and I am here reminded of what Wetzstein once told me, that, according to an Arab proverb, the surface of good coffee ought to be “like the neck of the dove,” i.e., so oily that it gleams like the eye of a peacock. A way for the transition from green to grey in aurak as the name of a colour is already, however, opened up in post-biblical Hebrew, when to frighten any one is expressed by פנים הוריק, Genesis Rabba, 47 a. The intermediate notions that of fawn colour, i.e., yellowish grey. In the Talmud the plumage of the full-grown dove is called זהוב and צהוב, Chullin, 22 b. and that, as the reduplicated form implies, with the iridescent or glistening hue of the finest gold (חרוּץ, not dull, but shining gold).

Side by side with this bold simile there appears in v. 15 an equally bold but contrastive figure, which, turning a step or two backward, likewise vividly illustrates the results of their God-given victory. The suffix of בּהּ refers to the land of Israel, as in Isa 8:21; Isa 65:9. צלמום, according to the usage of the language so far as it is now preserved to us, is not a common noun: deep darkness (Targum = צלמות), it is the name of a mountain in Ephraim, the trees of which Abimelech transported in order to set fire to the tower of Shechem (Jdg 9:48.). The Talmudic literature was acquainted with a river taking its rise there, and also somewhat frequently mentions a locality bearing a similar name to that of the mountain. The mention of this mountain may in a general way be rendered intelligible by the consideration that, like Shiloh (Gen 49:10), it is situated about in the centre of the Holy Land.In Tosifta Para, ch. viii., a river of the name of יורדת הצלמון is mentioned, the waters of which might not be used in preparing the water of expiation (מי חטאת), because they were dried up at the time of the war, and thereby hastened the defeat of Israel (viz., the overthrow of Barcochba). Grätz “Geschichte der Juden, iv. 157, 459f.) sees in it the Nahar Arsuf, which flows down the mountains of Ephraim past Bethar into the Mediterranean. The village of Zalmon occurs in the Mishna, Jebamoth xvi. 6, and frequently. The Jerusalem Gemara (Maaseroth i. 1) gives pre-eminence to the carob-trees of Zalmona side by side with those of Shitta and Gadara. השׁליג signifies to bring forth snow, or even, like Arab. aṯlj, to become snow-white; this Hiph. is not a word descriptive of colour, like הלבּין. Since the protasis is בּפרשׂ, and not בּפרשׂך, תּשׁלג is intended to be impersonal (cf. Psa 50:3; Amo 4:7, Mich. Psa 3:6); and the voluntative form is explained from its use in apodoses of hypothetical protases (Ges. §128, 2). It indicates the issue to which, on the supposition of the other, it must and shall come. The words are therefore to be rendered: then it snows on Zalmon; and the snowing is either an emblem of the glistening spoil that falls into their hands in such abundance, or it is a figure of the becoming white, whether from bleached bones (cf. Virgil, Aen. v. 865: albi ossibus scopuli; xii. 36: campi ossibus albent; Ovid, Fasti i. 558: humanis ossibus albet humus) or even from the naked corpses (2Sa 1:19, על־בּמותיך חלל). Whether we consider the point of comparison to lie in the spoil being abundant as the flakes of snow, and like to the dazzling snow in brilliancy, or in the white pallid corpses, at any rate בּצלמון is not equivalent to כּבצלמון, but what follows “when the Almighty scatters kings therein” is illustrated by Zalmon itself. In the one case Zalmon is represented as the battle-ground (cf. Psa 110:6), in the other (which better corresponds to the nature of a wooded mountain) as a place of concealment. The protasis בפרשׂ וגו favours the latter; for פּרשׂ signifies to spread wide apart, to cause a compact whole - and the host of “the kings” is conceived of as such - to fly far asunder into many parts (Zec 2:10, cf. the Niph. in Eze 17:21). The hostile host disperses in all directions, and Zalmon glitters, as it were with snow, from the spoil that is dropped by those who flee. Homer also (Iliad, xix. 357-361) likens the mass of assembled helmets, shields, armour, and lances to the spectacle of a dense fall of snow. In this passage of the Psalm before us still more than in Homer it is the spectacle of the fallen and far seen glistening snow that also is brought into the comparison, and not merely that which is falling and that which covers everything (vid., Iliad, xii. 277ff.). The figure is the pendant of the figure of the dove.Wetzstein gives a different explanation (Reise in den beiden Trachonen und um das Haura=ngebirge in the Zeitscheift für allgem. Erdkunde, 1859, S. 198). “Then fell snow on Zalmon, i.e., the mountain clothed itself in a bright garment of light in celebration of this joyous event. Any one who has been in Palestine knows how very refreshing is the spectacle of the distant mountain-top capped with snow. The beauty of this poetical figure is enhanced by the fact that Zalmon (Arab. ḏlmân), according to its etymology, signifies a mountain range dark and dusky, either from shade, forest, or black rock. The last would well suit the mountains of Haurân, among which Ptolemaeus (p. 365 and 370, Ed. Wilberg) mentions a mountain (according to one of the various readings) Ἀσαλμάνος.”

Psa 68:15-18

This victory of Israel over the kings of the Gentiles gives the poet the joyful assurance that Zion is the inaccessible dwelling-place of Elohim, the God of the heavenly hosts. The mention of Zalmon leads him to mention other mountains. He uses the mountains of Bashan as an emblem of the hostile powers east of Jordan. These stand over against the people of God, as the mighty mountains of Bashan rising in steep, only slightly flattened peaks, to little hill-like Zion. In the land on this side Jordan the limestone and chalk formation with intermingled strata of sandstone predominates; the mountains of Bashan, however, are throughout volcanic, consisting of slag, lava, and more particularly basalt (basanites), which has apparently taken its name from Bashan (Basan).This is all the more probable as Semitism has no proper word for basalt; in Syria it is called hag'ar aswad, “black stone.”

As a basalt range the mountains of Bashan are conspicuous among other creations of God, and are therefore called “the mountain of Elohim:” the basalt rises in the form of a cone with the top lopped off, or even towers aloft like so many columns precipitous and rugged to sharp points; hence the mountains of Bashan are called הר גּבננּים, i.e., a mountain range (for הר, as is well known, signifies both the single eminence and the range of summits) of many peaks = a many-peaked mountain; גּבנן is an adjective like רענן, אמלל. With this boldly formed mass of rock so gloomily majestic, giving the impression of antiquity and of invincibleness, when compared with the ranges on the other side of unstable porous limestone and softer formations, more particularly with Zion, it is an emblem of the world and its powers standing over against the people of God as a threatening and seemingly invincible colossus. The poet asks these mountains of Bashan “why,” etc.? רצד is explained from the Arabic rṣd, which, in accordance with its root Arab. rṣ, signifies to cleave firmly to a place (firmiter inhaesit loco), properly used of a beast of prey couching down and lying in wait for prey, of a hunter on the catch, and of an enemy in ambush; hence then: to lie in wait for, lurk, ἐνεδρεύειν, craftily, insidiose (whence râṣid, a lier-in-wait, tarraṣṣud, an ambush), here: to regard enviously, invidiose. In Arabic, just as in this instance, it is construed as a direct transitive with an accusative of the object, whereas the original signification would lead one to look for a dative of the object (רצד ל), which does also really occur in the common Arabic. Olewejored is placed by גבננים, but what follows is not, after all, the answer: “the mountain - Elohim has chosen it as the seat of His throne,” but ההר is the object of the interrogative clause: Quare indiviose observatis, montes cacuminosi, hunc montem (δεικτικῶς: that Zion yonder), quem, etc. (an attributive clause after the determinate substantive, as in Psa 52:9; Psa 89:50, and many other instances, contrary to the Arabic rule of style). Now for the first time, in Psa 68:17, follows that which is boastfully and defiantly contrasted with the proud mountains: “Jahve will also dwell for ever;” not only that Elohim has chosen Zion as the seat of His throne, it will also continue to be the seat of His throne, Jahve will continue to dwell [there] for ever. Grace is superior to nature, and the church superior to the world, powerful and majestic as this may seem to be. Zion maintains its honour over against the mountains of Bashan.

Psa 68:19-27

Now begins the second circuit of the hymn. Comforted by the majestic picture of the future that he has beheld, the poet returns to the present, in which Israel is still oppressed, but yet not forsaken by God. The translation follows the accentuation, regular and in accordance with the sense, which has been restored by Baer after Heidenheim, viz., אדני has Zarka, and יעמס לנוּ Olewejored preceded by the sub-distinctive Rebia parvum; it is therefore: Benedictus Dominator: quotidie bajulat nobis, - with which the Targum, Rashi, and Kimchi agree.According to the customary accentuation the second יום has Mercha or Olewejored, and יעמס־לנוּ, Mugrash. But this Mugrash has the position of the accents of the Silluk-member against it; for although it does exceptionally occur that two conjunctives follow Mugrash (Accentsystem, xvii. §5), yet these cannot in any case be Mahpach sarkatum and Illui. עמס, like נשׂא and סבל, unites the significations to lay a burden upon one (Zec 12:3; Isa 46:1, Isa 46:3), and to carry a burden; with על it signifies to lay a burden upon any one, here with ל to take up a burden for any one and to bear it for him. It is the burden or pressure of the hostile world that is meant, which the Lord day by day helps His church to bear, inasmuch as He is mighty by His strength in her who of herself is so feeble. The divine name אל, as being the subject of the sentence, is האל: God is our salvation. The music here again strikes in forte, and the same thought that is emphasized by the music in its turn, is also repeated in Psa 68:21 with heightened expression: God is to us a God למושׁעות, who grants us help in rich abundance. The pluralet. denotes not so much the many single proofs of help, as the riches of rescuing power and grace. In Psa 68:21 למּות corresponds to the לנוּ; for it is not to be construed תּוצאות למּות: Jahve’s, the Lord, are the outgoings to death (Böttcher), i.e., He can command that one shall not fall a prey to death. תוצאות, the parallel word to מושׁעות, signifies, and it is the most natural meaning, the escapings; יצא, evadere, as in 1Sa 14:41; 2Ki 13:5; Ecc 7:18. In Jahve’s power are means of deliverance for death, i.e., even for those who are already abandoned to death. With אך a joyously assuring inference is drawn from that which God is to Israel. The parallelism of the correctly divided verse shows that ראשׁ here, as in Psa 110:6, signifies caput in the literal sense, and not in the sense of princeps. The hair-covered scalp is mentioned as a token of arrogant strength, and unhumbled and impenitent pride, as in Deu 32:42, and as the Attic koma'n directly signifies to strut along, give one’s self airs. The genitival construction is the same as in Isa 28:1, Isa 32:13. The form of expression refers back to Num 24:17, and so to speak inflects this primary passage very similarly to Jer 48:45. If קדקד שׂער be an object, then ראשׁ ought also to be a second object (that of the member of the body); the order of the words does not in itself forbid this (cf. Psa 3:8 with Deu 33:11), but would require a different arrangement in order to avoid ambiguities.

In Psa 68:23 the poet hears a divine utterance, or records one that he has heard: “From Bashan will I bring back, I will bring back from the eddies of the sea (from צוּל = צלל, to whiz, rattle; to whirl, eddy), i.e., the depths or abysses of the sea.” Whom? When after the destruction of Jerusalem a ship set sail for Rome with a freight of distinguished and well-formed captives before whom was the disgrace of prostitution, they all threw themselves into the sea, comforting themselves with this passage of Scripture (Gittin 57 b, cf. Echa Rabbathi 66 a). They therefore took Psa 68:23 to be a promise which has Israel as its object;So also the Targum, which understands the promise to refer to the restoration of the righteous who have been eaten by wild beasts and drowned in the sea (Midrash: מבשׁן = מבין שׁני אריות); cf. also the things related from the time of the Khaliphs in Jost’s Geschichte des Judenthums, ii. 399, and Grätz' Gesch. der Juden, v. 347. but the clause expressing a purpose, Psa 68:24, and the paraphrase in Amo 9:2., show that the foes of Israel are conceived of as its object. Even if these have hidden themselves in the most out-of-the-way places, God will fetch them back and make His own people the executioners of His justice upon them. The expectation is that the flight of the defeated foes will take a southernly direction, and that they will hide themselves in the primeval forests of Bashan, and still farther southward in the depths of the sea, i.e., of the Dead Sea (ים as in Isa 16:8; 2Ch 20:2). Opposite to the hiding in the forests of the mountainous Bashan stands the hiding in the abyss of the sea, as the extreme of remoteness, that which is in itself impossible being assumed as possible. The first member of the clause expressing the purpose, Psa 68:24, becomes more easy and pleasing if we read תּרחץ (lxx, Syriac, and Vulgate, ut intingatur), according to Psa 58:11. So far as the letters are concerned, the conjecture תּחמץ (from which תמחץ, according to Chajug', is transposed), after Isa 63:1, is still more natural (Hitzig): that thy foot may redden itself in blood. This is certainly somewhat tame, and moreover מדּם would be better suited to this rendering than בּדם. As the text now stands, תּמחץThe Gaja of the first closed syllable warns one to make a proper pause upon it, in order that the guttural of the second, so apt to be slurred over, may be distinctly pronounced; cf. תּבחר, Psa 65:5; הרחיק, Psa 103:12. So also with the sibilants at the beginning of the second syllable, e.g., תּדשׁא, Gen 1:11, in accordance with which, in Gen 14:1; 53:2, we must write השׁתיתו והתעיבו. is equivalent to תּמחצם (them, viz., the enemies), and רגלך בּדם is an adverbial clause (setting or plunging thy foot in blood). It is, however, also possible that מחץ is used like Arab. machaḍa (vehementer commovere): ut concutias s. agites pedem tuam in sanguine. Can it now be that in Psa 68:24 from among the number of the enemies of the one who goes about glorying in his sins, the רשׁע κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν (cf. Isa 11:4; Hab 3:13, and other passages), is brought prominently forward by מנּהוּ? Hardly so; the absence of תּלק (lambat) cannot be tolerated, cf. 1Ki 21:19; 1Ki 22:38. It is more natural, with Simonis, to refer מנּהוּ back to לשׁון (a word which is usually fem., but sometimes perhaps is masc., Psa 22:16; Pro 26:28); and, since side by side with ממּנוּ only מנהוּ occurs anywhere else (Ew. §263, b), to take it in the signification pars ejus (מן from מנן = מגה, after the form גּז, חן, קץ, of the same meaning as מגה, מנת, Psa 63:11), in favour of which Hupfeld also decides.

What is now described in Psa 68:25-28, is not the rejoicing over a victory gained in the immediate past, nor the rejoicing over the earlier deliverance at the Red Sea, but Israel’s joyful celebration when it shall have experienced the avenging and redemptive work of its God and King. According to Psa 77:14; Hab 3:6, הליכות appears to be God’s march against the enemy; but what follows shows that the pompa magnifica of God is intended, after He has overcome the enemy. Israel’s festival of victory is looked upon as a triumphal procession of God Himself, the King, who governs in holiness, and has now subjugated and humbled the unholy world; בּקּדשׁ as in Psa 68:18. The rendering “in the sanctuary' is very natural in this passage, but Exo 15:11; Psa 77:14, are against it. The subject of ראוּ is all the world, more especially those of the heathen who have escaped the slaughter. The perfect signifies: they have seen, just as קדּמוּ, they have occupied the front position. Singers head the procession, after them (אחר,This אחר, according to B. Nedarim 37 b, is a so-called עטור סופרים (ablatio scribarum), the sopherim (sofrim) who watched over the faithful preservation of the text having removed the reading ואחר, so natural according to the sense, here as in Gen 18:5; Gen 24:55; Num 31:2, and marked it as not genuine. an adverb as in Gen 22:13; Exo 5:1) players upon citherns and harps (נגנים, participle to נגּן), and on either side virgins with timbrels (Spanish adufe); תּופפות, apocopated part. Poel with the retension of ē (cf. שׁוקקה, Psa 107:9), from תּפף, to strike the תּף (Arab. duff). It is a retrospective reference to the song at the Sea, now again come into life, which Miriam and the women of Israel sang amidst the music of timbrels. The deliverance which is now being celebrated is the counterpart of the deliverance out of Egypt. Songs resound as in Psa 68:27, “in gatherings of the congregation (and, so to speak, in full choirs) praise ye Elohim.” מקהלות (מקהלים, Psa 26:12) is the plural to קהל (Psa 22:23), which forms none of its own (cf. post-biblical קהלּות from קהלּה). Psa 68:27 is abridged from ברכו אדני אשׁר אתם ממקור ישראל, praise ye the Lord, ye who have Israel for your fountainhead. אדני, in accordance with the sense, has Mugrash. Israel is here the name of the patriarch, from whom as from its fountainhead the nation has spread itself abroad; cf. Isa 48:1; Isa 51:1, and as to the syntax ממּך, those who descend from thee, Isa 58:12. In the festive assembly all the tribes of Israel are represented by their princes. Two each from the southern and northern tribes are mentioned. Out of Benjamin was Israel’s first king, the first royal victor over the Gentiles; and in Benjamin, according to the promise (Deu 33:12) and according to the accounts of the boundaries (Jos 18:16., Jos 15:7.), lay the sanctuary of Israel. Thus, therefore, the tribe which, according both to order of birth (Gen 43:29.) and also extent of jurisdiction and numbers (1Sa 9:21), was “little,” was honoured beyond the others.Tertullian calls the Apostle Paul, with reference to his name and his Benjamitish origin, parvus Benjamin, just as Augustine calls the poetess of the Magnificat, nostra tympanistria.

Judah, however, came to the throne in the person of David, and became for ever the royal tribe. Zebulun and Naphtali are the tribes highly praised in Deborah’s song of victory (Jdg 5:18, cf. Psa 4:6) on account of their patriotic bravery. רדם, giving no sense when taken from the well-known verb רדם, falls back upon רדה, and is consequently equivalent to רדם (cf. Lam 1:13), subduing or ruling them; according to the sense, equivalent to רדה בם (1 Kings 5:30; 1Ki 9:23; 2Ch 8:10), like המּצלם, not “their leader up,” but ὁ ἀναγαγὼν αὐτοὺς, Isa 63:11, not = רדיהם (like עשׂיהם, ראיהם), which would signify their subduer or their subduers. The verb רדה, elsewhere to subjugate, oppress, hold down by force, Eze 34:4; Lev 25:53, is here used of the peaceful occupation of the leader who maintains the order of a stately and gorgeous procession. For the reference to the enemies, “their subduer,” is without any coherence. But to render the parallel word רגמתם “their (the enemies') stoning” (Hengstenberg, Vaihinger, and others, according to Böttcher’s “Proben”), is, to say nothing more, devoid of taste; moreover רגם does not mean to throw stones with a sling, but to stone as a judicial procedure. If we assign to the verb רגם the primary signification congerere, accumulare, after Arab. rajama VIII, and rakama, then רגמתם signifies their closely compacted band, as Jewish expositors have explained it (קהלם או קבוצם). Even if we connect רגם with רקם, variegare, or compare the proper name regem = Arab. rajm , socius (Böttcher), we arrive at much the same meaning. Hupfeld’s conjecture רגשׁתם is consequently unnecessary.

Psa 68:28-35

The poet now looks forth beyond the domain of Israel, and describes the effects of Jahve’s deed of judgment and deliverance in the Gentile world. The language of Psa 68:29 is addressed to Israel, or rather to its king (Psa 86:16; Psa 110:2): God, to whom everything is subject, has given Israel עז, victory and power over the world. Out of the consciousness that He alone can preserve Israel upon this height of power upon which it is placed, who has placed it thereon, grows the prayer: establish (עוּזּה with וּ for ŭ, as is frequently the case, and with the accent on the ultima on account of the following Aleph, vid., on Psa 6:5), Elohim, that which Thou hast wrought for us; עזז, roborare, as in Pro 8:28; Ecc 7:19, lxx δυνάμωσον, Symmachus ἐνίσχυσον. It might also be interpreted: show Thyself powerful (cf. רוּמה, 21:14), Thou who (Isa 42:24) hast wrought for us (פּעל as in Isa 43:13, with ל, like עשׂה ל, Isa 64:3); but in the other way of taking it the prayer attaches itself more sequentially to what precedes, and Psa 62:12 shows that זוּ can also represent the neuter. Hitzig has a still different rendering: the powerful divine help, which Thou hast given us; but although - instead of -ת in the stat. construct. is Ephraimitish style (vid., on Psa 45:5), yet עוּזּה for עז is an unknown word, and the expression “from Thy temple,” which is manifestly addressed to Elohim, shows that פּעלתּ is not the language of address to the king (according to Hitzig, to Jehoshaphat). The language of prayerful address is retained in Psa 68:30. From the words מהיכלך על ירושׁלם there is nothing to be transported to Psa 68:29 (Hupfeld); for Psa 68:30 would thereby become stunted. The words together are the statement of the starting-point of the oblations belonging to יובילוּ: starting from Thy temple, which soars aloft over Jerusalem, may kings bring Thee, who sittest enthroned there in the Holy of holies, tributary gifts (שׁי as in Psa 76:12; Psa 18:7). In this connection (of prayer) it is the expression of the desire that the Temple may become the zenith or cynosure, and Jerusalem the metropolis, of the world. In this passage, where it introduces the seat of religious worship, the taking of מן as expressing the primary cause, “because or on account of Thy Temple” (Ewald), is not to be entertained.

In Psa 68:31 follows a summons, which in this instance is only the form in which the prediction clothes itself. The “beast of the reed” is not the lion, of which sojourn among the reeds is not a characteristic (although it makes its home inter arundineta Mesopotamiae, Ammianus, Psa 18:7, and in the thickets of the Jordan, Jer 49:19; Jer 50:44; Zec 11:3). The reed is in itself an emblem of Egypt (Isa 36:6, cf. Psa 19:6), and it is therefore either the crocodile, the usual emblem of Pharaoh and of the power of Egypt (Eze 29:3, cf. Psa 74:13.) that is meant, or even the hippopotamus (Egyptian p - ehe - môut), which also symbolizes Egypt in Isa 30:6 (which see), and according to Job 40:21 is more appropriately than the crocodile (התנין אשׁר בּיּם, Isa 27:1) called היּת קנה. Egypt appears here as the greatest and most dreaded worldly power. Elohim is to check the haughty ones who exalt themselves over Israel and Israel’s God. אבּירים, strong ones, are bulls (Psa 22:13) as an emblem of the kings; and עגלי explains itself by the genit. epexeg. עמּים .gexep: together with (Beth of the accompaniment as in Psa 68:31, Psa 66:13, and beside the plur. humanus, Jer 41:15) the calves, viz., the peoples, over whom those bulls rule. With the one emblem of Egypt is combined the idea of defiant self-confidence, and with the other the idea of comfortable security (vid., Jer 46:20.). That which is brought prominently forward as the consequence of the menace is moulded in keeping with these emblems. מתרפּס, which has been explained by Flaminius substantially correctly: ut supplex veniat, is intended to be taken as a part. fut. (according to the Arabic grammar, ḥâl muqaddar, lit., a predisposed condition). It thus comprehensively in the singular (like עבר in Psa 8:9) with one stroke depicts thoroughly humbled pride; for רפס (cf. רמס) signifies to stamp, pound, or trample, to knock down, and the Hithpa. either to behave as a trampling one, Pro 6:3, or to trample upon one’s self, i.e., to cast one’s self violently upon the ground. Others explain it as conculcandum se praebere; but such a meaning cannot be shown to exist in the sphere of the Hebrew Hithpael; moreover this “suffering one’s self to be trampled upon” does not so well suit the words, which require a more active sense, viz., בּרצּי־כסףcep, in which is expressed the idea that the riches which the Gentiles have hitherto employed in the service of God-opposed worldliness, are no offered to the God of Israel by those who both in outward circumstances and in heart are vanquished (cf. Isa 60; 9). רץ־כּסף (from רצץ, confringere) is a piece of uncoined silver, a bar, wedge, or ingot of silver. In בּזּר there is a wide leap from the call גּער to the language of description. This rapid change is also to be found in other instances, and more especially in this dithyrambic Psalm we may readily give up any idea of a change in the pointing, as בּזּר or בּזּר (lxx διασκόρπισον); בּזּר, as it stands, cannot be imperative (Hitzig), for the final vowel essential to the imperat. Piel is wanting. God hath scattered the peoples delighting in war; war is therefore at an end, and the peace of the world is realized.

In Psa 68:32, the contemplation of the future again takes a different turn: futures follow as the most natural expression of that which is future. The form יאתיוּ, more usually found in pause, here stands pathetically at the beginning, as in Job 12:6. השׁמנּים, compared with the Arabic chšm (whence Arab. chaššm, a nose, a word erroneously denied by Gesenius), would signify the supercilious, contemptuous (cf. Arab. âšammun , nasutus, as an appellation of a proud person who will put up with nothing). On the other hand, compared with Arab. ḥšm, it would mean the fat ones, inasmuch as this verbal stem (root Arab. ḥšš , cf. השׁרת, 2Sa 22:12), starting from the primary signification “to be pressed together,” also signifies “to be compressed, become compact,” i.e., to regain one’s plumpness, to make flesh and fat, applied, according to the usage of the language, to wasted men and animals. The commonly compared Arab. ḥšı̂m , vir magni famulitii, is not at all natural, - a usage which is brought about by the intransitive signification proper to the verb starting from its radical signification, “to become or be angry, to be zealous about any one or anything,” inasmuch as the nomen verbale Arab. hạšamun signifies in the concrete sense a person, or collectively persons, for whose maintenance, safety, and honour one is keenly solicitous, such as the members of the family, household attendants, servants, neighbours, clients or protègés, guest-friends; also a thing which one ardently seeks, and over the preservation of which one keeps zealous watch (Fleischer). Here there does not appear to be any connecting link whatever in the Arabic which might furnish some hold for the Hebrew; hence it will be more advisable, by comparison of השׁמל and חשׁן, to understand by חשׁמנים, the resplendent, most distinguished ones, perillustres. The dignitaries of Egypt come to give glory to the God of Israel, and Aethiopia, disheartened by fear before Jahve (cf. Hab 3:7), causes his hands to run to Elohim, i.e., hastens to stretch them out. Thus it is interpreted by most expositors. But if it is ידיו, why is it not also יריץ? We reply, the Hebrew style, even in connection with words that stand close beside one another, does not seek to avoid either the enallage generis (e.g., Job 39:3, Job 39:16), or the enall. numeri (e.g., Psa 62:5). But “to cause the hands to run” is a far-fetched and easily misunderstood figure. We may avoid it, if, with Böttcher and Olshausen, we disregard the accentuation and interpret thus, “Cush - his hands cause to hasten, i.e., bring on in haste (1Sa 17:17; 2Ch 35:13), to Elohim,” viz., propitiating gifts; תּריץ being the predicate to ידיו, according to Ges. §146, 3.

Prayer for the Dispersion of God's Enemies.

1 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. 2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 3 But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. 4 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him. 5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. 6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

In these verses,

I. David prays that God would appear in his glory,

1. For the confusion of his enemies (v. 1, 2): "Let God arise, as a judge to pass sentence upon them, as a general to take the field and do execution upon them; and let them be scattered, and flee before him, as unable to keep their ground, much less to make head against him. Let God arise, as the sun when he goes forth in his strength; and the children of darkness shall be scattered, as the shadows of the evening flee before the rising sun. Let them be driven away as smoke by the wind, which ascends as if it would eclipse the sun, but is presently dispelled, and there appears to remainder of it. Let them melt as wax before the fire, which is quickly dissolved." Thus does David comment upon Moses's prayer, and not only repeat it with application to himself and his own times, but enlarge upon it, to direct us how to make use of scripture-prayers. Nay, it looks further, to the Redeemer's victory over the enemies of this kingdom, for he was the angel of the covenant, that guided Israel through the wilderness. Note, (1.) There are, and have been, and ever will be, such as are enemies to God and hate him, that join in with the old serpent against the kingdom of God among men and against the seed of the woman. (2.) They are the wicked, and none but the wicked, that are enemies to God, the children of the wicked one. (3.) Though we are to pray for our enemies as such, yet we are to pray against God's enemies as such, against their enmity to him and all their attempts upon his kingdom. (4.) If God but arise, all his impenitent and implacable enemies, that will not repent to give him glory, will certainly and speedily be scattered, and driven away, and made to perish at his presence; for none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. The day of judgment will be the day of the complete and final perdition of ungodly men (2 Pet. iii. 7), who shall melt like wax before that flaming fire in which the Lord shall then appear, 2 Thess. i. 8.

2. For the comfort and joy of his own people (v. 3): "Let the righteous be glad, that are now in sorrow; let them rejoice before God in his favourable presence. God is the joy of his people; let them rejoice whenever they come before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice, let them rejoice with gladness." Note, Those who rejoice in God have reason to rejoice with exceeding joy; and this joy we ought to wish to all the saints, for it belongs to them. Light is sown for the righteous.

II. He praises God for his glorious appearances, and calls upon us to praise him, to sing to his name, and extol him,

1. As a great God, infinitely great (v. 4): He rides upon the heavens, by his name JAH. He is the spring of all the motions of the heavenly bodies, directs and manages them, as he that rides in the chariot sets it a-going, has a supreme command of the influences of heaven; he rides upon the heavens for the help of his people (Deut. xxxiii. 26), so swiftly, so strongly, and so much above the reach of opposition. He rules these by his name Jah, or Jehovah, a self-existent self-sufficient being; the fountain of all being, power, motion, and perfection; this is his name for ever. When we thus extol God we must rejoice before him. Holy joy in God will very well consist with that reverence and godly fear wherewith we ought to worship him.

2. As a gracious God, a God of mercy and tender compassion. He is great, but he despises not any, no, not the meanest; nay, being a God of great power, he uses his power for the relief of those that are distressed, v. 5, 6. The fatherless, the widows, the solitary, find him a God all-sufficient to them. Observe how much God's goodness is his glory. He that rides on the heavens by his name Jah, one would think should immediately have been adored as King of kings and Lord of lords, and the sovereign director of all the affairs of states and nations; he is so, but this he rather glories in, that he is a Father of the fatherless. Though God be high, yet has he respect unto the lowly. Happy are those that have an interest in such a God as this. He that rides upon the heavens is a Father worth having; thrice happy are the people whose God is the Lord. (1.) When families are bereaved of their head God takes care of them, and is himself their head; and the widows and the fatherless children shall find that in him which they have lost in the relation that is removed, and infinitely more and better. He is a Father of the fatherless, to pity them, to bless them, to teach them, to provide for them, to portion them. He will preserve them alive (Jer. xlix. 11), and with him they shall find mercy, Hos. xiv. 3. They have liberty to call him Father, and to plead their relation to him as their guardian, Ps. cxlvi. 9; x. 14, 18. He is a judge or patron of the widows, to give them counsel and to redress their grievances, to own them and plead their cause, Prov. xxii. 23. He has an ear open to all their complaints and a hand open to all their wants. He is so in his holy habitation, which may be understood either of the habitation of his glory in heaven (there he has prepared his throne of judgment, which the fatherless and widow have free recourse to, and are taken under the protection of, Ps. ix. 4, 7), or of the habitation of his grace on earth; and so it is a direction to the widows and fatherless how to apply to God; let them go to his holy habitation, to his word and ordinances; there they may find him and find comfort in him. (2.) When families are to be built up he is the founder of them: God sets the solitary in families, brings those into comfortable relations that were lonely, gives those a convenient settlement that were unsettled (Ps. cxiii. 9); he makes those dwell at home that were forced to seek for relief abroad (so Dr. Hammond), putting those that were destitute into a way of getting their livelihood, which is a very good way for man's charity, as it is of God's bounty.

3. As a righteous God, (1.) In relieving the oppressed. He brings out those that are bound with chains, and sets those at liberty who were unjustly imprisoned and brought into servitude. No chains can detain those whom God will make free. (2.) In reckoning with the oppressors: The rebellious dwell in a dry land and have no comfort in that which they have got by fraud and injury. The best land will be a dry land to those that by their rebellion have forfeited the blessing of God, which is the juice and fatness of all our enjoyments. The Israelites were brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, but were there better provided for than the Egyptians themselves, whose land, if Nilus failed them, as it sometimes did, was a dry land.

Thankful Praises to God; Mercies Recollected.

7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: 8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9 Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. 10 Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. 11 The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. 12 Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. 13 Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. 14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon.

The psalmist here, having occasion to give God thanks for the great things he had done for him and his people of late, takes occasion thence to praise him for what he had done for their fathers in the days of old. Fresh mercies should put us in mind of former mercies and revive our grateful sense of them. Let it never be forgotten,

I. That God himself was the guide of Israel through the wilderness; when he had brought them out of their chains he did not leave them in the dry land, but he himself went before them in a march through the wilderness, v. 7. It was not a journey, but a march, for they went as soldiers, as an army with banners. The Egyptians promised themselves that the wilderness had shut them in, but they were deceived; God's Israel, having him for their leader, marched through the wilderness and were not lost in it. Note, If God bring his people into a wilderness, he will be sure to go before them in it and bring them out of it. Cant. viii. 5.

II. That he manifested his glorious presence with them at Mount Sinai, v. 8. Never did any people see the glory of God, nor hear his voice, as Israel did, Deut. iv. 32, 33. Never had any people such an excellent law given them, so expounded, so enforced. Then the earth shook, and the neighbouring countries, it is likely, felt the shock; terrible thunders there were, accompanied no doubt with thunder-showers, in which the heavens seemed to drop; while the divine doctrine dropped as the rain, Deut. xxxii. 2. Sinai itself, that vast mountain, that long ridge of mountains, was moved at the presence of God; see Judg. v. 4, 5; Deut. xxxiii. 2; Hab. iii. 3. This terrible appearance of the Divine Majesty, as it would possess them with a fear and dread of him, so it would encourage their faith in him and dependence upon him. Whatever mountains of difficulty lay in the way of their happy settlement, he that could move Sinai itself could remove them, could get over them.

III. That he provided very comfortably for them both in the wilderness and in Canaan (v. 9, 10): Thou didst send a plentiful rain and hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. This may refer, 1. To the victualling of their camp with manna in the wilderness, which was rained upon them, as were also the quails (Ps. lxxviii. 24, 27), and it might be fitly called a rain of liberality or munificence, for it was a memorable instance of the divine bounty. This confirmed the camp of Israel (here called God's inheritance, because he had chosen them to be a peculiar treasure to himself) when it was weary and ready to perish: this confirmed their faith, and was a standing proof of God's power and goodness. Even in the wilderness God found a comfortable dwelling for Israel, which was his congregation. Or, 2. To the seasonable supplies granted them in Canaan, that land flowing with milk and honey, which is said to drink water of the rain of heaven, Deut. xi. 11. When sometimes that fruitful land was ready to be turned into barrenness, for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein, God, in judgment, remembered mercy, and sent them a plentiful rain, which refreshed it again, so that the congregation of Israel dwelt therein, and there was provision enough, even to satisfy their poor with bread. This looks further to the spiritual provision made for God's Israel; the Spirit of grace and the gospel of grace are the plentiful rain with which God confirms his inheritance, and from which their fruit is found, Isa. xlv. 8. Christ himself is this rain, Ps. lxxii. 6. He shall come as showers that water the earth.

IV. That he often gave them victory over their enemies; armies, and kings of armies, appeared against them, from their first coming into Canaan, and all along in the times of the judges, till David's days, but, first or last, they gained their point against them, v. 11, 12, 14. Observe here, 1. That God was their commander-in-chief: The Lord gave the word, as general of their armies. He raised up judges for them, gave them their commissions and instructions, and assured them of success. God spoke in his holiness, and then Gilead is mine. 2. That they had prophets, as God's messengers, to make known his mind to them. God gave them his word (the word of the Lord came unto them) and then great was the company of the preachers—prophets and prophetesses, for the word is feminine. When God has messages to send he will not want messengers. Or perhaps it may allude to the women's joining in the triumph when the victory was obtained, as was usual (Exod. xv. 20, 1 Sam. xviii. 7), in which they took notice of the word of God, triumphing in that as much as in his works. 3. That their enemies were defeated, and put to confusion: Kings of armies did flee, did flee with the greatest terror and precipitation imaginable, did not fight and flee, but flee and flee, retired without striking a stroke; they fled apace, fled and never rallied again. 4. That they were enriched with the plunder of the field: She that tarried at home divided the spoil. Not only the men, the soldiers that abode by the stuff, who were, by a statute of distributions, to share the prey (1 Sam. xxx. 24), but even the women that tarried at home had a share, which intimates the abundance of spoil that should be taken. 5. That these great things which God did for them were sanctified to them and contributed to their reformation (v. 14): When the Almighty scattered kings for her (for the church) she was white as snow in Salmon, purified and refined by the mercies of God; when the host went forth against the enemy they kept themselves from every wicked thing, and so the host returned victorious, and Israel by the victory were confirmed in their purity and piety. This account of Israel's victories is applicable to the victories obtained by the exalted Redeemer for those that are his, over death and hell. By the resurrection of Christ our spiritual enemies were made to flee, their power was broken, and they were for ever disabled to hurt any of God's people. This victory was first notified by the women (the she-publishers) to the disciples (Matt. xxviii. 7) and by them it was preached to all the world, while believers that tarry at home, that did not themselves contribute any thing towards it, enjoy the benefit of it, and divide the spoil.

V. That from a low and despised condition they had been advanced to splendour and prosperity. When they were bond-slaves in Egypt, and afterwards when they were oppressed sometimes by one potent neighbour and sometimes by another, they did, as it were, lie among the pots or rubbish, as despised broken vessels, or as vessels in which there was no pleasure—they were black, and dirty, and discoloured. But God, at length, delivered them from the pots (Ps. lxxxi. 6), and in David's time they were in a fair way to be one of the most prosperous kingdoms in the world, amiable in the eyes of all about them, like the wings of a dove covered with silver, v. 13. "And so," says Dr. Hammond, "under Christ's kingdom, the heathen idolaters that were brought to the basest and most despicable condition of any creatures, worshipping wood and stone, and given up to the vilest lusts, should from that detestable condition be advanced to the service of Christ, and the practice of all Christian virtues, the greatest inward beauties in the world." It may be applied also to the deliverance of the church out of a suffering state and the comforts of particular believers after their despondencies.

Glory of Zion; The King of Zion.

15 The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; a high hill as the hill of Bashan. 16 Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. 17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. 18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. 19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. 20 He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. 21 But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.

David, having given God praise for what he had done for Israel in general, as the God of Israel (v. 8), here comes to give him praise as Zion's God in a special manner; compare Ps. ix. 11. Sing praises to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion, for which reason Zion is called the hill of God.

I. He compares it with the hill of Bashan and other high and fruitful hills, and prefers it before them, v. 15, 16. It is true, Zion was but little and low in comparison with them, and was not covered over with flocks and herds as they were, yet, upon this account, it has the pre-eminence above them all, that it is the hill of God, the hill which he desires to dwell in, and where he chooses to manifest the tokens of his peculiar presence, Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14. Note, It is much more honourable to be holy to God than to be high and great in the world. "Why leap you, you high hills? Why do you insult over poor Zion, and boast of your own height? This is the hill which God has chosen, and therefore though you exceed it in bulk, and be first-rates, yet, because on this the royal flag is hoisted, you must all strike sail to it." Zion was especially honourable because it was a type of the gospel church, which is therefore called Mount Zion (Heb. xii. 22), and this is intimated here, when he said, The Lord will dwell in it for ever, which must have its accomplishment in the gospel Zion. There is no kingdom in the world comparable to the kingdom of the Redeemer, no city comparable to that which is incorporated by the gospel charter, for there God dwells and will dwell for ever.

II. He compares it with Mount Sinai, of which he had spoken (v. 8), and shows that it has the Shechinah or divine presence in it as really, though not as sensibly, as Sinai itself had, v. 17. Angels are the chariots of God, his chariots of war, which he make use of against his enemies, his chariots of conveyance, which he sends for his friends, as he did for Elijah (and Lazarus is said to be carried by the angels), his chariots of state, in the midst of which he shows his glory and power. They are vastly numerous: Twenty thousands, even thousands multiplied. There is an innumerable company of angels in the heavenly Jerusalem, Heb. xii. 22. The enemies David fought with had chariots (2 Sam. viii. 4), but what were they, for number or strength, to the chariots of God? While David had these on his side he needed not to fear those that trusted in chariots and horses, Ps. xx. 7. God appeared on Mount Sinai, attended with myriads of angels, by whose dispensation the law was given, Acts vii. 53. He comes with ten thousands of saints, Deut. xxxiii. 2. And still in Zion God manifests his glory, and is really present, with a numerous retinue of his heavenly hosts, signified by the cherubim between which God is said to dwell. So that, as some read the last words of the verse, Sinai is in the sanctuary; that is, the sanctuary was to Israel instead of Mount Sinai, whence they received divine oracles. Our Lord Jesus has these chariots at command. When the first-begotten was brought in to the world it was with this charge, Let all the angels of God worship him (Heb. i. 6); they attended him upon all occasions, and he is now among them, angels, principalities, and powers, being made subject to him, 1 Pet. iii. 22. And it is intimated in the New Testament that the angels are present in the solemn religious assemblies of Christians, 1 Cor. xi. 10. Let the woman have a veil on her head because of the angels; and see Eph. iii. 10.

III. The glory of Mount Zion was the King whom God set on that holy hill (Ps. ii. 6), who came to the daughter of Zion, Matt. xxi. 5. Of his ascension the psalmist here speaks, and to it his language is expressly applied (Eph. iv. 8): Thou hast ascended on high (v. 18); compare Ps. xlvii. 5, 6. Christ's ascending on high is here spoken of as a thing past, so sure was it; and spoken of to his honour, so great was it. It may include his whole exalted state, but points especially at his ascension into heaven to the right hand of the Father, which was as much our advantage as his advancement. For, 1. He then triumphed over the gates of hell. He led captivity captive; that is, he led his captives in triumph, as great conquerors used to do, making a show of them openly, Col. ii. 15. He led those captive who had led us captive, and who, if he had not interposed, would have held us captive for ever. Nay, he led captivity itself captive, having quite broken the power of sin and Satan. As he was the death of death, so he was the captivity of captivity, Hos. xiii. 14. This intimates the complete victory which Jesus Christ obtained over our spiritual enemies; it was such that through him we also are more than conquerors, that is, triumphers, Rom. viii. 37. 2. He then opened the gates of heaven to all believers: Thou hast received gifts for men. He gave gifts to men, so the apostle reads it, Eph. iv. 8. For he received that he might give; on his head the anointing of the Spirit was poured, that from him it might descend to the skirts of his garments. And he gave what he had received; having received power to give eternal life, he bestows it upon as many as were given him, John xvii. 2. Thou hast received gifts for men, not for angels; fallen angels were not to be made saints, nor standing angels made gospel ministers, Heb. ii. 5. Not for Jews only, but for all men; whoever will may reap the benefit of these gifts. The apostle tells us what these gifts were (Eph. iv. 11), prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers, the institution of a gospel ministry and the qualification of men for it, both which are to be valued as the gifts of heaven and the fruits of Christ's ascension. Thou hast received gifts in man (so the margin), that is, in the human nature which Christ was pleased to clothe himself with, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. In him, as Mediator, all fulness dwells, that from his fulness we might receive. To magnify the kindness and love of Christ to us in receiving these gifts for us, the psalmist observes, (1.) The forfeiture we had made of them. He received them for the rebellious also, for those that had been rebellious; so all the children of men had been in their fallen state. Perhaps it is especially meant of the Gentiles, that had been enemies in their minds by wicked works, Col. i. 21. For them these gifts are received, to them they are given, that they might lay down their arms, that their enmity might be slain, and that they might return to their allegiance. This magnifies the grace of Christ exceedingly that through him rebels are, upon their submission, not only pardoned, but preferred. They have commissions given them under Christ, which some say, in our law, amounts to the reversing of an attainder. Christ came to a rebellious world, not to condemn it, but that through him it might be saved. (2.) The favour designed us in them: He received gifts for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them, that he might set up a church in a rebellious world, in which he would dwell by his word and ordinances, as of old in the sanctuary, that he might set up his throne, and Christ might dwell in the hearts of particular persons that had been rebellious. The gracious intention of Christ's undertaking was to rear up the tabernacle of God among men, that he might dwell with them and they might themselves be living temples to his praise, Ezek. xxxvii. 27.

IV. The glory of Zion's King is that he is a Saviour and benefactor to all his willing people and a consuming fire to all those that persist in rebellion against him, v. 19-21. We have here good and evil, life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before us, like that (Mark xvi. 16), He that believes shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned.

1. Those that take God for their God, and so give up themselves to him to be his people, shall be loaded with his benefits, and to them he will be a God of salvation. If in sincerity we avouch God to be our God, and seek to him as such, (1.) He will continually do us good and furnish us with occasion for praise. Having mentioned the gifts Christ received for us (v. 18), fitly does he subjoin, in the next words, Blessed be the Lord; for it is owing to the mediation of Christ that we live, and live comfortably, and are daily loaded with benefits. So many, so weighty, are the gifts of God's bounty to us that he may be truly said to load us with them; he pours out blessings till there is no room to receive them, Mal. iii. 10. So constant are they, and so unwearied is he in doing us good, that he daily loads us with them, according as the necessity of every day requires. (2.) He will at length be unto us the God of salvation, of everlasting salvation, the salvation of God, which he will show to those that order their conversation aright (Ps. l. 23), the salvation of the soul. He that daily loads us with benefits will not put us off with present things for a portion, but will be the God of our salvation; and what he gives us now he gives as the God of salvation, pursuant to the great design of our salvation. He is our God, and therefore he will be the God of eternal salvation to us; for that only will answer the vast extent of his covenant-relation to us as our God. But has he power to complete this salvation? Yes, certainly; for unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. The keys of hell and death are put into the hand of the Lord Jesus, Rev. i. 18. He, having made an escape from death himself in his resurrection, has both authority and power to rescue those that are his from the dominion of death, by altering the property of it to them when they die and giving them a complete victory over it when they shall rise again; for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And to those that shall thus for ever escape death, and shall find such an outlet from it as not to be hurt of the second death, to them surely deliverances from temporal death are mercies indeed and come from God as the God of their salvation. 2 Cor. i. 10.

2. Those that persist in their enmity to him will certainly be ruined (v. 21): God shall wound the head of his enemies,—of Satan the old serpent (of whom it was by the first promise foretold that the seed of the woman should break his head, Gen. iii. 15),—of all the powers of the nations, whether Jews or Gentiles, that oppose him and his kingdom among men (Ps. cx. 6, He shall wound the heads over many countries),—of all those, whoever they are, that will not have him to reign over them, for those he accounts his enemies, and they shall be brought forth and slain before him, Luke xix. 27. He will wound the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses. Note, Those who go on still in their trespasses, and hate to be reformed, God looks upon as his enemies and will treat them accordingly. In calling the head the hairy scalp perhaps there is an allusion to Absalom, whose bushy hair was his halter. Or it denotes either the most fierce and barbarous of his enemies, who let their hair grow, to make themselves look the more frightful, or the most fine and delicate of his enemies, who are nice about their hair: neither the one nor the other can secure themselves from the fatal wounds which divine justice will give to the heads of those that go on in their sins.

Redemption of God's People; Duties Enforced by the Discoveries of Grace.

22 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea: 23 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same. 24 They have seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. 25 The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. 26 Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. 27 There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. 28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. 29 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee. 30 Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in war. 31 Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.

In these verses we have three things:—

I. The gracious promise which God makes of the redemption of his people, and their victory over his and their enemies (v. 22, 23): The Lord said, in his own gracious purpose and promise, "I will do great things for my people, as the God of their salvation," v. 20. God will not fail the expectations of those who by faith take him for their God. It is promised, 1. That he will set them in safety from their danger, as he had done formerly: "I will again bring them from the depths of the sea," as he did Israel when he brought them out of the slavery of Egypt into the ease and liberty of the wilderness; "and I will again bring them from Bashan," as he did Israel when he brought them from their wants and wanderings in the wilderness into the fulness and settlement of the land of Canaan; for the land of Bashan was on the other side Jordan, where they had wars with Sihon and Og, and whence their next removal was into Canaan. Note, The former appearances of God's power and goodness for his people should encourage their faith and hope in him for the future, that what he has done he will do again. He will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people (Isa. xi. 11); and we may perhaps see repeated all the wonders which our fathers told us of. But this is not all: 2. That he will make them victorious over their enemies (v. 23): That thy feet may be dipped, as thou passest along, in the blood of thy enemies, shed like water in great abundance, and the tongue of thy dogs may lap in the same. Dogs licked the blood of Ahab; and, in the destruction of the anti-christian generation, we read of blood up to the horses' bridles, Rev. xiv. 20. The victories with which God blessed David's forces over the enemies of Israel are here prophesied of, but as types of Christ's victory over death and the grave for himself and for all believers, in his resurrection (and theirs by virtue of his) out of the earth, and of the destruction of the enemies of Christ and his church, who shall have blood given them to drink, for they are worthy.

II. The welcome entertainment which God's own people shall give to these glorious discoveries of his grace, both in his word and in his works. Has he spoken in his holiness? Has he said he will bring again from Bashan? What then is required of us in return to this?

1. That we observe his motions (v. 24): "They have seen, thy people have seen, thy goings, O God! While others regard not the work of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, they have seen the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary." See here, (1.) How an active faith appropriates God; he is God and King; but that is not all, he is my God and my King. Those who thus take him for theirs may see him, in all his outgoings, acting as their God, as their King, for their good, and in answer to their prayers. (2.) Where God's most remarkable outgoings are, even in the sanctuary, in and by his word and ordinances, and among his people in the gospel church especially, in and by which is made known the manifold wisdom of God. These outgoings of his in the sanctuary far outshine the outgoings of the morning and the evening, and more loudly proclaim his eternal power and godhead. (3.) What is our duty in reference to these outgoings, which is to observe them. This is the finger of God. Surely God is with us of a truth.

2. That we give him glory in the most devout and solemn manner. When we see his goings in his sanctuary, (1.) Let those that are immediately employed in the service of the temple praise him, v. 25. It was expected that the Levites, some of whom were singers and others players on instruments, who had the nearest views of his outgoings in his sanctuary, should lead in his praises. And, it being a day of extraordinary triumph, among them were damsels playing with timbrels, to complete the concert. "Thus (says Dr. Hammond) when Christ has gone up to heaven the apostles shall celebrate and publish it to all the world, and even the women that were witnesses of it shall affectionately join with them in divulging it." (2.) Let all the people of Israel in their solemn religious assembly give glory to God: Bless God, not only in temples, but in the synagogues, or schools of the prophets, or wherever there is a congregation of those that come forth from the fountain of Israel, that are of the seed of Jacob, let them concur in blessing God. Public mercies, which we jointly share in, call for public thanksgivings, which all should join in. "Thus (says Dr. Hammond) all Christians shall be obliged solemnly to magnify the name of the Messiah, and, to that end, frequently to assemble together in congregations." And, (3.) Let those among them who, upon any account, are the most eminent, and make a figure, go before the rest in praising God, v. 27. There was little Benjamin (that was the royal tribe in Saul's time) with their rulers, the princes of Judah (that was the royal tribe in David's time), and their council, their captains or leaders. In the beginning of David's reign there had been long war between Judah and Benjamin, but now they both join in praises for success against the common enemy. But why are the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali particularly mentioned? Perhaps because those tribes, lying towards the north, lay most exposed to the incursions of the Syrians, and other neighbours that molested them, and therefore should be in a particular manner thankful for these victories over them. Dr. Hammond gives another reason, That these were the two learned tribes. Naphtali giveth goodly words (Gen. xlix. 21) and Zebulun had those that handle the pen of the writer, Judg. v. 14. These shall join in praising God, their princes especially. It is much for the honour of God when those that are above others in dignity, power, and reputation, go before them in the worship of God and are forward in using their influence and interest for the advancing of any service that is to be done to him. Dr. Hammond notes hence that the kingdom of the Messiah should, at length, be submitted to by all the potentates and learned men in the world.

3. That we seek unto him, and depend upon him, for the perfecting of what he has begun, v. 28. In the former part of the verse the psalmist speaks to Israel: "Thy God has commanded thy strength; that is, whatever is done for thee, or whatever strength thou hast to help thyself, it comes from God, his power and grace, and the word which he has commanded; thou hast no reason to fear while thou hast strength of God's commanding, and no reason to boast while thou hast no strength but what is of his commanding." In the latter part he speaks to God, encouraged by his experiences: "Strengthen, O God! that which thou hast wrought for us. Lord, confirm what thou hast commanded, perform what thou hast promised, and bring to a happy end that good work which thou hast so gloriously begun." What God has wrought he will strengthen; where he has given true grace he will give more grace. Some make this whole verse to be a believer's address to the Messiah, whom David calls God, as he had done, Ps. xlv. 6, 8. "Thy God" (God the Father) "has commanded thy strength, has made thee strong for himself, as the man of his right hand (Ps. lxxx. 17), has treasured up strength in thee for us; therefore we pray that thou, O God the Son! wilt strengthen what thou hast wrought for us, wilt accomplish thy undertaking for us by finishing thy good work in us."

III. The powerful invitation and inducement which would hereby be given to those that are without to come in and join themselves to the church, v. 29-31. This was in part fulfilled by the accession of many proselytes to the Jewish religion in the days of David and Solomon; but it was to have its full accomplishment in the conversion of the Gentile nations to the faith of Christ, and the making of them fellow-heirs, and of the same body, with the seed of Israel, Eph. iii. 6. 1. Some shall submit for fear (v. 30): "The company of spearmen, that stand it out against Christ and his gospel, that are not willing to be ruled by him, that persecute the preachers and professors of his name, that are furious and outrageous as a multitude of bulls, fat and wanton as the calves of the people" (which is a description of those Jews and Gentiles that opposed the gospel of Christ and did what they could to prevent the setting up of his kingdom in the world), "Lord, rebuke them, abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices, till, conquered by the convictions of their consciences and the many checks of providence, they be every one of them brought, at length, to submit themselves with pieces of silver, as being glad to make their peace with the church upon any terms." Even Judas submitted himself with pieces of silver when he returned them with this confession, I have betrayed innocent blood. And see Rev. iii. 9. Many, by being rebuked, have been happily saved from being ruined. But as for those that will not submit, notwithstanding these rebukes, he prays for their dispersion, which amounts to a prophecy of it: Scatter thou the people that delight in war, who take such a pleasure in opposing Christ that they will never be reconciled to him. This may refer to the unbelieving Jews, who delighted in making war upon the holy seed, and would not submit themselves, and were therefore scattered over the face of the earth. David had himself been a man of war, but could appeal to God that he never delighted in war and bloodshed for its own sake; as for those that did, and therefore would not submit to the fairest terms of peace, he does not doubt but God would scatter them. Those are lost to all the sacred principles of humanity, as well as Christianity, that can delight in war and take a pleasure in contention let them expect that, sooner or later, they shall have enough of it, Isa. xxxiii. 1; Rev. xiii. 10. 2. Others shall submit willingly (v. 29, 31): Because of thy temple at Jerusalem (this David speaks of in faith, for the temple of Jerusalem was not built in his time, only the materials and model were prepared) kings shall bring presents unto thee; rich presents shall be brought, such as are fit for kings to bring; even kings themselves, that stand much upon the punctilios of honour and prerogative, shall court the favour of Christ at a great expense. There is that in God's temple, that beauty and benefit in the service of God and in communion with him, and in the gospel of Christ which went forth from Jerusalem, that is enough to invite kings themselves to bring presents to God, to present themselves to him as living sacrifices, and with themselves the best performances. He mentions Egypt and Ethiopia, two countries out of which subjects and suppliants were least to be expected (v. 31): Princes shall come out of Egypt as ambassadors to seek God's favour and submit to him; and they shall be accepted, for the Lord of hosts shall thereupon bless them, saying, Blessed by Egypt my people, Isa. xix. 25. Even Ethiopia, that had stretched out her hands against God's Israel (2 Chron. xiv. 9), should now stretch out her hands unto God, in prayer, in presents, and to take hold on him, and that soon. Agree with thy adversary quickly. Out of all nations some shall be gathered in to Christ and be owned by him.

Praise to God for His Sovereign Dominion.

32 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah: 33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. 34 Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. 35 O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.

The psalmist, having prayed for and prophesied of the conversion of the Gentiles, here invites them to come in and join with the devout Israelites in praising God, intimating that their accession to the church would be the matter of their joy and praise (v. 32): Let the kingdoms of the earth sing praises to the Lord; they all ought to do it, and, when they become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, they will do it. God is here proposed to them as the proper object of praise upon several accounts:

I. Because of his supreme and sovereign dominion: He rides upon the heavens of heavens which were of old (v. 33); compare v. 4. He has from the beginning, nay from before all time, prepared his throne; he sits on the circuit of heaven, guides all the motions of the heavenly bodies; and from the highest heavens, which are the residence of his glory, he dispenses the influences of his power and goodness to this lower world.

II. Because of his awful and terrible majesty: He sends out his voice, and that a mighty voice. This may refer either generally to the thunder, which is called the voice of the Lord and is said to be powerful and full of majesty (Ps. xxix. 3, 4), or in particular to that thunder in which God spoke to Israel at Mount Sinai.

III. Because of his mighty power: Ascribe you strength unto God (v. 34); acknowledge him to be a God of such irresistible power that it is folly to contend with him and wisdom to submit to him; acknowledge that he has power sufficient both to protect his faithful subjects and to destroy his stubborn adversaries; and give him the glory of all the instances of his omnipotence. Thine is the kingdom and power, and therefore thine is the glory. We must acknowledge his power, 1. In the kingdom of grace: His excellency is over Israel; he shows his sovereign care in protecting and governing his church; that is the excellency of his power, which is employed for the good of his people. 2. In the kingdom of providence: His strength is in the clouds, whence comes the thunder of his power, the small rain, and the great rain of his strength. Though God has his strength in the clouds, yet he condescends to gather his Israel under the shadow of his wings, Deut. xxxiii. 26.

IV. Because of the glory of his sanctuary and the wonders wrought there (v. 35): O God! thou art terrible out of thy holy places. God is to be admired and adored with reverence and godly fear by all those that attend him in his holy places, that receive his oracles, that observe his operations according to them, and that pay their homage to him. He displays that out of his holy places which declares aloud that he will be sanctified in those that come nigh unto him. Out of heaven, his holy place above, he does, and will, show himself a terrible God. Nor is any attribute of God more dreadful to sinners than his holiness.

V. Because of the grace bestowed upon his people: The God of Israel is he that gives strength and power unto his people, which the gods of the nations, that were vanity and a lie, could not give to their worshippers; how should they help them, when they could not help themselves? All Israel's strength against their enemies came from God; they owned they had no might of their own, 2 Chron. xx. 12. And all our sufficiency for our spiritual work and warfare is from the grace of God. It is through Christ strengthening us that we can do all things, and not otherwise; and therefore he must have the glory of all we do (Ps. cxv. 1) and our humble thanks for enabling us to do it and accepting the work of his own hands in us. If it be the God of Israel that vies strength and power unto his people, they ought to say, Blessed be God. If all be from him, let all be to him.

PSAL. LXVIII.

To the Master of the Musicke, a Psalme, a Song of David.

LEt God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and they that hate him flee from his face. As smoke is driven away, so drive thou them away; as wax is melted at the face of fire, so let the wicked perish from the face of God. And let the just rejoyce, let them shew gladsomnesse before the face of God, and let them joy with rejoycing. Sing ye to God, sing Psalme to his name; make an high way for him that rideth in the desarts, in Iah his name, and shew gladnesse before his face. He is a father of the fatherlesse, and a Iudge of the widowes; even God, in the mansion of his holinesse. God seateth the solitary in house, bringeth forth those that are bound in chaines; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou marchedst in the wildernesse Selah. The earth quaked, also the heavens dropped, at the face of God: Sinai it selfe at the face of God, the God of Israel. A raine of liberalities thou didst shake out, O God; thine inheritance when it was wearied, thou didst confirme it. Thy company doe dwell in it, thou doest prepare in thy goodnesse for the poore afflicted, O God.

The Lord will give the speech of those that publish glad tidings to the great armie. The Kings of the armies shall flee, and shee that remaineth in the house shall divide the spoile. Though yee lie betweene the pot ranges, yee shall bee as the wings of a Dove, which is decked with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattereth abroad Kings in it, it shall be snow white in Tsalmon. A mountaine of God mount Bashan is, an hilly mountaine mount Bashan. Why leape ye, O hilly mountaines? this is the mountaine God desireth for his seat; yea, Iehovah will dwell in it to perpetuall aye. Gods Chariot, twise ten thousand thousands of Angels; the Lord is with them, as in Sinai in the Sanctuarie. Thou art ascended to on high, thou hast led captive a captivitie, thou hast taken gifts unto men, and also the rebellious to dwell, O Iah God. Blessed be the Lord, which day by day lodeth us: the God our salvation Selah. Our God is a God of salvations, and to Iehovih the Lord belong the issues of death.

But surely God will wound the head of his enemies, the hairie scalpe of him that goeth on in his guiltinesses. The Lord hath said, I will bring againe from Bashan: I will bring againe from the gulfs of the sea. That thy foot may embrew it selfe in bloud, the tongue of thy dogs in bloud of thine enemies, even of every of them. They have seene thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the Sanctuarie. The singers went before, the plaiers on instruments after: amongst them the Damosels beating on Timbrels. In the Churches blesse ye God, even the Lord, yee of the fountaine of Israel. There little Benjamin with their ruler, the Princes of Iudah with their assemblie, the Princes of Zebulun, the Princes of Naphtali. Thy God hath commanded thy strength; strengthen, O God, that thou hast wrought for us. For thy Palace in Ierusalem, Kings shall bring thee a present. Rebuke the company of speare-men, the congregation of mighty bulls, with the calves of the peoples, and him that submitteth himselfe with peeces of silver: he hath scattered abroad the peoples that delight in warres.

Princely Ambassadours shall come out of Egypt: Aethiopia shall hastily stretch her hands unto God. Sing unto God, ye kingdomes of the earth: sing Psalme to the Lord Selah. To him that rideth in the heavens of heavens of antiquitie: loe, hee will give his voice a voice of strength. Give the strength to God, his high Majestie is upon Israel, and his strength in the skies. Fearefull art thou, O God, out of thy Sanctuaries: the God of Israel he giveth strength and forces to the people; blessed be God.

Annotations. LEt God arise] or stand up. By God here is meant Christ our Lord; for of him is this Psalme interpreted by the Apostle, Ephes. 4. 8, 9, 10. This entrance is taken from Moses, Numb. 10. 35. where when the host of Israel rose up from mount Sinai to journey towards Canaan, the Arke of the covenant of the Lord went before them three dayes iourney, to search out a resting place for them. And when the Arke went forward, Moses said, Rise up Iehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, &c. where Moses respected not onely the Arke, (the figure of Christ) but the promise of God: Behold, I send an Angell before thee to keepe thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared; beware of him and heare his voice, &c. for my name is in him, &c. Exod. 23. 20, 21. This was the Angell of the covenant, Mal. 3. 1. the Angell of Gods face or presence, which saved the people, Isa. 63. 9. even Christ, whom they tempted in the wildernesse, 1 Cor. 10. 9. in whom God was, 2 Cor. 5. 19. and who himselfe is God our all blessed for ever, Amen, Rom. 9. 5. David applieth these things to his owne time and action of bringing home the Arke, 1 Chro. 13. and prophesieth also of things to come, as Act. 2. 30, 31. Vers. 4. let them joy] to wit, inwardly, with delight, (as the Greeke explaineth it) as the former word signifieth, outward ioyfull cariage and exultation. Vers. 5. make an high way] or, exalt: but that this is meant of a way, or causie, first the Hebrew word Sollu naturally beareth, as Isa. 62. 10. and 57. 14. secondly, the Greeke version hodopoiesate, make way, confirmeth it; thirdly, the scope of this place sheweth it, compared with Esay 40. 3. where the Voice in the wildernesse crieth to prepare the way of the Lord Christ, Matt. 3. 2. desarts] places where things are mixed and confused, as the word Ghnaraboth properly signifieth. So Gnarabah is a desart or wildernesse, Isa. 40. 2. and there is a declaration of this place, that vallies should be exalted, mountaines debased, crooked things made strait, and rough places smooth, Isa. 40. 3. Luk. 3. 5. The Greeke version here, epi dusmoon, meaneth also the same: for though the word be ambiguous, and signifieth the west parts, yet is it often used for the desarts or plains of the wildernesse, Numb. 33. 48, 50. and 36. 13. Deut. 1. 1. Iosh. 5. 10. 2 Sam. 4. 7. in Iah his name] or by Iah his name, to wit, sing and praise him. Iah is the proper name of God in respect of being or existence, for he is of himselfe, Exo. 3. 14. giveth to all life and breath, and all things, and in him we live, and move, and have our being, Act. 17. 25. 28. It is the same in effect with Iehovah, but more seldome used: of which see Psal. 83. 19. Vers. 6. a Iudge] that is, a defence and avenger of their wrongs: See Exod. 21. 22, 23, 24. Isa. 1. 17. Iam. 1. 27. mansion of his holinesse] or, his holy mansion, whereof see Psal. 26. 8. Vers. 7. the solitarie] them which are alone, or desolate, meaning without children. in house] that is, giveth them children: See Psal. 113. 9. in chaines] or, in conveniences, that is, in convenient and commodious sort; or, into fit (and commodious) places. The Greeke saith, in fortitude. The Chaldee thus, he brought forth the sonnes of Israel, which were bound in Egypt. dry land] or, barren ground, named in the originall of the bleaknesse or whitenesse, as whereon nothing groweth. This the Chaldee referreth to Pharaoh and his host, which were obstinate, and would not send away Israel, that they dwelt in a dry land. Vers. 9. Sinai it selfe] or, this Sinai, to wit, quaked, when God came downe upon it to give his law: see Exod. 19 16, 18. Heb. 12. 18. The Chaldee saith, Sinai, the smoke thereof ascended like the smoke of a furnace, because the majestie of God, the God of Israel, was revealed upon it. These words David borrowed from Deborahs song, Iudg. 5. 4, 5. Sina[illegible: 1 letter] is a mountaine in Arabia, Gal. 4. 25. in the wildernesse, thorow which Israel passed, Exod. 19. 1. It was called also Hereb: see Psal. 106. 19. Vers. 10. raine of liberalities] that is, a liberall, plentifull, free and bountifull raine, proceeding of Gods free grace. So elsewhere is mentioned the raine of blessing, Ezek 34 26. Spiritually this meaneth the doctrine of the Gospell, Deu. 32. 2. Isa. 45. 8. Hes. 14. 6, 7. and 6. 3. Heb. 6. 7. See Psal. 65. 10. shake out] or, shed and sprinkle abroad, as with the waving of the hand; the Greeke turneth it, separate. God divideth the spouts for the raine, Iob 38. 25, 26, 28. and 37. 6. when it, &c.] Hebr. and wearied, that is, dry, fainting for want of water, as Psal. 63. 2. Vers. 11. Thy company] the host of Israel, seated in Canaan. The Hebrew word Ch[illegible: 1 letter]j[illegible: 1 letter]h signifying Life, is used for all living creatures, commonly beasts, and among them wilde beasts, in which most life appeareth, Gen. 1. 24, 25, &c. also for fishes, Psal. 104. [illegible: 1 letter]5. Applied to men, it meaneth a company or societie, either good, as in this place, or evill, as after in verse 31. It is used for an host of men, as 2 Sam. 23. [illegible: 1 letter]3▪ in stead whereof, in 1 Chron. 11. 15. is written Machan[illegible: 1 letter]h, a Campe or Leager. The Greeke here turneth it Zoa, Living wights: which word is used in Revel. 4. 6. and 5. 8, 9. where mysticall speech is of Christs Church. prepare▪] to wit, thine inheritance (or, fruitfull blessings therein) for the poore (or afflicted) that is, the Church. This every man was to acknowledge when he brought the first fruits unto God: See Deut. 26. 5, 6,—9. 10. The Chaldee expoundeth it, thou preparedst the hosts of the companies of Angels for to doe good to the poore afflicted. Vers. 12. will give the speech] or, gave the word; but it may be taken for a prophesie. And by giving the speech (or word) is meant either the ministring of matter and speech unto them, or the confirming and performing of that which they have spoken. So Paul desired the praiers of the Churches, that speech might be given him, Ep[illegible: 2 letters]s. 6. 19. Col. 4. 3. But the Chaldee referreth this to the Law, The Word of God gave the words of the Law to his people. of those that [illegible: 1 word] gl[illegible: 1 letter]d tidings] or, (applying it to Christs time) of the Evang[illegible: 1 letter]l[illegible: 1 letter]sts, of the soules that preach the G[illegible: 1 letter]stell, or carry good newes. Such are in armies, they that carry tidings of victory, as 2 Sam. 18, 19. Such in Christs armie are the Preachers of the Gospell, Rom. 10. 15. The originall word here mebassroth, is of the feminine gender, usually understood therefore of women, such as sung songs of victorie, as Exod. 15. 20. 1 Sam. 18. 6, 7. but the Scripture no where calleth such the publishers of glad tidings: we may therefore understand it of men; for, 1. as Solomon called him-selfe Kohéleth, that is, a Preacher, (in the feminine gender) or a preaching soule, Eccles. 1. 1. so may any Evangelist in like sort be called Mebasséreth. 2. Also the Greeke version maketh it the masculine, the Lord will give the word ([illegible: 1 letter]ois euaggelizomé[illegible: 1 letter]ois) to the men that evangelize. 3. And in Isai. 40. 9. such are spoken to in this sort and forme as did preach good tidings to S[illegible: 2 letters]n and Ierusalem; which seemeth to bee principally meant of the Apostles. 4. The Chaldet Paraphrast also applieth it to men, though past, as to Moses and Aaron, which evangelized the Word of God to the many companies of Israel. to the great armie] meaning the Church, of whose warfare see Isa. 40. 2. Rev. 19. 14. 2 Cor. 10. 4. or if we referre it to the Evangelists, there is a great host of them: or to the tidings that they tell, it is of much warre. The Chaldee referres it to Moses and Aaron, that evangelized God▪ Word to the great hosts of Israel. Vers. 13. shall flee] this is meant of Christs enemies, as in verse 2. though here is another word, signifying a wandring flight, seeking where to hide them, as Rev. 6. 15. So five Kings fled from Ioshua and hid them in a cave, Iosh. 10. 16. See also Iosh. 11. 1, 4, 5, 8. she that remaineth] Heb. the mansion (or habitation) that is, the woman or women, who goe not out to warre, but keepe at home, as Iudg. 5. 24. Tit. 2. 5. As the Church is sometime likened to a Woman, Rev. 12. 1. so the Chaldee applieth this here to the congregation of Israel, that divided the spoile from heaven. divide the spoile] this is a blessing, Isa. 53. 12. done after victorie, Iudg. 5. 30. Luk. 11. 22. and with joy, Isa. 9. 3. For spoiles are used to denote riches, Pro. 1. 13. and 31. 11. and 16. 19. Vers. 14. betweene the pot-raunges] or, betweene the two bankes or rewes, to wit, of stones made to hang pots and kettles on in the campe or leager: places where scullions lye, and so are blacke; meaning hereby affliction and miserie; as on the contrary, by the doves silver wings is meant prosperity. Or, we may understand it of the two bounds and limits of the enemies, where they are continually assayled and indangered. And this the Greeke seemeth to favour, turning it, [ana meson [illegible: 1 letter]oe[illegible: 1 letter] cleroon] amids (or betweene) the inheritances; even as they also translate the two burthens or limits betweene which Isac[illegible: 2 letters]r couched, Ger. 49. 14. which tribe had the Philistians at one end, and Ammonites on the other, that vexed them. The Chaldee giveth this paraphrase, The God of Israel said, Though ye kings lye (or sleepe) betweene the curtaines, behold the Church of Israel, which is like unto a dove, covered with clouds of glory, divideth the spoile of the Egyptians. with yellow gold] understand againe, decked with yellow) (or greenish) gold, that is, of a golden colou[illegible: 1 letter] and greene, as the originall word importeth, Levit. 13. 49. and 14. 57. Vers. 15. the Almighty] or Al-sufficient, that is, God, named in Hebrew Shaddai, of his power and sufficiencie to goe thorow with all things, and for wasting and destroying his enemies, as at the drowning of the world. To this the Prophets have reference, saying, that shod (destruction) shall come from Shaddai, (the Almighty) Isa. 13. 6. Ioel 1. 15. scattereth] or spreadeth abroad, having discomfited the kings, his enemies, in that his inheritance, verse 10. 11. So spreading is used for scattering, Zach. 2. 6. it shall be snow-white] or, thou shalt be snowy, speaking to the Church, or of it. Whitenesse denoteth victorie, joy, glory, Rev. 2. 17. and 3. 5. Luk. 9 29. and whitenesse as snow, is a resemblance of purifying from sinne, Psal. 51. 9. Isa. 1. 18. Tsalmon] in Greeke, Selmon, a mount of Samaria, in the Tribe of Ephraim neere the City Sichem, as appeareth Iudg. 9. 47, 48. situate in the heart of the Country. Tsalmon signifieth shady, or darke, and so it seemeth this mount was, with caves, glinns, and trees that grew thereon; but with snow upon it was made lightsome. So to bee snow white in Tsalm[illegible: 1 letter]n, is to have light in darknesse, joy in tribulation. Vers. 16. A mount of God] that is, high, large, and full of divine blessings; for Basan was a fat and fruitfull mountaine: See Psal. 22. 13. and 36. 7. an hilly mount] or, a mount of hill[illegible: 1 letter]ks or knobs, having many tops. This seemeth to be a comparison; Basan is a goodly large mountaine, but this Sion doth excell it, for here God dwelleth with his Angels, &c. Vers. 17. leape ye] insult ye proudly, or lay ye wait for. The originall Ratsad is no where found in Hebrew but here onely. In Arabik it signifieth to espie and lye in wait for the hurt of others, which agreeth well with the argument here. for his seat] to dwell in it. The Lord chose Sion, and desired it for his seat: this shall be my rest for ever, Psal. 132. 13, 14. So, the Lambe Christ is on mount Sio[illegible: 1 letter], Rev. 14. 1. But the Chaldee referreth this also to mount Sinai, upon which the Word of God desired to place his divine presence. Vers. 18. Gods chariot] which he useth for his owne service, for defence of his Church, and destruction of his foes: see Psal. 18. 11. Chariot is put for Chariots (as ship, 1 King. 10. 22. for ships, 2 Chron. 9. 21.) or to note out the joint service of all the Angels, as of one. twise ten thousand] or double myriads, that is, innumerable; in the Greek, ten thousand f[illegible: 1 letter]ld; meaning, innumerable. Angels] the Hebrew Shinan, translated Angels, is not elsewhere found in Scripture. It seemeth to come of Shanah, to second, as being second or next to God; the chiefe Princes, Da[illegible: 1 letter]. 10. 13. as those in place next Kings are called the second unto them, 2 Chron. 28. 7. Esth. 10. 3. If wee referre it to the number, we may turne it redoubled or manifold. If to the Chariots, and derive it of Shanan, to sharpen, it may note a kinde of Chariots with sharpe hooks used in warres, as many humane writers record, 2 Mecca[illegible: 1 letter]. 13. 2. Statius lib. 10. Thebaid. Macro [illegible: 1 letter]ius, &c. How ever the word bee doubtfull, the meaning seemeth to be of Angels (as the Chaldee plainly expresseth) which the Greekes here translate chearfull ones, as of the Hebrew Shaan, to bee in tranquillitie and joy: and the Apostle seemeth to have reference to this place, where he mentioneth mount Si[illegible: 1 letter]n, the celestiall Ierusalem, and the company of ten thousands of Angels, which now we are come unto in Christ, Heb. 12. 22. And Angels have appeared like fierie Chariots, 2 King. 6. 17. with them] or in them] as in Sinai] as God was in Sinai, with ten thousands of holy ones, when hee gave the fierie Law, Deut. 33. 2. so is he in Sion with ten thousands of Angels, Heb. 12. 22. Here the words as in, seeme necessarily to be supplied; or the word Lord, as the Lord of Sinai, with like meaning as before. Vers. 19. Thou art ascended, &c.] Thou (Lord Iesus) art gone up to the highest Heaven, having first descended to the lowest earth. So the Apostle teacheth us to understand this place, Eph. 4 8, 9. to on high] or to the high place: see Psal. 7. 8. The Chaldee translateth it, to the firmament. led captive] or, captived a captivitie, that is, a company of captives, a prey of people taken in warre: See the like phrase, 2 Chron. 28. 5. 11. Iudg. 5. 12. Numb. 21. 1. Deut. 21. 10. So poverty is used for a company of poore people, 2 King. 24. 14. Christs enemies, Satan, sinne, death, hell, &c. were by him subdued, Colos. 2. 15. his Elect captived by Satan, were by him redeemed; of whom also this may bee meant, as Psal. 126. 1, 4. hast taken gifts unto] that is, hast given (and distributed) gifts among men. An Hebrew phrase often used, as, Take me a sword, 1 King. 3. 24. that is, give or bring it me. Take her me to wife, Iudg. 14. 2. Take me an offering, Exod. 25. 2. Take me a little water, 1 King. 17. 10. that is, Give. Giving also is sometime used for taking, as Gen. 42. 30. he gave (that is, tooke) us for spies. Rightly therefore doth the Apostle turne this in Greeke, given, Ephes. 4. 8. and the next words [illegible: 2 letters] Adam, is unto men, as Paul explaineth it, or among men, as Ieremy 49. 15. And the gifts are the Ministers of the Gospell, given for the good of the Church, Ephes. 4. 11, 12. So the Chaldee here addeth, thou hast taught the words of the Law, hast given gifts to the sonnes of men. and also the rebellious] or disobedient, to wit, thou hast led captive. They that continue rebellious are subdued to destruction, Psal. 2. 9. Isa. 11. 4. others by conversion, as Saul, breathing out threatnings and slaughter, was by Christ subdued, Act. 9. And after spake of himselfe and others, we ourselves were in times past unwise, disobedient, &c. but when the bountifulnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, he saved us, &c. Tit. 3. 3, 4, 5. to dwell] understand, in Gods mount, as vers. 17. or, with Iah God, meaning it of the captives. Or, that thou, O Iah God, maist dwell, to wit, in mens hearts by faith, Ephes. 3. 17. or in the Church, which by those thy gifts (the Ministers) is builded as a spirituall house for God to dwell in, 1 Cor. 3. 9, 10, 16. 1 Pet. 2▪ 5. So God dwelt among the Israelites, Num. 5. 3. and 35. 34. Vers. 20. day by day] or daily: see Psal. 61. 9. [illegible: 1 letter]odeth us] to wit, with his blessings or gifts, verse 19. or with afflictions, wherewith the Saints are burdened, and yet blesse him for his comforts in them, 2 Cor. 5. 4. and 1. 3, 4, 8. and 6. 4,—6. The Chaldee understandeth it of such l[illegible: 1 letter]ding as is by adding precepts upon precepts. Vers. 21. Our God, &c.] or, God to us is a God for salvations, that is, all manner health, helpe and deliverance that fully saveth. Iehovih] so the name of God is written usually, when Adonai, Lord, next followeth it, as here and Psal. 109. 21. or goeth before it, as Gen. 15. 2. having the vowels of Aelohim, God, and so is by the Iewes pronounced; as other times having the vowels of Adonai, it is so pronounced, Lord. So, for Adonai, Iehovaih, 2 Sam. 7. 18. is written, Iehovah Aelohim, 1 Chron. 17. 16. See Psal. 83. 19. issues] or passages, that is, waies and meanes of death or to death: meaning that he hath many waies to bring his enemies to death, and to deliver his people out of it. For, he hath the keyes of death, Rev. 1. 18. [illegible: 1 letter]e killeth and giveth life, woundeth and healeth, and none can deliver out of his hand, Deut. 32. 39. So issues of life, Prov. 4 23. Vers. 22. hairie scalpe] Hebr. the crowne (or scalpe) of haire, meaning open and inevitable judgement on the chiefest and most fierce enemies. guiltinesses] guilty sinnes, impieties: So Psal. 69. 6. Vers. 23. I will bring againe] or, will returne, reduce, to wit, thee my people, as I brought thee from the perill of Ogh in Bashan, Numb. 21. 23, 35. and of Pharaoh at the red sea, Exod. 14. 22, 23, 28, 29. Former deliverances are often by the Prophets applied to the times and workes of Christ: See Isa. 11. 1, 11, 15, 16. and 51. 10, 11. gulfs] or deeps, bottoms: See Psal. 69. 3. Vers. 24. That thy foot may embrew] that is, [illegible: 1 letter]e embrewed, or, That thou maist embrew thy foot. It is the same word which before in verse 22. is Englished wound, and signifieth, to make gor[illegible: 1 letter] bloudy; and is here by consequence put for embrewing or dipping in gor[illegible: 1 letter] bloud: as the Greeke turneth it, That thy foot may bee dipped. And this noteth a great slaughter of the enemies; as the dipping of the foot in oile, Deut. 33. 24. meaneth abundance thereof. in bloud of thine enemies] or, which floweth from thine enemies from him, that is, from each of them, or from the greatest of them, Antichrist: or, of the same bloud. Compare herewith the slaughter of Christs enemies, Rev. 19. 17, 18,—21. Vers. 25. They have seene] that is, Men have seene (not naming any speciall persons) thy goings, or waies, and administration. The Chaldee saith, The house of Israel have seene the going of thy Majestie upon the Sea, O God. in the] that is, which art in the Sanctuarie, or into the Sanctuarie, referring it to Davids carrying of the A[illegible: 1 letter]ke into the holy Tent, 1 Chron▪ 13. 6. 8. and 15. 28. Vers. 26. beating on timbrels] or on Tabers, to wit, with the hand; so in the triumph at the red sea, Mary the sister of Aaron, and all the women after her with timbrels and pip[illegible: 1 letter]s, sung praise to God, Exod. 15. 20, 21. unto that the Chaldee here referreth it. So at the slaughter of the Philistims, 1 Sam. 18. 6, 7. and at the slaughter of the Ammonites, Iudg. 11. 34. A timbrel (or taber) is in Hebrew named Toph, of the like sound that it maketh when it is stricken. Vers. 27. In the Churches] or congregations: see Psal. 26. 12. ye of the fountaine] that come out of Israel, as out of a well or fountaine; a phrase taken from Deut. 33. 28. Esaias hath also one much like it, Isa. 48. 1. It seemeth to be meant of the people, though it may also be referred to Christ: blesse the Lord, who is of the fountaine of Israel. For, of the Israelites, concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever, Amen, Rom. 9. 5. Vers. 28. There] in the Churches be little Benjamin, the tribe or posteritie of Benjamin, who was himselfe little, that is, youngest of all Israels children; and his tribe little, that is, few in number, being almost all destroied for the sinne of Gibea, Iudg. 20. 1, &c. their ruler] the Prince of that Tribe. The Greeke version saith, in a trance; taking the Hebrew Rodem to be of radam, though it be not found elsewhere in this forme; yet rare words but once used are sundry times found in this and other Psalmes. These things applied to Christs times and after, are very mysticall. Benjamin the least is here put first; so in the heavenly Ierusalem, the first foundation is a Iasper, Rev. 21. 19. which was the last precious stone in Aarons Brest plate, on which Benjamins name was graven, Exod▪ 28. 20. 10. 21. In this Tribe Paul excelled as a Prince of God, though one of the last Apostles, 1 Cor. 15. 8, 9, 10. who was converted in a trance or extasie, Act. 9. 3, 4, &c. and in ex[illegible: 1 letter]asies he and other Apostles saw the mysteries of Christs Kingdome, Act. 10. 10, 11, &c. 2 Cor. 12. 1, 2, 3, 4. their assembly] in Greeke, their governours; the Hebrew word Regamah but once used, causeth this ambiguitie: for comming of Ragam, to throw an heape of stones, Lev. 24. 14. may either be taken for an heape or assembly, or for a stone, that is, a ruler; as elsewhere a stone signifieth, Gen. 49. 24. Of this Tribe of Iudah were the Apostle Iames, and other our Lords brethren, Gal. 1. 19. Act. 1. 14. Zebulu[illegible: 1 letter], Naphtal[illegible: 1 letter]] these Tribes were situate in the [illegible: 1 letter]arthest parts of Canaan, as Iuda and Benjamin were in the first and chiefest parts; meaning by these few all other Tribes gathered to praise God. In these coasts Christ called to Apostleship Simon Peter, And[illegible: 1 letter]ew, &c. fishers of Galilee. Vers. 29. commanded thy strength] that is, powerfully appointed it, speaking to the Church. See the like phrase, Psal. 133. 3. and 44. 5. By strength also, Kingdome is often meant. strengthen] the Chaldee paraphraseth, dwell in this house of the Sanctuarie which thou hast made for us. Vers. 30. For thy Palace] or temple, which was after Davids daies to be buil[illegible: 2 letters] in the heavenly Ierusalem, the Lord and the Lambe are the Temple of it, Rev. 21. 22. bring a present] or, lead along a gift▪ that is, gifts▪ or presents. So Psal. 76. 12. which pres[illegible: 1 letter]nts are sometimes of the persons of men. See Isa. 18. 7. & 66. 20. Rom. [illegible: 1 word]. 16. &. 12. 1. Vers. 31. Rebuke] that is, Destroy: See Psal. 9. 6. [illegible: 1 letter]ompany of speare-men] or of archers, the [illegible: 2 letters]ut (or [illegible: 1 word]) of the cane, that is, such as use canes or reeds, whereof speares or arrowes were made. Of this word company, see before, vers. 11. It may also be read, the wild beasts of the reeds, meaning the savage wicked people. So the Chaldee turneth it, the armies of sinners. mighty bulls] the high Priests and great personages: see Psal. 2[illegible: 1 letter]. 13. that submitteth] that is, the Hypocrite which [illegible: 1 letter]aineth subjection, (as the former were professed enemies) or, till [illegible: 1 letter]e (that is, every one) submit, as Deut. 33. 29▪ The word signifieth such submission, as when one casts downe himselfe at the feet, as to be trodden on: so Prov. 6. 3. he hath scattered] this is spoken to the Church of God. The Greek turneth it as the former, Scatter thou. Vers. 32. Princely Ambassadours] Heb. Chashmannim, a word not used but here. The Greeke saith, Presbeis, Ambassadours. Egypt] in Hebrew called Mitsrajim, the name of the sonne of Cham, the sonne of Noah, Gen. 10. 6. who called the country where he & his posterity dwelt by his owne name. In Greek, and in the new Testament, it is alwaies called Egypt. This is a prophesie of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith, as the Chaldee saith, that they may be made proselytes. Aethiopia] in Hebrew Cush, another sonne of Cham, brother to M[illegible: 1 letter]sraim and Canaan, Gen. 10. 6. the country where he and his children dwelt is called by his name Cush, in Greeke Aethiopia. The people we call back Moores. hastily stretch] Hebr. make run: nothing the readinesse of that nation to offer gifts and sacrifices, (or, as the Ch[illegible: 2 letters]dee explaineth it, to spread out their hands in prayer) and to receive the Gospell: See Act. 8. 27▪ &c. Vers. 34. of heavens of antiquitie] that is, the most ancient and highest heavens, which were since the world began, noting hereby Gods powerfull Majestie and helpe to his Church, as Deut. 33. 26. will give] or giveth usually his voice, that i[illegible: 1 letter], speakes aloud or thundereth: see the notes on Psal. 46. 7. and 29. 3. Some Apostles were called Sonnes of thunder, Mark▪ 3. 17. and Christs powerfull voice raiseth the dead, Ioh. 5. 25. Vers. 35. Give the strength] that is, strong praise, and the glory of the Kingdome: see Psal. 8. 3. Vers. 36. San[illegible: 1 letter]tuaries] the holy and most holy places of the Tabernacle, and Heaven it selfe: see Psal. 43. 3. the people] that is, as the Greeke explaineth, his people. So the soule, Psal. 69. 2. fo[illegible: 1 letter] my soule: see Psal. 45. 4. Blessed be God] Hereupon God was called in Israel, the Blessed one, as Mark. 14. 61. Art thou Christ the sonne of the Blessed? that is, the son of God, Mat. 26. 63.

PSAL. LXVIII.

A Pſalm or ſong of David] Made at that time, when having overcome his enemies, he brought arcam in arcem, the Ark of God into the Tower of Sion; conferre verſ. 1. with Numb. 10.35. Herein alſo he treateth of the greateſt ſecrets of Chriſts Kingdome, and propheſieth of things to come, as Act. 2.30, 31. witneſſe the Apoſtle, Epheſ. 4.8.

Verſ. 1. Let God ariſe] He need do no more, that his enemies may be ſcattered, though never ſo cloſe united, e[illegible: 1 letter]iamſi catapbractus incedat Satan, as Luther ſpeaketh; digitum ſunns tantum moveat, & diſſipabuntur hoſtes, Let the Lord but ſtirre his finger only, let him but look unto the hoſt of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire, and they ſhall be troubled, as Exod. 14.24. funduntur & fugantur cum primum ſe exferit Deus, as thoſe Philiſtines, 2 Sam. 5.

Let them alſo that hate him, flee before him] Athanaſius telleth us that evill ſpirits may be put to flight by this Pſalm; and that Anthony the Hermite fought againſt the Devill with this verſe, and worſted him. This may be done alſo as well with other texts of Scripture.Golloq. Menſ. Luther encountred the Devill with that ſentence, Thou haſt put all things under his feet; Another Dutch Divine with this, The Sbn of God came to diſſolve the works of the Devil. Cramerus. A third, with thoſe words, The ſeed of the woman ſhall break the Serpents head. As the rocks repel the boiſterous waves — c[illegible: 1 letter] nantia frangere, frangunt; ſo doth Chriſt the Rock (the ſtone cut out of the mountains without hands. Dan. 2.45.) all his Churches enemies.

Verſ. 2. As [illegible: 1 word] is driven away, &c.] Smoak at firſt ſight ſeemeth formidable; but ſoon vaniſheth; and the higher it aſcendeth, the ſooner it is diſſipated: ſo here. Guicciardine ſaith of Charles the eighth of France, that he came into the field like thunder and lightening, but went out like a ſnuff; more than a man at fiſt, and leſſe than a woman at laſt. Semblably Gods enemies.

As wax melteth before the fire, &c.] Wax is a more ſolid ſubſtance than ſmoak, but held to the fire, it quickly diſſolveth. The Pſalmiſt both prayeth and propheſieth here; that the downfall of the Churches enemies may be praeceps & preſentiſſimum, ſad and ſuddain, as is elegantly ſet forth by theſe [illegible: 1 letter]wo ſimilitudes.

Verſ. 3. But let the Righteous be glad] When he ſeeth the vengeance, Pſal, 58.10. (See the Note there) whilſt this wiſe King ſcattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them, Prov. 20.26.

Let them rejoyce before God] Heb. At the preſence of God, from which the wicked muſt flee, verſ. 1. See Iſa. 33.14.

Yea let them exceedingly rejoyce] Heb. Rejoyce with gladneſs; over-abound exceedingly with joy as St. Paul [illegible: 1 word] 2 Cor. 7.4. Joy is the juſt mans portion, which the wicked may not meddle with. Hoſ. 9.12.

Verſ. 4. Sing unto God ſing praiſes] [illegible: 1 span] not in a cuſtumers [illegible: 1 span] help hereunto was this Pſalm [illegible: 1 span]

Excell him that rideth upon the Heavens] Exalt him ſo, as when a ([illegible: 1 word] is made up unto a great height, Beza rendreth it, Sternite [illegible: 1 span] Caſt upon pave the way for him that rideth in the deſert. Come[illegible: 2 letters] Iſai; 40.3, 4 Mat. 3.1. Mat. 3.3. The Septuagint render it, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Raiſe up the way, and make it ready (as they uſe to do before Kings that ride in triumph) that the King of glory may come into your hearts, thoſe deſerts indeed.

By his name J[illegible: 1 letter]h] the ſame with Jehovah, that proper and incommunicable name of God. Some of the Heathens called it Jo[illegible: 2 letters] as Dioderus Sicalan[illegible: 1 letter], Mack[illegible: 4 letters], &c. Holy and reverend is this name, [non-Latin text not transcribed], Eſſentates, and it is here and elſewhere given to Chriſt, See it interpreted Rev. 1.4.

Verſ. 5. A Father of the fatherleſs, &c.] Pupillerum pater, & [illegible: 1 word] vindex, a title that God much glorieth in; and although hee rideth upon the Heavens, and is higher than the higheſt, yet ſo low ſtoopeth he to our meanneſs; neither will he leave his people orphans or comfortleſs, J[illegible: 2 letters]. &c. 18. for

God is in his holy habitation] Not in Heaven only, but in and with his Church on earth; the Ark and Mercy-ſeat were never ſundred.

Verſ. 6. God ſetteth the ſolitary in families] i.e. He bleſſeth them with Iſſue. See Pſal. 113.9. and ſo he doth the Church, Iſa. 54. It in theſe dayes of the Goſpel eſpecially.

He bringeth out thoſe which are bonnd in th[illegible: 1 letter]ing] As he did Peter, Act 12. Paul and Silas, Act. 16. Some read it thus, He bringeth out thoſe which are bound, in accomoditates, into places where they may live commodiouſly and chearfully. As on the other ſide,

The rebellions dwell in a dry land] In le[illegible: 2 letters]s torridis, arridis, exſucis & [illegible: 1 span], in [illegible: 1 word] and deſert Countries, where they are deſtitute of Gods bleſſing and his ſoul-refreſhing comforts. The Hebrew word ſignifieth a bleak or white ſoil, ſuch as is all Egypt where the Nile arriveth not, viz. a whitiſh ſand, bearing no graſs but two little weeds, of which they make glaſs. Where the river w[illegible: 3 letters]reth is a black mould, ſo fruitfull, ſay travailers, as they do but throw in the ſeed; and have four rich harveſts in leſſe than four months. Hence Egypt is called The World Gra[illegible: 3 letters]y.

Verſ. 7. O God when thou wenteſt forth before thy people] Here the former benefits of God to his people are recited. & additis [illegible: 1 word] coloribus [illegible: 1 word] potius quam deſcripta, and rather depainted out in lively colours, than deſcribed. Wet muſt ſtirre up out ſelves to thankfullneſs for what God hath done for our forefathers; neither muſt the memory of his mercies ever grow ſtale with us.

Verſ. 8. The earth ſhook, the Heavens alſo dropped] Velut in ſudoviut ſoluts, as if they had been put into a ſweat; In ſo terrible a manner was the Law given, that Gods ſear might fall upon us, Exod. 20. As for the Goſpel, it is than [illegible: 1 word] of Liberalities, verſ. 9. confirming Gods inheritance, when it is weary.

Even Sinai it ſelf was moved at the prefence of God. Some render it, a facie Dei h[illegible: 1 letter]jus Sinaice, à facie Dei, Dei I ſrael. Theſe two verſes are taken our or [illegible: 1 word] ſong, Jud. 5.4.5.

Verſ. 9. Thou O God didſt ſend a plentifull rain] Heb. Thou [illegible: 1 span] rain of liberalities. Spiritually this meaneth the Doctrin of the Goſpel, Deut 3.[illegible: 1 letter]. 2 Iſa. 45.8. Hoſ. 14.6. and the gifts of the Holy Chriſt beſtowed hereby and plentifully.

Verſ. 10. Thy Congregation hath dwelt therein [illegible: 1 word],] thy [illegible: 1 word], ſoſome render it, and interpret it of the flocks and heards, whereby of his goodneſſe God prepared fot his poor, thoſe creatures being profitable both [illegible: 1 span].Deus obrulit occaſionem laetandi, ovandi & triumphandi.

Verſ. 11. The Lord gave the word] That is, the occaſion [illegible: 1 span], de victoria ſaith Vatablus. How God provided his people of [illegible: 1 span] Pſalmiſt had told us, now of the victory, the good news whereof ſhall [illegible: 1 word] in every ones mouth, like the word in an army, with joyfull acclamations and out-cryes.

Great was the company (Heb. army of the forbad publiſhed [illegible: 1 word])] Such are thy Preachers of the Goſpel, Rom. 10.15. an office taken now from the Angel[illegible: 2 letters], and given to the Miniſters, where[illegible: 2 letters] that Angel turned over. [illegible: 1 word] to [illegible: 1 span] information, [illegible: 1 word]. The Hebrew word for [illegible: 1 span] is [illegible: 1 span] continuance out [illegible: 1 span] of New-England) but to ſhew the weakneſſe of the means (fiſherman and the like) that God is pleaſed to uſe in this great work,Ut imbecillitatem miniſtrorum Eccleſiae nocet. Moller. for the greater manifeſtation of his power in the ſucceſſe, as ſome conceive.

Verſ. 12. Kings of armies did flee apace] Heb. Did flee, did flee. Or, ſhall flee, ſhall flee; which one interpreteth of Devils (called Principalities and Powers) formerly uſing to give Oracles; but after Chriſts birth ceaſing to do ſo. As alſo of Licius[illegible: 2 letters] and other tyrants fleeing before Conſtantine the firſt Chriſtian Emperour. See Rev. 9.11. Antichriſt is the King of Locuſts, and he fleeth daily before the Evangelies, Lib. 3. de. Pont. Rom. cap. 21. the New-Goſpellers, as he calleth them. Bellarmine complaineth, that ever ſince we held the Pope to be Antichriſt, non mode non crevit ejus imperium, ſed ſemper magi[illegible: 1 letter]ac magis decrevit, his Kingdome hath not only not increaſed, but more and more daily decreaſed.

And ſhe that tarried at home divided the ſpoil] That is, toto congregatia que non pugnabat, ſaith Kimchi. Or the women alſo (thoſe domi porta) came forth to pillage. Theſe dayes of the Goſpel do abound with many godly matrones and holy Virgins. And it is eaſie to obſerve, that the New Teſtament affordeth more ſtore of good women, than the Old.

Verſ. 13.Inter Chytropod[illegible: 1 letter]s. Though ye have ly[illegible: 1 letter]n among the Pots] Quaſiobruti roti & oppleti fuligine & tenebris, black and ſooty, as the black guard of an army, or as Skullions in a Kitchin, who lye ſometimes all right, like beaſts, in a chimney-corner; or as your Fore-Fathers in Egypt, when their ſhoulders were not yet removed from the burden, nor their hands from the pots, Pſal. 81.6. The meaning is, though ye have been in a low and loathſome condition, yet now. ye ſhall ſhine and flouriſh, Verba ſunt maliorum, ſaith Kimchi, theſe are the words of thoſe women, annunciatrices in the eleventh verſe. Beza maketh them to be the Pſalmiſts words to thoſe women that divided the ſpoil, verſ. 12. Vixiſtis adhuc puella, &c. ye have hitherto dwelt at home, and waſht pots, &c. but now being enriched by the ſpoils, yee may come abroad fair and trimme, like white Doves with gilt feathers.

Yet ſhall ye be as the wings of a Dove] Ye ſhall flye ſwiftly from the ſtorm of cruel perſecution, ſaith the Syroack Interpreter; yea you ſhall ſhine, and make a glorious ſhew, ficut nivea columbae per medium aercus inter volitandum aureum quendam ſplendarem ejaculantur. See Iſa. 54.11, 12, 13. the Churches bricks made in her bondage ſhall be turned into Saphires.

Verſ. 14. When the Almighty ſcattered Kings in it] i.e. In the wilderneſs as they paſſed; or in Canaan which they poſſeſſed, according to verſ. 1. Or, ſcattered Kings for her, that is, for his Church, or for her that tarried at home, verſ. 12. a periphraſis of the Church, in the times of primitive perſecution eſpecially, till the Almighty ſcattered thoſe perſecuting Princes. Some of the Jew-Doctors underſtand it of Gog and Magog.

It was white as ſnow in Salmon] Or, She was white as ſnow in Salmon; not only as the wings of a Dove, but glorious and glittering as ſnow on that high hill, Judg. 9.47, 48. At the top of the Alpes nothing is to bee ſeen but ſnow, which hath lain there beyond the memory of man, and as ſome ſay, ever ſince the flood. The ſame may be as true of Salmon, which ſome here take for a Noun ſubſtantive common, and render its albe ſees in [illegible: 2 letters]ligine, thou ſhalt wax white in darkneſſe. The old Emperour Andronicus lighting upon this verſe in his Pſalter, and applying it to himſelf,Turk. hiſt. fol. 164. was much ſetled and ſastisfied concerning his troubles.

Verſ. 15. The Hill [illegible: 1 word] God is as the hill of Baſan] Baſan was fat and fettile, but Sion was better, becauſe the place where Gods honour dwelled, any relation to whom d[illegible: 1 letter]th greatly ennoble any place or perſon: ſo Gen. 17.21, 22, Iſrael, have bleſſed, twelve Princes ſhall he beget; but my covenant will I eſtabliſh with Iſ[illegible: 3 letters], Since thou haſt been precious in my ſight, thou haſt been honourable, Iſa. 4[illegible: 1 letter].[illegible: 1 letter]

Verſ. 16. Why leap ye, ye high bills?] Why do ye pride and pleaſe your ſelves in your privileges of nature, ſo faire above this of [illegible: 1 word], Quare [illegible: 1 span] ſo ſome render it, and tell us, that the originall word [illegible: 1 word] is Syriack, [illegible: 1 span], to irritate, to inſult, or contend with any one.

This is the Hill which God deſireth to [illegible: 1 word] in]. This [illegible: 1 span] and doth ſtill of the Church from the reſt of the World. The Lamb Chriſt is on Mount Sion, Revel. 14.1.

Verſ. 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thouſand] Heb. The Chariot, to note the joynt-ſervice of all the Angels, who are here called, Shinan, of their changeableneſs now taken away by Chriſt, ſay ſome: of their precellency above other Creatures, ſay others, as being ſecond or next unto God, the chief Princes, the Nobles of that Court, as Dan. 10.13. Michael one of the chief Princes. The Seventy render it [non-Latin text not transcribed], The cheerful ones ſuch as are in joy and tranquillity, freely ſerving God in all his Warres, carrying the Elect, and marching about them.

The Lord is among them, as in Sinai] i.e. The Angels make Sion as dreadful to all her enemies, as thoſe Angels made Sinai at the delivery of the Law. See Heb. 12.22.

In the holy place] Holy for the time whilſt God appeared there, ſo 2 Pet. 1.18. Tabor is called the holy Mount.

Verſ. 18. Thou haſt aſcended on high] As a Conquerour doth on his triumphal Chariot; the Romans aſcended up to the Capitol,Plut. in Aemyl. leading their Captives bound behind them, and giving gifts unto the people. They might have this cuſtom from David, and theſe words might be the peoples acclamation to: David, or as ſome think, both the Kings and peoples acclamation to the Ark, that notable Type of Chriſt, to whom St. Paul applieth it, Epheſ. 4.8, 9. and teacheth us to underſtand it of his wonderful Aſcenſion.

Thou haſt led captivity captive] i.e. Thou haſt captivated thoſe that once held us in captivity: for ſo Gods juſtice required, Iſa. 33.1. ſo he had fore-promiſed, Iſa. 24. Rev. 13.10. and ſo Chriſt hath fulfilled, Coloſſ. 2.15. ſaving his people to the uttermoſt, from Sin, Death, Hell, and the Devil, who had taken them alive captive at his pleaſure, 2 Tim. 2.26.

Thou haſt received gifts for men] Heb. In man; ſome render it in Adam, Qualia erant in Adams, talia dat Chriſtus, ſaith Eugubinus, Chriſt gave ſuch gifts to his people (for if he received with one hand, he gave with the other,Sed Beth ſervilis non praeponitur proprio nomini. and the fruits of his Victories are all for his Subjects) as were in Adam. True it is, that hee repaireth Gods once-loſt Image in them, but the gifts here meant are mentioned by the Apoſtle, Epheſ. 4 11. viz. Apoſtles, Prophets, Evangeliſts, Paſtors, Teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Miniſtery, for the edyfying of the body of Chriſt, &c. Lo theſe were thoſe gifts that Chriſt beſtowed upon his Church at the day of his Coronation. and ſolemn inauguration into his Throne, at the time of his triumphant Aſcenſion. Theſe he received that he might give: and he held it more bleſſed to give than to receive. A like expreſſion wee have, Hoſ. 14.2. Receive us graciouſly, Heb. Take good, ſc. to beſtow it upon us, as Acts 2.23.

Yea, for the rebellious alſo] Rebellion at firſt till thou haſt given them a better heart. See Rom. 4.5. & 5.6. or, if they continue ſo, yet they may ſhare in common gifts, and external priviledges.

That the Lord God might dwell among them] viz. in his religion and true worſhippers, for which end he giveth reſtraining grace to the very rebellious.

Verſ. 19. Bleſſed be the Lord who daily loadeth us] ſc. With bleſſings, or with croſſes turned into bleſſings, as being ſanctified, and having their properties altered; for of themſelves they are fruits of ſin, and a peece of the Curſe. Let us not load him with our iniquities, &c.

Verſ. 20. He that is our God, is the God of Salvation] Or, This God is unto us a God of Salvations, in the Plural, ſo that he can ſave us, and doth, from a thouſand deaths and dangers; and when he hath delivered us to day, he both can and will do it again to morrow: he hath for his people omnimodam ſalutem.

And unto God the Lord belong the iſſues from death.] When we think there is no way but one for us, he appeareth as out of an Engin, and pulleth us out of Deaths jaws. The Lord knoweth how to deliver his, 2 Pet. 2.9. from the moſt deſperate and deadly dangers. Peter might well ſay it, for he had the experience of it, Acts 12. Chriſt hath the Keys of death, Rev. 1.18. the ſole dominion and diſpoſal of it. [illegible: 1 span] mortis.

Verſ. 21. But God ſhall wound the [illegible: 1 word] of his enemies] [illegible: 1 word] caput, a wound in the head if deep (and God ſtrikes no ſmall blows) is mortal. Chriſt will break the head of thoſe that bruiſe his heel, that attempt any thing againſt Him, and his. By Head here Diodate underſtandeth the Devil, that Prince of the World, Deut. 32.42. Pſal. 110.6. Hab. 3.13. Evil ſpirits in Scripture are called Shegnirim, ſhag-haired, Levit. 17.7. Iſa. 13.21. And they go on in their treſpaſſes; they do infinitely hate God, and ſin that ſin againſt the Holy Ghoſt every moment. But the moſt underſtand it of wicked men.

And the hairy ſcalp of ſuch a one as goeth on ſtill, &c.] This is Gods enemy, that by his wilful wickedneſs ſtriketh, and as it were ſhooteth at God, runneth upon him, even upon his neck, and upon the thick boſſes of his Bucklers, Job 15.25, 26. his hairy ſcalp, ſetting forth his fierceneſs, Job 5.5. Note this againſt Anti-Roundheads. See Ezek. 44.20.

Verſ. 22. The Lord ſaid] That is aſſurance good enough.

I will bring again from Baſhan] Og the Giants Country, where Iſrael was in no ſmall diſtreſs, and danger, till that Monſter was taken out of the way. Numb. 21.33. Deut. 3.1, 2. q. d. I will, if need require, and as occaſion ſerveth, do as much for mine again, as I did once at Baſhan, and at the red Sea. Some interpret this, and the following Verſes, of the calling of the Jews. The glorious things (ſaith one) which God will effect in their behalf are here reduced to five heads; Firſt, the bringing of them home from moſt extreme difficulties, naming Baſhan, becauſe of the ſlaughter ſpoken of, verſ. 14. and the deep of the Sea, alluding to Exod. 14.16. peradventure he meaneth the drying up of Euphrates before them. For this firſt Head aimeth at thoſe times, the beginning of the Jews repair unto their Country. The Second Head is, the great and famous Victory that God will give, delivering them out of thoſe difficulties and diſtreſſes, verſ. 22. See Iſa. 63.1, 2, 3, 4. The Third Head is, the Jews thorough converſion, by occaſion of that ſingular mercy of God, verſ. 23. and the form of a goodly Church (under the Type of the old Synagogue) ſet up among Jacobs poſterity, verſ. 24. the Ten Tribes as well as the Tribe of Judah, which is concluded by acknowledging their ſtrength to come from God, a prayer to perfect his Work begun, and a ſpur to put into theſe Kings of the East (as they are alſo called, Rev. 16.12.) to preſent in the Temple at Jeruſalem (in the publick Congregation) teſtimonies of their thankfulneſs, verſ. 25, 26, 27, 28. The Fourth Head is, the taming of their proud enemies, and the forcing them at leaſt to counterfeit a ſubjection, verſ. 29. The Fifth Head is, the general calling of all the Kingdoms of the earth to joyn themſelves unto the Church of Chriſt, which ſhall follow the converſion of the Jews. And this he ſhutteth up with provoking all Nations, to give unto God the praiſes that are due unto him for it: and his own particular thankſgiving, verſ. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. Thus he.

Verſ. 23. That thy foot may be dipped] Heb. Redded, imbrewed, made gore-bloudy; Hereby is implied a very great ſlaughter. Confer Rev. 19.17, 18, 21.

Verſ. 24.Diod. They have ſeen thy goings, O God] Namely, the holy manner of conducting the Ark with even and proportionable reſtings, and ſettings down. See 2 Sam. 6.13. The Ark is here and elſewhere called, God, becauſe a ſymbol of his ſpecial preſence. When we are called to hear Gods Word, and pray publickly, though we ſee not God,ab. yet we may ſee his goings: Deus enim ipſe chorum agit, & primas tenet in illo inceſſu.

Of my God, my King] David though he were a King, yet held himſelf but Gods Mandatary, or Subſtitute.

Verſ. 25. The ſingers went before, &c.] Thus they were Marſhalled, when the Ark was conducted to Mount Sion, every thing being done decently and in order. Chriſt aſcending into Heaven, and ſetling his Kingdom, is perpetually praiſed of his Church.

Verſ. 26. Bleſs yee God in the Congregations] i.e. Catervatim ac turmatim, by Troops and Companies.

Even the Lord from the fountain of Iſrael] That is, from the Heart, ſay ſome, which is the true fountain of praiſing God. Others underſtand it of Chriſt, who is [illegible: 1 word] the fountain of Iſrael, Rom. 9.5. there are, that think that the ſtudy of the [illegible: 1 word] Tongue is here recommended to us. Reuchlin was wont to ſay, than the [illegible: 1 span] drank out of Ciſterns, the Greeks out of Ponds, but the Hebrews out of the Fountain it ſelf. Calvin, and the moſt Interpreters read the words, Yee that are of the fountain of Iſrael, ſpringing out of his loyns. See Deut. 33.28. Iſa. 48.1. & 51.1.

Verſ. 27. There is little Benjamin, with their Ruler] Though before they had ſtood out for Saul, and his houſe, yet now they bore a part in this ſolemn celebrity, as being next unto the Sanctuary. Of this Tribe was St. Paul, Tricubitalis ille homuncio, ſed inſatiabilis Dei cultor, as Chryſoſtom calleth him, little in ſtature, but in labours more abundant. The firſt precious ſtone in the foundation of the New Jeruſalem is a Jaſper, Rev. 21.19. which in Aarons breſt-plate was the laſt, Exod. 28.20. on which Benjamins name was graven. This intimateth, ſaith one,Ainſw. the laſt now to be firſt, and chief in Chriſtian Churches.

The Princes of Judah, and their Council] Or company, or purple-arrayed ones. Beza rendreth it, Lapidatores corum, the ſtoners of the enemies. The word is found here only: and Forſterus thinketh that our Saviour alluded to it, when as Mar. 3. he calleth James and John Boanerges.

The Princes of Zebulon] Sic abſolvitur pempae triumphalis. Theſe are mentioned as moſt remote, bringing up the rear. In thoſe Tribes Chriſt walked, and there-hence he called ſundry of his Diſciples.

Verſ. 28. Thy God hath commanded thy ſtrength] A brave expreſſion, admired by Longinus a Heathen Rhetorician. See the like Deut. 28.8. Pſal. 42.8. & 44.4. & 33.9. God both made and ruleth the World without Tool or toyl, he enableth his people to ſubſiſt, and to reſiſt their enemies by his Will only, and by the efficacy of his Word. Suppeditavit tibi Deus tantum robur, nequid ſuperbias, ſaith Varablus.

Strengthen, O God, that which thou haſt wrought for us] Petamus ut det, qued ut habeamus jubet. Pray to the God of all Grace, to make us the ſame that hee requireth us to be.

Verſ. 29. Becauſe of thy Temple] Or, out of thy Temple at Jeruſalem, q. d. ſtrengthen us out of thy Temple, out of the fulneſs that is in thy Son, thereby typified.

Kings ſhall bring preſents unto thee] See the Note on verſ. 22.

Verſ. 30. Rebuke the company of Spear-men] Or, Launce-men; Heb. The beaſt of the reeds; that is, ſay ſome, voluptuous perſons that wallow in Wealth, plenty,Arab. Sicut Pontifices, Cardinales, Epiſcopi & horum ſatellites. and pleaſure, Job 40.21. Behemoth lyeth in the Fennes, which Gul. Pariſunſis applieth to the Devil in ſenſual hearts; Reeds grow not but in fat and moyſt places: But they do better, who render it the Rout, or crue of the Cane; that is, men that bear Reeds or Canes, whereof Spears, Arrows, and Launces were wont to bee made: theſe men, or rather beaſts, cruel, ſavage, and bloudy, rebuke, that is, repreſs.

The multitude of the Bulls] The Commanders and Chieftaines.

With the Calves of the people] The common Souldiers.

With pieces of ſilver] With an Homage-penny, as they call it.

That delight in War] That make a ſport of it, as Joab, 2 Sam. 2.14. as Pyrrhus King of Epirotes, who made a recreation of Warfare. So did not David, though neceſſitated thereunto for the glory of God; hee was a man of Warre from his youth. If we Princes (ſaid our Hen. 7.) ſhould delight in War, or take every occaſion that is offered, the World ſhould never bee quiet, but wearied with continual Wars.

Verſ. 31. Princes ſhall come out of Aegypt] The Gentiles ſhall one day be called, and cauſed Drum veruns cognoſcere & colere: even Aegypt, that Arch-enemy of the Church, and Aethiopia, the Off-ſpring of curſed Cham.

And Ethiopia ſhall ſoon ſtretch out her hands to God] Heb. Shall make her hands to run; whereby is noted her ſpeedineſs in giving, or in receiving the Goſpel: Manibus pedibuſ que [illegible: 1 word] omnia faciat. It is likely that that good Eunuch, Acts 8.Terent. preached the Chriſtian verity which himſelf had imbraced, for goodneſs is diffuſive and Birds, when they come to a full heap of Corn will chirp,Hiſt. Aethi[illegible: 1 letter]. cap. 137. and call in for their fellow. The Habaſſines are ſtill a kinde of Chriſtians, the Nubians have forſaken the Furtherance delivered, and embraced inſtead of it partly Mahumetaniſm, and partly Idolatry: through lack of Miniſters, as Alvarro reporteth.

Verſ. 32. Sing unto God, ye Kingdoms] No ſuch joy as that of the converted, Iſa. 35.10 the ranſomed of the Lord ſhall return and come to Zion with Song, and everlaſting joy upon their heads, &c. Bernard, for a certain time after his Converſion, remained as it were deprived of his ſenſes, by the exceſſive conſolations hee had from God. The like befell Cyprian, Auſtin, and others.

Verſ. 33. To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens] i.e. the higheſt heaven, Deut. 10.14.

Which were of old] And do ſtill remain in the ſame ſtate.

Lo he doth ſend out his voyce] i.e. Thundreth, as Pſal. 29. whenſoever therefore we hear it thunder, Sciamus Deum ipſum laqui, hoc eſt ſenſibilem reddi.

Verſ. 34. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Altitonans. Aſcribe ye ſtrength unto God] The High thunderer; acknowledge your own nothingneſs, ſubmit to his government.

His excellency is over Iſrael, and his ſtrength, &c.] i.e. His glory ſhineth no leſs in Iſrael, than the Thunder roareth in the Clouds.

Verſ. 35. O God, thou art terrible out of thine holy places] So the Sanctuary is called, becauſe divided into three parts; and here hence God was terrible in his manifeſtations to his people, and in his operations to his enemies. See Pſalm 67, 2, 3.

Bleſſed be God] Hereupon ſaith one, God was called in Iſrael, Baruc-hu, the Bleſſed, as Mark 14.61. with Mat. 26.63. See Luke 1.68.

Let God arise. In some such words Moses spake when the cloud moved onward, and the ark was carried forward. The ark would have been a poor leader if the Lord had not been present with the symbol. Before we move, we should always desire to see the Lord lead the way. The words suppose the Lord to have been passive for awhile, suffering his enemies to rage, but restraining his power. Israel beseeches him to "arise, "as elsewhere to "awake, ""gird on his sword, "and other similar expressions. We, also, may thus importunately cry unto the Lord, that he would be pleased to make bare his arm, and plead his own cause. Let his enemies be scattered. Our glorious Captain of the vanguard clears the way readily, however many may seek to obstruct it; he has but to arise, and they flee, he has easily over thrown his foes in days of yore, and will do so all through the ages to come. Sin, death, and hell know the terror of his arm; their ranks are broken at his approach. Our enemies are his enemies, and in this is our confidence of victory. Let them also that hate him flee before him. To hate the infinitely good God is infamous, and the worst punishment is not too severe. Hatred of God is impotent. His proudest foes can do him no injury. Alarmed beyond measure, they shall flee before it comes to blows. Long before the army of Israel can come into the fray, the haters of God shall flee before HIM who is the champion of his chosen. He comes, he sees, he conquers. How fitting a prayer is this for the commencement of a revival! How it suggests the true mode of conducting one: —the Lord leads the way, his people follow, the enemies flee.

Whole Psalm. In this Psalm we have especial reason to condemn or to admire the timidity, or the caution and delicacy, of our translators, whichever it may be considered, for the manner in which they have rendered the names of the Almighty. They almost universally translate them "God" or "Lord; "whereas, it has been observed that, almost all the remarkable titles of the Deity are employed in describing and praising the person addressed here. He is called "Elohim" in Ps 68:2; "Adonai, "Ps 68:12; "Shaddai, "Ps 68:15; "Jehovah, "Ps 68:17; "Jah, "Ps 68:19; and "Al, "Ps 68:20. The Hebrew names of God have, each of them, a distinct and peculiar meaning. No one word will suffice for them all. The vague use of the terms "God" and "Lord" in our translation can never convey to the reader's mind the important ideas which the original expression, if properly translated, would bear, and we have lost a strong additional confirmation of the deity of Messiah, by abandoning the testimony which the ascription to him of God's peculiar titles would give to this great truth. R. H. Ryland.

Whole Psalm. As 65 opened with a reference to the form of blessing (Nu 6:24-26), so this with a reference to the prayer used when the cloud pillar summoned the camp to commence a march. There the presence (panim) of God shed saving light on his people; here his enemies flee from it (mippanayv), Ps 68:1... In the Jewish ritual the Psalm is used at Pentecost, the Anniversary of the Giving of the Law, and the Feast of Finished Harvest... The remarkable character of the Psalm is indicated by the fact that there are no fewer than thirteen words in it which are not found elsewhere. The Pentecostal Gift of Tongues seems needed for its full exposition. William Kay.

Whole Psalm. By many critics esteemed the loftiest effusion of David's lyrical muse. William Binnie.

Whole Psalm. To judge from the antiquity of its language, the concise description, the thoroughly fresh, forcible, and occasional artlessly ironical expression of its poetry, we consider this poem as one of the most ancient monuments of Hebrew poetry. Boettcher.

Whole Psalm. It must be confessed that in this Psalm there are as many precipices, and as many labyrinths, as there are verses, or even words. It has not inappropriately been designated the cross of critics, the reproach of interpreters. Simon de Muis.

Whole Psalm. The beginning of this Psalm clearly intimates that the inspired psalmist had light given him to see the march of Israel through the wilderness, the ark of the covenant moving before the people to find a resting place. The psalmist is filled with praise, when he is enabled to see that God revealed his Fatherly love in the whole of that movement —that his eye was upon the fatherless, the widow, the solitary, and afflicted; but David is also carried by the Spirit to the Mount of Olives, where he sees the ascending Lord; he sees the triumphal chariots, with an innumerable company of angels, and then beholds the Lord welcomed in glory as the mighty Conqueror; and not only so, but as having received or purchased gifts for men, even the rebellious (Ps 68:18), "that the Lord God might dwell among them, "or within them. "Wherefore, "the command of our Father is, "come out from among them, and be ye separate, "etc. (2Co 6:17-18). The doxology of God's people is, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with his benefits." Our blessed Master attends day by day to all our wants, and causes his love to flow to us, because he is God our Salvation —Selah. What comfort ought this to afford under every condition! for the Lord Jesus goes before us through the desert. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The widow, the fatherless, the desolate, are all the objects of his care and love. He has gone before us to prepare our heavenly rest; the work is finished. He now comes, day by day, to load us with blessings, and at the last will carry us safely through death into life and glory. To the Lord our Saviour belong the issues from death; then, "Death, where is thy sting?" etc. Ridley H. Herschell, in "Strength in Weakness. Meditations on some of the Psalms in time of Trial, "1860.

Let God arise, etc. The moving ark (See Nu 10:35-36) is a type of Jesus going forth to cast down rebel foes. It is high joy to trace the Antitype's victorious march. How mightily the Lord advanced! The strength of God was in his arm. His sword was Deity. His darts were barbed with all Jehovah's might. "He had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." Re 19:16. His foes, indeed, strove mightily. It was no easy work to rescue souls from Satan's grasp, or to lay low the prison house of darkness. The enemy rushed on, clad in his fiercest armour, wild in his keenest rage, wily in his deadliest crafts. He plied his every temptation, as a terrific battery. But the true Ark never quailed. The adversary licked the dust. Malignant passions maddened in opposing breasts. The kings stood up; rulers took counsel; all plots were laid; the ignominious death was planned and executed. But still the Ark moved on. The cross gave aid, not injury. The grave could not detain. Death could not vanquish. The gates of hell fly open. The mighty conqueror appears. And, as in Canaan, the ark ascended Zion's hill amid triumphant shouts, so Jesus mounts on high. The heaven of heavens receives him. The Father welcomes the all conquering Saviour. Angelic hosts adore the glorious God man. The Rising Prayer has full accomplishments, "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee." And now, from glory's throne, he cheers his humble followers in their desert march. Their toils, their conflicts, and their fears are many. They ofttimes seem as a poor worm beneath the crushing feet. But they survive, they prosper, they lift up their head. As of old the ark was victory, so Jesus is victory now. Yes, every child of faith shall surely set a conquering foot upon the host of foes. Hear this, ye mad opposers, and desist. Where are the nations who resisted Israel? Where are the Pharaohs, the beleaguered kings, the Herods, the chief priests, the Pilates? Share not their malice, lest you share their end. Read in this word your near destruction, "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee." And, as the Rising Prayer has never failed, so, too, the Resting Prayer now teems with life. "Return, O Lord." Jesus is ready to fly back. Israel's many thousands wait, but wait not in vain. "Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry, "Heb 10:37. O joyful day, triumphant sight! What ecstasy, what shouts, what glory! Salvation's Lord returns. Welcome, welcome to him! Henry Law, in "`Christ is All.' The Gospel of the Old Testament," 1858.

Arise. The mercifulness of God is seen in his patience toward the wicked, implied in the word arise, for he seemeth, as it were, to sleep (Ps 44:23), and not to mark what is done amiss. The Lord is patient, and would have none to perish, but would have all men to come to repentance. He was longer in destroying one city (Jericho, Jos 6:4), than in building the whole world; slow to wrath, and ready to forgive, desiring not the death of a sinner, but rather he should amend. He doth not arise to particular punishments, much less to the general judgement, but after long suffering and great goodness. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I, "said our Lord, "have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Mt 23:37. John Boys.

Let his enemies be scattered. You may, if you please, take the words either as a prayer, or as a prophecy: as a prayer that they may; or as a prophecy, that they shall be scattered. Or, you may read it, Surgente Domino, As soon as the Lord shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and so make it a theological axiom: and so it is a proposition aeternae veritatis, everlastingly true, true in the first age of the world, and true in the last age of the world, and will be true to the world's end. We may make it our prayer, that they may be destroyed; and we may prophesy, that they shall be destroyed. Summa votorum est, non ex incerto poscentis, sed ex cognitione scientiaque sperantis, saith Hilary. It is a prayer not proceeding from a doubting and wavering heart, as if God did at sometimes deliver his church, and at others fail and leave her to the will of her enemies; but grounded upon certain knowledge and infallible assurance that he will "arise, and not keep silence, " and avenge himself of his enemy. For there is a kind of presage and prophecy in prayer: if we pray as we should, he hath promised to grant our request; which is a fairer assurance than any prophet can give us. Let God arise, and God will arise, is but the difference of a tense, and the Hebrews commonly use the one for the other...

In this prayer or prophecy, or conclusion, you may, as in a glass, behold the providence of God over his people, and the destiny and fatal destruction of wicked men. Or, you may conceive God sitting in heaven, and looking down upon the children of men, and laughing to scorn all the designs of his enemies; his exsurgat, his rising, as a tempest to scatter them, and as a fire to melt them. And these two, exsurgat and dissipabuntur, the rising of God and the destruction of his enemies, divide the text, and present before our eyes two parties or sides, as it were, in main opposition. Now, though the exsurgat be before the dissipabuntur, God's rising before the scattering, yet there must be some persons to rouse God up and awake him before he will arise to destroy. We will, therefore, as the very order of nature required, consider first the persons which are noted out unto us by three several appellations, as by so many marks and brands in their forehead. They are,

1. Enemies;

2. Haters of God;

3. Wicked men.

But God, rising in this manner, is more especially against the fact than the person, and against the person only for the fact. We must, therefore, search and inquire after that; and we find it wrapped up and secretly lurking in the dissipabuntur, in their punishment; for scattering supposes a gathering together, as corruption doth generation. That, then, which moved God to rise is this: his enemies, they that hated him, the wicked, were gathered together, and consulted against God and his church, as we see it this day; and, seeing it, are here met together to fall down before God in all humility, that he may arise and scatter them. This is nunc opportunitatis, the very time and appointed time for God to arise. In which phrase is implied a kind of pause and deliberation, as if God were not always up, and ready to execute judgment. And, hereby, he manifests —

1. His patience to the wicked: he is not always up, as it were, to destroy his enemies;

2. His justice, which cometh at length, though it come not so soon as men in misery expect;

3. His mercy to his children: though for a while he seem to sleep, and not to hearken to the voice of their complaints, yet, at last, he rises up and helps them.

Lastly, we shall take notice of the effects, or end, of this rising; and that is the destruction of his enemies, here drawn out to our view, in four several expressions, as in so many colours: —

1. Dissipabuntur, they shall be scattered;

2. Fugient, they shall fly;

3. Deficient, they shall vanish like smoke;

4. Liquefient, they shall be melted as wax; which all meet and are concentrated in peribunt, they shall perish at the presence of God. Anthony Farindon.

Note continued on See Psalms on "Job 42:10."

Verses 1-3. See Psalms on "Ps 68:1" for further information.

But let the righteous be glad. The wicked flee from the presence of God, since it inspires them with terror; the righteous on the other hand rejoice in it, because nothing delights them more than to think that God is near them. John Calvin.

Extol him that rideth upon the heavens. Or, as Symmachus, Jerome, Bishop Lowth, Merrick, and others render, "Prepare the way for him who rideth through the deserts": twbre aravoth; i.e., who rode through the wilderness on the cherubim; alluding to the passage of the ark. "Comprehensive Bible."

Rideth. Said, perhaps, with allusion to the cherubim on which Jehovah was borne (Ps 18:10), God himself being the Leader and Captain of his people, riding as it were at their head as an earthly captain might lead his army, riding on a war horse. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Upon the heavens. The ancient versions in general render the word twkrek super occasus, or occasum. The desert or solitude is the proper and general meaning of it, and there is no authority to render it by the heavens, but that of the Rabbins, which, indeed, is little or none; and of the Chaldee paraphrase which gives it twbrek hyrqy hyorwk super thronam gloriae ejus in nono caelo who sits upon the throne of his glory in the ninth heaven. The psalmist here alludes, as I apprehend, to the passage of the Israelites through the deserts in their way to the promised land, and describes it in many of the principal circumstances of it in the following verses; and God is said to ride, or be carried through the deserts, as the ark of his presence was carried through them, and accompanied the Israelites in all their various stages during their continuance and pilgrimage in them. Samuel Chandler.

God always goes at the head of his people through the deserts of suffering and need; in the deserts of trouble they find in him a true leader. E. W. Hengstenberg.

His name JAH. JAH, as the concentration of Jehovah, is the more emphatic term (Stier). It occurs for the first time in Ex 15:2. Frederic Fysh, in "A Lyrical Literary Version of the Psalms," 1850.

A father of the fatherless. In a spiritual sense, the orphans, whose father God is, says Hilary, are those who have renounced their father the Devil, and those to whom Christ, at his departure, sent another Comforter, according to his promise —"I will not leave you orphans." Lorinus.

Does not Jas 1:27 refer to this verse, for we have the fatherless, the widow, and then the holiness, of the God we serve? Andrew A. Bonar.

God in his holy habitation. Albeit the Lord be infinite and uncomprehended by any place, yet hath he appointed a trysting place where his people shall find him by his own ordinance, to wit, the assembly of his saints, his holy temple shadowing forth Christ to be incarnate, who now is in heaven, now is incarnate, and sitting at the right hand of God, in whom dwells the Godhead; here, here is God to be found. David Dickson.

God setteth the solitary in families. It may be interpreted of the fruitfulness and increase of the church with converts, under the gospel dispensation, even from among the Gentiles, who were before solitary, or were alone, without God and Christ, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; but, being called and converted by the ministry of the word, were brought into and placed in gospel churches, or families... Gospel churches, like families, have a master over them, who is Christ the Son and firstborn, of whom they are named; where are saints of various ages, sizes, and standing; some fathers, some young men, and some children; where are provisions suitable for them, and stewards to give them their portion of meat in due season, who are the ministers of the word; and laws and rules, by which they are directed and regulated, and everything is kept in good decorum. John Gill.

The God of Israel. Sinai was the seat not only of God, but of the covenant God of the people of Israel; from which the law was proclaimed, and the covenant struck between God and his people. Hermann Venema.

The Thou in the Hebrew is emphatic: Thine inheritance, even when it was wearied (i.e., worn out) thou didst confirm; or, "fortify it." Thou who alone couldest strengthen one worn out, didst so for thy people. A. R. Fausset.

A liberal rain. The words translated a liberal rain, read literally in the Hebrew a rain of freenesses; and I agree with interpreters in thinking that he alludes to the blessing as having come in the exercise of free favour, and to God, as having of his own unprompted goodness provided for all the wants of his people. Some read, a desirable rain; others a rain flowing without violence, or gentle; but neither of these renderings seems eligible. Others read, a copious or plentiful rain; but I have already stated what appears to me to be the preferable sense. John Calvin.

A gracious rain; that is, of manna. Edmund Law (1703-1787), quoted by Richard Warner in loc., 1828.

Rain. One fountain, says Cyril, waters thy paradise, and the rain that falls upon all the world is the same; it is white in the bloom of the hawthorn, red in the rose, purple in the hyacinth, and diverse kinds, and all in all; yet it itself is the same and of the same kind. . . . So also the Holy Spirit, though he is one and the same and not divisible, yet to every one he divideth grace according as he wills. Thomas Le Blanc.

A plentiful rain. Thy love has been as a shower! The returns, but a dew drop, and that dew drop stained with sin. James Harrington Evans, 1785-1849.

Thy congregation. The words are choice and expressive. Addressing God, (the poet) intentionally and emphatically calls the people of Israel Ktyx thy combined congregation, in contrast to former divisions and various dissensions, to signify, that the people was now welded together, formed into one society, and united at the same time, that it was well ordered, and constituted as the society of God, wherein his laws flourished and were wont to be observed. Hermann Venema.

Thy congregation. Or, Thy living creatures, Ktyh, ta zwa, LXX animalia, Vulgate; probably a reference to the immense number of quails which were miraculously brought to the camp of the Israelites, and, in a manner, dwelt around it. Note in the "Congregational Bible."

Thy congregation. Or, Thy living creatures. That desolate place, where only wild beasts before could live, was now by those showers of manna (Ps 68:9) enabled to sustain a multitude of other tamer living creatures, even of men and all their flocks and herds. Henry Hammond.

(first clause). Rather: —"As for thy food (manna and quails), they dwelt in the midst of it." Edmund Law.

(first clause). As to thy food, they dwelt amidst it. The ambiguity of the word hyx has occasioned various renderings of this line. Parkhurst considers the radical sense of hyx is "to be vigorous, strong; "hence the noun denotes force, a body of men (2Sa 23:13); and also that which gives strength, the means of support, or food (Jud 6:4 17:10); and compare Ne 9:6. Our translators took the term in the first sense; I take it in the second, because the connection seems to require it, and because (tyx) refers always to a body of men, as soldiers, as actually engaged in some kind of warfare. Hence what is called the troop of Philistines (2Sa 23:13) is called the camp of the Philistines. 1Ch 11:15. And, lastly, because the common version has no antecedent to which hk, in it, or amidst it, can refer; but this version has one in the noun food. I think there is then a reference not only to the manna, but to the quails, which God brought in abundance around the camp. Ex 16:13 Nu 11:31. Thus he prepared in his goodness for the poor. Benjamin Boothroyd.

Thou hast prepared in thine own sweetness for the poor, O God. In thine own sweetness, not in his sweetness. For the needy he is, for he hath been made weak, in order that he may be made perfect: he hath acknowledged himself indigent, that he may be replenished. Augustine.

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. You shall find, when the enemies of the church are destroyed, that God hath many preachers made that do teach his praises... The words in the original are very significant, and do note two things. First, the word which you read company, in the Hebrew it is "army, "great was the army of preachers. An army of preachers is a great matter; nay, it is a great matter to have seven or eight good preachers in a great army; but to have a whole army of preachers that it glorious. Secondly, it doth note out the heartiness of this preaching army, for the word vpg, soul, is to be understood as in that place of Ecclesiastes; it is said there, "The words or book of the preacher, "which, being in the feminine gender, doth suppose nephesh, and as if he should say, as Vatablus hath it; the words or book of him that hath a preaching soul or heart, or the words of a preaching soul or heart. So here where it is said, great is the army of preachers, the word being in the feminine gender, it is as if he should say, great is the army of preaching souls, whose very hearts within them shall preach of the Lord's works. Now, my brethren, it is much to have a preaching army; but if this army shall with heart and soul preach of God's praise, O that is a blessed thing. Yet thus shall it be when the enemies of God shall be destroyed. And, therefore, seeing God will not lose all those sermons of his own praises, in due time the enemies of the church shall be scattered. William Bridge, in "The True Soldier's Conroy." 1640.

It is owing to the word, the appointment, and power of God, that any persons are induced or enabled to preach the gospel. John Newton (1725-1807), in "Messiah."

Verses 11-12. This account of Israel's victories is applicable to victories obtained by the exalted Redeemer, when the enemies of man's salvation were vanquished by the resurrection of Christ, and the heathen nations were compelled to own his power; and this great victory was first notified by women to the disciples. From "A Practical Illustration of the Book of Psalms; by the Author of the Family Commentary on the New Testament." (Mrs. Thompson.) 1826.

Verses 11-12. The Lord did give his word at his ascension, and there were a multitude of them that published it, and by this means kings of armies were put to flight: they conquered by the word: there is not such another way to rout kings and their armies. William Strong. 1654.

Verses 11-14.

The Lord giveth the word!

A great company of women announce the glad tidings!

Kings with their armies flee —they flee!

And those, who dwell within the house, divide the spoil!

Although they lie among the hearth stones,

They are become like a dove's wings overlaid with silver,

And like her pinions overlaid with yellow gold.

When the Almighty scattereth kings,

They glisten therein, as snow upon Salmon.

Those who dwell within the house —i.e., the women. They are thus described in allusion to their retired habits of life, in eastern countries. Lie among the hearth stones —i.e., are habitually employed in the lowest domestic offices and whose ordinary dress, therefore, is mean and soiled. The hearth stones —Hebrew rests (for boilers). They are become —by being decked in the spoils of the enemy. —Glisten as snow —Hebrew (each woman) is snowy: therein —i.e., in the spoils distributed amongst them. French and Skinner's Translation and Notes.

Kings of armies did flee apace. In the Hebrew it is, they fled, they fled; fled is twice. Why so? That is, they did flee very hastily, and they fled most confusedly, they fled all ways; they fled, they fled, noting the greatness of the flight. William Bridge.

The kings of hosts shall flee. The "hosts" are the numerous well equipped armies which the kings of the heathens lead forth to the battle against the people of God. The unusual expression, "kings of hosts, "sounds very much like an ironically disparaging antithesis to the customary "Jahve of Hosts." Bottcher, quoted by Delitzsch.

She that tarried at home. That is, all the noncombatants, saith Kimchi. Or, the women also (those domi portae) came forth to pillage. These days of the gospel do abound with many godly matrons and holy virgins. And it is easy to observe that the New Testament affords more store of good women than the old. John Trapp.

Divided the spoil, not merely (as Hupfeld) "receives her portion of the spoil, "but rather, "distributes among her daughters and handmaidens, etc., the share of the spoil" which her husband has brought home. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Salmon or Zalmon, properly Tsalmon, Nwmlu a woody hill near Shechem (Jud 9:48). Whether it is this that's referred to in Ps 69:14, is disputed. Some interpreters take Nwmlu here in its etymological meaning of darkness, Mlu; thus Luther renders the clause "so wird es helle wo es dunkel ist, "thus it be bright where it is dark, and understands it with a Messianic reference. Ewald adopts much the same rendering. The majority, however, retain the name as a proper name, but exhibit great variety in their explanation of the passage. Hengstenberg thinks that the phrase, "it snows on Tsalmon, "is equivalent to "there is brightness where there was darkness, "the hill, originally dark with wood, is now white with snow. De Dieu supposes a comparison: Tsalmon is white with the bones of the slaughtered kings, as if with snow. Some suppose that there is here a mere note of time: it was winter, the snow was on Tsalmon (Herder); and this Hupfeld adopts, with the explanation that the statement is made derisively, with reference to those who tarried at home, deterred by the winter's snow. He considers the passage (Ps 68:12-14) as a fragment of an ancient song, celebrating some of the early conquests of Israel in Canaan, and deriding those, who, from indolence or fear, shrank from the enterprise. He translates thus:

"The kings of the armies, flee, flee,

And the housewife shares the spoil!

Will ye lie among the shippens?

Pigeons feathers decked with silver,

And their wings with yellow gold!

As the Almighty scattered kings therein,

It was snowing on Tsalmon." —William Lindsay Alexander, in "A Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature." 1866.

The verb may be viewed as in the second person —Thou, O God! didst make it fair and white as Mount Salmon with snow. The reader may adopt either construction, for the meaning is the same. It is evident that David insists still upon the figure of the whiteness of silver, which he had previously introduced. The country had, as it were, been blackened or sullied by the hostile confusion into which it was thrown, and he says that it had now recovered its fair appearance, and resembled Salmon, which is well known to have been ordinarily covered with snows. Others think that Salmon is not the name of a place, but an appellative, meaning a dark shade. I would retain the commonly received reading. At the same time, I think that there may have been an allusion to the etymology. It comes from the word Mlu, tselem, signifying a shade, and Mount Salmon had been so called on account of its blackness. This makes the comparison more striking; for it intimates that as the snows whitened this black mountain, so the country had resumed its former beauty, and put on an aspect of joy, when God dispelled the darkness which had lain upon it during the oppression of enemies. John Calvin.

It was as white as snow in Salmon. That is, this thine inheritance, thy peculiar people, appeared as bright and glorious in the sight of their neighbours, as the snowy head of Salmon glistens by the reflection of the sunbeams. Thomas Fenton.

White as snow in Salmon. The expression here used seems to denote, that everything seemed as bright and cheerful to the mind of God's people, as Salmon does to their eyes, when glistening with snow. As snow is much less common, and lies a much shorter time in Judaea than in England, no wonder that it is much more admired; accordingly, the son of Sirach speaks of it with a kind of rapture. "The eye will be astonished at the beauty of its whiteness, and the heart transported at the raining of it." Ecclus. 43:18 or 20. Samuel Burder.

Salmon. Dean Stanley conjectures that Salmon in another name for Mount Ebal; it was certainly near Shechem (see Jud 9:48), but it is almost hopeless to expect to identify it, for Mr. Mills, the industrious author of "Nablus and the modern Samaritans, "could not find any one who knew the name of Salmon, neither could he discover any traditions in reference to it, or indeed any allusion to it in Samaritan literature. The word signifies a shade, and may, perhaps, popularly be accepted as identical with the name the "Black Forest." C. H. S.

Hill of Bashan. The world's physical greatness must yield to the church's spiritual grandeur. The "hill of God" is here an emblem of the world kingdoms, which (Ps 65:6) are great only by the grace of God. A great hill reminds us of the creative power of God. Hence, "the hill of Elohim" (the general name of God as the Creator) stands in contrast to the hill which (Ps 68:16) "the Lord" (Jehovah) will dwell in for ever. It lay in the north, in the region east of Jordan, or the land of Hermon, the kingdom of Og, the most formidable enemy whom Israel encountered on their march to Canaan. "The hill of Bashan is the high snow summit of Anti Lebanon, or Hermon, the extreme limit of Bashan. There was a peculiar propriety, from its position on the boundary between Judaea and the heathen world, in employing it as a symbol of the world's might (Ps 68:22 42:6 89:12)" (Hengstenberg). The original name of Hermon as Sion; i.e., lofty (De 4:48); allied in sound to Zion, which suggested the contrast here between the world hills and the Lord's hill. A. R. Fausset.

Verse 15-16.

"A mountain of God Mount Bashan is.

A mountain of peaks Mount Bashan is,

Why are ye piqued, ye peaked mountains?

At the mountain which God desires to dwell in?

Yea, Jehovah will dwell therein forever." —Frederic Fysh's Version.

Why leap ye? As triumphing, and making a show of your natural advantages over Sion. Or, to insult over it, and compare and equalise yourselves in honour with it; poetical kind of speeches. Others translate it, Why gaze you, as though you were ravished with admiration? John Diodati.

This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in. This low, little, barren hill of Zion; and God's election maketh the difference, as it did of Aaron's rod from the rest, and doth still of the church from the rest of the world. The Lamb Christ is on Mount Zion. Re 14:1. John Trapp.

The chariots of God. What are these "chariots of God?" Come, we will not stand to mince the matter, look but round about thee, and thou shalt see those innumerable chariots and angels here spoken of; for so many creatures as thou seest, so many angels and chariots of God thou seest; they are all his host, they are all his chariots wherein he rides; and, whether you see it or no, The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. The glory of the Lord fills them all (had we but our eyes open to see it so), and they are all at his command, and there is not one creature but doth his pleasure. Oh, brethren! how glorious and blessed a thing it is, that looking round about us to behold and see, that look how many creatures visible and invisible you see or conceive in thy mind to be, for thy soul now to look on them as so many fiery chariots and horsemen for its defence, protection, and preservation! And, on the other hand, "How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, "who hath all these chariots and horsemen at his command to execute his will and vengeance on those that neglect, hate, and oppose him. John Everard, in "Militia Caelestis, or the Heavenly Host." 1653.

"About his chariot numberless were poured

Cherubs, and seraph, potentates, and thrones,

And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots win

From the armoury of God, where stand of old Myriads." —John Milton, in "Paradise Lost."

Twenty-thousand; rather, two myriads, Mytbr singular wkr; for twbr only here in the dual, the infinite number doubled. "Thousands of angels, "literally, thousands of iteration; i.e., with margin, many thousands (Bythner, Gesenius, &c.). Nagv only here, from hgv, to repeat. The rendering of angels was probably suggested by the reference to Sinai, next clause (see De 33:2, where for saints read holy ones; ) chariots bkr being used collectively for those who rode in them, as often elsewhere. William de Burgh.

Thou hast ascended on high, etc. Some think it refers to God's goings forth on behalf of his people Israel, leading them forth to victory, taking their enemies captive, and enriching them with the spoils. Suppose it be so, we are warranted to consider it as mainly referring to Christ, for so the apostle has applied it. Eph 4:8. The apostle not only applies it to Christ, but proves it applicable. Thus he reasons (Ps 68:9-10), "Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended," etc. The captivity which he led captive was our spiritual enemies who had led us captive —Satan, death; and, having obtained the victory, he proceeds to divide the spoils. Gifts to men —as David made presents. And hence comes our ordinances, ministers, etc. There was a glorious fulfilment immediately after his ascension, in a rich profusion of gifts and graces to his church, like David's presents. Here it is received; in Ephesians, gave. He received that he might give; received the spoil that he might distribute it. But, as I wish to appropriate the passage to the work allotted me, the whole of that to which I would at this time call your attention will be contained in two things:

1. The great blessings of the Christian ministry.

(a) Ministers are received for, and are given to, you by Christ. As men, and as sinful men, ministers are as nothing, and wish not to make anything of themselves; but, as the gifts of Christ, it becomes you to make much of them. (1.) If you love Christ, you will make much of your minister, on account of his being his gift —a gift designed to supply Christ's absence in a sort. He is gone ("ascended"), but he gives you his servants. By and by you hope to be with him, but as yet you are as sheep in the wilderness. He gives you a shepherd. (2.) If you fear God, you will be afraid of treating your pastor amiss, seeing he is the gift of Christ. God took it ill of Israel for despising Moses. Nu 12:8. He is "my servant."

(b) Ministers are not only given to, but received for you, of God the Father, as a covenant blessing, among the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In this view, consider that Christ received nothing at his Father's hand but what cost him dear —cost him his life. Or, if the allusion be to the dividing of the spoils, suppose we say, he received them as a conqueror receives the spoils at the hand of the foe. Your minister was one of those who, like yourselves, were brands consuming in the fire. Christ took him from your enemies and gives him to you. Make much of the gift on this account. "This I received of the Amorite."

(c) Consider your unworthiness of such a blessing. You are men, mere men, and what is more, rebellious men, who had joined with Satan. And must you share the spoils? It is not usual to divide the spoils amongst rebels... Men that put him to death had these gifts given to them; and we should all have done the same. Some of you, it is likely, have been vile and abandoned characters and yet, etc...

(d) The end of it: That the Lord God might dwell among them. "But will God, indeed, dwell with men?" God had not dwelt with the world, nor in it, while sin bore the rule; but Christ's mediation was for the bringing it about. "Will God, indeed, dwell with men?" He will, and how? It is by the means of ordinances and ministers. A church of Christ is God's house; and where any one builds a house, it is a token that he means to dwell there. What a blessing to a village, a country, for God to build a house in it. It is by this that we may hope for a blessing upon the means to the conversion of our children and friends, and for the edification of believers.

2. Point out some corresponding duties as answering to these your privileges.

(a) Constant and diligent attendance at the house of God. If the house of God be God's dwelling, let it be yours, your home. If God gives you a pastor, do you thankfully receive and prize him. He hath not dealt so with every village.

(b) Cheerfully contribute to his support. Christ has given you freely, and you ought to give him freely. Consider it is not as a gift, but as a debt, and not as done to him, but to Christ.

(c) Follow those things which make for peace, with which the presence and blessing of God are connected.

(d) Shun those things that tend to provoke the Lord to withdraw his gifts, and to cease to dwell among you. Andrew Fuller's Sketch of a Sermon, addressed to the Church at Moulton, on the Ordination of Mr. (since Doctor) Carey, August 1st, 1787.

But who is he of whom it is written, that he ascended up on high? I confess that the sixty-eighth Psalm, wherein these words are first written, is literally to be understood, not of any triumph, for the slaughter of the host of Sennacherib, which was done in the time of king Hezekiah (as the Jews do most fabulously dream), when the very title of this Psalm, that ascribes it unto David, doth sufficiently confute this vanity; nor yet for any of the victories of David which he obtained against his bordering enemies, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Idumaeans, and the Philistines (as some would have it); but of that great and glorious pomp which was then done and showed, when king David with great joy and triumph did bring the ark of the covenant into the hill of Sion; and, therefore, these words, Thou art gone up on high, so dignify that the ark, which formerly had lain in an obscure place, and was transported from one place to another, was now ascended and seated in a most illustrious and conspicuous place, even in the kingly palace; and these words. Thou hast led captivity captive, do signify those enemies which formerly had spoiled and wasted divers countries; but now, being vanquished by king David, were led captive in this triumph (for so it was the manner of those times, as Plutarch doth excellently declare in the life of Paulus Amilius); and the other words, thou hast received gifts for men, do signify those spoils that were freely offered for conditions of peace, and were triumphantly carried about in this pompous show, for the greater solemnity of the same; and then (as the manner was among the chieftains when they triumphed, Bellica laudatis dona dedisse viris, to bestow warlike gifts upon worthy men), gifts were bestowed on several men, in several manner, as Sigonius sheweth. Yet I say that, mystically, this Psalm is an epinikion, or a triumphal song, penned by king David upon the foresight of Jesus Christ arising from the dead, and with great joy and triumph ascending up into heaven, and thence sending his Holy Spirit unto his apostles and disciples; and having overcome all his enemies, collecting by the ministry of his preachers, his churches and chosen people together, and so guiding and defending them here in this life, until he doth receive them into eternal glory. Griffith Williams. 1636.

Thou hast led captivity captive. The expression is emphatic. He has conquered and triumphed over all the powers which held us in captivity, so that captivity itself is taken captive. The spirit and force of it is destroyed; and his people, when released by him, and walking in his ways, have no more to apprehend from those whose captives they were, than a conqueror has to fear from a prisoner in chains. The energy of the phrase is not unlike that of the apostle: "Death is swallowed up in victory." John Newton.

Thou hast led captivity captive, etc. The ancient prophecy of David is fulfilled here on the foot of mount Olivet. To take "captivity captive, "signifies that Christ conquered the allied principalities and powers, the devil, sin, death, and hell; and that he deprived them of the instruments wherewith they enslaved men. He not only silenced the cannon on the spiritual Gibraltar, but he took rock, fortifications, and all. He not only silenced the horrible and destructive battlements of the powerful and compactly united ghostly enemies, but he threw down the towers, razed the castles, and took away the keys of the dungeons. He is the Master henceforth, and for ever. He did, also, at the same time, save his people. Where, O Jesus, is the army of which thou art the Captain? "Here! all the names are written in pearls on the breastplate which I wear as a high priest." He had no sooner left the grave than he began to distribute his gifts, and did so all along the road on his way to his Father's house; and, especially after he entered the heaven of heavens, did he shower down gifts unto men, as a mighty conqueror loaded with treasures with which to enrich and adorn his followers and people. They were gifts of mercy: gifts to the rebellious; to those who threw down their arms at his feet in penitent submission, that the Lord God may dwell among them. The apostle shows that a portion of these gifts are gifts of ministry. Accordingly, whenever God condescends to dwell among a people and in a country, he gives that people and country this ministry. He sends them his gospel in the mouths of faithful servants. He establishes there his house; the board and the candlestick; and then, in his Spirit, he dwells there and blesses his heritage. Christmas Evans. 1766-1838.

The apostle (Eph 4:8) does not quote the words of the Psalm literally, but according to the sense. The phrase, Thou hast received gifts, as applied to Christ as his glorification, could only be for the purpose of distribution, and hence the apostle quotes them in this sense, He gave gifts to men. This Hebrew phrase may be rendered either, "Thou hast received gifts in the human nature, "or, "Thou hast received gifts for the sake of man" (see Ge 18:28 2Ki 14:6). The apostle uses the words in the sense of the purpose for which the gifts were received, and there is no contradiction between the psalmist and the apostle. Thus, the difficulties of this quotation vanish when we examine them closely, and the Old and New Testaments are in complete harmony. Rosenmueller expounds Psalm 18, and never mentions the name of Christ; and the neologists in general see no Messiah in the Old Testament. To these, indeed, Eph 4:8, if they had any modesty, would present a formidable obstacle. Paul asserts the Psalm belongs to Christ, and they assert he is mistaken, and that he has perverted (De Wette) and destroyed its meaning. They assert that Lamarom, "on high, "means the heights of Mount Zion, and Paul says it means heaven. Which is right? (see the scriptural usage of the word, Ps 7:7 18:16 93:4 102:19 Jer 25:30 Isa 37:23). These passages connect the word with the heavenly mansions, and justify the application of the apostle. William Graham, in "Lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians."

No sooner is Christ inaugurated in his throne, but he scatters his coin, and gives gifts. He gives gifts, or the gift of gifts, the gift of the Holy Ghost. "If thou knewest the gift of God, " said Christ to the Samaritan woman (Joh 4:10): that gift was the water of life, and that water of life was the Spirit, as John, who knew best his mind, gave the interpretation, "This spake he of the Spirit." Joh 7:39. O my soul, consider of this princely gift of Christ! Such a gift was never before, but when God gave his Son. "God so loved the world, that he gave his Son; "and Christ so loved the world, that he gave his Spirit. But, O my soul, consider especially to whom this Spirit was given; the application of the gift is the very soul of thy meditation: "unto us a Son is given, "saith the prophet (Isa 9:6); and "unto us the Holy Ghost is given, " saith the apostle (Ro 5:5); and yet above all consider the reasons of this gift in reference to thyself. Was it not to make thee a temple and receptacle of the Holy Ghost? Stand a while on this! Admire, O my soul, at the condescending, glorious, and unspeakable love of Christ in this! It was infinite love to come down into our nature when he was incarnate; but this is more, to come down into thy heart by his Holy Spirit: he came near to us then, but as if that were not near enough, he comes nearer now, for now he unites himself unto thy person, now he comes and dwells in thy soul by his Holy Spirit. Isaac Ambrose. 1592-1674.

Thou hast received gifts for men. The glorious ascending of God from Mount Sinai, after the giving of the law, was a representation of his "ascending up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, "as Eph 4:10. And, as God then "led captivity captive" in the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who had long held his people in captivity and under cruel bondage; so dealt the Lord Christ now in the destruction and captivity of Satan and all his powers (Col 2:15); only, whereas it is said in the Psalm that he "received gifts for men, "here (Eph 4:8) it is said that "he gave gifts to men, "wherein no small mystery is couched; for, although Christ is God, and is so gloriously represented in the Psalm, yet an intimation is given that he should act what is here mentioned in a condition wherein he was capable to receive from another, as he did in this matter. Ac 2:33. And so the phrase in the original doth more than insinuate: Mdab twgtm txql "Thou hast received gifts in Adam, " —in the man, of human nature. And signifies as well to give as to receive, especially when anything is received to be given. Christ received this gift in the human nature to give it unto others. Now, to what end is this glorious theatre, as it were, prepared, and all this preparation made, all men being called to the preparation of it? It was to set out the greatness of the gift he would bestow, and the glory of the work which he would effect; and this was to furnish the church with ministers, and ministers with gifts for the discharge of their office and duty. And it will one day appear that there is more glory, more excellency, in giving one poor minister unto a congregation, by furnishing him with spiritual gifts for the discharge of his duty, than in the pompous instalment of a thousand popes, cardinals, or metropolitans. The worst of men, in the observance of a few outward rites and ceremonies, can do the latter; Christ only can do the former, and that as he is ascended up on high to that purpose. John Owen.

As the passage which we have now been considering is applied by Paul in a more spiritual sense to Christ (Eph 4:8), it may be necessary to show how this agrees with the meaning and scope of the psalmist. It may be laid down as an incontrovertible truth, that David, in reigning over God's ancient people, shadowed forth the beginning of Christ's eternal kingdom. This must appear evident to every one who remembers the promise made to him of a never failing succession, and which received its verification in the person of Christ. As God illustrated his power in David, by exalting him with the view of delivering his people, so has he magnified his name in his only begotten Son. But let us consider more particularly how the parallel holds. Christ, before he was exalted, emptied himself of his glory, having not merely assumed the form of a servant, but humbled himself to the death of the cross. To show how exactly the figure was fulfilled, Paul notices, that what David had foretold was accomplished in the person of Christ, by his being cast down to the lowest parts of the earth in the reproach and ignominy to which he was subjected, before he ascended to the right hand of his Father. Ps 22:7. That in thinking upon the ascension, we might not confine our views to the body of Christ, our attention is called to the result and fruit of it, in his subjecting heaven and earth to his government. Those who were formerly his inveterate enemies he compelled to submission and made tributary; this being the effect of the word of the Gospel, to lead men to renounce their pride and their obstinacy, to bring down every high thought which exalteth itself, and reduce the senses and the affections of men to obedience unto Christ. As to the devils and reprobate men who are instigated to rebellion and revolt by obstinate malice, he holds them bound by secret control, and prevents them from executing intended destruction. So far the parallel is complete. Nor, when Paul speaks of Christ having given gifts to men, is there any real inconsistency with what is here stated, although he has altered the words, having followed the Greek version in accommodation to the unlearned reader. It was not himself that God enriched with the spoils of the enemy, but his people; and neither did Christ seek, or need to seek, his advancement, but made his enemies tributary, that he might adorn his Church with the spoil. From the close union subsisting between the head and the members, to say that God manifest in the flesh received gifts from the captives, is one and the same thing with saying that he distributed them to his Church. What is said in the close of the verse is no less applicable to Christ; that he obtained his victories that as God he might dwell among us. Although he departed, it was not that he might remove to a distance from us, but, as Paul says, "that he might fill all things." Eph 4:10. By his ascension to heaven, the glory of his divinity has been only more illustriously displayed; and, though no longer present with us in the flesh, our souls receive spiritual nourishment from his body and blood, and we find, notwithstanding distance of place, that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed. John Calvin.

Thou hast received gifts for men. Hebrew Mdak, in man; "in human nature", says Dr. Adam Clarke, "and God, manifest in human flesh, dwells among mortals." "The gifts which Jesus Christ distributes to man he has received in man, in and by virtue of his incarnation, and it is in consequence of his being made man that it may be said, `the Lord God dwells among them; 'for Jesus was called Immanuel, `God with us, 'in consequence of his incarnation." Editors note to Calvin in loc.

Yea, for the rebellious also. I feared, also, that this was the mark that the Lord did set on Cain, even continual fear and trembling under the heavy load of guilt that he had charged upon him for the blood of his brother Abel. Thus did I wind and twine and shrink under the burden that was upon me, which burden also did so oppress me, that I could neither stand, nor go, nor lie, either at rest or quiet. Yet that saying would sometimes come to my mind, He hath received gifts for the rebellious. Ps 68:18. "The rebellious, "thought I; why, surely, they are such as once were under subjection to their prince, even those who, after they have sworn subjection to his government, have taken up arms against him; and this, thought I, is my very condition; once I loved him, feared him, served him; but now I am a rebel; I have sold him. I have said, let him go if he will; but yet he has gifts for rebels, and then why not for me? John Bunyan, in "Grace Abounding."

(last clause). Thou didst not regard their former disobedience, but, even although seeing them contradicting, thou didst continue to do them good, until thou madest them thine own abode oikhthrion. Theodoret.

(last clause). The Chaldee has, "Upon the rebellious, who become proselytes and return by repentance, the shechinah of the glory of the Lord God dwelleth."

Blessed be the Lord, etc. I think the sweet singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the choir of heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs; yea, let me say, now that he sings above in that blessed consort of glorious spirits, his ditty cannot be better than this that he sang here upon earth, and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time. Prepare, I beseech you, both your ears for David's song, and your hearts and tongues for your own. And first, in this angelic strain your thoughts cannot but observe the descant and the ground. The descant of gratulation, Blessed be the Lord, wherein is both applause and excitation; an applause given to God's goodness, and an excitation of others to give that applause. The ground is a threefold respect. Of what God is in himself, God and Lord; of what God is and doth to us, which loadeth us daily with benefits; of what he is both in himself and to us, the God of our salvation; which last (like to some rich stone) is set off with a dark foil: To God the Lord belong the issues from death. So, in the first for his own sake, in the second for our sakes, in the third for his own and ours; as God, as Lord, as a benefactor; as a Saviour and deliverer. Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more that his Hosannas, his thanks more than his suits. Ofttimes doth he praise God when he begs nothing; seldom ever doth he beg that favour, for which he doth not raise up his soul to an anticipation of thanks; neither is this any other than the universal under song of all his heavenly ditties, Blessed be the Lord. Praises (as our former translation hath it) is too low; honour is more than praise; blessing is more than honour. Neither is it for nothing that from this word Krb, to bless, is derived Krb, the knee, which is bowed in blessing; and the crier before Joseph proclaimed Abrech, calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders. Ge 41:43. Every slight, trivial acknowledgment of worth is a praise; blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude, that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kind of divine rapture. Praise is a matter of compliment; blessing of devotion. The apostle's rule is, that the less is blessed of the greater, Abraham of the King of Salem, the prophet's charge is, that the greater should be blessed of the less, yea, the greatest of the least, God of man. This agrees well; blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation; God blesseth man imperatively; man blesseth God optatively. God blesseth man in the acts of mercy; man blesseth God in the notions, in the expressions of thanks. God blesses man when he makes him good and happy; man blesseth God when he confesseth how good, how gracious, how glorious he is; so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnation, (acknowledgment), in celebration: in the one we acknowledge the bounty of God to us; in the other we magnify him vocally, really, for that bounty. O see, then, what high account God makes of the affections and actions that his poor, silly, earth creeping creatures; that he gives us in them power to bless himself, and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us. David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man; how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God, that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man, a worm, an atom, a nothing? Yet both, James tells us, that with the tongue we bless God; and the psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation, Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not (chameleon like) upon the air of thanks, nor grow the fatter for praises; how much less our Maker? O God, we know well that whatsoever men or angels do, or do not, thou canst not but be infinitely blessed in thyself; before ever any creature was, thou didst equally enjoy thy blessed self from all eternity: what can this worthless, loose film of flesh either add to or detract from thine infiniteness? Yet thou, that humbleth thyself to behold the things that are done in heaven and earth, humblest thyself also to accept the weak breath of our praises, that are sent up to thee from earth to heaven. How should this encourage the vows, the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness, to see them graciously taken? If men would take up with good words, with good desires, and quit our bonds for thanks, who would be a debtor? With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current. If he, then, will honour us so far as to be blessed of us, Oh let us honour him so far as to bless him. Joseph Hall, in "A Sermon of Public Thanksgiving for the Wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortality." 1625.

Blessed be the Lord. It is not a little remarkable to see the saints so burdened and overcharged with the duty of singing his praise, that,

1. They are forced to come off with an excess of praise, and offer to praise him and even leave it, as it were, as they found it, and say no more, lest they should spill his praises; but, as Re 5:12, "Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory and honour, "though I be not worthy or able to give it to him.

2. That they speak broken language and half sentences in their songs, when they are deeply loaden with the deep sense of his love, as Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits; there is no more in the original but Blessed be the Lord, that loadeth us. John Spalding, in "Synaxis Sacra." 1703.

Who daily loadeth us with benefits. Though some may have more than others, yet every one hath his load, as much as he can carry. Every vessel cannot bear up with the like sail, and therefore God, to keep us from oversetting, puts on so much as will safest bring us to heaven, our desired port. Ezekiel Hopkins.

Who daily loadeth us with benefits. Such is man's self love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence. While thou makest much of thyself, every one shall speak well of thee; how much more while thou makest much of them! Here God hath met with us also. Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm, above all other of David's, to abound; see here, I beseech you, a fourfold gradation of divine bounty. First, here are benefits. The word is not expressed in the original, but necessarily implied in the sense: for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God, favours, precepts, punishments, the other two are out of the road of gratulation. When we might therefore have expected judgments, behold benefits. And those, secondly, not sparingly hand fulled out to us, but dealt to us by the whole load: loaded with benefits. Whom, thirdly, doth he load but us? Not worthy and well deserving subjects, but us, Myrrwm, rebels. And, lastly, this he doth, not at one dole and no more (as even churls' rare feasts use to be plentiful), but Mwy Mwy successively, unweariedly, perpetually. One favour were too much, here are benefits; a sprinkling were too much, here is a load; once were too oft, here is daily enlarging, (largeness, bounty). Cast your eyes, therefore, a little upon this threefold exaggeration of beneficence; the measure, a load of benefits; the subject, unworthy us; the time, daily. Who daily loadeth us with benefits. Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of mercies? Were it no more, but that he hath given us a world to live in, a life to enjoy, air to breathe in, earth to tread on, fire to warm us, water to cool and cleanse us, clothes to cover us, food to nourish us, sleep to refresh us, houses to shelter us, variety of creatures to serve and delight us; here were a just load. But now, if we yet add to these, civility of breeding, dearness of friends, competency of estate, degrees of honour, honesty or dignity of vocation, favour of princes, success in employments, domestic comforts, outward peace, good reputation, preservation from dangers, rescue from evils; the load is well mended. If yet, ye shall come closer, and add due proportion of body, integrity of parts, perfection of senses, strength of nature, mediocrity of health, sufficiency of appetite, vigour of digestion, wholesome temper of seasons, freedom from cares; this course must needs heighten it yet more. If still ye shall add to these, the order, and power, and exercise of our inward faculties, enriched with wisdom, art, learning, experience, expressed by a handsome elocution, and shall now lay all these together that concern estate, body, mind; how can the axle tree of the soul but crack under the load of these favours? But, if from what God hath done for us as men, we look to what he hath done for us as Christians; that he enlivened us by his Spirit, fed us by his word and sacraments, clothed us with his merits, bought us with his blood, becoming vile to make us glorious, a curse, to invest us with blessedness; in a word, that he hath given himself to us, his Son for us; Oh the height, and depth, and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundless, topless, bottomless, load of divine benefits, whose immensity reaches from the centre of this earth, to the unlimited extent of the very imperial heavens! "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men." Joseph Hall.

Our God is the God of salvation (that is of deliverance, of outward deliverance); and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death, or the goings out from death; that is, God hath all ways that lead out from death in his own keeping, he keepeth the key of the door that lets us out from death. When a man is in the valley of the shadow of death, where shall he issue out? Where shall he have a passage? Nowhere, saith man, he shall not escape. But God keepeth all the passages; when men think they have shut us up in the jaws of death, he can open them, and deliver us. To him belong the issues from death; it is an allusion to one that keepeth a passage or a door: and God is a faithful keeper, and a friendly keeper, who will open the door for the escape of his people, when they cry unto him. Joseph Caryl.

And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. Buildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them, support them; and of their buttresses that comprehend them, embrace them; and of their contignations (a framing together; from contigno, to join together, or lay with beams and rafters), that knit and unite them. The foundation suffers them not to sink; the buttresses suffer them not to swerve; the contignation and knitting suffer them not to cleave. The body of our building is in the former part of this verse; it is this; He that is our God is the God of salvation; ad salutes, of salvations, in the plural, so it is in the original; the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too. But of this building, the foundation, the buttresses, the contignation, are in this part of the verse, which constitutes our text, and in the three diverse acceptations of the words amongst our expositors, Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death. For, first, the foundation of this building (that our God is the God of all salvation) is laid in this, That unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death; that is, it is in his power to give us an issue and deliverance, even then, when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death, and to the lips of that whirlpool, the grave; and so, in this acceptation, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio a morte, a deliverance from death; and this is the most obvious and most ordinary acceptation of these words, and that upon which our translation lays hold: the issues from death. And then, secondly, the buttresses that comprehend and settle this building: that, He that is our God is the God of salvation, are thus raised; Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, the disposition and manner of our death, what kind of issue and transmigration we shall have out of this world, whether prepared or sudden, whether violent or natural, whether in our perfect senses or shaked or disordered by sickness; there is (no) condemnation to be argued out of that, no judgment to be made upon that; for howsoever they die, precious in his sight is the death of his saints, and with him are the issues of death, the ways of our departing out of this life are in his hands; and so in this sense of the words, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio in morte, a deliverance in death; not that God will deliver us from dying, but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death, of what kind soever our passage be; and this sense and acceptation of the words, the natural frame and contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us. And then, lastly, the contignation and knitting of this building, that He that is our God, is the God of all salvation, consists in this, Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, that this God the Lord, having united and knit both natures in one, and being God, having also come into this world, in our flesh, he could have no other means to save us, he could have no other issue out of this world, no return to his former glory, but by death. And so in this sense, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by death, by the death of this God our Lord, Christ Jesus; and this, St. Augustine's acceptation of the words, and those many and great persons that have adhered to him. In all these three lines then, we shall look upon these words, first as the God of power, the Almighty Father, rescues his servants from the jaws of death; and then, as the God of mercy, the glorious Son rescues us by taking upon himself the issue of death; and then (between these two), as the God of comfort, the Holy Ghost rescues us from all discomfort, by his blessed impressions before; that what manner of death soever be ordained for us, yet this exitus mortis shall be introitus in vitam, our issue in death shall be an entrance into everlasting life. And these three considerations, our deliverance a morte, in morte, per mortem, from death, in death, and by death, will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation, of the buttresses, of the contignation of this our building, that He that is our God is the God of salvation, because Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death. John Donne.

The issues from death. That is, the issue, or escape, from death, both in the resurrection and in the various perils of our present life. Thomas Le Blanc.

Issue from death. The English version cannot be sustained by the Hebrew; for l has never the force of from, and, therefore, the expression, as Dr. Hammond observes, must signify the several plagues and judgments inflicted by God on impenitent enemies —such as drowning in the sea, killing by the sword, etc.; which were the ways of punishing and destroying the Egyptians and Canaanites. Thus the two members of the verse are "antithetical" the first speaks of God as a deliverer, and the second as a punisher; and in this respect the verse corresponds with the preceding. George Phillips, in "The Psalms... with a Critical, Exegetical, and Philological Commentary." 1846.

The hairy scalp. That is, even the most fearful enemies, that with their ghastly visage, deformed with long hair, would strike a terror into the hearts of beholders. Edward Leigh.

Hairy scalp. It was a practice among some of the ancient inhabitants of Arabia to allow their hair to grow luxuriantly on the top of the head, and to shave the head in other parts. Francis Hare. 1740.

I will bring the enemy. Both the preceding and following verse prove that this is the sense, and not as many interpreters supply, my people. Bashan was east of Judaea, and the sea on the west; so that the meaning is, that God would bring his enemies from every quarter to be slain by his people. Benjamin Boothroyd.

That thy foot may be dipped, etc. The blood of thy enemies, shed in such abundance that thy dogs shall lap and drink it, shall be the sea in which thou shalt pass, and that red without a figure. And, proportionably shall be the destruction on the enemies of Christ and Christians in the age of the Messiah. Henry Hammond.

Verse 26-28. This Psalm was sung, it is probable, on the removal of the ark into the City of David. Numbers 10. It was now that the ark had rest, and the tribes assembled three times a year at Jerusalem, the place that God had chosen. The text is a lively description of their worship.

1. Offer a few remarks by way of expounding the passage.

(a) Israel had their lesser congregations in ordinary every Sabbath day, and their national ones three times a year. Their business in all was to bless God.

(b) This business was to be carried on by all Israel, beginning at the fountain head, and proceeding through all its streams. God had blessed Israel; let Israel bless God.

(c) All the tribes are supposed to be present; four are mentioned in the name of the whole, as inhabiting the confines of the land. Their union was a source of joy; they had been divided by civil wars, but now they are met together.

(d) Those tribes which are named had each something particular attending it. Little Benjamin (see Judges 21) had nearly been a tribe lacking in Israel, but now appears with its ruler. Judah had been at war with Benjamin: Saul was a Benjamite; David was of Judah: yet they happily lost their antipathy in the worship of God. Zebulun and Naphtali were distant tribes; yet they were there! dark, too, yet there.

(e) The princes and the people were all together.

(f) They were supposed to be strong, but were reminded that what they had of strength was of God's commanding. Their union and success, as well as that degree of righteousness among them which exalted the nation, was of God They are not so strong, but that they need strengthening, and are directed to pray as well as praise: Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.

2. Apply the subject. Two things are here exemplified, namely —diligence and brotherly union; and three things recommended, namely —united praise; united acknowledgment that, for what they are, they are indebted to God; and united prayer for future mercies. Each of these affords a rule for us.

(a) The worship of God must be attended with diligence. There are the princes of Zebulun and Naphtali. They had to travel about two hundred miles three times a year, thither and back again; that is, twelve hundred in a year, twenty-four miles a week. Those who neglect the worship of God for little difficulties show that their heart is not in it, and when they do attend cannot expect to profit: "they have snuffed at it." Those whose hearts are in it often reap great advantage. God blessed the Israelites in their journeys, as well as when there (Ps 84:6): "The rain filleth the pools; "and so the Christians. There is a peculiar promise to those that seek him early.

(b) The worship of God must be attended to with brotherly love. All the tribes must go up together. It is a kind law that enjoins social worship; we need each other to stimulate. "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." God has made us so that we shall be greatly influenced by each other, both to good and evil. It greatly concerns us to cultivate such a spirit. To this end we must cherish an affectionate behaviour in our common intercourse —bear, forbear, and forgive; and, whatever differences we may have, not suffer them to hinder our worship. The tribes, as we have seen, had their differences; yet they were there. When all Israel met at Hebron to anoint David king, what should we have said if some had kept away because others went?

(c) Our business, when assembled, must be to bless God in our congregations; and a pleasant work this is. Israel had reasons, and good reasons, and Christians more. Thank him for his unspeakable gift; bless him for the means of grace, and the hopes of glory. Bless him; he "healeth all thy diseases, "etc. Psalm 103. This is an employment that fits for heaven. The tears of a mourner in God's house were supposed to defile his altar. We may mourn for sin; but a fretful spirit, discontented and unthankful, defiles God's altar still.

(d) Another part of our business is to unite in acknowledging that whatever we are, we owe it to God alone; "Thy God hath commanded thy strength." We possess a degree of strength both individually and socially. Art thou strong in faith, in hope, in zeal? It is in him thou art strong. Are we strong as a society? It is God that increaseth us with men like a flock; it is he that keeps us in union, gives us success, etc.

(e) Another part of our business must be to unite in prayer for future mercies. We are not so strong, either as individuals or societies, but that there is room for increase; and this is the proper object of prayer. God has wrought a great work for us in regeneration. God has wrought much for us as a church in giving us increase, respect, and room in the earth. Pray that each may be increased; or, in the words of the text: Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. Are there none who are strangers to all this? Andrew Fuller.

Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun, Naphtali. The two royal tribes,

1. That of Benjamin, from which the first king sprang;

2. That of Judah, from which the second; and the two learned tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali. And we may note, that the kingdom of the Messiah should at length be submitted to by all the potentates and learned men in the world. Henry Hammond.

Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun, Naphtali. The same tribes are prominent in the New Testament, as foremost in the battle of the church against the world. Paul, the "least" of the apostles (1Co 15:8-10), was by origin Saul of Benjamin (Php 3:5). Christ, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, "James and John, the brothers, the other James, Thaddaeus, and Simon, were from Judah, and the other apostles were from Nephthalim and Zabulon, or Galilee (Mt 4:13). A. R. Fausset.

Their ruler. The prince of that tribe. The Greek version saith, in a trance; taking the Hebrew Mdr to be of Mdr, though it be not found elsewhere in this form; yet rare words but once used are sundry times found in this and other Psalms. These things applied to Christ's times and after are very mystical. Benjamin, the least, is put here first; so in the heavenly Jerusalem, the first foundation is a jasper (Re 21:19), which was the last precious stone in Aaron's breastplate, on which Benjamin's name was graven (Ex 28:10,20-21). In this tribe Paul excelled as a prince of God, though one of the least of the apostles (1Co 15:8-10), who was converted in a trance or ecstasy (Ac 9:3-4, etc.); and in ecstasies he and other apostles saw the mysteries of Christ's kingdom. Henry Ainsworth.

Their council; or, their stone, the Messiah, that sprang from Judah, Ge 49:24 Ps 118:22. John Gill.

Verse 27-28. There are all the twelve tribes of Israel with their rulers present, to conduct the ark of God to the hill, in which it pleaseth him to dwell; for, though all the tribes are not mentioned, these which are named, include the whole, since Zebulun and Naphtali are the most remote, and Judah and Benjamin the nearest tribes to Zion. Benjamin was a dwindled family through the signal depopulation of that tribe, from which it never entirely recovered. Jud 20:43-48 1Ch 12:29. Edward Garrard Marsh, in "The Book of Psalms translated into English Verse... with Practical and Explanatory Notes." 1832.

Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Singularly appropriate to the occasion for which they were composed are these stimulating words. The ark of God had during several years been kept in private houses. David had pitched a tent for its reception, and intended providing a better shrine; he would deposit the ark in the temporary sanctuary, and he gathers thirty thousand chosen men of Israel, and with these and with a multitude of the people he proceeds to the house in which the ark had been kept. The people can render the service of song, so "David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals" (2Sa 6:5). The breach of Uzzah delayed the restoration of the ark three months; but David returned to the work, and with gladness, with burnt offerings and peace offerings, with feasting, dancing, and the sound of a trumpet, he brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the tabernacle he had pitched for it. David can provide a sacred place for the ark of his God, and his "God has commanded his strength." Thirty thousand chosen men can attend on this occasion, and a multitude besides. Then, why should they tarry at home? The occasion is worthy of their presence, and their "God has commanded their strength." There are sweet singers and skilful players in Israel, and why should they be silent. The occasion calls for praise, and their "God has commanded their strength." There are cattle upon the thousand hills of Canaan, and shall no sacrifice be brought? The occasion demands oblations, and Israel's "God has commanded their strength." There is a mountain in Canaan, beautiful for situation, and rich in historic association. God's ark can be brought to this mountain, and if it can be, it ought to be, for Israel's God has commanded Israel's strength. There are twelve tribes in Israel which may unite in bringing up God's ark, then let none hold back, for their "God has commanded their strength." Thy strength is thy best —all that is within thee; all that thou canst do, and be, and become; and all that thou hast —the two mites, if these be all, and the alabaster box of spikenard, very costly, if this be thy possession... By that which God is in himself, by that which God is to us, by law on the heart, and by law oral and written, by the new kingdom of his love, and by all his benefits, Thy God commands thy strength. He speaks from the beginning, and from the end of time, from the midst of chaos, and from the new heavens and new earth, from Bethel and from Gethsemane, from Sinai and from Calvary, and he saith to us all, "My son, give me thine heart, " consecrate to me thy best, and devote to me thy strength. Samuel Martin.

Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds. This is our marginal version, which is the proper one. Most modern critics consider that the lion is here intended, which frequently makes its den among reeds or brush wood. Innumerable lions wander about among the reeds and copses, on the borders of the rivers of Mesopotamia. The river Jordan was infested with them (Jer 4:7 49:19). Hence, the wild beasts of the reed may signify the Syrian kings, who often contended with David. Benjamin Boothroyd.

The idolatrous king of Egypt is here enigmatically represented as dwelling, like the crocodile, among the reeds of the Nile; and with him are introduced the bulls and calves, who were the gods of the people of Egypt, before whom they were ever dancing in their superstitious revels. "Quell these insults upon thy majesty, nor put down only the superstition of Egypt, but all their pomp of war also, that the Gentiles may be converted unto thee, and the idols be utterly abolished." Edward Garrard Marsh.

When the enemies of God rise up against his church, it is time for the church to fall down to God, to implore his aid against those enemies. Holy prayers are more powerful than profane swords. Thomas Wall, in "A Comment on the Times." 1657.

These words contain, first, a declaration of God's enemies; secondly, an imprecation against those enemies. The enemies are marshalled into four ranks.

1. A company of spearmen, or (as some translations read it) the beast of the reeds.

2. The multitude of the bulls.

3. The calves of the people.

4. The men that delight in war.

The imprecation is also twofold; the first more gentle; it is but rebuke the spearmen; and that with limitation too —till they submit themselves with pieces of silver. For they that will not, but delight in war, more severely deal with such: Scatter them; Scatter the men that delight in war.... The church of God never wanted enemies, never will. "There is no peace to the wicked, "saith God: there shall be no peace to the godly, say the wicked. The wicked shall have no peace which God can give; the godly shall have no peace which the wicked can take away. Thomas Wall.

1. Scrupulosity.

2. Envy.

3. Ignorance.

4. Ambition or pride.

Upon which these four beasts in the text do act their enmity against the church; scrupulosity sets forth unto us the beast of the reeds; envy, the bulls; ignorance, the calves; and pride, the men that delight in war. Thomas Wall.

This instance of spiritualising may act rather as a beacon than as an example. The author was an able divine, but in this sermon gives more play to his imagination than his common sense.

Ethiopia. It is a matter of fact, familiar to the learned reader, that the names Ethiopia, and "Ethiopians, " are frequently substituted in our English version of the Old Testament, where the Hebrew preserves the proper name, "Cush." And the name, "Cush, "when so applied in Scripture, belongs uniformly not to the African, but to the Asiatic, Ethiopia, or Arabia. Charles Forster, in "The Historical Geography of Arabia."

And that a mighty voice; or a voice of strength; a strong and powerful voice, such as the gospel is, when accompanied with the power and Spirit of God. It is a soul shaking and awakening voice; it is a heart melting and a heart breaking one; it is a quickening and an enlightening voice; it quickens dead sinners, gives life unto them, and the entrance of it gives light to dark minds; it is a soul charming and alluring one; it draws to Christ, engages the affections to him, and fills with unspeakable delight and pleasure. John Gill.

To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens. He who manages the heavens, directing their course and influence. He formed every orb, ascertained its motion, proportioned its solid contents to the orbit in which it was to revolve, and to the other bodies of the same system; and as an able rider manages his horse, so does God the sun, moon, planets, and all the host of heaven. W. Greenfield, in Comprehensive Bible.

The praises of the church are sung to him, who, after his sufferings here below, reascended to take possession of his ancient throne, high above all heavens; who, from thence, speaketh to the world by his glorious gospel, mighty and powerful, as thunder, in its effects upon the hearts of men (see Psalm 29 throughout). The power of Christ's voice, when he was on earth, appeared by the effects which followed, when he said, "Young man, arise:" "Lazarus, come forth:" "Peace, be still; "and it will yet further appear, when "all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and come forth." George Horne.

His strength is in the clouds. This refers to the phenomena of thunder and lightning; for all nations have observed that the electric fluid is an irresistible agent —destroying life, tearing towers and castles to pieces, rending the strongest oaks, and cleaving the most solid rocks; and the most enlightened nations have justly considered it as an especial manifestation of the power and sovereignty of God. W. Greenfield, in Comprehensive Bible.

Verses 1-2.

First. The church of God ever had, and will have, enemies and haters; for against these doth the psalmist arm himself and the church with this prayer.

Secondly. The church's enemies are God's enemies; they that hate the church, hate God. Thine enemies, them that hate thee.

Thirdly. God sometimes seems to sleep or lie still, and let these enemies and haters do what they will for a season, This, also, is implied: he to whom we say, Arise is either asleep or lies still.

Fourthly. There is a time when God will arise.

Fifthly. God's rising time is the enemies' scattering time, his hater's flying time.

Sixthly. It is the duty of God's people to pray him up when he seems to be down, and to exalt him in their praises when he doth arise to their rescue and redemption; for these words are both a prayer and a triumph as they are used both by Moses and David. Thomas Case, in a Fast Sermon, preached before the House of Commons, entitled, "God's Rising, his Enemies' Scattering." 1644.

Verses 1-3. Prayer for the Second Advent. A. Macaul.

1. The name that inspires the song: Jah.

(a) Self existent.

(b) Immutable.

(c) Eternal.

2. The song inspired by that name.

(a) Of exultation.

(b) Of confidence.

(c) Of joy. G. R.

The claims of widows and orphans upon the church of God, from God's relation to them and his indwelling in the church.

Comparison of churches to families. See extract from Dr. Gill.

1. Two curable evils: "solitary", "bound with chains."

2. Two rich blessings: "set in families, ""bringeth out."

3. One monster evil, and its miserable consequences.

Verses 7-8.

1. God has his seasons for delivering his people from their troubles: When thou, etc.

2. His deliverance is complete: The earth shook, etc.; all things gave way before him.

3. The deliverance is greater for the delay.

(a) It is so in itself.

(b) It is more prized: as in the case of Job, Abraham, Israel at the Red Sea, Daniel, his three companions, etc. G. R.

Verses 7-9.

1. The presence of God in his church.

(a) His preeminence: "before."

(b) As covenant God of Israel.

(c) As active and making active.

(d) His rule within: they follow.

(e) His design without: marching for war.

2. The blessed consequences.

(a) The most stolid shake.

(b) The lofty bow.

(c) Difficulties removed: "Sinai."

(d) Blessings plenteous.

(e) Church revived.

1. God's mercy compared to a shower.

(a) It is direct from heaven; not through priests.

(b) It is pure and unmixed.

(c) No one has a monopoly of it.

(d) There is no substitute for it.

(e) It is sovereignly dispensed, as to (1) time; (2) place; (3) manner; and (4) measure.

(f) It works efficiently. Isa 55:10.

(g) Prayer can get it.

2. There are seasons when these showers fall.

(a) In the house of God.

(b) In the means of grace.

(c) In prayer.

(d) In affliction.

(e) When saints are weary (1) through working; (2) through sickness; (3) through non success.

(f) By the Holy Spirit refreshing the heart.

3. These showers are meant to "confirm God's people."

4. They are wanted now.

1. The church is God's inheritance.

(a) Chosen.

(b) Purchased.

(c) Acquired.

2. Though his inheritance, at times it may be weary.

3. When weary, it will be refreshed by him. G. R.

(second clause). Special goodness, for a special people, specially prepared.

(second clause). It is spoken in reference to the poor, because,

1. They are the larger mass of mankind; and, whatever pride may think, in the eye of reason, policy, and revelation, by far the most important, useful, and necessary part.

2. They would be more peculiarly affected by deficiency.

3. To encourage those in humble and trying life to depend upon him.

4. To enforce our attention to them from the divine example. W. Jay.

The divinity of the gospel; the divers ways and agents for its publication.

Verses 11-12.

1. The word given: "The Lord." etc.

2. The word proclaimed: "Great, "etc.

3. The word obeyed: "Kings, "etc. Thus it was in Old Testament times, when to Joshua, to Gideon, to David, etc., the Lord gave the word, and it ran through the hosts, and "kings of armies, "etc. Thus it was in apostolic times, when the word of reconciliation was given. Thus it is still, and will be more signally than ever hereafter. G. R.

(last clause). The church in redemption as a spouse tarrying at home; her home duties; the spoil of her Lord's glorious and finished work, and her dividing it.

1. The contrast.

(a) Instead of humiliation, exaltation.

(b) Instead of pollution, purity.

(c) Instead of inertness, activity.

(d) Instead of deformity, beauty.

2. Its application.

(a) To penitence and pardon.

(b) To depravity and regeneration.

(c) To affliction and recovery.

(d) To desertion and consolation.

(e) To death and glory. G. R.

1. Where earth's greatest battles are fought. "Scattered, ""in it, "i.e., in Zion. "There brake he, "etc.

2. By whom? The Almighty.

3. When? In answer to his people's faith and prayer.

4. How?

(a) Without noise, gently: as the fall of snow.

(b) Without human aid: as untrodden snow.

(c) Without violence: "All bloodless lay the untrodden snow." G. R.

Verse 15-16.

1. The superiority of the hill of Zion.

(a) In fertility, to the hill of Bashan; to earthly pleasures.

(b) In glory, to other hills; to human heights of learning and power.

2. The reason of that superiority.

(a) The place of God's choice.

(b) Of his delight

(c) Of his abode.

(d) Of his continuance for ever. G. R.

1. The church the dwelling place of God.

(a) Elected of old.

(b) Favoured for ever.

(c) Affording rest, etc., as a home for God.

(d) Receiving honour, etc., for herself.

2. The church, therefore, envied by others.

(a) They feel their own greatness outdone.

(b) They leap with rage.

(c) They are unreasonable in so doing.

Verses 17-18.

1. The comparison between Zion and Sinai.

(a) The same Lord is there: "The Lord is among, "etc.

(b) The same attendants: "The chariots," etc.

2. The contrast.

(a) God descended at Sinai, ascended from near Zion.

(b) Put a yoke upon them at Sinai, leads captivity captive at Zion.

(c) At Sinai demanded obedience, in Zion bestows gifts.

(d) In Sinai spoke terror, in Zion receives gifts for the rebellious.

(e) In Sinai appeared for a short season, in Zion dwells for ever. G. R.

1. Christ's ascension.

2. His victories.

3. The gifts he received for men; and

4. The great end for which he bestows them. John Newton.

That the Lord God might dwell among them. It is ground for devout wonder that God should dwell among men, when we contemplate his immensity, loftiness, independence, holiness, and sovereignty; yet he does so —

1. In the coming of Christ into the world.

2. In the residence of his Spirit in the heart.

3. In the presence of God in his churches. —William Staughton, D.D. 1770-1829.

1. The load of benefits.

2. The load of obligation.

3. The load of praise due in return.

1. Salvation is not to be forgotten in the midst of daily mercies.

2. Daily mercies are not to be forgotten in the enjoyment of salvation. G. R.

Death in God's hand.

1. Escapes from it.

2. Entrances to it.

3. The exit out of it beyond.

4. The gate which, when closed, shuts us in it for ever.

1. What God has been to his people.

(a) Their salvation.

(b) Their portion: "Our God."

2. What he will be: With them.

(a) Until death.

(b) In death.

(c) After death. G. R.

The power, pride, wisdom, and very life of evil, to be conquered by God.

1. Where his people may be driven.

2. The certainty of their return.

3. The reasons for being assured of this.

The allowable procession in the sanctuary. The marshalled order of doctrine, the holy walk of believers, the banners of joy, the music of devotions, the shouts to the King.

(last clause). Work for holy women in the church.

1. The variety of song.

(a) The royal tribe of Benjamin in the time of Saul.

(b) The princely tribe of Judah, as David was prince regent in the time of Saul.

(c) The literary tribe of Zebulun: "Out of Zebulun" they that handle the pen of the writer.

(d) The eloquent tribe: "Naphtali giveth goodly words."

2. The harmony of song. Let all unite in praising the Lord, the fountain of Israel. "Ten thousand thousand are their tongues, "etc. G. R.

Verse 30-31.

1. Hindrances to the progress of divine truth.

(a) Idolatry. Worship of the crocodile —beasts of the reeds, (LXX) —of bulls and calves, as in Egypt.

(b) Covetousness.

(c) War.

2. The means for their removal. Prayer and the divine rebuke. Scatter thou, etc.

3. The consequences of this removal; Ps 68:31.

1. Consider God's jealousy towards his people for his holiness in the three "holy places."

(a) In the outer court of profession.

(b) In the holy place of our priesthood.

(c) In the holy of holies with his Son.

2. Consider his terribleness to his foes, as inferred from those "holy places."

Blessed be God. A brief, but very suggestive text.