Imprecations of judgment on the wicked on the hypothesis of their continued impenitence are not inconsistent with simultaneous efforts to bring them to repentance ; and Christian charity itself can do no more than labor for the sinner’s conversion. The law of holiness requires us to pray for the fires of Divine retribution ; the law of love to seek meanwhile to rescue the brand from the burning. The last prayer of the martyr Stephen was answered not by any general averting of doom from a guilty nation, but by the conversion of an individual persecutor to the service of God. Thrupp.

1. THE LORD saith unto my lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

2. The LORD shall send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion : Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

3. Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power : In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, Thou hast the dew of thy youth.

4. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent,

Thou art a priest for ever After the order of Melchizedek.

5. The Lord at thy right hand Shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

6. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies ; He shall strike through the head in many countries.

7. He shall drink of the brook in the way : Therefore shall he lift up the head.

THE words of our Saviour recorded in Matt. 22 : 41-46 ; Mark 13 : 35-37 ; Luke 20 : 41-44, preclude any other view than that this Psalm is a direct prophecy of Himself. In accordance with these words there is no reference here to David, or to any king of Israel, as a type of Christ. The Psalm is thus raised to a higher plane than most other Messianic Psalms. There is indeed a typical groundwork in the two offices held by men divinely appointed under the Old Testament, and especially by Melchizedek, King of Salem, and priest of the Most High God, but in the Psalm Christ only is addressed or described. De Witt.

Paraphrase of the Psalm.

1. " Thus saith Jehovah—it is His revelation that I hear ; it is His Word addressed to One who, though He be My Son, is yet my Lord —’ I give Thee honor and dignity equal to My own, I associate Thee with Myself in kingly rule and dominion, until I have subdued every enemy who shall dare to lift himself against Thee.’ "

2,3. Then turning to the King who has thus been solemnly placed on the throne of Jehovah, and who rules as His vicegerent in Zion, the Psalmist says : " From Zion, Thy royal seat, shall Jehovah Himself, on whose throne Thou sittest, stretch out the sceptre of Thy dominion, So close shall be the fellowship between Him and Thee. Thou shalt sit on His throne ; He shall wield Thy sceptre ; His might shall be Thy might, His kingdom shall be Thy kingdom, and Thou shalt not only subdue Thine enemies, but before they are yet vanquished Thou shalt rule in the midst of them. When Thou goest forth to war, Thine own people shall flock with glad and willing hearts to Thy standard. They shall come clad, not in armor, but in holy vestments as ministering priests, for Thou hast consecrated them to be Thy priestly soldiers. They shall come, a youthful host, in numbers numberless as the dew, bright and fresh as the dew from the womb of the morning.

4. “Yet another solemn word concerning Thee have I heard. It is a word confirmed by an oath, the oath of the Most High, which cannot be broken. By that oath He hath made Thee Priest as well as King; King Thou art, Priest thou shalt be henceforth; Priest not after the law of a carnal commandment, or by descent through the Levitical priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek; Priest, therefore, not of the Jew only, but of the Gentile also; Priest not for a time, but forever.”

5-7. Then, looking on the leader, the host, the conflict, the poet exclaims: “The Lord, the God of hosts who is with Thee, O King, who is at Thy right hand to succor and give Thee the victory in the battle, hath already crushed the rival monarchs that dispute Thy sway. Thou shalt be a judge and ruler among the nations whom He has given Thee as thine inheritance. The vast battlefield is strewn with the corpses of Thy foes. Far and wide hast Thou extended Thy conquests, vanquishing one leader after another; and Thou shalt reap the fruit of Thy victories, like a warrior who, pressing hotly on the rear of his enemies as they flee before him, scarcely pauses for a moment to snatch a hasty draught from the wayside brook, and then with renewed ardor, with head erect and kindling eye, continues the pursuit. Thus shall victory be crowned, and not a foe remain.” P.

This is the counterpart of the second Psalm, completing the prophetic picture of the conquering Messiah. The progressive development of the Messianic doctrine lies in this, that the kingship of Messiah, there alleged and confirmed by a Divine decree, is here assumed at the beginning, and then shown to be connected with His priesthood, which is also solemnly proclaimed and its perpetuity insured by a Divine oath. This constitutes the centre of the Psalm (v. 4), to which all the rest is either introductory (vs. 1-3), or supplementary (vs. 5-7). The repeated, explicit, and emphatic application of this Psalm in the New Testament to Jesus Christ is so far from being arbitrary, or at variance with the obvious import of the Psalm itself, that any other application is absurd. A.

This Psalm is a step in advance in the progress of doctrine in respect to the person and work of the Great Messiah. It appears in the later Prophet Zechariah (6 : 13), and may be foreshadowed in Isa. 53. This Psalm is applied to the Messiah by the Jewish fathers; by the very early Syriac version in the words: “A prophecy of Christ’s victory over His enemies;”

and, higher than all other testimony, by Jesus Himself (Matt. 22 : 41; Mark 12 : 35; Luke 20 : 41). These passages show that the Jews of that age recognized their expected Messiah in this Psalm, and also that Jesus applied the Psalm to Himself in an argument which none of His opponents could resist. Furthermore, the New Testament writers repeatedly recognize and honor this Psalm as referring to Christ by their application to Him of the words, “Sit at My right hand.” No special emphasis should be given to the word “sit” as compared with any other posture; position at the right hand is the main thing. Hence Stephen saw Him “standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7 : 56), and Paul (Rom. 8 : 34) has it simply, “is at the right hand,” etc. Sitting, however, is the usual posture of royalty; a king sits on his throne. See other New Testament references, in Matt. 26 : 64; Eph. 1 : 20; Heb. 1 : 3, 13; 8 : 1; 10 : 12; 1 Pet. 3 : 22; Rev. 3 : 21. Another corresponding class of New Testament passages indorses the words, “Make thine enemies thy footstool;” e.g., 1 Cor. 15 : 25; Eph. 1 : 22; Heb. 10 : 13. To these should be added the strong support given to the Messianic interpretation of this Psalm by the allusion to His priesthood as taught here in v. 4. The writer to the Hebrews makes this point strikingly emphatic (Heb. 5 : 6-10; 6 : 20; 7 : 1-8). C.

If the solemn address, “Sit thou at my right hand,” is equivalent to saying, “Be thou associated with Me in my kingly dignity, in My power and universal dominion,” then the best comment on the passage is to be found, as even some of the Jewish interpreters have seen, in Dan. 7 : 13, 14, where “One like the Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven, and is brought unto the Ancient of Days, and there is given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him.” The two passages, the one from the Psalm and the other from Daniel, are, in fact, combined by our Lord Himself, when standing before the high-priest He says, “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” The same interpretation is given by Peter (Acts 2 : 34-36). P.

This Psalm claims emphatically to be the fruit and record of a Divine revelation. It is an oracle, an utterance of Jehovah which he has heard, and which he is to declare to others. It is an oracle which concerns a King who reigns in Zion; it is addressed to One to whom the poet does homage, calling Him “Lord;” it assures Him of the high favor of Jehovah, who lifts Him to a share in His own regal dignity, giving Him the victory over all His enemies. The poet then pictures the King going forth to battle, surrounded by His youthful warriors, bright and numberless as the dew-drops on a summer’s morn, willing to shed their heart’s blood in His service, each one robed as a priest, each one a soldier of God. As he gazes on the vision which has been called up by the first word from heaven, another Divine Word sounds in his ear, the Word confirmed by the oath of Jehovah that the King shall also be “a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Then he follows the King in imagination to the war, sees Him winning victory after victory with great slaughter, aided by God Himself in the fight, and securing the fruits of His victories by a pursuit of His enemies, which knows no check even in the burning heat of an Eastern sun.

From Matt. 22 : 41-45 and Mark 12 : 35-37, it appears, first, that David himself wrote the Psalm, and next, that in writing he was moved by the Holy Ghost. David himself, in a confessedly Messianic Psalm, is speaking not of himself, but of his great Descendant, and, so speaking, calls Him his Lord. David was able to do this, was able in faith to recognize the true Divine greatness of One who, according to the flesh, would be his Son, because he spake as the organ of a Divine revelation, as “he was moved by the Holy Ghost.” This is clearly the scope of our Lord’s argument. And if so, then it is plain that there can be no lower reference of the Psalm to David or any other Jewish monarch. It is a prediction, and a prediction of the Christ as the true King, as the everlasting Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

It seems to me, then, that we are shut up to the conclusion, that in this lofty and mysterious Psalm, David, speaking by the Holy Ghost, was carried beyond himself, and did see in prophetic vision that his Son would also be his Lord. Nor is it altogether strange, altogether inconsistent with the course of God’s providence, that such a vision should be vouchsafed to one to whom so clear a promise was given that the Messiah should come of his seed, and who in his “last words” pictured in such glowing terms the Righteous Ruler and the blessings of His righteous reign.

While, however, we maintain what our Lord’s argument compels us to maintain, that the Psalm is a prediction, we cannot tell to what extent it was a conscious prediction. We do not know how far David himself needed an interpretation of the vision in which he saw the majestic figure of the priestly King. P. [For a full discussion of the manifold points involved, see Perowne, vol. 2, p. 282. B.]

1,2. He begins with the solemn words with which a prophetic message is wont to be announced, thus at the outset stamping on the Psalm its true character. The “oracle” or “Word of Jehovah unto my Lord,” which he heard, is a new revelation made to him from the heavens. He is taken up and listens to the Divine voice calling to His right hand, to the most intimate communion with Himself, and to wielding the energies of omnipotence, Him whom David knew to be his Lord. And when that Divine voice ceases, the prophetic spirit in the seer hymns the coronation anthem of the Monarch enthroned by the side of the majesty in the heavens. “The sceptre of Thy strength will Jehovah send out of Zion. Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.” In singular juxtaposition are the throne at God’s right hand, and the sceptre, the emblem of sovereignty, issuing from Zion, a dominion realized on earth by a Monarch in the heavens, a dominion the centre of which is Zion and the undefined extent universal. A. M.

1. A seat at the right hand of a king is mentioned in the Scriptures as a place of honor, not arbitrarily, but as implying a participation in His power, of which the right hand is a constant symbol. The participation in the Divine power thus ascribed to the Messiah is a special and extraordinary one, having reference to the total subjugation of His enemies. The idea running through the whole Psalm is, that it is in and through Him that Jehovah acts for the destruction of His enemies, and that for this very end He is invested with almighty power, as denoted by His session at the right hand of God. This session is to last until the total subjugation of His enemies, that is to say, this special and extraordinary power of the Messiah is then to terminate; a representation which agrees exactly with that of Paul in 1 Cor. 15 : 24-28, where the verse before us is distinctly referred to, although not expressly quoted. This verse is more frequently quoted or referred to in the New Testament than any other in the Hebrew Bible. It lies at the foundation of all those which represent Christ as at the right hand of the Father. A.

2. His kingdom is set up not by destroying them, but by subduing them, so that they become His willing servants. They yield to Him, and He rules over them. It is not here a commission to cut them off, but to make them His friends and dispose them to submit to His authority.

Here power may crush men; it requires more than that to make rebels willingly submissive, and to dispose them voluntarily to obey. Barnes.

The rod of the Lord’s strength is to be “sent forth out of Zion;” the meaning is, the Gospel which is to subdue the world to Christ shall go forth into the world first from Jerusalem where the hill of Zion stood. Other prophecies foretell this. “Out of Zion,” says Isaiah, “shall go forth the law,” the new law of grace which is to convert the Gentiles, “and the Word of the Lord,” he adds, “from Jerusalem.” “It shall be in that day,” says another prophet “that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem.” And the fact corresponded with these predictions. C. Bradley. — Nor would one err who should call the Cross the rod of power; for this rod converted sea and land, and filled them with a vast power. Armed with this rod, the apostles went forth throughout the world, and accomplished all that they did, beginning at Jerusalem. Chrysostom.

The omniscience of God is displayed in the wonderful fact that in the very land of the covenant, in the very midst of that people who rejected and crucified the Saviour, the first Church of Christ on earth was established. Israel scattered among the nations, and the Church of Christ having begun in Zion at Jerusalem, are the most wonderful and enduring monuments, and incontestable witnesses of the truth of Christianity. B. Weiss.

3. Thy people.** In the midst of His enemies, the King has His own faithful adherents. God, who holds the sceptre of His Anointed, and assures Him of victory, has also given Him a willing people, working in their hearts by His Spirit joyfulness and courage and ready self-sacrifice. P.

Thy people (are) free-will-offerings in the day of Thy power, in holy decorations, from the womb of the dawn, to Thee (is) the dew of Thy youth. Every member of this very obscure verse has been a subject of dispute and of conflicting explanations. The common version of the first words (Thy people shall be willing) is entirely inadmissible as an exact translation. The idea, however, is the same, but expressed with far more strength and beauty. The plural noun just mentioned is the one used to denote spontaneous gifts, or free-will-offerings, under the law of Moses. By supplying the correlative verb, we obtain the sense, Thy people (offer) voluntary gifts. But by supplying the substantive verb, which is far more natural and common, we obtain the still more striking sense,

Thy people are themselves such gifts, they freely consecrate themselves to God. The day of Thy power is the day in which it is exerted and displayed in the subjugation of Thine enemies. The next phrase literally means in beauties (or, ornaments) of holiness, which may either have its obvious spiritual sense, as in Psalm 29 : 2, or that of holy decorations with allusion to the sacerdotal dress, which is expressly called garments of holiness (Lev. 16 : 4). The last is the sense put by the modern interpreters upon the phrase, which then means that the people, when they make this solemn offering of themselves to God, appear clothed in sacerdotal vestments as the servants of a priestly King (v. 4 below), and themselves a “kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19 : 6.) The womb of the dawn (or, daybreak) is a very strong poetical description of the origin or source of the dew which immediately follows, and the sense of which must determine that of the whole clause. Free from objections is the supposition that the clause relates not to the numbers or the beauty of Messiah’s people, but to their perpetual succession, expressed by a fine poetical comparison with dew engendered afresh daily from the womb of the morning. Youth will then have its proper sense as denoting the perpetual youth of the Messiah, whose body is thus constantly renewed by the successive generations of His people. A.

All the people, without distinction, wear holy festive garments. Thus they surround the Divine King like dew born out of the womb of the morning. It is a priestly people whom He leads forth to holy battle, just as in Rev. 19 : 14 heavenly hosts upon white horses follow the Logos of God, a new generation, wondrously born as it were out of heavenly light, numerous, fresh and vigorous like the pearly dew, the children of the dawn. The thought that it is a priestly people leads over to v. 4. The King who leads this priestly people is, as we hear in v. 4, Himself a Priest. The priesthood is united with the kingship in Him, the One that rules out of Zion, just as it had been in Melchizedek, the King of Salem, and that, too, forever. D.

God’s people are willing in believing, loving, obeying, adhering, living piously and justly in this world; so that they do not need the constraint of laws or threats, because they are led by the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Musculus. — Here is “leading, but no force; conduct, but no compulsion.” How spontaneously does the person led follow him that leads him! So it is here. This and all other workings of the Spirit are admirably suited to the nature of reasonable and free agents. T. Jacomb.

The simple term “willing” denotes the condition of creatures who suffer themselves to be wrought upon and moved, according to the will of God. They suffer God to work in them to will and to do. They are willing to be weaned from their own thoughts and purposes, that the thoughts and purposes of God may be fulfilled in them. God will beautify them with salvation, because there is nothing in them to hinder His working. They will be wise, they will be good, they will be like God, for they are “willing;” and there proceeds from God a mighty spirit, the whole tendency of which is to make His creatures like Himself. J. Pulsford.

There is a general power which goes along with the Gospel to all, proper to make them willing to be Christ’s people, arising from the supreme authority of its great Author and the intrinsic excellency of the things themselves contained in it, beside the undeniable miracles that were wrought for the confirmation of it. And there is also a particular power, the power of the Spirit, going along with the power of the Word, to the people of Christ, which is effectual to make them willing. The former leaves sinners without matter of excuse, this leaves saints without matter of boasting. H.

Into the world of spiritual darkness and death there must come a Life-Power from above, a Power greater than the soul, and adequate to compass its condition and necessities, a Power knowing how to reach the soul through its own nature, and, in the delicate and sensitive sphere of moral causes, to change the law of action without impairing the acting power, the personality of the soul itself; a Power to quicken, enlighten, renew, restore, by bringing the soul again into its true and normal relations with God, and by bringing God nigh to the soul, that His presence, His truth, His holiness, His love, might act upon it as realities. Christ embodying the truth, the righteousness and the love of God in a living expression that men could see and feel, and bringing home to their hearts the reconciling grace of God by the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross, was this Life-Power; a Power which, having in the Atonement gained a leverage against the law of sin and death, can move the world; and which moving ever from that fulcrum, carries on through the ages the work of restoration, till reversing the old law of history it shall make all things new. Anon.

It is not true that the Holy Spirit works conversion by a direct, soul-renewing fiat or silent thunder-stroke of omnipotence. He works not by any short method of absolute will. Working efficiently and, in a certain sense, immediately in the man, or subject, He still circles round the will, doing it respect by laying no force upon it, and only raising appeals to it from what He puts in the mind, the conscience, the memory, the sense of want, the fears excited, the aspirations kindled. He moves upon it thus by a siege and not by a fiat—carries it finally by a process of circumvallation. And when it is really born of God, it will be the result of what the Spirit has wrought by a long, and various, and subtle, and beautiful process, too delicate for human thought to trace. H. B.

There are many ways of compendiously expressing the Gospel, but a better it would be hard to find than this, that it is the good will of God overcoming the evil will of man. By means no doubt: wondrous means! By His own self-sacrifice; by suffering love; by revelation of truth; by donation of the Spirit, because these and the like things are necessary elements for the case, the nature of man being such as to forbid the hope of any change being wrought in it by mere strength, by what we call omnipotence. Yet all these—written revelation, manifested Christ, Atonement, Comforter, powers of the world to come—are instruments of the good will of God seeking to change, and, in many instances, happily, actually changing the evil will of man. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” God worketh in men, “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Then the question of questions to a man must be this: “Am I now, with my will, doing the will of God? Doing it feebly, imperfectly, no doubt, but still doing it, by preference, in choice, with determination, with an honest and supreme desire that I may come to do it more and yet more perfectly, until, on some calm, bright day, the first day of accomplished salvation, I shall begin to do it without defect, intermission, or weariness, like the saints and angels in heaven?” Whoso thus doeth the will of God has entered the world of reality and permanence as one belonging to it. He is now already in the ever-abiding state. Raleigh.

If Paul had simply bid us work out our own salvation for ourselves he would have bid us do what was impossible; we might go on trying hard all our lives, and at the end of them we should find our salvation just as much out of our reach as ever. On the other hand, if he had simply told us that it is God that works in us both to will and to do according to His own pleasure, without telling us what we have to do in consequence, then he would have given us a direct encouragement to go on standing idle all our lives, in the expectation that God will come and save us, in spite of our doing nothing toward securing our salvation; a thing which God has never promised to do, and never will do. We must go on working as incessantly and laboriously as if we had to earn our salvation by our own efforts; and all the while we must feel, and freely confess, that our salvation must come to us as a free gift from God. And so working, and so confessing, we may look confidently forward to the day when our work will be ended, and our salvation secured. And we shall look forward to it in confidence, for the very reason that it is God alone, and not we, who is doing all the work. Henry Harris.

We begin God’s service because He calls us to it, we end by loving the service for its own sake. And this is an advanced stage of the Divine life. It implies a greater likeness to God, who doth that which is good, not from any outward obligation, but from the free and unalterable propensity of His eternal nature toward that which is good. We thus cease to be servants, and grow into the life and liberty of sons. Our obedience to God has brought us in happy advance toward His presence. We have been doing the will of the Father, and the consequence is that our own will has become identified with His. Inclination and duty now go hand in hand. The sense of bondage has disappeared, and a sweet sense of free choice has come in its place. We have learned what it is to be holy as God is holy. By serving Him we have found our fruit unto holiness. W. L. Alexander.

In the beauties of holiness. In holy vestments as priests. They are at once warriors and priests; meet for the service of Him who was King and Priest. Neander remarks on the connection between these two sides of the Christian character. God’s soldiers can only maintain their war by priestly self-consecration. Conversely: God’s priests can only preserve their purity by unintermitted conflict. W. Kay.

Beautiful in holiness—that is the character of all who are made partakers of His grace and Spirit—their character now; “the beauty of the Lord” is already upon them; it will be more visibly, more brightly upon them in a brighter world. C. Bradley.—Godliness is our spiritual beauty. Godliness is to the soul as the light to the world, to illustrate and adorn it. It is not greatness that sets us off in God’s eye but goodness; what is the beauty of the angels but their sanctity? Godliness is the curious embroidery and workmanship of the Holy Ghost; a soul furnished with godliness is damand enamelled with purity. Godliness sheds a glory and lustre upon the saints. T. Watson.

Holiness is the chiefest excellency of man, his highest advantage above inferior beings. It is the supreme beauty of the soul, the resemblance of angels, the image of God Himself. In this the perfection of the reasonable nature truly consists, and glory naturally results from it. As a diamond, when its earthy and colorless parts are taken away, shines forth in its lustre: so when the soul is freed from its impurities and all terrene affections, it will appear with a Divine brightness. The Church shall then be glorious when cleansed from every spot and made complete in holiness. Bates.—The holiness of a covenant soul is a resemblance of the holiness of God, and formed by it, as the picture of the sun in a cloud is a fruit of His beams, and an image of its Author. The fulness of the perfection of holiness remains in the nature of God as the fulness of the light does in the sun; yet there are transmissions from the sun to the moon, and it is a light of the same nature both in the one and in the other. The holiness of a creature is nothing else but the reflection of the Divine holiness upon it. Charnock.

Holiness is the only means by which holiness can be diffused. It is the wise man that can impart wisdom to others, it is the good man that can diffuse goodness, and it is only the holy man that can diffuse holiness. Every man can bring forth to others only out of the treasures deposited first in his own heart. Jenkyn.—Holiness is the end for which we were made, for which we were redeemed, for which God the Holy Ghost is sent down and shed abroad in the hearts that will receive Him. God did not will to create us as perfect. He willed that we, through His grace, should become perfect. But what He willed that we should be, that, if our will fail not, we must become. His almighty will vouchsafes to depend on ours. What God commands, what God wills, what God so willed that He made us for this alone, that we should be holy, and being holy, should share His holiness and bliss, that must be within our reach if we will. The mistake of mistakes is to think that holiness consists in great or extraordinary things beyond the reach of ordinary men. It has been well said: “Holiness does not consist in doing uncommon things, but in doing common things uncommonly well.” Few can ever do great things, and the few who can do them can each do but few. But every one can study the will of God, and can give great diligence to know it and to do what he knows. Your daily round of duty is your daily path to come nearer unto God. Pusey.

Men talk about holiness and pray for it as if it were something entirely apart from their every-day life, something that has nothing whatever to do with their conduct in their domestic, social, and business relations. They sing, “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” with glowing fervor, but do not think that the prayer can be answered only by the lifting up of their own lives to the plane of God’s requirements. Holiness is not a mere sentiment, not a vague vision of glory overhanging us like a heavenly cloud; not a rapture or an ecstasy; not something which God sends down to wrap us like a garment in its radiant folds. It is the most real and practical thing in this world. If being holy means anything at all, it means being true, honest, upright, brave, pure, gentle, patient, unselfish. It is not all prayer and church-going and hymn-singing; it is life. It is not a Sabbath mood, but a week-day habiliment. We really have no more religion than we get into our every-day life, at home, in business, in all our conduct. We are Christians only so far as the Christ living in us is manifested in Christliness before men. J. R. Miller.

The conquering King whom the Psalm hymns is a Priest forever; and He is followed by an army of priests. The soldiers are gathered in the day of the muster, with high courage and willing devotion, ready to fling away their lives; but they are clad not in mail, but in priestly robes; like those who wait before the altar rather than like those who plunge into the fight; like those who compassed Jericho with the ark for their standard and the trumpets for all their weapons. We can scarcely fail to remember the words which echo these and interpret them. “The armies which were in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean”—a strange armor against sword cut and spear-thrust. . . . But this one thing is obvious, that the great power which we Christian men are to wield in our loving warfare is—character. Purity of heart and life, transparent, simple goodness, manifest in men’s sight, these will arm us against dangers, and these will bring our brethren glad captives to our Lord. We serve Him best, and advance His kingdom most, when the habit of our souls is that righteousness with which He invests our nakedness. Be like your Lord, and as His soldiers you will conquer, and as His priests you will win some to His love and fear. Nothing else will avail without that. Without that dress no man finds a place in the ranks. The image suggests, too, the spirit in which our priestly warfare is to be waged. The one metaphor brings with it thoughts of strenuous effort, of discipline, of sworn consecration to a cause. The other brings with it thoughts of gentleness, and sympathy, and tenderness, of still waiting at the shrine, of communion with Him who dwells between the Cherubim. And while our work demands all the courage and tension of every power which the one image presents, it is to be sedulously guarded from any tinge of wrath or heat of passion, such as mingles with conflict, and is to be prosecuted with all the pity and patience, the brotherly meekness of a true priest. We are to be gentle, long-suffering, not doing our work with passion and self-will, but remembering that gentleness is mightiest, and that we shall best adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour when we go among men with the light caught in the inner sanctuary still irradiating our faces, and our hands full of blessings to bestow on our brethren. We are to be soldier-priests, strong and gentle, like the ideal of those knights of old who were both, and bore the cross on shield and helmet and sword-hilt. A. M.

4. Melchizedek’s order Thy type.** Hebrew, after the description of. In Heb. 7: 15 we find the alternative expression, according to the likeness of, which is the exact meaning, the writer there claiming that Christ was “made like to Melchizedek”—that is, that the priesthood of Melchizedek was a divinely instituted, prophetic figure or type of the priesthood of Christ, especially in its combination with His royal dominion. He is not descended from Levi, but from Judah, and is a King on the throne of David, yet He is a Priest, a High-Priest in the temple of God. See the important parallel passage, though Melchizedek is not mentioned, Zech. 6: 12, 13. There are other typical resemblances exhibited in the epistle, in reply to Jews who questioned whether Christ, as descended from Judah, could be a priest; principally that Melchizedek’s name, parentage, birth, and death were not to be found in any priestly genealogy, and that he owed his position to direct Divine appointment on personal grounds, and not to descent from an hereditary line; and further, that he had no successor in his priesthood, but held it till the object of his appointment was accomplished. The writer proves in this and other ways, not only that Christ was truly a priest, but that His priesthood was superior to that of Aaron; and still further, that the introduction, under the Divine promise and oath, of a priest after the prophetic similitude of

Melchizedek and not of Aaron, proves the insufficiency of the latter, supersedes and annuls it, and so virtually abrogates the whole Levitical law, which was founded upon the priesthood, and could not subsist without it (7 : 11-19). There is no mystery connected with Melchizedek or his priesthood. The Revised Version has rendered an important service in substituting “without genealogy” for “without descent” in chap. 7 : 3. De Witt.

This verse contains the great central revelation of the Psalm. How weighty it is, and of how vast import, may be inferred from the solemnity of the introduction, “Jehovah hath sworn,” and this is carried to the very highest pitch by the addition of the words, “And will not repent,” i.e., the decree is absolutely immutable. It is the solemn inauguration of the Messiah in time to the priestly office. It is the first intimation of the union of the kingly and priestly functions in His person. See the latter typical representation of the same truth in Zech. 6 : 12, 13. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews dwells on the significance of each expression in this verse: “With an oath,” “forever,” “after the order of Melchizedek.” He lays stress on the fact that this solemn inauguration into the priestly office was by an oath, which was not the case with the institution of the Levitical priest. This, he observes, is a proof that Christ is Mediator of a better covenant than that of Moses (Heb. 7 : 20-22). He argues that as the priesthood rests on an unchangeable foundation, so it is in its nature unchangeable; a priest forever. “He, because He abideth forever, hath His priesthood unchangeable” (7 : 23, 28). He enlarges upon all those points in which Melchizedek, rather than Aaron, was the most fitting type of Christ; passing over, however, in entire silence that which in the Patristic and Romish expositors holds a prominent place—the bringing forth of bread and wine. Another and essential feature of the type which is implied in Heb. 7 is too often overlooked, viz., that the priesthood of Melchizedek was not only before the law, but was a Gentile priesthood, and therefore the most fitting type of a universal priesthood. P.

This name appears before only in a brief incident in the history of Abraham. That incident, however, is of great significance. Melchizedek stands in the covenant made with Noah, Abraham in the more special covenant made with himself. In these two persons the two forms of the covenant with God meet, the one about to set in the obscurity of tradition, the other about to rise in the light of a written revelation.

The one excels in breadth, embracing all mankind; the other in depth, extending to the antitype as well as the type. The antitype, however, exhibits all the breadth of the Noahic combined with the depth of the Abrahamic. He is therefore after the order of Melchizedek. Moreover, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews shows, the Messiah is the King of righteousness, King of peace, without beginning of days or end of life. He appoints bread and wine as the great symbols of salvation, and especially of Himself, as the atoning Sacrifice. He is truly a Priest-King. These are the striking and significant characteristics of the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. M.

These things concerning him are certain: That he was a mere man and no more. That he came not to his office by the right of p-imogeniture, or by any way of succession, but was raised up and immediately called of God thereunto, for in that respect Christ is said to be a Priest after his order. That he had no successor on the earth, nor could have, for there was no law to constitute an order of succession, and he was a priest only after an extraordinary call. These things belong unto faith in this matter, and no more. The first personal, instituted type of Christ was a priest: this was Melchizedek. There were before real instituted types of His work, as sacrifices; but the first person who was solemnly designed to teach and represent Him by what He was and did, was a priest. And God taught herein that the foundation of all the Lord Christ had to do in and for the Church was laid in His priestly office, whereby He made atonement and reconciliation for sin. Everything else that He doth is built on the supposition of His priesthood. And we must begin in the application where God begins in the exhibition. An interest in the effects of the priestly office of Christ is that which in the first place we ought to look after. This being attained, we shall be willing to be taught and ruled by Him. J. Owen.

At his coronation we hear nothing but the Lord said: “Sit thou on My right hand.” But at the consecration of Christ we have a great deal more of ceremony and solemnity, God His Father taketh an oath, and particularly expresseth the nature and condition of His office, a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek; and He confirmeth it unto Him forever, saying, “Thou art a priest forever.” D. Featley.—What doctrine doth the Scripture afford more comfortable than that God hath sworn His Son a Priest forever, to sanctify our persons and purge our sins, and tender all our petitions to His

Father? What sin is so heinous for which such a Priest cannot satisfy by the oblation of Himself? What cause so desperate in which such an Advocate, if He will plead, may not prevail? We may be sure God will be entreated of us, who Himself hath appointed us an Intercessor to whom He can deny nothing; and to that end hath appointed Him to sit at His right hand to make intercession for us. A. Wright.

He who fulfilled the destiny of man under the conditions of the present world, He who interpreted the discipline of suffering, He who bore humanity through death to the presence of God, not as one man of men, but as the Head of the whole race, did all this that He might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest, that He might apply to those whom He was not ashamed to call brethren the virtue of His life and passion, and reconcile in a final harmony the inexorable claims of law and the infinite yearnings of love. A Priest and yet a King. For, indeed, at first and at last, the kingly and priestly offices cannot be kept apart. He who makes atonement must be a king. He who demands the complete service of every power must hallow the powers of which he claims the ministry. The ruler who consecrates, the priest who rules, must, in the words already quoted, be merciful and faithful; he must have absolute authority and perfect sympathy; authority that he may represent God to man; sympathy that he may represent man to God. And such is Christ, made known to us King and Priest, Priest after the order of Melchizedek, in whose mysterious person the old world, on the edge of a new dispensation, met and blessed the Father of the faithful Anon.

Christ in His priestly office is appointed to bless. Our better Melchizedek is gone in, in His human form, “into the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man;” a little space He tarries for His Church’s sake within the veil, and presently we shall behold Him coming forth in His perfect beauty; and standing on the clouds of heaven, at the portals of glory, He will pronounce benediction on His Church. J. Vaughan.

Christ’s Intercession. There arises from all parts of the world at the morning and the evening, and through the labors of the day, a perpetual incense of adoration and of petition; it contains the sum of the deepest wants of the human race in its fears and hopes, its anguish and thankfulness; it is laden with sighs, with tears, with penitence, with faith, with submission; the broken heart, the bruised spirit, the stifled murmur, the ardent hope, the haunting fear, the mother’s darling wish, the child’s simple prayer—all the burdens of the soul, all wants and desires nowhere else uttered, meet together in that sound of many voices which ascends into the ears of the Lord God of hosts. And mingled with all these cravings and utterances is one other voice, one other prayer, their symphony, their melody, their accord; deeper than all these, tenderer than all these, mightier than all these, the tones of One who knows us better than we know ourselves, and who loves us better than we love ourselves, and who brings all these myriad fragile petitions into one prevalent intercession, purified by His own holiness and the hallowing power of His work. H. B. Smith.

5-7. The martial strain of vs. 2-4 is resumed. There the might of the King and His army were described, here the conflict and the victory. P.—Some suppose this to be addressed to Jehovah and “the Lord” to mean Messiah, on the ground that they could not each be on the “right hand” of the other. See v. 1. That they could be so, however, only shows that the whole description is a figurative one, and that the principal figure has a twofold meaning. On the right hand has precisely the same meaning here as in Psalm 109: 31, where it denotes the place of protection or assistance, the figure being probably derived from the usages of war, in which one who succors or protects another may be said to strengthen his right hand, as the member which he uses in his own defence. In one sense, therefore, the Lord is at the right hand of Jehovah; in another sense, Jehovah is at His. This assistance, far from excluding, presupposes His own action, or rather, what Jehovah is described as doing for Him He does through Him. A.

As there is a time of grace and patience, so there is also an appointed time of wrath and vengeance of God. Frequent mention is made in the sacred Scriptures that the wicked will not be left always unpunished, because they condemn the patience of God and provoke His anger; but there will be a time when they will experience the wrath of God. Musculus.

6. He will judge among the nations; He has filled (them) with corpses—He has smitten the head over much land (or over the wide earth). By another sudden change of form the Messiah is again spoken of as a third person. The judgment here ascribed to Him is only another name and figure for the conquest just described. The general idea is universal conquest on the part of the Messiah, extending to all earthly powers. A.—Literally understood all this seems very terrible and inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel. Under such figures the triumphs of grace are often exhibited. The sword of the Spirit does not destroy men, but saves them. It is their enmity that is slain. The victory of the Son of God is over their stubborn hearts. Those who have been in arms against Him yield to His gracious rule. De Witt.

7. Of the brook,** or, “torrent.” The victorious leader, who has made so terrible a slaughter that the field of battle is covered with corpses, is now seen pursuing his enemies. Wearied with the battle and the pursuit, he stops for a moment on his way to refresh himself by drinking of the torrent rushing by, and then “lifts up his head,” derives new vigor to continue the pursuit. P.

This Psalm has the rhythm and tone of a triumphal march. In words of majestic beauty and of sustained fervor it celebrates the kingdom, the priesthood, the conquests, and the exaltation of Christ. It is the magnificent panorama of the Revelation by John given in miniature, with every principal scene suggested by some leading feature. David, in spirit foreseeing the glory of Christ, calls Him his Lord and hears the voice of Jehovah inviting the Messiah to share His throne. As an Oriental conqueror used the necks of captives for his footstool, the absolute triumph of Christ is represented by His putting all enemies under His feet. He shall tread upon death and rise victorious from the grave. But the Church shall be the seat of His gracious power. Gladly owning this redeeming King, His people shall follow His standard with willing hearts; their ranks shall be recruited from rising generations till His hosts, brilliant as the dew in the beauty of holiness, shall also be innumerable as the drops that burst into splendor with the coming of the dawn. More copious even than these liquid jewels from the womb of the morning shall be the myriads of new-born souls bright with the dew of their consecration. This King shall unite in Himself also the priestly functions of no human order or pedigree, but as the spiritual antetype of that royal Priest, the King of peace, who blessed Abraham and receive his homage. All kings shall bow or bend to His authority; all nations shall be gathered before Him in judgment. If at times His triumph seems to be checked, He but pauses, as it were, to refresh Himself by the way, and again lifts up His head.

How blessed and glorious it is to follow such a King! How sad and ruinous to be found among His enemies! J. P. T.

Israel had possessed, so to speak, the three crowns separately. It had the priesthood in Aaron, the royal dignity in David and his line, and the prophetic office. But in the “last days” the triple crown of priest, king, and prophet has been united upon Him whose it really is, even Jesus, a “Prophet like unto Moses,” the eternal Priest “after the order of Melchizedek,” and the real and ever-reigning “Son of David.” And in Him all the promises of God, which had been given with increasing clearness from Adam onward to Shem, then to Abraham, to Jacob, in the law, in the types of the Old Testament, and, finally, in its prophecies, have become “Yea and amen,” till at the last all nations shall dwell in the tents of Shem. A. E.

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews presents the reasons, relations, and effects of the office which Christ sustains as the High-Priest of His Church. He describes our Lord and Redeemer as the PRIEST, the Great Priest, the High-Priest, sole, supreme; divinely appointed in a manner consonant with His unrivalled dignity; standing in an assumed relation to mankind for the purpose of making a sacrificial and consecrating offering; effecting a real propitiation and expiation for the sin of mankind; rich in power and grandeur, and equally so in compassion and tenderness; taking as His own and occupying as His indisputable right a station of glory and dignity which only Deity could assume; reigning with an invincible dominion over all created beings, to the happiness and joy of the holy, and to the restraint and just punishment of the rebellious; and bestowing on sinful and undeserving men the greatest blessings, real, substantial, enduring, and boundless; the pardon of sin, the favor of God, conformity to the holiness of the Divine nature and everlasting blessedness. Other august and instructive titles are also given to our Lord Jesus Christ in relation to His priesthood. He is held forth to us as the Messenger, sent by the Eternal and most merciful Father, and fulfilling the great moral design of the Levitical institution; the Minister of the most holy place, presiding over the universal worship of His people and rendering it acceptable to the Throne of perfect purity; the Lord who spake by the prophets and now by His apostles concerning the great salvation acquired by His sufferings; the Sanctifier, who by His blood consecrates and presents to God all His true followers; the Brother of those for whom

He came to die, and whom He condescends to nominate into this endearing relation to Himself; the Surety, a pledge of salvation from God to man, and of obedience from man to God; the Mediator, transacting the most important concerns between the Righteous Ruler of the world and His revolted subjects, in order to their reconciliation and restoration, and accomplishing this great work by means of His sacrificial blood; the Princely Author of life, faith, and salvation, achieving His great purpose by His sufferings and death; a Saviour to the uttermost, because He offered up Himself and hath an unchangeable priesthood; an Intercessor and Advocate, faithfully and powerfully maintaining our infinite interests, upon the ground and reason of the propitiation by His blood; the Forerunner, securing to His followers the heavenly inheritance, by virtue of His priestly obligation; the Great Shepherd, conferring the blessings of the everlasting covenant through the efficacy of His blood; the Son of God, partaking the flesh and blood of the children of Adam, that through His own death He might accomplish their redemption; and to depreciate whose blood is the most dreadful of offences. Besides these declarations concerning the personal character of our Divine High-Priest, and His qualities in the discharge of His office, the sacred writer furnishes additional illustrations of the office itself, and its necessary adjuncts. It stands alone and unrivalled; it is perfect, for all the purposes of Divine mercy and wisdom; it is a real priesthood, all others being but emblems and representations of it; it contained the essential quality of a priesthood, the offering of an immolated sacrifice; this sacrifice is efficacious by a continual presentation in the heavenly world; and it produces the most happy effects, the ratification of the promulgated covenant of grace; Christ’s mediatorial right of conferring infinite blessings; the reconciliation of sinners to their justly offended Sovereign; entitling to the full benefits and enjoyments of the great salvation; it is the great instrument by the efficient grace of the Holy Spirit, in producing personal holiness; by it Christians have the most favored access to the throne of grace. Anon.

This Psalm is one of the fullest and most compendious prophecies of the person and offices of Christ in the whole Old Testament. Indeed there are very few of the articles of that creed which we all generally profess, which are not either plainly expressed or by most evident implication couched in this little model. First, the Doctrine of the Trinity is in the first words, “The Lord said unto my Lord.” There is

Jehovah the Father, and my Lord, the Son, and the consecrating of Him to be David’s Lord which was by the Holy Ghost, by whose fulness He was anointed unto the offices of King and Priest; for so our Saviour Himself expounds this word “said,” by the sealing and sanctification of Him to His office (John 10 : 34, 35, 36). Then we have the Incarnation of Christ in the words, “my Lord,” together with His dignity and honor above David (as our Saviour Himself expounds it, Matt. 22 : 42, 45). Mine, that is, my Son by descent and genealogy after the flesh, and yet my Lord too, in regard of His higher Sonship. We have also the Sufferings of Christ, in that He was consecrated a Priest (v. 4) to offer up Himself once for all. We have His Completed Work and conquest over all His enemies and sufferings; His Resurrection, “He shall lift up His head;” His Ascension and Intercession, “Sit Thou on My right hand.” We have here also a Holy Catholic Church gathered together by the sceptre of His kingdom. We have the Remission of sins comprised in His priesthood, for He was to offer sacrifices for the remission of sins, and “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Eph. 1 : 7; Heb. 9 : 26). We have the Resurrection of the body, because He must “subdue all enemies under His feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death,” as the apostle argues out of this Psalm (1 Cor. 15 : 25, 26). And lastly, we have life everlasting, in the everlasting merit and virtue of His priesthood, “Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” and in His sitting at the right hand of God, whither He is gone as our forerunner, and to prepare a place for us (Heb. 6 : 20; John 14 : 2); and therefore the apostle from His sitting there and living ever inferreth the perfection and certainty of our salvation. E. Reynolds.

God can abide in His eternity, His immutability, His sublimity, and yet humble Himself and take the form of man and the thought of man. He thus comes down to us in the written Word, so full of the Divine majesty, the Divine holiness, and yet so purely, so intensely human. He comes still nearer to us in the incarnate Word, “the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us;” and nearer still when Christ took upon Himself our sins, and carried our sorrows, making Himself our Sacrifice, and thus becoming our “Great High-Priest,” who, even now, “in the highest heavens,” can be touched with a fellow feeling of all our infirmities. Ineffable is the mystery involved in all this, but the fact can be clearly stated, and reason must assent to the glory of the truth, even where it utterly fails

to comprehend. We cannot ascend to heaven, but God can come down to us; we cannot become Divine, but it is within His almighty power to become human, and thus lift us up to communion with Himself while we still remain human. T. Lewis.—To exalt Christ is to ennoble ourselves. To venerate the Prophet is to open the mind to His wisdom. To thrill with faith in the heavenly Priest is to yield the heart to the power of His love. To behold the King’s majesty is to let the will find joy in obedience. All life will be simpler for this reverence; the world more beautiful; religion more real. F. D. H.