Psalms 118

1. There is a great deal of Gospel in this Psalm. The apostle has furnished us with a key to it (Rom. 15 : 11), where he quotes it as a proof that the Gospel was to be preached to, and would be entertained by the Gentile nations, which yet was so great a stumbling-block to the Jews. Why should that offend them, when it is said, and they themselves had often sung it, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud Him, all ye people. H.

This is an exhortation to the Gentiles to glorify Jehovah, and a clear proof that the Old Testament spirit differed widely from that narrow and contracted national bigotry with which the Jews of our Lord’s day became so inveterately diseased. The nations could not be expected to join in the praise of Jehovah unless they were also to be partakers of the benefits which Israel enjoyed; and hence the Psalm was an intimation to Israel that the grace and mercy of their God were not to be confined to one nation, but would in happier days be extended to all the race of man. S.

2. Mercy, truth. These two great attributes of God, as manifested to Israel, “toward us,” are to be the subject of praise for the heathen, an indication of those wider sympathies which appear to have manifested themselves after the exile. Hence the first verse is quoted by Paul (Rom. 15 : 11, together with Deut. 32 : 43), “Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people,” as showing that in the purpose of God the Gentiles were destined to be partakers, together with the Jews, of His mercy in Christ. P.

1. O GIVE thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.2 Let Israel now say, That his mercy endureth for ever.3 Let the house of Aaron now say, That his mercy endureth for ever.4 Let them now that fear the LORD say, That his mercy endureth for ever.5 Out of my distress I called upon the LORD: The LORD answered me and set me in a large place.6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?7 The LORD is on my side among them that help me: Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.8 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man9 It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes.

10. All nations compassed me about: In the name of the LORD I will cut them off.11 They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: In the name of the LORD I will cut them off.12 They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: In the name of the LORD I will cut them off.13 Thou didst thrust sore at me that I might fall: But the LORD helped me.14 The LORD is my strength and song; And he is become my salvation.15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous: The right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted: The right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.17 I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the LORD.18 The LORD hath chastened me sore:

But he hath not given me over unto death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will enter into them, I will give thanks unto the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD : The righteous shall enter into it. 21 I will give thanks unto thee, for thou hast answered me, And art become my salvation. 22 The stone which the builders rejected Is become the head of the corner. 23 This is the LORD’s doing ; It is marvellous in our eyes. 24 This is the day which the LORD hath made ; We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save now, we beseech thee, O LORD :

O LORD, we beseech thee, send now pros- perity. 26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD : We have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. 27 The LORD is God, and he hath given us light : Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. 28 Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto thee : Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. 29 O give thanks unto the LORD ; for he is good : For his mercy endureth for ever.

WHAT the close of Psalm 117 says of God’s truth, that it endureth forever, the beginning of Psalm 118 says of grace, its sister. It is the closing Psalm of the Hallel, which begins with Psalm 113. It was Luther’s favorite Psalm : his beautiful Confitemini. He occupied himself in the loneliness of his Patmos with the exposi- tion of this his noblest jewel, his defence and treasure. D.

This is my Psalm, my chosen Psalm. I love them all ; I love all Holy Scripture, which is my consolation and my life. But this Psalm is nearest my heart, and I have a peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which nor emperor, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints could have saved me. I am not jealous of my property ; I would divide it with the whole world. And would to God that all men would claim the Psalm as especially theirs ! It would be the most touch- ing quarrel, the most agreeable to God, a quar- rel of union and perfect charity. Luther.

The ideal speaker, throughout the Psalm, is Israel, as the Church or chosen people. The deliverance celebrated cannot be identified with any one so naturally as with that from the Babylonish exile. A.—It is evident that this Psalm was designed to be sung in the temple worship, and was composed for some festal occasion. Its general character, and the many passages in it borrowed from earlier writers, render it probable that it is one of the later Psalms, and we may assume that it was com- posed after the return from the captivity. The most probable conclusion is that the Psalm was composed for the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, after the completion of the sec- ond temple (Neh. 8). P.

The Psalm falls into two divisions. The first division (vs. 1-19) is sung by the festive proces- sion which is led up by priests and Levites, and which goes up to the temple with sacri- ficial animals. With v. 19 the procession stands at the entrance. The second part (vs. 20-27) is sung by the body of Levites who receive the festive procession. Then v. 28 is the answer of those who have arrived, and v. 29 the con- cluding song of all of them. D.

1-4. His covenant mercy is the burden of these first four verses. Neither is there any idle repetition, but a notable expression of the saints’ insatiableness of praising God for His never-failing mercy. These heavenly birds having got a note, sing it over and over. In the last Psalm there are but six verses, yet twelve hallelujahs. A. Wright.

2. It is as if he had said, the reason for thus urging man to praise Jehovah is because His mercy endureth forever, and oh that Israel would join in affirming this reason. Oh that Israel would say (I will give thanks), for His mercy endureth forever. A.

5. The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. It may be rendered, The Lord an- swered me largely ; as He did Solomon when He gave him more than he asked for ; and as He does His people when He gives them a suffi- ciency and an abundance of His grace ; not only above their deserts, but above their thoughts and expectations. Gill.—What a large place is that in which the great God has placed us ! All things are ours, all times are ours, all places are ours, for God Himself is ours ; we have earth to lodge in and heaven to dwell in—what larger place can be imagined ? S.

6. I will not fear: what can man do unto me? Let him do his worst—frown, threat, plot, arm, strike; the Lord is on my side, He hath a special care for me, He is a shield unto me; I will not fear, but hope; as it is in the next verse, “I shall see my desire on them that hate me,” I shall see them changed or ruined. Our help is in the name of the Lord, but our fears are in the name of man. W. Greenhill.

7. Literally, “The Lord is for me or to me as mine own God. What can man, frail man of the earth do unto me,” protected by such a Defender? “The Lord is for me with my helpers,” and “I shall look upon my haters,” i.e., look down upon them fearlessly. C.

7-9. During the building of the temple the Jewish people had experienced this helpful assistance of Jehovah in opposition to the enmities of the Samaritans and the satraps; and at the same time they had also learned that trust in Jehovah proves true, and that trust in man, on the contrary, and more especially in princes, is deceitful; for under Pseudo Smerdis the work begun under Cyrus and brought under suspicion even in the reign of Cambyses was interdicted. But under Darius the interdict was removed; Jehovah showed that He can dispose secular events and the hearts of men to the advantage of His people. D.

8. It is better because man is weak, but God is Almighty; because man is selfish, but God is benevolent; because man is often faithless and deceitful, God never; because there are emergencies, as death, in which man cannot aid us, however faithful, kind, and friendly he may be, but there are no circumstances in this life, and none in death, where God cannot assist us; and because the ability of man to help us pertains at best only to the present life, the power of God will be commensurate with eternity. Barnes.—Oftentimes God blesseth not means, because we are so apt to trust in them, and rob God of His glory, not waiting for a blessing at His hands. This causeth the Lord to cross us and to curse His own benefits, because we seek not Him, but put confidence in outward means. A. Wright.

This eighth verse of this Psalm is the middle verse of the Bible. There are, I believe, 31,174 verses in all, and this is the 15,587th. Though we may generally look upon such calculations as only laborious idleness—and they certainly have been carried to the most minute dissection of every part of Scripture—yet I believe that the integrity of the holy volume owes a vast deal to this scruple-weighing of these calculators. Whatever their reasons were, I cannot but think that there was an overruling Providence in thus converting these trifling and apparently useless investigations into additional guards and fences around the sacred text. Bouchier.

9. It is good to confide in Jehovah (more) than to trust in nobles. This merely strengthens the foregoing declaration, by rendering it more specific and emphatic. The Lord is more to be confided in, not merely than the mass of men, but than their chiefs. Nobles is a better translation than princes, because it keeps up the association with the adjective sense noble, generous, liberal, spontaneous, which is otherwise lost sight of. Even the Persian patrons and protectors of the Jews had not deserved their confidence in comparison with Jehovah their covenanted God. A.

12. In Eastern countries it was common to burn over their fields in the dry time of the year, and thus to clear them of thorns and briars and weeds. Of course, at such a time they would kindle quickly, burn rapidly, and soon be consumed. So the Psalmist says it was with his enemies. Barnes.

14. The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. “My strength,” that I am able to resist my enemies; “my salvation,” that I am delivered from my enemies; “my song,” that I may joyfully praise Him and sing of Him after I am delivered. W. Nicholson.—Good songs, good promises, good proverbs, good doctrines are none the worse for age. What was sung just after the passage of the Red Sea is here sung by the prophet, and shall be sung to the end of the world by the saints of the Most High. Plumer.

15,16. The great event in special view was God’s hand uplifted to take them out of their bondage in Babylon and bring them safely home to their fatherland. There was abundant reason for magnifying this glorious “right hand.” C.

15. Tents.** We can imagine with what special force the words (of this verse) would come to those who then were, or had but recently been, keeping their Feast of Tabernacles, dwelling in the temporary huts which they constructed of the branches of the olive and the fir-trees, the myrtle, and the palm, and rejoicing in the great deliverance which God had given them. Plumptre.

The voice of joy and the acclamations of genuine and holy pleasure were heard in that “Tabernacle of the righteous;” and nowhere else. Could any one dare affirm that it was joy that dwelt in the temples of the demon-gods of

Philistia, Phoenicia, Syria, Assyria, Egypt, or that filled the courts of Chemosh, of Ashtaroth, of Dagon, of Baal, of Mithra? What did the grove conceal? Lust — blood — imposture. What sounds shook the fane? alternate screams of anguish and the laughter of mad votaries. What was the priest? the teacher of every vice of which his god was patron and exemplar. What were the worshippers? the victims of every woe which superstition and sensuality can gender, and which cruelty can cherish. It was not then a blind national prejudice, it was not spiritual arrogance that made the prophet and poet of Israel exult in the distinction of his people. He turned toward the hill of God, the habitation of Jehovah, graced then, perhaps, with the solemn joys of its annual feasts. “Thither the tribes had gone up,” from the glens of the vine and olive, from the valleys of corn—of milk, and honey—they had advanced “from rest to rest,” and every one, every head of the thousands of Israel, was then “appearing before God in Zion.” The harp and the viol were heard there; and the tabret and cymbal—“stringed instruments and organs”—the responsive anthem also, which taught as much as it cheered the people. And in sight of all, the smoke of the propitiatory sacrifice ascended direct to heaven—innocent sacrifice! The priest made intercession for the people “within the veil;” but that veil concealed no shame, no cruelty, no fraud; he came forth charged with a blessing, in the pregnant terms of which were condensed more of sacred science than all the rest of the world beside possessed. The congregation dispersed, and as they returned to their inheritances the joy of the Lord was their strength. I. T.

17. I shall not die but live, and recount the works of Jehovah.** The existence thus to be preserved is that of Israel, and the last clause describes the final cause of that existence, which is here stated as a ground of confidence, and is elsewhere urged as an argument in prayer. The original construction of the first clause is, I shall not die, for I shall live. A.

While there is a testimony for God to be borne by us to any one, it is certain that we shall not be hurried from the land of the living. The Lord’s prophets shall live on till they have uttered all the words of their prophecy; His priests shall stand at the altar unharmed till their last sacrifice has been presented before Him.

18. The Lord hath chastened me sore.** This is faith’s version of the former passage, “Thou hast thrust sore at me;” for the attacks of the enemy are chastisements from the hand of God. The devil tormented Job for his own purposes, but in reality the sorrows of the patriarch were chastisements from the Lord. “Chastening, Jehovah hath chastened me,” says our poet. Chastisement is sent to keep successful saints humble, to make them tender toward others, and to enable them to bear the high honors which their heavenly Friend puts upon them. “But He hath not given me over unto death.” They are “chastened, but not killed;” their pains are for their instruction, not for their destruction. By these things the ungodly die, but gracious Hezekiah could say, “By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit.” S.

19. The gates of righteousness.** The gates of the temple are so called with reference to the service of God and the character He requires of His worshippers. This is evident from the next verse, “The righteous shall enter into it.” The demand “open to me” may be understood either literally, in which case it is best explained as the words of the singers in the festal procession when they reach the temple gates; or figuratively, as implying the readiness and alacrity with which the Psalmist will go to the house of God, there to offer his sacrifices and to utter his thanksgivings. Compare Isa. 26: 2: “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation may enter in,” where righteousness is made the condition of entrance into “the strong city,” or God’s building, as here into the holy place. P.

21. The Psalmist says, “I will praise Thee; for Thou hast heard me;” he praised not only because he had received, but also because he had been heard—because the living God, as a hearing God, was manifested in His mercies. And when we know that God has heard us, let us not delay our praise; God loves a quick return for His blessings; one sentence of heartfelt thanksgiving is worth all the formalism of a more labored service. P. B. Power.

22. The stone (which) the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This is a proverbial expression, and as such applicable to any case, in which what seemed to be contemptible has come to honor. This mode of expressing the idea was most probably suggested by the founding of the temple. The sight of the stone, or the act of laying it, would be sufficient to suggest the proverb, and its application to the happy change experienced by Israel, so lately blotted from the list of nations, and regarded by the heathen as unworthy even of an humble place in the proud fabric of consolidated empire, but now restored not only to a place but to the highest place among the nations, not in point of power, wealth, or worldly glory, but as the chosen acts peculiar people of the Most High God. As this Psalm was sung by the people at the last Jewish festival attended by our Saviour, He applied this proverb to Himself, as One rejected by the Jews and by their rulers, yet before long to be recognized as their Messiah, whom they had denied and murdered, but whom God had exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins (Acts 5 : 31). This, though really another application of the proverb in its general meaning, has a certain affinity with its original application in the verse before us, because the fortunes of the ancient Israel, especially in reference to great conjunctures, bore a designed resemblance to the history of Christ Himself, by a kind of sympathy between the body and the head. Even the temple, which suggested the original expression, did but teach the doctrine of Divine inhabitation, and was therefore superseded by the advent of the Son Himself. The head of the corner means the chief or corner-stone of the foundation, even in Zech. 4 : 7, where it is translated head-stone. The application of the verse before us made by Christ Himself (Matt. 21 : 42) is renewed by Peter (Acts 4 : 11). A.

In the primary meaning of the Psalm the illustration seems to have been drawn from one of the stones—quarried, hewn, and marked away from the site of the temple (Kings 6 : 7)—which the builders, ignorant of the head architect’s plans, had put on one side, as having no place in the building, but which was found afterward to be that on which the completeness of the structure depended, that on which, as the chief corner-stone, the two walls met and were bonded together. The Psalmist saw in this a parable of the choice of David to be king over Israel; perhaps, also, of the choice of Israel itself out of the nations of the world. Elsewhere, as in Eph. 2 : 20, and in the language of later ages, Christ Himself is the chief corner-stone. Ellicott.

Israel had been despised by their heathen masters, but now, by the good hand of their God upon them, they had been lifted into a place of honor. They, rejected of men, were chosen of God as a chief stone of that new spiritual building which Jehovah was about to erect; the temple of the world, the foundation of which was to be laid in Zion. In Matt. 21 : 42-44 (Mark 12 : 10, 11; Luke 20 : 17) our Lord applies the words of this and the next verse to Himself. The quotation was, it would seem, purposely taken from the same Psalm from which the multitude had just before taken their words of salutation (see on vs. 25, 26), as they went forth to meet Him and conduct Him in triumph into Jerusalem. But there is more than an application of the words. Israel is not only a figure of Christ; there is an organic unity between Him and them. Whatever, therefore, is true of Israel in a lower sense, is true in its highest sense of Christ. Is Israel God’s “firstborn son”? the name in its fulfilment belongs to Christ (Matt. 2 : 15); if Israel is “the servant of Jehovah,” he is so only as imperfectly representing Him who said: “My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” If Israel is the rejected stone made the head of the corner, this is far truer of Him who was indeed rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious; the corner-stone of the one great living temple of the redeemed, whether Jews or Gentiles. Compare Eph. 2 : 20. The passage which forms the connecting link between this Psalm and the New Testament quotations is Isa. 28 : 16, “Behold, it is I who have laid securely in Zion a stone, a tried, precious corner-stone, most securely laid: he that believeth (i.e., resteth thereon) shall not flee (through fear of any evil).” In this passage the Messianic reference is still more direct. In marked contrast with this, it is said of Babylon (Jer. 51 : 26): “They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation.” P.

Whatever was the occasion of the Psalm, Jesus lays His hand on it and claims it as speaking of Him. Lower, typical meanings it no doubt had, and was rooted in some unknown historical fact; but for us its meaning is fixed by Him. There are other prophecies about the foundation-stone, and the stone cut out without hands, which are all smelted together here, to teach the one great truth, that Jesus Christ is the foundation (and, subordinately, that He is the bond of union between the two divergent walls, which represent Jew and Gentile) laid by God; and though rejected by those to whom the task of building up God’s house had been intrusted, still is in history and fact what He was from of old intended to be. The husbandmen’s killing of the Son is not the end of the Son. God’s purpose works through opposing agents, and is accomplished by apparent defeat. If, then, opposition is futile, judgment is sure. What can become of the builders who flung the foundation-stone aside, when it is set in its place? Nothing but destruction. So our

Lord’s last words give grave warning to us all, and declare the universal law regulating the relations to Him of all men who hear the Gospel. A. M.

23. Now all this “is the Lord’s doing,” done without any intervention on the part of man, and therefore, “it is wonderful in our eyes.” For who is there that must not look upon it as a wonderful thing to find a man crucified, dead and buried, rising, after three days, from the dead, immortal, with unbounded power, and declared Prince of men and angels, and a way opened through Him for mortal man to the kingdom of heaven, to the society of the angels, to a happy immortality? Bellarmine.—It never ceases to astonish us, as we see, even here below, God by means of weakness defeating power, by the simplicity of His Word baffling the craft of men, and by the invisible influence of His Spirit exalting His Son in human hearts in the teeth of open and determined opposition. It is indeed “marvellous in our eyes.” In the Hebrew the passage reads, “It is wonderfully done;” not only is the exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth itself wonderful, but the way in which it is brought about is marvellous; it is wonderfully done. S.

24. This is the day Jehovah has made, we will rejoice and triumph in it. By the day we are here to understand the happier times which Israel, through God’s grace, was permitted to enjoy. This day He is said, as the Author of this blessed revolution, to have made, created. In a still higher sense the words may be applied to the new dispensation, as a glorious change in the condition of the Church, compared with which the restoration from captivity was nothing, except as a preliminary to it and a preparation for it. A.

Compare this place with Matt. 21 : 22, 23 and Acts 4 : 11, and you will find that the preceding verses are a prophetic prediction of Christ’s resurrection, and so this verse foretells the Church’s joy upon that memorable and glorious day. Swinnock.—Of the day on which Christ rose from the dead, it may with more propriety than of any other day be affirmed, “This is the day which the Lord hath made.” Then it was that the rejected stone became “the head of the corner;” a morning then dawned which is to be succeeded by no evening. Bishop Horne.—There was no day before; it was not day to an apostate and darkened creation till the Sun of righteousness rose on it in His strength; and His rising was virtually the rising from the dead. Metvill.

This, therefore, is “the day which the Lord hath made,” higher and brighter than all days; the day on which our Lord rose again, on which He acquired a new people by the Spirit of regeneration, on which He filled the minds of all with an exulting joy. This day of Christ’s resurrection is life to the dead, pardon to sinners, glory to saints; since by working virtue in men it raises them from the depths, places them on high, perfects the righteous, confirms the doubtful, condemns the unbelieving. For it was to this end that our Lord rose again, that He might show to us an image of the future resurrection. Let us, therefore, be glad and rejoice on this day, on which Christ by His resurrection overthrew death and brought in salvation. Augustine.

The whole of this Psalm applies to Jesus the Messiah, and so we ask, What was the day in His life which He made His own beyond all others? The day of days in Christ’s life was the day of resurrection. And the resurrection should provoke a joy in Christian hearts greater than any other event in the life of our Lord. For it is the joy of a great certainty. The resurrection of our Saviour is the fact which makes an intelligent Christian certain of the truth of his creed and the reality of his salvation. It is the joy of a great hope. The resurrection sets before us the completeness of our life after death. As the apostle says, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” The resurrection of Christ has quickened and expanded our perceptions of the unseen and of the future. The hope of meeting those we have loved and lost, the hope, above all, of seeing and being welcomed by Him, their Lord and ours, who in His human body is set at God’s right hand, this glorious, most inspiring hope springs directly from the resurrection morn. And we may exclaim that God has “begotten us again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” II. P. L.

It may very fitly be understood of the Christian Sabbath, which we sanctify in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection, when the rejected stone began to be exalted; and so, First, here is the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath; It is the day which the Lord has made, has made remarkable, made holy, has distinguished it from other days; He has made it for man, it is therefore called the Lord’s day, for it bears His image and superscription. Second, the duty of the Sabbath; the work of the day that is to be done in His day. We will rejoice and be glad in it; not only in the institution of the day, that there is such a day appointed, but in the occasion of it, Christ’s becoming the head of the corner. This we ought to rejoice in both as His honor and our advantage. Sabbath days must be rejoicing days, and then they are to us as the days of heaven. See what a good Master we serve, who, having instituted a day for His service, appoints it to be spent in holy joy. H.—On this day we are called to rejoice in that sure and certain prospect which the resurrection of Christ affords to all true believers, of ascending with Him to heaven, and of there partaking with Him of His glory. As He was the substituted representative of true believers, what was accomplished in Him at His resurrection will erelong be accomplished in them; the victory over death which He acquired He will impart to them; the glory which He has received He will give to them; the eternal rest into which He has entered at His ascension He hath prepared for them. R. Hall.

Observe it with a free, loving, jubilant spirit, saying, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” What is wanted is neither a latitudinarian nor a Pharisaic Sabbath; but a blessed, joyous, hallowed, Christian Sabbath; a peaceful, serene day of rest; a Sunday of free and fervent consecration to God’s worship, of spiritual culture and growth, and of deeds in the service of our fellow-men. J. H. Martin.

25. Ah, now, Jehovah, save, we beseech Thee! Ah, now, Jehovah, prosper, we beseech Thee! The circumlocution, we beseech Thee, is the only form in which the force of the supplicatory particle can be expressed, without the risk of its being mistaken for an adverb of time. The whole phrase, save, we pray, became a standing formula of supplication with reference to great public interests or undertakings, and reappears in the New Testament under the form Hosanna. See Matt. 21: 9, where we find it, in the acclamations of the multitude, combined with other expressions from this same Psalm which they were accustomed to sing at their great festivals. A.

The English word “now,” repeated in each member of this verse, is not a particle of time, but a particle of entreaty, as in Eccl. 12: 1, “Remember, I beseech thee, thy Creator.” B.—The word “now” is best translated, “Save, I pray.” These two Hebrew words are transferred (not translated) into our version in Hosanna, as in Matt. 21: 9, where the multitudes who preceded and followed our Lord in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem seized upon the very words of this passage. No words could have been more appropriate. Of Him pre-eminently was it said in this prophecy (v. 26), “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (See Matt. 23: 39.) “He that should come,” the great “coming One,” became His special designation, as we see in Matt. 11: 3; John 6: 14; 4: 25. Compare also Malachi 3: 1.

27. The mighty God (“El”) is our “Jehovah,” in the sense of our faithful, covenant God; He hath shed upon us this glorious prophetic light as to “Him that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Now, therefore, bind the sacrificial animal with cords and lead him safely up to the horns of the altar. The sense is not, Tie him to the horns of the altar, but lead him bound up to the very altar, there to be offered in sacrifice. There is no emphasis on horns as distinct from the altar itself. It is only a poetic definiteness, for the sake of stronger impression. C.—Our knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ came not by the light of nature, nor by reason, nor did we receive it of men; but the mighty God alone hath showed it to us. Therefore, unto Him be all the honor of our enlightenment. S.

Showed us light: bind the sacrifice. Here is somewhat received; somewhat to be returned. God hath blessed us, and we must bless God. His grace and our gratitude are met in the text; let them as happily meet in your hearts, and they shall not leave you till they bring you to heaven. T. Adams —The sacrifice we are to offer to God in gratitude for redeeming love is ourselves; not to be slain upon the altar, but “living sacrifices” (Rom. 12: 1) to be bound to the altar; spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise in which our hearts must be fixed and engaged, as the sacrifice was bound “with cords to the horns of the altar.” H.

Nothing short of complete self-surrender, perfect obedience, and unwavering, unfaltering love can characterize the walk that corresponds with our profound obligations to Him. Surely there can be no stronger cord with which to bind us as sacrifices to the horns of the altar than the cords of love. This is the unique glory and power of Christian ethics, that it brings in this tender personal element to transmute the coldness of duty into the warmth of gratitude. Repugnant duties become tokens of love, pleasant as every sacrifice made at its bidding ever is. The true Christian spirit says, Thou hast given Thyself wholly for me; help me to yield myself to Thee. Thou hast loved me perfectly; help me to love Thee with all my heart. A. M.

makes the goal of hope near, and gives the confidence of success. J. V.

the prospect of injured souls. The man who devotes his property to the service of the Church is not tempted to revel in earthly vanities, or to cling to his treasures with a miser’s grasp. And through the whole course of Christian action there is not a duty which does not receive its corresponding reward. But in the man who looks coldly and infrequently upon his Bible, who is a stranger in his closet, who shuns the company of Christ’s flock, who has no love for souls, no devotion to the cause of charity, in such a one the principle of holy love is famished for want of nutriment. Homer.

first verse of this section that God was his portion; now he saith that all the saints of God are his companions. These two go together, the love of God and the love of His saints. W. Cowper.—Those that love the Lord’s service naturally associate with kindred spirits, with those that fear Him, and keep His precepts. These two features identify the same character, as cheerful obedience is always the fruit of filial fear. These, then, are the Lord’s people, and union with Him is companionship with them. The communion of saints is the fruit and effect of communion with God. C. B.—Our love to the saints is then sincere when we love them for the sake of what we see of God in them, and the service they do to Him. H.

regeneration of the individual, the Word of God conducts us, by easy and inevitable stages, to that truth which becomes its own witness to a Christian believer, that the civilization of the future and the triumph of Christianity are identical. A. Phelps.

exercised, and that life possessed, there, with all diversities, own a brother. Wheresoever these things are not, loyalty to your Lord demands that the strength of your love for His

among the immortal realities of heaven—this is an art which the Spirit that inspired the Scriptures alone can teach to the man who reads them. W. A. B.