It is mainly through suffering that the soul is constrained to self-inspection and the knowledge of itself, its native character, its relations and its duty to God, its neglects and failures, its follies and sins, its ruin and its peril, its way of forgiveness, deliverance, and safety. This self-knowledge is the purpose of trial, and this its effect. Equally indispensable is it as a means of self-conquest. Through the invaluable ministry of suffering, under the directing energy of the Divine Spirit, the soul’s dormant powers are aroused, an inward strife is awakened, and the will is strengthened for protracted conflict with the strong passions that have held the mastery, until self-conquest is achieved. And this strife with self in order to victory over self is another purpose, use and effect of disappointment, pain and bereavement. Through the warfare and the victory, too, every Divine grace is quickened and augmented in its power over the heart, so that the soul is qualified for the more efficient discharge of duty, for the better improvement of its varied allotments and experiences, and for successful resistance to all spiritual foes. B.

22. Holy One of Israel. This name of God occurs in the Psalms only in two other places, 78 : 41 ; 89 : 18 ; these last two being, according to Delitzsch, older Psalms than this. In Isaiah, this name of God occurs thirty times ; in Habakkuk once ; in Jeremiah (who may have adopted it from Isaiah) twice. P.

23. The essence of song lies in the holy joy of the singer. Soul-singing is the soul of singing. Till men are redeemed, they are like instruments out of tune ; but when once the precious blood has set them at liberty, then are they fitted to magnify the Lord who bought them. Our being bought with a price is a more than sufficient reason for our dedicating ourselves to the earnest worship of God our Saviour. S.

1. GIVE the king thy judgments, O God, And thy righteousness unto the king’s son. 2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, And thy poor with judgment. 3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, And the hills, in righteousness. 4 He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, And shall break in pieces the oppressor. 5 They shall fear thee while the sun endureth, And so long as the moon, throughout all generations 6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass : As showers that water the earth. 7 In his days shall the righteous flourish ; And abundance of peace, till the moon be no more. 8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River unto the ends of the earth. 9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him ; And his enemies shall lick the dust. 10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents : The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him : All nations shall serve him. 12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; And the poor, that hath no helper. 13 He shall have pity on the poor and needy, And the souls of the needy he shall save. 14 He shall redeem their soul from oppression and violence ;

And precious shall their blood be in his sight : and they shall live ;

15. And to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba :

And men shall pray for him continually ; They shall bless him all the day long.

16. There shall be abundance of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains ;

The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

17. His name shall endure for ever ;

His name shall be continued as long as the sun :

And men shall be blessed in him ; All nations shall call him happy.

20. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

Prayer for the Peaceful, Prosperous, Universal, and Everlasting Dominion of God’s Anointed One.

EVERYTHING here indicates the pen of Solomon, rather than of David. It is a grand prophetic prayer. It relates to himself and his own administration, but upon the basis of the promise to David in 2 Sam. 7 : 12-16, which included the whole royal race descended from Solomon in its typical unity, and so culminates in the Messiah and His eternal reign of blessing over the whole race. The apocopate form of the verbs in their succession indicate supplication, and that he was not to his full consciousness a prophet. But nevertheless he was an inspired suppliant, and his utterances are a glorious prophecy of the coming and kingdom of a greater than Solomon. De Witt.

This Psalm is attributed in the inscription to Solomon, and it bears strong indications of his authorship ; the style resembles that of the Proverbs, and is different from the Davidic Psalms ; the allusions to distant lands, to an extended and peaceful dominion, and a certain air of calm and cheerful reflection, are characteristic of the son of David. It was probably composed early in the king’s reign for liturgical recitation, a form in which the people might give expression to loyal and devout aspirations, connected with the head of the Theocratic kingdom. Hence the Messianic tone which pervades the whole ; the author felt himself to be the representative of the ideal and future Messiah ; his prayers and hopes reach far beyond his own sphere ; they are fulfilled only in Christ. This Psalm is thus the culminating point of that portion of Messianic prophecy which sets forth the kingly office of the Saviour. Cook.

Two Psalms only in the entire compass of the Psalter, this and the one hundred and twenty-seventh, bear the name of Solomon. The inscription, beyond all doubt, means to say that the Psalm is Solomon’s. Nor do I see any reason for rejecting the tradition thus conveyed to us. Delitzsch contends that we find here the marks both of Solomon’s style and of Solomon’s time ; that the expressions are arranged for the most part in distichs, like the Proverbs ; that the character of the poetry is reflective ; that it is rich in images borrowed from the world of nature. Besides this, the allusion to Sheba and to Tarshish, and even the extent of dominion which it is hoped would be given to the king, all harmonize with the reign of Solomon better than of any other Jewish monarch. Delitzsch admits, as all the soundest expositors have done, that the hopes and aspirations here expressed—so grand and so far-reaching that they are little less than prophecies—find their fulfilment in one greater than Solomon. “These promises were realized in Solomon, but only typically. They expect, therefore, after Solomon their final realization, and that in the Son of David, whom the prophets of the later kingdom foretell.” We have here another instance of the way in which prophecy rooted itself in the Jewish soil, how it looked first to the present and then to the future, first to the type and then to the antitype. Calvin observes most justly, and the observation bears upon the interpretation of all the Messianic Psalms : “They who will have this to be simply a prediction of the kingdom of Christ seem to twist the words very violently.” P.

The Psalm, in highly wrought figurative style, describes the reign of a king as “righteous, universal, beneficent, and perpetual.” By the older Jewish and most modern Christian interpreters it has been referred to Christ, whose reign, present and prospective, alone corresponds with its statements. As the imagery of the second Psalm was drawn from the martial character of David’s reign, that of this is from the peaceful and prosperous state of Solomon’s. Fausset.—A greater than Solomon is here. Solomon may be said to stand in the foreground, in the sense that the imagery is borrowed from him and from his reign, but the glory of this personage is far above that of Solomon; the extent of His dominion is greater; its duration indefinitely longer; its blessedness to His subjects far more deep, rich, abiding. The voice of the most remote antiquity assigns this Psalm to the Messiah. Jarchi says: “The ancient doctors explained these words of the times of the Messiah, and indeed the whole Psalm concerning King Messiah.” And all Christian expositors concur with the Jewish doctors. C.

The successive sentences of this familiar Psalm are really so many petitions; not, as their English form would seem to imply, so many predictions. Prayer is a form of prophecy; it lives and moves in the region of aspiration and hope, and only on the levels of “inspired thought” does it wield an arm of power. The prophetic or Messianic outlook of this Psalm is not therefore surrendered or questioned when it is read as a royal prayer. It deals with an ideal reign, a vision of hope fully and permanently embodied only in the rule of Jesus Christ. The sovereignty constituting the burden of these earnest supplications is one that is grounded on righteousness, securing peace, guarding the weak and the needy against all forms of tyranny, promoting universal prosperity, covering all lands, and enduring with the present course of nature; a lofty ideal for any government, but one whose sublime aims are realized only in the kingdom of God. The prayer is, therefore, in its inmost heart a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Behrends.

The seventy-second Psalm contains a description of an exalted king, and of the blessings of his reign. These blessings are of such a nature as to prove that the subject of the Psalm must be a Divine person. His kingdom is to be everlasting and universal. It secures perfect peace with God and good-will among men. All men are to be brought to submit to Him through love. In Him all the nations of the earth are to be blessed; i.e., as we are distinctly taught in Gal. 3: 16, it is in Him that all the blessings of redemption are to come upon the world. The subject of this Psalm is, therefore, the Redeemer of the world. C. Hodge.—A glowing description of the reign of the Messiah, as righteous (vs. 1-7), universal (vs. 8-11), beneficent (vs. 12-14), perpetual, (vs. 15-17), to which are added a doxology (vs. 18, 19), and a postscript (v. 20).

1. By Solomon. O God, Thy judgments to the king give, and Thy righteousness to the king’s son.** The form of expression in the title is precisely the same as in the phrase so often rendered, by David. That it designates the author may be argued not only from this usage, but from the fact that the imagery of the Psalm is as evidently borrowed from the peaceful and brilliant reign of Solomon, as that of the second from the martial and triumphant reign of David. The prayer in this verse is virtually a prediction, as the Psalmist only asks what he knows that God will give. The judicial power, under the theocracy, was exercised in God’s name and by His representatives. The Messiah was therefore expected to exhibit this peculiar character in its perfection. By the king and the king’s son we are not to understand the descendants and successors of David indefinitely, but the last and greatest of them in particular.

2. This is stated as the necessary consequence of the granting of the prayer in the preceding verse. “Give him Thy righteousness, and then he shall judge,” etc. A.

3. The mountains shall bring peace.** The mountains seem to have been built for the human race, as at once their schools and their cathedrals; full of treasures of illuminated manuscript for the scholar, kindly in simple lessons to the worker, quiet in pale cloisters for the thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper. The cathedrals of the earth indeed, with their gates of rock, pavements of clouds, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple traversed by the continual stars. Ruskin.—The mountains suggest power and fixedness and duration, rather than love and gentleness. When associated with God, they are used to suggest His might and His eternity. Yet the mountains are used, as here, to set forth the loving-kindness of God. “The mountains bring peace.” V.

The “mountains” and “hills” are not named as the most unfruitful places of the land, which they really were not in Palestine, nor even because what is on them can be seen everywhere, and from all sides, but as being the most prominent points and ornaments of the country, and therefore as representing it, well fitted to express the thought that the country shall be everywhere filled with peace. Hengstenberg.—

In righteousness. The mountains and hills represent the whole land, of which they are the most prominent objects. The whole country will overflow with the peace which is the result of righteousness. Cook.

Peace. This is ever represented in Scripture as the fruit of righteousness, and as the great blessing of the times of the Messiah. The King of Righteousness is also King of Peace. (Compare Isa. 2 : 4 ; 9 : 5, 6 ; 11 : 9 ; 65 : 25 ; Micah 4 : 3 ; Zech. 9 : 10.) P.

5. “They,” men in general, the masses of the people throughout his wide realm, “shall fear Thee,” in reverence and submission, long as the sun shines; literally with the sun—all along continuously with the shining of His sun upon the face of the earth; also before the face of the moon, long as the moon shall wax and wane. So long shall Messiah reign. Inasmuch as the entire scope of this Psalm witnesses that this reign of King Messiah here portrayed is His kingdom on this earth in its present state and constitution, and is neither its future era in heaven itself nor any supposed era of peace upon some new earth, reconstructed both materially and spiritually, therefore we are most plainly taught here that Messiah’s reign in the triumphs of truth and love upon this very world of ours and under its present constitution shall be indefinitely long, stretching on and on through untold, unnumbered ages. Beginning with the most positive, vigorous conflict of light against darkness, love against hate, peace against war, righteousness against all oppression, he shall wrest the sceptre of rule from the grasp of Satan, god and prince of this world, and then Himself rule on in the triumphs of truth and love over the very world which Satan had cursed so long. C.

“Throughout all generations” shall the throne of the Redeemer stand. Humanity shall not wear out the religion of the Incarnate God. No infidelity shall wither it away, nor superstition smother it. As long as there are men on earth Christ shall have a throne among them. Instead of the fathers shall be the children. Each generation shall have a regeneration in its midst. Even at this hour we have before us the tokens of His eternal power; since He ascended to His throne, eighteen hundred years ago, His dominion has not been overturned, though the mightiest of empires have gone like visions of the night. We see on the shore of time the wrecks of the Cæsars, the relics of the Moguls, and the last remnants of the Ottomans. Charlemagne, Maximilian, Napoleon, how they flit like shadows before us! They were and are not, but Jesus forever is; the Son of David has all hours and ages as His own. S.

6. He shall come down like rain upon mown (grass), like showers, the watering of the earth (or land). This beautiful comparison suggests the idea of a gentle yet refreshing and fertilizing influence, to be exerted by the King, whose reign is here foretold. The word translated showers, by its etymological affinities, suggests the idea of abundance or copiousness. A.—The gracious influence of the monarch and of His righteous sway is strikingly compared to the bountiful shower which freshens the withered herbage, and changes the brown, bare, parched, dusty surface, as by a touch of magic, into one mass of verdure and bloom. We have the same figure in Deut. 32 : 2 ; Job 29 : 22, 23, and Prov. 16 : 15. But the most striking parallel is in the last words of David (2 Sam. 23 : 4), where it is said of one who ruleth righteously and in the fear of God among men, that He is

Like the light of the morning when the sun ariseth,

A morning without clouds;—

From the sunshine, from the rain, the green grass (sprouts) from the earth. P.

There cannot be a more lively image of a flourishing condition than is conveyed in these words. The grass which is forced by the heat of the sun before the ground is well prepared by rains is weak and languid, and of a faint complexion; but when clear shining succeeds the gentle showers of spring, the field puts forth its best strength, and is more beautifully arrayed than ever Solomon in all his glory. T. Sherlock.

“The mown grass;” literally, “that which is shorn,” whether fleece or meadow. In the latter sense the word is found (Amos 7 : 1); and this is indisputably its meaning here, as the parallel shows. The mown meadow is particularly mentioned, because the roots of the grass would be most exposed to the summer heat after the crop had been gathered in, and the effect would be most striking in the shooting of the young green blade after the shower. P.

The greatest powers of nature work most calmly and noiselessly. What so gentle as the day-dawn rising mutely in the brightening east, and pouring its light upon the eye so softly that, swift as are those rays, the tenderest texture of the eye endures no wrong? And what more soft than the spring’s falling rain? It may come preceded by the thunder, but it is gentle itself, and when most efficacious descends almost as a spiritual presence, “as small rain on the tender herb, and as showers that water the earth.” And like to these in their operations are the Gospel and Spirit of Christ. When our Saviour came into the world it was silently and alone. All heaven was moved, and followed Him down to the threshold, but few on earth knew it. One solitary star pointed to the humble birthplace, and hymns sang of it, heard only at night by the watching shepherds. He walked our world through years softly in the bitterness of His soul; He left where the common eye beheld but an ignominious sufferer; and men became aware that the Son of God had come and gone only when the clear light began to break in the eastern sky from that great work of His, and when the open gate of mercy was thrown back, with a cross before it to call the lost and wandering home. And as it was with His descent into the world, so it is with His entrance by the Spirit into the heart. There may be the thunder and the mighty rushing wind before it, the providences may be loud and violent, but the Spirit itself is like the rain. It moves from soul to soul among the rising generations, and there is no outward crisis to tell of the birth of souls. It is like the dew that falls at night, and in the morning it is there, and man cannot tell when it formed itself, like a celestial guest, within the flower-cup. The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation. And, even in times of revival more marked, for such times are promised and should be expected; yet even in such times, the Spirit’s great work is not in the earthquake or the mighty rushing wind, but is in the still small voice. Unless it meet us there, in the secrecy of the soul, in the privacy of the closet, in the rising to seek Christ at His grave in the quiet resurrection morn when the busy world and all the guards are fast asleep, unless it bring the soul into close and secret communion with Christ Himself, it meets us not at all. In His Gospel and His Spirit, Christ is moving through the great inner world which men too much neglect, the world of souls, and there in the solitude of the heart, alone with Him, it must be ours to seek and find. Ker.

The Church, without the manifestations of Christ’s presence and grace, is, like the mown grass, languishing for heaven’s moisture. Favored with these manifestations, it is like a field which the Lord hath blessed. And we are warranted to look for gracious visitations to the Church. The text is not to be regarded as a prophecy pertaining merely to the future, but as a statement which has been verified already in the history of the Church, and which may be verified in like manner at the present day. When Christ is to come down for the refreshment of His people, like rain upon the mown grass, it will generally be found that they have been stirred up earnestly to desire and long for His manifestations; that they have been excited to the exercises of deep repentance and prayer; that they have set themselves to walk before Him according to all the appointments of His Word; that they have been brought to give greater honor to the Spirit and His work than they were accustomed to do before, and to feel more deeply their absolute dependence upon His gracious operations. A. B. Davidson.

7. In His days shall the righteous flourish;** righteousness shall be practised, and those that practise righteousness shall be preferred. Righteousness shall abound and be in reputation, shall command and be in power. The law of Christ written in the heart disposes men to be honest and just and to render to all their due; it likewise disposes men to live in love; and so it produces abundance of peace and beats swords into ploughshares. Both holiness and love shall be perpetual in Christ’s kingdom and shall never go to decay, for the subjects of it shall fear God as long as the sun and moon endure. Christianity, having got footing in the world, shall keep its ground till the end of time, and having got footing in the heart, it will continue there till by death the sun and the moon and the stars—that is, the bodily senses, are darkened. Through all the changes of the world and all the changes of life Christ’s kingdom will support itself; and if the fear of God continues as long as the sun and moon, abundance of peace will. The peace of the Church, the peace of the soul, shall run parallel with its purity and piety, and last as long as these last. H.

Abundance of peace, literally, “multitude of peace"—that is, the things which produce peace, or which indicate peace, they will abound everywhere. They will be found in towns and villages and private dwellings; in the calm and just administration of the affairs of the State; in abundant harvests; in intelligence, in education, and undisturbed industry; in the protection of the rights of all. Barnes.

8. The desire for the uninterrupted felicity of the righteous under this king is followed by the desire for the unlimited expansion of his dominion. The sea (the Mediterranean) and the river are geographically defined starting points, whence the determination of the boundaries stretches away into the unlimited. Even upon his accession to the throne Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the Euphrates to the confines of Egypt; but the desires expressed here transcend these limits.

9,10. The nomadic tribes right and left of the Arabian Gulf reverently bend the knee before Him; and they that oppose Him must ultimately hide their face before Him in the dust. The most distant west and south become subject and tributary to Him; the kings of Tarshish in the south of Spain, which was rich in silver, and of the islands of the Mediterranean and of the countries on its coasts, the kings also of the South Arabian and of the Cushite. D.

10. The proper names in this verse are mere specimens or samples of the nations generally. Tarshish is mentioned, both as a well-known mart or source of wealth, and as a representative of the extreme west. The islands, agreeably to Hebrew usage, include all distant sea-coasts, but particularly those of the Mediterranean. The distant south is represented, in like manner, by Sheba, a province of Arabia Felix, and Seba, now commonly supposed to be Meroe, a part of ancient Ethiopia, both famous for their wealth and commerce. The obvious allusion to the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Jerusalem is another stroke in this prophetic picture evidently borrowed from the times of Solomon. A.—Tarshish, in all probability the same as the Greek Tartessus, a great naval mart, and, according to Arrian, a colony of the Phoenicians, in the south of Spain. It traded with Tyre in silver, iron, tin, and lead (Ezek. 27 : 12). Tarshish and the isles, “the empires on the shores of the Mediterranean,” are here mentioned as representatives of all the great maritime and commercial countries of the world. “Seba,” first mentioned as among the sons of Cush (Gen. 10 : 7), and joined with Egypt and Cush (Ethiopia) in Isa. 43 : 3, “a nation of Africa, bordering on or included in Cush, and in Solomon’s time independent, and of political importance.” P.

“The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents.” Trade shall be made subservient to the purposes of mediatorial rule; merchant princes, both far and near, shall joyfully contribute of their wealth to his throne. Seafaring places are good centres from which to spread the Gospel; and seafaring men often make earnest heralds of the cross. Tarshish of old was so far away, that to the Eastern mind it was lost in its remoteness, and seemed to be upon the verge of the universe; even so far as imagination itself can travel shall the Son of David rule. S.

11. And to Him shall all kings bow (or pros-

trate themselves), all nations shall serve Him. The act described in the first clause is one expressive both of civil homage and religious worship. The same thing is true of the verb in the last clause, which may be applied either to the civil service of a sovereign by his subjects, or to the religious service of a deity by his worshippers. In this case, as in v. 10, both were meant to be included. A.—The extent of the mediatorial rule is set forth by the two far-reaching alls, all kings and all nations; we see not as yet all things put under Him, but since we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor in heaven, we are altogether without doubt as to His universal monarchy on earth. “Every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Hasten it, O Lord, in Thine own time. S.

12-14. The reason is given why all kings and nations should thus do homage to Him who sits on David’s throne. He has merited such submission by the exercise of every royal virtue, by the justice and the mercy of His sway, by His deep sympathy with and compassion for the poor, by the protection which He extends to them against the ministers of fraud and violence. It is not that He merely covers with the shadow of His throne all neighboring nations, and is acknowledged as their political head, but that the bright example which He sets, the majesty of righteousness enthroned in His person, compels all to bow before Him. P.—It is because He fills the Divine and most perfect idea of a moral sovereign, administering justice with faultless impartiality, and forevermore befriending the oppressed as against His oppressor. Under His reign each needy one, crying for help, is heard and saved. Their blood is precious in His eyes. No harm done to them or attempted can escape His swift retribution. The strong, it is assumed, can take care of themselves; the weak, defenceless ones are objects of His care; He rules for their protection and salvation. To right the wrongs of this long time sin-cursed earth is His special mission. Be His name praised forever for all this! So the Psalmist proceeds to say. C.

15. Prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised.** It might have been rendered, “Prayer also shall be made through Him continually, and daily shall He be blessed.” The word is rendered “blessed,” when speaking of an act of worship toward God; and the word translated “for” is sometimes used for “through.” Edwards.

Who, with the Word of God in his hand, but must feel that an era of enlarged Christian liberality is hastening on? Prophecy is full of it. As often almost as she opens her lips on the subject of Messiah’s reign, the consecration of the world’s wealth forms part of her song. “To Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba.” “The merchandise of Tyre shall be holiness to the Lord; it shall not be treasured nor laid up.” “Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God.” Wealth, which for so many ages had robbed Him of His glory, and which in so many idolatrous forms had been erected in His stead, shall be brought to His altar, and employed as the fuel of a sacrifice in which the heart shall ascend as incense before Him. It will then be felt that the highest use to which wealth can be applied is to employ it for God; that this is the only way to dignify that which is intrinsically mean; to turn that which is perishing into unfading crowns and imperishable wealth. J. Harris.

16. According to the more ancient view, the verse contains a beautiful antithesis between the small beginnings and the vast results of the Messiah’s kingdom, not unlike that suggested by our Saviour’s parable of the grain of mustard seed. This exegetical analogy, together with the striking character imparted to the verse by this interpretation, are sufficient to entitle it to the preference, even without regard to its antiquity and traditional authority. A.

The idea is that the whole country should be one bright sunny picture of gladness and fertility, the corn-fields being seen not only in the valleys, but rising, terrace above terrace, along the mountain-sides, till they reach their summits. The rustling of the corn-fields in the wind is compared to the rustling of the cedars of Lebanon, so thick shall the corn stand, so rich shall be the harvest. P.

Under His government there shall be a wonderful increase both of meat and mouths, both of the fruits of the earth in the country, and of the people inhabiting the cities. Even upon the tops of the mountains the earth shall bring forth by handfuls; that is an expression of great plenty (Gen. 41: 47); as the grass upon the housetop is said to be that wherewith the mower fills not his hand. This is applicable to the wonderful productions of the seed of the Gospel in the days of the Messiah. A handful of that seed, sown in the mountainous and barren soil of the Gentile world, produced a wonderful harvest gathered into Christ, fruit that shook like Lebanon. The fields were white to the harvest (John 4: 35). The grain of mustard-seed grew up to a great tree. The towns shall grow populous. They of the city shall flourish like grass, for number, for verdure. The Gospel Church, the city of God among men, shall have all the marks of prosperity, many shall be added to it, and those that are shall be happy in it. H.

“Shall flourish like grass.” The peculiar characters of the grass, which adapt it especially for the service of man, are its apparent humility and cheerfulness. Its humility, in that it seems created only for lowest service—appointed to be trodden on and fed upon. Its cheerfulness, in that it seems to exult under all kinds of violence and suffering. You roll it, and it is stronger next day; you mow it, and it multiplies its shoots, as if it were grateful; you tread upon it, and it only sends up richer perfume. Spring comes, and it rejoices with all the earth—glowing with variegated flame of flowers—waving in soft depth of fruitful strength. Ruskin.

17. The Redeemer of the world is Jehovah. The coming of Jehovah is the centre of the Old Testament proclamation of salvation. A parable may be illustrative of the manner in which the Old Testament proclamation of salvation is gradually developed. In relation to the day of the New Testament the Old Testament is night. During this night there mount up two stars of promise in opposite directions. The one describes its path from above downward; it is the promise of Jehovah who is about to come. The other describes its path from below upward; it is the hope which is reposed in the seed of David, the prophecy of the Son of David, which is at first altogether human and only earthly. These two stars meet at last, they blend together into one constellation; the night vanishes and it is day. This one constellation is Jesus Christ, Jehovah and David’s Son in one person, the King of Israel and at the same time the Redeemer of the world; in one word, the God-man. D.

18, 19. Blessed (be) Jehovah, God, the God of Israel, doing wonders alone, and blessed (be) His glorious name to eternity, and filled with His glory be the whole earth. Amen and Amen. This is commonly explained as a doxology belonging, not to this Psalm, but to the second book, of which it marks the close. But as the Psalm would end somewhat abruptly with the foregoing verse, and as this addition carries out the idea there expressed, by giving, as it were, the very words in which the nations shall pronounce Him blessed, we have reason to believe that the doxology was added by the author, and that this conclusion of the Psalm was not the effect but the occasion of its being placed at the close of one of the traditional divisions of the psalter. The wish in the second clause of v. 19 is borrowed from the promise in Num. 14 : 21, of which this whole Psalm is in fact a prolonged echo. A.

To the Lord Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, be all the glory of this kingdom, all the honor for giving to Israel and to the wide world this munificent and perfect Sovereign! He only and He alone performs such wondrous works. Let His glorious name be blessed forever, and the whole earth be vocal with His praises, full of His glory! This rich doxology rounds out to its fit completion this magnificent Psalm, and also fitly closes the second Book of Psalms as originally compiled. C.

“Amen” is a short word, but marvellously full of sense, full of spirit. It is a word that seals all the truths of God, that seals every particular promise of God. Sibbes.

20. Ended are the prayers of David, Son of Jesse. The position of this sentence after the doxology, and its prosaic form, show that it forms no part of the Psalm, but relates to the whole series preceding. It does not, therefore, prove, as some suppose, that Solomon was not the author of the seventy-second Psalm, since this exception and a very few others could not prevent the collection being called the prayers of David. In like manner, the whole Psalter is still called the Psalms of David by many who believe it to contain some Psalms by other writers. On the whole, it is most probable that these words were added to the first great subdivision of the whole collection, as entirely composed of Psalms by David and his contemporaries, with a few added to them on account of some marked similarity in form or substance. A.

Two Psalms bear Solomon’s name in their titles. One of these is the hundred and twenty-seventh, the other is the seventy-second; and here the traces of his pen are unequivocal. A mistaken interpretation of the note appended to it, “The prayers of David the Son of Jesse are ended,” led most of the old commentators to attribute the Psalm to David, and to suppose that it is a prayer offered in his old age “for Solomon,” as the peaceful prince who was to succeed him on the throne. However, it has long been known that the note in question refers to the whole of the preceding portion of the Psalter, much of which was written by

Asaph and the sons of Korah; and there can be no doubt that the title can only be translated, “of Solomon.” Binnie.

The title “prayers” is not borrowed from the inscriptions of the Psalms, for only one in this collection, the seventeenth, is expressly styled “a prayer.” In the later books a few other Psalms are entitled “Prayers.” But here the title, as a general title, is justified by the contents of most of the Psalms. Psalms, it is true, like the first, the second, the thirty-third, the thirty-seventh, contain no address to God, and many others, which contain petitions and supplications, are not throughout in the form of prayers. And yet, if prayer be the eye of the heart turned toward God, then each Psalm is a prayer, just as Hannah’s song of praise is styled a prayer. Thus the very names of the Psalms, “Praises and Prayers,” not only tell us what they are, but remind us in the language of the apostle, “In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to make known our requests unto God.” P.

Jean Paul Richter says of the Christ: “The holiest among the mighty and the mightiest among the holy! With His pierced hand He lifted empires off their hinges and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel; and He still governs the ages.”

How beautifully and how faithfully does this Psalm picture the characteristics of the Redeemer’s kingdom—peace, righteousness, justice, compassion, the relief of suffering, the redress of wrongs, the overthrow of evil! Where the principles of Christ prevail in society and government, there is peace, plenty, prosperity; oppression is broken; violence and deceit are banished; the poor are cared for, the needy succored; industry and commerce flourish; the hills are clothed with corn, the cities thrive as with the verdure of spring. Blessed be God that this kingdom of Christ is yet to prevail in all the earth! “The most uncivilized, the most distant, and the most opulent nations shall pay their homage to Him; the barbarous inhabitants of the desert, the remote isles of the west, and the kings of rich Arabia (Sheba) and Ethiopia (Seba), shall lie prostrate in homage at His feet.” J. P. T.

The biblical conception of the heavenly kingdom cannot fail to provoke to patience, liberality, and hope. The task to whose execution we are summoned is exceptionally vast, and the movement is correspondingly slow. The birth of the millennium is not the work of a day. Two thousand years of Christian endeavor, centuries of patience and suffering, are behind every church and school in Christendom, underneath every Christian home; and yet some men look doubtfully on modern missions, with its half a million communicants gathered in half a century, because forsooth, civilizations that have in them the fibre of thousands of years, the spirit of long and proud ancestries, the inspiration of great names and great literatures, have not been forced to surrender in a picket warfare of only fifty years. We have as yet only sent out the advanced scouts and the single riflemen; Christendom must yet move in solid and serried columns for the conquest of the East. There is coming a clash of civilizations, taxing all the energies and resources of the Church of God. As in the early summer there comes a time when the young buds, rocked through all the long winter in their tiny cradles, lifeless to all appearance, burst their frail enclosures and transfigure in one short week the whole face of nature, so may God be stirring in the preparatory measures of the present, until the world’s summer shall rise, a nation be born in a day, the frail hindrances all give way and the whole earth be rapidly transfigured into newness of life. For the Divine preparations, both in nature and history, are always varied and hidden and slow; the culminations are always rapid and startling. Yet are the latter only the outcome of forces that were repressed but regnant, until the clock of time had proclaimed the hour of noon. Victory is coming; slowly perhaps—as men count slackness—but none the less surely and solidly. Open your souls to the inspiration of this thought! Let this breath from heaven swell every purpose, and fling out for its welcome every inch of canvas you can command! There is a great future for the Church and the world. We quarry and hew and chisel, under the Divine direction, for a building that is silently rising to be an holy temple unto the Lord, covering the earth with its ample dimensions, filling the highest heavens with its imperishable glory, gathering and garnering within its broad spaces the wealth of all the generations. Who would not be a citizen of this kingkingdom! Who will not take an active part in so great, so blessed, so imperishable a work! Behrends.

No portion of the Hebrew Scriptures has transfused its spirit into the Christian Church more completely than the Book of Psalms. The first Christians seem to have found in it an adequate expression of their deepest feelings. Eliciting its spiritual meanings and interpreting its doctrinal teaching under the light of a perfect revelation, they adopted the Psalter as the foundation and the model of their devotions. The Fathers saw in every Psalm distinct utterances of the Spirit of Christ. They did not, indeed, hold that the individuality of the Psalmist, of David especially, was altogether suppressed; or that the words uttered by him did not give true expression to the movements of his own spirit; but they believed that they were overruled so as to become at the same time true utterances of the Spirit of Christ. . . . The Psalter emptied of Christ would still be a collection of lyric poems of admirable beauty, breathing a pure and lofty devotion, representing in vivid colors the events and persons of the most remarkable people in the world’s history. It would retain its position among the noblest and most interesting products of human genius. But to the Christian, as such, it would have no voice, no meaning; losing its highest and most distinctive characteristic, it would forfeit its claims upon his reverence and love. Cook.

If one wished that the best of all saintly legends, the finest of all exemplars and histories should be called out, set in order, and presented in the best way, it could be none other than our present Psalter. For we find here, not what one or two saints have done, but what the chief of saints himself has done, and what all the saints still do; how they stand toward God, toward friends and enemies; how they act in all dangers and suffering; and we find, besides, all kinds of wholesome doctrines and commands. And the Psalter should be dear and cherished because it so clearly foretells Christ’s death and resurrection, His kingdom and the whole estate and nature of Christianity. So that we may well call it a little Bible. Luther.

Date Due

| S 11 ‘39 | | | | | — | — | — | — | | My 16 ‘45 | | | | | | | | | | D 3 ‘46 | | | | | DE 13 ‘48 | | | | | AG 21 ‘53 | | | | | MAY 20 ‘54 | | | | | JUN 15 ‘55 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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