welcome that day and meet the Lord with forward affection who is coming to them For he comes to reform the earth and will govern mankind by righteous and mercifull Laws and faithfully keep his word with all those that truly observe them PSALM XCVII ARGUMENT Some of the Hebrews conceive as I observed upon Psalm XC that Moses was the Authour of this as well as the rest of these Psalms which want an Inscription And indeed he excelled in this faculty of composing Hymns as we learn from Exod. XV. and Deut. XXXII and might upon some other occasion as well as the overthrow of Pharaoh in the red Sea make a Song of triumph after some of those great victories which God gave them over their enemies Which was a thing in use before his time as it appears by the fragments of ancient Songs recorded in his Books particularly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made by some Poet among the Amorites after Sihon had taken Heshbon from the Moabites to whom it formerly belonged wherein they triumph over their God Chemosh as unable to deliver his worshippers XXI Numb 27 c. And if we could be sure this Psalm was made by Moses I should think it to have been composed after the Israelites had conquered Sihon and his Land over whom they triumphed as he had done over the former possessours of that Country But the Psalm seems so plainly to have been composed in pursuance of what was said in the foregoing Psalm that the Lord reigneth and is King not onely over Israel but all the earth that one cannot but think they had the same Authour who shews the truth of that by the illustrious Victories which God as their King had given them over all those that opposed them For the eighth verse makes it manifest that this Psalm hath respect to some Conquests they had lately made over the heathen which I suppose were no other then those which David won over divers Nations not long after 1 Chron. XVIII 1. he had brought the Ark to Sion and delivered the foregoing Hymn to be sung to put the Israelites in hope and their enemies in fear of the great things which would insue upon this special presence of God among them Which moved the Greeks to call this A Psalm of David after his Land was restored unto him that is after he was made Master of all those Countries which God anciently designed to be the inheritance of Israel For that it should relate to the restoring his Kingdom to him after Absaloms rebellion is not probable because the mention of Idolaters and of their gods Ver. 7. seem to determine it to other Countries In the subduing of which God it is likely fought for them by some such tempest as we reade of 2 Sam. V. 20 21 24. whereby their enemies Armies were shatâ—ered and so terrified that they not onely fled but left their images behind them such was their haste and gave the Israelites an easie Victory over them But whatever was the carnal sense it belongs in the diviner meaning to Christ's triumph over the grave and all the powers of darkness at his Resurrection and Ascension to his throne in heaven as appears by those words which the Apostle to the Hebrews alledges out of the seventh verse and applies to Christ's royal power and authority over Angels Which the Hebrew Doctours themselves as Kimchi confesses take to be there intended and may be further justified from that exposition which we meet withall in Midrasch Tanchuma of the words of the Prophet Isaiah LII 13. Behold my servant shall prosper He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high This is the King Messiah says that gloss who shall be exalted above Abraham and extolled above Moses and be very high above the Angels of the Ministry 1. THe LORD reigneth let the earth rejoice let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof 1. THE Lord it is manifest is the Sovereign of the world under whose happy Government not onely we and they who are already become subject to Him in other places ought to rejoice but the most distant Countries have the greatest reason to be glad thereof 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne 2. His Majesty is most dreadfull and hath appeared in great terrour against those that oppose Him whom as he will not wrong so He will certainly punish for He maintains his Authority and supports his Government by doing exact and equal justice 3. A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about 3. Let none therefore resist Him for flames of fire proceedâ— from his presence which make the battel too hot for his enemies who can turn no way but they feel them flashing in their faces 4. His lightnings enlightned the world the earth saw and trembled 4. It was his thunder and lightning the brightness of which the world lately saw and were so amazed that shivering pains took hold upon them as upon a woman in her travail 5. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD at the presence of the LORD of the whole earth 5. The hearts of the stoutest Kings and Captains failed them and melted like wax before the fire at this terrible appearance of the Lord at the appearance of Him whose dominion extends over all the earth 6. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory 6. For He is the Lord of the heavens which have declared by this dreadfull tempest excited by his Angelical Ministers his severity against his enemies and made all the people sensible of the incomparable splendour of his Majesty 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven images that boast themselves of idols worship him all ye gods 7. Which may well make them all ashamed and they shall be confounded by Him if they will not renounce their errours who worship graven Images though of gold and silver 2 Sam. V. 21. and boast themselves in vain gods who can doe nothing for them Let all that are called gods whether Princes on earth or Angels in heaven bow down to Him as the onely Saviour 1. Heb. 6. and acknowledge his supreme authority over them all 8. Sion heard and was glad and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments O LORD 8. Jerusalem the mother City hath received the news of thy Victories with a joyfull heart after whose example all the other Cities of Judah are exceeding glad O Lord because Thou hast judged righteously in destroying our idolatrous enemies and defending thy faithfull servants 9. For thou LORD art high above all the earth thou art exalted far above all gods 9. Whose hearts are filled with the greater joy because Thou O Lord hast manifested thy self hereby to be the supreme and onely Potentate who rulest over all the earth and art infinitely superiour to all that have the name of gods 10. Ye that love the LORD hate evil he preserveth the
people over also to the sword and was wroth with his inheritance 62. Whose Sword slew a great number of his people 1 Sam. IV. 10. so exceeding angry was He with those whom He had formerly taken into his special care above all other Nations XXXII Deut. 8 9. 63. The fire consumed their young men and their maidens were not given to marriage 63. For it was by his Divine vengeance more then the Philistines valour that they lost abundance of brave young men the very flower of their Army by which means many of their Virgins were constrained to remain unmarried and they that found Husbands were fain to omit all tokens of joy in a time of publick sorrow 64. Their priests fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation 64. For some of their Priests who were peculiarly consecrated to God's service were slain in this Battel 1 Sam. IV. 11. and their Wives oppressed with grief did not long survive to make any publick Funeral for them 1 Sam. IV. 20. 65. Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine 65. The Lord Himself also who was wont to sight for us seemed no more concerned in all these calamities which befell both us and our Religion then a mighty Commander is at that which is done to his Army when he is asleep or overcome with Wine Till at last like such a great Warriour who being awaked calls for his arms and charges the enemy with greater fury He vindicated his honour in a terrible manner and made a very great destruction among them 1 Sam. V. 9 11. 66. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts he put them to a perpetual reproach 66. For besides the fall of Dagon before the Ark He smote several Cities of the Philistines with a grievous sort of Haemorrhoids whereof many died and the rest languished under most miserable torments 1 Sam. V. 6 9 12. the monuments of which they themselves were forced to make and send back with the Ark to his great glory and their eternal reproach 1 Sam. VI. 3 4 9. 67. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim 67. Yet he would not return to Shiloh again which was in the Tribe of Ephraim the Son of Joseph nor have the Ark of his presence placed there any more 68. But chose the tribe of Judah the mount Sion which he loved 68. But first it was brought to Kiriathaim 1 Sam. VI. 21. a City of the Tribe of Judah XV. Josh 6. where He resolved hereafter to have his special residence and so from thence after a short stay at the House of Obed-Edom unto Mount Sion 1 Chron. XIII 6. XVI 1 3 29. which He preferred before the Hill of Kiriathaim 1 Sam. VII 1. or any other place in all the Country 69. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces like the earth which he hath established for ever 69. There Solomon built Him a stately Temple which as it was a high and lofty Fabrick so was not moveable like his former habitation but remained perpetually fixed like the earth on which it stood 70. He chose David also his servant and took him from the sheepfolds 70. For as He had rejected Shiloh and chosen Sion for the place of his dwelling so He had likewise rejected Saul and chosen David the Father of Solomon to be the King of his people A man who served Him as faithfully in that Office as he had done his Father in keeping of his Sheep 71. From following the ews great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance 71. From that mean imployment He took him and raised him to the highest charge and dignity that the care he had imployed in looking after the Ews and their Lambs when they should fall he might exercise in governing his people and endeavouring that they whom He had chosen for his own peculiar inheritance did no way miscarry 72. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands 72. And he did not deceive His expectation but governed them with equal integrity and prudence never designing any thing but their good and dextrously accomplishing whatsoever he designed PSALM LXXIX A Psalm of Asaph ARGUMENT This Psalm was penned in all probability upon the same occasion with the LXXIX viz. The destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar see what I have said there in the Argument of that Psalm and it will appear altogether unlikely that this should have respect to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes as many imagin and among the rest Theodoret which is the more strange because the same reason he gives there why the LXXIV Psalm doth not belong to those times which he repeats again upon LXXX Psal 17. lies as strongly against the application of this Psalm to the fury and rage wherewith that Prince fell upon the Jewish Nation Whose miserable calamity under Nebuchadnezzar we find bewailed by Jeremiah who then lived X. Jer. 25. in the very words of the sixth and seventh verses of this Psalm which is some indication that they both belong to the same matter but whether Jeremiah took them from Asaph or Asaph from him I cannot certainly determin The latter is most likely because this Psalm seems to have been written after that desolation had for some time continued We reade indeed in the Book of Maccabees 1. VII 16 17. two other verses of this Psalm viz. 2 3. applied to the slaughter of threescore of the devouter sort of Jews presently after Antiochus his death But that Authour quotes them it is plain as words which had been written in former days and by him onely made use of to his purpose which was to shew that the same cruelties were in great part acted over again which their Fathers had seen at the destruction of Jerusalem 1. O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy temple have they defiled they have laid Jerusalem on heaps 1. O God the supreme Judge of the world Thou art not ignorant we know of our calamity for it comes by thy order but give us leave to represent unto thy Majesty the sad condition of the people and place which was once very dear unto Thee for prophane Nations have not onely invaded our or rather thy Country to which Thou hast a peculiar Title but polluted thy own House which was separated to thy service alone and laid it together with Jerusalem in ruinous heaps 2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth 2. Under which thy servants the Priests and other holy men whom they have slain could not have the honour to be buried nor obtain the common civility of a Grave but the dead Bodies of those whom Thou lovest they have barbarously disposed to
ARGUMENT This is a mournfull Song composed by some of the captive Levites in Babylon when he reflected upon their sad parting with their dear Country and the scorn wherewith their insulting Enemies treated them in that strange land Which he foresaw God would severely punish by the hand of some other cruel People who should shew them as little mercy as they had shewed the Israelites The vulgar Latine ascribes this Psalm to Jeremiah upon which Inscription Theodoret who found it also in some Greek Copies in his time passes this censure that the bold Authour of it wanted wit as the Inscription it self openly proclaims for Jeremiah was not carried captive into Babylon but when he had staid some time in Judea was compelled by the disobedient Jews to go down with them into Egypt Yet there are those who to excuse this would have us think that Jeremiah sent this Psalm to the Captives in Babylon and that it is called a Psalm of David for so it is in the vulgar Latine also because made after the example of his Psalms As Virgil said he sung Ascroeum carmen among the Romans when he made his Georgicks in imitation of Hesiod In the Paraphrase of the first Verse I have followed a conjecture of Saint Chrysostom's that the Captives were not suffered at their first coming thither to dwell within any of their Towns or Cities but were dispersed all along several Rivers of the Country where they built Tabernacles or Cottages for themselves and perhaps were forced to drain those moist places to make them wholesome 1. BY the rivers of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Sion 1. WHen we were transported from our own Country into the Land of Babylon and had the sides of Euphrates and several of its Rivers I. Ezek. 1. assigned for our habitation there we sate down in a sorrowfull posture and could not refrain from tears when we called to mind the happy days which we enjoyed in the holy Hill of Sion 2. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof 2. We brought our harps along with us wherewith we were wont to praise the Lord 1 Chron. XV. 16. But as our fruitfull vines and figtrees under which we formerly sate were turned into barren willows and osiers so all our mirth and joy was turned into such heaviness and sorrow of heart that we let all our Instruments of Musick hang neglected upon the boughs of those dolefull trees 3. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us mirth saying Sing us one of the songs of Sion 3. For when our new Masters who had carried us away captive they that had laid Jerusalem on heaps and had power to doe what they pleased with us required us between jest and earnest to entertain them with our Musick and to let them hear one of those Songs which were wont to be sung in the Temple 4. How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land 4. Neither fear nor favour could extort this service from our Levites but they resolutely answered As those Songs were not made for pastime and sport but in honour of the great Lord of the world So how can you imagin that miserable slaves are disposed to sing and to sing those Songs in the Land where we are exiles which recount the mercies of God unto us in our once most flourishing Countrey 5. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning 5. No said I then within my self if I forget thy desolations O Jerusalem though never so far removed from thee so as to gratifie their desires by prophaning thy Musick and thy Songs then let my right hand be benummed or quite lose its skill of touching the harp any more 6. If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy 6. Let me be struck dumb and never be able to move my tongue if I be not so mindfull of thee as never to sing again till I see Jerusalem and her holy Solemnities restored 7. Remember O LORD the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said Rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof 7. Which joyfull day I hope will come when Thou O Lord wilt call our enemies to an account And first of all reckon with the Edomites XLIX Jer. 10. XXV Ezek. 12. who instead of pitying Jerusalem as became kind neighbours and relations were glad to see the day of its desolations and incouraged our destroyers with their acclamations saying Lay it flat lay it even with the ground upon which it stands 8. O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us 8. And then shall your turns come O ye Babylonians who have laid waste so many Nations but shall one day be made desolate your selves XIII Isa 19 c. And may that Prince and people prosper and be happy L. Jer. 9 41. who shall pay you in your kind and use you as barbarously as you used us LI. Jer. 24 35 49. 9. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones 9. He shall be praised and thought to have done a worthy work who shall snatch your sucking children from their mothers breasts and have no more mercy on them then upon the whelps of wolves or such like creatures but shall dash out their brains against the walls of your houses or stones in the street XIII Isa 16. that there may be no remains of such a cruel generation LI. Jer. 62. PSALM CXXXVIII A Psalm of David ARGUMENT This is one of David's Psalms as the Title assures us wherein he thankfully acknowledges God's Goodness to him in advancing him from a low and afflicted condition to the royal dignity which remarkable change would invite he thought other Kings and Princes to have a very great regard to his Divine Majesty who he hoped therefore would support and defend him in his new-gotten Kingdom by the same Almighty power which raised him unto it 1. I Will praise thee with my whole heart before the gods will I sing praise unto thee 1. I Will make Thee my thankfull acknowledgments O Lord with the devoutest affections of my heart thy holy Angels shall be witnesses of my gratitude which I will express in Psalms and Hymns in the presence of the great Assembly of the Judges XXII Exod. 9. LXXXII Psal 1 6. that they may remember to whom they owe their power and authority 2. I will worship towards thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name 2. I will prostrate my self in the humblest adorations of Thee toward the place where the Monument of thy Divine Presence is and acknowledge how much I am indebted to thy almighty