to Solomon, as Theodoret supposes in his interpretation, seems as far wide from the truth as to say, that he looks no farther than Solomon. For the psalm doth in part agree as aptly (if not more) to Solomon, as the name of Solomon doth to the Messiah, our Saviour Christ; who was indeed the Prince of Peace, and left his peace with his disciples when he left the world, (as Theodoret notes), and made peace wheresoever his doctrine was entertained, and his government settled over men's hearts. Yet he is not the only person here spoken of, but as St Hierom hath excellently stated the matter, in Solomon himself there was the shadow and image of the truth, which was more perfectly fulfilled in our Lord and Saviour.

Ver. 1. GIVE the king thy judgements, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.] O God, the supreme Judge of the world, bestow, I beseech thee, upon Solomon, who is now anointed to sit on my throne, such a right judgement in all things, and such uprightness and integrity of heart, that he may govern thy people according to thy laws, and tempering justice with mercy, may be a worthy successor to me, who have now resigned my charge unto him.

Ver. 2. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgement.] The weight of which I know is so exceeding great, that he needs thy special guidance and assistance; by which he may be able to administer all affairs with such impartial justice and clemency, that the poorest subjects he hath may be as dear unto him as they are unto thee; and recover their rights, or be preserved in them from the power of those who would oppress them.

Ver. 3. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little bills by righteousness.] So shall all parts of the kingdom be most happy, living in peace, and enjoying the blessed fruits of it; while all the judges of the land, both great and small, make it their study to maintain them in their just rights and liber

ties.

Ver. 4. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.] And his authority is not abused to the oppression of the poor, and the making those more miserable who have nothing but beggary left them for their inheritance; but employed for their defence and preservation, and for the crushing of those that by fraud or force are injurious to them.

Ver. 5. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endureth, throughout all generations.] Which righteous administration shall redound to his everlasting honour, and win him such reverence and observance from his people, as shall make him a lively emblem of the great King Christ; whose happy subjects shall never cease to worship and praise him day and night to the world's end.

Ver. 6. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth.] For he shall not endeavour to be formidable to them like a tyrant,

whose government imitates the thunder, storms, and tempests; but condescend most graciously to the meanest, and rule them in so soft and gentle a manner as shall make his authority no less acceptable and beneficial than the rain is to the after-grass, or dripping showers which fall in the summer-heat, to refresh the parched earth.

Ver. 7. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth.] The wicked shall have no preferment in his days, but virtuous men shall grow to a great height, and flourish as the plants do after those cherishing showers; whereby such lasting peace and tranquillity shall be established, as nothing can exceed but the blessed times of the Prince of Peace, whose kingdom shall

have no end.

Ver. 8. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.] Nor shall his empire be confined within the bounds of Judea, but according to the promise made to our forefather Abraham, (Gen. xv. 18.), and renewed to his children, (Exod. xxiii. 31. Deut. i. 7. xi. 24. Josh. i. 3. 4.), he shall extend it from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the river Euphrates to the. border of Egypt, (1 Kings, iv. 21. 2 Chron. ix. 26. Ezra, iv. 20.), and be the most illustrious type of that glorious kingdom of Christ, which shall spread itself throughout the world.

Ver. 9. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust.] The most barbarous nations shall come and do him ho-mage; and they that refuse it shall be humbled, and forced at last to submit, and prostrate themselves with the lowliest reverence at his feet.

Ver. 10. The kings of 1arshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.] The kings of the most distant countries, they of Tarshish, (1 Kings, x. 22.), as well as Cyprus and Crete, and the rest of the isles, shall honour him with their presents; and so shall they of Arabia, as far as the Persian Gulph, approach him with gifts.

Ver. 11. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.] Yea, so many kings and nations shall make their obeisance, and subject themselves unto him, that it shall foreshadow the large extent of the kingdom of Christ, who shall be universally acknowledged, worshipped, and obeyed, by all kings, and by all nations of the earth.

Ver. 12. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth: the poor also, and him that hath no helper.] Nor shall they be induced to these submissions so much by the greatness of his power, the vastness of his riches, and the magnificence of his court, as by the fame of his justice, mercy, and compassion, (wherein he shall resemble the Lord Christ.) For no sooner shall any miserable wretch, who hath no friend in the world, implore his protection, but he shall instantly succour, defend, and relieve him.

Ver. 13. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.] He shall take pity upon such helpless creaturse, and add no heavier burden

unto that of their lamentable poverty; nor shall he be prodigal of their lives, but as tenderly secure them as those of his greatest subjects.

Ver. 14. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence and precious shall their blood be in his sight.] He shall preserve them from being ruined, either by the fraud or violence of those who are too subtle or too mighty for them, and love them so dearly, as never to satisfy his own ambition, covetousness, or revenge, with the expence of the precious treasure of

their blood.

Ver. 15. And be shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba : prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall be be praised.] Whereby his reign shall be long and prosperous; and the longer he reigns, the richer presents shall be brought unto him, (as there shall be to Christ from the eastern countries), together with their perpetual prayers for his continued prosperity; and the highest praises and commendations which shall ever be in men's mouths, of his just and gracious government. Ver. 16. There shall be a handful of corn in the bandful 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.] Which God shall bless with such plenty, that a handful of corn sown in the earth, even upon the top of barren mountains, shall spring up so thick, with ears so plump and full, that when they are shaken with the wind, they shall make a noise like the cedars of Lebanon; nor shall the city be less fruitful than the country, but become as populous and well stored with all good things as the earth is with grass, or flowers in the spring.

Ver. 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 blessed.] His memory and fame shall never die, but be propagated from father to son as long as the sun shall shine; and when they would wish well to another, they shall say, God make thee as happy as Solomon; for all people that hear of him shall look on him as the most excellent prince that ever was, except the King Messiah, whom all nations shall magnify and extol, and above all things desire his blessing.

Ver. 18. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things.] For which good hope, and for all his other benefits, I renew my thanks (1 Chron. xxix. 10.) to the great Lord and Sovereign of all the world, who hath graciously chosen Israel for his peculiar people; let him be most heart:ly blessed and praised, whose bounty is stupendous, and incomparably beyond all that can be said or thought of it.

Ver. 19. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen. and amen.] Let his super-eminent perfections be for ever celebrated with our praises; and not with ours only, but let the whole world be possessed with a sense of the surpassing greatness of his wisdom, power, and love, and join together with us in his praises. Let it be so, let it be so; let us all consent to say again and again, The Lord be praised, the Lord be praised.

Ver. 20. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.] This was the last psalm which David, the son of Jesse, composed, not long before he died; (and was all of his that the collector of this book could find before he published.)

PSALM LXXIII.

THE ARGUMENT.Here begins a new collection of seventeen psalms, most of them very disconsolate and full of sad complaints, which make up the third book of this volume, as the Hebrews divide it. They were most of them composed by Asaph, (and but one of them by David), though who he was is not resolved by interpreters, who suspect indeed there might be another author of some of these psalms, but have no other Asaph to name but Asaph the singer, who was famous in the days of David, Chron. vi. 39. xvi. 5. 2 Chron. v. 12. And accordingly Apollinarius thus descants upon the title: The divine invention of David failing in the composing of songs, Asaph arose, and by the VOL. III.

Y

Divine Spirit resounded this hymn. But it seems to me, that there is another person of this name mentioned in the holy books, (who may be more probably entitled to this work), called Asaph the Seer, (see Psalm 1.), who lived in the days of Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxix. 30.; and whose son, I suppose, was then recorder, 2 Kings, xviii. 37. Isa. xxxvi. 3. Some of them, indeed, (as I shall take notice in due place), may be thought rather to belong to another Asph in after times; but for the present psalm (and most of the rest) I can find no person so likely to whom it may be entitled, as hin now named; who composed it, I conceive, either when he saw the miserable havock which strangers made among them in the days of Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 17. 18. 19. xxix. 8. 9.; or, when Senna

cherib invaded them, notwithstanding the reformation which Hezekiah had made; or, which is most probable, upon the occasion that David wrote the 37th psalm, to comfort himself and good men when. they saw the lewder sort of men among them thrive and prosper, and the pious sometimes sorely afflicted; quite contrary to the sanctions of their laws which promised all good things to those that observed it, and threatened the evil to those that broke it. This

extremely afflicted his spirit, and staggered his faith, till he considered the matter more deeply, and then he broke out into this meditation, say ing,

Ver. 1. TRULY God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.] I will never hereafter, whatsoever confusions I behold, question the justice of God's providence, but constantly affirm, that he is not merely just, but very good, yea, hath a most singular love to his faithful people, who, notwith. standing the evils they endure, will never consent to do any evil.

Ver. 2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone: my steps bad well nigh slipt.] Time was indeed, when I, even I, who have had such long experience of his care over me, began to doubt and stagger in my faith; nay, was in danger to tumble headlong into unbelief.

Ver. 3. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.] The reason was, that having a just indignation against the folly, or rather madness of wicked men, it first vexed me to see them, notwithstanding their ill deservings, in a very flou. rishing condition, and then tempted me to think it very hard, that some men should not equal, if not exceed them, in such happiness; especially when I saw no likelihood that it would end, but that they continue in their prosperity.

Ver. 4. For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm.] For as they carry on all their designs smoothly, and meet with no rub in their way, nor are in any danger (so great is their power) to be bound over by human justice, to answer for their crimes, how many soever they commit; so they are not afflicted with sore diseases by the hand of God, nor brought to their graves with pains and torment; but after a long life, in firm and vigorous health, depart easily out of the world.

Ver. 5. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.] Their life is nothing so laborious and toilsome as that of many honest, but poor and wretched men; and they escape untouched, or are little hurt by such calamities, as are common to all mankind.

Ver. 6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.] Which makes them so unsufferably proud, and vain conceited of themselves, that they not only tyrannize over their neighbours, but openly boast of the power they have to do them mischief: and glory in all the violence and cruelty, whereby they maintain and increase their pompous greatness,

Ver. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than their heart could wish.] In which they pamper themselves to such an excess, that in their very countenance they express the haughty swelling of their minds and hearts; which are strangely puffed up, by their being raised (not only beyond the expectation of all other men, but) far above all that they themselves at first imagined or could design.

Ver. 8. They are corrupt; and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.] They mock at all those who scrupulously tie themselves to the rules of justice, or tell them of the danger they run by their violation; for they threaten to undo all those that oppose them, and publicly declare, in the height of their arrogance, that they will not be bound by any laws;

Ver. 9. They set their mouth against the heavensTM`; and their tongue walketh through the earth.] No, not those of God himself, who, (with all the invincible powers of which men talk), they say, is but a name, which they do not dread; and therefore no wonder if such blasphemers of his majesty spare neither high nor low, but let their tongues loose, to abuse and calumniate whomsoever they please upon earth.

Ver. 10. Therefore his people return hither; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them:] And yet, as bad as they are, there is none of them but hath his followers and admirers, whom he first invites, and then retains, like beasts, by filling their bellies; which abundantly contents them, though others be squeezed and oppressed, to give them this poor satisfaction.

"Ver. 11. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?] Nay, they drink in their opinions, and join with them in their impiety, saying, How can God know what we do here? or if he do, why should we think that he, who is so high, troubles himself about our affairs?

Ver. 12. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.] For behold, there are none that contemn him more than these men; and yet he is so far from inflicting any punishment on them, that none enjoy such a continued course of prosperity as they, whose wealth and power increases every day.

Ver. 13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.] And verily, if these men discourse aright, I have taken a great deal of pains to little purpose; while I have studiously endeavoured to keep my heart pure from so much as ill designs, as well as to refrain the doing of any evil actions, from the charge of which I can purge myself.

Ver. 14. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.] And yet I am plagued perpetually by the restless malice of these wicked doers; which, as constantly as the sun rises, falls on me a deal sooner than on other men.

Ver. 15. If I say, I will speak thus: behold, 1 should offend against the generation of thy children.] But, whatever confused and foolish thoughts came

on a sudden into my mind, I concluded, upon more. mature deliberation, that if I said as these men do, I should basely betray the cause of all them who are truly dear unto thee;

Ver. 16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.] And therefore resolved with myself, before I pronounced my sentence, to study this point more seriously, which at first sight appeared so hard, that it grievously perplexed me.

Ver. 17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end.] And retiring myself into the holy places, to consult with thee, and with those to whom thou communicatest thy secrets, I was presently sensible how short their felicity is; unto which death having put an utter end, it is followed with a dismal after-reckoning in another world.

Ver. 18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places ; thou castedst them down into destruction.] I next considered, that all of them do not stand so firm as they imagine, but merely flatter themselves with vain hopes of continuing in their station to the end of their days; for being raised to the highest preferments, they find them to be very slippery places; from whence, to the amazement of themselves, and of all spectators, they come tumbling down into a most horrible ruin.

Ver. 19. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.] Oh what an astonishing change is this! which is the most frightful, when on a sudden the divine vengeance seizes on them, and when they least expect it, an end is put to their greatness; nay, they are quite destroy ed, in a most terrible manner, as if they had never been.

Ver. 20. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O LORD, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.] So that it is but a dream of happiness wherein they live, and they pride themselves in a mere imaginary glory, which not only vanishes away, when thou, O Lord, dost arise to judge them; but becomes as contemptible, in that very city wherein they appeared in all their pomp and splendour, as the fine things which a man sees in his sleep are when he awaketh.

Ver. 21. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.] And therefore when my spirit boiled with vexation, and grew sore at the sight of their prosperity, (ver. 2. 3.); when I was so vehemently provoked to passionate complaints, feeling the sharpest touches of grief and anger.

Ver. 22. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was a beast before thee.] I now ingenuously acknowledge, it was for want of such manly and religious thoughts as these, which should have been in my mind, when I thought of thy administrations, if I had not been dull and stupid, as void of sense as the beasts, which look only at things before their eyes, and have no regard to what is to come, or is not seen.

Ver. 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand.] For if I had looked beyond my senses, I might have seen that I am under the care of thy good providence, and that thou hast been my guide and my supporter, even

when I had these brutish thoughts, and didst not suffer these brutish thoughts to destroy me.

Ver. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.] And therefore I ought in all reason still to conclude, that thou wilt direct me to behave myself so wisely, that I shall never fall into their snares; but, after I have suffered a while, be preferred to those dignities from whence they fall; and, which is more, be so graciously accepted by thee, as to continue in them unto immortal glory.

Ver. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.] This I expect from thy almighty goodness, who art the sole object of my hope. For thou knowest there is none in heaven, whom I depend upon for help and protection, but thee alone; none upon earth, whose favour I seek, but only thine, which shall perfectly

content me.

Ver. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.] It is possible I may still be pressed with such sore afflictions, that not only my bodily strength, but also my courage, may begin again to fail me; but then I will recover myself, and fortify my soul by flying unto thee, O God, for safety; in whose love I will always think myself happy, and enjoy everlasting satisfaction.

Ver. 27. For lo, they that are far from thee, shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee.] For there is nothing more certain, or more remarkable than this; that they who, by forsaking thee, have put themselves far from under thy care, will never be able, by any other means, to save themselves from perishing; for thou hast already made such men a terrible example of thy displeasure; and utterly destroyed those, who, quitting thy service, have devoted themselves to the worship of other gods, 2 Chron. xxviii. 6. 18. 19. xxix. 7. 8. 9.

Ver. 28. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the LORD God, that I may declare all thy works.] And therefore I will learn by their miscarriages, that it is the best and safest course for me, to adhere to my good God, and to make my humble addresses to him alone. I have done so hitherto, and no danger shall tempt me hereafter to quit this hold, and to confide in any thing, but only in the Sovereign of the world, who never fails those that depend upon him, and will, I hope, be so gracrous unto me, that I shall have abundant cause to publish and proclaim to all others the works of his providence, in preserving the good, and in throwing the wicked down, at last, to the ground.

PSALM LXXIV.

Maschil of Asaph.

THE ARGUMENT.-The desolation of Jerusalem and of the temple, as well as the rest of the country, made by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, was the sad occasion of this psalm. For it is altogether improbable, that it hath respect to the days of An

tiochus Epiphanes, as some fancy; because, as Theodoret pertinently notes, (to omit all other reasons), we read nothing in any history of his burning the temple, or so much as of his laying the city waste; which are both here most sorrowfully bewailed by Asaph. Who was not, therefore, that Asaph in David's time, (unless we should grant him to have written by the spirit of prophecy, and predicted what should be in after-times, as a great many think), because there was no such temple in those days, nor had been, as is here described: nor was it Asaph the seer in Hezekiah's days, (of whom, see argument of the foregoing psalm), who saw no such desolation made by Sennacherib, (for he did not take Jerusalem, nor shoot so much as an arrow into it), nor, in all likelihood, prophesied of the destruction here spoken of; because the description of it in this psalm is so plain, that we may most reasonably think the author of it had it be fore his eyes, and did not merely see it by the spirit of prophecy; which is not wont to foretel things in so clear a manner, but more obscurely and darkly.

I conclude, therefore, it was some other Asaph who composed this psalm, in the time of the captivity, and in the middle, or rather toward the conclusion of it; because he complains, ver. 9. that they had no prophet (as there was in the beginning of the captivity, particularly Jeremiah) to tell them how long it should last. And considering that in the second verse he speaks of himself as one that dwelt still in the land of Israel, pointing to Mount Sion as a place near to him, I take him to have been some pious man of the posterity of Asaph, who was suffered to remain there with the Chaldeans. And if it were fit to suppose him to have written this psalm very young, and to have lived to a great age, when I have no proof of either; I should guess him to be Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, in the days of Nehemiah; who desired Artaxerxes to write to him, to furnish him with timber out of Lebanon, for the rebuilding some of those places, which the psalmist here complains were destroyed. Among which the porch of the court of the sanctuary remained unbuilt even unto those times. Howsoever, from the mention of Mount Sion in the second verse, it is manifest, Grotius forgot himself, when, in his notes upon ver. 6. he applies this psalm to the destruction of Shiloh; which he supposes Asaph to have here bewailed. For Mount Sion had then never been in their possession, as it was afterward, and had lain so long waste (ver. 3.) when Asaph wrote this psalm, that it looked like a perpetual desolation. Besides, the tabernacle was not burnt when Shiloh was destroyed, but remained, though without the ark, till the days of Solomon, 2 Chron. i, 3. see Psal. lxviii. And of the meaning of Maschil, see Psal. xxxii.

Ver. 1. GOD, why hast theu cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture.] O God, the Sovereign Judge of the

world, who hast justly expelled us out of our land, and continued our banishment so long, that little hope appears of our being restored to it again; behold the anguish of our souls wherein we cry unto thee for mercy for we are confounded to see thee so highly incensed against those, who were once under thy most indulgent care as if thou wert resolved never to be reconciled to us any more.

Ver. 2. Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased of cld; the rod of thine inheritance which thou bast redeemed; this Mount Sion, wherein thou hast davelt.] Thou hast not forgotten, we know, though it be very long ago, with the expence of how many miracles thou didst make our ancestors thy peculiar people : for which reason, though we be exceedingly undeserving, we beseech thee to let all the world see, thou wilt not utterly abandon the poor remainders of that nation, which thou didst acquire at so great a price; that kingdom, which thou didst rescue out of the most miserable slavery, to be thy own possession; and this Mount Sion, wherein (after thou hadst by many wonders brought us into Canaan, and rooted out the old inhabitants) thou wast pleased at last to settle thy abode among us.

Ver. 3. Lift up thy feet to the perpetual desolations : even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctu ary.] Make haste, good Lord, to come and visit the ruins of our country and city, which have lasted exceeding long, and will never be repaired without thy powerful help; which we implore against the authors of them; who, to all the other mischiefs they have done, have, with a peculiar spite, not only defaced, but utterly destroyed thy dwelling place.

Ver. 4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregation; they set up their ensigns for signs.] They are thy enemies, therefore, as well as ours, whose fury and rage so transports them, that they roar rather than shout; whilst they triumph in those places where thy people were wont to meet to praise thy name: there they have set up their banners in token of their victory; and brag as if their gods were superior unto thee.

Ver. 5. A man was famous, according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.] Every one of them laid about him, and bestirred himself with all his might, as if he hoped to get renown by the mischief he did; which was committed with no more remorse, than if they had been lopping off boughs in the thickets of a forest, where they may be spared.

Ver. 6. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.] Just so methinks I see (as if it were now a-doing) how they hacked and hewed with axes, and knocked down with hammers, the curious carved work of the temple; whose elegance would have moved any but barbarians, to have preserved it with as great a zeal, as they employed to beat it in pieces.

Ver. 7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary they bave defiled, by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground.] But so mad was their rage, it was not satisfied with this; but set fire unto thy holy place: and what that did not consume, they pulled down; till they had utterly profaned the habitation