6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. 7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. 8 God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 9 The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham : For the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted. SOME have applied this Psalm to Christ's ascension; but it speaks of his Second Coming. The Mighty One is seated peacefully on his throne. We are referred back to Psalm xlv. 9. His happy people stand around, exulting in his coronation, The tone. as Israel (to use a feeble emblem) rejoiced till earth rang again, when Athaliah, the usurper, was deposed, and the King of David's line was manifested after his long concealment. Then they clapt their hands (2 Kings xi. 12) to shew their rapturous joy, as here all earth is invited to do; for even woods and trees and rivers are elsewhere represented as joining in this ecstacy of bliss (Isa. lv. 12); Psa. xcviii. 9), when our King sets the New Earth in its regenerated order. Verses 2, 3, 4, shew what the King has come to do, viz., to The plan. choose the "excellency," or the excellent Land, "of Jacob." Resting over this blissful scene, the Psalmist inserts his "Selah" a pause of meditation. But verse 5 breaks the thoughtful silence with a shout to our Immanuel—for he it is who is celebrated as God" 66 Sing praises to God! Sing praises! Sing praises to our King! Sing praises! For God is King over all the earth! Sing praises with understanding. God reigneth over the nations! God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness!” Around our Incarnate God and King are gathered Israel's princes" princes of the God of Abraham"-Abraham's seed now receiving in full the blessings promised to their father, and all earth blest in him. Everywhere, "the shields of earth," earth's princes, who once, like "the shields" mentioned in Hosea iv. 18, instead of defending their people, robbed and preyed on them, now gather round our God to receive authority from him and use it for him. He is King of kings. He is And this is the enthusiastic celebration of Lord of lords. The Mighty One on the throne of earth. Connection. The plan. PSALM XLVIII. A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. 1 GREAT is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. 2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, On the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge. 4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. 5 They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. 6 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. 7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish, with an east wind. 8 As we have heard so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah. 9 We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. 10 According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth : Thy right hand is full of righteousness. 11 Let mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. 12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof: 13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; That ye may tell it to the generation following. 14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death. THE subject of the Mighty One's history is still continued. The Mighty One is king, has entered on his dominion, is seated on his throne, is ruling in righteousness. But where is his capital? It is at Jerusalem. Here He manifests himself; and by the glory of his presence being shed over that "City of the Great King," brighter than the light of seven days, yet far more mellow and tranquillising than the sweetest hues of evening, Jerusalem becomes "The joy of the whole earth. (The joy) of the sides of the north." (Jer. vi. 22.) * "SIDES," "♫ utmost extremes. See especially Isa. xiv. 9, where the proud tyrant says, "I will sit on the mount of the congregation,” i. e., Zion, She has become the joy of earth, far and near, the source of joy to earth's remotest bounds. Now is fulfilled Isaiah xxiv. 23. Now is Jerusalem made "beautiful for situation," or, set aloft on its hills in beauty, in another sense than formerly. Now is Zion exalted above the mountains, and obtains established pre-eminence above the hills. And if associations are needed to make any place completely interesting, these are not wanting here. Such deeds have been done here, that Sennacherib's overthrow is, in a manner, cast into the shade. The gathered kings of earth came up, "they passed" in all the pomp of battle, and the Lord scattered them ; and writes here his "Veni, vidi, vici," to all nations. “They saw ! They marvelled! They were troubled! They hasted away !” (Ver. 5.) It was as when an east wind hurls the ships of Tarshish on the rocks. (Ver. 7.) It comprised in it all that is recorded as wonderful in the achievements of former days; present events now come fully up to the measure of former good deeds, "As we have heard, so have we seen, In the city of the Lord of hosts." (Ver. 8.) The solemn Selah-pause occurs here; and then we look out on a peaceful scene, God known in all the earth. (Ver. 10.) "Thou art praised wherever thy name is known," or rather, now at last thou art getting praise worthy of thy glorious. name. Zion is glad, Judah's tears are wiped away, while a voice invites all men to come and survey the bulwarks of the city of the Great King, that they may tell it from age to age. The bulwarks are strong, for the Lord's presence, Jehovah Shammah, is the wall of fire, on whose battlements the happy citizens walk in security, singing, and then, "on the sides of the north," earth's widest bounds. Hengstenberg objects to this construction of the verse, that we do not find in Hebrew this resumption of a status constr. But Isa. xiv. 19 is a clear case, the raiment of the slain, of the pierced with the sword." So Job xxvi. 10, according to Ewald; and Prov. xv. 26. Tholuck renders it, "A joy of the earth to the remotest north." There is another explanation that makes, "Sides of the north, the city of the Great King," to be descriptive of the town (afterwards Acra) built on he ground north of Mount Zion. "This God is our God for ever and ever; 66 He is our guide even over death." (Tholuck, even beyond death.") The last clause is much misunderstood, It is not, "Our guide unto death," for the words are by “shall lead us nama), over death." Surely it means, "It is He who leads over death to resurrection”—over Jordan into Canaan. They is used in Levit. xv. 25 for "BEYOND," in regard to time, and is not this the sense here? "Beyond the time of death?" Till death is to us over? Till we have stood upon the grave of death? Yes He it is who leads us on to this last victory; he swallows up death in victory, and leads us to trample on death. And so viewed, we easily discern the beautiful link of thought that joins this Psalm to that which follows. Such is the celebration of The Mighty One become the glory of Jerusalem. PSALM XLIX. To the chief Musician. A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 1 HEAR this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: 2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together. 3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart s' all be of understanding. ↑ I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. 5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? 6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him : 8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) 9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. 10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, And leave their wealth to others. 11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, And their dwelling places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names. 12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. 13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; 16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is 17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. 18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul: And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. 19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. 20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish. THE mighty one never rests till he has "led us over death" Connection. (xlviii. 14), to Resurrection-fulness of bliss in the kingdom. Thrice happy they who shall enjoy it! But who shall tell the misery of those who are excluded from that bliss? It is this misery that is the theme of this Psalm. As sure as the eternal felicity of the redeemed is the miserable doom of the unredeemed; and this Psalm is the dirge over them. The Redeemer himself speaks this "parable," this weighty The speaker. discourse, which in its topics is to the world no better than an unintelligible enigma-“ a dark saying." But nevertheless, "these things which have been kept secret from the beginning" (Matt. xiii. 38), are here laid open in their solemn grandeur, in their awful importance, in their truth and certainty. Messiah here speaks "wisdom" (i) and "understanding," as in Prov. i. 20, revealing the deep things of God to man. It is Messiah who says (ver. 5), “Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heals doth compass me about?" Messiah in our world of evil, pursued by sons of Belial, who would fain trample on him, surrounded by the troops of hell, breathing the atmosphere of this polluted world, walking amid its snares, is able to break through all unscathed, and foretell impending ruin to every foe. Man has no means of paying to God his ransom-money The plan. (Exod. xxi. 30), although he bring the most costly price earth |