Referred to in the Apocalypse. The scope. the Son even as they honour the Father-"Kiss the Son." Had not our Lord this very passage in his eye when he spoke these words (John v. 23): "The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father?" And it is thus we can understand how the term "Father," as applied to Godhead, broke upon the ear of Israel without exciting surprise, when John the Baptist (John i. 18), spoke of the "only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father." Son and Father are co-relative terms, and would be so understood by John. Whether, with Hengstenberg and most other interpreters, we render ver. 12, "A little while and his wrath shall be kindled," or retain the common version, there is, no doubt, a reference to this verse in Rev. vi. 16, 17: "The wrath of the Lamb, . . . and who shall be able to stand?" And if the former rendering be adopted, as we believe it ought, then there is a tacit reference to this passage in the New Testament expression, Rev. xxii. 7, "I come quickly." It is as if he said, Come quickly to that Saviour for eternal life; for lo! he cometh quickly to deal with all who obey not the Gospel. Opposition ends in ruin; submission brings a blessedness, the fulness of which shall be known only on the day of wrath. But let us examine the contents of this rich and lofty Psalm. The plan of it is simple, but very grand. Messiah, on the morning when he broke the bands of death, is contemplating our world lying in wickedness. He beholds a sea of raging hatred and hostility dashing its angry waves on the throne of God and his anointed One.* He hears their scorr.ful words, "Let us break their bands asunder," and marvels at their infatuation. For, lo! in the heavens above, Jehovah sits in long-suffering calmness, till their stubborn and long-lasting enmity compels him to arise against them. He "troubles them" (ver. 5) as he did the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and referring to their haughty words, declares (ver. 6) 'They on their part so speak, and I (N) in spite of them, have set my king in Zion." They may try to make Rome, or * We might notice a reference to 1 Sam. ii. 10, the original source of "anointed,” if not of "king," also in connexion with “ anointed.” 66 any other city, their metropolis, and may set up a head to themselves, but Jehovah will set up his King, and make Zion —the platform of Jerusalem-his metropolis, as certainly as he set David on the throne and made Zion his capital. From that city of the greater than David has gone and shall again go forth the law. Yes, says Messiah, I will proclaim Jehovah's resolution or decree; He has said to me, "Thou art my Son." At his resurrection (Rom. i. 3) he was saluted as "Son," because appearing then in his own proper array; no more hid in humiliation. He had been Son from eternity, but having dived under our ocean of sin and misery, his sonship seemed obscured till he emerged at his resurrection on the third day. (Acts xiii. 33.) And even so again, when he appears in glory at his coming, investing his own with their resurrection-dress (their proper clothing as adopted sons), the long-unseen Son of God shall be saluted as "My Son" by the Father as he places. him on his visible throne. At what time that manifestation shall occur depends on his own request (ver. 8)—a request which he shall prefer whenever his purposes are ripe-and then He arises to shake terribly the earth. Does the reader not recognise in ver. 10, the voice of the tender, long-suffering, compassionate Saviour? It resembles his mode of expostulation in Proverbs i. 23, in prospect of that "laugh" which is the extreme opposite of pity, and which is referred to in Prov. i. 26, as used by himself against his unyielding foes, even as it is here by the Father. (Ver. 4.) Come, then, great and small, fall upon his neck, and be reconciled now. Be well pleased with him with whom the Father is well pleased; "Kiss the Son," this is saving faith. For, "Yet a little while and his wrath shall be kindled." (Ver. 12.) Behold, he comes quickly! Blessed are all they who put their trust in him. It is not, then, to be forgotten that the time when Messiah utters these strains is supposed to be the time of his resurrection. This seems to be declared to us in Acts xiii. 33. He had felt the united assault of earth and hell, but had proved all to be vain; for He that sat in heaven had gloriously raised him from the dead, and his enemies had sunk to the ground as dead men. We might imagine this Psalm poured forth by him as he stood Connection with the preceding Psalm. Used by Christ. in Joseph's garden, beholding the empty sepulchre on the one hand, and the glory at the right hand of the Father on the other. It is thus we easily understand the words in ver. 7: "This day have I begotten thee;" the Father declaring him his "only begotten," by raising him from the dead, and doing this as a pledge of his farther exaltation,-placing him (ver. 8) in the position of Intercessor, ere he shall arise to return as acknowledged Conqueror and King. Glancing back now upon Psalm i., in connection with this more lofty and triumphant song, we see how appropriately the book of Israel's sacred songs has begun. It has sketched to us the calm, holy path of the righteous, and then the final results in the day of victory, when the Anointed shall have put down all enemies, and the way of the ungodly shall have perished. We shall meet with these topics continually recurring in the course of the book; it was good, then, to present an epitome at the outset. Glancing, also, at particular expressions in both psalms, we see, at the beginning and end, links of connection with the preceding, in such expressions as ver. 1, "meditating a vain thing," in contrast to the meditating on the law (Psa. i. 3), while “the way of the ungodly shall perish," in Psalm i. 8, is brought to mind when we read in ver. 12 of "their perishing from the way." It carries our thoughts to Joshua xxiii. 16. as Psa. i. 3 did to Joshua i. 8. And does not the Baptist get his expression, chaff he shall burn with unquenchable fire” (Matt. iii. 12) by joining Psa. i. 4, and ii. 12? re Our Lord, when on earth, might read this Psalm as his history, the Righteous One, who ever meditated on the law of the Lord, and kept aloof from the vain meditations of the heathen, opposed by men who could not submit to the restraints of holiness, but in spite of all, exalted at length to honour. For here we have Messiah, (the head of every one who seeks Jehovah's face), exhibited in his majesty, and in full prospect of final triumph. The subject of the whole may thus be said to be the assertion of "the righteous One's claims to the throne.” Some one has proposed to entitle it rather, "The eternal decree," in reference to ver. 6, of which the Psalm might be spoken of as the development. But inasmuch as the Eternal decree forms only one topic, while the burden is Messiah himself directly, it is undoubtedly more exact and descriptive to give as its title, The certainty of the Righteous One's exaltation to the throne. PSALM III. A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. 1 LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. 2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. 3 But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. 4 I cried unto the Lord with my voice,-and he heard me out of his holy 5 I laid me down and slept ;-I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people,-that have set themselves against me round about. 7 Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God! For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone : Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. 8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:-thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. THERE is strong evidence for the genuineness of the titles of the The title. Psalms; they occur in all the Hebrew Manuscripts.* This Psalm was written by David, "when he fled from Absalom his son." The Holy Ghost may have used these circumstances in David's lot, as an appropriate occasion on which to dictate such a hymn of hopeful confidence in the Lord. The connection with Psalm ii., is natural, whether we look to David's case when he penned it, or to the more general circumstances referred to throughout. When the men of Israel refused David as "King in Zion," (God's chosen type of a greater King), it was natural for him to raise the cry to the Lord, * There are only thirty-three of the Psalms that have no title at all, and these are called by the Jews, "Orphan Psalms.' The connection ceding. with the pre A Psalm for all ages. Used by the 66 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me.” (Compare 2 Sam. xv. 12.) And not less natural is it to place this cry next to the closing verses of Psalm ii., a Psalm wherein we were told how men despised His call and plotted against Jehovah and his Christ. Hengstenberg has remarked "It is certainly not to be regarded as an accident that Psalms the third and fourth follow immediately the first and second. They, as well as Psalm second, are occupied with a revolt against the Lord's Anointed. And when, in ver. 8, the enemy is spoken of as 'smitten on the cheek-bone, and his teeth broken,' there is the same tone of conscious safety, mingled with contempt of their efforts, as in the 'laugh' of Psalm ii.” It is a Psalm that may be found as suitable and needful in the latter days, as when David wrote it. When waves of sorrow and calamity are dashing over the ship of the Church, it may borrow from this Psalm that ground of hope which long ago Jonah borrowed from it in his strange trial, “Salvation is of the Lord," (Jonah ii. 9.) Affliction and desertion are two very different things, but often confounded by the world," and confounded too "by the fearful imaginations of our own desponding hearts, and the suggestions of our adversary.”Horne. This seems to be a morning hymn (ver. 5.) And so Horsley hesitates not to call it "A prayer of Messiah, in the character of a Priest, coming at an early hour to prepare the altar of burnt-offering for the morning sacrifice." Every member of Christ may use it; and we can easily see how the Head himself could adopt it as his own. We feel as if sympathy were more sure to us, when we know that the Lord Jesus himself once was in circumstances when such a morning hymn expressed his state and feelings; for now every believer can say, My Head once used this Psalm; and while I use its strains, his human heart will recall the day of his humiliation, when himself was comforted thereby." Who more truly than he could say of his foes, "How many!" since it was "the world" that hated him. (John vii. 7.) On the cross, did they not upbraid him with the taunt, "There is no salvation for him in God," (ver. 2), when they cast in his |