1_I was glad when they said to me. _God had often told Moses, that his Sanctuary would one day have a certain and fixed place of abode; yet from the time of Moses, for the space of more than a thousand years, the Ark of the Covenant had been carried about from place to place, as if it had been in a... [ Continue Reading ]
2._Our feet shall be standing within thy gates, O Jerusalem! _In the Hebrew text the verb is indeed in the past tense, which it would not be unsuitable to retain; but as it makes little _difference _as to the meaning whether the one reading or the other is adopted, I have no difficulty in leaving my... [ Continue Reading ]
3._Jerusalem is built as a city. _Here David begins to celebrate the praises of Jerusalem_; _and he does this with the design of encouraging the people to persevere with uniform steadfastness in their obedience. It was of great importance for the minds of the godly, instead of being drawn hither and... [ Continue Reading ]
4._Thither the tribes ascended. _David here invests Jerusalem with two titles of honor, calling it the sacred and regularly appointed place for calling upon the name of God; and next, the royal sea, to which the whole people were to have recourse for obtaining justice. All our salvation depends upon... [ Continue Reading ]
5._For there were set thrones for judgment. _He means, that the throne of the kingdom was fixed or established at Jerusalem, or that there it had its permanent seat. Among that people some order of judgments had always existed; these, however, had formerly been in an unsettled state, and frequently... [ Continue Reading ]
6._Pray ye for the peace of Jerusalem. _David now exhorts all the devout worshippers of God to make supplication for the prosperity of the holy city. The more effectually to stir them up to such exercise, he promises that, in this way the divine blessing will descend upon them. The reason why he was... [ Continue Reading ]
7._Peace be within thy bulwarks, _etc. The two clauses express the same sentiment, and, therefore, the meaning of the first is gathered from the second. The term _peace _signifies nothing else than prosperity. The noun שלוה, _shalvah, _in the second clause, sometimes signifies _rest, _but it is more... [ Continue Reading ]
8._For the sake of my brethren and neighbors. _He specifies two causes on account of which he felt a care about the Church, for the purpose of stirring up, by his example, all the faithful to exercise the same care. These words, however, seem to contain a tacit contrast. Among the wicked and malicio... [ Continue Reading ]
9._Because of the house of Jehovah our God, etc_. In this verse he adds a second reason why he cared for the Church — that he did so, because the worship of God so far from remaining entire would go to ruin unless Jerusalem continued standing. If then the salvation of our brethren is regarded by us... [ Continue Reading ]