_A SONG INCITING TO CONFIDENCE IN GOD, FOR HIS JUDGMENTS, AND FOR HIS FAVOUR TO HIS PEOPLE. AN EXHORTATION TO WAIT ON GOD._ _Before Christ 715._ THIS chapter contains the second doxology, and is truly poetical. It is twofold: We have first, after the preface, Isaiah 26:1 the song of the true belie... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT DAY— That is, at the time of the deliverance which the church had gained by the divine aid, which time is that of Simon the Ethnarch and John Hyrcanus, if we take the prophesy literally; if mystically, the times of the deliverance of the Christian church from its great afflictions, which we... [ Continue Reading ]
OPEN YE THE GATES— We have here another chorus, congratulating those who have been found faithful in affliction, and proclaiming that they should have communion not only with the earthly Jerusalem, and the earthly temple, but also with the spiritual and heavenly city and temple; and the scene is so... [ Continue Reading ]
TRUST YE IN THE LORD— The fourth chorus, in these verses, contains an exhortation directed to others to place their confidence in God, upon the knowledge and observation of the present illustrious deliverance vouchsafed. The fifth and sixth verses should be rendered in the perfect tense, _He hath br... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WAY, &C.— Or, _The way_ [_chalked out_] _to the just is perfectly right. Thou, most upright, dost mark out the path of the just._ Here begins the confession, which is extended to the 19th verse. In this verse the believers acknowledge the equity and justice of the ways of God in general toward h... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, IN THE WAY OF THY JUDGMENTS— How excellently does this passage correspond to the preceding, according to the interpretation we have given! The holy confessors, persuaded of the equity and justice of the ways of God, here declare with what disposition of mind they receive the trial with which Go... [ Continue Reading ]
LET FAVOUR BE SHEWED, &C.— This passage corresponds with the former in such a manner as to illustrate it. The chorus had shewn the necessity of the divine judgments, and the disposition of the righteous towards them. They continue their discourse, and say, that the wicked, when God, out of his long-... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD OUR GOD— The holy confessors, having in the preceding verse expressed their hope that God would perfect all his good works for them, proceed to unfold that hope; after having already obtained their deliverance in part with the overthrow and destruction of their enemies. They say, that other l... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST INCREASED THE NATION— Vitringa renders the last clause of this verse, _Thou hast far enlarged all the boundaries of the land._ The meaning is, that God had treated his people so kindly, as to increase, adorn, and amplify them with various benefits of his grace and benediction, thus concili... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, IN TROUBLE HAVE THEY VISITED THEE— _O_ JEHOVAH, _in affliction have we sought thee._ Lowth. The 18th verse may be read, _We had conceived; we were in pain; we brought forth as it were wind: As to deliverance, it was not yet perfected in the land, neither had the inhabitants of the world fallen... [ Continue Reading ]
THY DEAD MEN SHALL LIVE, &C.— _Thy dead shall live; my deceased, they shall rise: awake,_ &c.—_But the earth shall cast forth, as an abortion, the deceased tyrants._ Lowth. The present period, which closes this confession, is excellent; wherein the pious declare, in the beginning of the deliverance... [ Continue Reading ]
COME, MY PEOPLE— These verses contain the _conclusion_ wherewith the prophet, speaking in the name of God, seals and confirms the hope of the pious—delivered in the preceding verses. He exhorts them to _hide themselves,_ and patiently to await, amid the exercises of piety and devotion, _for a short... [ Continue Reading ]