CONTENTS The Writer of this Psalm is calling upon Israel to bless the God of Israel: and he proposeth the subject and points to the cause. The Psalm concludes with lamenting the sad departures of Israel in many instances. To the chief musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is very probable that this Psalm formed part of the religious worship in the temple on the feast days. We find several occasions of this sort: such as the feast of trumpets; Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1; and the jubilee trumpet; Leviticus 25:9 : and we know that instruments of music were used in... [ Continue Reading ]
Moses appointed certain seasons of memorial; such, for example, as the passover; Exodus 12:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Reader, will remark, in this place, a change of the person speaking. In the preceding verses the church is speaking, and the members of it are calling upon one another to attend the service of the Lord. But here it is the Lord himself that is introduced as speaking.... [ Continue Reading ]
These are sweet views of God's former dealings with his people; and a reference to Israel's history will mark out the several periods here spoken of. But, Reader! do not you and I also see our own history, and Jesus interposing for our salvation?... [ Continue Reading ]
Reader! let us for a moment drop Israel's history, to which these verses refer, to look into our own. We know how the Lord delivered Israel upon the several occasions here described; but may not you and I conceive, without violence to the words, that Jesus speaks to us in the same gracious language?... [ Continue Reading ]
Reader! what saith thy heart to these charges? What saith thy experience to this awful giving up? Oh! Lord! do thou still keep, still preserve, and abide in thy love, for thou hatest putting away. Reader! do not overlook, in the midst of the solemn things of this verse, that the Lord still calls Isr... [ Continue Reading ]
So Jesus wept over Jerusalem! And had Israel then, or upon the occasion which this Psalm records, hearkened unto the Lord, the temporal prosperity of Israel would have continued. For, I beg the Reader to observe, that in both instances it is of temporal prosperity the Lord evidently speaks. Here it... [ Continue Reading ]
REFLECTIONS READER! let every renewed call, which we behold in the old dispensation, to excite the people to praise, remind us of our higher privileges, and become an additional incentive to the most animated love and praise to our God in Christ. Were the Old Testament saints perpetually reminded o... [ Continue Reading ]