5. If I shall forget thee, O Jerusalem! This confirms what was said in the former verse, and leaves us in no difficulty to understand what the Psalmist meant by it. For here God's people declare, and with the solemnity of an oath, that the remembrance of the holy city would be ever engraven upon their hearts, and never, under any circumstances, effaced. Having spoken of song, and of the instruments of music, the Psalmist's appeal is made in terms which correspond-that his hand would forget its cunning, and his tongue cleave to his palate, or the roof of his mouth. The meaning is, that the Lord's people, while they mourn under personal trials, should be still more deeply affected by public calamities which befall the Church, it being reasonable that the zeal of God's house should have the highest place in our hearts, and rise above all mere private considerations. The second part of the sixth verse some interpret-If this be not my chief joy to see Jerusalem once more in a flourishing condition. Others-Joy will never enter my heart more, till I be gladdened by the Church's restoration. Both meanings are in my opinion comprehended in the words of the Psalmist. The one cannot be separated from the other; for if we set Jerusalem above our chiefest joy, the height of this joy must arise from the consideration of its prosperity, and, if this be the case, the grief we feel under its calamities will be such as effectually to shut out all worldly joys.

7. Remember, O Jehovah! the children of Edom. Vengeance was to be executed upon the other neighbouring nations which had conspired to destroy Jerusalem, so that they are all doubtless included here under the children of Edom, who are specified, a part for the whole, either because they showed

the horrors which would accompany the taking and sacking of the city of Babylon; and amongst these the atrocious cruelty of dashing the children against the stones.' (See Isa. xiii. 16; Jer. li. 62; Hos. xiii. 16.) Homer mentions the unnatural practice as not uncommon in ancient times—

'Infants dashed

Against the ground, in dire hostility.'-II. xxii. v. 63."— Warner. "Happy he," &c., is merely declarative of the general opinion which would be formed of the instruments of Babylon's destruction-that they would be reputed happy, would be celebrated as having done good service in the world, by destroying a power so universally hated for its oppression.

more hatred and cruelty than the rest, or that theirs were not so easily borne, considering that they were brethren, and of one blood, being the posterity of Esau, and that the Israelites had, by God's commandment, spared the Edomites, when they devoted all beside them to destruction. (Deut. ii. 4.) It was, therefore, the height of cruelty in them to invite the Babylonians to destroy their own brethren, or fan the flames of their hostility. We are to notice, however, that the Psalmist does not break forth into these awful denunciations unadvisedly, but as God's herald, to confirm former prophecies. God both by Ezekiel and Jeremiah had predicted that he would punish the Edomites, (Ezek. xxv. 13; Jer. xlix. 7; and Lam. iv. 21, 22,) and Obadiah distinctly gives the reason, answerable to what is here statedthat they had conspired with the Babylonians. (Obad. verse 11.) We know that God intended in this way to comfort and support the minds of the people under a calamity so very distressing, as that Jacob's election might have seemed to be rendered frustrate, should his descendants be treated with impunity in such a barbarous manner, by the posterity of Esau. The Psalmist prays, under the inspiration of the Spirit, that God would practically demonstrate the truth of this prediction. And when he says, Remember, O Jehovah! he would remind God's people of the promise to strengthen their belief in his avenging justice, and make them wait for the event with patience and submission. To pray for vengeance would have been unwarrantable, had not God promised it, and had the party against whom it was sought not been reprobate and incurable; for as to others, even our greatest enemies, we should wish their amendment and reformation. The day of Jerusalem is a title given by him, and of frequent occurrence in Scripture, to the time of visitation, which had a divinely appointed and definite

term.

8. O daughter of Babylon1 laid waste! The Psalmist dis

1 Daughter of Babylon penotes the inhabitants of the Babylonish empire. The inhabitants of a city or kingdom are frequently spoken of in Scripture as its daughter. (See Psalm xlv. 13; Isaiah xlvii. 1; Zech. ix. 9.)

cerns the coming judgment of God, though not yet apparent, by the eye of faith, as the Apostle well calls faith "the beholding of things not seen." (Heb. xi. 1.) Incredible as it might appear that any calamity should overtake so mighty an empire as Babylon then was, and impregnable as it was generally considered to be, he sees in the glass of the Word its destruction and overthrow. He calls upon all God's people to do the same, and by faith from the elevation of heaven's oracles, to despise the pride of that abandoned city. If the divine promises inspire us with hope and confidence, and God's Spirit attemper our afflictions to the rule of his own uprightness, we shall lift up our heads in the lowest depths of affliction to which we may be cast down, and glory in the fact that it is well with us in our worst distresses, and that our enemies are devoted to destruction. In declaring those to be happy who should pay back vengeance upon the Babylonians, he does not mean that the service done by the Medes and Persians, in itself, met with the approbation of God; for they were actuated in the war by ambition, insatiable covetousness, and unprincipled rivalry; but he declares that a war which was carried on in a manner under God's auspices, should be crowned with success. As God had determined to punish Babylon, he pronounced a blessing upon Cyrus and Darius, while on the other hand Jeremiah (chap. xlviii. 10) declares those cursed who should do the work of the Lord negligently, that is, fail in strenuously carrying out the work of desolation and destruction, to which God had called them as his hired executioners. It may seem to savour of cruelty, that he should wish the tender and innocent infants to be dashed and mangled upon the stones, but he does not speak under the impulse of personal feeling, and only employs words which God had himself authorized, so that this is but the declaration of a just judgment, as when our Lord says, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matt. vii. 2.) Isaiah (ch. xiii. 16) had issued a special prediction in reference to Babylon, which the Psalmist has doubtless here in his eye-" Behold God

"Il n'entend pas que le service des Perses et Medes ait este agreable a Dieu," &c.-Fr.

has sharpened the iron, and bent the bows; he sends forth the Medes and Persians, which shall not regard silver and gold; they shall thirst for blood only," &c.

PSALM CXXXVIII.

In this Psalm David, in remembrance of the singular help which had always been vouchsafed him by God-the experience he had enjoyed of his faithfulness and goodness, takes occasion to stir himself up to gratitude; and from what he had known of the divine faithfulness, he anticipates a continuance of the same mercy. If dangers must be met, he confidently looks for a happy issue.

A Psalm of David.

1. I will praise thee with my whole heart, before the gods will I sing psalms to thee.

2. I will worship thee towards the temple of thy holiness, and sing unto thy name for thy mercy and for thy truth; for thou hast magnified thy name above all things by thy word.

3. In the day when I cried to thee then thou answeredst me, and hast abundantly ministered strength to me in my soul.

4. Let all kings of the earth praise thee, O Jehovah! because they have heard the words of thy mouth.

5. And let them sing in3 the ways of Jehovah, for great is the glory of Jehovah.

1 Here "O Jehovah" is to be understood. Though it is not in the received Hebrew text, it was found in six copies examined by Dr. Kennicott, and in eight examined by De Rossi. The Septuagint, Arabic, Vulgate, and Ethiopic versions add "Jehovah" after the verb for "praise." "The omission of the Divine name," says Jebb, in his Translation of the Psalms, "in a passage like this, at the beginning of the Psalm, is altogether unexampled."

2 By the Hebrew word 'ns, Elohim, translated gods, Calvin understands "angels" or "kings," but particularly the former. It is however proper to observe that D, Elohim, is one of the names applied to the Supreme Being in the sacred volume, and therefore some critics translate "before God," which they explain as meaning "before the ark," where were the sacred symbols of his presence. If after the Hebrew word for "before," we should suppose "thee" to be understood, the reading would be "before thee, or in thy presence, O God! will I sing praise unto thee.” Phillips observes that the force of, beth, seems to be that of concern

1. I will praise thee with my whole heart. As David had been honoured to receive distinguishing marks of the divine. favour, he declares his resolution to show more than ordinary gratitude. This is exercise which degenerates and is degraded in the case of hypocrites to a mere sound of empty words, but he states that he would return thanks to God not with the lips only, but with sincerity of heart, for by the whole heart, as we have elsewhere seen, is meant a heart which is sincere and not double. The noun D, Elohim, sometimes means angels, and sometimes kings, and either meaning will suit with the passage before us. The praise David speaks of is that which is of a public kind. The solemn assembly is, so to speak, a heavenly theatre, graced by the presence of attending angels; and one reason why the cherubim overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant was to let God's people know that the angels are present when they come to worship in the sanctuary. We might very properly apply what is said here to kings, on account of their eminence in rank, as in Ps. evii. 32, "Praise ye the Lord in the assembly of the elders"-that is, as we should say, in an assembly of an honoured and illustrious kind. But I prefer the former sense, and this because believers in drawing near to God are withdrawn from the world, and rise to heaven in the enjoyment of fellowship with angels, so that we find Paul enforcing his address to the Corinthians upon the necessity of decency and order, by requiring them to show some respect at least in their public religious assemblies to the angels. (1 Cor. xi. 10.) The same thing was represented by God long before, under the figure of the cherubim, thus giving his people a visible pledge of his presence.

2. I will worship towards the temple of thy holiness. He

ing:-"The kings of the earth shall sing concerning the ways of the Lord,' how that they are good and merciful."

This Psalm is entitled "a Psalm of David,” and Calvin considers him to be its author agreeably to the title; but the mention of "the temple" in the second verse seems to render such an opinion doubtful. If, however, we translate this word by "mansion," which is the proper rendering of the original" the mansion of thy sanctity:" this objection to its composition by David falls to the ground. In the Septuagint version the