Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_600_e.lzh/3_673.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-02 | 7KB | 130 lines

\*Ver. 9. \\And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord\\, &c.]
Not in the destruction of his enemies, but in the God
of his salvation; the Targum is, %in the Word of the
Lord%; the essential Word of God, the promised Messiah,
Saviour, and Redeemer. Christ is the object of a
believer's joy; he rejoices in his person, as he is the
mighty God, able to save him, and to keep what he
has committed to him, and to preserve him from falling;
as he is God and man in one person, and so fit to
be a Mediator between God and man; and as he is a
prophet to instruct him, a priest to expiate his sin and
make intercession for him, and as a King to rule over,
protect, and defend him; and as he stands in the relations
of a father, husband, brother, and friend: he rejoices
in what he has done and is doing; in that this
Word is made flesh, and has obtained eternal redemption,
and now appears in the presence of God, as an
advocate and intercessor: it follows,
\*\\it shall rejoice in his salvation\\;
that which Jehovah the Father has determined
upon, provided for, and has formed the
scheme of; that which Jehovah the Son undertook to
accomplish, and now has finished; and that which Jehovah
the Spirit had made a discovery and application
of unto the psalmist, in answer to his request in \\#Ps 35:3\\.
This filled him with so much joy, as it does every believer
that has a view of interest in it; seeing hereby
the law is fulfilled,justice is satisfied, sin is atoned for,
the pardon of it is procured, an everlasting righteousness
is brought in, and a solid foundation laid for hope
of eternal glory and happiness.

\*Ver. 10. \\All my bones shall say\\, &c.] So, in a figurative
sense, vexation and disquietude are ascribed to
the bones, \\#Ps 6:2 38:3\\; and sometimes
joy and gladness, \\#Ps 51:8\\. His soul is said to rejoice
in \\#Ps 35:9\\; and here his bones are said to
show forth the praises of the Lord; and both together
design the whole man, as heart and flesh in \\#Ps 84:2\\;
and the bones being the strength of the body may
denote his saying what follows, with all his might, and
with all his strength, and with the utmost fervency of
spirit:
\*\\Lord, who is like unto thee\\; on account of the
perfections of his nature, which appear in the salvation
and deliverance of his people: there is none like unto
him for his wisdom, holiness, power, grace, and mercy;
for his foreknowledge, wisdom, and counsel, in forming
the scheme of salvation; for his holiness and justice,
which are glorified by it; for his might and power in
effecting it; and for his grace, mercy, goodness, and
faithfulness shown in keeping covenant with his people,
in pardoning and passing by their iniquity and transgression,
and in condescending to take notice of his
poor and needy, to deliver them, as follows; see \\#Ps 113:5-8\\;
\*\\which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him: yea\\,
\\the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him\\?
in which words the psalmist
doubtless respects himself and his own case, who was
poor and afflicted, and stood in need of help when he
was persecuted by Saul, who was his enemy, too strong
for him, and who sought to spoil and ruin him, but
the Lord delivered him out of his hands; see \\#Ps 18:17\\.
They agree with the case of all the Lord's poor
and needy, who are so not only in a temporal sense, as
they commonly be; and in such sense as all mankind
are, though every one is not sensible of his spiritual
poverty through sin; having neither food nor raiment,
nor any thing to procure them with, and yet think
themselves rich and increased with goods; but in the
best sense, being poor in spirit and rich in faith; these
have enemies stronger than they. Sin is sometimes
represented as a person, their antagonist that fights
against them, wars with them, prevails over them
sometimes, and carries them captive: sin is too strong
for a man without the grace of God; nay, it was too
strong for Adam in innocence, and spoiled him of the
image of God, stripped him of his righteousness, and
marred all the glory and honour in which he was; and
it is too strong for a man that has the grace of God,
when left to himself: but the Lord delivers his people
from it; they; are redeemed from it, and saved from
punishment for it by the blood of Christ; and they are
freed from the power and dominion of it, by the Spirit
and grace of Christ at conversion, and at death they
are delivered from the being of it. Satan is the strong
man armed, and is an overmatch for the poor and
needy; but Christ the mighty God is stronger than he,
and has ransomed them out of the hands of him that
was stronger than they; and the prey, or they that
were made a spoil by him, are taken out of the hands
of the mighty, and the lawful captive is delivered:
they are, indeed, assaulted by his temptations, in which
he would be too many for them, but that they are
strengthened against him by the Lord, and are enabled
to withstand him; who, in the issue, flees from them;
nor can he do as he pleases with them, nor reassume
his power over them he once had, nor lead them captive
at his will as he once did: God is on their side,
Christ is their patron and defender, that pleads their
cause against him; the Spirit that is within them is
greater than he that is in the world; angels are all
around them, and in a little while these poor and needy
will be in heaven, and out of his reach, and so of every
oppressor and persecutor; now they are the weak things
of this world, and their enemies are the mighty ones,
and too strong for them, who spoil them of their good
name and character, and sometimes of their goods and
property; but the Lord does and will deliver them
out of their hands, and enter them into rest, where the
wicked cease from troubling.

\*Ver. 11. \\False witnesses did rise up\\, &c.] Against
David, saying he sought the hurt of Saul, \\#1Sa 24:9\\,
as did against David's antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ,
\\#Mt 26:59-61\\; and against his apostles, \\#Ac 24:5,6\\;
and very frequently do they rise up and bear false
witness against his people, which is a very heinous
crime;
\*\\they laid to my charge [things] that I knew not\\:
such as David was not conscious of, never thought of
doing, much less attempted to do; as the taking away
of Saul's life, the contrary of which appeared by his
cutting off his skirt only when he was in his hands,
and taking away his spear from his bolster when he
could have taken off his head; and such were the things
laid to the charge of the Messiah, David's son, who
knew no sin, nor did any; and the like are exhibited
against his members, who go through good report and
bad report, and whose good conversation is falsely accused by malicious men.