Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_600_e.lzh/3_679.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-02 | 7KB | 138 lines

\*Ver. 7. \\How excellent [is] thy loving kindness, O God\\,
&c.] Which has appeared to men and not angels, to
some and not others; to the chief of sinners, who are
by nature children of wrath as others; in choosing,
redeeming, and calling them, taking them into his
family, and making them heirs of eternal glory; and
all this of his sovereign good will and pleasure, there
being nothing in them that could move him to it;
which loving kindness was in his heart from everlasting,
and will never change in him, nor depart from
them; and hence it must be most excellent and precious:
\*\\therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of
thy\\ \\wings\\; not all men; for all have not
faith, only some, to whom it is given to believe, and
who know the Lord and his loving kindness; by which
they are induced and encouraged to trust in him, to
betake themselves to him for mercy and protection,
which they find in him: the allusion is either to the
hen that gathers her chickens under her wings, and
protects them in time of danger, and so it expresses
both the paternal affection of God to his people, and
the protection of them; or else to the wings of the
cherubim over the mercy seat, between which the
Lord sat and communed with his people, and showed
mercy and favour to them, which encouraged them to
trust in him.

\*Ver. 8. \\They shall be abundantly sallied with the fatness of thy\\
\\house\\, &c.] By his %house% is meant the
church of God, of his building, and where he dwells;
by the fatness of it the provisions there, the word and
ordinances, and the blessings of grace which they hold
forth; and especially Christ, the fatted calf, the bread
of life, whose flesh is meat indeed, and whose blood is
drink indeed, and which make a feast of fat things;
and these they that trust in the Lord are welcome to
eat and drink of abundantly, and to abundant satisfaction;
see \\#Mt 5:6 Ps 22:26\\;
\*\\and thou shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasure\\;
the love
of God, whose streams make glad the city of God; or
the fulness of grace, which is in Christ, out of which
believers draw with joy, and drink with pleasure; or
eternal glory and happiness, enjoyed in the presence
of God, in which is fulness of joy, and at whose right
hand are pleasures for evermore; a never-ceasing torrent of them.

\*Ver. 9. \\For with thee [is] the fountain of life\\, &c.]
Or %lives% {f}: God himself is the fountain of living waters;
this is a reason proving the happiness of those that
trust in the Lord, and that they shall enjoy the above
things; because with God the object of their trust is
the fountain of life; not only of natural life, from
whom they have it, and by whom it is supported, but
of spiritual life, being quickened by him when dead in
sin, by virtue of which they live by faith on Christ,
and also of eternal life; and the phrase denotes, that
life is originally in God as in its fountain, and that
both the fulness of it is with him, and the freeness of
it in the communication of it to others, as well as its
continuance and duration;
\*\\in thy light shall we see
light\\; God is light itself, the Father of lights, and the
former of it in every sense; in the light of his countenance,
and the discoveries of his love, they that trust
in him see light, or enjoy comfort; and in the light of
his Son Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness and light
of the world, they see the face of God, and enjoy his
favour, and behold the glory and excellency of Christ
himself; and in the light of the divine Spirit, who is a
spirit of wisdom and revelation, they see their sins exceeding
sinful, their righteousness as nothing, and a
preciousness in the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice
of Christ; and in the light of the divine word they
see the truths of the Gospel in their native simplicity
and excellency, and the duties of religion to be performed
by them; and in the light of faith, which is the
gift of God, they have at least a glimpse of the unseen
glories of the other world; and when the beatific vision
shall take place, they shall see no more darkly through
a glass, but face to face, even God himself, as he is in
Christ.

\*Ver. 10. \\O continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee\\, &c.]
That is, spiritually and experimentally;
and such are they that trust in him and love him:
and these are the objects of the love of God; not that
their knowledge, faith, or love, are the cause of his love
to them; but these things describe and point at manifestly
the objects of it; and this request regards the
open discovery of it unto them: for the love of God
itself always continues, though the manifestations of
it are not always the same; and it is for the enlargement
and continuance of them the psalmist here prays:
for it may be rendered, %draw out thy loving kindness% {g};
that is, to a greater length; make a larger and clearer
discovery of it, that the height and depth, and length
and breadth of it, may be more discerned;
\*\\and thy righteousness unto the upright in heart\\; who are sincere
and without guile; who have new hearts created and
right spirits renewed in them, and have truth in the
inward parts; and unto and upon such is the righteousness
of Christ, and where it always continues, for
it is an everlasting one; but here it means a clearer
and constant revelation of it from faith to faith; unless
it should rather intend the righteousness of God in protecting
his people from the insults of their enemies,
and the continual exertion of it for that purpose.

\*Ver. 11. \\Let not the foot of pride come against me\\,
&c.] Meaning some proud enemy, such an one as
Ahithophel, of whom R. Obadiah expounds, it, who
lifted up his heel against him; and is applicable to any
haughty enemy of Christ and his people, and particularly
to antichrist, the man of sin, that exalts himself
above all that is called God;
\*\\and let not the
hand of the wicked remove me\\; either from the house
of God; or from his throne, that high station and
dignity in which he was placed.

\*Ver. 12. \\There are the workers, of iniquity fallen\\,
&c.] Either in the pit they dug for others; or into
hell, where they shall be turned at last; \\see
Gill on "Ps 5:5"\\ and \*\\see Gill on "Ps 6:8"\\;
\*\\they are cast down, and
shall not be able to rise\\; which will be the case of
Babylon when fallen, \\#Re 18:21\\, and this distinguishes
the fails of the wicked from those of the
righteous; for though the righteous fall, whether into
sin, or into any calamity, they rise again; not so the
wicked; see \\#Ps 37:24 Mic 7:8\\; and thus, as
the psalm begins with the transgression of the wicked,
it ends with their ruin.

{f} \^Myyx rwqm\^ %vena vitarum%, Montanus.
{g} \^Kvm\^ %trahe%, Pagninus, Montanus; extende, Vatablus, Piscator;
%protrahe%, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.