Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_200.lzh/4_232.TXT

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accepting them, and admitting them into his presence,
and to partake of his fayours, and by pardoning their
sins and saving their souls; which is not by works of
righteousness they have donor but according to his
abundant mercy; and by giving them eternal life and
happiness at the great day. And teach me thy statutes;
which is often requested; and which not only shows
the need of divine teachings, and the psalmist's earnest
and importunate desire to have them; but also that
the mercy, grace, and kindness of God, have an in-
fluence on the holy life and conversation of the saints,
and do not at all encourage licentiousness.
Ver. 125. I am thy servant, &c.] Not only by crea-
tion, but by grace; and as he had a work to do, he desires
to know what it was; and as it was proper he should
know his Master's will, he applies to him for it; using
this as an argument, that he was his servant, devoted
to his service, and willing to perform it to the best
of his knowledge and ability; and therefore prays,
give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies;
the Scriptures, which testify of the will of God; which
are only rightly understood by those who have their
understandings opened and enlightened; or have an
traderstanding given them, that they may understand
them, so as to receive and embrace the doctrine, and
do the precepts<ff them: and such an understanding is
the gift of God, and owing to his powerful and effi-
cacious grace; see Luke xxiv. 45. 1 John v. 20.
Ver. 126. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, &c.]
To send the Messiah, to work righteousness; to fu!fil
the law, and vindicate the honour of it, broken by
men. It was always a notion of the Jews that the
time of the Messiah's coming would be when it was a
time of great wickedness in the earth; and which
seems to agree with the word of God, and was true
in fact; see Mal. ii. 17. and iii. 1, 2, 3, 15, 16. and iv. 2.
Or to arise and have mercy on Zion, for which there
is a fixed time: and itsceres as if it would be when re-
ligion greatly declines, and profanehess abounds; when
love is waxen cold, and there is no faith in the earth;
and when the days are like those of Noah and Lot,
Luke xvii. $6, 28. and xviii. 8. of to take vengeance
on wicked men, by sending down his judgments on
them now, as well as he will punish them hereafter;
for which a time is appointed, though no man knows
of it. The words may be rendered, it is time to work
for the Lord ·; so the Septuagint version; to which
agrees the Targum," it is time to do the will of the
*' Lord;" and the Syriac .and Arabic versions, it is
time to worship the Lord. It is proper, in declining
times, for good men .to bestir themselves and be in.
action, to attempt the revival of religion, to doall that
in them lies to support the cause of God, and to vin-
dicate his honour and glory. For they have made reid
thy law; the whole word of God, the Scriptures; as
atheists and deists, who deny the authority of them;
Pharisees, who preferred their oral law to the written
word, and by the traditions of the elders made it of none
effect; Papists, by their unwritten traditions, and de-
nying the common. people the reading ofthe Scriptures
in their mother tongue; and all false teachers, who wrest
the Scriptures, and put false glosses on them,and handle
the word of God deceitfully; and all profane sinners,
who bid defiance to the law, and, as much as in them
lies, abrogate it, and set up a law of their own, and
frame mischief by it: or the law of faith may be meant;
the Gospel of Christ, and the several truths of it, which
are opposed, contradicted, and blasphemed by men of
corrupt minds; and particularly the doctrine of justi-
fication by faith in Christ's r',ghteousness; which are
made. void by the doctrine of works; and even the
law itself is made void by the same: for not those
that maintain the doctrine of Christ's righteousness,
but those that establish their own, make void the law;
presenting a righteousness to it, which is not answera-
ble to its demands, Rom. iii. 31.
Ver. 127. Therefore I love thy commandments, &c.]
Because he was the Lord's servant, as Aben Ezra;
or rather because the wicked made void the law.
His love was the more inflamed and increased towards
it by the contempt it was had in by others; he pre-
ferred it above gold, yea, above fine gold; or gold of
Phez, a place where the best gold was, as was thought:
the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it
the topaz; and the Syriac and Arabic versions, precious
stones or gems; see ver. 72. and Psal. xix. 10.
Ver. 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concern-
ing all things to be right, &c.] He had an impartial
regard to all the commandments of God; and valued
one as well as another, and walked according to all of
them; making no difference either in his affection or
practice between one and another, as being more or
less necessary, just, and right: he had an equal respect
to the lighter and weightier matters of the law; and,
like Zacharias and Elisabeth, walked in all the com-
mandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless;
looking upon them all, with respect to every thing
commanded or forbidden by them, to be just and equi-
table. And I hate every false way; every command,
institution, and ordinance of men, which are opposed
to the will of God; every false way of worship, all
superstition and idolatry; every false doctrine what-
soever is contrary to the testimonies and word of God:
and indeed where there is a true love of the word, wor-
ship, and ordinances of God, there must be an hatred
of these.
     \^p\^, ~, Pn.--The Seventeenth Part.
Ver. l29. Thy testimonies are wonderful, &c.] The
Scriptures, which testify of God, his mind and will,
are wonderful both with respect to the author of them,
the things contained in them, and the use and advan.
tags of them. They give an account of the wonderful
works of creation; of their author and matter; of the
manner, order, and time of their being wrought: they
relate many wonderful events of Providence, both in
a way of mercy and judgment; they declare several
surprising miracles, wrought by Moses and others, and
exhibit many marvelIons things in types and figures:
are full of prophecies of extraordinary things,
have been exactly accomp. lished, and contain
many exceeding great and prectous promises; and
abound with doctrines abstruse and recondite, hid from
the carnal sense and reason of men; the mysteries of
the Gospel, and of the grace of God, such as respect

{o} \^hwhyl twvel te\^ tempus est agendi pro Deo, Gussetius, p. 649. Tempus
faciendi Domino, Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus.