Still we are celebrating
the glories of the kingdom of God among men, and are called upon to praise
him, as in the foregoing psalms; but those psalms looked forward to the
times of the gospel, and prophesied of the graces and comforts of those
times; this psalm seems to dwell more upon the Old-Testament dispensation
and the manifestation of God's glory and grace in that. The Jews were not,
in expectation of the Messiah's kingdom and the evangelical worship, to
neglect the divine regimen they were then under, and the ordinances that
were then given them, but in them to see God reigning, and to worship before
him according to the law of Moses. Prophecies of good things to come must
not lessen our esteem of good things present. To
Israel
indeed pertained the promises, which they
were bound to believe; but to them pertained also the giving of the law, and
the service of God, which they were also bound dutifully and conscientiously
to attend to, Rom. ix. 4. And this they are called to do in this psalm,
where yet there is much of Christ, for the government of the church was in
the hands of the eternal Word before he was incarnate; and, besides, the
ceremonial services were types and figures of evangelical worship. The
people of Israel are here required to praise and exalt God, and to worship
before him, in consideration of these two things:-- I. The happy
constitution of the government they were under, both in sacred and civil
things, ver. 1-5. II. Some instances of the happy administration of it, ver.
6-9. In singing this psalm we must set ourselves to exalt the name of God,
as it is made known to us in the gospel, which we have much more reason to
do than those had who lived under the law.
1
The LORD
reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims;
let the earth be moved. 2 The LORD
is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.
3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is
holy. 4 The king's strength also loveth judgment; thou dost
establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt ye the LORD
our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.
The foundation of all
religion is laid in this truth, That the Lord reigns. God governs the
world by his providence, governs the church by his grace, and both by his
Son. We are to believe not only that the Lord lives, but that the
Lord reigns. This is the triumph of the Christian church, and here it
was the triumph of the Jewish church, that Jehovah was their King; and hence
it is inferred, Let the people tremble, that is, 1. Let even the
subjects of this kingdom tremble; for the Old-Testament dispensation had
much of terror in it. At Mount Sinai Israel, and even Moses himself, did exceedingly
fear and quake; and then God was terrible in his holy places.
Even when he appeared in his people's behalf, he did terrible things. But we
are not now come to that mount that burned with fire, Heb. xii. 18.
Now that the Lord reigns let the earth rejoice. Then he ruled more by
the power of holy fear; now he rules by the power of holy love. 2. Much more
let the enemies of this kingdom tremble; for he will either bring them into
obedience to his golden sceptre or crush them with his iron rod. The Lord
reigns, though the people be stirred with indignation at it; though they
fret away all their spirits, their rage is all in vain. He will set his King
upon his holy hill of Zion in spite of them (Ps. ii. 1-6); first, or last,
he will make them tremble, Rev. vi. 15, &c. The Lord reigns,
let the earth be moved. Those that submit to him shall be established,
and not moved (Ps. xcvi. 10); but those that oppose him will be
moved. Heaven and earth shall be shaken, and all nations; but the kingdom of
Christ is what cannot be moved; the things which cannot be shaken shall
remain, Heb. xii. 27. In these is continuance, Isa. lxiv. 5.
God's kingdom, set up in
Israel, is here made the subject of the psalmist's praise.
I. Two things the psalmist
affirms:-- 1. God presided in the affairs of religion: He sitteth between
the cherubim (v. 1), as on his throne, to give law by the oracles
thence delivered--as on the mercy-seat, to receive petitions. This was the
honour of Israel, that they had among them the Shechinah, or special
presence of God, attended by the holy angels; the temple was the royal
palace, and the Holy of holies was the presence-chamber. The Lord is
great in Zion (v. 2); there he is known and praised (Ps. lxxvi.
1, 2); there he is served as great, more than any where else. He is high
there above all people; as that which is high is exposed to view, and
looked up to, so in Zion the perfections of the divine nature appear more
conspicuous and more illustrious than any where else. Therefore let those
that dwell in Zion, and worship there, praise thy great and terrible
name, and give thee the glory due unto it, for it is holy. The
holiness of God's name makes it truly great to his friends and terrible to
his enemies, v. 3. This is that which those above adore--Holy,
holy, holy. 2. He was all in all in their civil government, v. 4.
As in Jerusalem was the testimony of Israel, whither the tribes went up, so there
were set thrones of judgment, Ps. cxxii. 4, 5. Their government was a
theocracy. God raised up David to rule over them (and some think this psalm
was penned upon occasion of his quiet and happy settlement in the throne)
and he is the king whose strength loves judgment. He is
strong; all his strength he has from God; and his strength is not
abused for the support of any wrong, as the power of great princes often is,
but it loves judgment. He does justice with his power, and does it
with delight; and herein he was a type of Christ, to whom God would give the
throne of his father David, to do judgment and justice. He has power to
crush, but his strength loves judgment; he does not rule with rigour,
but with moderation, with wisdom, and with tenderness. The people of Israel
had a good king; but they are here taught to look up to God as he by whom
their king reigns: Thou dost establish equity (that is, God gave them
those excellent laws by which they were governed), and thou executest
judgment and righteousness in Jacob; he not only by his immediate
providences often executed and enforced his own laws, but took care for the
administration of justice among them by civil magistrates, who reigned by
him and by him did decree justice. Their judges judged for God, and their
judgment was his, 2 Chron. xix. 6.
II. Putting these two
things together, we see what was the happiness of Israel above any other
people, as Moses had described it (Deut. iv. 7, 8), that they had God so
night unto them, sitting between the cherubim, and that they had statutes
and judgments so righteous, by which equity was established, and God
himself ruled in Jacob, from which he infers this command to that happy
people (v. 5): "Exalt you the Lord our God, and worship at
his footstool; give him the glory of the good government you are under,
as it is now established, both in church and state." Note, 1. The
greater the public mercies are which we have a share in the more we are
obliged to bear a part in the public homage paid to God: the setting up of
the kingdom of Christ, especially, ought to be the matter of our praise. 2.
When we draw nigh to God, to worship him, our hearts must be filled with
high thoughts of him, and he must be exalted in our souls. 3. The more we
abase ourselves, and the more prostrate we are before God, the more we exalt
him. We must worship at his footstool, at his ark, which was as the
footstool to the mercy-seat between the cherubim; or we must cast ourselves
down upon the pavement of his courts; and good reason we have to be thus
reverent, for he is holy, and his holiness should strike an awe upon
us, as it does on the angels themselves, Isa. vi. 2, 3.
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Divine
Justice and Mercy.
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6
Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his
name; they called upon the LORD,
and he answered them. 7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar:
they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.
8 Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God
that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their
inventions. 9 Exalt the LORD
our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the LORD
our God is holy.
The happiness of Israel in
God's government is here further made out by some particular instances of
his administration, especially with reference to those that were, in their
day, the prime leaders and most active useful governors of that
people--Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, in the two former of whom the theocracy or
divine government began (for they were employed to form Israel into a
people) and in the last of whom that form of government, in a great measure,
ended; for when the people rejected Samuel, and urged him to resign, they
are said to reject God himself, that he should not be so immediately their
king as he had been (1 Sam. viii. 7), for now they would have a king, like
all the nations. Moses, as well as Aaron, is said to be among his
priests, for he executed the priest's office till Aaron was settled in
it and he consecrated Aaron and his sons; therefore the Jews call him the priest
of the priests. Now concerning these three chief rulers observe,
I. The intimate communion
they had with God, and the wonderful favour to which he admitted them. None
of all the nations of the earth could produce three such men as these, that
had such an intercourse with Heaven, and whom God knew by name, Exod.
xxxiii. 17. Here is, 1. Their gracious observance of God. No kingdom had men
that honoured God as these three men of the kingdom of Israel did. They
honoured him, (1.) By their prayers. Samuel, though not among his priests,
yet was among those that called on his name; and for this they
were all famous, They called upon the Lord; they relied not on their
own wisdom or virtue, but in every emergency had recourse to God, towards
him was their desire, and on him their dependence. (2.) By their obedience: They
kept his testimonies, and the ordinances that he gave them; they made
conscience of their duty, and in every thing made God's word and law their
rule, as knowing that unless they did so they could not expect their prayers
should be answered, Prov. xxviii. 9. Moses did all according to the pattern
shown him; it is often repeated, According to all that God commanded
Moses, so did he. Aaron and Samuel did likewise. Those were the greatest
men and most honourable that were most eminent for keeping God's testimonies
and conforming to the rule of his word. 2. God's gracious acceptance of
them: He answered them, and granted them the things which they called
upon him for. They all wonderfully prevailed with God in prayer; miracles
were wrought at their special instance and request; nay, he not only
condescended to do that for them which they desired, as a prince for a
petitioner, but he communed with them as one friend familiarly converses
with another (v. 7): He spoke unto them in the cloudy pillar.
He often spoke to Samuel; from his childhood the word of the Lord came to
him, and, probably, sometimes he spoke to him by a bright cloud
overshadowing him: however, to Moses and Aaron he often spoke out of the
famous cloudy pillar, Exod. xvi. 10; Num. xii. 5. Israel are now
reminded of this, for the confirming of their faith, that though they had
not every day such sensible tokens of God's presence as the cloudy pillar
was, yet to those that were their first founders, and to him that was their
great reformer, God was pleased thus to manifest himself.
II. The good offices they
did to Israel. They interceded for the people, and for them also they
obtained many an answer of peace. Moses stood in the gap, and Aaron
between the living and the dead; and, when Israel was in distress,
Samuel cried unto the Lord for them, 1 Sam. vii. 9. This is here referred to
(v. 8): "Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God! and, at
their prayer, thou wast a God that forgavest the people they prayed
for; and, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions, yet thou
didst not cut them off from being a people, as their sin deserved."
"Thou wast a God that wast propitious for them (so Dr. Hammond),
for their sakes, and sparedst the people at their request, even when thou
wast about to take vengeance of their inventions, that is, when thy
wrath was so highly provoked against them that it was just ready to break in
upon them, to their utter overthrow." These were some of the many
remarkable instances of God's dominion in Israel, more than in any other
nation, for which the people are again called upon to praise God (v.
9): "Exalt the Lord our God, on account of what he has done for
us formerly, as well as of late, and worship at his holy hill of
Zion, on which he has now set his temple and will shortly set his King
(Ps. ii. 6), the former a type of the latter; there, as the centre of unity,
let all God's Israel meet, with their adorations, for the Lord our God is
holy, and appears so, not only in his holy law, but in his holy
gospel."
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