Turn us again.

b

b Ps. 32. 1.

And grant us thy salvation.

8

9

h

Or, thou hast turned thine

anger from wazing hot, Deut. 13. 17. c Ps. 80. 7.

d Ps. 74. 1. & 79. 5. & 80. 4.

e Hab. 3. 2.

f Hab. 2. 1.

g Zech. 9. 10.

h 2 Pet. 2. 20, 21.

i Isa. 46. 13.

k Zech. 2. 5.

John 1. 14.

1 Ps. 72. 3.

Isa. 32. 17. Luke 2. 14.

able. It is doubtful whether any Psalm in this Third Book brings us down to so late a period of Hebrew history as the return from Babylon. And the phrase, to bring back the captivity, or rather, to turn the captivity, is not limited to that event, but is a general term (see Job xlii. 10, "The Lord turned the captivity of Job;" cp. Ezek. xvi. 53), and is used in the Psalms to express a national recovery from any great sorrow and affliction. Thus in Psalms composed by David, we read (Ps. xiv. 7), "Oh that the salvation were given to Israel out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad;" words repeated in another Psalm of David (liii. 6), and which probably became household words in Israel, and are adopted in the present Psalm.

It seems most likely that this Psalm is an echo of the foregoing. In that Psalm the Psalmist had expressed an intense desire for restoration to God's favour and presence, and he had prayed to God for his banished King, "Look on the face of Thine Anointed” (v. 9). In the present Psalm we see that his prayer is granted. The former Psalm was composed in David's days, and in his name (see lxxxiv. 9, and the Prelim. Note to that Psalm), by one of the Korhite Levites, when the King and his faithful followers were driven from Jerusalem by Absalom. The present Psalm was probably written soon after the former, when the King was about to be brought back with enthusiasm by his penitent subjects to Jerusalem (see 2 Sam. xix. 10. 43). There is a further confirmation of this opinion in the fact, that several Psalms written by David himself, during his banishment from Jerusalem, and expressing his sorrow at this time, are followed by a Psalm written by sons of Korah, speaking in his name, and referring to the same events. See Psalms 40, 41, written by David, followed by Psalms 42 and 44, written by sons of Korah.

The return of David to Jerusalem, and the reconciliation of the King to his people after their rebellion against him, and the joy which was caused by his gracious conduct to such rebels as Shimei (see 2 Sam. xix. 16-23), and the spirit of forgiveness which was then shown by David to his enemies, was a faint image of that merciful pardon and universal amnesty which are extended by God to all penitent sinners by Christ. As the Apostle says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. v. 19).

Therefore the ancient Fathers (see Augustine here, and Jerome, and the Syriac Version) saw in this Psalm a prophetic thanksgiving for the Birth of Christ, by which the two Natures, the Divine and Human, were united; and at which the Son of God became Son of Man, that the sons of men might become sons of God by adoption and grace; and in which God came down to earth, in order to raise earth to heaven. And the Church has sanctioned this opinion by appointing this Psalm

to be used on Christmas Day. The Sarum use, the Latin use, and the present Church of England use, agree in this appoint

ment.

1. Thou has brought back the captivity of Jacob] As to the historical sense, see the Prelim. Note. Spiritually (says S. Athanasius) this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ. In Him, Who is our Head, God is favourable to us; for in Him He is well pleased; and S. Augustine adds, "Christus avertit captivitatem Jacob. Quis me liberabit ? ait Apostolus (Rom. vii. 22-25). Gratia Dei per Christum Dominum nostrum. Avertit captivitatem Deus in Illo, quia remisit iniquitatem." See what follows here in v. 3.

8. I will hear what-the LORD will speak] The Psalmist, having prayed in patience for an answer from God, and then being filled with the Spirit of God, declares God's good purpose in Christ (Athanasius, Eusebius).

But let them not turn again to folly] Now that reconciliation has taken place between King David and his people, and this reconciliation has been made between Israel and God, Whose vicegerent David is, let them not turn again to the folly and sin of rebelling against their Anointed Sovereign.

In a spiritual sense, now that the World has been reconciled to God in Christ, let them no more rise up in rebellion against Him. Cp. Rom. vi. 2, 3. John v. 14. Acts iii. 26. Heb. x. 26-29. 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21.

9. Surely his salvation-nigh them-that glory may dwell in our land] This might be said literally, when David was brought back to his people, and the public worship of the Sanctuary was restored to its former beauty. But how much more true is it now that the Incarnate Word has pitched His tent (okývwσev) among us, and we behold His glory, the glory "of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!" (John i. 14. Cp. Titus ii. 11-13).

It is observable that the Sept. has several words here, which have been adopted in the Gospels to describe the Incarnation; e.g. κατασκηνώσαι, δόξαν, ̓Αλήθεια, ἐκ γῆς ἀνέτειλε, and the word owThρlov, used as by Simeon (Luke ii. 30, and in iii. 6). Compare Titus ii. 11-13, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared (shone forth) unto all men." And the devout soul can say, as was said by the aged Simeon (the Barzillai of the New Testament, cp. Luke ii. 25-32 with 2 Sam. xix. 36, 37), "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."

10. Mercy and Truth are met together; Righteousness and Peace have kissed] This was true in a literal sense, when David pardoned Shimei (2 Sam. xix. 16-22), and said, "Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day King over Israel ?" He used his power to save from death, and to show mercy. How beautiful is this personification of Mercy and Truth meeting together like Angels

Righteousness looks down

m Isa. 45. 8.

LXXXVI. 1, 2. from heaven.

in the streets of Sion (cp. lxxxix. 14, "Mercy and Truth shall go before Thy face,") and of Righteousness and Peace, like another pair of Angels, kissing each other! And how much is the beauty of this personification enhanced by its contrast with that other picture which is displayed in another Psalm, composed by David during his flight, when he had looked back on Jerusalem, then occupied by rebels and traitors. He then said, "I have seen Violence and Strife in the city. Mischief and Sorrow are in the midst of it. Deceit and Guile go not out of her streets" (see lv. 9-11). But now the aspect of things is changed. Grace meets Truth in the ways of Jerusalem, as "one heavenly messenger meets another," and Righteousness salutes Peace with a sisterly kiss of love.

How much more is this verified in the mystery of the Incarnation, and in its blessed consequences! No mortal eye can gaze on the ineffable splendour of that mystery. But, like the brilliant lustre of the noonday sun, which dazzles every eye, and yet bathes creation in light, and makes it visible and glorious, and enables men to do their appointed work, and to rejoice in the works of God, so the Incarnation, while it blinds the eye with its splendour, displays all the divine attributes in perfect harmony and proportion, and affords the strongest motives for human action, and stimulates and empowers men to labour with joy. See below, on Rom. iii. 21. 26, and Athanasius and Eusebius here, who quote 1 Cor. i. 30. Eph. ii. 14. Col. i. 20, which declare Christ to be our Righteousness and Peace; and see the Sermon of Bp. Andrewes, on this text, preached on Christmas Day, A.D. 1616, vol. i. P. 175.

11. Truth shall spring] The verb here used in the original (tsamach), is cognate to the word signifying Branch (tsemach), the prophetical Name of Christ. Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15. Zech. iii. 8, "My Servant the Branch;" and Zech. vi. 12, "the Man whose Name is the Branch." And these words are rendered in Sept. by ἀνατέλλω and ἀνατολή, which is applied in a twofold sense to Christ. Matt. iv. 16. Heb. vii. 14. Luke i. 78. Cp. note on Rev. vii. 2.

Righteousness shall look down] As out of a window. Cp. Judg. v. 28. 2 Sam. vi. 16. 2 Kings ix. 30; above, xiv. 2, and below, cii. 19. Lam. iii. 50. Virg., Georg. i. 95.

“ Neque illum

Flava Ceres alto nequidquam spectat Olympo."

12. our land shall yield her increase] A conjecture has already been submitted to the consideration of the reader, on Ps. 65 (which seems to have been written at the same time as the present Psalm, namely, at the season of David's return to Jerusalem, after the revolt of Absalom), that the King's restoration and reconciliation to his people was blessed by God with a bountiful harvest; see on lxv. 9-13; and this Psalm appears to confirm that conjecture.

13. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps] Or rather, and shall make his footsteps (to be) a path (so Sept. and Kay), for us to walk in. As St. Peter says of our Lord, He has left us "an example that ye should follow His steps" (1 Pet. ii. 21. Cp. Isa. xlix. 11; li. 10).

Christ, the "Day-spring from on high," will make righteousness to shine before Him, as the rising sun sends forth his

beams before his orb appears. As S. Augustine says, "Confitere vitam et aperis viam, et veniet Christus, et ponet in viå gressus suos, ut te informet vestigiis suis." Cp. Bp. Taylor, Pref. to his Life of Christ, p. 11. "It is reported in the Bohemian story, that S. Winceslaus their King, one winter night going to his devotions in a remote church barefooted in the snow and sharpness of unequal and pointed ice, his servant Podavivus, who waited upon his master's piety and endeavoured to imitate his affections, began to faint through the violence of the snow and cold, till the King commanded him to follow him, and set his feet in the same footsteps which his feet should mark for him; the servant did so, and either fancied a cure or found one: for he followed his prince, helped forward with shame and zeal to his imitation, and by the forming footsteps for him in the snow. In the same manner does the blessed Jesus; for, since our way is troublesome, obscure, full of objection and danger, apt to be mistaken and to affright our industry, He commands us to mark His footsteps, to tread where His feet have stood, and not only invites us forward by the argument of His example, but He hath trodden down much of the difficulty, and made the way easier and fit for our feet. For He knows our infirmities, and Himself hath felt their experience in all things but in the neighbourhoods of sin; and therefore He hath proportioned a way and a path to our strengths and capacities, and, like Jacob, hath marched softly, and in evenness with the children and the cattle, to entertain us by the comforts of His company, and the influences of a perpetual guide."

Ps. LXXXVI.] This Psalm is entitled, "A Prayer" (Heb. tephillah), one of the five Psalms so inscribed (Ps. 17. 86. 90. 102. 142). It is the only Psalm in the Third Book of the Psalter which is ascribed to David. Being placed among the Psalms of the sons of Korah, and after those of Asaph, it indicates that those Psalms were regarded by the Ancient Hebrew Church as of equal authority with the compositions of David, and that One and the same Blessed Spirit spake in them all.

It follows appropriately after the preceding Psalm, which describes the national joy on the restoration of the King, and which is a prophetic utterance of the joy with which the Divine David, Jesus Christ, is received by the faithful. But David himself speaks in a more subdued and pensive tone. He thanks God for his deliverance from the enemies who had risen up against him (vv. 13, 14), and prays for a continuance of that grace to which he owes all that he has, and on which he depends for all that he hopes for.

In a spiritual sense, this Psalm may be regarded as an utterance of the Son of David, Jesus Christ, in His humanity praying to His Father for help in His sufferings, and for the glorification of His Name among all nations (Augustine). Accordingly, this Psalm is appointed in the Latin and Sarum use, for the Festival of the Epiphany, or manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. See v. 9: "All Nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee."

1. I am poor and needy] And thus David was a type of Christ as the Man of Sorrows. See xxxiv. 6; xl. 17.

2. I am holy] As Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid (v. 16), and as united to Thee. Christ is the Holy One, and the Church is holy by her union with Him. John xvii.

d Ps. 89. 10. Isa. 51. 9.

с

Ps. LXXXVII.] The sons of Korah here again follow in the wake of their Sovereign, the sweet Psalmist of Israel. David had declared, in the foregoing Psalm, that the mercies bestowed by God on himself would overflow on all nations, and would promote the Divine glory and worship throughout the world (lxxxvi. 8, 9); and now a Korahite Psalmist takes up the same strain, and declares that all spiritual blessings have their well-spring in Sion, and would stream forth in copious abundance, and irrigate and fertilize the whole earth, and that all Nations would be refreshed by them (Athanasius, Theodoret). Accordingly this Psalm, as well as the foregoing, is appointed in the Sarum and Latin use for the Epiphany.

We need not, however, suppose that this Psalm belongs to the age of David. At that time, Babylon (mentioned in v. 4) had not risen on the horizon of Hebrew history. The Psalm seems rather to be connected with the times of Hezekiah, and with the deliverance of the King of Jerusalem from the arms of Assyria, and to have been suggested by the visit of the envoys of Babylon, and of other nations coming to Jerusalem, to congratulate him on the defeat of his enemies by the miraculous intervention of the God of Israel, and on his recovery from sickness, and to inquire concerning "the wonder that was done in the land," in the going back of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz fifteen degrees (2 Chron. xxxii. 31), and "bringing gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem." See 2 Chron. xxxii. 23. Cp. 2 Kings xx. 11, 12.

That confluence of ambassadors from lands which had been hostile to Israel, and the homage done by them to Jehovah and the King of Judah, had, in the eye of the inspired Psalmist, a prophetical and evangelical significance. It was like the coming of the first-fruits of the Gentile World in the persons of the Wise Men of the East, at the Epiphany of the royal Son and Successor of Hezekiah and David-Jesus Christ.

Therefore, well might the Psalmist rejoice in the prospect thus opened to his view. He sees with a prophetic eye the eager flowing together of all nations to Jerusalem to do homage to the future King of Judah, and to bring gifts to Him, and to receive the blessing of the Gospel, and to be born by a new birth in Christian Baptism in the spiritual Sion of His Church, and to become citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. xii. 22).

This prophecy began to be fulfilled at the Epiphany, when the first-fruits of the Gentiles were offered to Christ at Bethlehem, and it received a further fulfilment on the Day of Pentecost, when the devout men from those very countries,formerly the enemies of God and His Church,-which are mentioned in this Psalm, came to Jerusalem, and listened to the preaching of St. Peter, and were baptized. Babylon and Egypt had been the persecutors of the People of God. These national Sauls then became national Pauls. The "Parthians, Medes, and Elamites" of the Acts of the Apostles, are prefigured by Babylon in this Psalm, in v. 4. See below, on Acts ii. 9; and on 1 Pet. v. 13. 66 Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene," represent the Egypt of the Psalm (v. 4); and they who received the Gospel at Sion, carried it back with them into their own lands. The Ethiopia, Philistia, and Tyre of the Psalm (v. 4), are also found in the Apostolic records of the first conversions to the Gospel. See on Acts viii. 27. 40; ix. 32—43; xxi. 3. 7.

This magnificent and beautiful Psalm had a prelude (in Ps. 46), from one of the same family of Korah, chanting in glad strains the same victory of the God of Israel, and the deliverance of Hezekiah and Jerusalem, and seeing in that victory

over Assyria a pledge of the divine triumphs of God's Truth over all the nations of the earth. See above, on Ps. xlvi. 10, 11. Here is another evidence of the fact, that the descendants of Korah, who had rebelled against God and His Priesthood in the wilderness, became not only the singers of the Sanctuary, but the missionary Psalmists of the Church. See above, on Ps. 84, Prelim. Note.

1. His foundation] The city which He (namely, God) hath founded (not "her foundation," as in the Prayer Book Version), is in the holy mountains: the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob; not only because of His Temple erected there, and its sacrifices, prophetic of Christ, but because, "Out of Zion would go forth the law, and the Word of God from Jerusalem " (Isa. ii. 3); because there the one great Sacrifice for sin was to be offered, and the gift of the Holy Spirit was to be poured out, and because the divine commission was, that "Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in Christ's Name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke xxiv. 47).

3. Glorious things are spoken of thee] The city of God is the Church, and glorious things are spoken of her, because the King of glory dwells in her (S. Athanasius).

4. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me] Rather, I will record Rahab (i. e. Egypt: see lxxxix. 10. Isa. xxx. 7; li. 9; and above, on Job ix. 13) and Babylon (Babel), as among those who know (that is, among those who believe in, fear, and love) Me. These are the words of God Himself, declaring that the two great earthly powers, the enemies of God and His People, Egypt and Babylon,the one on the south, the other on the north,-would do homage to Him, and that their names would be enrolled and recorded in the census of the Church.

This is a prophecy of the future subjection of all worldly pride and dominion, however hostile, to the sceptre of Christ. Either willingly or unwillingly, "All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall do Him service" (lxxii. 11). This has been already in part fulfilled. See Prelim. Note to the Psalm.

Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia] See above, on xlv. 12; lx. 8; lxviii. 31; lxxii. 10; cviii. 9, which are prophetic of the conversion of these nations to the Gospel of Christ.

دو

This man was born there] That is, in Sion (see v. 5); as the Septuagint renders, ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἐγενήθη ἐν aur; one man in rapid succession after another was born there. God counts each believer singly: "The Lord knoweth them that are His" (2 Tim. ii. 19); Christ "calleth all His sheep by name (John x. 3); "All the hairs of your head are numbered" (Matt. x. 30). He says, "This man," and "that man," in every part of the world, however distant, is born by the One Baptism of Christ, in Zion, that is, in the One Church of God, diffused throughout the world. He says of each and of all, that they are "no longer strangers, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God" in Christ and His Church (Eph. ii. 19). He says to each and to all, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. xii. 22), to that "Jerusalem which is above, and which is the mother of us all " (Gal. iv. 26). Compare the Evangelical prophecy in Isa. ii. 2, 3: "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it." And above, Ps. xxii. 27. Isa. xliv. 5; lx. 4; lxvi. 7. Jer. iii. 17. Zech. viii. 22.