Collect.
—that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may
of thee be plenteously rewarded.
Rather—“that with that enlarged capacity, which without thee we cannot
acquire, there may likewise be an increase of the gift, which from thee
alone we can wholly receive.”
Ps. VIII.
V. 2. _Out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength_, _because of thine enemies_; _that thou mightest
still the enemy and the avenger_.
To the dispensations of the twilight dawn, to the first messengers of the
redeeming word, the yet lisping utterers of light and life, a strength
and power were given _because of the enemies_, greater and of more
immediate influence, than to the seers and proclaimers of a clearer day:
even as the first reappearing crescent of the eclipsed moon shines for
men with a keener brilliance than the following larger segments,
previously to its total emersion.
Ib. v. 5.
_Thou madest him lower than the angels_, _to crown him with glory and
worship_.
Power + idea = angel.
Idea—power = man, or Prometheus.
Ps. LXVIII.
V. 34. _Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel_: _his worship and
strength is in the clouds_.
The “clouds,” in the symbolical language of the Scriptures, mean the
events and course of things, seemingly effects of human will or chance,
but overruled by Providence.
Ps. LXXII.
This psalm admits no other interpretation but of Christ, as the Jehovah
incarnate. In any other sense it would be a specimen of more than
Persian or Moghul hyperbole, and bombast, of which there is no other
instance in Scripture, and which no Christian would dare to attribute to
an inspired writer. We know, too, that the elder Jewish Church ranked it
among the Messianic Psalms.—N.B. The word in St. John and the Name of
the Most High in the Psalms are equivalent terms.
V. 1. _Give the king thy judgments_, _O God_; _and thy righteousness
unto the king’s son_.
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, the only begotten, the
Son of God and God, King of Kings, and the Son of the King of Kings!
Ps. LXXIV.
V. 2. _O think upon thy congregation_, _whom thou hast purchased and
redeemed of old_.
The Lamb sacrificed from the beginning of the world, the God-Man, the
Judge, the self-promised Redeemer to Adam in the garden!
V. 15. _Thou smotest the heads of the Leviathan in pieces_; _and
gavest him to be meat for the people in the wilderness_.
Does this allude to any real tradition? The Psalms appears to have been
composed shortly before the captivity of Judah.
Ps. LXXXII. vv. 6–7.
The reference which our Lord made to these mysterious verses gives them
an especial interest. The first apostasy, the fall of the angels, is,
perhaps, intimated.
Ps. LXXXVII.
I would fain understand this Psalm; but first I must collate it word by
word with the original Hebrew. It seems clearly Messianic.
Ps. LXXXVIII.
Vv. 10–12. _Dost thou show wonders among the dead_, _or shall the
dead rise up again and praise thee_? _&c._
Compare Ezekiel xxxvii.
Ps. CIV.
I think the Bible version might with advantage be substituted for this,
which in some parts is scarcely intelligible.