_God’s lordship in the world.—The citizens of his spiritual
kingdom.—An exhortation to receive him._
A Psalm of David.
The earth _is_ the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and
they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the
floods.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his
holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lift up his
soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from
the God of his salvation.
This _is_ the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O
Jacob. Selah.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Who _is_ this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD
mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift _them_ up, ye everlasting
doors: and the King of glory shall come in.
Who _is_ this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he _is_ the King of
glory. Selah.
This Psalm is a prophecy concerning the kingdom of Christ to be spread
and extended throughout the whole world by the Gospel.
By a striking apostrophe David turns himself to the kings, princes,
and wise ones of the earth, and the men of power and authority, whom
he calls after the genius of the Hebrew language, the ‘gates of the
world.’ Remember, (saith he to such,) that the earth is the Lord’s, he
is Lord of all. It was he that gave you your kingdoms. He has set up
his Christ as King over all, whom if ye adore and acknowledge not, ye
shall perish together with your kingdoms, and shall be dashed in
pieces like a potter’s vessel.
He exhorts such to acknowledge themselves sinners: for these powerful
ones, these pharisees and these wise ones of the world, being blinded
with a conceited opinion of human wisdom and righteousness, are above
all others enfuriated against the Gospel: for when the kingdom of
grace and of the remission of sins is preached; when this Christ is
declared and proclaimed by the Gospel to be the only King of eternal
peace, the only victorious King over sin, death, and the devil; then
these tyrants and powerful ones of the world immediately burst out
with their cry of pride “Who is this King of Glory? Who?” As if they
should say, what! Shall those poor abject fishermen, those dross of
the earth teach us? Shall they, instead of the law of Moses, and
instead of the religion which we received from our forefathers, force
upon us this new worship of God, and this King of theirs who was
hanged upon the cross? Shall they persuade us to believe such dreams
as these?
This Psalm, therefore, at the same time intimates that this kingdom of
Christ should not be corporeal or earthly, nor of such a kind as
should destroy political governments: but a kingdom in which the
preachers of it should bring into subjection unto Christ the world and
the kingdoms of the world by the word and the Gospel.
To this kingdom (says David) kings and rulers shall oppose themselves
and shall crucify the King and Lord of Glory, and shall persecute the
Apostles and Ministers of the word: but he nevertheless shall break
through all kingdoms, and in defiance of every opposer shall enter
into the world and reign by the Gospel in the midst of his enemies: he
shall give to his Apostles a mouth and wisdom which none of their
adversaries shall be able to gainsay or resist: and while the
mightiest kingdoms of the earth, as Daniel saith, shall be moved and
destroyed, this eternal king shall endure for ever and be truly
manifested to be the Lord of victory and of glory.
It has reference to the First Commandment of the Decalogue, and to the
first, second, and third petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.