[1] _Upon the throne of David._ This was in accordance with the
promise made to David (1 Kings viii. 25; 2 Sam. vii. 12,
13; Ps. cxxxii. 11). This promise was understood as
referring to the Messiah. The primary idea is, that He
should be descended in the line of David, and accordingly
the New Testament writers are often at pains to show that
the Lord Jesus was of that family (Luke ii. 4). When it is
said that He would sit upon the throne of David, it is not
to be taken literally. The peculiarity of the reign of
David was, that _he reigned over the people of God._ . . .
To sit upon the throne of David, therefore, means to reign
over the people of God; and in this sense the Messiah sits
on his throne.--_Barnes._
The angel who came to Mary affirmed these very things of
the Son then to be born (Luke i. 32, 33).--_Cowles._
[2] According to my view of the Unity of the Divine nature, God
is one, as we meet Him in the Old Testament and the Oldest;
in the New and the Newest. There are four Testaments: an
Oldest and an Old, a New and a Newest. _The Oldest
Testament is the Nature of Things._ The Newest is Christ's
continued life in the present influences of the Holy
Spirit. The Oldest and the Newest are unwritten; the Old
and New are written; but the voices of the four are
one.--_Joseph Cook._
[3] See Bushnell's sermon on "The Power of an Endless Life," in
"The New Life," pp. 287-307.
[4] The remarkably emphatic repetition of the idea of His
ruling in righteousness, justice, and real benevolence,
suggests how fearfully the world has been _misgoverned,_
and how little the great body of human government in even
civilised nations have sought and practically secured the
welfare of the millions.--_Cowles._