to the genius of this kind of allegory the parabolical style is, on account of that great variety of natural images to be found in it. For as these images are capable of being employed in the illustration of things divine and human, between which there is a certain analogy maintained, so they easily afford that ambiguity which is necessary in this species of composition, where the language is applicable to each sense, and obscure in neither; it comprehends both parts of the allegory, and may be clearly and distinctly referred to one or the other."* The scheme of exposition so beautifully delineated, and illustrated in two instances by this truly valuable author, has been extended in theory, by another learned writer, to a great part of the Psalter; and that upon a principle deduced from the attributes of God, and the nature and design of the divine dispensations; though his own labours, like those of Dr. Hammond, were employed chiefly in literal criticism. His reasoning is as follows "In this point (namely, the application of the Psalms to the mysteries of the gospel) I am very clear. The Jews only, as a nation, acknowledged the one supreme God, under the name of Jehovah; they must be therefore his peculiar people. There is nothing capricious in this; they are correlates, and of necessity answer reciprocally to each other. Hence that singular intercourse between God and them. Hence, among other instances of his favour, his communication of himself to them by supernatural ways of oracle, inspiration, &c. When the acknowledgment of the one God branched itself, from this Jewish flock, over the face of the earth, and by that means he was become the God of all mankind, they must all, for the same reason, become his people. As God is ever the same, and his doings uniform, his conduct towards mankind must exactly be proportioned to his conduct towards the Jewish nation. Let us therefore place God in common over them both; and there will be-on one side, the Jewish nation; and on the other, mankind; on one side Canaan, and a national prosperity; on the other, heaven, and human happiness; on one side, a redemption from Egyptian servitude, and national evils; on the other, a redemption of the whole human race from absolute evil on one side, national crimes atoned by national ceremonies, sacrifices, priests; on the other, sins expiated by the one universal sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST: on one side, national and temporary saviours, kings, prophets, &c.; on the other, all this universal and eternal on one side the law, and every branch of it, adapted to a favourite nation; on the other, the everlasting gospel, suited to all mankind. It is impossible, therefore, that God can say anything to David, under the quality of king of this chosen nation, which he does not speak at the same time to JESUS CHRIST, as king of all the elect and that in a truer and nobler sense. To each of them he speaks in a sense adapted to the nature of their respective kingdoms. Nor is this latter a bare accommodation of words, but the first and highest meaning of them, and which only, absolutely speaking, can be the true sense of God; the other being this sense, confined to a particular circumstance; in other words, an absolute truth, made history, and matter of This is a principle, which shows, that, far from denying the Christian application, I consider the literal and historical sense only as a kind of vehicle for it.† Bishop Lowth on the Hebrew poetry, Lect. xi. + Preface to An Essay towards a New English Version of the Book of Psalms, by the Rev. Mr. Mudge. Upon this plan it is, that many of the Psalms are interpreted in the following sheets. In such of them as were written by David, and treat of his affairs, that extraordinary person is considered as an illustrious representative of Messiah, who is more than once foretold under the name of David, and to whom are applied, in the New Testament, Psalms which do undoubtedly, in the letter of them, relate to David, and were composed on occasion of particular occurrences which befell him; a circumstance in theology, to be accounted for upon no other principle. When therefore he describeth himself as one hated and persecuted without a cause; as one accused of crimes which he never committed, and suffering for sins, the very thoughts of which he abhorred as one whose life was imbittered by affliction, and his soul overwhelmed with sorrows; yet, withal, as one whom no troubles could induce to renounce his trust and confidence in the promises of God concerning him, when he repeateth his resolutions of adhering to the divine law, setting forth its various excellencies, and the comforts which it afforded him in the days of adversity; when he complaineth of that implacable malice, and unrelenting fury, with which he was pursued by Saul and his attendants, by Doeg the Edomite, by rebellious Absalom, traitorous Ahitophel, &c. and when, contrary to all appearances, he predicteth their destruction, with his own final exaltation; in expounding the Psalms of this cast and complexion, it hath been my endeavour to direct the reader's thoughts to parallel circumstances, which present themselves in the history of the true David; his sorrows and sufferings; his resignation under them all; his obedience to the will of his Father; the temper and behaviour of his betrayers and murderers; the prophecies of judgments to be inflicted upon them, and of glory to be conferred upon him. As the Psalter was the liturgy of the Jewish church, of which our Lord was a member, and to which he therefore entirely conformed, during his abode and humiliation upon earth, he might pour forth his complaints and "offer up his prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears," " in the very words which his progenitor David had before used under his own troubles, but which were given by inspiration, with a view to the case of that blessed person, whom, in those troubles, he had the honour to prefigure. Other Psalms there are, which disclose far different scenes. In them, the sorrows of David are at end, and the day of his deliverance hath already dawned. The heavens are opened, and Jehovah appeareth in the cause of his afflicted servant. He descendeth from above, encompassed with clouds and darkness, preceded by fire and hail, proclaimed by thunder and earthquake, and attended by lightnings and whirlwinds. The mountains smoke, and the rocks melt before him; the foundations of the globe are uncovered, and the deep from beneath is moved at his presence. The adversary is dismayed and confounded; opposition, in the height of its career, feels the blast through all its powers, and instantly withers away. The anointed of God, according to his original designation, is at length elevated to the throne; his sceptre is extended over the nations; the temple is planned by him, and erected by his son; the services of religion are appointed in perfect order and beauty: Jerusalem becometh a praise in all the earth; and the kingdom is established in honour, peace, and felicity. If in Psalms of the former kind, the holy Jesus might behold those persecutions and sufferings under which he was to be humbled, * Heb. v. 7. and to mourn, during his pilgrimage here below; in Psalms of this latter sort he might strengthen and console himself, as a man "touched with the feelings of our infirmities, and tempted in all points like as we are," by viewing "the glory that should follow;" by contemplating the manifestation of the Father in favour of his beloved Son; his own joyful resurrection, triumphant ascension, and magnificent inauguration; the conversion of the world, and the establishment of the church; events, which were foreshadowed by those above-mentioned; and to which, when the strongest expressions made use of by the divine Psalmist are applied, they will no longer appear hyperbolical; especially if we bear in mind, that these prophetic descriptions wait for their full and final accomplishment at that day, when the mystical "body of Christ," having "filled up that which is behind of his afflictions," shall also, amidst the pangs and convulsions of departing nature, arise from the dead, and ascend into heaven; where all the members of that body, which have been afflicted, and have mourned with their Lord and Master, shall be comforted and glorified together with him.t In some of the Psalms, David appears as one suffering for his sins. When man speaks of sin, he speaks of what is his own; and therefore, every Psalm, where sin is confessed to be the cause of sorrow, belongs originally and properly to us, as fallen sons of Adam, like David, and all other men. This is the case of the fifty-first, and the rest of those which are styled Penitential Psalms, and have always been used in the church as such. Sometimes, indeed, it happens, that we meet with heavy complaints of the number and burthen of sins, in Psalms, from which passages are quoted in the New Testament as uttered by our Redeemer, in which there seems to be no change of person from beginning to end. We are assured, for instance, by the apostle, Heb. x. 5, and the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses of the fortieth Psalm, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire," &c. are spoken by Messiah, coming to abolish the legal sacrifices, by the oblation of himself once for all. The same person, to appearance, continues speaking, and, only three verses after, complains in the following terms; "Innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold of me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me." So again, there are no less than five quotations from different parts of the sixty-ninth Psalm, all concurring to inform us, that Christ is the speaker through that whole Psalm. Yet the fifth verse of it runs thus; "O God, thou knowest my foolishness and my guiltiness is not hid from thee." The solution of this difficulty given, and continually insisted on, in the writings of the Fathers, is this; that Christ in the day of his passion, standing charged with the sin and guilt of his people, speaks of such their sin and guilt, as if they were his own, appropriating to himself those debts, for which, in the capacity of a surety, he had * Col. i. 24. + Neque prætermittendum illud Augustini passim; tunc Psalmos videri suavissimos, ac divinissima luce perfusos, cúm in his caput et membra. Christum et Ecclesiam, sive apertè propalatos, sive latentor designatos intelligimus. Quare iterùm atque iterum erigamus animos; atque ubi atque Davidem Solomonem; ubi Davidis hostes, Saulem, Achitophelem, alios; ubi bella et pacem, captivitatem libertatem, ac cætera, ejusmodi audimus; tum animo infigamus Christum, Ecclesiam laboribus periculisque exercitam, atque inter adversa et prospera peregrinantem; tum sanctorum persecutores, non modò visibiles, sed etiam invisibiles illas atque aëreas potestates, pugnasque in hac vitâ perpetes, ac secuturan posteà pacem sempiternam. Bossuet Dissertat. in Psalm. ad Fin. made himself responsible. The lamb, which, under the law, was offered for sin, took the name, "guilt," because the guilt contracted by the offerer, was transferred to that innocent creature, and typically expiated by its blood. Was not this exactly the case, in truth and reality, with the Lamb of God? "He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; but he bare our sins in his own body on the tree.† He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Christ and the church compose one mystical person, of which he is the head, and the church the body: and as the body speaks by the head, and the head for the body, he speaks of her sin, and she of his righteousness; which consideration is at the same time a key to any claims of righteousness made in the Psalms by her, and to any confession of sin made by him. This seems to be a satisfactory account of the matter. Such at least, appears to have been the idea generally adopted and received, in the first ages of the Christian church; a circumstance, which it is presumed, will be deemed a sufficient apology for the author, if in the explication of such passages, he hath ventured to proceed accordingly. Nay, and even in reciting the Penitential Psalms, when the unhappy sufferer is ready to sink down under that weight of wo which sin hath laid upon him, if he will extend his thoughts, as he is sometimes directed to do, to that holy and most innocent person, who felt and sorrowed so much for us all, he will thereby furnish himself with the best argument for patience, and an inexhaustible source of comfort. Nor can it, indeed, well be imagined, that our blessed Lord, as a member of the Jewish church, and an attendant on the service of the synagogue, though conscious to himself of no sin, did not frequently join with his "brethren according to the flesh," in the repetition of the Penitential as well as the other Psalms, on the days of humiliation and expiation, when the use of them might be prescribed. If from his circumcision to his crucifixion he "bare our sins in his own body;" why should it be thought strange, that he should confess them, on our behalf, with his own mouth? The offence taken at the supposed uncharitable and vindictive spirit of the imprecations which occur in some of the Psalms, ceases immediately, if we change the imperative for the future, and read, not "LET THEM BE CONfounded," &c. but, "THEY SHALL BE confounded," &c. of which the Hebrew is equally capable. Such passages will then have no more difficulty in them, than the other frequent predictions of divine vengeance in the writings of the prophets, or denunciations of it in the gospels, intended to warn, to alarm, and to lead sinners to repentance, that they may fly from the wrath to come. This is Dr. Hammond's observation; who very properly remarks, at the same time, that in many places of this sort, as particularly in Psalm cix. (and the same may be said of Psalm lxix.) it is reasonable to resolve, that Christ himself speaketh in the prophet; as being the person there principally concerned, and the completion most signal in many circumstances there mentioned; the succession, especially of Matthias, to the apostleship of Judas. It is true, that in the citation made by St. Peter from Psalm cix. in Acts i. 20, as also in that made by St. Paul from Psalm lxix. in Rom. xi. 9, the imperative form is preserved; his habitation be void," &c. "LET their table be made a snare," &c. But it may be considered, that the apostles generally cited from the Greek of the LXX. version; and took it as they found it, making no alteration, when the passage, as it there stood, was sufficient to prove the main point † 2 Cor. v. 21. * See Lev. v. 6. † 1 Pet. ii. 22. 66 LET which it was adduced to prove. If the imprecatory form be still contended for, all that can be meant by it, whether uttered by the prophet, by Messiah, or by ourselves, must be a solemn ratification of the just judgments of the Almighty against his impenitent enemies, like what we find ascribed to the blessed spirits in heaven, when such judgments were executed, Rev. xi. 17, 18. xvi. 5, 6, 7. See Merrick's Annotations on Psalm cix. and Witsii Miscellan. Sacr. Lib. I. Cap. xviii. Sect. 24. But by the future rendering of the verbs, every possible objection is precluded at once. This method hast herefore been adopted in the ensuing Commentary. Of the Psalms which relate to Israel, some are employed in celebrating the mercies vouchsafed them, from their going forth out of Egypt to their complete settlement in Canaan. These were the constant standing subjects of praise and thanksgiving in the Israelitish church. But we are taught by the writers of the New Testament, to consider this part of their history as one continued figure or allegory. We are told, that there is another spiritual Israel of God; other children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise; another circumcision, another Egypt, from the bondage of which they are redeemed; another wilderness, through which they journey; other dangers and difficulties, which there await them; other bread from heaven, for their support; and another rock to supply them with living water; other enemies to overcome; another land of Canaan, and another Jerusalem, which they are to obtain and possess for ever. In the same light are to be viewed the various provocations and punishments, captivities and restorations of old Israel afterwards, concerning which it is likewise true, that they " happened unto them for ensamples," types or figures, "and were written for our admonition."† Care has therefore been taken, to open and apply, for that salutary purpose, the Psalms which treat of the above-mentioned particulars. What is said in the Psalms occasionally of the law and its ceremonies, sacrifices, ablutions, and purifications; of the tabernacle and temple, with the services therein performed; and of the Aronical priesthood; all this Christians transfer to the new law; to the oblation of Christ; to justification by his blood, and sanctification by his Spirit; to the true tabernacle or temple, not made with hands; and to what was therein done for the salvation of the world, by Him who was, in one respect, a sacrifice; in another, a temple; and in a third, a high priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek. That such was the intention of these legal figures, is declared at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews: and they are of great assistance to us now, in forming our ideas of the realities to which they correspond. "Under the Jewish economy," says the excellent Mr. Pascal, "truth appeared but in figure; in heaven it is open, and without a veil; in the church militant it is so veiled, as to be yet discerned by its correspondence to the figure. As the figure was first built upon the truth, so the truth is now distinguishable by the figure." The variety of strong expressions used by David, in the nineteenth, and the hundred and nineteenth Psalms, to extol the enlivening, saving, healing, comforting efficacy of a law, which, in the letter of it, whether ceremonial or moral, without pardon and grace, could minister nothing but condemnation, do sufficiently prove, that David understood the spirit of it, which was the gospel itself.‡ Hæc inter, veri et spirituales Judæi, hoc est, ante Christum Christi discipuli, altiora cogitabant, et rerum cælestium Sacramenta venerati, novam Jerusalem, novum Tem |