Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

2

IN SALEM ALSO IS HIS TABERNACLE.

"In Judah is God known; his name is great in
Israel."

66

The Holy Ghost, to whom all the future is present, very frequently in the Psalms speaks of things which are to come in the past tense, as here. "In Judah is God known." The days are coming, when they shall all know me, saith the Lord, from the least to the greatest;" none will require to say to his brother, or to his neighbour, Know the Lord. "This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, when I shall take away their sins." This covenant will be an everlasting covenant with Abraham's seed. "The people shall be all righteous, and shall inherit the land for ever." How glorious shall that land be, where God is known to all, and where universal brotherhood reigns! then will this song be sung in the land of Judah, "We have a strong city salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." "Praise the Lord O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Zion; for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee; he maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat." (Psalm cxlvii. 12).

"In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwell-
ing place in Zion."

Christ now sitteth at the right hand of God, until the appointed time, when God "will set his king upon his holy hill of Zion;" then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and that throne shall be for ever and ever. The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation, and hath said, "Here will I dwell for ever; this is my rest, for I

[ocr errors]

MOUNT ZION ABIDETH FOR EVER.

3

have desired it." "My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore."

"There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle."

There, (viz. in Zion) brake he, (viz. that God who is known in Judah, and whose name is great in Israel) the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and all their destructive instruments of war; and they shall be burned with fire. The same great event is alluded to in the 46th Psalm, "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; and burneth the chariot in the fire;" even in the great day of his wrath, when he "rends the heavens, and comes down, and the mountains shall flow down at his presence;" the earth will be removed out of her place; the cities of the nations be thrown down, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.

"Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey."

The only mountain unmoved by the awful concussion shall be mount Zion, "which at no time. can be removed. but abideth for ever;" therefore shall it, in that day, be glorious, and excellent; it will be "his glorious holy mountain ;" and will form an exception to the general wreck, "in the day of slaughter, when the towers fall." The Lord will destroy all the boasted weapons of war: all who

4

THE STOUT HEARTED ARE SPOILED.

use them shall be the first objects of his vengeance, and especially the vast concourse of armies under Antichrist and his ten kings, massed together in order of battle on the great plain of Esdraelon; to whom the following sentence particularly refers.

"The stout hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands."

All the stout hearted, the strong, the courageous, shall be spoiled. There will be great accumulation of spoil; for Antichrist and his subordinates were the spoilers of the world; but now "when they shall cease to spoil, they shall be spoiled, and their spoil shall be gathered, like the gathering of the caterpillar." (Isaiah xxxiii. 4). Thus the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance." And the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; (and this will be the manner of their death) their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet; and their eyes shall consume away in their holes; and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth.” (Zechariah xiv .13). It will be a new, and terrible, and degrading form of death, to which they shall be subjected, in the day of his fierce anger: thus shall they sleep their sleep, and their hands be powerless.

"At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the charioteer and horse are cast into a dead sleep."

"Thou, even thou art to be feared; and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry."

[ocr errors]

THE WRATH OF MEN SHALL PRAISE HIM.

5

"Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still." When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth."

66

'Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts shall lop the bough with terror, and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down; and the haughty shall be humbled." (Isaiah x. 23). In that day when the nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters; God shall rebuke them; and (those that for the moment escape) shall flee afar off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind; and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind; and behold at eveningtide, trouble; and before the morning, they are not." (Isaiah xvii. 13). "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth" all who survive that great and dreadful day, will say “Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry;" for "Thou hast spoken to the nations in thy wrath, and hast vexed them in thy sore displeasure. God will distinguish between those who serve him, and those who serve him not; he will save all the meek of the earth: henceforward and for ever "The meek shall inherit the earth, they shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

66

Surely the wrath of men shall praise thee."

God makes the wrath of men subservient to his praise, when by his judgments his character is viudicated, and made manifest. Thus the wrath of Pharaoh, and his oppression, was the occasion of such displays of divine power as to shew his great

6

VOW AND PAY UNTO THE LORD YOUR GOD.

ness and glory; the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar against Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, was the occasion of praise to God, in quenching the violence of fire. The nations shall be angry, and give vent to their impotent wrath, in defiant and blasphemous language; then will God make their wrath accrue to his praise.

"The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."

God will not make a full end; there shall be as "the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done;" the few survivors will be so awed by the glorious majesty of the Lord, that wrath will give place to terror; then to wonder, and adoration of him, who is the doer of these terrible judgments, "God manifest in the flesh."

"Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God."

The praises which have waited for God in Zion, will now begin; and "unto him shall the vow be performed." God loves those who vow, and perform their vows: thus did Jepthah open his mouth to the Lord, and did not go back, although it involved the loss of all that was dear to him on the earth. Be not rash with thy mouth; but ponder the path of thy feet, when thou comest before God. In the ages to come all will delight in God, and will both make and "daily perform their vows."

"Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared."

God will be pleased to receive from all peoples, and kindreds, and nations, and tongues, tangible

« НазадПродовжити »