Bible Commentaries
Psalms 109

Verse 1

PSALM CIX

The psalmist speaks against his inveterate enemies, 1-5.

He prays against them, and denounces God's judgments, 6-15.

The reason on which this is grounded, 16-20.

He prays for his own safety and salvation, using many arguments

to induce God to have mercy upon him, 21-31.

NOTES ON PSALMS CIX

The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, has already often occurred, and on it the Versions offer nothing new. The Syriac says it is "a Psalm of David, when the people, without his knowledge, made Absalom king; on which account he was slain: but to us (Christians) he details the passion of Christ." That it contains a prophecy against Judas and the enemies of our Lord, is evident from Acts 1:20. Probably, in its primary meaning, (for such a meaning it certainly has,) it may refer to Ahithophel. The execrations in it should be rendered in the future tense, as they are mere prophetic denunciations of God's displeasure against sinners. Taken in this light, it cannot be a stumbling-block to any person. God has a right to denounce those judgments which he will inflict on the workers of iniquity. But perhaps the whole may be the execrations of David's enemies against himself. See on Psalms 107:20. Ahithophel, who gave evil counsel against David, and being frustrated hanged himself, was no mean prototype of Judas the traitor; it was probably on this account that St. Peter, Acts 1:20, applied it to the case of Judas, as a prophetic declaration concerning him, or at least a subject that might be accommodated to his case.

Verse Psalms 109:1. Hold not thy peace — Be not silent; arise and defend my cause.

Verse 2

Verse Psalms 109:2. The mouth of the wicked and - the deceitful are opened against me — Many persons are continually uttering calumnies against me. Thou knowest my heart and its innocence; vindicate my uprightness against these calumniators.

Verse 4

Verse Psalms 109:4. For my love they are my adversaries — In their behalf I have performed many acts of kindness, and they are my adversaries notwithstanding; this shows principles the most vicious, and hearts the most corrupt. Many of the fathers and commentators have understood the principal part of the things spoken here as referring to our Lord, and the treatment he received from the Jews; and whatever the original intention was, they may safely be applied to this case, as the Psalms 109:2, Psalms 109:3, Psalms 109:4, and Psalms 109:5 verses are as highly illustrative of the conduct of the Jewish rulers towards our Lord as the following verses are of the conduct of Judas; but allowing these passages to be prophetic, it is the Jewish state rather than an individual, against which these awful denunciations are made, as it seems to be represented here under the person and character of an extremely hardened and wicked man; unless we consider the curses to be those of David's enemies. Psalms 109:20.

But I give myself unto prayer — ואני תפלה vaani thephillah; "And I prayer." The Chaldee: ואנא אצלי vaana atsalley, "but I pray." This gives a good sense, which is followed by the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. The Syriac, "I will pray for them." This, not so correctly; as dreadful imprecations, not prayers, follow. But probably the whole ought to be interpreted according to the mode laid down, Psalms 109:20. The translation and paraphrase in the old Psalter are very simple: -

Trans. For that thyng that thai sulde hafe lufed me, thai bakbited me; bot I prayed.

Par. That is, that sulde haf lufed me for I was godson, and thai bakbited me sayande, in Belzebub he castes oute fendes; bot I prayed for thaim.

Verse 6

Verse Psalms 109:6. Let Satan stand at his right hand. — As the word שטן satan means an adversary simply, though sometimes it is used to express the evil spirit Satan, I think it best to preserve here its grammatical meaning: "Let an adversary stand at his right hand:" i.e., Let him be opposed and thwarted in all his purposes.

All the Versions have devil, or some equivocal word. The ARABIC has [Arabic] eblees, the chief of the apostate spirits; but the name is probably corrupted from the GREEK διαβολος diabolos; from which the LATIN diabolus. the ITALIAN diavolo, the SPANISH diablo, the FRENCH diable, the IRISH or CELTIC diabal, the DUTCH duivel, the GERMAN teufel, the ANGLO-SAXON deofal, and the ENGLISH devil, are all derived. The original, διαβολος, comes from δια βαλλειν to shoot or pierce through.

Verse 7

Verse Psalms 109:7. Let him be condemned — יצא רשע yetse rasha. "Let him come out a wicked man;" that is let his wickedness be made manifest.

Let his prayer become sin. — Thus paraphrased by Calmet: "Let him be accused, convicted, and condemned, and let the defence which he brings for his justification only serve to deepen his guilt, and hasten his condemnation." I once more apprise the reader, that if these are not the words of David's enemies against himself, (see on Psalms 109:20,) they are prophetic denunciations against a rebellious and apostate person or people, hardened in crime, and refusing to return to God.

Verse 8

Verse Psalms 109:8. Let another take his office. — The original is פקדתו pekuddatho, which the margin translates charge, and which literally means superintendence, oversight, inspection from actual visitations. The translation in our common Version is too technical. His bishopric, following the Septuagint, επισκοπην, and Vulgate, episcopatum, and has given cause to some light people to be witty, who have said, "The first bishop we read of was bishop Judas." But it would be easy to convict this witticism of blasphemy, as the word is used in many parts of the sacred writings, from Genesis downward, to signify offices and officers, appointed either by God immediately, or in the course of his providence, for the accomplishment of the most important purposes. It is applied to the patriarch Joseph, Genesis 39:4, ויפקדהו vaiyaphkidehu, he made him bishop, alias overseer; therefore it might be as wisely said, and much more correctly, "The first bishop we read of was bishop Joseph;" and many such bishops there were of God's making long before Judas was born. After all, Judas was no traitor when he was appointed to what is called his bishopric, office, or charge in the apostolate. Such witticisms as these amount to no argument, and serve no cause that is worthy of defence.

Our common Version, however, was not the first to use the word: it stands in the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.], "and his episcopacy let take other." The old Psalter is nearly the same; I shall give the whole verse: Fa be made his days, and his bysshopryk another take. "For Mathai was sett in stede of Judas; and his days was fa that hynged himself."

Verse 9

Verse Psalms 109:9. Let his children be fatherless, c. — It is said that Judas was a married man, against whom this verse, as well as the preceding is supposed to be spoken and that it was to support them that he stole from the bag in which the property of the apostles was put, and of which he was the treasurer.

Verse 10

Verse Psalms 109:10. Let his children - beg — The father having lost his office, the children must necessarily be destitute; and this is the hardest lot to which any can become subject, after having been born to the expectation of an ample fortune.

Verse 11

Verse Psalms 109:11. Let the strangers spoil his labour. — Many of these execrations were literally fulfilled in the case of the miserable Jews, after the death of our Lord. They were not only expelled from their own country, after the destruction of Jerusalem, but they were prohibited from returning; and so taxed by the Roman government, that they were reduced to the lowest degree of poverty. Domitian expelled them from Rome; and they were obliged to take up their habitation without the gate Capena, in a wood contiguous to the city, for which they were obliged to pay a rent, and where the whole of their property was only a basket and a little hay. See JUVENAL, Sat. ver. 11: -

Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam:

Hic ubi nocturne Numa constituebat amicae,

Nunc sacri fontis nemus, et delubra locantur

Judaeis: quorum cophinus, foenumque supellex:

Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est

Arbor, et ejectis mendicat silva Camoenis.

He stopped a little at the conduit gate,

Where Numa modelled once the Roman state;

In nightly councils with his nymph retired:

Though now the sacred shades and founts are hired

By banished Jews, who their whole wealth can lay

In a small basket, on a wisp of hay.

Yet such our avarice is, that every tree

Pays for his head; nor sleep itself is free;

Nor place nor persons now are sacred held,

From their own grove the Muses are expelled.

DRYDEN.

The same poet refers again to this wretched state of the Jews, Sat. vi., ver. 541; and shows to what vile extremities they were reduced in order to get a morsel of bread: -

Cum dedit ille locum, cophino foenoque relicto,

Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem,

Interpres legum Solymarum, et magna sacerdos

Arboris, ac summi fida internuncia coeli.

Implet et illa manum, sed parcius, aere minuto.

Qualia cunque voles Judaei somnia vendunt.

Here a Jewess is represented as coming from the wood mentioned above, to gain a few oboli by fortune-telling; and, trembling lest she should be discovered, she leaves her basket and hay, and whispers lowly in the ear of some female, from whom she hopes employment in her line. She is here called by the poet the interpretess of the laws of Solymae, or Jerusalem, and the priestess of a tree, because obliged, with the rest of her nation, to lodge in a wood; so that she and her countrymen might be said to seek their bread out of desolate places, the stranger having spoiled their labour. Perhaps the whole of the Psalm relates to their infidelities, rebellions, and the miseries inflicted on them from the crucifixion of our Lord till the present time. I should prefer this sense, if what is said on Psalms 109:20 be not considered a better mode of interpretation.

Verse 13

Verse Psalms 109:13. Let his posterity be cut off — It is a fact that the distinction among the Jewish tribes in entirely lost. Not a Jew in the world knows from what tribe he is sprung; and as to the royal family, it remains nowhere but in the person of Jesus the Messiah. He alone is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Except as it exists in him, the name is blotted out.

Verse 16

Verse Psalms 109:16. Persecuted the poor and needy man — In the case of Jesus Christ all the dictates of justice and mercy were destroyed, and they persecuted this poor man unto death. They acted from a diabolical malice. On common principles, their opposition to Christ cannot be accounted for.

Verse 17

Verse Psalms 109:17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him — The Jews said, when crucifying our Lord, His blood be upon us and our children! Never was an imprecation more dreadfully fulfilled.

Verse 18

Verse Psalms 109:18. Let it come into his bowels like water — Houbigant thinks this is an allusion to the waters of jealousy; and he is probably right, - the bitter waters that produce the curse. See Numbers 5:18.

Verse 19

Verse Psalms 109:19. And for a girdle — Let the curse cleave to him throughout life: as the girdle binds all the clothes to the body, let the curse of God bind all mischiefs and maladies to his body and soul.

The Hindoos, Budhists, and others often wear a gold or silver chain about their waist. One of those chains, once the ornament of a Moudeliar in the island of Ceylon, lies now before me: it is silver, and curiously wrought.

Verse 20

Verse Psalms 109:20. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul. — Following the mode of interpretation already adopted, this may mean: All these maledictions shall be fulfilled on my enemies; they shall have them for their reward. So all the opposition made by the Jews against our Lord, and the obloquies and execrations wherewith they have loaded him and his religion, have fallen upon themselves; and they are awful examples of the wrath of God abiding on them that believe not.

But is not this verse a key to all that preceded it? The original, fairly interpreted, will lead us to a somewhat different meaning: זאת פעלת שטני מאת יהוה והדברים רע על נפשי zoth peullath soteney meeth Yehovah, vehaddoberim ra al naphshi. "This is the work of my adversaries before the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my soul," or life. That is, all that is said from the sixth to the twentieth verse consists of the evil words and imprecations of my enemies against my soul, laboring to set the Lord, by imprecations, against me, that their curses may take effect. This, which is a reasonable interpretation, frees the whole Psalm from every difficulty. Surely, the curses contained in it are more like those which proceed from the mouth of the wicked, than from one inspired by the Spirit of the living God. Taking the words in this sense, which I am persuaded is the best, and which the original will well bear and several of the Versions countenance, then our translation may stand just as it is, only let the reader remember that at the sixth verse David begins to tell how his enemies cursed HIM, while he prayed for THEM.

Verse 21

Verse Psalms 109:21. But do thou for me — While they use horrible imprecations against me, and load me with their curses, act thou for me, and deliver me from their maledictions. While they curse, do thou bless. This verse is a farther proof of the correctness of the interpretation given above.

Verse 22

Verse Psalms 109:22. I am poor and needy — I am afflicted and impoverished; and my heart is wounded - my very life is sinking through distress.

Verse 23

Verse Psalms 109:23. I am gone like the shadow — "I have walked like the declining shadow,"-I have passed my meridian of health and life; and as the sun is going below the horizon, so am I about to go under the earth.

I am tossed up and down as the locust. — When swarms of locusts take wing, and infest the countries in the east, if the wind happen to blow briskly, the swarms are agitated and driven upon each other, so as to appear to be heaved to and fro, or tossed up and down. Dr. Shaw, who has seen this, says it gives a lively idea of the comparisons of the psalmist.

Verse 24

Verse Psalms 109:24. My knees are weak through fasting — That hunger is as soon felt in weakening the knees, as in producing an uneasy sensation in the stomach, is known by all who have ever felt it. Writers in all countries have referred to this effect of hunger. Thus Tryphioderus Il. Excid. ver 155: -

Τειρομενου βαρυθειεν ατερπεΐ γουνατα λιμῳ.

"Their knees might fail, by hunger's force subdued;

And sink, unable to sustain their load."

MERRICK.

SO PLAUTUS, Curcul, act. ii., scen. 3: -

Tenebrae oboriuntur, genua inedia succidunt.

"My eyes grow dim; my knees are weak with hunger."

And LUCRETIUS, lib. iv. ver. 950: -

Brachia, palpebraeque cadunt, poplitesque procumbunt.

"The arms, the eyelids fall; the knees give way." Both the knees and the sight are particularly affected by hunger.

Verse 25

Verse Psalms 109:25. When they looked upon me they soaked their heads. — Thus was David treated by Shimei, 2 Samuel 16:5-6, and our blessed Lord by the Jews, Matthew 27:39.

Verse 27

Verse Psalms 109:27. That they may know that this is thy hand — Let thy help be so manifest in my behalf, that they may see it is thy hand, and that thou hast undertaken for me. Or, if the words refer to the passion of our Lord, Let them see that I suffer not on my own account; "for the transgression of my people am I smitten."

Verse 28

Verse Psalms 109:28. Let them curse, but bless thou — See on Psalms 109:20: Of the mode of interpretation recommended there, this verse gives additional proof.

Verse 29

Verse Psalms 109:29. Let them cover themselves — He here retorts their own curse, Psalms 109:18.

Verse 30

Verse Psalms 109:30. I will greatly praise the Lord — I have the fullest prospect of deliverance, and a plenary vindication of my innocence.

Verse 31

Verse Psalms 109:31. He shall stand at the right hand of the poor — Even if Satan himself be the accuser, God will vindicate the innocence of his servant. Pilate and the Jews condemned our Lord to death as a malefactor; God showed his immaculate innocence by his resurrection from the dead.

The whole of this Psalm is understood by many as referring solely to Christ, the traitor Judas, and the wicked Jews. This is the view taken of it in the analysis.

ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND NINTH PSALM

The later expositors expound this Psalm of Doeg, Ahithophel, and other persecutors of David; and so it may be understood in the type; but the ancient fathers apply it to Judas, and the Jews who put Christ to death; which opinion, being more probable, and because Peter (Acts 1:20) applies a passage out of Psalms 109:8 to Judas, I shall expound the Psalm as of Christ, whom David personated, and of Judas, and the malicious Jews, as understood in the persons of his wicked and slanderous enemies.

The Psalm has four parts: -

I. A short ejaculation, Psalms 109:1, and the reasons expressed in a complaint of the fraud and malice of his enemies, Psalms 109:6.

II. A bitter imprecation against their fury, Psalms 109:6-21.

III. A supplication presented to God for himself, and the reasons, Psalms 109:21-30.

IV. A profession of thanks.

I. He begins with an ejaculation: "Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise."

1. Either actively, that is, "O God, whom I praise," even in the greatest calamities.

2. Or passively; "Who art my praise:" The Witness and Advocate of my innocency when I am condemned by malicious tongues; which sense appears best for this place.

"Hold not thy peace." Tacere, to be silent, in Scripture, when referred to God, is to connive, to rest, to appear not to regard; and, on the contrary, loqui, to speak, to do something for revenge or deliverance; it is what David here asks, that, when the malice of his enemies arrived at its height, God should not suffer them, but show his displeasure.

Then by way of complaint, he describes their malicious nature, which he aggravates by an elegant gradation. "For the mouth of the wicked:" and they were, 1. Impious. 2. Deceitful. 3. Liars.

1. "For the mouth of the wicked:" Caiaphas, Judas, the priests, Jews, c.

2. "And the mouth of the deceitful," c. They sought to entrap him in his words.

3. "They have spoken against me," &c. "He casteth out devils through Beelzebub," &c.

And yet the mischief rises higher, even to hatred and malice.

1. "They compassed me about," &c. Manifesting in plain words the malice they carried in their hearts. "This man is not of God," &c.

2. "They hated me without a cause:" Wantonly, idly. They were not only evil, deceitful, and malicious but very ungrateful. "He went about doing good" and "How often would I have gathered you," c. and for this love they returned hatred.

1. "For my love, they are my adversaries:" But, nevertheless,

2. "I give myself to prayer:" "Father, forgive them; they know not," c. Which base ingratitude of theirs he opens in fuller words. "They have rewarded me evil." And Theognis truly says,

η χαρις αλλαξαι την φυσιν ου δυναται

No kindness can invert an evil nature:

A Jew will ever be a Jew. II. The prophet, having complained of the malice, spiteful usage, and ingratitude of his nation, their crafty dealing with him, and their lies against him, proceeds to pray against them, and that in most bitter and fearful imprecations. Enemies he foresaw they would be to the flourishing state of Christ's Church, and that nothing had power to restrain or amend them and therefore he curses them with a curse the most bitter that ever fell from the lips of man. In particular Judas, who was guide to them who took Jesus, is pointed out; but, as Augustine observes, he represented the person of the whole synagogue; therefore, it is involved necessarily. But some understanding these curses as uttered by the Jews against David. Psalms 109:20.

1. "Set thou a wicked man over him," c.: A fearful imprecation. Subject him to the will of some impious and wicked man, to whose lust and violence he may be no better than a slave. Others understand by a wicked man a false teacher, who may seduce him by false doctrines.

2. "Let Satan stand at his right hand:" Have full power over him. Let him stand which signifies a perpetual endeavour to urge him forward till he effect his intended mischief. And so it was with Judas and the Jews; Satan was their guide, and they followed him.

The second is, "When he shall be judged, let him be condemned;" - find no mercy, no favour, at the judge's hands; thus, when Judas, accused and condemned by his own conscience, went to the high priest, who had bribed him, he would not acquit him; and Judas, in despair and grief for his sin, "went out and hanged himself."

The third, "Let his prayer become sin:" He turned his ear from hearing God, why then should God hear him? No prayer is acceptable to God but through Christ, and that out of a sincere heart; any other prayers become sin.

The fourth is the shortening of their life and honour.

1. "Let his days be few:" Length of days is promised only to the obedient, and is a blessing: but the prayer is that this man's life be a short one, and so Judas's was.

2. "And let another take his office:" Which must be applied to Judas, since St. Peter (Acts 1:20) so interprets it; and it is at this day as true of the Jews, for they have no high priest. Another, after the order of Melchizedek, has succeeded Aaron's priesthood.

The fifth is -

1. "Let his children be fatherless," c.: Which follows on the former curse.

2. "Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:" And such the Jews are to this day and beggars they were for a long time after the overthrow of Jerusalem.

The sixth execration is upon his goods.

1. "Let the extortioner catch all that he hath:" Probably the publicans.

2. "And let the strangers spoil his labour:" Which was verified by the soldiers of Titus, who ripped up the bellies of the captive Jews to see if they had swallowed gold.

But the prophet again returns to his children.

1. "Let there be none to extend mercy unto him," c.: To beg, or to want, is a misery but there is some comfort in it when beggars meet with some to relieve it. But the prophet says, Let there be none to pity him, or his. Judas found none to pity him.

2. Men, because they must die themselves, desire, if possible, to be immortal in their issue. Bellarmine observes that Judas had no issue; for that Matthias, who came in his place, did not derive his office from him. Though a posterity of the Jews remained after the flesh, yet, in the next generation, their ecclesiastical and civil polity was at an end; and since their dispersion they are without king, without priest, without sacrifice, without altar, without ephod, and without teraphim, as foretold by Hosea.

3. "Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered," c.: This imprecation answers God's threat: "I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." And this curse has come upon the Jews to the uttermost they are self-devoted: "Let his blood be upon us, and upon our children." The guilt of his blood is yet upon them; the iniquity of their fathers is yet remembered; and the sin of their mother, the synagogue, is not yet done away.

He repeats again the sin of their fathers, and the sin of the synagogue; this verse being but the exposition of the former.

1. "Let them be before the Lord continually:" The sin their father and mother committed, never let it be forgotten by God.

2. "That he may cut off the memory," c.: Except it be in contempt.

The prophet having now finished his execrations, acquaints us with the causes of them.

1. Their want of pity to them in distress: "Have ye no regard, all ye that pass by?" Lamentations 1:12. It is but just then "that they find judgment without mercy, that would show no mercy."

2. So far from that, "that he persecuted the poor and needy man," c., which is the second cause the inhumanity of Judas and the Jews against Christ, who is here called - 1. Poor, because, "when he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich" 2 Corinthians 9:2. The needy man: "For the foxes have holes, c., Luke 9:58. 3. The broken in heart. For he was in agony, and his soul was troubled, when he sweated great drops of blood when he cried, "My God, my God!" not with compunction or contrition for any fault he had committed, but from a sense of pain, and his solicitude for the salvation of mankind.

In this verse there is noted the extreme cruelty and inhumanity of the Jews; for whoever persecutes a man for his life is inclined to it either from some real or supposed injury, or else through envy: but Christ was humble and lowly in heart; he went about doing good, and yet they persecuted him.

But, thirdly, he complains: "He loved cursing;" therefore, it is but reason that he should have what he loved: "As he clothed himself with cursing - so let it come," c. No man can love a curse or hate a blessing, if it be proposed to the will under the form of a curse or blessing: but a man is said to love a curse when he follows a wicked course, and avoids the blessing of a good life. This Judas and the Jews did: Judas, by loving money more than his Master the Jews, by - "Let his blood," c.

Neque enim lex justior ulla est. c.

It is just that a man should suffer for his own wicked inventions. But the prophet adds, Let it sit close to him as a garment let it be converted into his substance: let him carry it perpetually, c.

1. "As he clothed himself with cursing," &c. As in clothes he delights in.

2. "So let it come as waters," &c. As the stomach concocts and turns every thing into the very flesh of the animal so let his curse be converted into his nature and manners.

3. "Let it come as oil into his bones," c. Oil will pierce the bones water will not.

This curse must be of great efficacy he must always carry it.

1. "Let it be unto him," c. Stick close as a garment.

2. "And for a girdle," c. Compass him round about.

For a garment some read pallium a cloak that a man puts off at home, and calls for when he goes abroad: thus let God set an outward mark upon him let him be known as a cast-away.

If Doeg were the type of Judas, as most agree, in this Psalm, then by the girdle might be understood cingulum militare, the military girdle, which, while they were of that profession they cast not off: and he, Doeg, being a military man, the curse was to cleave to him, and compass him as his girdle.

The prophet concludes this part of the Psalm with an exclamation, as being persuaded his curses were not in vain.

"Let this be the reward of mine adversaries," c., who say that I am a deceiver, and deny me to be the Saviour of the world.

III. The prophet now turns from curses to prayer: and in the person of Christ, directs it to God for protection and deliverance both of himself and the whole Church.

1. "But do thou for me," c. He asks help against his persecutors on these three grounds: 1. Because his Lord was Jehovah, the fountain of all being and power. 2. Because it would be for his honour: "Do it for thy name's sake." Thy faithfulness and goodness to the Church, and justice in executing vengeance on her enemies. 3. Do it, because thy mercy is good - easily inclined to succour the miserable.

2. "Deliver me," may have reference to Christ's prayer, "Father, save me from this hour," &c.

1. "Deliver me," for I am destitute of all human help.

2. "Deliver me," for my heart is wounded within me.

And to these he adds many other reasons and uses two similes, the one drawn from the shadow of the evening, the other from the locust.

1. "I am gone like a shadow: " c. Which passes away in a moment silently: so was Christ led away as a prisoner, without any murmur: "He was led as a lamb," &c., Isaiah 53:7. Thus the apostles and martyrs died patiently.

2. "I am tossed up and down as the locust." From one tribunal to another, as the locust carried from place to place, Exodus 10:12, Exodus 10:19.

Secondly, he reasons from his bodily debility.

1. "My knees are weak through fasting." The little sustenance Christ took before his passion and his watching in prayer all night.

2. "And my flesh faileth of fatness," through the excess of his fatigue, and the anguish of his Spirit: thus he could not bear his cross.

3. A third reason why God should pity and deliver is drawn from the opprobrious usage and the scorn they put upon him, than which there is nothing more painful to an ingenuous and noble nature: "I am become also a reproach unto them," c. The four Gospels are an ample comment upon this verse.

The second part of his prayer is for a speedy resurrection: "Help me, O Lord my God: O save me," &c. And he supports his petition with a strong reason, drawn from the final cause: "Save me, that they may know," &c. That all men, the Jews especially may be convinced by my rising again, in despite of the watch and the seal, that it was not their malice and power that brought me to this ignominious death, but that my passion, suffering, and death proceeded from thy hand: "By his resurrection he was declared," Romans 1:4. And in the close of his prayer he sings a triumph over his enemies, the devil, Judas, the Jews, those bitter enemies, to him and his Church.

1. "Let them curse." Speak evil of me and my followers.

2. "But bless thou." Bless all nations that have faith in me.

3. "When they arise." For, 1. Arise they will, and endeavour by every means to destroy my kingdom 2. But "let them be ashamed." Confounded that their wishes are frustrated.

4. "But let thy servant (which condition Christ took upon himself) rejoice" because thy name is thereby glorified.

And he continues his exercrations by way of explanation. "Let mine adversaries," &c, be confounded at the last day, for their ingratitude and malice, before angels and men.

IV. He closes all with thanks, which he opposes to the confusion of the wicked.

1. "I will greatly praise the Lord." With affection and a great jubilee.

2. "I will praise him among the multitude." Before all the world.

For which he assigns this reason, -

1. "He shall stand at the right hand of the poor." That is, such as are poor in spirit, who ask and find mercy from God: to such I will be as a shield and buckler.

2. "I will stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him," &c. From the devil and all his instruments. Christ is the all-covering shield of his Church: "He hath blotted out the handwriting of ordinances," &c. So that, cum a mundo damnamur, a Christo ab solvemur. "When we are condemned by the world, we are absolved by Christ."