only innocent person in the world suffered for all its guilt, making satisfaction for wrongs which he never did, and restoring that which he took not away."

5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.'

These words, in the mouth of David, or any other sinful son of Adam, are plain enough. They may, nevertheless, be spoken, as the rest of the Psalm is, in the person of Christ, concerning the iniquities committed by us, but laid on him;' which he therefore mentions, as if they had been his own; the head complaining of diseases incident only to the members.2

6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.' 7. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.'

The Son of God prefers a petition to the Father that his disciples may not be scandalised on account of his passion, or be tempted to relinquish their trust in God, at beholding his only and beloved Son forsaken on the cross; since it was not for any demerit of his own, but for the sake of God's glory, as well as man's salvation, that he bore reproach, and shame covered his face.' It ought to be the prayer of every Christian, especially if he be a minister of the Gospel, that his sufferings in the world may not give just offence to the brethren, or the church; which they never will do, if he suffers in a good cause, with a good conscience.

8. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.' 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.'

Quæ non rapui'-Ex persona Christi: ita mecum agitur, ac si rapta ab altero, ab altero, eoque innoxio, repetas; neque enim impiorum exemplo, Deo rapui honorem debitum; pro eis solvo quicunque rapuerunt; sicut scriptum est: Propter scelus populi mei, percussi eum.' Isa. liii. 2. BossUET.

2 So this verse is interpreted by the fathers, and many of the commentators cited by Poole, in his Synopsis-Thus also Bossuet-‘ Insipientiam meam et delicta mea'-Quæ in me suscepi. Quia posuit in eo Dominus iniquitates omnium nostrum.' Isa. liii. 6.

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The Jews were Christ's brethren,' according to the flesh. To them he was a 'stranger and an alien.' came to his own, and his own received him not.' 'We know,' said they, 'that God spake unto Moses; but as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.' And again, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil.' John i. 11. ix. 29. viii. 48. The ground of all this enmity was the 'zeal' of Christ for the reformation and purification of the church, which he manifested in his reproofs and exhortations, as also by the emblematical act of driving the buyers and sellers out of the temple. On this latter occasion, the evangelist tells us, 'his disciples remembered that it was written,' that is, it was predicted of Messiah in this Psalm, 'The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up :' John ii. 17. Therefore, as he adds immediately, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.' In calumniating and blaspheming the works of the Son of God, the Jews reproached both the Father who gave him those works to do, and the Spirit, by which he did them: all which reproaches fell on the man Christ, as the visible instrument employed in the doing of them. This last passage is thus quoted and applied by St. Paul-Even Christ pleased not himself: but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me: Rom. xv. 3. The usage our Lord met with from his brethren, because of his zeal for the house of God, should comfort those who meet with the same usage, on the same account.

10. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.' 11. 'I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.' 12. They that sit in the gate speak against me and I was the song of the drunkards.'

To expiate the sins of his creatures, the King of glory became a man of sorrows; he put on mortal flesh, as a penitential garment; he fasted, and prayed, and mourned, and wept, and humbled himself to the dust, as if he had been the offender, and we the righteous persons that needed no repentance. And what return was made him? It was to his reproach, and he became a proverb to them,' for whom he suffered. They that sat in the gate,' or, on

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the 'judgment-seat,' which used to be in the gates of cities, even the senators and judges of the land, the chief priests and elders, spake against him,' with cool and deliberate malice; while he was 'the song of the drunken' and profligate, who more grossly insulted and derided him. The true followers of the holy Jesus will often experience the like treatment, from an evil and adulterous generation.

13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercies, hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.'

The Son of God himself, in the midst of sorrows and sufferings, has recourse to prayer, pleading for his church the mercies' of the Father, set forth in the promises, and his truth,' engaged to make those promises good, in the 'salvation' of his chosen, through their head and representative. The acceptable time,' in which Christ prayed, was the time when he offered the great propitiatory sacrifice. Through the merit of that sacrifiee it is, that we have an acceptable time, and a day of salvation,' allowed us. Behold, Now is that time, behold Now is that day! Let us not delay one moment to use and improve it aright.

14. 'Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.' 15. Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.'

Messiah petitions for deliverance from calamities, under the same images which were employed at the beginning of the Psalm, to describe those calamities. The purport of the petition is, that the sins of the world, and the sufferings due to them, may not finally overwhelm him, nor the grave 'shut her mouth on him' for ever; but that the morning of his resurrection may at length succeed the night of his passion. Such is also the hope and the prayer of the church, and of the Christian, here below.

16. Hear me, O LORD, for thy loving-kindness is good; turn unto me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.' 17. And hide not thy face from thy

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servant, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily.' 18. 'Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it; deliver me because of mine enemies.' 19. Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before me.'

As afflictions increase, the prayers are redoubled. Christ pleads with the Father for redemption from death, on account of his divine loving-kindness and mercy;' of his own great trouble;' of his enemies,' that they might be either converted or confounded; of the reproach, shame, and dishonor,' undergone by him, that they might be wiped off, and done away; of the wrong he suffered from his adversaries, whose iniquitous proceedings were all before God,' and known unto him. Deliverance from tribulation and persecution is prayed for by the church, and by her faithful children, on the same grounds.

20. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.' 21. They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.'

The argument urged by Christ, in these most affecting words, is, that in the extremity of his passion, he was left alone, without a comforter, a friend, or an attendant; while all that were round about him studied to infuse every bitter and acrimonious ingredient into his cup of sorrows. This was literally as well as metaphorically true, when they gave him to drink vinegar mingled with gall.' See Matt. xxvii. 34. John xix. 28. Such are the comforts often administered, by the world, to an afflicted and deserted soul.

22. Their table' shall become a snare before them;

I have taken the liberty to give a future rendering to the verbs in this and the following verses. That they are to be so understood, saith Dr. Hammond, i. e. in the future sense, by way of prediction, and not as an imprecation, see St. Aug. de Civ. 1. xvii. c. 19. Hæc non optando sunt dicta, sed optandi specie, prophetando'-These things are not said by way of wishing, but under the show or scene of wishing, by prophecy.' And indeed the Hebrew '' is in the future, and is most fitly rendered, shall be.' And so doth the Jewish Arab interpreter observe,

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and that which should have been for their welfare,' Heb. their peace offerings, shall become a trap.'

At this verse beginneth a prediction of those dreadful judgments which heaven has since inflicted on the crucifiers of the Lord of glory. By their table becoming a snare, and their peace-offerings a trap,' is pointed out the consequence of the Jews' adhering to the legal services, in opposition to him who is the end of the law, for righteousness.' After his sufferings and exaltation, to continue under the law, became not only unprofitable, but destructive, inasmuch as it implied. a denial of Messiah's advent, and a renunciation of every evangelical benefit and blessing. The religion of God's own appointment was an abomination to him, when reduced to the form of godliness, deserted by its power. Christians, who pride themselves in the one, while they deny and deride the other, would do well to consider this.

23. Thou wilt darken their eyes that they shall not see; and make their loins continually to shake.'

They who loved darkness rather than light, by the righteous judgment of God were permitted to walk on in darkness, while the blind led the blind. And such still continues to be the state of the Jews, notwithstanding that intolerable weight of woe which made their loins to shake,' and bowed down their backs to the earth. 'The veil remaineth yet on their hearts,' in the reading the Old Testament; nor can they see therein the things which belong unto their peace. These last two verses are cited, as spoken of Israel, by St. Paul, Rom. xi. 9, 10. Afflict us, blessed Lord, if thou seest it good for us to be afflicted; only take not from us, in our affliction, the 'light' of thy truth, and the strength' of thy grace. 24. Thou wilt pour out thine indignation upon them, and thy wrathful anger will take hold of them.'

Never was 'indignation so poured out,' never did 'wrath so take hold' on any nation, as on that, which once was, beyond every other, beloved and favored.

that such seeming imprecations as here and elsewhere occur in this book of Psalms are not so much by way of imprecation, as by way of prophecy, or prediction of what in God's best judgments would certainly befall man. HAM. în loc.