Yet have we also peculiar need of prayer, — At this moment our Enemy is disengaged from other contests, and enabled to direct all his force against us. Our own Government also is un- happily disunited, and our aged king begins to find " his strength fail him." What, in such a state, shall we do, if God forsake us ? We have need to pray unto him " not to cast us off." Our pit)sperity hitherto has doubtless been in a great measure owing to this, that we " have made God our refuge." Both king and people, when compared with other nations, have been exemplary in this. Let us continue to seek Him more and more : and then, whatever be our state on earth, we shall keep an eternal jubilee in heaven.]
* 1 Chron. xxix. 2C — 22.
244 PSALMS, Lxxii. 6 — 11. [384.
EXCELLENCE OF CHRISt's GOVERNMENT.
Ps. lxxii. () — 11. He shall come down like rain upon the moivn grass, as shoivers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the luilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts: yea, all kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him.
THE priesthood of Christ is that to which our attention is principally called in the New Testament ; the Epistle to the Hebrews being almost exclusively written upon that subject: but in the Old Testament there seems to be a far more studied exhibition of his kingly office. The whole Levitical law indeed typically displayed his priestly character : but the Prophets continually, in the most express terms, declared, that the person, who was to be " a child born and a son given," should have '^ the government upon his shoulder %" and that an universal and everlasting dominion should be committed to him*". The psalm before us is altogether occupied in describing the nature of his government, and the blessings which should result from it. There was doubtless some reference to Solomon, who was the first of the Is- raelites that was both " a king, and a king's son*" :" but the language in many parts cannot with any truth or propriety be applied to him : it can relate to none but Him who was greater than Solomon, even to the Messiah, whose glory no words can adequately describe.
The sublime passage which we have selected for our meditation at this time, will lead us to shew,
I. The nature of Christ's government —
It has generally happened, that those whose power has been most absolute have been most tyrannical
in
^ Isai. ix. 6, /. ^ Dan. vii. 13, 14. ' ver. 1.
384.] EXCELLENCE OF CHRISt's GOVERNMENT. 245
in their use of it; and that they have sought rather the aggrandizement of themselves than the good of their subjects. But the administration of Christ, like the influence of the heavens, is
1. Gently operative —
[" The showers gently descending on the parched ground, or the new-mown grass," insinuate themselves in a silent and imperceptible manner to the roots, and cause the suspended powers of vegetation to exert themselves with renewed vigour. It is thus that Christ, by his word and Spirit, renovates the soul. He comes not with the sanctions of the law, which, like an im- petuous torrent or a desolating tempest, spread terror and dismay : he descends to us rather in mild invitations and gracious pro- mises, which, through the effectual influences of his Spirit, pene- trates the recesses of the heart, and give life and vigour to the whole man. When once we are cut down, as it were, and made to feel our need of him, then he pours upon us the riches of his grace, to soften the hardness of our hearts, and to invigorate their withered faculties. As it was not by " the wind, the earth- quake, or the fire, that God wrought upon Elijah, but by the still small voice," at the sound of which the prophet " wrapped his face in his mantle'^;" so it is with respect to the secret visits of our Lord. When he is pleased to ?peak to us in the mild accents of his love, then the heart is dissolved in tenderness and contrition, or^sweetly elevated in devout and grateful adorations.]