that " the fruit thereof shakes like the woods of Lebanon, and the converts spring up and flourish like the countless piles of grass upon the earth ^." It is " a stone cut out without hands, that breaks in pieces all other kingdoms, and that fills the whole earth ^'."]
4. The duration of it —
[Solomon's kingdom endured but for a little time. His son and successor had scarcely assumed the reins of govern- ment, before ten tribes out of the twelve revolted from him, and have never since been re-united into one kingdom. But Christ's kingdom shall endure for ever', even " throughout all generations ^." The mode of administering the kingdom will be changed, when there shall be no more occasion for the exercise of the mediatorial office. Then, I say, "the kingdom shall be delivered up to God, even the Father," from whom it was received ' : but of the kingdom itself there shall be no end : nor shall Christ ever cease to be the Head, the joy, the glory of his redeemed people ^^.^
Such are the wonders here celebrated : and from the Psalmist we may learn,
IL The spirit with which they should be contem- plated— The Psalmist closes his review of these wonders, as we also should do,
1 . With grateful adoration to God as the author of
them —
[Truly, it is " God alone " that doeth these wonders. Whatever instruments he may make use of, the work is his alone " : and his should be the glory. For these things he is adored in heaven : and from us on earth should they call forth the devoutest acknowledgments. In truth, we should be even lost in wonder at the contemplation of them ; — that God should ever so pity our fallen world ! that he should ever use such means for our deliverance from our great enemy ! that he should send his own Son to die, and " by death to overcome him that had the power of death, and thus to deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage ! " What shall we say to these things ? If they do not fill us with wonder and gratitude and praise, " the very stones may well cry out against us."]
s ver. 16. ^ Dan. ii. 34, 35. > Dan, ii. 44.
k ver. 5, 17. 1 Dan. vii. 13, 14. with 1 Cor. xv. 24, 28.
"1 Isai. ix. 7. "1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.