With unanimity —
[The Psalmist calls, not only upon all the human race, but even upon the whole inanimate creation, to join in songs of praise and thanksgiving. And how lamentable is it that there should be found a creature upon earth, a rational and redeemed creature, that is indisposed for this exercise! O let us all be of one heart and mind : let us sing, rejoice, and give thanks : let our harps no longer be hung upon the willows, or struck in commendation of carnal joys; but let them be tuned in honour of our incarnate God; and let us celebrate upon them Messiah's. praise. Thus shall even now our joy be unspeakable and glorified, a preparation for glory, an antepast of heaven.] vol. vr. N
Ps. c. 1 — 5. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness : come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves : we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanks- giving, and into his courts with praise : be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting ; and his truth endureth to all generations.
IN discoursing upon short and insulated passages, we have scope for discussion upon whatever topic may come before us ; but, in taking a whole psalm for our subject, we can do little more than mark the Spirit of it, together with its general import. In truth, the psalm before us, which is entitled "A psalm of praise," requires no particular discussion : it is merely a call to the whole world to render unto God the ho- nour due unto his name. It is obviously addressed to the Gentiles, as much as to the Jews ; and may therefore, as St. Paul informs us, be considered, not as an exhortation only, but as a prophecy, that, in due season, the Gentiles, even to the remotest ends of the earth, shall " see the salvation of God .a"
That we may present the contents of the psalm before you in an orderly way, we would observe that we have in it,
I. A call to delight ourselves in God —
[We, as Gentiles, are particularly invited to engage in this blessed work. Religion is not a source of melancholy, but of sacred and exalted joy. At the commencement of the year of Jubilee, the trumpets sounded throughout all the land of Israel ; and the joy which they diffused no words are ade- quate to express. The man who, from whatever cause, had parted with his possessions, and sold himself for a slave, was restored to perfect liberty, and to the full enjoyment of his paternal inheritance. What a surprising change to be wrought in one moment ! and with what exquisite delight would it be welcomed, by those who for days and months and years had been waiting for it! Such " a joyful noise should we make unto the Lord," as persons liberated from the most cruel
a Rom. xv. 9 — 11.