Ps. ex. 1 — 7. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until L make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion : rule
thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen : he shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the ic ay : therefore shall he lift up the head.
IN some of the Psalms, David speaks of himself only ; in others, of himself and of the Messiah too ; but in this, of the Messiah exclusively : not a word is applicable to any one else. The Jews have taken great pains to explain it away : but their attempts are, and ever must be, in vain.
In the first verse, David relates the Father's ad- dress to his Son, when ** the council of peace was held between them :" and the whole of the remainder is addressed by the Psalmist to the Messiah himself. It altogether elucidates in a very striking manner the character of Christ.
In it are set forth,
I. His person —
It is of great importance that we have just views of the Divinity of Christ —
[On that depends the sufficiency of the atonement which he has offered for the sins of men. If he be only a creature, how can we be assured that the shedding of his blood has any more virtue and efficacy than the blood of bulls and goats ? What proportion is there between the transitory sufferings of one creature, and the accumulated sins of all the children of men ? How can we conceive that there should be such a value in the blood of any created being, as to purchase for a ruined world a deliverance from everlasting misery, and a possession of everlasting happiness and glory ? But if our Redeemer be God as well as man, then we see at once, that, inasmuch as he is an infinitely glorious Being, there is an infinite merit in his obedience unto death, sufficient to justify the demands of law and justice for the sins of all mankind. On any other suppo- sition than that Christ is God, there would be no force at all in that question of the Apostle, " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
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