Verse 1. "Thy strength. . . . thy salvation." So you have two words,
"virtus and salus," strength and salvation. Note them well; for not
virtus without salus , not salus without virtus, neither without the
other is full, nor both without Tua Domine. In virtute is well, so it
have in salute after it. For not in strength alone is there matter of
joy, every way considered. No, not in God's strength, if it have not
salvation behind it. Strength, not to smite us down, but strength to
deliver; this is the joyful side. Now turn it the other way. As strength,
if it end in salvation, is just cause for joy, so salvation, if it go with
strength, makes joy yet more joyful; for it becomes a strong salvation, a
mighty deliverance.— Launcelot Andrews (Bishop) , 1555-1626, in "Conspiracie of the Goweries."
Verse 1. "In thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice." Oh, it is
good rejoicing in the strength of that arm which shall never wither, and in
the shadow of those wings which shall never cast their feathers! In him
that is not there yesterday and here to-day, but the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever! For as he is, so shall the joy be.— Launcelot Andrews.
Verse 2. "Thou hast given him the desire of his soul." He desired to
eat the passover, and to lay down his life when he would, and again when he
would to take it; and thou hast given it to him. "And hast not deprived
him of the good pleasure of his lips." "My peace," saith he, "I leave with
you;" and it was done.— Augustine, in loc.
Verse 2 ( first clause ). Good men are sure to have out their prayers
either in money, or in money's worth, as they say—in that very thing, or
a better.— John Trapp.
Verse 2. "Selah." See pages 25, 29, 38, 345.
Verse 3. "For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou
settest a crown of pure gold on his head." The Son of God could not be
more ready to ask for the blessings of the divine goodness, than the Father
was to give them; and his disposition is the same towards all his adopted
sons. Christ, as King and Priest, weareth a crown of glory, represented by
the purest and most resplendent of metals—gold. He is pleased to esteem
his saints, excelling in different virtues, as the rubies, the sapphires,
and the emeralds, which grace and adorn that crown. Who would not be
ambitious of obtaining a place therein?— George Horne.
Verse 3. "Thou hast prevented him with the blessings of goodness." As
if he should say, "Lord, I never asked for a kingdom, I never thought of a
kingdom, but thou hast prevented me with the blessings of thy goodness." . .
. . . From whence I take up this note or doctrine, that it is a sweet thing
and worthy of all our thankful acknowledgments, to be prevented with the
blessings of God's goodness, or God's good blessings. . . . It is no
new thing for God to walk in a way of preventing love and mercy with the
children of men. Thus he hath always dealt, doth deal, and will deal; thus
he hath always dealt with the world, with the nations of the world, with
great towns and places, with families, and with particular souls. . . . As
for particular souls, you know how it was with Matthew the publican, sitting
at the receipt of custom. "Come and follow me," says Christ; preventing of
him. And you know how it was with Paul: "I was a blasphemer, and I was a
persecutor, but I obtained mercy." How so? Did he seek it first? "No,"
says he, "I went breathing out threatenings against the people of God, and
God met me, and unhorsed me; God prevented me with his grace and mercy."
Thus Paul. And pray tell me what do you think of that whole chapter of
Luke—the fifteenth? There are three parables: the parable of the lost groat,
of the lost sheep, and of the lost son. The woman lost her groat, and swept
to find it; but did the groat make first toward the woman, or the woman make
after the groat first? The shepherd lost his sheep, but did the sheep make
first after the shepherd, or the shepherd after the sheep? Indeed, it is
said concerning the lost son, that he first takes up a resolution, "I will
return home to my father," but when his father saw him afar off, he ran and
met him, and embraced him, and welcomed him home. Why? But to show that
the work of grace and mercy shall be all along carried on in a way of
preventing love.— Condensed from William Bridge, 1600-1670.
Verse 3. "For thou hast prevented him with the blessings of sweetness."
Because he had first quaffed the blessings of thy sweetness, the gall of our
sins did not hurt him.— Augustine.
Verse 3. "Thou preventest him." The word "prevent" is now generally
used to represent the idea of hindrance. "Thou preventest him," would
mean commonly, "Thou hinderest him." But here the word "prevent" means to
go before. Thou goest before him with the blessings of thy goodness as a
pioneer, to make crooked ways straight, and rough places smooth; or, as one
who strews flowers in the path of another, to render the way beautiful to
the eye and pleasant to the tread.— Samuel Martin.
Verse 3 ( first clause ). The text is an acknowledgment of God's
goodness. God has anticipated David's wants; and he writes, "Thou
preventest —thou goest before him— with goodness." The words
"blessings of goodness" suggest that God's gifts are God's love embodied
and expressed. And this greatly enhances the value of our blessings—
that they are cups as full of God and of God's kindness as of happiness and
blessedness.— Samuel Martin.
Verse 3 ( first clause ). A large portion of our blessing is given us
before our asking or seeking. Existence, reason, intellect, a birth in a
Christian land, the calling of our nation to the knowledge of Christ, and
Christ himself, with many other things, are unsought bestowed on men, as was
David's right to the throne on him. No one ever asked for a Saviour till
God of his own motion promised "the seed of the woman."— William S. Plumer.
Verse 3. "Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head." Christ may
be said to have a fourfold glory, or crown. 1. As God co-essential with the
Father; "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his
person." Hebrews 1:1, 2, 3. 2. He hath a crown and glory as Mediator, in
respect of the power, authority, and glory wherewith he is invested as God's
great deputy, and anointed upon the hill of Zion, having power, and a rod of
iron, even in reference to enemies. 3. He hath a crown and glory in respect
of the manifestation of his glory in the executing of his offices, when he
makes his mediatory power and glory apparent in particular steps: thus
sometimes he is said to take his power to him (Revelation 11:17); and is
said to be crowned when the white horse of the gospel rides in triumph.
Revelation 6:2. The last step of this glory will be in the day of judgment;
in short, this consists in his exercising his former power committed to him
as Mediator. 4. There is a crown and glory which is in a manner put on him
by particular believers, when he is glorified by them, not by adding
anything to his infinite glory, but by their acknowledging of him to be so.— James Durham, 1622-1658.
Verse 3. "The crown of pure gold" has respect to his exaltation at the
right hand of God, where he is crowned with glory and honour, and this
"crown" being of "pure gold," denotes the purity, glory, solidity, and
perpetuity of his kingdom.— John Gill.
Verse 4. "He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of
days for ever and ever." The glory of God is concerned in Christ's living
for ever—1. The glory of his faithfulness: for eternal life and
blessedness were pledged to Immanuel in covenant as the reward of his work
(Psalm 110:1-4; Isaiah 9:6, 7, etc.); and it was in the anticipation and
confident hope of this, that he "endured the cross, despising the shame."
Hebrews 12:2; Psalm 16:8-11. 2. The glory of his justice. The justice
of God was honoured and fully satisfied in all its righteous demands by the
death of Christ. His subsequent life is the expression on the part of God
of that satisfaction. His perpetual life is a permanent declaration that in
him and his finished work the everlasting righteousness of Jehovah rests for
ever satisfied. Death can "never more have dominion over him:" for to
inflict the penalty again would be a violation of justice. 3. The glory of
his grace. The glory of this grace he now lives actively to promote.
John 17:2. By living "ever" at God's right hand, he appears as an eternal
memorial of God's love in making him our Mediator and Substitute—our
Saviour from sin and wrath; and his permanent appearance there will keep all
heaven perpetually in mind that "by the grace of God they are what they
are," owing all to the sovereign mercy of God through Jesus Christ. He
shall appear as the blessed medium through which all the gifts and joys of
salvation shall flow to the guilty for evermore. Thus the power of God and
all his moral attributes secure the perpetuity of the life of the risen and
exalted Saviour.— Ralph Wardlaw, D.D.
Verse 4. "He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him." He asked a
resurrection, saying, "Father, glorify thy Son;" and thou gavest it him.
"Length of days for ever and ever." The prolonged ages of this world
which the church was to have, and after them an eternity, world without end.— Augustine.
Verse 4. "He asked life of thee," etc. Thus God is better to his
people than their prayers; and when they ask but one blessing, he answereth
them as Naaman did Gehazi, with, Nay, take two. Hezekiah asked but one
life, and God gave him fifteen years, which we reckon at two lives and more.
He giveth liberally and like himself; as great Alexander did when he gave
the poor beggar a city; and when he sent his schoolmaster a ship full of
frankincense, and bade him sacrifice freely.— John Trapp.
Verses 4-8. If David had before been without the symbol of his royal
dignity, namely, the diadem, he was the more justified in praising the
goodness of God, which had now transferred it from the head of an enemy to
his own.— Augustus F. Tholuck.
Verse 5. "His glory is great in thy salvation." I remember one dying,
and hearing some discourse of Jesus Christ; "Oh," said she, "speak more of
this—let me hear more of this—be not weary of telling his praise; I
long to see him, how should I but long to hear of him?" Surely I cannot say
too much of Jesus Christ. On this blessed subject no man can possibly
hyperbolise. Had I the tongues of men and angels, I could never fully set
forth Christ. It involves an eternal contradiction, that the creature can
see to the bottom of the Creator. Suppose all the sands on the sea-shore,
all the flowers, herbs, leaves, twigs of trees in woods and forests, all the
stars of heaven, were all rational creatures; and had they that wisdom and
tongues of angels to speak of the loveliness, beauty, glory, and excellency
of Christ, as gone to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of his Father,
they would, in all their expressions, stay millions of miles on this side
Jesus Christ. Oh, the loveliness, beauty, and glory of his countenance!
Can I speak, or you hear of such a Christ? And are we not all in a burning
love, in a seraphical love, or at least in a conjugal love? O my heart, how
is it thou art not love sick? How is it thou dost not charge the daughters
of Jerusalem as the spouse did: "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if
ye find my beloved, that ye shall tell him, that I am sick of love."
Canticles 5:8.— Isaac Ambrose.
Verse 5. "Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him." If it be
demanded whether Christ were exalted unto his glory and dignity, according
to both his natures, both his Godhead and his manhood, I answer, according
to both. According to his Godhead, not as it is considered in itself, but
inasmuch as his Godhead, which from his birth unto his death did little show
itself, after his resurrection was made manifest in his manhood; for, as the
apostle saith (Romans 1:4), "He was declared mightily to be the Son of God
by the resurrection from the dead," even by the resurrection and after his
resurrection from the dead, he which was thought only to be man, was most
plainly manifested likewise to be God. Now, as touching his manhood, he was
therein exalted unto highest majesty in the heavenly places, not only
shaking off all infirmities of man's nature, but also being beautified and
adorned with all qualities of glory, both in his soul and in his body, yet
so that he still retaineth the properties of a true body, for even as he was
man, he was set at the right hand of the Father, to rule and reign over all,
till all his enemies be destroyed, and put under his feet. To knit up all
in a word, Christ, God and man, after his resurrection, was crowned with
glory and honour, even such as plainly showed him to be God, and was set on