David prevailed. The only time that can with any colour of probability be imagined for David's composing this Psalm, must, I suppose, be the time of Absalom's rebellion, when David was advanced in years: but then what sense can we make of verse 45. THE DAYS OF HIS YOUTH HAST THOU SHORTENED? Besides, who can think that David would thus complain of God's "break"ing his covenant," or any thing like it, when he very well knew that his own sins in the matter of Uriah were the sole occasion of his sufferings at that time, and that God was notwithstanding as kind and gracious to him as he could reasonably expect or desire? David understood duty and decorum better than to expostulate with God in such a way, without something more of colour for doing it. There are five Psalms k of his, composed under his troubles for Absalom: but there is nothing at all in them of like strain with what has been mentioned of Psalm lxxxix. These things considered, that Psalm most certainly is none of David's; nor can any considerate man pretend so much as any colour for so judging, except it upon the old, and now generally exploded presumption, that all are David's.

be

It is with much greater show of probability that commentators and critics have ascribed this Psalm to some person living long after, under the times of the Babylonish captivity, in the days of Jehoiachim, or Jehoiachin, or Zedekiah, when there appeared to be a kind of total subversion of the royal family and government. But considering that the title of the Psalm seems to ascribe the composition of it to Ethan the Ezrahite, who is celebrated in Scripture for his wisdom m, and who was one of the three principal men preferred by David as chief singers over the choir", and endowed with prophetical gifts o;

k Psalms iii. vii. xlii. xliii. lv.

Hammond, Pool, Patrick, Wells, Calmet, Le Clerc.

1 Kings iv. 31.

n 1 Chron. xv. 17, 19.

• 1 Chron. xxv. 1-5. Note, that Jeduthan seems to have been the very

1

he is a very likely person to have been author of such a Psalm. As to the occasion which might induce him to it, there was a very remarkable one, which might happen in his time, if he lived to an advanced age. I mean the plundering of the city and temple by Shishak king of Egypt, in the fifth year of Rehoboam P, and in the year before Christ 974. So Mr. Bedford places it; who also ascribes this eighty-ninth Psalm to the same Ethan, and as composed upon that occasion 9. The characters of the Psalm seem to suit very well with that time, and that calamitous event; but particularly the mention made of Rahab in verse 10. which is the name for the lower Egypt there, as in some other places of the Old Testament'. We must suppose this Ethan to have lived to a great age, it being now above forty-five years since he was first appointed chief musician by king David. The good old man, who had seen what a glorious figure king David first, and after him king Solomon, had made, and to what a height of splendor the Hebrew name had been raised over all the earth, and knowing also what illustrious promises God had from time to time given to the house of David, must needs have been exceedingly surprised and shocked at that sudden downfall, when the king of Judah and the princes of Judah were all forced to submit themselves tamely to the King of Egypt, and to deliver up their city and their beautiful temple (so lately erected) to the mercy of the conqueror. Such an occasion as that was might well astonish the pious and devout Psalmist, and might extort from him those pathetical expostulations which we meet with in the Psalm. It might seem as if God had "made void his covenant:" a strong way of expressing the most surprising, sudden, and prodigious change of affairs, from the utmost height of grandeur to

same man with Ethan; of which, sce Carpzovii Introd. ad Lîbr. Bibl. part. ii. p. 104.

p 1 Kings xiv. 25, 26, 27. 2 Chron. xii. 2, 3, &c.

Bedford's Scripture Chronology, p. 612, 613.

• Psalm 1xxxvii. 4. Isa. li. 9. and perhaps Job xxvi. 12.

almost the lowest ebb of disgrace. And the case was the more affecting and sensible, because it was the first calamity of that kind. But the pious composer of the Psalm, however overwhelmed with grief and trouble, yet forgot not to express his awful reverence towards God, and his entire confidence in his mercies. He never had a thought (like what the Objector supposes) of charging God foolishly with any real breach of covenant. He begins his song with declaring, that he will "MAKE KNOWN the FAITHFULNESS of God to all generations:" and he ends with a very devout doxology in these grateful terms: BLESSED BE THE LORD FOR EVERMORE. AMEN, AND AMEN.

PSALM CIX.

The charge against this whole Psalm is, that David here "bestows the bitterest curses on his enemies." And the accuser says, with his usual pertness and petulance, that "the holier men in the Old Testament are repre66 sented, the more cruel they seem to be, as well as more "addicted to cursings." He had not the sense to consider, that blessing and cursing belong solely to God and God's commissioned officers: for what wonder is it, if the holiest men pronounced the curses of God upon sinners, when God generally chooses the holiest persons to represent him, and to speak or act for him? This gentleman may find in the Book of Judges, that the "angel of the "Lord said, CURSE YE MEROZ, CURSE YE BITTER"LY," &c. And he may go and tell it among his friends, that the angels of God are “much addicted to cursing." He may add, that they are cruel also: for an angel of the Lord went out, and at once destroyed AN HUNDRED FOURSCORE AND FIVE THOUSAND of the Assyrians ". But the Objector should learn to distinguish between cursing with God's authority, and cursing without it; be

tween holy and profane cursing. David being a Prophet, might curse in God's name, and with Divine warrant. But if Shimei, or a better man, without commission, should presume to denounce curses, he would thereby prove himself an ungodly wretch and à grievous transgressor. The people of God, the Hebrews, might devote, anathematize, or curse those whom God had commanded them so to devote, or curse: but had they presumed to go a step farther than their commission reached, they had been guilty before God. These general things premised, let us now come to the particular case of Psalm cix.

The Psalm is undoubtedly David's, as the title imports: and it was penned by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. To both which St. Peter gives his testimony in these words: MEN AND BRETHREN, THIS SCRIPTURE MUST NEEDS HAVE BEEN FULFILLED, WHICH THE HOLY GHOST BY THE MOUTH OF DAVID SPAKE BEFORE CONCERNING JUDAS, &c. Then he proceeds to quote places out of the Psalms, and particularly the eighth verse of this Psalm; LET ANOTHER TAKE HIS OFFICE: or, HIS BISHOPRICK LET ANOTHER TAKEY. Le Clerc, in his comment upon this Psalm, would persuade us that the words carry no prophecy in them: which is directly contradicting St. Peter's words, above cited out of the Acts 2, and doing it upon very frivolous and trifling pretences. But as this is not the first time that that learned critic has been bolder than becomes him, and has a suggested the same thing, so I may observe that he has been abundantly corrected for it by able hands, referred to in the margin. This Psalm therefore, as I before hinted, is prophetic of

x Acts i. 16.

y Acts i. 20. Τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. So also the LXX.

z Εδει πληρωθῆναι τὴν γραφὴν ταύτην, ἣν προεῖπε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον διὰ στόματος Δαβίδ, περὶ ̓Ιάδα. Acts i. 16.

a See Sentimens de quelques Théologiens sur l'Histoire Critique, p. 228. b Witsii Miscellan. vol. i. p. 215, &c. Carpzov. Introduct. ad Libr. Bibl. part. ii. p. 122, 123. Conf. Surenhusii Conciliat. p. 386. Jenkins's Reasonableness, vol. ii. p. 338. Eusebius in Psalm. p. 699.

the treachery of Judas, and declarative of the Divine vengeance that should fall upon his head.

Some have pertinently enough observed of the imprecations occurring in the Psalms, and other places of Scripture, that they may be considered as prophecies or predictions of what shall come to pass, rather than a formal denouncing of vengeance, or calling down curses upon sinners. The Hebrew words, in such cases, are as capable commonly of the future, as of the imperative mood and sensed, and may accordingly be rendered in the predicting style. The thirteenth verse, for instance, of this very Psalm, may be rendered thus; HIS POSTERITY WILL BE (or, SHALL BE) CUT OFF, AND IN THE GE

NERATION FOLLOWING HIS NAME SHALL BE BLOT

TED OUT. In other places also, where the verb is really imperative, we may justly render the original by the future, because the imperative in prophetic writings is often put for the future, as the best critics in the language have shown. This solution appears to be very just, if indeed there be occasion for it, and therefore I mention it. But I conceive it sufficient to say, as before, that since prophets have commission to denounce the curses of God, and they do it as God's instruments or deputies, in his name, and by his Spirit, more need not be said; neither is it material whether such imprecations be taken in the imperative or future sense. I like this account the better, because it will hold universally, which perhaps the other will not. For there are several imprecations in Scripture, which seem not fairly reducible to the head of prophecies or pre

Quando sancti viri deprecatorio more contra hostes suos rogant, non * voto malitiæ, sed spiritu prophetiæ hoc quod præsciunt futurum prædicunt: vel etiam contra spirituales nequitias orant, quas incorrigibiles esse sciunt, ut justam a Domino recipiant sententiam. Hieronym. in Thren. i. 22.

d See Hammond's Preface to the Psalms, and Comment on Psal. xxxv. 4. Jenkins, vol. ii. p. 237, 238. Le Cene, Projet d'une Nouvelle Version, p. 702. Ross 295.

⚫ Glassii Grammat. Sacr. lib. iii. tr. 3. can. 43. p. 869. Noldii Concordant. p. 1013. Guarin. Gramm. Hebr. tom. i. p. 541, 542. Vitringa in Isa. vol. ii. p. 845. Lakemacher, Observat. Philolog. vol. ii. p. 71.