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| To Whose Person the Entreaty for the Promises is to Be Understood to Belong, When He Says in the Psalm, ‘Where are Thine Ancient Compassions, Lord?’ Etc.
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Chapter 12.—To Whose Person the
Entreaty for the Promises is to Be Understood to Belong, When He
Says in the Psalm, “Where are Thine Ancient Compassions, Lord?”
Etc.
But the rest of this psalm runs
thus: “Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou
swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of
Thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom of many nations;
wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they
have reproached the change of Thy Christ.”1067
Now it may with very good reason
be asked whether this is spoken in the person of those Israelites
who desired that the promise made to David might be fulfilled to
them; or rather of the Christians, who are Israelites not after the
flesh but after the Spirit.1068
This certainly was spoken or
written in the time of Ethan, from whose name this psalm gets its
title, and that was the same as the time of David’s reign; and
therefore it would not have been said, “Where are Thine ancient
compassions, Lord, which Thou hast sworn unto David in Thy
truth?” unless the prophet had assumed the person of those who
should come long afterwards, to whom that time when these things
were promised to David was ancient. But it may be understood
thus, that many nations, when they persecuted the Christians,
reproached them with the passion of Christ, which Scripture calls
His change, because by dying He is made immortal. The change of
Christ, according to this passage, may also be understood to be
reproached by the Israelites, because, when they hoped He would be
theirs, He was made the Saviour of the nations; and many nations
who have believed in Him by the New Testament now reproach them who
remain in the old with this: so that it is said, “Remember,
Lord, the reproach of Thy servants;” because through the Lord’s
not forgetting, but rather pitying them, even they after this
reproach are to believe. But what I have put first seems to me
the most suitable meaning. For to the enemies of Christ who are
reproached with this, that Christ hath left them, turning to the
Gentiles,1069
this
speech is incongruously assigned, “Remember, Lord, the reproach
of Thy servants,” for such Jews are not to be styled the servants
of God; but these words fit those who, if they suffered great
humiliations through persecution for the name of Christ, could call
to mind that an exalted kingdom had been promised to the seed of
David, and in desire of it, could say not despairingly, but as
asking, seeking, knocking,1070
“Where are Thine ancient
compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?
Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, that I have borne in
my bosom of many nations;” that is, have patiently endured in my
inward parts. “That Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord,
wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy Christ,” not
thinking it a change, but a consumption.1071
| 1071 Another reading,
“consummation.” | But what does “Remember,
Lord,” mean, but that Thou wouldst have compassion, and wouldst
for my patiently borne humiliation reward me with the excellency
which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? But if we assign
these words to the Jews, those servants of God who, on the conquest
of the earthly Jerusalem, before Jesus Christ was born after the
manner of men, were led into captivity, could say such things,
understanding the change of Christ, because indeed through Him was
to be surely expected, not an earthly and carnal felicity, such as
appeared during the few years of king Solomon, but a heavenly and
spiritual felicity; and when the nations, then ignorant of this
through unbelief, exulted over and insulted the people of God for
being captives, what else was this than ignorantly to reproach with
the change of Christ those who understand the change of Christ?
And therefore what follows when this psalm is concluded, “Let the
blessing of the Lord be for evermore, amen, amen,” is suitable
enough for the whole people of God belonging to the heavenly
Jerusalem, whether for those things that lay hid in the Old
Testament before the New
was revealed, or for those
that, being now revealed in the New Testament, are manifestly
discerned to belong to Christ. For the blessing of the Lord in
the seed of David does not belong to any particular time, such as
appeared in the days of Solomon, but is for evermore to be hoped
for, in which most certain hope it is said, “Amen, amen;” for
this repetition of the word is the confirmation of that hope.
Therefore David understanding this, says in the second Book of
Kings, in the passage from which we digressed to this psalm,1072
| 1072 See above, chap. viii. | “Thou
hast spoken also for Thy servant’s house for a great while to
come.”1073
Therefore also a little after he says, “Now begin, and bless the
house of Thy servant for evermore,” etc., because the son was
then about to be born from whom his posterity should be continued
to Christ, through whom his house should be eternal, and should
also be the house of God. For it is called the house of David on
account of David’s race; but the selfsame is called the house of
God on account of the temple of God, made of men, not of stones,
where shall dwell for evermore the people with and in their God,
and God with and in His people, so that God may fill His people,
and the people be filled with their God, while God shall be all in
all, Himself their reward in peace who is their strength in war.
Therefore, when it is said in the words of Nathan, “And the Lord
will tell thee what an house thou shalt build for Him,”1074
it is
afterwards said in the words of David, “For Thou, Lord Almighty,
God of Israel, hast opened the ear of Thy servant, saying, I will
build thee an house.”1075
For this house is built both by
us through living well, and by God through helping us to live well;
for “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that
build it.”1076
And when
the final dedication of this house shall take place, then what God
here says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, “And I will appoint a
place for my people Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell
apart, and shall be troubled no more; and the son of iniquity shall
not humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the days when
I appointed judges over my people Israel.”1077
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