King. From the days of Cain until now, lawlessness, and sin, and scorning, have never been absent from the earth. They all confronted Noah, and then gathered in far fiercer enmity, against the Holy One of God. All totality of evil gathered against Christ :-all totality of evil will be gathered to Antichrist.

In Scripture, the same persons or things are frequently presented under different terms, or symbols, or types, or parables, in order that this variety of aspect may render the apprehension more complete. Contrast is intended, but not opposition: the predominancy of any particular feature or characteristic, leading to the use of such terms as are best suited to express such predominancy. Thus if it be desired that the attention should be directed to that rebellious insubjection of heart from which deeds of impiety (aσeßeia), lawlessness (avoμia), and oppressive wickedness (Tovηpia) flow, the expression used is : if aberration from the right and appointed path is denoted , derived from ND, to miss the mark, to err (apapravW), is used whilst the scoffer or scorner proudly seating himself in his seat of assumed authority, represents the insolent contemptuousness of evil. "Counsel," "way," "seat," are the words adapted to these several conditions-"counsel" connecting itself with the rebellious condition of the heart: "way" with the erring step: "seat" with the proud assumption of authority.

Some have wished to render i session, in the sense of assembly: but the reasons urged against this by Hengstenberg are conclusive.

For seeing that his delight is in the law of Jehovah, &c., he shall therefore be, &c.] Gesenius observes in his Lexicon when explaining the force of, that "may refer to an interposed or parenthetic clause and each particle retain its own native force." He quotes as an example 1 Sam. xx. 9, "God forbid that [] (if [N] I knew assuredly that evil were determined from my father to come upon thee) I should not show it to thee." In the present case, however, Gesenius does not separate these particles, but takes them unitedly, as meaning but if, as referring to the same clause after a negation, and translates thus, "blessed is the man who walketh not (if he walk not) but if his delight is in the law, &c."

It is, however, far better to adopt the first rendering to which Gesenius refers, and to take each particle separately: for, as has been observed by Dr. Tregelles, if we take the particles combinedly in this passage, we should be obliged to go against the accentuation—

Mappikh with P'sik being in the Psalms a disjunctive: and although the accents have no Divine authority, yet we should not, without necessity, reject their guidance. It is better, therefore, to translate thus, "for or because (since his delight is in the law of Jehovah, &c.) he shall therefore be." in the sense of "because" is in several places followed by, denoting the inference, and then is best rendered by therefore. See for example, Mal. iii. 6. "Because (*) I am Jehovah therefore (1) ye, &c."

Verse II. The law of Jehovah.] This is to be understood of the Scripture as a whole-in the law, is from 7 to point with the hand, to direct. The whole of God's word is a "directory.”

Continually meditates.]-continuousness or perpetuity is often the force of the Hebrew future. Compare Swoovo Rev. iv. 9.

Verse III. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.] Some, in translating this clause, continue the metaphor, and render "whatsoever it (the tree) produceth, shall prosper." But it is far better to retain the rendering of our version. It is common in Scripture to pass suddenly from the figure to the subject to which the figure applies. It adds to the force and vividness of description.

Verse V. The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment.] Some wish to render this, "the ungodly shall not rise" as if it referred to the wicked being excluded from "the first resurrection." It is true, indeed, that they will be excluded. "The rest of the dead lived not (OUK enoav) until the thousand years were finished." (ουκ εζησαν) But this is evidently not the subject of this passage. Resurrection would not be expressed by "rising in the judgment and in the congregation of the righteous," for both these clauses are connected with P. Dp frequently bears the sense of standing, in the sense of establishment. Thus Is. vii. 7. It shall not stand and again, viii. 10, "speak the word and it shall not stand:" and Jer. xliv. 29, "my words shall surely stand." (lit. standing shall stand.)

קוּם

For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous.] Observe the abstract force of the participle Jehovah est noscens-one knowing. He may not at present manifestly act upon his knowledge: but it essentially characterizes Him, and yet a little while and it shall be fully proved that He observes, delights in, and remembers the ways of His servants.

On the Second Psalm.

ONE of the chief objects of the Psalms is to contrast the condition of the earth, whilst under the supremacy of evil, with its future condition when "the sovereignty of the world" shall have become "the sovereignty of our Lord and of His Christ." Rev. xi. 15.* At present Satan is the Deceiver (ò λavwv) not merely of individuals but of nations and their Governors. The streams of national life are poisoned at their source. In the Apocalypse, which treats of the close of the present dispensation, Satan is especially described as the Deceiver of the nations;† (Rev. xii. 9, and xx. 3.)-as wearing the diadems of the Roman World (Rev. xii. 3.) and then giving them to Antichrist (Rev. xiii. 2.), and as finally gathering the kings of the whole Roman World (Tηs oikovμevns oλns) “to that great day of the battle of the Lord God Almighty." Of that great gathering this Psalm treats. It speaks of the time when not merely "the peoples," but their kings and rulers shall openly confederate against God. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against Jehovah and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.' This is the consummation of that "lawlessness" which makes him who heads it emphatically "the lawless one." (o arouos, 2 Thes. ii.) Armageddon (i. e., the Hill of Megiddo, in the north-west of Palestine, marked in the Roman maps as "Legio,") is to be the place of their gathering: "the valley of Jehoshaphat" (Joel III.) under the walls of Jerusalem, the place of their destruction. The nations will

* Εγενετο ἡ βασιλεια του κόσμου, του Κυρίου ἡμων και του χριστου αυτού.

Rev. xi. 15.

† ὁ Σατανας, ὁ πλανων την οικουμενην ύλην. Rev. xii. 9. See also Rev. xx. 3-"that he should not any longer deceive the nations"-words which very forcibly show how completely he deceives them now.

be allowed to progress to this completeness of apostasy; but when that has been fully reached, "THEN" (IN) shall He-Adonai, Christ the Lord, "speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." See also Zech. xiv. "Jehovah shall go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle: and his feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall cleave, &c.

and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." See likewise Joel iii. 13. Thus the power and glory of the Lord God of Israel shall, as of old, and even far more wondrously (for heaven and earth shall be shaken) confront the proud rebellion of earth. How would Christians cease to look to the governments of the earth, and to national enlightenment and progress, as the pillar on which they rest their hopes for the earth's future, if they received the words of Joel, and Zechariah, and of this Psalm!

Many, forgetful of the well-known rule respecting the germinant fulfilment of prophecy, have virtually quenched the light of this Psalm, by regarding it as finally accomplished when Pilate, Herod, and Israel, gathered together against Jesus and His disciples. It is indeed true that the commencing verses of this Psalm received a fulfilment both then, and on every other occasion in which the powers of earth have confederated against Christ and His Truth. The principles which are to attain their maturity at the close of the dispensation, have long been germinating. The heads of society, secular, philosophic, and religious, had begun to exhibit when the Lord Jesus was on earth, an indifferentism, and scepticism about Truth, which was making them reckless of all its restraints. He who has learned contemptuously to say, "What is Truth?" will not be restrained by Truth. If they be personally untroubled by its voice-if its testimonies reach them not so as to harass their consciences, their indifferentism may be content with despising Truth; but if its voice be heard upbraidingly, or if its power thwart any of their designs of evil, then they persecute and trample it to the dust. Such was Pilate; and not only Pilate, but multitudes beside both in Greece, and Rome, and Jerusalem, at the time when the Great Witness of Truth testified. "The mystery of lawlessness," said the Apostle, "doth already work." The final development of iniquity, therefore, is only the matured form of that which has long been advancing: for what is there in the flower, or in the fruit, that is not hidden in the bud? But the descriptions of Scripture are not limited to the

embryo form.

They extend to the matured development the description of the greater necessarily including the less. We are not indeed to neglect premonitory fulfilments. By means of what has been, we are taught what is to be. But if we mistake premonitory fulfilment for final accomplishment, we deceive ourselves by the very light that is intended to be our guide.

The word "THEN" (IN) proves that this passage is yet to receive its full accomplishment. "THEN shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." He has never yet done this. On the contrary, His long-suffering mercy has waited, and permitted violence to prosper: He has allowed Truth and its servants to be trampled down. The cry has yet to be heard and answered, "Lord, how long wilt thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth ?"

The sixth verse; "yet have I inaugurated (D) my king, upon my holy hill of Zion," &c., stands intermediately between the two divisions of the Psalm. In contrast with the vain purpose of the raging nations, this verse reveals Jehovah's purpose of establishing the Government of Christ as Lord of Israel and the earth, on Mount Zion. "Yet have I inaugurated:"-the past tense is used; for future events are spoken of as past, in order to denote their certainty. Thus it is said of Israel, when as yet they had reached but the edge of the wilderness :-" thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation:" and again, "whom he justified, them he also glorified."

The inauguration of Christ on Zion will doubtless be an event marked as visibly and as solemnly as the descent of Jehovah on Sinai, when He there introduced the First Covenant. With no less solemnity, but with increased and more blessed, (because more peaceful) manifestations of glory, will the government of Christ under the Second Covenant be installed on Mount Zion. The miraculous exaltation of Zion above the hills is prophesied of both by Isaiah and by Micah. "It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of Jehovah shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." Is. ii. and Micah iv. It is mentioned, also as the place where divine glory will be manifestly present in protective power: "and Jehovah will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and on her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence." And in Psalm lxvii. we read, "The hill of God is as the hill of