mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 150.xml

<div2 id="Ps.cli" n="cli" next="Prov" prev="Ps.cl" progress="72.04%" title="Chapter CL">
<h2 id="Ps.cli-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.cli-p0.2">PSALM CL.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.cli-p1">The first and last of the psalms have both the
same number of verses, are both short, and very memorable. But the
scope of them is very different: the first psalm is an elaborate
instruction in our duty, to prepare us for the comforts of our
devotion; this is all rapture and transport, and perhaps was penned
on purpose to be the conclusion of these sacred songs, to show what
is the design of them all, and that is to assist us in praising
God. The psalmist had been himself full of the praises of God, and
here he would fain fill all the world with them: again and again he
calls, "Praise the Lord, praise him, praise him," no less than
thirteen times in these six short verses. He shows, I. For what,
and upon what account, God is to be praised (<scripRef id="Ps.cli-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.1-Ps.150.2" parsed="|Ps|150|1|150|2" passage="Ps 150:1,2">ver. 1, 2</scripRef>), II. How, and with what
expressions of joy, God is to be praised, <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.3-Ps.150.5" parsed="|Ps|150|3|150|5" passage="Ps 150:3-5">ver. 3-5</scripRef>. III. Who must praise the Lord; it
is every one's business, <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.6" parsed="|Ps|150|6|0|0" passage="Ps 150:6">ver.
6</scripRef>. In singing this psalm we should endeavour to get our
hearts much affected with the perfections of God and the praises
with which he is and shall be for ever attended, throughout all
ages, world without end.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.cli-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150" parsed="|Ps|150|0|0|0" passage="Ps 150" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.cli-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.1-Ps.150.6" parsed="|Ps|150|1|150|6" passage="Ps 150:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.150.1-Ps.150.6">
<h4 id="Ps.cli-p1.6">An Invitation to Praise God; All Creatures
Called to Praise God.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.cli-p2">1 Praise ye the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cli-p2.1">Lord</span>. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in
the firmament of his power.   2 Praise him for his mighty
acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.   3
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the
psaltery and harp.   4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance:
praise him with stringed instruments and organs.   5 Praise
him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding
cymbals.   6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cli-p2.2">Lord</span>. Praise ye the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cli-p2.3">Lord</span>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cli-p3">We are here, with the greatest earnestness
imaginable, excited to praise God; if, as some suppose, this psalm
was primarily intended for the Levites, to stir them up to do their
office in the house of the Lord, as singers and players on
instruments, yet we must take it as speaking to us, who are made to
our God spiritual priests. And the repeated inculcating of the call
thus intimates that it is a great and necessary duty, a duty which
we should be much employed and much enlarged in, but which we are
naturally backward to and cold in, and therefore need to be brought
to, and held to, by precept upon precept, and line upon line.
Observe here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cli-p4">I. Whence this tribute of praise arises,
and out of what part of his dominion it especially issues. It
comes, 1. From <i>his sanctuary;</i> praise him there. Let his
priests, let his people, that attend there, attend him with their
praises. Where should he be praised, but there where he does, in a
special manner, both manifest his glory and communicate his grace?
<i>Praise God</i> upon the account of <i>his sanctuary,</i> and the
privileges which we enjoy by having that among us, <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.37.26" parsed="|Ezek|37|26|0|0" passage="Eze 37:26">Ezek. xxxvii. 26</scripRef>. <i>Praise God in
his holy ones</i> (so some read it); we must take notice of the
image of God as it appears on those that are sanctified, and love
them for the sake of that image; and when we praise them we must
praise God in them. 2. From <i>the firmament of his power. Praise
him</i> because of his power and glory which appear in the
firmament, its vastness, its brightness, and its splendid
furniture; and because of the powerful influences it has upon this
earth. Let those that have their dwelling <i>in the firmament of
his power,</i> even the holy angels, lead in this good work. Some,
by the <i>sanctuary,</i> as well as by <i>the firmament of his
power,</i> understand the highest heavens, the residence of his
glory; that is indeed his sanctuary, his holy temple, and there he
is praised continually, in a far better manner than we can praise
him. And it is a comfort to us, when we find we do it so poorly,
that it is so well done there.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cli-p5">II. Upon what account this tribute of
praise is due, upon many accounts, particularly, 1. The works of
his power (<scripRef id="Ps.cli-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.2" parsed="|Ps|150|2|0|0" passage="Ps 150:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>):
<i>Praise him for his mighty acts;</i> for <i>his mightinesses</i>
(so the word is), for all the instances of his might, the power of
his providence, the power of his grace, what he has done in the
creation, government, and redemption of the world, for the children
of men in general, for his own church and children in particular.
2. The glory and majesty of his being: <i>Praise him according to
his excellent greatness, according to the multitude of his
magnificence</i> (so Dr. Hammond reads it); not that our praises
can bear any proportion to God's greatness, for it is infinite,
but, since he is greater than we can express or conceive, we must
raise our conceptions and expressions to the highest degree we can
attain to. Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God,
as we often do in praising even great and good men. <i>Deus non
patitur hyperbolum—We cannot speak hyperbolically of God;</i> all
the danger is of saying too little and therefore, when we have done
our utmost, we must own that though we have praised him in
consideration of, yet not in proportion to, <i>his excellent
greatness.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cli-p6">III. In what manner this tribute must be
paid, with all the kinds of musical instruments that were then used
in the temple-service, <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.3-Ps.150.5" parsed="|Ps|150|3|150|5" passage="Ps 150:3-5"><i>v.</i>
3-5</scripRef>. It is well that we are not concerned to enquire
what sort of instruments these were; it is enough that they were
well known then. Our concern is to know, 1. That hereby is
intimated how full the psalmist's heart was of the praises of God
and how desirous he was that this good work might go on. 2. That in
serving God we should spare no cost nor pains. 3. That the best
music in God's ears is devout and pious affections, <i>non musica
chordula, sed cor—not a melodious string, but a melodious
heart.</i> Praise God with a strong faith; praise him with holy
love and delight; praise him with an entire confidence in Christ;
praise him with a believing triumph over the powers of darkness;
praise him with an earnest desire towards him and a full
satisfaction in him; praise him by a universal respect to all his
commands; praise him by a cheerful submission to all his disposals;
praise him by rejoicing in his love and solacing yourselves in his
great goodness; praise him by promoting the interests of the
kingdom of his grace; praise him by a lively hope and expectation
of the kingdom of his glory. 4. That, various instruments being
used in praising God, it should yet be done with an exact and
perfect harmony; they must not hinder, but help one another. The
New-Testament concert, instead of this, is <i>with one mind and one
mouth to glorify God,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Rom.15.6" parsed="|Rom|15|6|0|0" passage="Ro 15:6">Rom. xv.
6</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cli-p7">IV. Who must pay this tribute (<scripRef id="Ps.cli-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.150.6" parsed="|Ps|150|6|0|0" passage="Ps 150:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): <i>Let every thing that
has breath praise the Lord.</i> He began with a call to those that
had a place in his sanctuary and were employed in the
temple-service; but he concludes with a call to all the children of
men, in prospect of the time when the Gentiles should be taken into
the church, and <i>in every place,</i> as acceptably as at
Jerusalem, <i>this incense should be offered,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Mal.1.11" parsed="|Mal|1|11|0|0" passage="Mal 1:11">Mal. i. 11</scripRef>. Some think that in
<i>every thing that has breath</i> here we must include the
inferior creatures (as <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Gen.7.22" parsed="|Gen|7|22|0|0" passage="Ge 7:22">Gen. vii.
22</scripRef>), all <i>in whose nostrils was the breath of
life.</i> They praise God according to their capacity. The singing
of birds is a sort of praising God. The brutes do in effect say to
man, "We would praise God if we could; do you do it for us." John
in vision heard a song of praise from <i>every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Rev.5.13" parsed="|Rev|5|13|0|0" passage="Re 5:13">Rev. v. 13</scripRef>. Others think that only the
children of men are meant; for into them God has in a more peculiar
manner <i>breathed the breath of life,</i> and they have become
<i>living souls,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Gen.2.7" parsed="|Gen|2|7|0|0" passage="Ge 2:7">Gen. ii.
7</scripRef>. Now that the gospel is ordered to be preached <i>to
every creature,</i> to every human creature, it is required that
every human creature praise the Lord. What have we our breath, our
spirit, for, but to spend it in praising God; and how can we spend
it better? Prayers are called <i>our breathings,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Lam.3.56" parsed="|Lam|3|56|0|0" passage="La 3:56">Lam. iii. 56</scripRef>. Let every one that
breathes towards God in prayer, finding the benefit of that,
breathe forth his praises too. Having breath, let the praises of
God perfume our breath; let us be in this work as in our element;
let it be to us as the air we breathe in, which we could not live
without. Having our breath in our nostrils, let us consider that it
is still going forth, and will shortly go and not return. Since
therefore we must shortly breathe our last, while we have breath
let us praise the Lord, and then we shall breathe our last with
comfort, and, when death runs us out of breath, we shall remove to
a better state to breathe God's praises in a freer better air.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cli-p8">The first three of the five books of psalms
(according to the Hebrew division) concluded with <i>Amen and
Amen,</i> the fourth with <i>Amen, Hallelujah,</i> but the last,
and in it the whole book, concludes with only <i>Hallelujah,</i>
because the last six psalms are wholly taken up in praising God and
there is not a word of complaint or petition in them. The nearer
good Christians come to their end the fuller they should be of the
praises of God. Some think that this last psalm is designed to
represent to us the work of glorified saints in heaven, who are
there continually praising God, and that the musical instruments
here said to be used are no more to be understood literally than
the gold, and pearls, and precious stones, which are said to adorn
the New Jerusalem, <scripRef id="Ps.cli-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Rev.21.18-Rev.21.19" parsed="|Rev|21|18|21|19" passage="Re 21:18,19">Rev. xxi. 18,
19</scripRef>. But, as those intimate that the glories of heaven
are the most excellent glories, so these intimate that the praises
the saints offer there are the most excellent praises. Prayers will
there be swallowed up in everlasting praises; there will be no
intermission in praising God, and yet no weariness—hallelujahs for
ever repeated, and yet still new songs. Let us often take a
pleasure in thinking what glorified saints are doing in heaven,
what those are doing whom we have been acquainted with on earth,
but who have gone before us thither; and let it not only make us
long to be among them, but quicken us to do this part of the will
of God on earth as those do it that are in heaven. And let us spend
as much of our time as may be in this good work because in it we
hope to spend a joyful eternity. <i>Hallelujah</i> is the word
there (<scripRef id="Ps.cli-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Rev.19.1 Bible:Rev.19.3" parsed="|Rev|19|1|0|0;|Rev|19|3|0|0" passage="Re 19:1,3">Rev. xix. 1, 3</scripRef>);
let us echo to it now, as those that hope to join in it shortly.
<i>Hallelujah, praise you the Lord.</i></p>
</div></div2>