Divine Grace is the water of life, and the life of the soul. To this it is that we owe the root, the flower, and fruits, of all good works. Without this, the very leaf, and appearance of virtue, fadeth away, and nothing grows. Wogan.

Ps. viii. p. 1.

Hosanna of the children.

v. 2. This verse is cited by our Lord, Matt. xxi. 16. and applied to little "children in the temple, crying, Hosanna to the Son of David!" which vexed and confounded his malignant adversaries. Horne.

p.2. An Evening Meditation.

v. 3, 4. At the time of inditing this Psalm, David is evidently supposed to have had before his eyes the heavens, as they appear by night. He is struck with the awful magnificence of the wide extended firmament, adorned by the moon walking in brightness, and rendered brilliant by the vivid lustre of a multitude of shining orbs, differing from each other in magnitude and splendour. And when, from surveying the beauty of heaven, with its glorious show, he turns to take a view of the creature man, he is still more affected by the mercy, than he had before been by the majesty, of the Lord: since far less wonderful it is, that God should make such a world as this, than that He, who made such a world as this, should be "mindful of man," in his fallen estate ; and should ❝ visit” human nature with his salvation.

Ps. cxlvi. p. 2.

v. 3.

God only worthy to be trusted.
From Him who is "the prince of

the kings of the earth," Sion looks for deliverance, and by Him her true sons expect to be exalted. He 'keepeth truth for ever;" he is able and willing to perform his promises, and never disappoints those who rely on him. There are no changes in the politics of heaven. The faithful servant of his master is by that master infallibly approved and rewarded. Earthly princes, if they have the will, often want the power, even to protect their friends. And should they want neither will nor power to advance them, yet still all depends upon the breath in their nostrils, which, perhaps, at the very critical moment, "goeth forth; they return to their earth; their thoughts," and all the thoughts of those who hoped to rise by their means, fall into the same grave, and are buried with them for ever. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? But trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Is. ii. 22. xxvi. 4.

Ps. lxxx. p. 3. The church crieth unto God for help and redemption ;

v. 8. describeth her former exaltation und present depression, under the beautiful figure of a Vine;

tions, and

p. 14. returneth again to her supplica

v. 17. prayeth for the advent of Messiah, to quicken and comfort her, vowing all loyal

obedience, adoration and praise to him, as the author of her salvation.

v. 3. This verse is a kind of chorusIt implies, that the church is in captivity, from which she prayeth to be "restored" to her former freedom and prosperity; that she expecteth such restoration, not from any might or merit of her own, but from the grace and mercy of her Saviour; as well knowing, that her night can be turned into day, and her winter give place to spring, only by the sun of righteousness rising, and causing his face to shine upon her desolations. This ought, therefore, to be the wish and the prayer of every persecuted church, and of every afflicted soul.

V. 8. The Vine is a lively emblem of the church, and used as such by Isaiah v. 7. See v. 3.

v. 19.

Ps. cxlix. p. 5.

The prophet exhorteth to praise God for his love to the church.

In the first Lesson for this morning, the church is introduced as singing a hymn to the Messiah, wherein she celebrates both his justice, and his mercy: his justice and power, in punishing his enemies; his mercy and goodness, in saving his people, and giving them an absolute and complete victory over every adversary; over sin and error, sorrow and death. Wogan.

This Psalm was a solemn form of thanksgiving for God's people for a signal victory afforded them by him and it mystically contains the eminent honour

of God to his church, and the conquest of the Christian faith over the heathen potentates. Ham

mond.

Ps. cxlvi. p. 5.

v. 8.

Praise to God for his goodness. That the Lord, of whom all these things are spoken, is the Messiah, or Jehovah incarnate, appears from what is said of him in verse 8. "The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind;" the miracle of restoring sight to men born blind being one reserved for the Son of God to work, at his coming in the flesh. "Since the world began," saith the man to whom sight had been thus restored, "was it not heard, that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.” John ix. 32. This therefore was the first of those tokens given by Jesus to the disciples of John, whereby it might be known that he was the expected Christ; "Go, and tell John the things which ye have heard and seen; The blind receive their sight," &c. But how did this evince him to be the Messiah? Plainly, because it had been foretold by the prophet (as in Is. xxxv. 5. xxix. 18. xlii. 18. so in this passage of our Psalm, which is exactly similar to those texts), that Messiah when he came should give sight to the blind. Now, if one part of the Psalmist's description belong to Christ, the other members of it must do so likewise, it being evident that the whole is spoken of the same person. He, therefore, "is the God of Jacob, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is ;"