PSALM LXXXIV. ARGUMENT. This Pfalm, for the fubject matter of it, bears a refemblance to the xliid. Under the figure of an Ifraelite, deprived of all access to Jerufalem and the fanctuary, (whether it were David, when driven away by Abfalom, or any other perfon in like circumftances, at a different time) we are presented with 1, 2. the earnest longing of a devout foul after the house and presence of God; 3-7. a beautiful and passionate eulogy on the blessedness of his minifters and fervants; 8-10. a fervent prayer for a participation of that blessedness; and 11, 12. an act of faith in his power and goodness, which render him both able and willing to grant requests of this nature. 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hofts! Thus ardently doth a banished Ifraelite express his love for Sion, his admiration of the beauty of holinefs. Nay, Balaam himself, when from the top of Peor he faw the children of Ifrael abiding in their tents, with the Glory in the midft of them, could not help exclaiming, "How goodly are thy tents, "O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Ifrael!" Numb. xxiv. 5. "How amiable," then, may the Christian fay, are those eternal manfions, from whence fin and forrow are excluded; how goodly that camp of the faints, and that beloved city, where righteousness and joy reign triumphant, and peace and unity are violated no more; where thou, O bleffed Jefu, "Lord "of hofts," King of men and angels, dwelleft in glorious majesty, conftituting by thy presence the felicity of thy chofen! 2. My foul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out, or, fhouteth for the living God. It is faid of the queen of Sheba, that upon beholding the pleasantnefs of Jerufalem, the fplendour of Solomon's court, and above all, the magnificence of the temple, with the fervices therein performed, "there was no more fpirit in her." 1 King. x. 5. What wonder, therefore, if the foul fhould be affected, even to sickness and fainting, while, from this land of her captivity, the beholdeth, by faith, the heavenly Jerufalem, the city and court of the great King, with all the tranfporting glories of the church triumphant: while, in her meditations, she draweth the comparison between her wretched ftate of exile upon earth, and the unspeakable bleffedness of being delivered from temptation and affliction, and admitted into the everlasting "courts of Jeho"vah?" Whofe "heart and flesh" doth not exult, and "fhout" aloud for joy, at a profpect of rifing from the bed of death, to dwell with "the living "God;" to fee the face of him, " in whom is life, "and the life is the light of men?" John i. 4. Did the the Ifraelites, from all parts of Judea, go up, with the voice of jubilee, to keep a feaft at Jerufalem; and shall Chriftians grieve, when the time is come for them to afcend, and to celebrate an eternal feftival, in heaven? 3. Yea the Sparrow hath found an houfe, and the Swallow, or, ring dove a neft for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. The Pfalmift is generally fuppofed, in this verse, to lament his unhappiness, in being deprived of all access to the tabernacle, or temple, a privilege enjoyed even by the birds, who were allowed to build their nefts in the neighbourhood of the fanctuary. It is evidently the defign of this paffage to intimate to us, that in the house, and at the altar of God, a faithful foul findeth freedom from care and forrow, quiet of mind, and gladness of spirit; like a bird, that has secured a little manfion, for the reception and education of her young. And there is no heart, endued with fenfibility, which doth not bear it's teftimony to the exquifite beauty and propriety of this affecting image. 4. Bleed are they that dwell in thy houfe: they will be, or, are fill praising thee. Here the metaphor is dropped, and the former fentiment expreffed in plain language. "Bleffed are,” not the mighty and opulent of the earth, but "they "that dwell in thy houfe," the minifters of the eternal temple in heaven, the angels and the fpirits of just men made perfect; their every paffion is refolved into love, every duty into praife; hallelujah fucceeds hal hallelujah; "they are ftill," ftill, for ever, "praising "thee." And bleffed, next to them, are those mihifters and members of the church here below, who, in difpofition, as well as employment, do most refemble them. 5. Bleed is the man whofe ftrength is in thee: in whofe heart are the ways of them; Heb. the ways are in the heart of them. Not only they are pronounced bleffed, who "dwell" in the temple, but all they also who are " travelling" thitherward, (as the whole Jewish nation was wont to do, three times in a year) and who are therefore meditating on their "journey," and on the "way" which leadeth to the holy city, trusting in God to " ftrength"en," and profper, and conduct them to the house of his habitation, the place where his glory dwelleth. Such a company of fojourners are Chriftians, going up to the heavenly Jerufalem; fuch ought to be their trust in God, and fuch the fubject of their thoughts*. 6. Who paffing through the valley of Baca,make it a well: the rain alfo filleth the pools. 7. They go from In ejus animo verfantur femitæ ferentes ad templum quo properat. Morali fenfu; Quicunque fanctus eft, quotidie in priora extenditur, et præteritorum oblivifcitur, cum Paulo, Phil. iii. 13. BOSSUET. Jerufalem is represented in the New Testament as a type of heaven. I fee nothing irrational, therefore, in fuppofing, that the infpired writer, in defcribing the afcent to Jerufalem, might have in view alfo that fpiritual progrefs, leading to the city which is above, the mother of us all. The words before us are certainly very applicable to the advances made, in this progreís, from ftrength to ftrength, from one stage of Chriftian perfection to another. MERRICK. Strength Strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God; or, the God of gods appeareth, i. e. to them in Zion. After numberless uncertain conjectures offered by commentators upon the conftruction of these two verfes, it feemeth impoffible for us to attain to any other than a general idea of their true import; which is this, that the Ifraelites, or fome of them, paffed, in their way to Jerufalem, through a valley that had the name of "Baca," a noun derived from a verb which fignifies to "weep;" that in this valley they were refreshed by plenty of water; that with renewed vigour they proceeded from stage to stage, until they presented themselves before God in Zion. The prefent world is to us this valley of weeping; in our paffage through it, we are refreshed by the streams of divine grace, flowing down from the great fountain of confolation; and thus are we enabled to proceed from one degree of holiness to another, until we come to the glorified vifion of God, in heaven itself. Mr. Merrick's poetical verfion of this paffage is extremely beautiful, and applies at once to the cafe of the Ifraelite, and to that of the Chriftian. Bleft, who, their strength on thee reclin'd, The |