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April i, 1892. THE WELSH YVEEKL/. 13 scattered throughout the country. The great com¬ mercial advantages of so rich a country had also attracted many Jews into it, who, at the time this Epistle was written, possessed great power and en¬ joyed special privileges ceded to them by a decree of the Emperor which was inscribed on a pillar in the temple at Aucyra, the so-called Monumentum ■Aucyranum. And it is quite possible that the Jewish religion had obtained a footing among so impressionable a people, and that it already numbered not a few proselytes. At the same time the pre- pondering element in the population was the Galatian. It was this element that stamped its character upon the Galatian Church, and decided its history. INTERNATIONAL LESSON. THE KING IN ZION. Psa. ii. 1-12 (March 6). Golden Text.—Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.—Psa. ii. 12. Author.—Not given in the title, but the apostles, in the Acts (iv. 25), attribute it to David, and there is no reason for questioning his authorship.—Peloubet. Circumstances.—Perowne would " connect this Psalm with the events mentioned in 2 Sam. 10," when there was & confederacy of the nations against David; especially as "just about this time, too (2 Sam. vii. 14), the promise was given to which allusion seems to be made in verse 7 of the Psalm." "But though the poem was occasioned by some national event, we must not confine its applica¬ tion to that event." " The local and the temporal is swallowed up in the universal and eternal."—Perowne. Date.—About b.c. 1040, if the Psalm was written under the above circumstances.—Peloubet. Divisions.—This Psalm is divided into four stanzas of three verses each. These stanzas are a series of four pictures in reference to the Messiah's kingdom. Its Messianic character.—That this Psalm refers to the Messiah is clear' (1) from its application to Him in the New Testament by the apostles in Acts iv. 24-27, and by Paul in Acts xiii. 32, 33. So Heb. i. 5.—Perowne. (2) It is well known that the Messianic interpretation of each and every Psalm, which is claimed by the advocates of the (Christian) system as directly and exclusively predictive of Christ, teas received by the Hebrews long before our Lord's coming without any misgiving or trace of antagonistic opinion.—Canon F. C. Cook. (3) The Psalm was not ful¬ filled in David or in any king of his line. They do not answer to the description, and therefore the picture can¬ not have been meant for them. But (4) it was fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah. " In whom these divine words have found their true fulfilment has never been a matter of doubt to the Christian Church."— Orelli. " The Psalm is a lyric echo and interpretation of the promises in 2 Sam. vii. 12, 14-16." It refers to the ideal or Messianic king himself.—Cheyne. The Psalm cele¬ brates the world dominion of a king who is a son of David and a Son of God.—Delitzsch. The prediction throughout is generic. It finds its realisation in them as the culmina¬ tion of David's line. The dynasty of David is an ever¬ lasting dynasty. It continues from David onward to reign over Israel, but it is only in Jesus Carist that it really becomes an eternal throne.—Prof. G, A. Briggs. " To discard its Messianic references were to blot out the sun from the firmament of its poetry, and to quench the brightest stars of its loftiest illumination. It would be Paradise without the tree of life in the midst of the garden. A Psalter without Christ would be a harp with¬ out its „music, and a body without its life. ' The fitting symbol for the frontispiece of that book,' says the Bishop of Derry, ' would be a broken lyre in a dead man's hand.' " —Bishop Walsh in The Voices of the Psalms. Doctrine. Jesus, the Christ, shall overcome all opposition, and reign over all the world. A picture of the scene on earth.—Vers. 1-3. The. Nations arrayed against God and his Son Jesus. Ver. 1. Why do the nations (A.V. " the heathen ") AH the nations besides the Israelites; and now all people who are not of the true Israel of God, and do not love and serve him. Rage. The Hebrew verb is not expressive of an internal feeling, but of the outward agitation which denotes it. There may be an allusion to the rolling and roaring of the sea.—Alexander. Imagine. To devise, to scheme, to plot. Used in the old English sense, now obsolete. Notice that in the original rage is in the perfect tense,—have raged, and still do; while imagine is in the present, to express what they are designing under those feelings. A Yain thing. It was vain (this resisting God), not only because there was no true ground of reason why they should [imagine or do such a thing, but vain also because they laboured in vain—they could not do it.— Joseph Caryl. A vain thing. A medal was struck by Diocletian, which still remains, bearing the inscription, "The name of Christians being extinguished." And in Spain two monu¬ mental pillars were raised, on one of which was written, " Diocletian, for having extended the Eoman Empire in the East and the "West, and for having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the republic to ruin " ; on the other, " Diocletian, for having every where abolished the superstition of Christ." A modern writer has ele¬ gantly observed: "We have here a monument raised by Paganism over the grave of its vanquished foe; but in this the people imagined a vain thing. So far from being deceased, Christianity was on the eve of its final and per¬ manent triumph, and the stone guarded a sepulchre as empty as the urn which Electra washed with her tears."— Spurgeon in Treasury of David. Ver. 2. The kings of the earth. The leaders, speaking and acting for the nations. Set themselves. Assume deliberately a hostile attitude.—Perowne. The rulers. Adding all those who by talent and superiority are the natural leaders of men. Take counsel together. Devise schemes, consult together. Against the Lord, and His Anointed. Against both, because in reality they are one. Whosoever opposes and rejects Christ, rejects God. His Anointed. The original word here is "Messiah," the Anointed One, to which the word "Christ" is the Greek equivalent.—Cowles. Anointing is the form of consecra¬ tion to a sacred use or office, especially to that of king or high priest. Hence Christ is called "the Anointed," as set apart to be the King, and Priest, and Saviour of men. Luther bids us observe how consolatory this truth is to the militant Church. For the rage of our enemies is not aimed at us, but at the Lord and his Christ. They can only reach us through him.—Perowne. Ver. 3. Let us break their bands asunder (i.e., those of Jehovah and his Christ). Tne metaphor is borrowed from restive animals which break the cords, and throw off the yoke (Isa. lviii. 6; x. 27).—Perowne. Cast away their cords. The same idea under another form; the restraints of their authority, the laws of their kingdom ; the cords (twisted ropes, stronger than bands) referring not to that which would bind them as prisoners, but to the ropes or thongs which bound oxen to the plough, and hence to that which would bind men to the service of God. This is precisely sin—sin in its very nature and essence ; the heart lifting up itself against the perfectly reasonable authority and most righteous claims of the infinite God, the glorious Giver of every good.—Cowles. When writing this Psalm David was like a man in a storm, who hears only the roar¬ ing of the tempest, or sees nothing but the raging billows threatening destruction on every side of him. And yet his faith enabled him to say, "The people imagine a vain thing."—David Pitcairn. A Yision of the scene in heaven. Vers. 4-6. From all this wild tempest of confusion upon earth, from the trampling of gathering armies, and the pride of kingly captains, and their words of haughty menace, the poet turns his eye to heaven. There, on his everlasting throne, sits the Almighty King, in whose sight all nations and kings are but a3 a drop of the bucket.—Peroione. Ver. 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh-. Not in mockery or contempt, but iu his conscious power over them to frustrate all their designs. We would say, " He smiles at their rage." So " the ship laughs at the storm." The Lord shall have them in derision. Ex¬ pressing the same idea as " shall laugh." There is a great comfort here for all reformers, all workers for God. We have opposition, and must expect it. Evil is strong, active, and boastful; it seems to have its own way; but our God is mightier still, and in his victory shall be our own.—Peloubet. Ver. 5. Shall he speak unto them. The change in the rhythm of the original is worthy of notice; it becomes full and sonorous, rolling like the thunder.—Peroione. We seem to hear the thunder's roll and see the lightning's flash. " The thunder is God's voice; the heaven is his impregnable fortress."—Cheyne. In his wrath. Not passion, as human anger often is, but intense indignation against sin; an indignation which every good person must feel in view of the terrible evils and injuries of sin; and God most intensely of all, because he is most good in his nature, and sees most clearly the evils of sin. Wrath expresses the punishment of sin.—Peloubet. Yex them. Strike terror into their guilty souls by the assertion of his divine purpose to enthrone his Son in Zion, and give him the nations as his subjects to be broken with a rod of iron. —Cowles. Sore displeasure. A stronger, more terrible word than " wrath," above.—Murphy. Ver. 6. Yet have I set my king. In the words " Yet I" (the pronoun is emphatic in the Hebrew) we have the central truth of the Psalm.—Peroione. They may plot and rebel and oppose all they please, but in spite of it all God's king shall rule over all. Have set. Have constituted or created (enthroned as king).—Peloubet. My king. Not a king, nor even the king, but my king, one who is to reign for me, and in indissoluble union with me, so that his reigning is identical with mine.—Alexander. Upon my holy hill of Zion. Zion was the fortified hill, the strong¬ hold, where was David's royal palace (and where he placed the ark and the tabernacle). Its loftiness and strength, its kingly and sacred character, made it the centre and heart of Jerusalem, and the religion and polity of Israel, the source of its hopes, joys, and blessings; and as Jerusalem was the heart and centre of all the hopes of mankind, so Zion is described as " the joy of the whole earth."—Wood- worth. The Messiah proclaims his Divine authority.—Vers. 7-9. A sudden change of speakers takes place. The Son, the Anointed King, appears and proclaims the Father's counsel concerning him.—Perowne. Ver. 7. I will tell of the decree. The new law of his kingdom. He reigns not by the will of man, but by the grace of God; not by right only as the Son of Jehovah, but by covenant and promise likewise.—Perowne. The Lord (Jehovah) said unto me, thou art my son! this day have I begotten thee. " This day have I given to thee, not existence, which is presupposed, but a new existence, a new career, a throne of the world, and of all that is or will be in it." What day? The day when the promised dominion over the world began (Acts. xiii. 33.; Bomans i. 4), or generally, the day on which Christ commenced the work which eventuated in his everlasting dominion.— Canon Cook. The essential meaning of the phrase 1 have begotten thee is simply this, I am thy father. "These words are only cited in Acts xiii. 34, and Heb. i. 5 to prove the solemn recognition of Christ's sonship, and his conse¬ quent authority, by God himself."—Alexander. This recognition was made at his conception (Luke i. 35), at his baptism (Matt. iii. 17), and transfiguration (Matt xvii. 5), when a voice from heaven said, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."—Peloubet. Ver. 8. Ask of me. A poetical figure by which is represented God's willingness to give his Anointed the kingdoms of the world.—Perowne. I will give thee. He, as it were, transfers them to Christ, because only through the Messiah can the nations become the loyal kingdom of God. Thine inheritance . • . thy possession. In¬ heritance, by right as heir; possession, |by acquisition as moral conqueror.—Murphy. Having been proclaimed king, the next step is the dower of the kingdom. Who are to be his subjects ? The nations of the earth, the same who are seen in the opening of the vision, as raging against his authority. They must be considered here to be given him to become mainly his submissive, trustful, and beloved people. It cannot be supposed that the grand character of the Messiah's great commission signifies only this : The nations given thee only or mainly to destroy them. Jesu3 himself would teach as far otherwise. " The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke ix. 56; John iii. 17).—Cowles. Ver. 9. Thou shalt break them. Not to be explained as a description of the habitually severe rule of the Messiah, but as a prophecy of what must happen if the nations persist in revolting from the appointed king.— Cheyne. In the Septuagint, from a slight change in the Hebrew pointing, " break" is translated " feed," or "rule as a shepherd his sheep." There may be two meanings to this verse, both of them true. (1) The nations, as nations, as organised opposition to the gospel, shall be broken up, and there be but the one great kingdom of Christ. So it is prophesied in Daniel, in the vision of the great image. This may be, often is, done by converting t\ie people of the nations to Christ; so that not the individuals, but the nations, are broken in pieces by the iron rule of Christ, while all the individuals of the nation could be saved. It is said that a Chinese Emperor, learning of a revolt in a distant province, promised to quickly destroy his enemies. He conquered them in war, and then treated the captives with mildness and humanity. But his officers said to him, "You promised to destroy your enemies ! " "So I have, for they are enemies no longer, but friends." So Christ destroys his enemies, so far as they will yield heartily to every influence divine wisdom and power can exert. Only those who refuse to be changed into friends will be broken as a potter's vessel. (2) This verse applies to the enemies of Christ. Christ himself, while he comes to save men, and not condemn, yet asserts again and again the utter and terrible destruction of those who will not become the children of God.—Peloubet. With a rod (or mace) of iron. Not with the sceptre of peace, but with the spiked iron mace used in war.- -Cheyne. It represents an irre¬ sistible instrument. Dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. A vessel made of clay, easily broken but impossible to mend. The Messiah will quell all rebellion, and overcome all opposition. The strongest nations are but as earthenware compared with the strong, resistless power of Christ. There is also here a hint that the reason why thsy are broken is in their own sinful nature, which makes them weak, and their uselessness for any other pur¬ pose. He keeps them as long as there is any use in them to the world, or any hope for themselves.—Peloubet. The Psalmist's Exhortation. Ver. 10-12. 10. Now therefore be wise. In view of the fact that the Messiah's kingdom and its principles are bound to triumph, because God and all the powers of the universe are on his side, and all opposing powers must be destroyed. Be instructed. By the facts announced. Kings . . . judges. All rulers and leaders of the people. Whoever is wise is ever learning, receiving instruction. This is the mark on the forehead of the wise, that they wish to learn from every source, and are glad to hear good advice.—Peloubet. Ver. 11. Serve the Lord (Jehovah) with fear. Bever- ence and awe opposed to a careless, thoughtless servioe. This must be the choice of every wise person. And rejoice. Serving the Lord leads to rejoicing before him. Obedience yields peace of conscience, without which there can be no real joy.—Murphy. With trembling. A trem¬ bling solicitude becomes men who are coming back from such a rebellion.—Alexander. Trembling does not imply lack of faith, but only a realization of the momentous issues at stake, of the dangers escaped, and the blessedness gained. No one can realise what is at stake in his salva^ tion, and not rejoice, and rejoice with trembling,— Peloubet. Ver. 12. Kiss the son. An ancient method of doing homage or allegiance to a king (I Sam. x. 1). Even in modern European courts the kissing of the hand has this significance: it means, own him as your sovereign.— Alexander. The son. The Messiah, the son of God, Another translation is admissible (with Jerome), "proffer pure homage, worship in purity."— Perowne. Lest he be angry. As in verse 5. A vehement resentment against perverse disobedience and treachery is as clear a charac¬ teristic of the Messiah as a merciful compassion toward the contrite.—Murphy. Perish in the way. Lose the way, i.e., to happiness and heaven; or perish by the way, i.e., before you reach your destination.—Alexander. For his wrath will soon be kindled. It is folly to delay, for ere long you will be exposed to the wrath of the Lamb, if you will not accept of his love. Blessed are all they, &o. As with the dangers he would warn men, so with the glories and blessedness of his service he would attract them, using every method to persuade men to be his dis¬ ciples. Those that trust him are blessed now and here¬ after—blessed in body and spirit, blessed as sons and heirs of God, with his care and love and joy and character and home.—Peloubet. The efforts of the Ladies' Committee in Pontypridd, in preparing a Patchwork Quilt for the Congo Institute, Colwyn Bay, proves a decided success. The Secretary, Mrs. Evans, Temple of Fashion, receives many orders for patches from ladies in England and Scotland as well as Wales, and the Committee confidently anticipates that a good round sum will be thus secured for the Institution. A Daily Chronicle correspondent telegraphs:—Extensive preparations are now being made throughout the Princi¬ pality for a severe struggle at the next general election. It is announced that the Conservative and Liberal Unionist organisation in London have resolved to contest each seat in Wales. There are 30 Welsh members, and a strong effort will be made by the Unionists to gain a number of the seats held by the Gladstones.