Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 145
The cxlv. PSALM.
It is noted of this Psalm as also of some others tending to praise, (as Psalm 111, 112) that they are written according in the Hebrew Alphabet, each verse beginning with the letters as they lie in order of succession, some onelyonly pretermitted. This particular Psalm it is conceived was composed when the Kingdom of David flourished, wherein he insists much upon the supremacie and empire of God over all in general, and his people in special, promising as high as he is to set God above him, confessing him onelyonly to be great, that rules and does all by an Almighty power and greatness, consounding his enemies, and exercising all manner of grace to his Church and people, and though just, yet beneficent, deserving praise from all, but his saints especially, who are under the covenant and Kingdom of grace, which hath been so powerfully administred in their behalfs, and shall continue to the end of the world, as it hath done from the beginning, for the preservation of his people by him, who is pitiful to the oppressed to right and raise them. He shews his goodness to be universal, and that as all things have an instinct towards him, so he towards, them, to do them good, and as he hath given them … Being, so he maintains it, which he doth by manifold dispensations of good creatures in sit seasons. And whose transcendencie appears chiefly in this, that nothing falls out in the administration of his government, but what is holy and righteous. And though he be bountiful to all, yet is he graciously propitious but to few, and yet to all those (which yet are but few) that serve him in sinceritie, salvation is there portion, and destruction the wickeds. For all which he promiseth to magnifie God, and bespeaks all else to do so.
A Psalm made by David, Psalm cxlv. Davids Psalm of praise.wherein himself praiseth God abundantly, and incites all others to it exceedingly, by setting forth before them his praise-worthy acts and excellencies.
1 THou Lord hast highly exalted me,1I Will extol thee, my God, O King: and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. and so will I thee, as well thou deservest at my hands, I will magnifie thy bountie to me, and do my homage to thee the King of Kings, and more peculiarly of me thine anointed, who hold what I have by thy donation, and am what I am in subordination to thee, the Sovereign Lord of all the Kingdoms of the world, but more especially of mine. Thy greatness and goodness shall for ever be acknowledged and magnified by me whilest I live, were I to live everlastingly, and I will leave it upon record to posteritie to do so too.
2Every day will I bless thee: and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.2 The memorie of thy mercies shall never depart from me, nor shall the dutie of thanks-giving be intermitted by me, time shall not cancel them, but day by day will I recount and recal them, and afresh magnifie thee for them, and bless thee that blesseth me, yea, live I never so long, they shall never die, but all that I am, or shall ever be, I will be it of thee, and acknowledge it to thee, thy praise and glorie.
3Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.3 In Majestie, power, and grace, transcendent is the Lord, the worlds sole Sovereign, and how ought his praises to be suitably superlative, whose greatness in glorie, and every other excellencie is infinite and incomprehensible, rather to be admired than understood by men of finite and shallow capacities, as his works declare.
4One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mightie acts.4 The world shall never be without matter of praise, that shall set forth the immensity of thee the Lord, whose praise-worthy works of power, justice, & merciemercy, shall be renewed upon the face of the earth continually, every generation shall have a succession of them, which shall accordingly by thy people be observed, and transferred in their gratulatorie memorials from one to another, the fathers shall tell and teach what their forefathers taught and told them, and the additions thou hast made in their time of works of wonder, and acts of power and grace to their posterities, and they to theirs to the worlds end.
5 I for my part will extol thee in the age that I live in,5I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majestie; and of thy wonderous works. and leave a copie for after-ages, to write by, and do the like in exalting thy supream superlative honour and glorie, that is essential to thee, the Sovereign Majestie of heaven and earth, and in magnifying thine Almightie power so wonderfully specified in the works of creation, preservation, and destruction, acted and evident in the world respectively to good and bad.
6 Those that give themselves to observation as I do,6And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and will declare thy greatness. shall have cause enough whilest the world endures, to extol thy powerful justice upon thine and thy Churches enemies, in the terrible execution of it by formidable judgements, such as former ages have been full of, and after-ages shall not be wanting in, and I will be sure to do my part towards it in preaching thy Sovereign justice and power, how able thou art to confound them, and how terribly thy displeasure shall be executed upon evil doers, wicked despisers of God and oppressours of his people.
7 Such faithful observers shall also have abundant matter stored up in memorie of thy goodness and merciemercy,7They shall abundantly utter the memorie of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. yea, manifold and remarkable mercies to thy Church and people, which they themselves shall bless and praise thee for, and teach them to others, even to succeeding generations, to be remembred of them in like sort, and shall rejoyce exceedingly in their own, and the Churches constant experience of thy faithfull performances of thy gracious promises freely made, and in righteousness made good touching thy blessings to them, and thy judgements upon their enemies.
8The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion: slow to anger, and of great merciemercy.8 They shall have cause to magnifie Gods manifold gracious properties by manifold sweet experiences, and to say of him as he by Moses sayeth of himself, That he is as good as great, Gracious, in promising and performing, Compassionate, over his people in their afflictions, though afflicted for their sins, which he is slow to punish, and very forbearing to execute his just displeasure where and when, or as oft, as it is deserved, and as ready mercifully to forgive their sin, when committed, and remove his judgements when inflicted, upon their repentance, as they themselves can wish, be their sins what they will, never so great, he can and will forgive them, upon conversion, and repent of his punishing when they repent of their provoking.
9The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.9 And though covenant-grace and pardoning merciemercy be the portion of his own peculiar, yet to those that are not so but strangers, yea, enemies to him, he is beneficial, even to all good and bad God is good, and declares it by large dispensations of manifold good things creative and providential: Though sin hath brought an over-flowing deluge of displeasure into the world, and shut up the whole creation, man and all things that were made for his use, under a curse and Divine severity, yet cannot this hinder on Gods part his being merciful, who freely extends his liberal beneficence to every creature, supplying their wants, maintaining and taking care for their subsistencies, from the least to the greatest.
10 There is nothing in the whole world in that its kind and nature sets not forth thy praise-worrhy goodness and greatness,10All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord: and the saints shall bless thee. O thou Sovereign and sole Lord thereof; and above all thy peculiar people chosen and called have cause, not onelyonly for common mercies, whereof together with the rest of the world they liberally partake, to praise thee, but for special love-tokens of grace and favour, which the world knows not what belongs to, wherewith thou peculiarly blessest them, shall they actively bless and magnifie thee in love and thankfulness.
11 Thy saints,11They shall speak of the glorie of thy Kingdom, and talk of thy power. they shall not by bare instinct, or meer necessitie of nature passively praise thee, as others do that are subjects at large of the Kingdom of thy power onelyonly, but as those that are received into grace. shall they magnifie the glorious excellencie of that thy Kingdom of grace, (as well as of power) whereof more especially they are subjects; and knowingly, in the comfortable experience of their own hearts, declare the happiness of that estate transcendent to any worldly one both for dignity and security, the King of saints being the onelyonly Lord God glorious in Majestie, and omnipotent in power, as his acts declare.
12 From the enlargements of their hearts,12To make known to the sons of men, his mightie acts, and the glorious Majestie of his Kingdom. in the love and admiration of thee, they shall publish to the world, that so best understands thee, the memorable atchievements which thou hast in sundry ages brought to pass thereby to spread thy fame, and gain thee the glorie of thine omnipotencie, and sole Sovereigntie over the world, the pomp and power thereof, as sundry times and wayes upon sundry nations and mightie potentates thou hast made it manifest, by demonstrative evidence in thy Churches and peoples behalf.
13Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.13 Yea, all the excellent prerogatives and properties of thy Kingdom and empire shall they preach and promulgate, to gain thee the precedencie of worldly honour, which though never so great, yet is transient and momentanie, on top of the wheel to day, and under it to morrow, whereas thy dominion and Sovereigntie, as it excels in power and dignitie, so in permanence and perpetuitie, thou canst crush earthly Kingdoms, their Princes and people, but they with all their might and malice can neither crush thee nor thine, neither weaken thy power, lessen thy glorie, nor extirpate thy Church, but as thou, so it, maugre all the world is of an infinite date, no period can be put to either, for both shall everlastingly endure, and every age shall make it appear so, by the admirable works of governance, and powerful preservation of thy Church and Kingdom, founded upon an everlasting covenant.
14The Lord upholdeth all that fall: & raiseth up all those that be bowed down.14 Otherwise his Church had been extirpated many a day ago, every age lifting at it, so that it hath been under sore dejections, and grievous oppressions, yet still upheld, and in its lowest condition made to keep its feet, to have a Being, and raised in time to a well-being in despite of its potent adversaries, by the Lord, whose power many a time hath underpropt it, and his grace restored it, when it was low brought, and who indeed in righteousness is pitiful to all that are wrongfully oppressed to right and relieve them, and hath power to do it, be their condition never so bad, especially if they trust in him and seek to him, whose Kingdom over the world is chiefly exercised in administring justice and merciemercy for and towards the afflicted.
15, 16 Whose goodness is as universal as his greatness,15The eyes of all wait upon thee, and and thou givest them their meat in due season. and providencially extends it self to every creature that he hath made, which also by instinct of nature it self,16Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. waits upon providence, seeks after, and endeavours its own means of subsistence, every one what is proper to its nature and kind, as by and from God his ordination and especial dispensation, thus acknowledging his supremacie, both man and beast, even the whole creation: And he orderly in a suitable and seasonable manner supplies unto them food of several kinds, in several seasons of both time and opportunitie, for sustaining the nature, and satisfying the hunger of all creatures of so many several kinds as are in the world, and of every individual of each kind, by his liberalitie and bountie so universally extended over the whole earth, and providently dispensed to the sundry particulars in it, which is onelyonly then had when he gives it, and therefore had, because he gives it, none being able to supply their own wants, much less worthy to share in the honour of the worlds providing for, both which is of the Lord alone, who makes second causes instrumental to him, and useful to man, the power and governance of all creatures being his, which therofore bringeth forth and increaseth, because he appointeth, and is satisfied, because he dispenseth.
17 Manifold dispensations there are in the world towards good and bad,17The Lord is righteous in all his wayes, and holy in all his works. that seemeth strange to us, but in this also is God and his government admirable and transcendently praise-worthy, that nothing he does be it never so discrepant, to humane reason, and rules of policie amongst men, but he is both righteous and holy in so doing, for his will being the onelyonly rule of both, his works can none of them disaagree from either.
18The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.18 His government and dispensation, though it be to and over all, yet principally and primarily doth it belong to the faithful; as near as he seems to others, yet is he far enough from them, and as far as he seems from these, who have the greatest share of adverse fortune in this life, yet is he near unto them. They that profess him publickly by adoration and worship, and withal serve him sincerely in faith and affection, that offer to find him fervent not fained prayer, they shall be sure to find him a propitious God to a gracious heart accompanied with a holy life.
19He … the … that fear … will h…ar their crie, and will save them.19 Such as take care of him, hee'l take care of them, they that fear to sin shall be satisfied with good; such God will hear and answer graciously, as hear and obey him conscionably, and though sometimes by extraordinarie trials he may put them to it to ask, yea crie hard for ease before they have it, yet that is but to trie and exercise their graces with patient waiting and fervent importuning, till the time, the set time be come which he hath determined in himself as most opportune for him and them to be relieved and answered in, and then, though not till then, they shall be sure of it, when their fears are greatest, and their hopes (humanely) least.
20The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.20 The Lord will keep promise with all that fear to offend him, out of love and desire to please him, he may venture them, but he will not lose them, his eye is over and his hand under them, for he has not many such that so love him, nor therefore are there many that are so beloved of him, and so they shall find that wickedly transgress against him, that as he hath powerful grace in store to preserve the one, so hath he vindicative justice to destroy the other, which shall certainly fall to their lot every mothers son of them, his Kingdom is administred by merciemercy and justice, and so the good and bad shall find.
21 My mind shall meditate of these thine admirable excellencies of several kinds exhibited to the world in general and thy people in particular,21My mouth …hall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever., both which are wholly under thy dominion and dispensation, subject to thy greatness, and sharers of thy goodness, respectively common and special, as also of thy merciemercy and justice. My mouth shall extol them and praise thee the God of them, that art so great in power, so gracious in providence, so rich in merciemercy, and so severe in justice, and let mankind in general in all times and places, who ought to know thee under all, and do know thee under most of these notions, whereof they have dayly and frequent experience, bless and magnifie thee in all thy holy attributes and properties, that so shine forth in thy works of merciemercy, power, and righteousness, all the world over, in all the ages of it.