Acts 2:25-28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For David speaketh concerning him Namely, Psalms 16:8-11, where see the notes. I foresaw the Lord always before my face In the Psalm, according to the Hebrew, it is, I have set the Lord always before me. Our Lord Jesus had a constant regard to his Father in his whole undertaking. He set his Father's glory before him as his end, and his Father's will as his rule, in every part of it. And he foresaw that his sufferings would redound abundantly to the honour of God, and would issue in his own everlasting joy and felicity. These things were set before him, and these he had an eye to in all he did and suffered; and with the prospect of these, he was supported and carried on. He is on my right hand The instrument of action, strengthening, upholding, and guiding it; that I should not be moved Shaken in, or driven from, my undertaking, by the hardships I must undergo. Therefore, &c. On account of the firm confidence I had in him, that I should be supported in, and carried through all my labours and sufferings, and that they should have a glorious issue; my heart rejoiced in the midst of them; and my tongue was glad Praised God in a joyful manner. In the Psalm it is, My glory rejoiceth: for our tongue is our glory; the faculty of speech is an honour to us; and never more so than when it is employed in praising God. Moreover my flesh shall rest in hope The grave shall be to my body a bed of repose, and I shall cheerfully deliver it up to be laid there, in hope of a blessed resurrection. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell Εις αδου, in the invisible world. For it does not appear that ever our Lord's soul went into what we call hell. On the contrary, when it was separated from the body, it went to paradise, Luke 23:43. The meaning is, Thou wilt not leave my soul in its state of separation from the body, nor suffer my body to be corrupted. See note on Psalms 16:10. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life To which thou wilt assuredly conduct me; and after all my sufferings here, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance With manifestations of thy love and favour, in those upper and more glorious regions to which thou wilt raise me.