CONTENTS
It is more than likely that this Psalm hath a reference to some great event in the Church's history: and hence it hath been generally supposed to refer to the return of the people from Babylon. But this is mere conjecture. Certain it is, that it salts the Church's deliverance upon every occasion, and the deliverance of every believer. And every poor sinner, redeemed by Christ, may well take up the same language.
A Song of Degrees.
If this Psalm was written with a view to record the wonderful and gracious dealings of the Lord with his people, in delivering them from the Babylonish captivity, certain it is, that that event was as sudden and unexpected as a dream. For when Cyrus (as we read in the book of Ezra) gave commandment for the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the temple, it might well excite the astonishment of all that heard it. Nothing but the over-ruling power of God could have prompted him to such an act; and nothing but God's over-ruling power could have brought them out. See Ezra 1:1-6. But passing over this event, great and astonishing as it is in itself, as a proof of God's kind providence over his people; I would call the Reader to a yet more marvellous instance of God's sovereignty in the kingdom of his grace, and desire him to ponder with me the wonders of God's love, in turning the captivity of sinners by the proclamation of mercy in the person and offices of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cyrus was mentioned by name, between two and three hundred years before he was born, and declared to be God's anointed for opening the two-leaved gates, upon which occasion God would loose the loins of kings. And in the night that Belshazzar was slain, was this memorable prophecy fulfilled. See Isaiah 45:1-3, compared with Daniel 5:6-30. But what was all this in comparison to the salvation of Jesus? He was set up from everlasting. And our whole nature was in worse than Babylonish bondage, when God sent his Son to deliver us from darkness, and to bring us into his marvellous light; to bring us out of the prison house, and make us free. And when any, and every poor sinner is thus brought out, so great, so unexpected, so unlooked for, and so, marvellous doth the whole seem to him, that it appears too great, and too good to be real, so that it seems but as a dream, or a vision of the night.