Thy people; thy subjects. Shall be willing, Heb. willingnesses, i.e. most willing, as such plural words are frequently used, as Psalms 5:10, Psalms 21:7. Or, free-will offerings, as the word properly signifies; whereby he may intimate the difference between the worship of the Old Testament and that of the New. They shall offer and present unto thee as their King and Lord, not oxen, or sheep, or goats, as they did under the law, but themselves, their souls and bodies, as living sacrifices, as they are called, Romans 12:1, and as free-will offerings, giving up themselves to the Lord, 2 Corinthians 8:5, to live to him, and to die and be offered for him. The sense is, Thou shalt have friends and subjects as well as enemies, and thy subjects shall not yield thee a forced and feigned obedience, as those who are subject to or conquered by earthly princes frequently do, of which see on Psalms 18:44,45, but shall most willingly, and readily, and cheerfully obey all thy commands, without any dispute, or delay, or reservation; and they shall not need to be pressed to thy service, but shall voluntarily list themselves and fight under thy banner against all thy enemies. In the day of thy power; when thou shalt take into thy hands the rod of thy strength, as it is called, Psalms 110:2, and set up thy kingdom in the world, and put forth thy mighty power in the preaching of thy word, and winning souls to thyself by it. Or, in the day of thine army, or forces; when thou shalt raise thine army, consisting of apostles, and other preachers and professors of the gospel, and shalt send them forth to conquer the world unto thyself. In the beauties of holiness; adorned with the beautiful and glorious robes of righteousness and true holiness, wherewith all new men or true Christians are clothed, Ephesians 4:24; compare Revelation 19:5,14; with various gifts and graces of God's Spirit, which are beautiful in the eyes of God and of all good men. The last clause noted the inward disposition, the willingness, of Christ's subjects, and this notes their outward habit and deportment; wherein there seems to be an allusion either,
1. To the beautiful and glorious garments of the Levitical priests, all Christians being priests unto God, Revelation 1:6 1 Peter 2:5,9. Or,
2. To the military robes wherewith soldiers are furnished and adorned, all Christians being soldiers in the Christian warfare. But the words are and may well be rendered thus, in the beauties or glories of the sanctuary, i.e. by a usual Hebraism, in the beautiful and glorious sanctuary, which is called the holy and beautiful house, Isaiah 64:11; either in the temple at Jerusalem, which was honoured with Christ's presence, whereby it excelled the glory of the first house, according to Hag 2 9, in which both Christ and the apostles preached, and by their preaching made many of these willing people; or in Jerusalem, which is oft called the holy place or city, by the same word which is here rendered sanctuary; or in the church of God and of Christ, which was the antitype of the old sanctuary or temple, as is evident from 1Co 3 16,17 2 Corinthians 6:16 Hebrews 3:6 1 Pet. it.
5. And this place may be mentioned as the place either where Christ's people are made willing, and show their willingness, or where Christ exerciseth and manifesteth that power last mentioned. From the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. This place is judged the most difficult and obscure of any in this whole book. The words are diversly rendered and understood. They are to be understood either,
1. Of Christ himself; and that in respect either,
1. Of his Divine and eternal generation, which may be called the dew of his youth or birth, and which he may be said to have had from the womb of the morning, before the first morning or light was created, or brought out of its womb; that is, before the world was, which is a common description of eternity in Scripture. Or,
2. Of his human nature and birth; and so the words may be thus rendered, from the womb of the morning (or, as it is rendered by divers others, from the womb, from the morning, i.e. from thy very first birth) thou hast or hadst the dew of thy youth, i.e. those eminent blessings and graces wherewith thou wast enriched, or thy youth or childhood was like the dew, precious and acceptable. Or rather,
2. Of Christ's subjects or people, of whom he evidently spoke in the former part of the verse, wherewith these words are joined. And it seems not probable that the psalmist, after he had discoursed of Christ's advancement to his kingdom, and his administration of it, and success in it, both as to his enemies and friends, would run back to his birth, either Divine or human, both which were evidently and necessarily supposed in what he had already said of him. But then these words may be read either,
1. Separately, as two distinct clauses, as they seem to be taken by our English translators, and by the colon which they placed in the middle. And so the first clause belongs to the foregoing words, as noting the time when the people should be willing, which having declared more generally in those words, in the day of thy power, he now describes more particularly and exactly, that they should be so even from the morning, or in a poetical strain, which is very suitable to this book, from the womb of the morning, to wit, of that day of his power, i.e. from the very beginning of Christ's entrance upon his kingdom, which was after his resurrection and ascension into heaven, and from the very first preaching of the gospel after that time, when multitudes were made Christ's willing people by the preaching of the apostles, as we read, Ac 2 Ac 3 Ac 4 Ac 5, &c. And for the second clause, it is to be understood thus, thou hast, or, as it is in the Hebrew, to thee is, the dew of thy youth, or of thy childhood; for the word jeled, from which this is derived, signifies sometimes young man, and sometimes a child or infant. By youth or childhood, he here seems to understand those young men or children which shall be born to the Messias, who are called his children, Hebrews 2:13, and his seed, Isaiah 53:10, wherein possibly there might be an allusion to this dew. Thus the abstract is here put for the concrete, which is very frequent in the Hebrew tongue, as circumcision and uncircumcision are put for the circumcised and the uncircumcised, &c. And even in the Latin tongue this very word youth is oft used for a young man, or for a company of young men. By the dew of youth he means youth or young men like dew, the note of similitude being oft understood. And this progeny of Christ is compared to the dew, partly because of their great multitude, being, like drops of dew, innumerable, and covering the whole face of the earth; see 2Sa 17 12; and partly because of the strange manner of their generation, which, like that of the dew, is done suddenly and secretly, and not perceived till it be accomplished, and to the admiration of those that behold it; of which see Isa 49 21. Or,
2. Jointly, as one entire sentence, the dew of thy youth (i.e. thy posterity, which is like the dew, as was noted and explained before) is as the dew (which may very well be understood out of the foregoing clause, as the word feet is understood in like manner, Psalms 18:33, He maketh my feet like hinds feet) of or from the womb of the morning; it is like the morning dew, as it is called both in Scripture, as Hosea 5:4, and in other authors. Nor is it strange that a womb is ascribed to the morning, seeing we read of the womb of the sea, and of the womb of the ice and frost, Job 38:8,28,29.