The children of thy servants— Let the sins of thy servants be settled, and their seed be established before thee. This is a concluding prayer that their posterity might be settled in Jerusalem for ever: Before thee, or in thy presence, belongs in common to both clauses.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, This psalm is a prayer of the afflicted, and such are many of the people of God at times; when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord, as he is invited freely to do, assured that the compassionate bosom of his God can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; he will hear his cry, and will help him; and this inestimable privilege the child of God fails not to improve, and therefore lodges all his complaints with the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. This the afflicted Psalmist did, and in his own case directs us how to act when under the like pressure.
He directs his prayer to God, intreating kind regard and a speedy answer, because his necessities were urgent. Note; (1.) Outward troubles are made light, when God comforts the soul with internal consolations. (2.) If God suffers his people to be reduced very low, it is with a design to exercise their faith, and excite their more importunate prayers.
2nd, Many and great are the troubles of the righteous, but out of all the Lord delivereth them: and herein the Psalmist expresses his own confidence, and that of all the faithful in Zion.
1. The Lord Jesus is an everlasting Saviour; for to him are the words addressed (Hebrews 1:10-12.). Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever. However long continued the afflictions of his faithful ones may be, they shall outlive and overcome them, because he endureth for ever. The stability of his mediatorial kingdom, and his fidelity in the constant discharge of his trust, as our ceaseless Advocate and almighty King, ensure to faithful souls the victory at last: and thy remembrance unto all generations; seeing he shall be exalted to eternity in the praises of his faithful people, for all the great salvation begun, continued, and completed by him, for them, and in them.
2. There is an appointed time for the continuance and removal of the afflictions of Zion; and faith, which knows it certain, brings it near: and it may be hastened by prayer. The set time is come, because the deliverance is as sure as if it were already accomplished: and this may have respect to the seventy years of the Babylonish captivity, or to the period of the church's calamity under the persecutions of Antichrist; or more generally to the case of every suffering saint of God, who is called to trust and wait in patient hope for the salvation of God.
3. This will issue to the glory of God, and the great comfort of his people. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. Though the temple lay in ruins, the pious Jews loved the place, and respected the very dust: how great must their delight then be, to see these stones revived from the rubbish, and growing into a holy temple? And thus the ministers of the gospel, in all the desolations of the church, long for the glorious day of restitution; and whenever the Lord puts it into the hearts of his people to pray for, and labour to serve the interests of his Zion, it is a gracious sign that the promised mercy is at hand. Herein also God will be abundantly glorified; his saints will admire and adore him for the grace manifested in that great day; and the heathen, struck with reverence at the sight of God's interposition in behalf of his people, shall be converted unto him, and the kings of the earth behold his glory, and yield themselves up to his service.
4. The prayers of the righteous shall be answered. They are frequently destitute of human help and comfort, but not the less dear to the Lord: he will not despise those whom man despiseth; but, as the contrite heart is his delight, they shall be accepted by him, and receive from him a rich supply of every want.
5. The record of this mercy shewn to Zion at the humble prayer of God's people, will encourage the faith, and excite the praises of succeeding generations of the righteous, created anew in Christ Jesus. Note; The past experience of God's care of his people should ever encourage our confidence of the like protection.
6. Even the groans of the poor prisoners doomed to death he hears, rescues them from ruin, and magnifies thereby his mercy. He hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary: from heaven did the Lord behold the earth, and all that was done under the sun, with an eye of especial regard to his believing people, particularly when suffering for his name's sake, under the power of oppressors: To hear the groaning of the prisoner, bound for the testimony of God, and the faith of Jesus, as multitudes have been, and some still continue to be, under the power of the anti-christian tyranny: To loose those that are appointed to death; either to rescue them from the death of the body, or to save the souls of those who were tied and bound with the chain of their sins, and in their own fears apprehended themselves exposed to the eternal death of body and soul in hell; but who under deep conviction of their lost estate, groaning in bitterness, cry and are heard, pardoned through the blood of Jesus, and saved by almighty grace: To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; as the captives released from Babylon did, and as the church of God, delivered from the yoke of Antichrist, will do; and which is now daily done by every poor sinner rescued from the bondage of corruption, and the jaws of hell; whose heart, big with thankfulness, adores the wonders of redeeming love, and ascribes the praise of all to Jesus his Lord; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord, which will be most eminently the case, when the Lord Jesus in the latter day shall take to himself his great power, and reign; and those who are the subjects of his happy government shall with exultation rejoice in his kingdom and glory.