Part 648

The glory of the church of Christ.

86:1. For the sons of Core, a psalm of a canticle. The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains:

The holy mountains.... The apostles and prophets. Eph. 2.20.

86:2. The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.

86:3. Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.

86:4. I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me. Behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there.

Rahab.... Egypt, etc. To this Sion, which is the church of God, many shall resort from all nations.

86:5. Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her.

Shall not Sion say, etc.... The meaning is, that Sion, viz., the church, shall not only be able to commemorate this or that particular person of renown born in her, but also to glory in great multitudes of people and princes of her communion; who have been foretold in the writings of the prophets, and registered in the writings of the apostles.

86:6. The Lord shall tell in his writings of peoples and of princes, of them that have been in her.

86:7. The dwelling in thee is as it were of all rejoicing.

Psalms Chapter 87

Domine, Deus salutis.

A prayer of one under grievous affliction: it agrees to Christ in his passion, and alludes to his death and burial.

87:1. A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

Maheleth.... A musical instrument, or chorus of musicians, to answer one another.—Ibid. Understanding.... Or a psalm of instruction, composed by Eman the Ezrahite, or by David, in his name.

87:2. O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

87:3. Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

87:4. For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

87:5. I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

87:6. Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

87:7. They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

87:8. Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

87:9. Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

87:10. My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

87:11. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

87:12. Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

87:13. Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?