But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes him to praying to God ; yet even the very prayer is prophecy : How long, Lord, do You turn away in the end? Your face is understood, as it is elsewhere said, How long do You turn away Your face from me? For therefore some copies have here not dost, but will You turn away; although it could be understood, You turn away Your mercy, which You promised to David. But when he says, in the end, what does it mean, except even to the end? By which end is to be understood the last time, when even that nation is to believe in Christ Jesus , before which end what He has just sorrowfully bewailed must come to pass. On account of which it is also added here, Your wrath shall burn like fire. Remember what is my substance. This cannot be better understood than of Jesus Himself, the substance of His people, of whose nature His flesh is. For not in vain, he says, have You made all the sons of men. For unless the one Son of man had been the substance of Israel , through which Son of man many sons of men should be set free, all the sons of men would have been made wholly in vain. But now, indeed, all mankind through the fall of the first man has fallen from the truth into vanity; for which reason another psalm says, Man is like to vanity: his days pass away as a shadow; yet God has not made all the sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity through the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not foreknow as to be delivered, He made not wholly in vain in the most beautiful and most just ordination of the whole rational creation, for the use of those who were to be delivered, and for the comparison of the two cities by mutual contrast. Thereafter it follows, Who is the man that shall live, and shall not see death? Shall he snatch his soul from the hand of hell ? Who is this but that substance of Israel out of the seed of David , Christ Jesus, of whom the apostle says, that rising from the dead He now dies not, and death shall no more have dominion over Him? 47Romans 6:9 For He shall so live and not see death, that yet He shall have been dead; but shall have delivered His soul from the hand of hell , whither He had descended in order to loose some from the chains of hell ; but He has delivered it by that power of which He says in the Gospel , I have the power of laying down my life, and I have the power of taking it again. 48John 10:18 Chapter 12.— To Whose Person the Entreaty for the Promises is to Be Understood to Belong, When He Says in the Psalm, Where are Your Ancient Compassions, Lord? Etc. But the rest of this psalm runs thus: Where are Your ancient compassions, Lord, which You swore unto David in Your truth ? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I have borne in my bosom of many nations; wherewith Your enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Your Christ. Now it may with very good reason be asked whether this is spoken in the person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made to David might be fulfilled to them; or rather of the Christians , who are Israelites not after the flesh but after the Spirit. 49Romans 3:28-29 This certainly was spoken or written in the time of Ethan, from whose name this psalm gets its title, and that was the same as the time of David's reign; and therefore it would not have been said, Where are Your ancient compassions, Lord, which You have sworn unto David in Your truth ? unless the prophet had assumed the person of those who should come long afterwards, to whom that time when these things were promised to David was ancient. But it may be understood thus, that many nations, when they persecuted the Christians , reproached them with the passion of Christ , which Scripture calls His change, because by dying He is made immortal . The change of Christ , according to this passage, may also be understood to be reproached by the Israelites , because, when they hoped He would be theirs, He was made the Saviour of the nations; and many nations who have believed in Him by the New Testament now reproach them who remain in the old with this: so that it is said, Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants; because through the Lord's not forgetting, but rather pitying them, even they after this reproach are to believe . But what I have put first seems to me the most suitable meaning. For to the enemies of Christ who are reproached with this, that Christ has left them, turning to the Gentiles , 50Acts 13:46 this speech is incongruously assigned, Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants, for such Jews are not to be styled the servants of God ; but these words fit those who, if they suffered great humiliations through persecution for the name of Christ , could call to mind that an exalted kingdom had been promised to the seed of David , and in desire of it, could say not despairingly, but as asking, seeking, knocking, 51Matthew 7:7-8 Where are Your ancient compassions, Lord, which You swore unto David in Your truth ? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants, that I have borne in my bosom of many nations; that is, have patiently endured in my inward parts. That Your enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Your Christ, not thinking it a change, but a consumption. But what does Remember, Lord, mean, but that You would have compassion, and would for my patiently borne humiliation reward me with the excellency which You swore unto David in Your truth ? But if we assign these words to the Jews , those servants of God who, on the conquest of the earthly Jerusalem, before Jesus Christ was born after the manner of men , were led into captivity, could say such things, understanding the change of Christ , because indeed through Him was to be surely expected, not an earthly and carnal felicity, such as appeared during the few years of king Solomon, but a heavenly and spiritual felicity; and when the nations , then ignorant of this through unbelief, exulted over and insulted the people of God for being captives, what else was this than ignorantly to reproach with the change of Christ those who understand the change of Christ? And therefore what follows when this psalm is concluded, Let the blessing of the Lord be for evermore, amen , amen , is suitable enough for the whole people of God belonging to the heavenly Jerusalem, whether for those things that lay hid in the Old Testament before the New was revealed, or for those that, being now revealed in the New Testament , are manifestly discerned to belong to Christ . For the blessing of the Lord in the seed of David does not belong to any particular time, such as appeared in the days of Solomon, but is for evermore to be hoped for, in which most certain hope it is said, Amen , amen ; for this repetition of the word is the confirmation of that hope. Therefore David understanding this, says in the second Book of Kings, in the passage from which we digressed to this psalm, You have spoken also for Your servant's house for a great while to come. 522 Samuel 7:19 Therefore also a little after he says, Now begin, and bless the house of Your servant for evermore, etc., because the son was then about to be born from whom his posterity should be continued to Christ , through whom his house should be eternal , and should also be the house of God . For it is called the house of David on account of David's race; but the selfsame is called the house of God on account of the temple of God , made of men , not of stones, where shall dwell for evermore the people with and in their God , and God with and in His people, so that God may fill His people, and the people be filled with their God , while God shall be all in all, Himself their reward in peace who is their strength in war . Therefore, when it is said in the words of Nathan, And the Lord will tell you what a house you shall build for Him, 532 Samuel 7:8 it is afterwards said in the words of David, For You, Lord Almighty, God of Israel , have opened the ear of Your servant, saying, I will build you a house. 542 Samuel 7:2 For this house is built both by us through living well, and by God through helping us to live well; for except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. And when the final dedication of this house shall take place, then what God here says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, And I will appoint a place for my people Israel , and will plant him, and he shall dwell apart, and shall be troubled no more; and the son of iniquity shall not humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the days when I appointed judges over my people Israel . 552 Samuel 7:10-11
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