PSAL. XXI.
O Lord, The King shall rejoice in thy strength, and in thy salvation, how * 1.1 very glad shall he be? This Psalme followeth aptly after the former, where all good is prophesied of to the Lords Anointed, or Messiah, David and his Successors, the cheife of whom is Christ, and indeed he alone, to whom both that Psalme and this doth most fully agree, for Psal. 20. 9. He is the King, called upon by his Church, and here it is said, God gave him life for ever and ever, V. 4. 6. So as he did not to David, or to any other of his Successors, but to Christ alone. He rejoiceth after his sufferings with joy unspeakable in Heaven, for which it is said, How great∣ly shall he rejoice. And the word rendred, Rejoiceth. As Ainsworth noteth, is the same with Messiah, if the letters be transposed: And he was set on the right hand of God in glory and majesty, according to Verse 3. * 1.2 Thou hast set upon his head a Crown of pure Gold. And Verse. 5. Glorious majesty and honour hast thou put upon him.
Thy hand shall finde out thine enemies. That is, None of Christs enemies * 1.3 shall be able to lye hid so, but by his power they shall be brought forth, and be all most terribly punished; according to Verse 9. Thou wilt set * 1.4 them as an Oven, &c: And fire shall eat them. For Christ alwaies had, hath, and shall have enemies, either openly fighting, or secretly plotting against his Church, but herein lyeth our comfort, that they shall at length be all destroyed, and this destruction is commonly set forth, by most hot burn∣ing and tormenting fire; wherefore let us patiently wait upon him, what∣soever [Note.] we in the interim suffer at their hands, and let all the enemies of the truth be dismaied.
He shall destroy their fruit from the earth, and their seed, &c. Not only * 1.5 upon the wicked shall the wrath of God seise, but upon their Children also, as Com. 2. To the third and fourth Generation, and they are pro∣perly their seed, who follow them in wickedness, as almost all commonly * 1.6 do: And if any one doth not, but turneth, he shall dye.
Thou wilt set them as a Butt, with thy cords or strings thou wilt prepare * 1.7 against their faces. The word rendred Butt, signifieth Shoulder. Butt is used to set forth a Butt; because earth heaped together to make a Butt to shoot at, is in appearance like a shoulder, and being rendred thus, the next words. most aptly follow, of preparing his bow-strings to shoot against them: Some, saith Calvin, render it Shoulder, as denoting a cruel kinde of death, by binding the body round, and so casting it down from an high Rock, because being thus bound it appeares, as like an heap, as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth, as well as shoulder: But I rest in the former, as Calvin so doth, and others generally.