Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.
Parallel Translations
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Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.
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Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
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Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy warfare; in adornments of holiness, from the womb of the dawn, thine is the dew of thy youth.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Messianic Prophecies (1)
Passages read as foretelling the Messiah, with the fulfillment reading and the counter-reading set side by side.
Cross-references (25)
Passages linked to Psalms 110:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 5:2 “Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, Yahweh!
- Hebrews 13:21 make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
- Ephesians 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
- Revelation 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
- Psalms 96:9 Worship Yahweh in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth.
- Acts 2:33 Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.
- Acts 4:30-35 while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all. For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need.
- Acts 21:20 They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.
- 2 Corinthians 8:1-3 Moreover, brothers, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the assemblies of Macedonia, how in much proof of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their generosity. For according to their power, I testify, yes and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord,
- 2 Corinthians 8:12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have.
- 2 Corinthians 8:16 But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.
- 2 Corinthians 13:4 For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.
- 1 Chronicles 16:29 Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come before him. Worship Yahweh in holy array.
- Nehemiah 11:2 The people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem.
- Psalms 22:27-28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you. For the kingdom is Yahweh’s. He is the ruler over the nations.
- Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
- Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
- Acts 19:20 So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.
- Romans 11:2-6 God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars. I am left alone, and they seek my life.” But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
- Galatians 1:15-16 But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,
- Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
- Acts 4:4 But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
- Ezekiel 43:12 “This is the law of the house. On the top of the mountain the whole limit around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3 Thy people shall come In this verse the…
3 Thy people shall come In this verse the Psalmist sets forth the honors of Christ’s kingdom in relation to the number of his subjects, and their prompt and cheerful obedience to his commands. The Hebrew term, which he employs, frequently denotes voluntary oblations; but, in the present case, it refers to the chosen people, those who are truly Christ’s flock; declaring that they shall be a willing people, spontaneously and cheerfully consecrating themselves to his service. At the time of the assembling of thine army, that is to say, as often as there shall be a convening of solemn and lawful assemblies, or the king shall desire an account of his people; which may be expressed in French, au jour des montres, — in the day of the review. Others render it, in the day of thy power; but the former is preferable, for when Christ shall wish to assemble his people, immediately they will yield a prompt obedience, without being forcibly constrained to it. Moreover, for the purpose of assuring us that this, in preference to all other kingdoms, was set apart by God for his peculiar services, it is added, the beauties or honors of holiness, thereby intimating, that all who become Christ’s subjects will not approach him as they would do an earthly king, but as they would come into the presence of God himself, their sole aim being to serve God.
Out of the womb of the morning, etc. It would not be for edification to recount all the interpretations which have been given of this clause, for when I have established its true and natural import, it would be quite superfluous to enter upon a refutation of others. There does not, indeed, appear to me any reason to doubt that, in this place, David extols the Divine favor displayed in increasing the number of Christ’s people; and hence, in consequence of their extraordinary increase, he compares the youth or race which would be born to him to the dew. As men are struck with astonishment at seeing the earth moistened and refreshed with dew, though its descent be imperceptible, even so, David declares that an innumerable offspring shall be born to Christ, who shall be spread over the whole earth. The youth, therefore, which, like the dew-drops, are innumerable, are here designated the dew of childhood or of youth. The Hebrew term, ילדות, yalduth, is used as a collective noun, that is, a noun which does not point out a single individual only, but a community or society. Should any wish to attach a more definite and distinct signification to the term, he may do so in the following manner: That an offspring, innumerable as the dew-drops of the morning, shall issue from his womb. The testimony of experience proves that there was good reason for uttering this prediction. The multitude who, in so short a time, have been gathered together and subjected to Christ’s sway, is incredible; the more so, as this has been accomplished by the sound of the Gospel alone, and that, too, in spite of the formidable opposition of the whole world. Besides, it is not surprising that aged persons, who are recently converted to Christ, should be designated children newly born, because the spiritual birth, according to Peter, makes all the godly become as new-born babes, (1 Peter 2:2) To the same purpose are the words of Isaiah, (Isaiah 53:10,) that Christ “shall see a seed whose days shall be prolonged;” and under his reign the Church has the promise of enjoying a season of incalculable fertility. What has been said will serve to account for the appellation given to the Church or children of God. And, assuredly, it is matter of surprise that there should be any, though the number may be few, gathered out of a world lying in ruins, and inhabited by the children of wrath; and it is still more surprising, that such vast multitudes are regenerated by the Spirit of Christ and by the word. At the same time, we would do well to bear in mind, that to execute God’s commands promptly and cheerfully, and to be guided solely by his will, is the peculiar honor and privilege of his chosen; for Christ will recognize none as his people, except those who willingly take his yoke upon them, and come into his presence at the voice of his word. And that no one may imagine that eye-service is a proper discharge of his duty, the Psalmist very properly adds, that Christ will not be satisfied with mere external ceremony, but that he must be worshipped with true reverence, such as he himself instructs us to bring into the presence of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By the word thy people shall be assembled into…
By the word thy people shall be assembled into thy Church whose increase shall be so abundant and wonderous as the drops of the water.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 110:3 Thy people [shall be] willing in the…
Psa 110:3 Thy people [shall be] willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing] All Christ’s subjects are volunteers, free hearted, like those isles that wait for God’s law, Isa 42:8 Zec 8:21. They love to be his servants, Isa 56:6. Lex voluntarios quaerit, saith Ambrose.
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In the day of thy power] Copiarum tuarum, of thine army, or of thy militia, when thou shalt lead on thy Church militant, and be in the head of them, conquering and to conquer, Rev 6:2. Some understand it to be the Christian sabbath day.
In the beauties of holiness] i.e. In Church assemblies, in the beauty of holy ordinances, at the administration whereof, Christ’s birth dew, that is, the influence of his Spirit and his presence in those ordinances, is from the womb of the morning, i.e. is of that generating and enlivening virtue that the dew of the teeming morning is to the seeds and plants of the earth. An apt similitude both to express the multitude of Christ’s converts, and the manner of their heavenly generation. See Mic 5:7. {See Trapp on "Mic 5:7"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thy people; thy subjects.
Thy people; thy subjects.
Shall be willing, Heb. willingnesses, i.e. most willing, as such plural words are frequently used, as Psa 5:10; 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, Rom 12:1, and as free-will offerings, giving up themselves to the Lord, 2Co 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 Psa 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.
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In the day of thy power; when thou shalt take into thy hands the rod of thy strength, as it is called, Psa 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, Eph 4:24; compare Rev 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, Rev 1:6; 1Pe 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, Isa 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; 2Co 6:16; Heb 3:6; 1 Pet 2:5. 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, Heb 2:13, and his seed, Isa 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, Psa 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 Hos 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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thy people shall be willing in the day of…
Thy people shall be willing in the day of that power..... Or, in the day of thine army (s). When thou musterest thy forces, sendest forth thy generals, the apostles and ministers of the word, in the first times of the Gospel; when Christ went forth working with them, and their ministry was attended with signs, and miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost; and which was a day of great power indeed, when wonderful things were wrought; the god of this world was cast out, the Heathen oracles ceased, their idols were abolished, and their temples desolate; and Christianity prevailed everywhere. Or this may respect the whole Gospel dispensation, the day of salvation, which now is and will be as long as the world is; and the doctrine of it is daily the power and wisdom of God to them that are saved. Or rather this signifies the set time of love and life to every particular soul at conversion; which is a day for light, and a day of power; when the exceeding greatness of the power of God is put forth in the regeneration of them: and the people that were given to Christ by his Father, in the covenant of grace, and who, while in a state of nature, are rebellious and unwilling, are made willing to be saved by Christ, and him only; to serve him in every religious duty and ordinance; to part with their sins and sinful companions, and with their own righteousness; to suffer the loss of all things for him; to deny themselves, and take up the cross and follow him: and when they become freewill offerings to him, as the word (t) signifies; not only willingly offer up their spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, but themselves, souls and bodies, to him; as well as enter volunteers (u) into his service, and cheerfully fight his battles, under him, the Captain of their salvation; being assured of victory, and certain of the crown of life and glory, when they have fought the good fight, and finished their course. The allusion seems to be to an army of volunteers, such as described by Cicero (w), who willingly offered themselves through their ardour for liberty.
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning: this does not design the place where these willing subjects of Christ should appear; either in Zion, beautiful for situation; or in Jerusalem, the holy city, compact together; or in the temple, the sanctuary, in which strength and beauty are said to be; or in the church, the perfection of beauty: but the habit or dress in which they should appear, even in the beautiful garment of Christ's righteousness and holiness; the robe of righteousness, and garments of salvation; the best robe, the wedding garment; gold of Ophir, raiment of needlework; and which is upon all them that believe: as also the several beautiful graces of the Spirit; the beauty of internal holiness, by which saints are all glorious within; and holiness is the beauty and glory of God himself, of angels and glorified saints. This, though imperfect now, is the new man put on as a garment; and is true holiness, and very ornamental. The phrase, "from the womb of the morning", either stands in connection with "the beauties of holiness"; and the sense is, that as soon as the morning of the Gospel dispensation dawns, these people should be born again, be illuminated, and appear holy and righteous: or, "from the womb, from the morning (x)", shall they be "in the beauties of holiness"; that is, as soon as they are born again, and as soon as the morning of spiritual light and grace breaks in upon them, and they are made light in the Lord, they shall be clad with these beautiful garments of holiness and righteousness; so, "from the womb", signifies literally as soon as men are born; see Psa 58:3 Hos 9:11 or else with the latter clause, "thou hast the dew of thy youth": and so are rendered, "more than the womb of the morning", i.e. than the dew that is from the womb of the morning, is to thee the dew of thy youth; that is, more than the dew of the morning are thy converts; the morning is the parent of the dew, Job 38:28, but the former sense is best; for this last clause is a remember or proposition of itself,
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thou hast the dew of that youth; which expresses the open property Christ has in his people, when made willing; and when they appear in the beauty of holiness, as soon as they are born of the Spirit, and the true light of grace shines in them; then those who were secretly his, even while unwilling, manifestly appear to belong unto him: so young lambs, just weaned, are in Homer (y) called "dews"; and it is remarkable that the Hebrew words for "dew" and "a lamb" are near in sound. Young converts are Christ's lambs; they are Christ's youth, and the dew of it; they are regenerated by the grace of God, comparable to dew, of which they are begotten to a lively hope of heaven; and which, distilling upon them, makes them fruitful in good works; and who for their numbers, and which I take to be the thing chiefly designed by this figure, are like to the drops of the dew; which in great profusion is spread over trees, herbs, and plants, where it hangs in drops innumerable: and such a multitude of converts is here promised to Christ, and which he had in the first times of the Gospel, both in Judea, when three thousand persons were converted under one sermon; and especially in the Gentile world, where the savour of his knowledge was diffused in every place; and as will be in the latter day, when a nation shall be born at once, and the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in. The sense given of these words, as formed upon the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, respecting the generation of Christ's human or divine nature, is without any foundation in the original text.
(s) "in die exercitus tui", Munster, Vatablus, Piscator, Gejerus; so Ainsworth; "quum educes tuas copias", Tigurine version; "die copiarum tuarum", Junius & Tremellius. (t) "oblationes voluntariae", Junius & Tremellius; "spontanea oblatio", Cocceius, Gejerus. (u) "Milites voluntarii", Bootius. (w) Epist. l. 11. Ep. 8. (x) "a vulya, ab aurora", Montanus. (y) Odyss. ix. v. 222.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain People - Thy subjects, shall offer thee as their…
People - Thy subjects, shall offer thee as their king and Lord, not oxen or sheep, but themselves, their souls and bodies, as living sacrifices, and as freewill-offerings, giving up themselves to the Lord, 2Cor viii, 5, to live to him, and to die for him. The day - When thou shalt take into thy hands the rod of thy strength, and set up thy kingdom in the world. In the beauties - Adorned with the beautiful and glorious robes of righteousness and true holiness. The dew - That is, thy offspring (the members of the Christian church) shall be more numerous than the drops of the morning dew.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the…
Verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power] This verse has been wofully perverted. It has been supposed to point out the irresistible operation of the grace of God on the souls of the elect, thereby making them willing to receive Christ as their Saviour. Now, whether this doctrine be true or false, it is not in this text, nor can it receive the smallest countenance from it. There has been much spoken against the doctrine of what is called free will by persons who seem not to have understood the term. Will is a free principle. Free will is as absurd as bound will, it is not will if it be not free; and if it be bound it is no will. Volition is essential to the being of the soul, and to all rational and intellectual beings. This is the most essential discrimination between matter and spirit. MATTER can have no choice; SPIRIT has. Ratiocination is essential to intellect; and from these volition is inseparable. God uniformly treats man as a free agent; and on this principle the whole of Divine revelation is constructed, as is also the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. If man be forced to believe, he believes not at all; it is the forcing power that believes, not the machine forced. If he be forced to obey, it is the forcing power that obeys; and he, as a machine, shows only the effect of this irresistible force. If man be incapable of willing good, and nilling evil, he is incapable of being saved as a rational being; and if he acts only under an overwhelming compulsion, he is as incapable of being damned. In short, this doctrine reduces him either to a punctum stans, which by the vis inertiae is incapable of being moved but as acted upon by foreign influence; or, as an intellectual being, to nonentity. "But if the text supports the doctrine laid upon it, vain are all these reasonings." Granted. Let us examine the text. The Hebrew words are the following: עמך נדבת ביום חילך ammecha nedaboth beyom cheylecha, which literally translated are, Thy princely people, or free people, in the day of thy power; and are thus paraphrased by the Chaldee: "Thy people, O house of Israel, who willingly labour in the law, thou shalt be helped by them in the day that thou goest to battle."
The Syriac has: "This praiseworthy people in the day of thy power."
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The Vulgate: "With thee is the principle or origin (principium) in the day of thy power." And this is referred, by its interpreters, to the Godhead of Christ; and they illustrate it by Joh 1:1: In principio erat Verbum, "In the beginning was the Word."
The Septuagint is the same; and they use the word as St. John has it in the Greek text: Μετα σου ἡ αρχη εν ἡμερᾳ της δυναμεως σου· "With thee is the Arche, or principle, in the day of thy power."
The AEthiopic is the same; and the Arabic nearly so, but rather more express: "The government, [Arabic] riasat, exists with thee in the day of thy power."
The Anglo-Saxon, [A.S.]. With thee the principle in day of thy greatness."
The old Psalter, With the begynnyngs in day of thi vertu. Which it thus paraphrases: "I, the fader begynnyng with the, begynnyng I and thou, an begynnyng of al thyng in day of thi vertu."
Coverdale thus: "In the day of thy power shal my people offre the free-will offeringes with a holy worship." So Tindal, Cardmarden, Beck, and the Liturgic Version.
The Bible printed by Barker, the king's printer, 4to. Lond. 1615, renders the whole verse thus: "Thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling thine army in the holy beauty; the youth of thy womb shall be as the morning dew."
By the authors of the Universal History, vol. iii., p. 223, the whole passage is thus explained: "The Lord shall send the rod, or sceptre, of thy power out of Sion," i.e., out of the tribe of Judah: compare Ge 49:20, and Ps 78:68. "Rule thou over thy free-will people;" for none, but such are fit to be Christ's subjects: see Mt 11:29. "In the midst of thine enemies," Jews and heathens; or, in a spiritual sense, the world, the flesh, and the devil. "In the day of thy power," i.e., when all power shall be given him, both in heaven and earth; Mt 28:18. "In the beauties of holiness," which is the peculiar characteristic of Christ's reign, and of his religion.
None of the ancient Versions, nor of our modern translations, give any sense to the words that countenances the doctrine above referred to; it merely expresses the character of the people who shall constitute the kingdom of Christ. נדב nadab signifies to be free, liberal, willing, noble; and especially liberality in bringing offerings to the Lord, Ex 25:2; Ex 35:21, Ex 35:29. And נדיב nadib signifies a nobleman, a prince, Job 21:8; and also liberality. נדבה nedabah signifies a free-will offering - an offering made by superabundant gratitude; one not commanded: see Ex 36:3; Le 7:16, and elsewhere. Now the עם נדבות am nedaboth is the people of liberality - the princely, noble, and generous people; Christ's real subjects; his own children, who form his Church, and are the salt of the world; the bountiful people, who live only to get good from God that they may do good to man. Is there, has there ever been, any religion under heaven that has produced the liberality, the kindness, the charity, that characterize Christianity? Well may the followers of Christ be termed the am nedaboth-the cheerfully beneficent people. They hear his call, come freely, stay willingly, act nobly, live purely, and obey cheerfully.
The day of Christ's power is the time of the Gospel, the reign of the Holy Spirit in the souls of his people. Whenever and wherever the Gospel is preached in sincerity and purity, then and there is the day or time of Christ's power. It is the time of his exaltation. The days of his flesh were the days of his weakness; the time of his exaltation is the day of his power.
In the beauties of holiness] בהדרי קדש behadrey kodesh, "In the splendid garments of holiness." An allusion to the beautiful garments of the high priest. Whatever is intended or expressed by superb garments, they possess, in holiness of heart and life, indicative of their Divine birth, noble dispositions, courage, c. Their garb is such as becomes the children of so great a King. Or, They shall appear on the mountains of holiness, bringing glad tidings to Zion.
From the womb of the morning] As the dew flows from the womb of the morning, so shall all the godly from thee. They are the dew of thy youth they are the offspring of thy own nativity. As the human nature of our Lord was begotten by the creative energy of God in the womb of the Virgin; so the followers of God are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but by the Divine Spirit.
Youth may be put here, not only for young men, but for soldiers; - so the Trojana juventus "the Trojan troops," or soldiers, in Virgil, AEn. i. ver. 467;-and for persons, courageous, heroic, strong, active, and vigorous. Such were the apostles, and first preachers of the Gospel; and, indeed, all genuine Christians. They may be fully compared to dew, for the following reasons: -
1. Like dew, they had their origin from heaven.
2. Like dew, they fructified the earth.
3. Like dew, they were innumerable.
4. Like dew, they were diffused over the earth.
5. Like dew, they came from the morning; the dawn, the beginning of the Gospel day of salvation.
1. As the morning arises in the EAST, and the sun, which produces it, proceeds to the WEST; so was the coming of the Son of man, and of his disciples and apostles.
2. They began in the EAST - Asia Proper and Asia Minor; and shone unto the WEST-Europe, America, c. Scarcely any part of the world has been hidden from the bright and enlivening power of the Sun of Righteousness and now this glorious sun is walking in the greatness of its strength.
Saw ye not the cloud arise,
Little as a human hand?
Now it spreads along the skies,
Hangs o'er all the thirsty land.
Lo, the promise of a shower
Drops already from above;
But the Lord will shortly pour
All the spirit of his love.
The heavenly dew is dropping every where from the womb of the morning; and all the ends of the earth are about to see the salvation of God.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 110:3. Thy people — Thy subjects; shall be…
Psa 110:3. Thy people — Thy subjects; shall be willing — Hebrew, נדבת, nedaboth, willingnesses, that is, most willing, as such plural words frequently signify, or shall be free-will-offerings, as the word properly means; by which he may intend to 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 thy people did under the law, but themselves, their souls and bodies, as living sacrifices, Rom 12:1, and as free-will-offerings, giving up themselves to thee, to live to thee, and die to thee. The sense is, Thou shalt have friends and subjects, as well as enemies, and thy subjects shall not yield thee a false and feigned obedience, as those who are subjects to, or conquered by earthly princes frequently do, but shall most willingly and readily obey all thy commands, without any dispute, delay, or reservation. And they shall not need to be pressed to thy service, but shall voluntarily enlist 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, and set up thy kingdom in the world, exerting thy mighty power in the preaching of thy word, and winning souls to thyself by it. 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, Eph 4:24; Rev 19:8; Rev 19:14; and with various gifts and graces of God’s Spirit, which are beautiful in the eyes of God, and of all good men. From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth — That is, thy offspring (the members of the Christian Church) shall be more numerous than the drops of the morning dew. Or, as Bishop Reynolds expresses it, “Thy children shall be born in as great abundance unto thee as the dew which falleth from the womb of the morning.” To the same purpose Bishop Lowth, in his tenth Lecture: “The dew of thy progeny is more abundant than the dew which proceeds from the womb of the morning.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thy people - All who are given to thee;…
Thy people - All who are given to thee; all over whom thou art to rule. This verse has been variously translated. The Septuagint renders it, “With thee is the beginning in the day of thy power, in the splendor of thy saints, from the womb, before the light of the morning have I begotten thee.” So the Latin Vulgate. Luther renders it, “After thy victory shall thy people willingly bring an offering to thee, in holy adorning: thy children shall be born to thee as the dew of the morning.” DeWette, “Willingly shall thy people show themselves to thee on the day of the assembling of thy host in holy adorning, as from the womb of the morning, thy youth (vigor) shall be as the dew.” Prof. Alexander, “Thy people (are) free-will offerings in the day of thy power, in holy decorations, from the womb of the dawn, to thee (is) the dew of thy youth.” Every clause of the verse is obscure, though the “general” idea is not difficult to perceive; that, in the day of Messiah’s power, his people would willingly offer themselves to him, in holy robes or adorning, like the glittering dew of the morning; or, in numbers that might be compared with the drops of the morning dew. The essential ideas are:
(1) that he would have a “people;”
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(2) that their subjection to him would be a “willing” subjection;
(3) that this would be accomplished by his “power;”
(4) that they would appear before him in great beauty - in robes of holy adorning;
(5) that they would in some way resemble the dew of the morning; and
(6) that to him in thus subduing them there would be the vigor of youth, the ardor of youthful hope.
Shall be willing - literally, “Thy people (are, or shall be) willing-offerings.” The word rendered “willing” - נדבות nedâbôth - is in the plural number; “thy people, ‘willingnesses.’” The singular - נדבה nedâbâh - means voluntariness, spontaneousness: and hence, it comes to mean spontaneously, voluntarily, of a willing mind. It is rendered a “willing offering,” in Exo 35:29; “free offering,” in Exo 36:3; “voluntary offering,” in Lev 7:16; “free-will offering,” in Lev 22:18, Lev 22:21, Lev 22:23; Lev 23:38; Num 15:3; Num 29:39; Deu 12:6, Deu 12:17; Deu 16:10; Deu 23:23; 2Ch 31:14; Ezr 1:4; Ezr 3:5; Ezr 8:28; Psa 119:108; “willingly,” in 2Ch 35:8; “plentiful,” in Psa 68:9; “voluntary, and voluntarily,” in Eze 46:12; “freely,” in Hos 14:4; and “free-offering,” in Amo 4:5. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of “freeness;” of voluntariness; of doing it from choice, doing it of their own will. They did it in the exercise of freedom. There was no compulsion; no constraint. Whatever “power” there was in the case, was to make them “willing,” not to compel them to do a thing “against” their will. That which was done, or that which is here intended to be described as having been done, is evidently the act of devoting themselves to him who is here designated as their Ruler - the Messiah. The allusion may be either
(a) to their devoting themselves to “him” in conversion, or becoming his;
(b) to their devoting themselves to his “service” - as soldiers do in war; or
(c) to their devoting their time, wealth, talents, to him in lives consecrated to him.
“Whatever” there is as the result of his dominion over them is “voluntary” on their part. There is no compulsion in his religion. People are not constrained to do what they are unwilling to do. All the power that is exerted is on the will, disposing people to do what is right, and what is for their own interest. No man is forced to go to heaven against his will; no man is saved from hell against his will; no man makes a sacrifice in religion against his will; no man is compelled to serve the Redeemer in any way against his will. The acts of religion are among the most free that people ever perform; and of all the hosts of the redeemed no one will ever say that the act of his becoming a follower of the Redeemer was not perfectly voluntary. He chose - he “professed” - to be a friend of God, and he never saw the time when he regretted the choice.
In the day of thy power - The power given to the Messiah to accomplish the work of his mission; the power to convert people, and to save the world. Mat 28:18; Mat 11:27; Joh 17:2. This implies
(a) that “power” would be employed in bringing people to submit to him; and
(b) that there would be a fixed time when that power would be put forth.
Still, it is power which is not inconsistent with freedom. It is power exerted in making people “willing,” not in “compelling or forcing” them to submit to him. There “is” a power which may be exerted over the will consistent with liberty, and that is the power which the Messiah employs in bringing people to himself.
In the beauties of holiness - This power will be connected with the beauty of holiness; or, holiness will be manifested when that power is put forth. The object is to “secure” holiness; and there will be beauty in that holiness. The only power put forth in the case is to make people holy; and they will, in their lives and conduct, manifest all the beauty or attractiveness which there is in a holy and pure character. The word rendered “beauty” is in the plural number, and the allusion may be to the raiment of those who are referred to. They would appear in pure garments - in sacerdotal vestments - as priests of God. Compare Lev 16:4. The idea may be that they would be a “kingdom of priests,” clad in priestly vestments (Exo 19:6; compare the notes at 1Pe 2:5, notes at 1Pe 2:9), and that they would be adorned with “robes” appropriate to that office. This may refer, however, to their actual, internal holiness, and may mean that they would, when they were subjugated to him, appear as a holy or a righteous people.
From the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth - Margin, more than the womb of the morning, thou shalt have, etc.” The expression here is evidently designed to refer to the source of the dew - the dew of the early dawn - as having its “birth” then, or as seeming to be “born” then. The morn is represented as the “mother” of the dew. The figure is highly poetic and beautiful. The ground of the comparison may be either
(a) that the “beauty of holiness” - the beautiful array of the saints - “is more than” that produced in the womb of the morning; or
(b) that the dew of youth is more beautiful than the dew produced in the morning. As the word “dew,” that on which the comparison must turn, occurs in the last member of the sentence, it is probable that the second of these interpretations is the true one, as indicated in the margin: “More than the womb of the morning (more than the morning produces) thou hast the dew of thy youth.” That is, “as the young morning - the youth of the day - has its beauties in the abundance and luster of the dew-drops, so shall the dew of thy youth be - the beginning of thy glorious day.” May there not be here also an allusion to the multitudes that would be among his “people” - numerous as the dewdrops of the morning, and as beautiful as they - on his going forth to the world with all the beauty of a bright dawn?
The meaning of the whole, I apprehend, is, “Thy reign shall be like the day - a long bright day. Thy coming - the morning of that day - shall be like the early dawn - so fresh, so beautiful, made so lovely by the drops of dew sparkling on every blade of grass. More beautiful by far - more lovely - shall be the beginning of the day of thy reign; - more lovely to the world thy youth - thy appearing - the beginning of thy day.” Thus understood, the verse is a most beautiful poetic description of the bright morning when the Messiah should come; the dawn of that glorious day when he should reign. Compare Isa 9:1-3.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. In this verse the King Messiah appears as…
3. In this verse the King Messiah appears as conqueror, preparing for war, his willing people freely enlisting. While the imagery is that of war, it also indicates a peculiar kind of war: a priestly king and a holy warfare, as 2Co_10:4; Rev_19:11-21.
Thy people shall be willing— Literally, Thy people willingnesses, that is, abundantly willing, the plural for intensity. But it is better to give the sacrificial turn to the word, and translate thy people are freewill offerings, as the same word is often rendered in the law. Lev_22:18; Lev_22:21; Lev_22:23; Num_29:39; Deu_12:6; Deu_12:17. The fundamental idea of the “freewill offering” was its perfect voluntariness, as it might have been omitted without any sin or violation of duty. See Exo_35:29; Exo_36:3; Ezr_1:4. Here the people spontaneously offer themselves for the war, as in Jdg_5:2; Jdg_5:9; 2Ch_17:16, and as opposed to a drafted or hireling soldiery.
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Day of thy power—Day of thy host, or army. The language is strictly military, and the idea is, that on the muster day of Messiah’s army the people will enroll themselves with alacrity. This would be evidence of their faith and love, and an omen of victory. Popularly and widely this text has been quoted as if it read, “Thy people shall be made willing in the day of thy power,” and applied to prove that by an irresistible grace men would be made willing to repent and submit, when the special day or time of God for manifesting his saving power to them should arrive. A perversion of language and the laws of interpretation which falls below the dignity of criticism.
In the beauties of holiness—The reference is to the dress and appearance of the army. הדרי, (hadrey,) plural, translated beauties, has the sense of ornaments, honour, excellence, and may apply to apparel, as in Isa_63:1. The army appears in rich and ornamental dress. But the moral sense prevails here. Compare the army dress of “fine linen, clean and white,” (Rev_19:14,) and see note on Psa_96:9.
From the womb of the morning—The Septuagint and Vulgate read, “I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning star,” as if Jehovah thus declared the eternal generation of the Son of God. But, though this would be a true doctrine, it does not arise from the Hebrew text, which, agreeably with the connexion, gives the clause as part of the description of Messiah’s army. The “womb of the morning” is a poetical phrase for the earliest dawn, which gives birth to the day. And such should be the freshness, vigour, and zeal of this army, like the morning issuing from the earliest dawn.
Thou hast the dew of thy youth—Literally, To thee [is] the dew of thy young men; for the word must here be taken concretely for young men, as in Ecc_11:9-10, and not abstractly for the period of youth. See also its primitive form, (Gen_4:23,) applied to Joseph when he was seventeen years old. Gen_42:22. In the text, the multitude of enlistments in the army of this priest-king is the point of the metaphor. So Mendelssohn: “In the days of thy battle thy young men are unto thee as dew from the womb of the morning.” That this early dew, which is more copious in the East than with us, denoted great numbers, is seen in 2Sa_17:11-12. Such should be the gathering of converts through the publication of the gospel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day…
3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power] Rather, Thy people offer themselves willingly (lit. are freewill offerings) in the day of thy muster (lit. army). The promised victory is not to be won without human agency, and Jehovah inspires the king’s subjects with a spirit of loyal self-devotion. Theirs is no forced unwilling service. Their alacrity recalls the days of Deborah, when the people and the governors of Israel “offered themselves willingly” to fight the battles of Jehovah (Jdg_5:2; Jdg_5:9).
The connexion of the clauses in the remainder of the verse is somewhat uncertain. It is possible, with R.V. marg., to join in the beauties of holiness, or, as it should rather be rendered, in holy adornments, with the preceding clause, and from the womb of the morning with the following clause. In this case from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth might describe the constantly renewed youthful vigour of the king. But it is preferable, with R.V. text, to adhere to the Massoretic accentuation, and join both clauses with what follows, In holy adornments, from the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth.
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These words will then be a further description of the army mustering to march forth to battle for the king. Thy youth denotes the youthful warriors who flock with eagerness to his standard. They are clad in holy adornments, as it were an army of priests following their priestly leader. They are compared to dew; the mysterious birth of the morning, so abundant and so precious in hot Eastern countries. The comparison, however, need not be limited to a single point. It may further suggest their sudden appearance in obedience to the Divine command, their freshness, their inspiriting effect upon the king, their numbers, the glittering of their armour in the sunshine. Cp. Hos_14:5; Isa_26:19; 2Sa_17:12; Mic_5:7, for various emblematical uses of dew. Cp. also Milton, Par. Lost, v. 744,
An host
Innumerable as the stars of night
Or stars of morning, dewdrops, which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.”
in the beauties of holiness] Rather, in holy adornments. The similar phrase in Psa_29:2; Psa_96:9 (= 1Ch_16:29); 2 Chron. 22:21; denotes the “holy garments for glory and for beauty” in which the priests were arrayed (Exo_28:2). Israel was “a kingdom of priests”; these warriors had in an especial manner offered themselves to fight the battles of Jehovah, and their armour was the symbol of their consecration. Those who follow the priest-king are at once priests and warriors.
The reading however is uncertain. The plural hadrç (הדרי) ‘adornments’ does not occur elsewhere, and a trifling change in a single letter gives the reading harrç (הררי); on the holy mountains (Psa_87:1), i.e. the mountains of Zion, where the army musters. This reading is supported by Symmachus and Jerome (in montibus Sanctis), and agrees well with the figure of the dew. Cp. Psa_133:3.
from the womb of the morning] The morning is the mother of the dew. For the personification, cp. Job_3:9; Job_38:12-13.
The rendering of this verse in the LXX deserves notice on account of the doctrinal importance attached to it by many of the Fathers who were dependent on that Version or on the Vulgate. Reading some of the words with different vowels, the LXX rendered it, “With thee is the beginning in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints; from the womb before the daystar I begat thee.” The last clause was interpreted of the eternal generation of Christ, or of His birth in the early morning.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) This difficult verse runs, literally, Thy people willingnesses…
(3) This difficult verse runs, literally, Thy people willingnesses (or, willing offerings) in the day of thy force in holy attire, from the womb of morning dew of thy youth.
The first clause is tolerably clear. The word rendered force means either “strength” or “an army;” and the noun willingnesses appears as a verb in Jdg_5:9, to express the alacrity with which the northern clans mustered for battle. We may therefore translate: Thy people will be willing on thy muster-day.
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As to the next two-words there is a variation in the text. Many MSS. read, by the slightest change of a Hebrew letter, “on the holy mountains” (this was also, according to one version, the reading of Symmachus and Jerome), and, adopting the reading, we have a picture of the people mustering for battle with alacrity on the mountains round Zion, under the eye of Jehovah Himself, and in obedience to the outstretched sceptre.
The second clause is not so clear. By themselves the words “from the womb of morning dew of thy youth,” would naturally be taken as a description of the vigour and freshness of the person addressed: “thine is the morning dew of youth.” With the image compare—
“The meek-eyed morn appears; mother of the dews.”
THOMSON.
(Comp. Job_38:28.)
But the parallelism directs us still to the gathering of the army, and the image of the dew was familiar to the language as an emblem at once of multitude (2Sa_17:11-12), of freshness and vigour (Psa_133:3; Hos_14:5), and was especially applied to Israel as a nation in immediate relation to Jehovah, coming and going among the nations at His command (Mic_5:7). Here there is the additional idea of brightness—the array of young warriors, in their bright attire, recalling the multitudinous glancing of the ground on a dewy morning: thy young warriors come to thee thick and bright as the morning dew.
Milton has the same figure for the innumerable hosts
of angel warriors:—
“An host
Innumerable as the stars of night
Or stars of morning, dewdrops, which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thy people shall be willing in the day of…
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. In the full sense of the word, Messiah can only rule over "willing" hearts. In the day of his power, his people will offer themselves gladly to be his soldiers and servants, and flock to his banner, as the Israelites to that of Deborah and Barak, when "the people willingly offered themselves" (Jud_1:5:2, 9; comp. Isa_49:18-23 Isa_60:1-5 Isa_66:19-23) In the beauties of holiness. At once warriors and saints, meet for the service of one who was at once Priest (ver. 4) and King. From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. This is the division of the clauses now generally adopted; but the intention of this last clause is very doubtful. Some understand it of Messiah himself, and explain, "As the dew of the morning, abundant, refreshing, spreading far and wide, miraculous, so is the might of thy perpetual youth" ("Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 4. p. 428); others, and the larger number, interpret it of Messiah"s army, "As dew out el the early morning dawn, descending by a silent, mysterious birth from the star-lit heaven, so comes to Messiah his mighty host of followers". (comp. Isa_26:19)
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Ver. 3. The day of Christ"s power.
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Luther calls this psalm "the true high main psalm of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ." Our Lord himself attests that it is inspired of the Holy Ghost, and there is no other Scripture in the Old Testament that is so frequently quoted in the New. The occasion of the psalm seems to have been the great festival of the bringing up of the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem. On that day David assumed the double function of priest and king, for he was vested in priestly raiment, and fulfilling the priestly office, whilst at the same time he was the victorious king. But this double character which in this day David bore became the prefigurement and type of the twofold character of him who was to be in all respects a King infinitely more glorious than David, and a Priest whose office should never fail. It is of the vision of him that this psalm tells. The sacred poet pictures our Savior as a mighty monarch surrounded by his youthful warriors, bright and numberless as the dew-drops on a summer"s morn, willing to shed their heart"s blood in his service, each one rated as a priest, each one a soldier of God. That is what is foretold of Christ. Let us speak of
I THE DAY OF CHRIST"S POWER, His resurrection-day; Pentecost; all days when Christ is vividly realized by the soul; such are days of his power. And there is yet a future day which will emphatically deserve to be thus called. Then the vision of this psalm finds fulfillment; there is the glad rush of the young to his standard, and their willing surrender to his service. And in the history of the Church there have been from time to time such blessed days. Eternal things became real to his people, the old words and truths shone out with a new luster. Christ drew near to his people"s souls, and they welcomed him as their Lord. Such days have come to scattered congregations and to individual believing souls. The secret of all real revivals of religion with which the Church has once and again been blessed has been this that Christ came to them, as at Pentecost, in power. And if his presence were more hungered after, there would be more of such days.
II ITS CHARACTERISTICS.
1. The spontaneity and willingness with which the people offer themselves. They have not to be dragged to his service, forced to do his will.
2. Their sanctity. They are vested "in the beauties of holiness." They are to be priests of God as well as his soldiers. When this is the case with the Church, then indeed it will be a day of Christ"s power. It is what the world waits to see, and insists upon it that it as yet cannot see.
3. Their numbers; as the drops of dew on a summer morning, innumerable; and heaven-born, and for the earth"s refreshment and fertility. Not a solitary convert here and there as now, but they shall come in multitudes.
4. Their youthfulness. Not worn-out lives and faded energies are offered, but "the dew of thy youth." Do we not long to see such a day? Fervent, believing, persevering, and obedient prayer shall surely bring such days. S.C.
The power of recognizing power.
"The people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Power to submit, power to accept, power to respond, power to offer allegiance, come to the people when they recognize Messiah"s power. Illustrated on the Day of Pentecost, when Messiah"s power was so convincingly displayed. "They then that received Peter"s words were baptized; and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls." In common history and common life, the principle is seen working. As soon as a man is successful, as soon as his power is manifest, the crowd will flock to him. This is put into the motto, "Nothing succeeds like success." An illustration may be found in the time of the Judges. When the people were convinced of the power of Deborah and Barak, "they willingly offered themselves for the avenging of Israel". (Jud_1:5:2)
I RECOGNIZING POWER. There is much power that is unrecognized; and there are many persons unable to recognize power.
1. Power may be undeveloped, and so not efficiently showing itself. The most we can see is the promise of what is yet to he. We do not feel the impulse of power that is only in its unfolding.
2. Power may take forms that surprise. As it does when we expect material power, and that presented to our view is spiritual power. This was the case with Messiah"s power.
3. Power may cross our power, and then our pride may prevent recognition, as in the case of the Pharisees of our Lord"s time. Certain moral conditions must be attained before moral power can be rightly valued. There is a spiritual vision which alone enables us to discern moral power.
II THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF HAVING RECOGNIZED POWER. "The people offer themselves willingly." This point may be illustrated by the effects of our Lord"s word on certain sufferers. A man was before him who had a withered hand. Jesus said, "Stretch forth thy hand." The man recognized his power; that gave him power, and he did stretch it forth, and it was made whole. So in Bethesda Jesus saw a helpless cripple, and said, "Take up thy bed, and walk." The man felt our Lord"s power; it exerted a mighty influence on him; he took up his bed and walked. In the higher regions of the spiritual life this truth finds further illustration. It is a matter of experience that it was the discernment of Christ"s power to save which brought us conscious power over sin, which persuaded us to yield ourselves to him. It is every fresh apprehension of his power to sanctify that brings us power to wrestle with evil. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the…
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. In consequence of the sending forth of the rod of strength, namely, the power of the gospel, out of Zion, converts will come forward in great numbers to enlist under the banner of the Priest King. Given to him of old, they are his people, and when his power is revealed, these hasten with cheerfulness to own his sway, appearing at the gospel call as it were spontaneously, even as the dew comes forth in the morning. This metaphor is further enlarged upon, for as the dew has a sparkling beauty, so these willing armies of converts have a holy excellence and charm about them; and as the dew is the lively emblem of freshness, so are these converts full of vivacity and youthful vigour, and the church is refreshed by them and made to flourish exceedingly. Let but the gospel be preached with divine unction, and the chosen of the Lord respond to it like troops in the day of the mustering of armies; they come arrayed by grace in shining uniforms of holiness, and for number, freshness, beauty, and purity, they are as the dewdrops which come mysteriously from the tooming's womb. Some refer this passage to the resurrection, but even if it be so, the work of grace in regeneration is equally well described by it, for it is a spiritual resurrection. Even as the holy dead rise gladly into the lovely image of their Lord, so do quickened souls put on the glorious righteousness of Christ, and stand forth to behold their Lord and serve him. How truly beautiful is holiness! God himself admires it. How wonderful also is the eternal youth of the mystical body of Christ! As the dew is new every morning, so is there a constant succession of converts to give to the church perpetual juvenility. Her young men have a dew from the Lord upon them, and arouse in her armies an undying enthusiasm for him whose "locks are bushy and black as a raven" with unfailing youth. Since Jesus ever lives, so shall his church ever flourish. As his strength never faileth, so shall the vigour of his true people be renewed day by day. As he is a Priest King, so are his people all priests and kings, and the beauties of holiness are their priestly dress, their garments for glory and for beauty; of these priests unto God there shall be an unbroken succession. The realization of this day of power during the time of the Lord's tarrying is that which we should constantly pray for; and we may legitimately expect it since he ever sits in the seat of honour and power, and puts forth his strength, according to his own word, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
Ver. 3. Thy people. That is, those whom thou dost receive from thy Father, and, by setting up the standard and ensign of the Gospel, gather to thyself. "Shall be willing." The word is willingness, that is, a people of great willingness and devotion, , or (as the original word is elsewhere used, Ps 119:108), shall be freewill offerings unto thee. The abstract being put for the concrete, and the plural for the singular, notes how exceeding forward and free they should be; as the Lord, to signify that his people were most rebellious, saith, that they were rebellion itself, Eze 2:8. So then the meaning is, thy people shall, with most ready and forward cheerfulness, devote, consecrate, and render up themselves to thy government as a reasonable sacrifice, shall be of a most liberal, free, noble, and unconstrained spirit in thy service, and shall be voluntaries in the wars of thy kingdom. Edward Reynolds.
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Ver. 3. Thy people, O Jesus Christ, which were given thee by the Father, purchased and redeemed by thee, who acknowledged thee for their Lord, and are bound to thee by a military oath, are extremely willing, being devoted to thy service with the greatest readiness of soul, alacrity, inclination, and voluntary obedience. Nor are they willing only, but willingness itself in the abstract; nay, willingness in the plural number, the highest and most excellent willingness, all which add an emphasis. This is seen to be so Plyh Mwyb "in the day of thy valour power, "in which thy generous spirit laying hold of them, animates them to grand and bold enterprises. Then they go forth in the beauties of holiness, by which they are a terror to the devil, a delight to God and angels, and a mutual edification to one another. Herman Witsius, 1636-1708.
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing. Willing to do what? They shall be willing while others are unwilling. The simple term "willing, "is very expressive. It denotes the beautiful condition of creatures who suffer themselves to be wrought upon, and moved, according to the will of God. They suffer God to work in them to will and to do. They are willing to die unto all sin, they are willing to crucify the old man, or self, in order that the new man, or Christ, may be formed in them. They are willing to be weaned from their own thoughts and purposes, that the thoughts and purposes of God may be fulfilled in them. They are willing to be transferred from nature's steps of human descent to God's steps of human ascent. Or, to abide by the simplicity of our text, God is Will, and they are "willing." God will beautify them with salvation, because there is nothing in them to hinder his working. They will be wise, they will be good, they will be lovely, they will be like God, for they are "willing"; and there proceeds from God a mighty spirit, the whole tendency of which is to make his creatures like himself. John Pulsford, in "Quiet Hours", 1857.
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing. They are willing in believing, loving, obeying, adhering, living piously and justly in this world; so that they do not need the constraints of laws or threats, because they are led by the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there, also, is liberty. Wolfgang Musculus.
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing. Am I one of the "willing people" not only my obedience and allegiance secured from a conviction of the truth, but my heart inclined, and my will renewed? To do the will of God, to bear the will of God, to coincide with the will of Godand that with calm if not cheerful consent of the heart, as seeing him who is invisible, and holding fast my living apprehensions of his person and character? All unwillingness, whether practical or lurking in the heart, springs from unbelieffrom a failure to realise him or his purposes. Were Jesus, as God become incarnate, and as giving himself for me, and his counsel of grace towards me, ever or even in any measure before my heart, how could I hesitate to yield myself, absolutely and implicitly, to him and his guidance? Again, this "willingness" is the essence of holiness; it constitutes "the beauties of holiness" the beauty of Christ cast over the soul. The cure, therefore, for all my misery and sin is more faith, more of Christ, and nearer to him. This let me seek and ask with ever increasing earnestness. Alfred Edersheim.
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, etc. The prophet here notes three things respecting the subjects of the kingdom of the Messiah:
1. Their prompt obedience.
2. Their attire or vesture.
3. Their abundance, or multitude.
This representation admirably agrees with what precedes. He had said that the Messiah should reign in the midst of his enemies, but lest any one should think that he would reign only over enemies, unwilling and opposing, as the devils are made subject to Christ, now he lets us know that he will have a loyal people, and obedient subjects, for else there would be wanting that same glory of which Solomon speaks in Pr 14:28, "In the multitude of people is the king's honour." He affirms also, that he would have his own people, who would recognise, receive, and serve him as King, with true obedience, nor would it be a small company, but like the dew, which waters the face of the whole earth. Rivetus.
Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. It is power acted and executed with all sweetness, mildness, and gentleness. Here is "leading, but no force; conduct, but no compulsion, "vehemence, inclination, non coactio: 1 the will is determined, but not the least violence is done to it, to the infringing of its liberty. How spontaneously does the person led follow him that leads him! So it is here. This and all other workings of the Spirit are admirably suited to the nature of reasonable and free agents. Efficacious grace does not at all destroy natural liberty. Where the spirit does not find sinners willing, by his sweet method he makes them willing: "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." A "day of power, "yet "willing" Even the Spirit's drawing is managed with all consistency to the freedom of the will; elknei o yeost, alla bonlomenon elknei 2. He draws; "but it is one that he makes willing to follow." "Behold, I will allure her" (Ho 2:14): aye, there is the Spirit's leading! this being the constant and avowed doctrine of the Protestants, and particularly their explication of the Spirit's leading in the text Ro 8:14; how injurious and invidious are the Popish writers in their traducing and calumniating of them, as if they asserted the Spirit, in this or any other act, to work with compulsion, or in a way destructive to man's essential liberty! It is a vile scandal!
1 Gorranus
2 Chrysostom
Thomas Jacomb, in "The Morning Exercises".
Ver. 3. In the day of thy power. In the day of thy strength, saith the Vulgate: of thy force and valour, say Tremellius and Junius: of the assemblies, say they of Geneva: of the armies, saith Munster; "at such times as thou shalt bring thy bands and join battle, "so Vatablus, Castalio, and the Chaldee Paraphrase have it. All which the original Plyh mryp may bear without straining. John Prideaux, 1578-1650.
Ver. 3. The subjects of the Priest King are willing soldiers. In accordance with the warlike tone of the whole Psalm, our text describes the subjects as an army. That military metaphor comes out more closely when we attach the true meaning of the words, "in the day of thy power." The word rendered, and rightly rendered, "power, "has the same ambiguity which that word has in the English of the date of our translation, and for a century later, as you may find in Shakespeare and Milton, who both used it in the sense of "army". Singularly enough we do not employ "powers" in that meaning, but we do another word which means the same thingand talk of "forces", meaning thereby "troops" ..."The day of thy power" is not a mere synonym for "the time of thy might", but means specifically "the day of thine army", that is, "the day when thou dost muster thy forces and set them in array for the war". The King is going forth to conquest. But he goes not alone. Behind him come his faithful followers, all pressing on with willing hearts and high courage. Alexander McLaren, 1871.
Ver. 3. In the day of thy power. This refers in a general way to the gospel dispensation, and in particular to the period of conversion. To the perishing sinner the gospel comes, "not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." It is an arresting power; it meets the sinner, and stays his mad career, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus. It is a convincing power, it teaches the sinner that he is ruined in every respect, and leads him to cry out, "What shall I do to be saved?" ... It is a life giving power; it quickens dead souls, and will eventually bring the dead bodies from their graves; "all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall live." This is the style of Jehovah, "it will, they shall"; none other dare speak thus. It is also liberating power; "if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Theophilus Jones, in a Sermon preached at Surrey Chapel, 1823.
Ver. 3. Thy people, etc. In homage, they shall be like a company of priests in sacred vestments, for they shall appear "in the beauties of holiness". In number, they shall be like the countless dewdrops "from the womb of the morning", sparkling in the rays of the rising sun, and reflecting his radiance. In glory they shall bear the likeness of Christ's resurrection in all its vernal freshness: "Thou hast the dew of thy youth". Benjamin Wildon Cart.
Ver. 3. In the beauties of holiness. In holy vestments as priests. They are at once warriors and priests; meet for the service of Him who was King and Priest. Neander (Mem. of Chr. Life, ch. 4) remarks on the connection between these two sides of the Christian character. God's soldiers can only maintain their war by priestly self-consecration. Conversely: God's priests can only preserve their purity by unintermitted conflict. William Kay.
Ver. 3. In the beauties of holiness. This expression is usually read as if it belonged either to the words immediately preceding, or to those immediately following. But in either case the connection is somewhat difficult and obscure. It seems better regarded as a distinct and separate clause, adding a fresh trait to the description of the army. And what that is we need not find any difficulty in ascertaining. "The beauties of holiness" is a frequent phrase for the sacerdotal garments, the holy festal attire of the priests of the Lord. So considered, how beautifully it comes in here. The conquering King whom the psalm hymns is a Priest for ever; and he is followed by an army of priests. The soldiers are gathered in the day of the muster, with high courage and willing devotion, ready to fling away their lives; but they are clad not in mail, but in priestly robes; like those who wait before the altar rather than like those who plunge into the fight, like those who compassed Jericho with the ark for their standard and the trumpets tor all their weapons. We can scarcely fail to remember the words which echo these and interpret them. "The armies which were in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" a strange armour against sword cut and spear thrust. Alexander McLaren.
Ver. 3. The beauties of holiness. Godliness is our spiritual beauty. Godliness is to the soul as the light to the world, to illustrate and adorn it. It is not greatness that sets us off in God's eye, but goodness: what is the beauty of the angels but their sanctity? Godliness is the curious embroidery and workmanship of the Holy Ghost: a soul furnished with godliness is damasked with beauty, and enamelled with purity: this is the "clothing of wrought gold" which makes the King of heaven fall in love with us. Were there not an excellency in holiness, the hypocrite would never go about to paint it. Godliness sheds a glory and lustre upon the saints: what are the graces but the golden feathers in which Christ's dove shines? Ps 68:13. Thomas Watson.
Ver. 3. Thou hast the dew of thy youth. These words are often misunderstood, and taken to be a description of the fresh, youthful energy attributed by the Psalm to the Priest King of this nation of soldier priests. The misunderstanding, I suppose, has led to the common phrase, "the dew of one's youth". But the reference of the expression is to the army, not to its leader. "Youth" here is a collective noun, equivalent to "young men". The host of his soldier subjects is described as a band of young warriors, whom he leads, in their fresh strength and countless numbers and gleaming beauty like the dew of the morning... It is as a symbol of the refreshing which a weary world will receive from the conquests and presence of the King and his host, that they are likened to the glittering morning dew. Another prophetic Scripture gives us the same emblem when it speaks of Israel being "in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord". Such ought to be the effect of our presence. We are meant to gladden, to adorn, to refresh this parched, prosaic world, with a freshness brought from the chambers of the sunrise.
The dew, formed, in the silence of the darkness while men sleep, falling as willingly on a bit of dead wood as anywhere, hanging its pearls on every poor spike of grass, and dressing everything on which it lies with strange beauty, each separate globule tiny and evanescent, but each flashing back the light, and each a perfect sphere: feeble one by one, but united mighty to make the pastures of the wilderness rejoiceso, created in silence by an unseen influence, feeble when taken in detail, but strong in their myriads, glad to occupy the lowliest place, and each "bright with something of celestial light", Christian men and women are to be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord. Alexander McLaren.
Ver. 3. The dew of thy youth. There does not, indeed, appear to me any reason to doubt that, in this place, David extols the divine favour displayed in increasing the number of Christ's people; and hence, in consequence of their extraordinary increase, he compares the youth or race which would be born to him to the dew. As men are struck with astonishment at seeing the earth moistened and refreshed with dew, though its descent be imperceptible, even so, David declares that an innumerable offspring shall be born to Christ, who shall be spread over the whole earth. The youth, therefore, which, like the dewdrops, are innumerable, are here designated the dew of childhood, or of youth. John Calvin.
Ver. 3. From the womb of the morning is, with the utmost pertinency, applied to the conception and production of dews; agreeably to a delicate line in that great master of just description and lively painting, Mr. Thomson:
"The meek eyed morn appears, mother of dews."
We meet with a fine expression in the book of Job, which may serve to confirm this remark; and may illustrate the propriety of the phrase used in this connection: "Hath the rain a father, or who hath begot ten the drops of dew?" It seems, the oriental writers delighted to represent the dew as a kind of birth, as the offspring of the morning. And if so, surely there could be no image in the whole compass of the universe better adapted to the psalmist's purpose, or more strongly significant of those multitudes of proselytes, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; by the powerful energy of his word and Spirit. Upon this supposition, the whole verse describes the willing subjection, the gracious accomplishments, and the vast number of Christ's converts. James Hervey (1713-141758), in "Meditations and
contemplations."
Ver. 3. The dew of thy youth. The most apparent reference is to multitude. Compare Ps 72:16, and the proverbial use of the dew together with the sand of the sea shore to express a vast number. The people of the Messiah are a great number that no man can number: Re 7:9. But this is only the common enwraping veil of a further sense. We must further note, First, THE ORIGIN OF THE DEW. From what comes it? From earthly matter, vapour and mist, as the new born soldier of Christ comes from the confused, dark substance of the old nature. By what is it produced? Through the influence of the heavenly warmth of the beams of the morning sun: so the people of God owe themselves to the light from above. In the vivifying light of heaven, the dewdrops are begotten, and from it they come more properly than from the earth water. How are they produced? Invisibly, wonderfully, by the secret, incomprehensible influence of the divine power. We have by no means exhausted the figure, for we notice, Secondly, THE DESIGN OF THE DEW. It is for the fertilizing and refreshing of the earth. The spiritual Israel are a fructifying, quickening dew among men. It is also for the ornament of the earth, which the dew bestrews as with precious stones; and this beauty is caused because each little drop of dew reflects the morning sun and is an earthly reflection of the heavenly light. Condensed from Rudolph Stier.
Ver. 3 (last clause). With singular beauty and propriety does the psalmist compare the first preachers of the gospel to dew. In the first place, they may be compared to the drops of dew on account of their multitude. But, in order to judge of the correctness of the comparison in this respect, we must consider, that, in the Holy Land, the dews are remarkably abundant. A French traveller, 1 has observed of Judea, that in the morning the ground is as much moistened by dew, as if it had rained. We are informed in the sacred history, that, when the Dayspring from on high visited the earth, many were the followers of Christ; and that very soon after his ascension into heaven, "multitudes both of men and women were added to the Lord". Justly then may those who hastened to the blessed Jesus, when the glorious light of his gospel first dawned upon the world, or immediately on the commencement of his mediatorial kingdom, be compared in number to the drops of dew, which at the dawn of day fall to the earth.
It is mentioned also in this verse, that the first subjects of the Messiah were to present themselves adorned "with the beauties of holiness"; vrq yddhk in the splendours of holiness. In brightness, then, as well as in multitude, did they resemble the glittering drops of the morning dew. Our great poet has combined these two ideas in his beautiful comparison of an host innumerable to the
"Stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun impearls". 2
The formation of the dew is represented in Scripture as the work of God, and not of man: and its descending to refresh and fertilize the earth is mentioned as his peculiar gift and in opposition to human means of rendering the earth more fruitful. "Who, "saith Job, "hath begotten the drops of dew?" (ch. 38. 28) And the prophet Micah declares, that "the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men"
1 Eugene Rogers.
2 Milton's" Paradise Lost, "Book v., line 745.
(ch. 5. 7). Well, then, might the term be applied by the Psalmist to those whom "God of his own will begat with the word of truth"; and who were his appointed instruments, by their preaching, to cause "the desert to rejoice and to blossom abundantly"; and "the wilderness to become a fruitful field".
Let it also be remembered, that those whom the Psalmist compares to dew are described under the image of young soldiers, going forth to fight the battles of a victorious prince. Now this comparison is used in 2Sa 17:11, 12: "I counsel, "said Hushai to Ahithophel, "that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person. So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth upon the ground". It is perhaps not undeserving of notice, that amongst the Romans those troops who first attacked the enemy, and who were composed of young men, were, from a supposed resemblance to dew, called Rorarii. It is not incumbent upon me to investigate the reason of their receiving that name; it is sufficient to point out its similarity with the expression of the psalmist, which is applied to those who were first to engage in the conflict with the enemies of the Gospel of Christ. Richard Dixon, 1811.
Ver. 3.
Thee, in thy power's triumphant day,
The willing nations shall obey;
And, when thy rising beams they view,
Shall all (redeemed from error's night)
Appear as numberless and bright
As crystal drops of morning dew. N. Brady and N. Tate.
Ver. 3.
Lord, let thy day of power be known,
Thy people be confessed;
Eager and valiantpriests each one,
In holy garments dressed.
Countless they shine, as dews from heaven
When eastern skies grow bright
More glorious than those dews are given,
Sparkling in morning light. George Rawson, in "Hymns, Verses, and Chants", 1876.
Ver. 3. A willing people and an immutable Leader.
1. The promise made to Christ concerning his people: "Thy people shall be willing, "etc.
(a) A promise of time: "In the day, "etc.
(b) Of persons: "Thy people."
(c) Of disposition: "Shall be willing."
(d) Of character: "In the beauties of holiness."
(e) The majestic figure employed: "From the womb of the
morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth."
2. The promise made to Christ concerning himself: "Thou hast the dew of thy youth." Jesus Christ has the dew of his youth personally, doctrinally, and mystically, being surrounded by new converts, who are as the early dew. Spurgeon's Sermons, No. 74.
Ver. 3. This is a prophecy of the subjects of Christ's kingdom.
1. Who they are; "Thy people".
(a) A people. This denotes distinction, separation,
similarity, organization. They are not a confused
rabble, but a united community.
(b) His people. By gift, by purchase, by effectual
calling.
2. What they are.
(a) A loyal people: "willing."
(b) A conquered people: "in the day of thy power."
(c) A holy people: "in the beauties of holiness."
(d) A numerous people: "from the womb of the morning, "
etc. The number of converts at the first
proclamation of Christ's gospel was but the dew of
his youth. G.R.
Ver. 3. First, the internal evidence of Christ's kingdom is in his people's willingness: "Thy people shall be willingnessthy people shall bc a people all willing" all volunteers, not pressed men. Secondly, the external evidence of it lies in his people's holiness; "the beauties of holiness; "or as it may be rendered"in the magnificence of his sanctuary, "for the ornaments of the sanctuary and the dress of the priests were very splendid. When you once give yourselves to God, you become temples of God; and sanctity must adorn that heart which is a living temple of the Holy Ghost. J. Bennett, in a Sermon, 1829.
Ver. 3. All true followers of Jesus are
(1) priestsbeauties of holiness are their sacerdotal
robes;
(2) soldiers"in the day of thine armies";
(3) volunteers;
(4) benefactorsas the dew. Suggested by a paper in The Baptist Magazine.
Ver. 3. Here we have a cluster of subjects: the willingness of the Lord's people, the beauty of holiness, young converts the life and glory of the church, the mystery of conversion, and so on.
Psalms 110:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thy people shall be willing in the day of…
Psa_110:3
Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.
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Christ subdues a people to Himself
The glory of a king consists in the multitude of his people. Messiah is a king, but He is described as ruling in the midst of His enemies. Has He, then, none but these over whom He is to reign--none that willingly do Him service? Was He to spend His labour in vain, His time and strength for that which profiteth nothing? No! He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in His hand. Jehovah promises to Him, Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.
I. The character and condition of Messiahs subjects. They are His people--
1. Because they are given to Him by the Father.
2. Because they are bought with a price, even with His own precious blood.
3. Because they are created anew by His Holy Spirit, and so fitted for His service here, and for the full enjoyment of heaven hereafter.
II. The prediction regarding them. They shall be willing. Worldly kingdoms have often been established by violence--they rule over the body only, they govern by fear and terror. In all these respects, Christs kingdom is not of this world. His people are willing to enter into His kingdom in the way of His own appointment, they are willing to obey the laws of His kingdom, and they are willing to submit to that discipline which His infinite wisdom sees meet for them.
III. The time when, and the means by which, they shall be made willing. In the day of Thy power. The exertion of Messiahs power is requisite to bring the most amiable of the human race cordially to submit to Him as their rightful Lord; and by the exertion of this power, the most hardened rebel may be transformed into a willing subject. (C. Greig, M. A.)
Christs triumph and our glory
I. Christs triumph.
1. Christ triumphs through us, manifesting His power to destroy sin in the flesh, and to restore the God-like image. He works in us, enabling us to will and to do His good pleasure.
2. His triumph waits upon us. Because He lives, His people shall live for ever.
3. There will come a day when we shall be willing--
(1) To learn of Him. To receive with meekness the truth; to be taught of Him.
(2) To suffer with Him. We shall be willing to humble ourselves, and sacrifice every hearts desire and ambition to His glory.
(3) To follow Him, in going out after all the lost and erring ones.
(4) To do His will, promptly and perfectly as the angels, who stand around the throne, awaiting His bidding.
II. Our glory. We have a victorious Leader. Our King will come forth in the beauties of holiness. His reign will be refreshing and quickening as dew, every drop reflecting all heaven. He will lead His people gloriously, while they shout their song of triumph. Christ is also our royal priest, the mystery of His birth and succession being prefigured in the person of Melchizedek. His Word is our battle-axe, which strikes devastating blows in the ranks of the enemy. We read of the triumphal entrance of Pompey into Rome, when for two days the procession moved along the Via Sacra. At the head of the procession were carried the brazen tablets, engraven with the names of the conquered nations, the record of the wealth amassed, and the vast increase in the revenues of the empire. The captives followed the triumphal chariot, and as many trophies were displayed as there had been victories gained, either by Pompey or his officers. But how vastly more magnificent and dazzling will be the procession of the heavenly hosts of the redeemed of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues as they enter the New Jerusalem with their King of kings, to crown Him Lord of all. (J. B. Donaldson, D.D.)
Soldier priests
We have here the very heart of the Christian character set forth as being willing consecration; then we have the work which Christian men have to do, and the spirit in which they are to do it, expressed in that metaphor of their priestly attire; and then we have their refreshing and quickening influence upon the world.
I. The subjects of the Priest-King are willing soldiers. We are all soldiers, and He only has to determine our work. We are responsible for the spirit of it, He for its success. Again, there are no mercenaries in these ranks, no pressed men. The soldiers are all volunteers. Thy people shall be willing. Constrained obedience is no obedience. The word here rendered willing is employed throughout the Levitical law for freewill offerings. This glad submission comes from self-consecration and surrender.
II. The soldiers are priests. The beauties of holiness is a frequent phrase for the sacerdotal garments, the holy festal attire of the priests of the Lord. So considered, how beautifully it comes in here. The conquering King whom the psalm hymns is a Priest for ever; and He is followed by an army of priests. The soldiers are gathered in the day of the muster, with high courage and willing devotion, ready to fling away their lives; but they are clad not in mail, but in priestly robes, like those who wait before the altar rather than like those who plunge into the fight, like those who encompassed Jericho with the ark for their standard and the trumpets for all their weapons. The servant of the Lord must not strive. We cannot scold nor dragoon men to love Jesus Christ. We are to be gentle, long-suffering, not doing our work with passion and self-will, but remembering that gentleness is mightiest, and that we shall best adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour when we go among men with the light caught in the inner sanctuary still irradiating our faces, and our hands full of blessings to bestow on our brethren.
III. The soldier-priests are as dew upon the earth. There are two points in this last clause which may occupy us--that picture of the army as a band of youthful warriors; and that lovely emblem of the dew as applied to Christs servants. As to the former--there are many other words of Scripture which carry the same thought, that he who has fellowship with God, and lives in the constant reception of the supernatural life and grace which come from Jesus Christ, possesses the secret of perpetual youth. If we live near Christ, and draw our life from Him, then we may blend the hopes of youth with the experience and memory of age; be at once calm and joyous, wise and strong, preserving the blessedness of each stage of life into that which follows, and thus at last possessing the sweetness and the good of all at once. We may not only bear fruit in old age, but have blossoms, fruit, and flowers--the varying product and adornment of every stage of life united in our characters. Then, with regard to the other point in this final clause--that emblem of the dew comes into view here, I suppose, mainly for the sake of its effect upon the earth. It is as a symbol of the refreshing which a weary world will receive from the conquests and presence of the King and His host, that they are likened to the glittering morning dew. We are meant to gladden, to adorn, to refresh this parched, prosaic world, with a freshness brought from the chambers of the sunrise. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
A willing people and an immutable Leader
I. A promise made to Christs people. Here is a promise of time: in the day of Thy power. Here is a promise of people: Thy people. Here is a promise of disposition: Thy people shall be willing. Here is a promise of character: Thy people shall be willing in the beauties of holiness. And here is a majestic figure to show the manner in which they shall be brought forth. By a very bold metaphor, they are said to come out as mysteriously as the dew-drops from the womb of the morning. We know not how, but they are produced by God. Philosophy has laboured to discover the origin of dew, and perhaps has guessed it; but to the Eastern, one of the greatest riddles was, out of whose womb came the dew? Who is the mother of those pearly drops? Now, so will Gods people come mysteriously. It will be said by the bystander, There was nothing in that mans preaching; I thought I should hear an orator; this man has been made the means of salvation to thousands, and I thought I should hear an eloquent man, but I have heard a great many preachers far more intelligent and intellectual than he; how were these souls converted? Why, they have come from the womb of the morning, mysterously. Again, the dew-drops--who made them? God speaks; He whispers in the ears of nature, and it weeps for joy at the glad news that the morning is coming. That is how Gods people shall be saved; they come forth from the womb of the morning divinely called, divinely brought, divinely blessed, divinely numbered, divinely scattered over the entire surface of the globe, divinely refreshing to the world, they proceed from the womb of the morning.
II. A promise made to Christ. Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. Ah! believer, this is the great source of Gospel success, that Christ has the dew of His youth. Jesus Christ, personally, has the dew of His youth. Certain leaders in their young days have led their troops to battle, and by the loudness of their voice, and the strength of their bodies, they have inspired their men with courage; but the old warrior hath his hair sown with grey; he begins to be decrepit, and no longer can lead men to battle. It is not so with Jesus Christ. He has still the dew of His youth. The same Christ who led His troops to battle in His early youth leads them now. The arm which smote the sinner with His Word smites now; it is as unpalsied as it was before. The eye which looked upon His friends with gladness, and upon his foemen with a glance most stern and high--that same eye is regarding us now, undimmed, like that of Moses. He has the dew of His youth. So also doctrinally, Christ hath the dew of His youth. Usually, when a religion starts it is very rampant, but it afterwards decays. Look at the religion of Mahommed. For one hundred years or more it threatened to subvert kingdoms, and overturn the whole world, but where are the blades that flashed then? Where are now the willing hands that smote down the foes of Mahommed? Why, his religion has become an old worn-out thing; no one cares about it; and the Turk, sitting on his divan, with his legs crossed, smoking his pipe, is the best image of the Mahommedan religion--old, infirm, effete. But the Christian religion,--ah, it is as fresh as when it shafted from its cradle at Jerusalem; it is as hale, and hearty, and mighty, as when Paul preached it at Athens, or Peter at Jerusalem. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christs people, a willing people
There is here--
1. Something supposed. Namely, that Christ hath a people in the world where He erects His standard, that He hath a special relation to, and interest in. Thy people, even His people (Mat_1:21). He hath bought them with His blood (Joh_10:15). It is supposed also, that He finds these unwilling to submit to Him, as well as the rest of the world. The corruption of the will is common to them with others.
2. Something ensured to the Mediator, respecting this people of His; namely, that these unwilling people shall be willing, Hebrew, willingnesses; which imports that they shall submit to Him, and give away themselves to Him; acknowledge the right which Christ hath to them, and be His people by their own consent (Isa_49:18; Isa_55:5).
3. The time when, and the way how this shall be done. In the day of Thy power. That is, in a day of the Gospels coming with power. For the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
I. That corruption of the will, with which Christ finds His people, as well as others, possessed.
1. There is a weakness in their will; they cannot will what is spiritually good and acceptable to God.
2. An aversion to good.
3. A proneness to evil, a woful bent of the will carrying it to sin.
4. A contrariety in the will, to the will of God.
5. Contumacy: the will is wilful or obstinate in evil.
II. The willingness of the soul submitting to Christ. What makes the change? They are made, they do not make themselves willing. The Lord changes their wills, takes away the evil qualities of their will, and gives new qualities.
1. They are willing to part with sin.
2. They are willing to go out of themselves; to cast off all confidence in their attainments and duties; to come to Christ empty, with nothing in them or on them to recommend them to Him but misery.
3. They are willing to take Christ as their Saviour, and to submit to His righteousness.
4. They are willing to take on the yoke of Christs commandments.
5. Willing to bear Christs Cross, to cleave to Him and His ways, and to follow Him through fire and water.
6. Willing to go away with Christ, for altogether, home to His Fathers house.
III. The day of power.
1. Though the Gospel may be long preached unto a people, yet there are some special seasons that may be looked on as days of power. Days when the Gospel is new to a people, days of persecution, days when there is a spirit of prayer poured out, and times of sealing ordinances, these are more likely than others to be days of power.
2. There is an appointed time for the inbringing of all the elect of God, and that is the particular day of power to them.
3. A dark night usually goes before this day of power.
4. Whenever this day of power comes, the soul is made willing, the fort of the heart is taken, and the King of glory enters in state, turns out the old inhabitants, and puts in new. (T. Boston, D.D.)
The necessity and claims of the missionary enterprise
I. The nature of the work itself. The Gospel is just a voice from heaven calling on the Church to evangelize the world.
II. The necessity of this work. Ill. The prospects of this work.
IV. The relation in which Christians stand to this work. (D. Young.)
The willingness of Gods people
I. God has a people in the world, and there never was a period when He had not.
II. There is a day of His power that shall pass on them for their regeneration and conversion.
1. It is a day, not a natural day of twenty-four hours, that is interrupted by night, but I conceive it means three things--
(1) A period destined for the conversion of His people,
(2) A period perfectly clear to God,
(3) A period limited to time.
2. It is the day of His power. To the perishing sinner the Gospel comes, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. It is an arresting power; it meets the sinner, and stays his mad career, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus. It is a convincing power; it teaches the sinner that he is ruined in every respect, and leads him to cry out, What shall I do to be saved? It is a life-giving power; it quickens dead souls, and will eventually bring the dead bodies from their graves.
III. The result; that they shall be brought to Him, made willing to part with all things, and to be His voluntary subjects and followers in the world. The power of God does not do away with the liberty of the will, nor does the liberty of the will render unnecessary the exercise of the power of God. (J. Jones.)
The law of least resistance
I. The day of Christs power. The day of our Lords power was the day when, like Samson, He burst the green withes of death, and carried the gates of the grave up the hill of God. The day of His power was proclaimed to all the world when He ascended up on high and sat down at the right hand of God; and the day of Pentecost witnessed, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the assembled thousands, that, the work of Christ was finished and accepted, and had achieved all the mighty results for which it was undertaken. Ever since then, the day of Christs power has continued. All power on earth and in heaven has been given to Him for the purpose of carrying on His mediatorial work.
II. The willingness of the people in the day of the Lords power. What a world of meaning is there in that word willing! It denotes the condition of one who offers the least resistance to the saving power of Jesus, and in whom, therefore, that power finds it easiest to work and to carry on its gracious purposes. Such a person has no self-will, giving it freely up to be moulded by the Divine will; willing to give up all--to give first the heart and then the life, a living sacrifice.. Such a person is not compelled by law, but impelled by love. Not my will, but Thine be done, is his rule not only in regard to the salvation of his soul, but also in regard to all the duties and relations of life. Christ will bless such an one up to the fulness of His own loving heart, because there is nothing in his heart to prevent it.
III. What will the day of power do for them? It will adorn them with the beauty of holiness, and it will renew their youth. The will of God is our sanctification. The dearest wish of His heart is that the fair image in which He created us, and which we have marred by our sin, should be restored. He wishes us to place ourselves unreservedly in His hands, that He may create us anew in Christ Jesus. The glory of the Godhead shines in Him who assumed our nature; and all power is given to Him in order that He may make us conformable to His image. Who would not accept a king to reign over them who could thus make them what they were meant to be--sons of God and heirs of heaven; who could fulfil here and hereafter, to the fullest extent, their prayer, Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us? But, besides the beauties of holiness, perpetual youthfulness is also what the grace of Christ will produce in those who are willing in the day of His power. In His service the dew of their youth, the brightness of lifes morning, will be ever upon them. He who has the power of an endless life, who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever, will renew their strength from day to day from the fountainhead of His own strength. Eternal life is eternal youth; and He who takes away the old nature of sin and gives the new nature of grace, with it makes all things new. (H. Macmillan, D.D.)
The increase of the Messiahs kingdom prophetically anticipated
I. The prospect which the text affords.
1. Its nature. Light pours in upon his understanding--Divine influence renews his heart. The kingdom of God is within him, and he is swayed by the sceptre of redeeming love.
2. Its effects. True holiness is, in strict propriety of expression, the holiness of truth--it is excellence of character, produced by excellence of principle. Its moral influence is Divinely designed to be, and actually has been in every age, for the healing of the nations.
3. Its extent. The subjects of the Redeemers kingdom shall be numerous as the drops of morning dew, which sparkle upon the grass in countless profusion when the day breaks, and the glory of the rising sun is poured over the earth. Sinners of every class will perceive so much beauty and evidence in Divine truth, that they will have no more power to resist its illumination, to elude its force, and to remain longer in subjection to their errors, their vices, and their prejudices.
II. The certainty of its accomplishment.
1. The immutability of Jehovahs counsel.
2. The perfection of the Redeemers atonement.
3. The invincibility of Divine grace. (W. Hutchings.)
The Gospel dispensation one of power
I. Look at its extent. Superstitions the most powerful and beloved,--systems of philosophy the most specious and plausible,--opinions which are congenial to the human heart, and have been entertained for ages,--and habits, strengthened not merely by personal indulgence, but by the influence of the most remote antiquity,--all give way before the Cross. Conversion of the most degraded and ignorant tribes takes place,--the change effected, and the contrast furnished by it, being more visible, and, therefore, more impressive than former dispensations have witnessed. And the most glorious displays are yet future. The close of this day of power is to be most excessive in its brightness,--at eventide there is to be the purest and the fullest light.
II. The production and increase of piety in mens souls is more natural to this dispensation than the preceding ones. What was made known under them is not to be compared with what has been made known since, for explicitness and fulness.
III. It is the dispensation of the Spirit. He is the official agent in the conversion and sanctification of men. (A. J. Morris.)
When God marshals His forces
The word rendered power has the same ambiguity which that word has in the English of the date of our translation, and for a century later, as you may find in Shakespeare and Milton, who both used it in the sense of army. We do not employ powers in that meaning, but we do another word which means the same thing, and talk of forces, meaning thereby troops. The day of thy power is not a mere synonym for the time of thy might, but means specifically the day of thine army; that is, the day when thou dost muster thy forces, and set them in array for the war. The King is going forth to conquest. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
In the beauties of holiness.
The excellence of Christian morality
The words of the text evidently describe the subjects of the Messiah They illustrate the most distinguishing features of their character and principles. They display the predicted, expected, and now realized superiority of the morality of the Gospel.
I. Its principles. Strictly speaking, religion and true morality are in substance the same. In the Scriptures, the application of religion to practice is expressed by the term holiness, and the maturity or perfection of its principles, appearing in the demeanour and actions of men, is elegantly called the beauties of holiness. Religion refuses not the aid of reason, when unsophisticated; of the moral sense, when enlightened; or of the eternal distinctions of things, when rightly understood. Nay, religion requires, employs, and retains them all in her service. But above these she exalts, as her peculiar principles of morality.
1. The authority of an all-perfect Being.
2. The operation of faith. True faith is the offspring of light, and the parent of purity. It originates in knowledge and in reason. It is cherished by inquiry and research. It is perfected in the free and full assent of the will, communicated by the Spirit of God, when men are made willing in the day of His power.
3. Supreme love to God.
4. To live to the glory of God.
II. Its extent. Social and relative duties are unquestionably of high importance in morality, and politicians and legislators will ever regard them as the most valuable part of religion, because they are most immediately conducive to the external peace and order of states. But shall philosophers, admirers of wisdom, and students of virtue, pious and aspiring inquirers, extend no farther their conceptions of morality? Let persons of this character prosecute their researches with candour and fidelity, and in the Scriptures of truth they shall soon attain to many new and elevating discoveries. In that sacred volume, does not the great God and our Saviour demand assent, not merely to the common position, that He exists, but require that the conviction of His perfections and presence should affect all our actions? Does He not reveal, not merely His counsels, but challenge an active and universal obedience to His will? Does He not claim, not merely respect for His laws, but zeal for His glory? not merely the homage of the body, but fervour of the spirit in serving Him; not merely submission, but confidence; not merely gratitude, but joy; not merely hope, but assurance; not merely desire, but delight in His communion?
III. Its efficacy. The Gospel is, in more respects than one, like the principle of light to which it has been so justly compared. It may be distorted by a false medium, or obscured by the intervention of clouds, yet still it assists vision, still it may be beneficial, still it is light, and preferable, in every case, to darkness. Or it is like the element of heat, which, even though unseen, may latently support and invigorate life. Thus even the worst corruptions of the Christian religion have not utterly extinguished its beneficial tendency. To what but the influence of the Gospel is Europe indebted for her boasted superiority of civilization? What has exalted the whole female sex to respectability, to deference and to love? Without a question it was Christianity. What has mitigated the horrors of war, civilized the manners of nations, attempered the power of the great, and exalted the condition of the poor? It was the same cause. And no system of philosophy, before its appearance, ever produced any similar effects, or ever even attempted such designs.
IV. Its consequences.
1. Exemption from the power of sin and the practice of vice (Rom_6:14; Joh_8:36).
2. A willing mind in the performance of every duty, with its attendant satisfaction and delight, follows this exemption from the dominion of sin.
3. The evidence thus established, that we are in a state of grace and acceptance with God, is a new consequence and fruit of this invaluable morality. Upon no other presumption can the persuasion of this opinion be founded, than the evidence of our conformity to the standards and precepts of the Gospel, the palpable and genuine proof that we are actually redeemed from sin, exempted from its dominion, habituated to holiness, active in virtue, and made willing in a favoured time of power.
4. The true enjoyment of life results from these principles. Without them all is dark, cheerless, and uncertain. With their support, all is light, joyous, and secure.
5. How delightful a talk would it be to describe the peculiar resources in affliction, which flow from these principles, and the triumph in the arms of death, to which they lead!
6. The preparation for heaven, which they confer, the anticipation of its joys, and consequently the proof of its assured existence, which they afford, is their last and most important consequence. (W. Bennet.)
The secret of moral beauty
If you would make your life truly graceful, truly beautiful, you must go back to conscience, principle, conviction; there must be within you reality, a true godliness and a true consecration to God and to man. You often meet with people whose beauty disappoints you--I mean their moral beauty. They are excellent people, charming people, but somehow or other you are not satisfied with them. What is the matter? There is more amiability than energy. You never like to speak discouragingly about nice people, because there are so few of them; but really some people who are exceedingly amiable are exceedingly unsatisfying. What is the matter with them? It is this--lack of depth, reality, force. They have got more graciousness than they have grit. They make a great many gracious concessions that at last question their conscientiousness. They have a supply of amiability about them that makes you suspect a flabbiness within. No amiability is really satisfactory to men except as it springs from deep, radical, organic conscientiousness, conviction, and devotion. To see lilywork upon a pillar is admirable, but frosted work on a bride-cake is another thing altogether. And I say to you that if you would make your character as you are anxious to make it--graceful, noble, beautiful--there is no way for you but to go back to the roots and foundations of life. If you wish to make yourself right, I say to you: Dont paint your face; see to it that there is health in the central organs. Dont revise your etiquette; see to it that you are transformed in the spirit of your mind. Out of the heart are the issues of life, and out of the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit spring at last the real majesty and sweetness of human character. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Thou hast the dew of thy youth.--
The youth of Godhead
Everything young and fresh, everything bright and smiling, everything buoyant and happy, may be traced to the perpetual youth of Godhead, which streams forth for ever and ever, impregnating all receptive souls and substances with its own quality; and it is owing to the unchangeable youth of the Son of God, that every new-born babe, after thousands of years, preserves the freshness and the beauteous innocence of the first-born child of Adam. The fulness of life which rises and dances in every young heart, and the living sunbeams which play upon the face of youth, are from the same one and only eternal source. And after myriads of springtimes in myriads of planets, each succeeding spring is as fresh and full of young vigour and beauty as were the springs before the flood. Every babe, and every spring, and every new morning, are world-types of the everlasting youth of our God. There is no light like the early morning light, there is no air like the early morning air, there is no water like the dew of early morning, and when do the birds sing as they sing in the opening day? Every morning is a new sermon on the youth of Jesus. And the new life that rises with us in the morning, after our nightly death in sleep, is a daily demonstration that life continues young and fresh in its fountain-head. (John Pulsford.)
The dew of Christs youth
I. Christ has the dew of His youth.
1. Let me speak first of Christ personally; has He not all the freshness, all the vigour, all the strength of ancient times?
2. It is the same if you think of Him as revealed in His doctrine. The Gospel is always fresh.
3. Our text is also specially true of Christ as revealed in the Bible. There are many other valuable books that have been written; but, as a rule, however valuable they may be, when you have read them half-a-dozen times, you may be quite satisfied that you need not read them any more. You can get to the bottom of all other books; you dive into them, and at first they seem to be very deep; but every time you plunge, they appear to get shallower and shallower, until at last you can see the bottom at a glance. But in Gods Word, every time you dive, the depths grow deeper.
4. Everything that has to do with Christ is always young. Everything lives where He is; for He is life, and in Him there is no death at all; and because lie is life, He is always full of freshness, and therefore doth He scatter living force wheresoever He goeth.
II. What is the reason for this freshness?
1. No man, who understands what it is to have Christ in his heart, will ever get tired of Him through want of variety. You may look at Christ a thousand times, and you shall have, if you please, a thousand different aspects of His beauty.
2. Christ has the dew of His youth because of His excellence. Ah, you thought Christ was sweet when first you tasted Him; but you will know Him to be sweeter still when you know more of Him, and taste and see that He is good; but you can never know all His sweetness, for you can eat, and eat, and yet not discover it all; possibly, scarcely in heaven itself will you know all the sweetness of Christ.
3. Christ will never lose His freshness to us, because He is Divine, and therefore inexhaustible.
4. Another reason why Christ will always have the dew of His youth is, because He meets all the cravings of our nature. When we really have Christ, we feel that we have nothing else that we can wish for.
5. We shall never be tired of Christ, because the need we have of Christ can never cease. But, says one, we shall not need Him in heaven. Who told you that? Not need Christ in heaven! Why, if you could take Christ away from heaven, you would take heaven away altogether. If I shall not need Christ to cleanse me in heaven, yet I shall want Christ to commune with Him. If I shall not need to pray to Him, I shall want to praise Him. If I shall not need Him as a Shepherd, I shall need Him as a Priest, as a King, that I may for ever serve Him with joy and gladness.
III. What are the lessons we should learn from this truth?
1. For the pulpit, a lesson of admonition. We who occupy the pulpit must take care that we never entertain the idea that the Gospel has become worn out. It still has the dew of its youth.
2. A lesson of self-examination to each one here present. What you should ask yourself is, Have I found the right Christ?If the Christ I have found has lost His freshness, is it not very likely that I have found a wrong Christ, one of my own making, one of my own conception? For the real Christ is always fresh, always interesting, always new. Have I not either laid hold of the wrong truth, or held it in the wrong way?
3. A word of aspiration, if Christ has the dew of His youth upon Him, let us, my dear friends who serve the Lord Jesus Christ, aspire to show the world that we do so. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The dew of youth
1. Make sure that your lifes morning is fresh as the dew. The first thing which strikes us in the dew is its transparency. Is your soul transparently clear? Is your conscience without offence toward God and toward men? How is this purity and beauty of soul to be had? Look at the dew-drop again and ask whence comes its jewelled brightness. It is all the suns doing. Now, Christ is the Sun of Righteousness. He is wooing you now from all that is low and unworthy, even as the sun woos the vapour from the murky pool. It cannot resists--you can; but will you?
2. Make sure that you keep the freshness of the dew. First by never allowing a stain to remain on your conscience and in your life. That stains will come is inevitable. But let them not remain. But it is not enough to keep clear of stains, or when stains are contracted to have them at once washed away; there must also be a constant renewal of life. You cannot live on the strength of yesterday; you must have the strength of to-day for the work of to-day. Live in time, and for time, and your morning will soon change to sultry noon, to sad afternoon, darkening down to the blackness of night. But accept the eternal life which God gives you in His Son Christ Jesus, and lo! the freshness of the morning is about you all through life. (J. M. Gibson.)
The dew
I. The dew descends from heaven.
1. Every moral production of the earth is impure. Man--systems--institutions--maxims.
2. The productions of the earth may be known by their distinguishing characteristics. The naturalist knows the country of an animal. The botanist, of a plant. The moralist, of a sentiment, or action, or character.
3. The character of the believer proves him not of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
4. The Bible tells his native country.
(1) He is Divine in his parentage.
(2) The Spirit comes down to regenerate him.
(3) Grace comes down to animate and actuate, etc.
5. Do you feel heaven-born and home affections towards heaven?
II. The dew descends during the night.
1. The present is to the heavenly state as night to day. It is now that the believer is regenerated and sanctified.
2. A season of suffering is to one of personal joy, as night is to day. It is in suffering that the believer is most effectually purified.
III. The dew-drops are very plentiful.
1. Believers are a little flock, in any past time--at present--at any one given time.
2. They shall be more numerous during the latter-day glory.
3. They shall be very numerous in heaven.
IV. The dew-drops refresh the vegetable world.
1. Believers, being themselves refreshed, refresh others.
(1) By their conversation.
(2) By their example.
(3) By their prayers.
(4) By their deeds of kindness.
2. Are you to your neighbourhood as a dew from the Lord?
V. Each dew-drop reflects the suns image.
1. Man originally bore Gods image.
2. When renewed he again bears it.
3. What is it to have Gods image?
(1) The same views--Bible views.
(2) The same objects--His glory in redemption.
(3) The same character--in heart and life.
4. When the believer thinks of God, how high is the attainment of bearing His image!
5. Do you love His law--doings--designs--character--fellowship--people?
VI. The dew reascends to heaven when it has refreshed the earth.
1. Even now the believer soars aloft--in thought--desire--conversation--hope--confident anticipation.
2. At death, his soul ascends--a constant ascension.
3. At the resurrection, his body ascends.
4. Are your tendencies heavenward?
VII. When the dew ascends, it is in perfect purity, freed from any mixture of earth. (James Stewart.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Psalms
SOLDIER PRIESTS
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Psa 110:3.
It is no part of my present purpose to establish the reference of this psalm to our Lord. We have Christ’s own authority for that.
It does not seem to be typical-that is to say, it does not appear to have had a lower application to a king of Israel who was a shadow of the true monarch, but rather to refer only to the coming Sovereign, whom David was helped to discern, indeed, by his own regal office, but whose office and character, as here set forth, far surpass anything belonging to him or to his dynasty. The attributes of the King, the union in His case of the royal and priestly dignities, His seat at the right hand of God, His acknowledged supremacy over the greatest Jewish ruler, who here calls him ‘my Lord,’ His eternal dominion, His conquest of many nations, and His lifting up of His head in triumphant rule that knows no end-all these characteristics seem to forbid the possibility of a double reference, and to demand the acknowledgment of a distinct and exclusive prophecy of Christ.
Taking that for granted without more words, it strikes one as remarkable that this description of the subjects of the Priest-King should be thus imbedded in the very heart of the grand portraiture of the monarch Himself. It is the anticipation of the profound New Testament thought of the unity of Christ and His Church. By simple faith a union is brought about so close and intimate that all His is theirs, and the picture of His glory is incomplete without the vision of ‘the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.’ Therefore, between the word of God which elevates Him to His right hand, and the oath of God which consecrates Him a priest for ever, is this description of the army of the King.
The full force of the words will, I hope, appear as we advance. For the present it will be enough to say that there are really in our text three co-ordinate clauses, all descriptive of the subjects of the monarch, regarded as a band of warriors-and that the main ideas are these:-the subjects are willing soldiers; the soldiers are priests; the priest-soldiers are as dew upon the earth. Or, in other words, we have here the very heart of the Christian character set forth as being willing consecration; then we have the work which Christian men have to do, and the spirit in which they are to do it, expressed in that metaphor of their priestly attire; and then we have their refreshing and quickening influence upon the world.
I. The subjects of the Priest-King are willing soldiers.
In accordance with the warlike tone of the whole psalm, our text describes the subjects as an army. That military metaphor comes out more clearly when we attach the true meaning to the words, ‘in the day of Thy power.’ The word rendered, and rightly rendered, ‘power,’ has the same ambiguity which that word has in the English of the date of our translation, and for a century later, as you may find in Shakespeare and Milton, who both used it in the sense of ‘army.’ Singularly enough we do not employ ‘powers’ in that meaning, but we do another word which means the same thing-and talk of ‘forces,’ meaning thereby ‘troops.’ By the way, what a melancholy sign it is of the predominance of that infernal military spirit, that it should have so leavened language, that the ‘forces’ of a nation means its soldiers, its embattled energies turned to the work of destruction. But the phrase is so used here. ‘The day of Thy power’ is not a mere synonym for ‘the time of Thy might,’ but means specifically ‘the day of Thine army,’ that is, ‘the day when Thou dost muster Thy forces and set them in array for the war.’
The King is going forth to conquest. But He goes not alone. Behind Him come His faithful followers, all pressing on with willing hearts and high courage. Then, to begin with, the warfare which He wages is one not confined to Him. Alone He offers the sacrifice by which He atones; but, as we shall see, we too are priests. He rules, and His servants rule with Him. But ere that time comes, they are to be joined with Him in the great warfare by which He wins the earth for Himself. ‘As Captain of the Lord’s host am I now come.’ He wins no conquests for Himself; and now that He is exalted at God’s right hand, He wins none by Himself. We have to do His work, we have to fight His battles as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. By power derived from Him, but wielded by ourselves; with courage inspired by Him, but filling our hearts; not as though He needed us, but inasmuch as He is pleased to use us, we have to wage warfare for and to please Him who hath chosen us to be soldiers. The Captain of our salvation sits at the right hand of God, expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. He has bidden us to keep the field and fight the fight. From His height He watches the conflict-nay, He is with us while we wage it. So long as we strike for Him, so long is it His power that teaches our hands to war. Our King’s flag is committed to our care; but we are not left to defend it alone. In indissoluble unity, the King and the subjects, the Chief and His vassals, the Captain and His soldiers, are knit together-and wheresoever His people are, in all the danger and hardships of the long struggle, there is He, to keep their heads in the day of battle, and make them more than conquerors.
Then, again, that warfare is shared in by all the subjects. It is a levy en masse-an armed nation. The whole of the people are embodied for the battle. It is not the work of a select few, but of every one who calls Christ ‘Lord,’ to be His faithful servant and soldier. Whatever varieties of occupation may be set us by Him, one purpose is to be kept in view and one end to be effected by them all. Every Christian man is bound to strive for the reduction of all human hearts under Christ’s dominion. The tasks may be different, but the result should be one. Some of us have to toil in the trenches, some of us to guard the camp, some to lead the assault, some to stay by the stuff and keep the communications open. Be it so. We are all soldiers, and He alone has to determine our work. We are responsible for the spirit of it, He for its success.
Again, there are no mercenaries in these ranks, no pressed men. The soldiers are all volunteers. ‘Thy people shall be willing.’ Pause for a moment upon that thought.
Dear brethren! there are two kinds of submission and service. There is submission because you cannot help it, and there is submission because you like it. There is a sullen bowing down beneath the weight of a hand which you are too feeble to resist, and there is a glad surrender to a love which it would be a pain not to obey. Some of us feel that we are shut in by immense and sovereign power which we cannot oppose. And yet, like some raging rebel in a dungeon, or some fluttering bird in a cage, we beat ourselves, all bruised and bloody, against the bars in vain attempts at liberty, alternating with fits of cowed apathy as we slink into a corner of our cell. Some of us, thank God! feel that we are enclosed on every side by that mighty Hand which none can resist, and from which we would not stray if we could, and we joyfully hide beneath its shelter, and gladly obey when it points. Constrained obedience is no obedience. Unless there be the glad surrender of the will and heart, there is no surrender at all. God does not want compulsory submission. He does not care to rule over people who are only crushed down by greater power. He does not count that those serve who sullenly acquiesce because they dare not oppose. Christ seeks for no pressed men in His ranks. Whosoever does not enlist joyfully is not reckoned as His. And the question comes to us, brethren!-What is my relation to that loving Lord, to that Redeemer King? Do I submit because His love has won my heart, and it would be a pang not to serve Him; or do I submit because I know Him strong, and am afraid to refuse? If the former, all is well; He calls us ‘not servants but friends.’ If the latter, all is wrong; we are not subjects, but enemies.
There is another idea involved in this description. The soldiers are not only marked by glad obedience, but that obedience rests upon the sacrifice of themselves. The word here rendered ‘willing’ is employed throughout the Levitical law for ‘freewill offerings.’ And if we may venture to bring that reference in here, it carries us a step farther in this characterisation of the army. This glad submission comes from self-consecration and surrender. It is in that host as it was in the army whose heroic self-devotion was chaunted by Deborah under her palm-tree, ‘The people willingly offered themselves.’ Hence came courage, devotion, victory. With their lives in their hands they flung themselves on the foe, and nothing could stand against the onset of men who recked not of themselves. There is one grand thing even about the devilry of war-the transcendent self-abnegation with which, however poor and unworthy may be the cause, a man casts himself away, ‘what time the foeman’s line is broke.’ The poorest, vulgarest, most animal natures rise for a moment into something like nobility, as the surge of the strong emotion lifts them to that height of heroism. Life is then most glorious when it is given away for a great cause. That sacrifice is the one noble and chivalrous element which gives interest to war-the one thing that can be disentangled from its hideous associations, and can be transferred to higher regions of life. That spirit of lofty consecration and utter self-forgetfulness must be ours, if we would be Christ’s soldiers. Our obedience will then be glad when we feel the force of, and yield to, that gentle, persuasive entreaty, ‘I beseech you, brethren! by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.’ There is ‘one Sacrifice for sin for ever’-which never can be repeated, nor exhausted, nor copied. And the loving, faithful acceptance of that sacrifice of propitiation leads our hearts to the response of thank-offering, the sacrifice and surrender of ourselves to Him who has given Himself not only to, but for us. It cannot be recompensed, but it may be acknowledged. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for He has died for us. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for only in such surrender do we truly find ourselves. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for such a sacrifice makes all life fair and noble, and that altar sanctifies the gift. Let us give ourselves to Christ, for without such sacrifice we have no place in the host whom He leads to victory. ‘Thy people shall be willing offerings in the day of Thy power.’
Still further, another remarkable idea may be connected with this word. By a natural transition, of which illustrations may be found in other languages, it comes to mean ‘free,’ and also ‘noble.’ As, for instance, it is used in the fifty-first Psalm, ‘Uphold me with Thy free Spirit’-and in the forty-seventh, ‘The princes of the people are gathered together.’ And does not this shading of significations-willing sacrifices, free, princely-remind us of another distinctly evangelical principle, that the willing service which rests upon glad consecration raises him who renders it to true freedom and dominion? Every man enlisted in His body-guard is noble. The Prince’s servants are every other person’s master. The King’s livery exempts from all other submission. As in the old Saxon monarchies, the monarch’s domestics were nobles, the men of Christ’s household are ennobled by their service. They who obey Him are free from every yoke of bondage-’free indeed.’ All things serve the soul that serves Christ. ‘He hath made us kings unto God.’
II. The soldiers are priests.
That expression, ‘in the beauties of holiness,’ is usually read as if it belonged either to the words immediately preceding, or to those immediately following. But in either case the connection is somewhat difficult and obscure. It seems better regarded as a distinct and separate clause, adding a fresh trait to the description of the army, and what that is we need not find any difficulty in ascertaining. ‘The beauties of holiness’ is a frequent phrase for the sacerdotal garments, the holy festal attire of the priests of the Lord. So considered, how beautifully it comes in here! The conquering King whom the psalm hymns is a Priest for ever; and He is followed by an army of priests. The soldiers are gathered in the day of the muster, with high courage and willing devotion, ready to fling away their lives; but they are clad not in mail, but in priestly robes-like those who wait before the altar rather than like those who plunge into the fight-like those who compassed Jericho with the ark for their standard, and the trumpets for all their weapons. We can scarcely fail to remember the words which echo these and interpret them: ‘The armies which were in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean’-a strange armour against sword-cut and spear-thrust.
The main purpose, then, of this part of our text seems to be to bring out the priestly character of the Christian soldier-a thought which carries with it many important considerations, on which I can barely touch.
Mark, then, how the warfare which we have to wage is the same as the priestly service which we have to render. The conflict is with our own sin and evil; the sacrifice we have to offer is ourselves. As soldiers, we have to fight against our selfish desires and manifold imperfections; as priests, we have to lay our whole selves on His altar. The task is the same under either emblem. We have a conflict to wage in the world, and in the world we have a priestly work to do, and these are the same. We have to be God’s representatives in the world, bringing Him nearer to men’s apprehensions and hearts by word and work. We have to bring men to God by entreaty, and by showing the path which leads to Him. That priestly service for men is in effect identical with the merciful warfare which we have to wage in the world. The Church militant is an army of priests. Its warfare is its sacerdotal function. It fights for Christ when it opposes the message of His grace and the power of His blood to its own and the world’s sins-and when it intercedes in the secret place for the coming of His kingdom.
Does not this metaphor teach us also, what is to be our defence and our weapon in this warfare? Not with garments rolled in blood, nor with brazen armour do they go forth, who follow Him that conquered by dying. Their uniform is the beauties of holiness, ‘the fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints.’ Many great thoughts lie in such words, which I must pass over. But this one thing is obvious-that the great power which we Christian men are to wield in our loving warfare is-character. Purity of heart and life, transparent simple goodness, manifest in men’s sight-these will arm us against dangers, and these will bring our brethren glad captives to our Lord. We serve Him best, and advance His kingdom most, when the habit of our souls is that righteousness with which He invests our nakedness. Be like your Lord, and as His soldiers you will conquer, and as His priests you will win some to His love and fear. Nothing else will avail without that. Without that dress no man finds a place in the ranks.
The image suggests, too, the spirit in which our priestly warfare is to be waged. The one metaphor brings with it thoughts of strenuous effort, of discipline, of sworn consecration to a cause. The other brings with it thoughts of gentleness and sympathy and tenderness, of still waiting at the shrine, of communion with Him who dwells between the Cherubim. Whilst our work demands all the courage and tension of every power which the one image presents, it is to be sedulously guarded from any tinge of wrath or heat of passion, such as mingles with conflict, and is to be prosecuted with all the pity and patience, the brotherly meekness of a true priest. ‘The wrath of men worketh not the righteousness of God.’ If we forget the one character in the other, we shall bring weakness into our warfare, and pollution into our sacrifice. ‘The servant of the Lord must not strive.’ We must not be animated by mere pugnacious desire to advance our principles, nor let the heat of human eagerness give a false fervour to our words and work. We cannot scold nor dragoon men to love Jesus Christ. We cannot drive them into the fold with dogs and sticks. We are to be gentle, long-suffering, not doing our work with passion and self-will, but remembering that gentleness is mightiest, and that we shall best ‘adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour’ when we go among men with the light caught in the inner sanctuary still irradiating our faces, and our hands full of blessings to bestow on our brethren. We are to be soldier-priests, strong and gentle, like the ideal of those knights of old who were both, and bore the cross on shield and helmet and sword-hilt.
He, our Lord, is our pattern for both; and from Him we derive the strength for each. He is the Captain of our salvation, and we fight beneath His banner, and by His strength. He is a merciful and faithful High Priest, and He consecrates His brethren to the service of the sanctuary. To Him look for your example of heroism, of fortitude, of self-forgetfulness. To Him look for your example of gentle patience and dewy pity. Learn in Christ how possible it is to be strong and mild, to blend in fullest harmony the perfection of all that is noble, lofty, generous in the soldier’s ardour of heroic devotion; and of all that is calm, still, compassionate, tender in the priest’s waiting before God and mediation among men. And remember, that by faith only do we gain the power of copying that blessed example, to be like which is to be perfect-not to be like which is to fail wholly, and to prove that we have no part in His sacrifice, nor any share in His victory.
III. The final point in this description must now engage us for a few moments. The soldier-priests are as dew upon the earth.
‘From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth.’ These words are often misunderstood, and taken to be a description of the fresh, youthful energy attributed by the psalm to the Priest-King of this nation of soldier-priests. The misunderstanding, I suppose, has led to the common phrase, ‘The dew of one’s youth.’ But the reference of the expression is to the army, not to its leader. ‘Youth’ here is a collective noun, equivalent to ‘young men.’ The host of His soldier-subjects is described as a band of young warriors whom He leads, in their fresh strength and countless numbers and gleaming beauty, like the dew of the morning.
There are two points in this last clause which may occupy us for a few moments-that picture of the army as a band of youthful warriors; and that lovely emblem of the dew as applied to Christ’s servants.
As to the former-there are many other words of Scripture which carry the same thought, that he who has fellowship with God, and lives in the constant reception of the supernatural life and grace which come from Jesus Christ, possesses the secret of perpetual youth. The world ages us, time and physical changes tell on us all, and the strength which belongs to the life of nature ebbs away, but the life eternal is subject to no laws of decay and owes nothing to the external world. So we may be ever young in heart and spirit. It is possible for a man to carry the freshness, the buoyancy, the elastic cheerfulness, the joyful hope of his earliest days, right on through the monotony of middle-aged maturity, and even into old age, unshadowed by the lonely reflection of the tombs which the setting sun casts over the path. It is possible for us to get younger as we get older, because we drink more full draughts of the fountain of life: and so to have to say at the last, ‘Thou hast kept the good wine until now.’ ‘Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.’ If we live near Christ, and draw our life from Him, then we may blend the hopes of youth with the experience and memory of age; be at once calm and joyous, wise and strong, preserving the blessedness of each stage of life into that which follows, and thus at last possessing the sweetness and the good of all at once. We may not only bear fruit in old age, but have blossoms, fruit, and flowers-the varying product and adornment of every stage of life, united in our characters.
Then, with regard to the other point in this final clause-that emblem of the dew leads to many considerations upon which I can but inadequately touch.
It comes into view here, I suppose, mainly for the sake of its effect upon the earth. It is as a symbol of the refreshing which a weary world will receive from the conquests and presence of the King and His host, that the latter are likened to the glittering morning dew. Another prophetic Scripture gives us the same emblem when it speaks of Israel being ‘in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord.’ Such ought to be the effect of our presence. We are meant to gladden, to adorn, to refresh, this parched, prosaic world, with a freshness brought from the chambers of the sunrise.
It is worth while to notice how we may discern a sequence of thought in these successive features of description in our text. It began with that inmost spirit and motive of the Christian life, the submission of will and consecration of self to Christ. It advanced to the function and character of His servants in the world. And now it deals finally with the influence which they are to exert by this their soldier-like obedience and priestly ministration.
There is progress of thought, too, in another way. We began with a symbol that had in it something almost harsh and stern. We advanced to one in which there was a predominance of gentle and gracious thoughts and images. And now all that was severe, and all that reminded either of opposition or of effort, has melted away into this sweet emblem. Instead of the ‘confused noise’ of the battle of the warrior, we have the silence of the dawn, and the noiseless falling of the dew amid the solitudes of the wildernesses, or the recesses of the mountains. So the highest thought of our Christian influence, is that it comes with silent footfall and refreshes men’s souls, like His, who will come down as ‘rain upon the mown grass,’ who will not strive nor cry, but in gentle omnipotence and meek persistence of love, ‘will not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth.’
Remember other symbols by which the same general thought of Christian influence upon the world is set forth with very remarkable variation. ‘Ye are the light of the world.’-’Ye are the salt of the earth.’ The light guides and gladdens; the salt preserves and purifies; the dew freshens and fertilises; the light, conspicuous; the salt, working concealed; and the dew, visible like the former, but yet unobtrusive and operating silently like the latter. Some of us had rather be light than salt; prefer to be conspicuous rather than to diffuse a wholesome silent influence around us. But these three types must all be blended, both in regard to the manner of working, and in regard to the effects produced. We shall refresh and beautify the world only in proportion as we save it from its rottenness and corruption, and we shall do either only in proportion as we bear abroad the name of Christ, in whom is ‘life; and the life is the light of men.’
Nor need we omit allusions to other associations connected with this figure. The dew, formed in the silence of the darkness while men sleep, falling as willingly on a bit of dead wood as anywhere, hanging its pearls on every poor spike of grass, and dressing everything on which it lies with strange beauty, each separate globule tiny and evanescent, but each flashing back the light, and each a perfect sphere, feeble one by one, but united, mighty to make the pastures of the wilderness rejoice-so, created in silence by an unseen influence, weak when taken singly, but strong in their myriads, glad to occupy the lowliest place, and each ‘bright with something of celestial light,’ Christian men and women are to be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord.
Brethren! that characteristic, like all else which is good, belongs to us in proportion as we keep near to Christ Jesus, and are filled with His fulness. All these emblems which have been occupying us now, originally belonged to Him, and we receive from Him the grace that makes us as He is in the world. He Himself is the Warrior King, the Captain of the Lord’s host, the true Joshua, whose last word ere His Cross was a shout of victory, ‘I have overcome the world’-whose promises from the throne seven times crown the conqueror who overcomes as He overcame. He makes us His soldiers and strengthens us for the war, if we live by faith in Him. He Himself is the Priest-the only Eternal Priest of the world-who wears on His head the mitre and the diadem, and bears in His hand the sceptre and the censer; and He makes us priests, if faith in His only sacrifice and all-prevalent intercession be in our souls. He is the dew unto Israel-and only by intercourse with Him shall we be made gentle and refreshing, silent blessings to all the weary and the parched souls in the wilderness of the world.
Everything worth being or doing comes from Jesus Christ. Heroic courage; then hold His hand, and He will strengthen your heart. Glad surrender; then think of His sacrifice for us until ours to Him be our answering gift. Priestly power; then let Him bring us nigh by His blood, that we too may be able to have compassion on the ignorant and to draw them to God. Dewy purity and freshness; then open your hearts for the reception of His grace, for all the invigoration that we can impart to the world is but the communication of that refreshing wherewith we ourselves are refreshed of Christ. In every aspect of our relations to the world, we draw all our fitness for all our offices from that Lord, who is and gives everything that we can be or do. Then let us seek by humble faith and habitual contact with Him and His truth, to have our emptiness filled by His fulness, and our unfitness made ready for all service by His all-sufficiency.
And let me close by reiterating what I have said already. There is a twofold manner of subjection-the spurious and the real. The involuntary is nought; the glad and cheerful surrender alone is counted submission. This psalm shows us Christ surrounded by His friends who are glad to obey. But it also shows us Christ ruling in the midst of His enemies. They cannot help obeying; His dominion is established over them, but they do not wish to have Him to reign over them, and therefore they are enemies-even though they be subjects. Which is it with you, my brother? Do you serve because you love-and love because He died for you? or do you serve because you must? Then, remember, constrained service is no service; and subjects without loyalty are rebel traitors. Our psalm shows us Christ gathering His army in array. He is calling each of us to a place there, in this day of His power, and day of His grace. Take heed lest the day of His power should for you darken into that other day of which this psalm speaks-the day of His wrath, when He strikes through kings, and bruises the head over many countries. Put your trust in that Saviour, my friend! cleave to that Sacrifice, then you will not be amongst those whom He treads down in His march to victory, but one of that happy band of priestly warriors who follow Him as He goes forth ‘conquering and to conquer.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.