PSALM 96. v. 1, 10, &c. (C. M.) Christ's First and Second Coming.
I
Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands,
Ye tribes of every tongue;
His new discover'd grace demands
A new and nobler song.
II
Say to the nations, Jesus reigns,
God's own almighty Son;
His power the sinking world sustains,
And grace surrounds his throne.
III
Let heaven proclaim the joyful day,
Joy through the earth be seen;
Let cities shine in bright array,
And fields in cheerful green.
IV
Let an unusual joy surprise
The islands of the sea:
Ye mountains, sink, ye valleys, rise,
Prepare the Lord his way.
V
Behold he comes, he comes to bless
The nations as their God;
To shew the world his righteousness,
And send his truth abroad.
VI
But when his voice shall raise the dead,
And bid the world draw near,
How will the guilty nations dread
To see their Judge appear!
In this and the two following psalms, the first coming of Christ
into the world is represented in a prophetic style, as though he were
coming the second time to the last judgment: But that Christ's incarnation,
his setting up his gospel kingdom to judge or rule the gentiles,
and the judgment and destruction of the heathen idols, is the
true design of these three psalms, is evident from several expressions
in them: And particularly because the earth, the fields, the sea, &c.
are called to rejoice; whereas the final judgment of the world is
represented dreadful to all nature, and to the nations of the earth.
See Rev. xvii. and Rev. xx. 11. and 2 Pet. iii. 7, 10. Yet, since this
last coming has something in it parallel to his first, I have in the
different parts of the psalms referred to both.
