That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,
&c.] Not Isaiah, as some copies in the times of Jerom read, but Asaph, who is called Asaph the seer, ( 2 Chronicles 29:30 ) which is all one as a prophet; vision is one sort of prophecy F4; and there was such a thing as prophesying with harps, psalteries and cymbals, as well as in other ways, and with which Asaph and his sons are said to prophesy, ( 1 Chronicles 25:1-3 ) so that he is very rightly called a prophet by the evangelist, who is cited, as
saying,
( Psalms 78:2 )
I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world:
which Psalm, though a history of the dealings of God with the people of Israel, and of the many deliverances wrought for them, yet as the F5 Jewish writers observe, contain many things in it, expressed in a parabolical and enigmatical way; such as God's furnishing a table in the wilderness, kindling a fire against Jacob, opening the doors of heaven, giving the corn of heaven, and angels' food, and delivering his strength into captivity; and besides, the very historical facts recorded of the people of Israel, were types of things future under the Gospel dispensation: now as Asaph, by divine inspiration, delivered these parables and dark sayings, so Christ expressed the Gospel, and the mysteries of it, in a parabolical way, which were hid in God, and under the shadows of the law; and so were kept secret from the beginning of the world, and from the multitude, though now made known to the apostles, and by them to others, according to the will of God.