Psalm 110:2

Verse 2. -- Out of Zion. We need not say much about how the omniscience of God is displayed in the wonderful fact, that in the very land of the covenant -- in the very midst of that people who rejected and crucified the Saviour, the first church of Christ on earth was established. What would cavillers and blasphemers have said, had it been otherwise? had the Christian community been formed in any of the heathen countries? Would it not have been considered as a fiction of the idolatrous priests? Israel scattered among the nations, and the Church of Christ having begun in Zion at Jerusalem, are the most wonderful and enduring monuments, and incontestable witnesses of the truth of Christianity. --Benjamin Weiss.

Verse 2. -- From his ruling in the midst of enemies we learn that the kingdom of Christ in this life is the kingdom of the Cross, of persecutions, and of dangers. Enemies are never wanting, not only external adversaries, but also spiritual and eternal; and therefore great sorrow is always awaiting the godly. In this most terrible conflict, however, their minds are lifted up by this consolation, viz., that the rod of the kingdom is strong, and cannot be overcome by any force or power; yea, more, albeit assailed with contendings and all kinds of storms, it will continue stable, firm, and perpetual: and there will always be a Church among men, which will fear and worship this King; because the experience of all the ages teaches, that this kingdom has the more grown and increased the more it has been opposed, according to that saying of Basil, en taij qliyesi mallon qallei h ekklhsia, the Church flourishes more by tribulation. --Rivetus.

Verse 2. -- Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Set up thy power over them and reign in them. This is a commission to set up a kingdom in the very midst of those who were his enemies; in the hearts of those who had been and were rebellious. His kingdom is set up not by destroying them, but by subduing them, so that they become his willing servants. They yield to him, and he rules over them. It is not here a commission to cut them off, but one much more difficult of execution, -- to make them his friends, and to dispose them to submit to his authority. Mere power may crush men; It requires more than that to make rebels willingly submissive, and to dispose them voluntarily to obey. --Albert Barnes.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 2. --