Psalm 96:13

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 13. For he cometh, for he cometh. Because the thing was hard to be believed, the Prophet asserts twice that God should come, that he should be Judge and King, and Governor of all. Martinus Bucerus in Expos. Ecclesiast.

Verse 13. He cometh. Not awby, "he shall come;" but jpfl ab, "he cometh;" to show how near the time is. It is almost daybreak, and the court is ready to sit: "The Judge standeth at the door," James 5:9 . Thomas Watson.

Verse 13. To judge. Vatablus remarks that to judge is the word used instead of to reign, judicare pro regere, because judges in the early days of the Holy Land exercised the power both of kings and magistrates. The Lord comes to be to all nations a wiser judge than Samuel, a greater champion than Samson, a mightier deliverer than Gideon. C. H. S.

Verse 13. He cometh to judge the earth. That is, to put earth in order, to be its Gideon and Samson, to be its ruler, to fulfil all that the Book of Judges delineates of a judge's office. It is, as Hengstenberg says, "a gracious judging," not a time of mere adjudication of causes or pronouncing sentences -- it is a day of jubilee. It is the happiest day our world has ever seen. Who would not long for it? Who is there that does not pray for it? It is the day of the Judge's glory, as well as of our world's freedom -- the day when "the judgement of this world" ( John 12:31 16:11), which his cross began and made sure, is completed by the total suppression of Satan's reign, and the removal of the curse. All this is anticipated here; and so we entitle this Psalm, The glory due to him who cometh to judge the earth. Andrew A. Bonar.

Verse 13. He cometh to judge the earth, etc. In this new song they take up the words of Enoch, the seventh from Adam ( Jude 1:14 ), who preached of the Coming of the Lord to judge the world. Chr. Wordsworth.