(10) According to thy name . . .--"Name" here has plainly the meaning we give it in the phrase, "name and fame." God's praise was up to the reputation His great deeds had won. (Comp. Psalm 138:2.) Thy right hand is full of righteousness.--Not like Jove's, as heathen say, full of thunderbolts, but of justice. Verse 10. - According to thy Name, O God, so is thy praise. The "Name of God," i.e. the character that he has established for himself by former mighty deeds, and the praise which he has now won by the recent deliverance, are coextensive. Both of them reach unto the ends of the earth; i.e. over all the regions known to the writer. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Thou hast dealt out a righteous judgment by thy right hand and thy stretched-out arm, thereby showing how full thy right hand is of justice and judgment. 48:8-14 We have here the improvement which the people of God are to make of his glorious and gracious appearances for them. Let our faith in the word of God be hereby confirmed. Let our hope of the stability of the church be encouraged. Let our minds be filled with good thoughts of God. All the streams of mercy that flow down to us, must be traced to the fountain of His loving-kindness. Let us give to God the glory of the great things he has done for us. Let all the members of the church take comfort from what the Lord does for his church. Let us observe the beauty, strength, and safety of the church. Consider its strength; see it founded on Christ the Rock, fortified by the Divine power, guarded by Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps. See what precious ordinances are its palaces, what precious promises are its bulwarks, that you may be encouraged to join yourselves to it: and tell this to others. This God, who has now done such great things for us, is unchangeable in his love to us, and his care for us. If he is our God, he will lead and keep us even to the last. He will so guide us, as to set us above the reach of death, so that it shall not do us any real hurt. He will lead us to a life in which there shall be no more death.According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth,.... That is, as he himself is in the perfections of his nature, which are displayed in the works of his bands, throughout the whole creation; so is or ought his praise to be: or rather, as in the latter day his name will be great in all the earth, Malachi 1:11; so will his praise be; and as his name will be One, Zechariah 14:9; he will be one Lord, there will be one faith and one baptism; his worship, word, and ordinances, will be uniformly observed and attended to; so will be his praise: all the saints will unite together in giving glory to him: he, and he alone, shall be exalted. Moreover, his Gospel is his name, Acts 9:15; and that in the latter day will be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, Revelation 14:6; and multitudes, both of Jews and Gentiles, will be convert ed, and from the uttermost parts of the earth will be heard songs of praise and glory unto him, Isaiah 24:15;thy right hand is full of righteousness: of all spiritual blessings for his people; and particularly of the righteousness of Christ, which God accepts of, imputes unto, and liberally bestows upon them: and it is also full of punitive justice, which he inflicts on his and their enemies; his right hand teaches him terrible things, and these terrible things he does in righteousness; all his works are in righteousness, which the right hand, being the instrument of action, is a token of. Moreover, Christ is the right hand of God; he is the man of his right hand, and as dear to him as his right hand; he is the right hand of his righteousness, by which he upholds his people; and this right hand of his is full of righteousness; he does nothing else but righteousness; he is the author and donor of it to his people, and will execute righteousness upon his enemies; in righteousness he will make war with them, Revelation 19:11; and which is greatly the sense of this passage, as appears by Psalm 48:11. |