The gospel in the law Author:Charles Taylor Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. David himself calleth Him Lord. Matt. xxii. 44; Mark xii. 36; Luke xx. 42; Ps. cx. i. THERE is a passage of Ezekiel which may be applied to re... more »move the indefiniteness still clinging to some portions of the hundred and tenth Psalm ; and less directly, to indicate the substratum of its imagery in the clause which has given occasion for perhaps the greatest divergence in critical exegesis and application, ' The dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning.' But first what is meant by that rod of thy power which the Lord should send out of Sion ; and by the concluding verse, ' He shall drink of the brook by the way: therefore shall he lift up his head?' The phrase 'rod of thy power' assumes at once that defi- niteness which at first it seems to lack, if the royal object of Jehovah's care be conceived of as a vine that sends out its boughs unto the sea and its branches unto the river; or as a stately tree planted by the water-side, whose leaf shall not wither, and ' whatsoever he doeth it shall prosper.' (Ps. Ixxx. 11 J i- 3-) This rod of power1 is then primarily a strong healthy shoot, but not to the exclusion of the meaning sceptre ; for inHebrew a word or phrase may be used not merely to convey its own proper and most obvious meaning, but at the same time more or less plainly to give intimation of a second. In the present case this idiom is well illustrated by the subjoined passage from Ezekiel, wherein the same phrase1 is used expressly with this double meaning ; 1 An attempt should be made to might express it : ' The Lord make the preserve the double reference. Perhaps sceptre of thy might to branch forth some such rendering as ihe subjoined fiom Zion.' ' Thy mother is like a vine planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by...« less