54<\/strong>. God’s statutes form the theme of his songs; they calm his mind and refresh his spirit in this transitory life of trial (Gen 47:9<\/span>; 1Ch 29:15<\/span>), as songs beguile the night (Job 35:10<\/span>), or cheer the traveller on his journey.<\/p>\n pilgrimage<\/em> ] Lit. sojoumings<\/em>. Cp. v.<\/em> 19.<\/p>\n Thy statutes – <\/B>Thy law; thy commandments.<\/P> Have been my songs – <\/B>Have been to me a source of joy; have been my happiness, my consolation, my delight. I have found pleasure in meditating on them; I have had peace and joy in them in the day of loneliness and trouble. The psalmist rejoiced, doubtless, as the good now do,<\/P> (a) in law itself; law, as a rule of order; law, as a guide of conduct; law, as a security for safety;<\/P> (b) in such a law as that of God – so pure, so holy, so suited to promote the happiness of man;<\/P> (c) in the stability of that law, as constituting his own personal security, the ground of his hope;<\/P> (d) in law in its influence on the universe, preserving order, and securing harmony.<\/P> In the house of my pilgrimage – <\/B>In my life considered as a journey to another world; in my pilgrimage through the desert of this world; amidst rocks, and sands, and desolation; among tribes of savage men, wanderers, robbers, freebooters; with no home, no place of shelter; exposed to cold, and rain, and sleet, and ice, and snow, as pilgrims are – for to all these is the pilgrim – the way-farer – exposed, and all these represent the condition of one passing through this world to a better (compare Heb 11:13<\/span>). Here, says the psalmist, I sang. I found joy in these scenes by thinking on the pure law – the pure and holy truth of God. I comforted myself with the feeling that there is law; that there is just government; that there is a God; that I am under the protection of law; that I am not alone, but that there is one who guides me by his truth. Compare the notes at Job 35:10<\/span>. See Act 16:25<\/span>; Psa 34:1<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Psa 119:54<\/span><\/p>\n Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Obligation a privilege<\/strong><\/p>\n When the Eastern traveller takes shelter from the scorching heat of noon, or halts for the night in some inn or caravansary, which is for the time the house of his pilgrimage, he takes the sackbut, or the lyre, and soothes his rest with a song–a song, it may be, of war, romance, or love. But the poet of Israel finds his theme in the statutes of Jehovah. Multitudes of men feel Divine law, Divine obligation, responsibility in any form, authority under any conditions, to be a real annoyance to life. They want their own will and way. The <\/em>psalmists doctrine is that obligation to God is our privilege. Every man, even the most licentious and reckless, is a pilgrim. But the pilgrimage of the text is made by no sense of restriction. Here is perfect harmony between obligation to God and all the sources of pleasure and happiness God has provided, so that there is no real collision between the statutes over us and the conditions around us. It is a false impression that the very enforcements of penalty and terror added to Gods law, to compel an acceptance of it, or obedience to it, are a kind of concession that it is not a privilege, but a restriction or severity rather, which cannot otherwise be carried. But terrors are only restrictions to the lawless and disobedient, never to the good. A right-minded people will value their laws, and cherish them as the safeguard even of their liberty. Just so the righteous man will have Gods statutes for his songs in all the course of his pilgrimage. How would it be with us if we existed under no terms of obligation? The true alternative between obligation and no obligation supposes, on the negative side, that we are not even to have the sense of obligation, or of moral distinctions; for the sense of obligation is the same thing as being obliged, or put in responsibility. In such a case, our external condition must obviously be as different as possible from what it is now.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>There could, of course, be no such thing as criminal law for the defence of property, reputation, and life; because the moral distinctions in which criminal law is grounded are all wanting. The defences of civil society must all be wanting where there is no recognized obligation to God. Having no moral and religious ideas, we cannot legislate.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>What we call society, as far as there is any element of dignity or blessing in it, depends on these moral obligations. Without these it would be intercourse without friendship, truth, charity or mercy. Where there is no law, there is no sin or guilt; as little is there any virtue. There is nothing to praise or confide in. Enter now the spiritual nature itself, and see how much is there depending on this great privilege of obligation to God. This claim of Gods authority, this bond of duty laid upon us, is virtually the throne of God erected in the soul. It is sovereign, of course, unaccommodating, therefore, and may be felt as a sore annoyance. When violated, it will scorch the bosom ever with pangs of remorse, that are the most fiery and implacable of all mental sufferings. But of this there is no need; all such pains are avoidable by due obedience. And their obligation to God becomes the spring instead of the most dignified, fullest, healthiest joys anywhere attainable. Consider the truly paternal relation between our obligations to God, and what we call liberty. Instead of restraining our liberty, they only show us, in fact, how to use our liberty, and how to enjoy it, if I may so speak, in great and heroic actions. How insipid and foolish a thing were life, if there were nothing laid upon us to do l It is well that we are put upon doing what is not always agreeable to the flesh. When God lays upon us the duties of self-command, and self-sacrifice, when He calls us to act and suffer heroically, how could He more effectually dignify or ennoble our liberty? Obligation to God also imparts zest to life, by giving to our actions a higher import, and, when they are right, a more consciously elevated spirit. In this article of obligation to God you are set also in immediate relation to God Himself; and in a relation so high, everything in you and about you changes its import. God is in the world, training the creatures for Himself. It is also a great fact, as regards a due impression of obligation to God, and of what is conferred in it, that it raises and tones the spiritual emotions of obedient souls into a key of sublimity which is the completeness of their joy. Before God, all the deep and powerful emotions that lie in the vicinity of fear are waked into life; every chord of feeling is pitched to its highest key or capacity, and the soul quivers eternally in the sacred awe of God and His commandments; thrilled as by the sound of many waters, or the roll of some anthem that stirs the framework of the world. On this subject, too, experimental proofs may be cited. Conclusion:–It is only religion, the great bond of love and duty to God, that makes our existence valuable, or even tolerable. Without this to live were only to graze. How appalling a proof is it of some dire disorder and depravation of mankind that, when obligation to God is the spring of all that is dearest, noblest in thought, and most exalted in experience, we are yet compelled to urge it on them by so many entreaties, and even to force it on their fears by Gods threatened penalties! (Horace Bushnell, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The singing pilgrim<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>We belong to another country. We are aliens, foreigners, strangers in this world.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>We are hurrying through this world as through a foreign land.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>A pilgrims main business is to get on and pass through the land as quickly as he may.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>As pilgrims, it is true in our case that our relatives are not, the most of them, in this country. We have a few brethren and sisters with us who are going on pilgrimage, and we are very thankful for them; for good company cheers the way. Yet the majority of those dear to us are already over yonder. If I may not say the majority by counting heads, yet certainly in weight the great majority will be found to be in the far country. Where is our Father? And where is our Elder Brother? And where is the Bridegroom of our soul?<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>A pilgrim reckons that land to be his country in which he expects to remain the longest. Through the country which he traverses he makes his way with all speed; but when he gets home he abides at his leisure, for it is the end of his toil and travail. What a little part of life shall we spend on earth!<\/p>\n Thy Christians song in his pilgrimage<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The world is a place which the Christian has ceased to love.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The world is a place which cannot make the Christian happy.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The world is a place in which the Christian must calculate on trials and difficulties.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The world is a place which the Christian expects soon to leave.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>His song is a heartfelt song.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>His song is a rational song.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>His song is a Divine song.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The Bible rejoices the Christian by telling him that though a pilgrim in a foreign land, he shall have all his wants supplied.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The Bible brings joy to him by reminding him of the end of his pilgrimage, even his home, and that a peaceful, glorious, and heavenly home.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The Scriptures not only tell the Christian of this heavenly home, they cheer his heart by pointing out to him the way which leads to it.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The same Scriptures, too, that tell the Christian of his home, and point out to him the way which leads to it, give him the assurance that he shall soon be there. They remind him of the love, the power, and the faithfulness of Christ.<\/p>\n Conclusion: Learn from this subject–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>One reason why so many professors of Christianity are habitually comfortless. They do not love the statutes of the Lord; or, if they love them, they do not seek their happiness in them.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Highly to value the Scriptures.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The extent to which we should endeavour to circulate the Scriptures.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The spirit, which becomes the Christian is a cheerful and rejoicing spirit. (C. Bradley, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A pilgrims songs<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is lodgment, not home.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is shelter, not safety.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It affords convenience, but nor happiness.<\/p>\n Gods statutes, the Christians song<\/strong><\/p>\n The <\/em>human spirit is warmly and delicately alive to many external influences and impressions. Music and song are often called to aid the conceptions and feelings of the heart. And for this reason the believer applies to the Divine law all those invigorating and animating feelings which, in reference to other subjects, the men of this world fetch from minstrelsy and music.<\/p>\n Songs in the house of pilgrimage<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is an anticipation, for there comes out in the language clearly enough–<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The consciousness of an indwelling spiritual nature.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> A consciousness of the greatness of the spiritual nature.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is unsatisfied anticipation. This is suggested by the word pilgrimage, and is implied in the very sentence which tells the joy. This must be to a certain extent the result of the awakening of the religious life. It is quite true, on the one hand, that they who drink up of the water which Christ gives shall never thirst: and yet it is equally true, on the other, that we who are in this tabernacle do groan, not because we are dissatisfied, for that we would be unclothed, but because we are unsatisfied, for that we should be clothed upon.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The statutes of Jehovah are the definite and authoritative declaration of the supreme law of right. The good is also the beautiful. The light which flows from Gods throne excites in us a holy glow (Rom 7:22<\/span>).<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It makes all the difference in the world in respect of the aspect of Gods statutes towards you, on which side of the wicket gate you are. If on the outside, these statutes will lift themselves up as an overhanging mountain burning with tempestuous fires and thundering forth eternal anathemas. But if on the inside, and especially if near the Cross, these statutes will become a firm path, along which your feet will run.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Gods statutes are the instrument of discipline. Take the yoke, and ye shall find rest.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Gods statutes–that is, Gods ordinances–minister unto us seasons of gracious visitation and exalted spiritual delight. (H. R. Roberts, B. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Holy pilgrimage<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He requires decision.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>He requires self-effort.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>He requires self-control.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>He requires perseverance,<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>He requires an assurance of success. God has given us this.<\/p>\n The cheerful pilgrim<\/strong><\/p>\n Duty set to music<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>This is not a common experience. Men do not generally exult in responsibility and in law.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Though uncommon, it is<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Desirable. Because duty cannot be got rid of, and because its connection with us must be either a source of misery or happiness. It is–<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Attainable. He who loves the Lawgiver supremely will turn His laws into music.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Our earthly life is a house of pilgrimage–strange, unsettled, inconvenient, temporary.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Why, in this house of pilgrimage, we should keep up a spirit of cheerfulness.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> It is our best protection in a world of strangers.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> It is a permanent possession in a world of change.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> It is a spiritualizing power in a world of materialism. (Homilist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The transformation of slavery into liberty<\/strong><\/p>\n Slavery, <\/em>licence, liberty, law. These four words are often on mans lips. Licence is simply permission to do what one wants to do. But it requires no long experience to learn that licence results in slavery. A man sees some tempting bait of pleasure. It conceals a hook of pain. Yet he thinks it is genuine happiness. But having once caught it, and been caught by it, he is held. He may rush and dash every way in mad fury, hoping to free himself. He may even tear himself free, but he can only do it by tearing out a part of his life. It is more probable that, once caught by it, he will be held by it till what once seemed to him perfect liberty becomes to him assured slavery. A man is obliged to watch his mail as a sheriff watches his prisoner. Letters may be coming to him any morning which, if known to those that stand nearest to him, would throw him into prison or clothe his life with black shame. Licence results in sin, and sin results in slavery. Law and liberty are words quite as common to the human lips as licence and slavery. Law and liberty- law is designed to result in liberty. Perfect law does result in liberty, and liberty is simple obedience to perfect law. At first law seems to be slavery, at last law is known to be liberty. The <\/em>child at the piano would hold her hand in any form convenient to herself. The faithful teacher carefully and forcibly directs the position of each joint. It is hard for the little fingers thus to keep themselves straight, and to strike from the centre of force. The teacher knows that only as there is this slavery at first can there be liberty at last. The soldier is ordered to restrain his appetite, to discipline his body, to keep every power in subjection; he and his commanding officer know that as he thus disciplines and trains himself, making himself subject to rule and order, can he be free and active in the most efficient movement when freedom and swiftness mean victory and salvation of his native land. Several of the experiences of life present occasions when the statutes of God become the songs of man, in which slavery, limitation and hardship become freedom, joy, delight. One such experience is, I think, that which we call conversion. Conversion means at once so little and so much. Conversion does not usually cause us to give up our work or place, hut conversion broadens, deepens and heightens this work. It pushes further off the grey way <\/strong>of circumstance, it lifts far above us the overhanging dark ceiling of fate. Conversion brings God into our life and seems to give life all that liberty which belongs to God, and therefore to His children. Thy statutes have been my songs. A second experience is common to man in which the laws, the statutes of God, may become the songs of man. It is the experience of each of us in which we try to put down some one sin. The love for money, the love for drink, the love for power, the love of any indulgence, each is still strong; but your soul, your God, have become so much stronger that you shut these baying hounds of desire in the kennel of their own deserved fate. You now rejoice so infinitely more at the righteousness of the law that you now can lament the penalty of disobedience. The law has become your song. I say again <\/strong>that the growth of this song element in our appreciation of Gods law marks the growth of character, A man comes to love God in obedience to the statute, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. It is obedience to a law; it is far better than disobedience. Yet one who loves in obedience to a command has not much real love. But the little love that is thus begotten begets knowledge, and this knowledge begets more love. At last a man comes to love God without thinking of the command any more than a boy loves his father and his mother because of the fifth commandment. The duty has become a right, the right a privilege, and the privilege a joy. (C. F. Thwing, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 54<\/span>. Thy statutes have been my songs<\/B><\/I>] During our captivity all our consolation was derived from singing thy praises, and chanting among our fellow-captives portions of thy law, and the precepts it contains.<\/P> <\/p>\n My songs; <\/B>the matter of my songs, my delight and recreation. <\/P> In the house of my pilgrimage; <\/B>either, <\/P> 1. In this present world, which I do not own for my home, wherein I am a stranger and pilgrim, as all my fathers were, Psa 39:12<\/span>; compare Gen 47:9<\/span>. Or, <\/P> 2. In mine exile, and in the wildernesses and other places where I have been oft forced to wander, when I was banished from all my friends, and from the place of thy worship, and had no other support or comfort but the remembrance of thy statutes. <\/P> <\/p>\n 54. songs<\/B>As the exile singssongs of his home (Ps 137:3<\/span>),so the child of God, “a stranger on earth,” sings the songsof heaven, his true home (Ps39:12<\/span>). In ancient times, laws were put in verse, to imprint themthe more on the memory of the people. So God’s laws are thebeliever’s songs. <\/P> house of mypilgrimage<\/B>present life (Gen 17:8<\/span>;Gen 47:9<\/span>; Heb 11:13<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.<\/strong> Meaning either his unsettled state, fleeing from place to place before Saul; or, literally, his house of cedar, his court and palace, which he considered no other than as an inn he had put into upon his travels homeward; or rather the earthly house of his tabernacle, in which, as long as he continued, he was but a pilgrim and stranger; or, best of all, the whole course of his life; which Jacob calls the days of the years of his pilgrimage, Ge 47:9<\/span>; so Hipparchus the Pythagorean i calls this life a sort of a pilgrimage; and Plato also. This world is not the saints house and home; this is not their rest and residence; they confess themselves pilgrims and strangers here; and that they belong to another city, and a better country, an heavenly one, which they are seeking and travelling to, Heb 11:13<\/span>. And as travellers sing songs to themselves as they pass on, which makes the way the more easy and pleasant to them, so the psalmist had his songs which he sung in his pilgrimage state; and these were the statutes, or word of the Lord, and the things in it, which were as delightful to him as the songs of travellers to them. Or the songs he made and sung were composed out of the word of God; and which may serve to recommend the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, made by him, the sweet psalmist of Israel, to the Gospel churches, to be sung by them, Eph 5:19<\/span>.<\/p>\n i De Anim. Tranquill. inter Fragm. Pythagor. p. 11. Ed. Gale.<\/p>\n 54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.<\/P> Here is, 1. David’s state and condition; he was in the house of<\/I> his pilgrimage,<\/I> which may be understood either as his peculiar trouble (he was often tossed and hurried, and forced to fly) or as his lot in common with all. This world is the house of our pilgrimage, the house in which we are pilgrims; it is our tabernacle; it is our inn. We must confess ourselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth,<\/I> who are not at home here, nor must be here long. Even David’s palace is but the house of his pilgrimage. 2. His comfort in this state: “Thy statutes have been my songs,<\/I> with which I here entertain myself,” as travellers are wont to divert the thoughts of their weariness, and take off something of the tediousness of their journey, by singing a pleasant song now and then. David was the sweet singer of Israel, and here we are told whence he fetched his songs; they were all borrowed from the word of God. God’s statutes were as familiar to him as the songs which a man is accustomed to sing; and he conversed with them in his pilgrimage-solitudes. They were as pleasant to him as songs, and put gladness into his heart<\/I> more than those have that chant to the sound of the viol,<\/I> Amos vi. 5<\/I><\/span>. Is any afflicted<\/I> then? Let him sing over God’s statutes, and try if he cannot so sing away sorrow,<\/I> Ps. cxxxviii. 5<\/I><\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n 54. Thy statutes have been my songs. (419) He repeats in different words what he had formerly mentioned, that the law of God was his sole or special delight during all his life. Singing is an indication of joy. The saints are pilgrims in this world, and must be regarded as God’s children and heirs of heaven, from the fact that they are sojourners on earth. By the house of their pilgrimage, then, may be understood their journey through life. One circumstance merits particular notice, that David, during his exile from his native country, ceased not to draw consolation, amid all his hardships, from the law of God, or rather a joy which rose above all the sadness which his banishment occasioned to him. It was a noble specimen of rare virtue, that when he was denied a sight of the temple, could not draw near to the sacrifices, and was deprived of the ordinances of religion, he yet never departed from his God. The phrase, the house of his pilgrimage, is employed, therefore, to enhance the conduct of David, who, when banished from his country, still retained the law of God deeply engraved on his heart, and who, amid the severity of that exile, which was calculated to deject his spirits, cheered himself by meditating upon the law of God. <\/p>\n (419) “In the early ages, it was customary to versify the laws, that the people might learn them by heart, and sing them.” — Williams. <\/p>\n (54) Songs.<\/strong>Or, Thy statutes were my music in the house of my sojournings. <\/em>Possibly with reference to the exile (comp. Psa. 137:4<\/span>), but with comparison with Psa. 119:9<\/span> (see Note), more probably the reference is to the transitoriness of human life. In connection with the next verse comp. Job. 35:10<\/span>.<\/p>\n Psa 119:54<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>In the house of my pilgrimage<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> According to the original, The house of my pilgrimages: <\/em>that is, “Whatever places I have wandered to, during Saul’s persecution of me.” <\/p>\n Psa 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.<\/p>\n Ver. 54. Thy statutes have been my songs<\/strong> ] Thy promises, which bind thee by grace, as statutes do us by duty, and are every whit as sure. By these I lopped off my cares, fears, and griefs, as with a pruning or paring knife; I pared them round till none was left. Metaphors falcibus.<\/em> <\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>A pilgrim.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>A singing pilgrim: Thy statutes have been my songs, etc. Pilgrims to heaven are a merry sort of people after all. They have their trims, some trials more than those which ether men know; but then they have their joys, and among these joys are sweet delights such as worldlings can never taste. The singing pilgrim is a man who has a world of joy within him, and is journeying to another world, where for him all will be joy to a still higher degree. He sings high praises unto God, and blesses His name beyond measure, for he has reason to do so, reason which never slackens or lessens. Oh that we were always as we are sometimes, then would our breath be praise.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The song book. Thy statutes. The Bible is a wonderful book. It serves a thousand purposes in the household of God. I recollect, a book my father used to have, entitled Family Medicine, which was consulted when any of us fell sick with juvenile diseases. The Bible is our book of family medicine. In some houses, the book they most consult is a Household Guide. The Bible is the best guide for all families. This Book may be consulted in every case, and its oracle will never mislead. You can use it at funerals. There are no such words as those which Paul has written concerning the resurrection of the dead. You can use it for marriages–where else find such holy advice to a wedded pair? You can use it for birthdays. You can use it, for a lamp at night. You can use it for a screen by day. It is a universal Book; it is the Book of books, and has furnished material for mountains of books; it is made of what I call bibline<\/em>, or the essence of books. We use this Book for a song-book as pilgrims, because it tells us the way to heaven. We often sing as we come to a fresh spot on the route, and bless God that we find the road to be just, as we have read in the way-book, just as our Divine Master said it should be. Well may we sing a song of gratitude for an infallible Word. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The light in which David regarded the world was that, of a foreign country, through which he was travelling to his native land.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The cheerfulness which the Christian enjoys in the house of his pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The source of the Christians joy.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The pilgrims house.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The pilgrims song. If Gods statutes are our song, they supply a theme which can never fail us; for in all situations we have the opportunity of keeping His commandments. In all circumstances, high or low, pleasant or painful, we have to keep the statutes of the Lord. Poverty cannot silence this song; sorrow cannot dispense with it. For in poverty as in wealth, in sorrow as in joy, in keeping His commandments there is great delight. (R. Halley, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Song is enlisted to animate loyalty; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his song in the house of his pilgrmage, because they animate his loyalty to his Sovereign who is in heaven.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Song is enlisted to animate patriotism; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage, because they animate his patriotism to the land that is afar off.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Song is appropriated to cherish the love of home; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his songs in the house of his pilgrimage because they foster his love of his eternal home in heaven.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>Song is resorted to by the traveller, in order to beguile the length and weariness of the way; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage, because they beguile the length and weariness of his pilgrimage journey through this life.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>Song is resorted to for encouraging and emboldening the mind; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his songs in the house of his pilgrimage, because they encourage and embolden him in the face of the dangers that lie in his way.<\/p>\n
VI. <\/strong>Song is employed to cherish social feeling; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his songs in the house of his pilgrimage, because they cherish and develop the social pleasures of religion.<\/p>\n
VII. <\/strong>Song is employed for the sake of relaxation and amusement; and the Christian makes Gods statutes his song in the house of his pilgrimage, because his hours of relaxation and amusement cannot be more cheerfully and pleasantly spent than in awakening the music of Judahs harp. (A. Nisbet.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>True religion is an unsatisfied anticipation.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>True religion is a present joyous appropriation.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>What is a Christian pilgrim? He is a traveller, and as such does not expect to meet with ease and comfort, as if he were at home.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>What does a christian pilgrim require?<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The grand object of the Christian pilgrim. It is not to visit holy places, but to be holy. (W. Birch.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>A good man views his residence in this world as only the house of his pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The situation, however disadvantageous, admits of cheerfulness.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The sources of his joy are derived from the Scripture. (W. Jay.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Duty set to music.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Duty set to music in unfavourable circumstances.<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n