This is a Psalm of thanksgiving, and a song for the people of Israel, to be sung at the feast of the passover, or at the eating of the paschal Lamb. For by this short song the people were instructed to give thanks, and to magnify and praise God for those great and glorious works of his,—the leading them out of Egypt at the first; and also, for giving them a good and divine government, for the priesthood he established, for the law he gave them, and for appointing the preaching of his word; for their feasts and for their Sabbaths, for public peace and a good administration of the laws, and, in a word, for all his infinite mercies: all which I have more fully opened in my more extended commentary on this Psalm. PSALM CXII. _Godliness hath the promises of this life, and of the life to come.—The prosperity of the godly shall be an eyesore to the wicked._ Praise ye the LORD. Blessed _is_ the man _that_ feareth the LORD, _that_ delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches _shall be_ in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: _he is_ gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart _is_ established, he shall not be afraid, until he see _his desire_ upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. The wicked shall see _it_, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish. This is a Psalm of consolation for those that fear God: in which those that truly fear him are encouraged and praised in their Christian conversation: “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,” saith the Psalmist. As if he had said, The people of God appear to them to be of all men the most miserable; and both their life and their doctrine are condemned by the world, and by those tongues which the devil raises up and uses for the work. All things in the saints make them appear to the world, as if they were left and forsaken, and deserted of God, and as if they, and their posterity, and all like them, must surely perish. And then again, their lives and conversations, (though they render most essential services, both to their nation and to the church, and though they conduct themselves blamelessly before God and man,) are, by the malice of the devil, represented as most abominable, and they themselves are looked upon as the contempt and off-scouring of the earth.