Psalms 110:3

Just as, therefore, from the side of Adam Eve was created, so also from the side of Christ was created the church, which has no spot or blemish. In him, therefore, God has opened an entrance to all the sons of Abraham, and Isaac and …

He is named Christ from being as man anointed with the Holy Spirit, and called our high priest, apostle, prophet and king. Long ago the divine Moses exclaimed, "The Lord your God will raise up to you a prophet, from the midst of you, of …

With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the splendors of the saints. The little verse is obscure. Let us see the day of the Lord's power, so that when we have known the day, then we may know what the "beginning" is, and how this beginning is with him and has been with him; how this very beginning is in the day of his power, in the splendors of the saints. This beginning, then, which is with the Lord in the day of his power, is with the Lord for this reason: that the saints may shine. With you is the beginning in the day of your power. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God." The Father is a beginning, but the Son too is a beginning. For a beginning does not have a beginning: for if it should have another beginning, then it itself ceases to be a beginning. Whatever, therefore, we grant to the Father, this we grant also to the Son. For if the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, and all things of the Father are the Son's, and all things of the Son are the Father's, then the beginning of the Father is the beginning of the Son. Therefore what he says is this: At that time when you were suffering and were saying "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," and you were speaking as it were out of the affection of a man, you were not making request as though weak. For with you was the beginning, with you was the divinity: but you besought help for this reason, that having received help you might give it to your saints, and they might shine. As for this that is said, "having received you might give" — let it be a stumbling-block to no one: he speaks according to the man. For if he assumed the body of a man, it is necessary that he also take on the words of a man. Christ is man, and truly man: we say this according to the assumption of flesh. […]

Farther down again in the same psalm he saith with reference to his deity: Out of the womb before morning have I begotten thee, as if the Father were saying to the Son, with reference to his deity, Thee before all creation have I brought …

And His proper and peculiar, natural and excellent Sonship, St. Paul has declared, who thus speaks of God: "Who spared not His own Son, but for us," who were not His natural sons, "delivered Him up." For to distinguish Him from those who are not …

And that God the Father of all would bring Christ to heaven after He had raised Him from the dead, and would keep Him there until He has subdued His enemies the devils, and until the number of those who are foreknown by Him as good and virtuous is complete, on whose account He has still delayed the consummation-hear what was said by the prophet David. These are his words: "The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord shall send to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem; and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. With Thee is the government in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of Thy saints: from the womb of morning have I begotten Thee." That which he says, "He shall send to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem," is predictive of the mighty word, which His apostles, going forth from Jerusalem, preached everywhere; and though death is decreed against those who teach or at all confess the name of Christ, we everywhere both embrace and teach it. And if you also read these words in a hostile spirit, ye can do no more, as I said before, than kill us; which indeed does no harm to us, but to you and all who unjustly hate us, and do not repent, brings eternal punishment by fire.

We read that the Son is begotten, inasmuch as the Father says, "I brought you forth from the womb before the morning star." We read of the "firstborn" Son, of the "only-begotten"54—firstborn, because there is none before him; only-begotten, because there is none after him. Again, we read, "Who shall declare his generation?" "Generation," mark you, not "creation." What argument can be brought to meet testimonies so great and mighty as these?

The third mode of generation is by means of propagation, and this in a fourfold way: as of a growth coming from a seed, a tree from a root, a conceived offspring from the belly or womb of the mother, or children from a begetting …

Concerning this hierarch, then, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the whole of sacred Scripture exists, through which we are taught to be purged, illumined, and perfected, and this according to the threefold law handed down in it, namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; or …

The day - When thou shalt take into thy hands the rod of thy strength, and set up thy kingdom in the world. In the beauties - Adorned with the beautiful and glorious robes of righteousness and true holiness. The dew - That is, thy offspring (the members of the Christian church) shall be more numerous than the drops of the morning dew.

And there is also a particular power, the power of the Spirit, going along with the power of the word, to the people of Christ, which is effectual to make them willing. The former leaves sinners without matter of excuse; this leaves saints without matter of boasting. Whoever are willing to be Christ's people, it is the free and mighty grace of God that makes them so.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of that power..... Or, in the day of thine army (s).

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. In consequence of the sending forth of the rod of strength, namely, the power of the gospel, out of Zion, converts will come forward in great numbers to enlist under the banner of the Priest King.

The Messiah, then, as leading His people, is represented as continually in the vigor of youth, refreshed and strengthened by the early dew of God's grace and Spirit. Thus the phrase corresponds as a member of a parallelism with "the day of thy power" in the first clause.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. In consequence of the sending forth of the rod of strength, namely, the power of the gospel, out of Zion, converts will come forward in great numbers to enlist under the banner of the Priest King. Given to him of old, they are his people, and when his power is revealed, these hasten with cheerfulness to own his sway, appearing at the gospel call as it were spontaneously, even as the dew comes forth in the morning. This metaphor is further enlarged upon, for as the dew has a sparkling beauty, so these willing armies of converts have a holy excellence and charm about them; and as the dew is the lively emblem of freshness, so are these converts full of vivacity and youthful vigour, and the church is refreshed by them and made to flourish exceedingly. Let but the gospel be preached with divine unction, and the chosen of the Lord respond to it like troops in the day of the mustering of armies; they come arrayed by grace in shining uniforms of holiness, and for number, freshness, beauty, and purity, they are as the dewdrops which come mysteriously from the tooming's womb. Some refer this passage to the resurrection, but even if it be so, the work of grace in regeneration is equally well described by it, for it is a spiritual resurrection. Even as the holy dead rise gladly into the lovely image of their Lord, so do quickened souls put on the glorious righteousness of Christ, and stand forth to behold their Lord and serve him. How truly beautiful is holiness! God himself admires it. How wonderful also is the eternal youth of the mystical body of Christ! As the dew is new every morning, so is there a constant succession of converts to give to the church perpetual juvenility.

Never verse in the Scripture has puzzled me more than this to find out its meaning and its connection. In reading it over hastily, at first sight, it may appear very easy; but if you search into it very carefully you will find you can with difficulty string the words together, or give them any intelligible meaning. I have taken down all the commentators I have in my possession; I find they all give a meaning to the words, but not a soul of them—not even Dr. Gill—gives a connected meaning to the whole sentence. After looking at the old translations, and employing every means in my power to discover the meaning, I found myself as far off as when I began. Matthew Henry, one of the wisest commentators, certainly the best for family reading, makes the passage read as if it were like this: “Thy people shall come willingly in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness. In the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth.” That is how he explains it, though he does not say that is the proper translation. He explains the last sentence, “Thou hast the dew of thy youth,” as meaning that in early life, from the womb of the morning, young people would give themselves to Jesus Christ. But it is no such thing. There is a colon at the word “morning,” dividing the sentence. Besides, it does not say, the “people shall be willing; thou hast the dew of their youth,” as it would read if it were as the expositors understand it; but it says to Christ, “Thou hast the dew of thy youth.” It was not until we had thoroughly looked at the connection of the verse, and tried to catch the scope of the Psalm, that we thought we had hit upon its meaning; and even now we shall leave it with your judgment to decide whether or not we have gained the mind of the Spirit, as we hope we have. The Psalm is a kind of coronation Psalm.

WHEN you have walked in the garden, early in the morning, you must have noticed the singular freshness and beauty which a summer's morning always seems to give to the earth. The dewdrops, like tears standing in the eyes of the flowers, as if they wept for joy to see the sun again after the long night of darkness, sparkle in the sun! The greenness of vegetation has about it a more than emerald hue and every "thing of beauty" looks more beautiful in the morning than at any other season. You have gone out again, perhaps, at noon, and you have noticed how dry and dusty everything appears, for the sun has risen and by his burning heat he has exhaled the dew and the freshness of the morning has departed in the drought of noon. Now, this is just a picture of all things here below—yes, and also a picture of ourselves. When we first behold many things, they have the dew upon them and they sparkle, but in a little while all their brightness is gone and their brilliance scattered. Some of you have entered into pleasure and you have found it a delusion—you have intermeddled with all kinds of knowledge and you have found that in the making and reading of books, there was much pleasure, but, before long you have discovered that in reading many books and in making them, there was no end and much study was a weariness to the flesh. Everything terrestrial has its dew in the morning, but its burning heat at noon, and we too, Beloved—I mean those of us who have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit—is not this too much the case even with us? When we were first converted, what a sparkling dew there was upon our leaf! We could not sing God's praises loudly enough! We could not sufficiently leap for joy before the Ark of the Lord. All the exultations of those who came before seemed utterly insufficient for us.

WHEN you have walked in the garden, early in the morning, you must have noticed the singular freshness and beauty which a summer's morning always seems to give to the earth. The dewdrops, like tears standing in the eyes of the flowers, as if they wept for joy to see the sun again after the long night of darkness, sparkle in the sun! The greenness of vegetation has about it a more than emerald hue and every "thing of beauty" looks more beautiful in the morning than at any other season.

Never verse in the Scripture has puzzled me more than this to find out its meaning and its connection. In reading it over hastily, at first sight, it may appear very easy; but if you search into it very carefully you will find you can with difficulty string the words together, or give them any intelligible meaning. I have taken down all the commentators I have in my possession; I find they all give a meaning to the words, but not a soul of them—not even Dr. Gill—gives a connected meaning to the whole sentence.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power - This verse has been wofully perverted. It has been supposed to point out the irresistible operation of the grace of God on the souls of the elect, thereby making them willing to receive Christ as their Savior. Now, whether this doctrine be true or false it is not in this text, nor can it receive the smallest countenance from it. There has been much spoken against the doctrine of what is called free will by persons who seem not to have understood the term. Will is a free principle. Free will is as absurd as bound will, it is not will if it be not free; and if it be bound it is no will. Volition is essential to the being of the soul, and to all rational and intellectual beings. This is the most essential discrimination between matter and spirit. Matter can have no choice; Spirit has. Ratiocination is essential to intellect; and from these volition is inseparable. God uniformly treats man as a free agent; and on this principle the whole of Divine revelation is constructed, as is also the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. If man be forced to believe, he believes not at all; it is the forcing power that believes, not the machine forced. If he be forced to obey, it is the forcing power that obeys; and he, as a machine, shows only the effect of this irresistible force. If man be incapable of willing good, and nilling evil, he is incapable of being saved as a rational being; and if he acts only under an overwhelming compulsion, he is as incapable of being damned. In short, this doctrine reduces him either to a punctum stans, which by the vis inertiae is incapable of being moved but as acted upon by foreign influence; or, as an intellectual being, to nonentity. “But if the text supports the doctrine laid upon it, vain are all these reasonings.” Granted. Let us examine the text. […]

Thy people - All who are given to thee; all over whom thou art to rule. This verse has been variously translated. The Septuagint renders it, “With thee is the beginning in the day of thy power, in the splendor of thy saints, from the womb, before the light of the morning have I begotten thee.” So the Latin Vulgate. Luther renders it, “After thy victory shall thy people willingly bring an offering to thee, in holy adorning: thy children shall be born to thee as the dew of the morning.” DeWette, “Willingly shall thy people show themselves to thee on the day of the assembling of thy host in holy adorning, as from the womb of the morning, thy youth (vigor) shall be as the dew.” Prof. Alexander, “Thy people (are) free-will offerings in the day of thy power, in holy decorations, from the womb of the dawn, to thee (is) the dew of thy youth.” Every clause of the verse is obscure, though the “general” idea is not difficult to perceive; that, in the day of Messiah’s power, his people would willingly offer themselves to him, in holy robes or adorning, like the glittering dew of the morning; or, in numbers that might be compared with the drops of the morning dew. […]