Then is the celebration of their distinctive confidence. They can now speak about it in the maturity of peace rather than the joyous excitement of deliverance, when they were just saved from being a prey to their teeth.
1. "Those that trust in Jehovah shall be even as Mount Zion which abideth forever," for the peace of Mount Zion is now a witness of deliverance—the same Mount Zion as of old, the seat of the gracious counsels of God uncovered. They trust in the Lord-have the same portion; as " the mountains round Jerusalem so Jehovah around his people, and that henceforth even forever." But then it was a distinctive blessing. It was judgment—"the rod of the wicked" (and those came against them) "should not rest on the lot of the righteous." There was no mingling; and this applied to the wicked among Israel. It was not a distinction merely between Israel and the nations, but a distinction in the deliverance of the righteous Remnant. So the prayer is for them, "the good and upright in heart"; "as for those that turn aside to crooked ways," Jehovah gives them a portion with, the wicked, but these will, not be now any more therefore numbered with Israel. Peace shall rest on Israel now accepted and righteous before God-the righteous Remnant become the nation.
This Psalm gives the character of the division and separation. The trusters in Jehovah are as stable as the Mount Zion, which the Lord Jesus loves—are identified, so it is revealed, with His purposes in it. These are the persons who are stable, and the reason and consequence—as the mountains about Jerusalem from this great time out, the Lord, Jehovah, is round about His people and forever—so the bor'khim (they that trust) now become. For this reason there must be separation, and the Lord honored before the close, and therefore He rids Himself entirely, so that the wicked being destroyed—searched out till none were found—excluded from the congregation of the righteous, the righteous serve in uninterrupted security.
4. This seems to me a prayer of Christ bringing down good upon the good, the upright in heart, the Remnant. As for the wicked even among Israel, they turn aside from Jehovah's ways to their own—Jehovah shall lead them forth from His ways to the paths and portion of the wicked whom they have chosen. Yet though they are excluded with the wicked, "Peace shall be upon Israel," though they see it not. Thus the external wickedness is removed, and the wicked among the Remnant of Israel cast forth with it, then peace; the briars and thorns have now been dealt with and no longer choke.