The closing words of the previous Psalm are here at the very beginning taken up. This in measure connects them, and invites us to read this in continuation of that.
The righteous being commanded to rejoice in the Lord, the great moral purpose of this Psalm is, to give such views of the Lord as may constrain to rejoice—to show Him as such an One, that it may be said, “Blessed is the nation whose God” He is. For it will not do merely to be commanded to love or rejoice, but the object suited to these affections must be presented—as here. O that our hearts could entertain it willingly!
We may read the free, discursive musings of the soul in this Psalm, as a sweet sample of that moral ability which a consciously accepted sinner has, to range in thought over the words and works and counsels, the grace and glory of God, and all like things.
Prophetically, this seems to be the joy of the Jewish nation having Jehovah for their God again, after they have witnessed the discomfiture of the heathen, and the second settlement of the world. This would, therefore, lead us to see that the Remnant are “the righteous.”
But all this joy is only anticipated; for from Psa. 33:1212Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12) to the end, it appears that the nation was still only hoping for all this, and that the course of the present evil world was still going on. But they close with an expression of great confidence, that this resurrection-state of the nation would indeed be accomplished in God’s good time.