For the lawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.

“The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly and the Son more obscurely. The New [Testament] manifested the Son and suggested the deity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit dwells among us and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of himself. For it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son; nor when that of the Son was not yet received to burden us further (if I may use so bold an expression) with the Holy Spirit; lest perhaps people might, like persons loaded with food beyond their strength and presenting eyes as yet too weak to look at the sun's light, risk the loss even of that which was within the reach of their powers; but that by gradual additions, and, as David says, "Goings up, and advances and progress from glory to glory," the light of the Trinity might shine on the more illuminated. It was for this reason, I think, that [the Holy Spirit] gradually came to dwell in the disciples, measuring himself out to them according to their capacity to receive him, at the beginning of the Gospel, after the passion, after the ascension, making perfect their powers, being breathed on them and appearing in fiery tongues.”

“And again, from the thought of those joys he returns to his own sighs. He sees what has come before in hope, and where he is in reality....Therefore returning to the groans proper to this place, he says, "O Lord God of virtues, hear my prayer: hearken, O God of Jacob" [Psalm 84:8]: for Jacob himself also You have made Israel out of Jacob. For God appeared unto him, and he was called Israel, [Genesis 32:28] seeing God. Hear me therefore, O God of Jacob, and make me Israel. When shall I become Israel? When the God of Gods shall appear in Sion.”

“Behold, O God our shield,.... Which may be considered either as the character of God, who is addressed, who was David's shield, and the shield of his people, to protect and defend them from their enemies, and is the shield of all the saints; this favour encompasses them as a shield, and his truth is their shield and buckler; his veracity and faithfulness, in keeping covenant and promises; and so is his power, by which they are kept unto salvation; see Psa 3:3, or else it belongs to other persons and things the psalmist desires God would behold, in agreement with the following clause. Jarchi interprets it of the house of the sanctuary, as a shield unto them; much better Aben Ezra of the king their protector; and makes the sense of the petition to be, that God would save our king; it is best to apply it to Christ, afterwards called a sun and shield; see on Psa 84:11, and to whom the following clause belongs: and look upon the face of thine anointed; meaning either himself, David, the anointed of the God of Jacob, who was anointed with oil, in a literal sense, king of Israel, by the appointment and order of the Lord himself; and his request is, that God would look upon his outward state and condition, which was a distressed and an afflicted one, with an eye of pity and compassion, he being deprived of sanctuary worship and service, and of the presence of God there; see Psa 132:1 or rather he has a view to the Messiah, the Lord's Christ, or Anointed, the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, anointed with the oil of gladness, the grace of the Spirit, without measure; and so the sense is, that though he and his petitions were unworthy of notice, yet he entreats that God would look upon his Son the Messiah, and for his sake hear and answer him; look upon his person, and accept him in him, the Beloved; upon his future obedience and righteousness, and impute it to him; upon his sufferings, and death he was to endure, to save him from his sins; upon his blood to be shed for the remission of them, as he had looked upon the blood of the passover, upon the doorposts of the Israelites, and saved them when he destroyed the firstborn of Egypt; and upon his sacrifice, which is of a sweet smelling savour; and upon his fulness, for the supply of his wants. Kimchi takes it to be a prayer for the speedy coming of the Messiah.”

“The Hebrew term may be understood of seasonable rain, in Autumn. Joel ii. 23. " The rain will clothe with blessings" the valley, filling the wells, and fertilizing the soil. The Septuagint understood the term of the Divine Teacher, who crowns with blessings those who journey to His temple. St. Je- rome says : " benedictione qicoque amicieiur doctor :" the teacher also will be clothed with blessing.”