He shall cry out to me: Thou art my father: my God, and the support of my salvation.

“"And I will make Him my first-born; higher than the kings of the earth" [Psalm 89:27]. Our Martyrs, whose birthdays we are celebrating, shed their blood on account of these things, which were believed though not yet seen; how much more brave ought we to be, as we see what they believed? For they had not yet seen Christ raised on high among the kings of the earth: as yet princes were taking counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed: what follows in the same Psalm was not then fulfilled, "Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be learned, you that are judges of the earth." Now indeed Christ has been exalted among the kings of the earth.”

“My mercy will I keep for him for evermore,.... That is, for his mystical body, his church and people; for whom stores of mercy are kept with him, to be laid out in their regeneration, pardon, salvation, and eternal life; for to them the mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting, Psa 103:17, unless this is to be understood of the "grace" and "kindness" (g) of God, as the word may be rendered; his free favour and love to Christ, which always continues; for as he was always his dearly beloved Son, that lay in his bosom from eternity, so he continued, throughout his state, of humiliation, his well beloved, in whom he was well pleased, and still is, and ever will: and my covenant shall stand fast with him; being made with him as the head and representative of his people, it remains, and will remain, sure, firm, and immoveable; its blessings are "sure mercies", and its promises are all "yea and amen in Christ": the stability of it, and of all that is in it, is owing to its being made with him, and being in his hands, who is the surety, Mediator, and messenger of it. (g) "bonitatem meam", Musculus, Tigurine version; "benignitatem meam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "gratiam meam", Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.”