sy of the bearers of the covenant--should not
destroy the covenant,--should not annul the gracious promise made to
the race. _Kept_, _i.e._, firm, inviolable, because given by Him who
keepeth covenant and mercy, Deut. vii. 9; Dan. ix. 4. In 1 Kings viii.
25, Solomon prays, "And now, Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant
David my father what Thou promisedst him when Thou saidst. There shall
not be cut off unto thee a man from My sight to sit on the throne of
Israel." The second "_for_" points out the cause of _kept_. _All
pleasure_, _i.e._, all that is well-pleasing to me, all that my heart
desires. The preceding [Hebrew: iwei] serves the purpose of qualifying
it more definitely. The object of David's desires is, accordingly, his
salvation, the glory of his house.

Ver. 6. "_And wickedness, like thorns, they will all be driven away;
for not will any one take them into his hands._"

The subject treated of in this verse is: the Ruler among men [Pg 158]
in His relation to His enemies. To those He is as formidable as His
appearance is blessed to those who surrender themselves to Him. In Ps.
xviii. also, there is a celebration of the indomitable power which the
Lord grants to David, His anointed, and to his seed against all their
enemies; compare ver. 38: "I pursue mine enemies and overtake them, and
do not turn again till they are consumed; ver. 39, I crush them and
they cannot rise, they fall under my feet." In the cycle of Psalms from
cxxxviii. to cxlv., David likewise speaks of the dangers which threaten
his house from enemies, and the leading thought of Ps. ii. is: the
Messiah as the conqueror of His enemies. The eyes of David were the
more opened to this circumstance, the more he himself had had to
contend against adversaries.--[Hebrew: bliel] always means unworthiness
in a moral point of view, "wickedness," "vileness." _Wickedness_ is
here used in the concrete sense = the wicked ones, the sons of
wickedness, Deut. xiii. 14. The wicked ones, the enemies of the Church,
are compared to the thorns, on account of their pricking nature; and
therefore their end is like that of thorns, they will be thrown aside
like them. In Ezek. xxiv. 28, after the judgment upon the neighbouring
people has been proclaimed, it is said, "And there shall remain no more
a pricking brier everywhere round about the house of Israel, where
their enemies are, nor a grieving thorn;" compare Num. xxxiii. 55; Song
of Sol. ii. 2; Is. xxvii. 4; Nahum