(12) Then shall all the trees . . .—Comp.—

“His praise, ye winds that from four quarters blow,

Breathe soft or loud, and wave your tops ye pines,

With every plant in sign of worship wave.”—MILTON.

96:10-13 We are to hope and pray for that time, when Christ shall reign in righteousness over all nations. He shall rule in the hearts of men, by the power of truth, and the Spirit of righteousness. His coming draws nigh; this King, this Judge standeth before the door, but he is not yet come. The Lord will accept the praises of all who seek to promote the kingdom of Christ. The sea can but roar, and how the trees of the wood can show that they rejoice we know not; but He that searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit, and understands the words, the broken language of the weakest. Christ will come to judge the earth, to execute just vengeance on his enemies, and to fulfil his largest promises to his people. What then are we? Would that day be welcome to us? If this be not our case, let us now begin to prepare to meet our God, by seeking the pardon of our sins, and the renewal of our souls to holiness.Let the field be joyful ... - This is taken - with the change of a single letter, not affecting the sense - from 1 Chronicles 16:32-33. It is a call on the fields - the cultivated portions of the earth - to rejoice in the reign of God. As if conscious of the beauty with which he clothes them, and of the happiness which they confer on man in their beauty and in the abundance of their productions, they are called on to praise God.

Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice - The forests - the oaks, the cedars, the pines, that wave with so much majesty. If they were conscious of their own magnificence and beauty - if they could see how much wisdom and goodness God has lavished on them, in their forms, their branches, their leaves, their flowers, their fruit - if they could know how much they are made to accomplish in rendering the world beautiful, and in contributing to the happiness of man - if they understood what a bare, bleak, cold, desert world this would be but for them, they, too, would have abundant occasion for praise and joy.

11-13. For which reason the universe is invoked to unite in joy, and even inanimate nature (Ro 8:14-22) is poetically represented as capable of joining in the anthem of praise. No text from Poole on this verse.

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein,.... Not the field of the world, but of the church, separated from others by distinguishing grace; the peculiar property of Christ, cultivated and manured by his Spirit and grace, and abounding with the fruits and flowers thereof; of a wilderness becoming a fruitful field, and for that reason should rejoice, even with joy and singing, Isaiah 35:1,

then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice; the sons of God, so called, Sol 2:3, who, though like such, in their nature state, barren and unfruitful, yet, being ingrafted into Christ, become trees of righteousness; and so have reason to rejoice at their root in Christ, their stability by him, and fruitfulness through him: Jarchi interprets this of all the governors of the people; see Ezekiel 17:24, all this, indeed, by a prosopopoeia, may be understood of inanimate creatures; the heavens, earth, and sea, fields, woods, and trees, rejoicing, if they could, and in their way, at such great and wonderful appearances in the Gentile world; see Isaiah 44:23. Aben Ezra interprets all this of the heavens giving dew, the earth its increase, and the field its fruit; all which is rejoicing.

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the {i} trees of the wood rejoice

(i) If the insensible creatures will have reason to rejoice when God appears, much more we, from whom he has taken malediction and sin.