ately. In this section, it is especially the
passage in chap. xxviii. 16 [Pg 155] which attracts our attention;
since, in the New Testament, it is referred to Christ.

"_Behold I have laid for a foundation in Zion a stone, a tried_
(stone), _a precious corner stone of perfect foundation; he that
believeth need not make haste_," viz., for an escape or refuge for
himself, Ps. lv. 9. In opposition to false hopes, this stone is pointed
to as the only true foundation, and all are threatened with unavoidable
destruction who do not make it their foundation. The stone is the
Kingdom of God, the Church; compare Zech. iii. 9, where the Kingdom of
God likewise appears under the image of the stone. But since the
Kingdom of God (which, in chap. viii. 16, had been represented under
the image of the quietly flowing waters of Siloah) is, for all
eternity, closely connected with the house of David which centres in
Christ, _that which, in the first instance, is said of the kingdom of
God refers, at the same time, to its head and centre_. Parallel is Is.
xiv. 32; "The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people trust
in it." The [Hebrew: hamiN] here corresponds with the [Hebrew: Hsh]
with [Hebrew: b] there. The difference is, that there Zion itself is
the object of confidence, while here it is the stone which is in Zion.
_There_, Zion is the _spiritual_ Zion; not the mountain as an
assemblage of stones, nor the outward temple as such, but Zion in so
far as it is a sanctuary, the seat of the presence of the Lord. The
Lord--such is the sense--has founded His Kingdom among us; and the
circumstance that we are citizens of the Kingdom gives us security,
enables us to be calm even in the midst of the greatest danger. _Here_,
on the contrary, Zion is the outward Zion, and the Kingdom of God is
the Church as distinguished from it. The Zion here corresponds to the
holy mountains in Ps. lxxxvii. 1, where, in a similar manner, a
distinction is drawn between the material and spiritual Zion: "His
foundation is in the holy mountains," on which I remarked in my
Commentary: "The foundation of Zion took place spiritually by its being
chosen to be the seat of the sanctuary. It was then only that the
place, already existing, received its spiritual foundation." The stone
laid by God as a foundation in Zion, in the passage under
consideration, is, in substance, identical with the "tent that He
placed among men," in Ps. lxxviii. 60. "In substance the sa