nd I plant upon a mountain
high and elevated. On the high mountains of Israel I will plant it;"
but especially Ps. lxviii. 16: "Mountain of God is the mountain of
Bashan, the top of mountains is the mountain of Bashan." Ver. 17. "Why
do ye tops of mountains insidiously observe the mountain which God
desireth for His residence? Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever."
The mountain of God is, in these verses, an emblem of the kingdoms of
the world, which are powerful through God's grace. In ver. 16, the
Psalmist declares what the mountain of Bashan is. In ver. 17, he
rejects the unfounded claims which it raises on account of its real
advantages. Although it be great, yet Mount Zion is infinitely
greater, and vain are all its efforts to overturn this relation.
This passage, then, leads to another argument against the literal
interpretation. We find in it the kingdoms represented under the figure
of mountains,[1]--a mode of representation which is of very frequent
occurrence in Scripture; compare my Commentary on [Pg 445] Ps. lxv. 7,
lxxvi. 5; Rev. viii. 8, xvii. 9. The more difficult it was to separate,
according to the Israelitish conception, _mountain_ and _kingdom_, the
more natural it was to find, in the passage before us, expression given
to the thought, that the kingdom of God would, in future, be exalted
above all the kingdoms of the world. If we take into account the common
practice of employing "mountain" in a figurative sense, it is natural
to suppose that not the exaltation alone is to be understood
figuratively, but that the mountain itself also is to be regarded
chiefly in its symbolical signification,--as the symbol of the kingdom
of God in Israel; although, in this aspect, we should expect, at least
in the beginning of the relation, that the thing itself should still be
connected with the symbol; afterwards they may be disjoined without any
hesitation. The deep grief which must, of necessity, have been called
forth by the announcement in iii. 12, did not regard the mountain as
such. It had, for its real object, the condition of the kingdom of God
which was prefigured by the condition of the mountain; and it is just
this to which the consolation has respect.--But by what means is the
exaltation of the temple-mountain to be effected? _Cocceius_ has
already directed attention to the circumstance, that it must not be
supposed to consist in the flowing of the people unto it; for that is
not the _cause_, but the _