24:1-6 We ourselves are not our own; our bodies, our souls, are not. Even those of the children of men are God's, who know him not, nor own their relation to him. A soul that knows and considers its own nature, and that it must live for ever, when it has viewed the earth and the fulness thereof, will sit down unsatisfied. It will think of ascending toward God, and will ask, What shall I do, that I may abide in that happy, holy place, where he makes his people holy and happy? We make nothing of religion, if we do not make heart-work of it. We can only be cleansed from our sins, and renewed unto holiness, by the blood of Christ and the washing of the Holy Ghost. Thus we become his people; thus we receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of our salvation. God's peculiar people shall be made truly and for ever happy. Where God gives righteousness, he designs salvation. Those that are made meet for heaven, shall be brought safe to heaven, and will find what they have been seeking.

Verse 6. - This is the generation of them that seek him. Men with this character impressed upon them are the "generation," the stamp of men, whom God will recognize and accept as his worshippers, true seekers after him. That seek thy face, O Jacob. The LXX. have, Ζητούντων τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἰακώβ, whence some suppose אלהי to have fallen out of the Hebrew text. This, no doubt, is possible, and removes all difficulty. But it is better to loose a Gordian knot than to cut it. We may keep the present text, and obtain a satisfactory sense, by regarding "Jacob" as grammatically in apposition with "generation," and translating, "This is the generation of them that seek him - that seek thy face - even Jacob." All they are not Israel who are of Israel (Romans 9:6). The true Jacob consisted of those Israelites who answered to the character described in ver. 4. Selah. A break, or pause, here occurred, while the procession of Levites advanced to the very gates of the sanctuary. Then the strain was resumed - the choir being divided into two parts, which sang antiphonally.

This is the generation of them that seek him,.... The persons above described are such, who in every age are the generation of the children of God, and are accounted by him for a generation; they are such that seek him, in the first place, with their whole hearts, and in Christ, where they find him;

that seek thy face, O Jacob. By the "face" of God is meant the favour of God, the discoveries of his love, the light of his countenance, than which nothing is more desirable to gracious souls, or more sought after by them; and by Jacob is meant the God of Jacob; and so Apollinarius has it in his metaphrase; see Psalm 10:1; unless Christ should be intended, one of whose names is Israel, Isaiah 49:3; or the words may be supplied, as they are by some Jewish writers (m), "this is Jacob"; or the persons before described are the seed of Jacob, and who are called by his name: and it may be observed, that the church of God often bears the same name, Isaiah 43:1; and then the sense is, the persons whose characters are given above are fit to ascend, and stand in the holy hill of God, are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile.

Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psalm 3:2.

(m) Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.

6. Jacob—By "Jacob," we may understand God's people (compare Isa 43:22; 44:2, &c.), corresponding to "the generation," as if he had said, "those who seek Thy face are Thy chosen people."

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