V. 5.— Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Therefore when he (that is, Christ) cometh into the world.— Christ was known among the Jews as He who should come, Luke 7:19; and He is thus described in the passage before us. Thus we are taught that the 40th Psalm is descriptive of Christ. It was written by David, but a greater than David is here. Indeed, the better we understand the Psalms the more clearly shall we see that they speak of Christ. The Lord, in discoursing with His disciples, divided the Old Testament into three parts; the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Luke 24:44. Moses wrote of Him. He is the end of the law, and to Him give all the prophets witness. David, the sweet singer of Israel, who wrote the greater part of the Psalms, was a remarkable type of Him; and, in the greater part of the Psalms, while he speaks in his own person, he describes the experience of Christ in the days of His flesh. In the Psalms we are admitted into the Redeemer’ s closet. We contemplate Him as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, bowed down under the load of His people’ s sins, and, in the days of His flesh, making supplication with strong crying and tears to Him that was able to deliver Him from death. Both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one family; therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. In virtue of their unity, their sins are His sins, and His righteousness their righteousness. Hence we find Him groaning under a load of sin, although He did no sin, nor was guile found in His lips. At other times we find Him describing Himself as holy, and rejoicing in the complacency with which His Father always viewed His righteous servant. The application by the Apostle of the 40th Psalm to Christ, in the passage before us, gives us a key which opens to us the meaning of many other Psalms. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, or thou didst not desire, Psalms 40:6.— This describes God’ s weariness of all the sacrifices enjoined in the law. Isaiah 1:10-14. They were enjoined to maintain the expectation of a better sacrifice; but, when they had answered their end, they were offensive to God. Everything is beautiful in its season; the time of their abolition was come, and he that killed an ox was as if he slew a man, &c. Isaiah 66:3. A body hast thou prepared me.— It is in the Psalm, "Mine ears hast thou opened.” Various conjectures have been offered to account for the difference, but none of them are satisfactory. The words, as quoted by the Apostle, are found in the Septuagint; but there seems a difficulty in the supposition of his quoting this version when writing to the Hebrews. There is, however, a substantial agreement in these different renderings. The ear is the organ by which we receive the communications made to us by others. Hence to hear frequently signifies to believe, or obey. John 8:6-7; John 10:27; Deuteronomy 1:43. “ The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” Isaiah 50:5. Jesus came as His Father’ s servant, Isaiah 49:6; not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. John 5:30. On becoming incarnate, He took upon Him the form of a servant, Philippians 2:7; and it was His meat and His drink to do the will of His Father; and, therefore, “A body hast thou prepared me,” is equivalent to " Mine ears hast thou opened.”