Psalm 18:44
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me,.... That is, as soon as they should hear of Christ, through the preaching of the word, by which faith would come, they should readily and at once receive, embrace, and profess the Gospel, and yield a cheerful submission to the ordinances of it; and which has had its accomplishment among the Gentiles, Acts 28:28;
the strangers shall submit themselves unto me; meaning either the same persons as before; the Gentiles, who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, who should submit to Christ, to his Gospel, to his righteousness, and to the sceptre of his kingdom; though some interpret it of the degenerate Jews, "the sons of the stranger", as the words may be rendered; who, though called the children of God, and the children of the kingdom, yet were, as our Lord says, of their father the devil; and these, some of them, in a flattering and dissembling way, feigned themselves to be the followers and disciples of Christ: and, indeed, it looks as if hypocrites were intended, whether among Jews or Gentiles, or both, since the word here used, and rendered "submit", signifies to "lie"; and so it is in the metaphrase of Apollinarius; or, as in the margin of some Bibles, to "yield a feigned obedience"; see Psalms 66:3. There seems to be an allusion to the conquest of nations, some of the inhabitants of which readily and heartily submit, but others only feignedly, and through fear, and the force of superior power they cannot withstand.