Luke 1:79

Luke 1:79. To give light to them that sit in darkness The Messiah at his coming would enlighten with the knowledge of salvation the Gentile nations, who had long lived in ignorance and wickedness, the cause of death. To guide our feet into the way of peace And he would guide the feet, even of the Jews, into the way of finding peace with God, peace of mind, and true happiness, by making them more perfectly acquainted with the method of salvation, and the will of God concerning them. Such phrases as darkness and the shadow of death, describe with peculiar propriety the ignorant and miserable state of the Gentile world: and, probably, the former clause might be intended principally of them. But as Christ’s preaching to the Jews in Galilee is said, Matthew 4:14-16, to be an accomplishment of Isaiah 9:1-2, to which Zacharias here seems to refer, we must not confine the sense of it merely to the Gentiles; for indeed the sad character and circumstances of the Jews at this time too well suited the representation here made. Such are the elevated strains in which this pious man, under the extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghost, described the great blessings which mankind were to enjoy by the coming of the seed promised to Adam, to Abraham, and to David.