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"Igtee Ouft Booki .
\ for. the founding ef a, College in. this- Colony"

-YALE-^HlWlEISSinnf- • iLULBn^aiRir ¦

From the Library of
Charles H. Townshend
1917

€\t IfonlUx;

CONTAINING THE

FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, & FIFTH BOOKS

OF THE

PSALMS OF DAVID,

METRICALLY RENDERED.

BY

RICHARD PHAYRE, M.A.
TKIHITT COLLEGE, DUBLIN ;
KECTOK OF EAST AND WEST HAYNHAM, NOByOLK.

LONDON:
WILLIAM EIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY, W.
1873.

t^wi435

PREFACE.

The following publication has arisen out of the author's
metrical translation of one or two psalms, after sermons upon
them delivered in the course of a series.
Awakenment of heart to a special interest in the psalms so
translated led to search for metrical translations of the others.
The author however was unable to find any which exactly
contemplated those psalms from his own point of view ; so that
he was drawn on by the pleasure he felt in such a task, to
translate all that came within the course he had prescribed to
himself. Thus one or two in which the author had seemed to
himself successful, in fact led him to attempt a systematic
version of the rest.
He is very sensible of their deficiencies ; but, such as they
are, he hopes that they will help his readers in understanding
these psalms ; and do something towards kindling a warm
interest in the study of their heavenly beauty.
His version has been conducted on the following principles :
firstly, on that of a literal translation ; so far as the exigencies
of rhythm and rhyme would allow.
Secondly, on that of incorporating with the psalm such ad
ditional helps to its original meaning, as may have been
furnished by the inspired writers in the New Testament.
Thirdly, on that of regard for what may appear to have been
the thread of the connection between one and another part of
a psalm in the inspired writer's own mind.
The historical references too have been an object of investi
gation ; with a view to determine what event in the psalmist's
personal history, or in that of the Israehtes, was the occasion
of his being moved to write his psalm.

ERRATA.

Book I.
Page 4, for " Acts viii" in note 7 read " xiii."
— 19, line 21, for "heav'ns" read "heav'n."
— 21, line 3, for "heav'ns" read " heav'n."
— 36, line 7, of note 2, for " was" read " were."
— 37, line 6, of note 2, for " p. iii" read "Ps. iii."
— 59, line 2, for "recorded" read "recovered."
— 64, line 5, for " thy" read " Thy."
— 76, line 15 from bottom, for " Michael" read " Michal."
— 92, line 7 from bottom, for " tnat" read " that."
— 108, line 6, for "fourth" read "forth."
— 108, line 6 of v. 5, for " ordor" read " order."
— 124, line 21, omit comma after " pride."
— 144, line 12, for " crow'd" read "crowd."
Book II.
Page 13, line 27, for " bring" read " being."
— 34, line 22, for " precious" read " previous."
— ¦ 68, line 23, for " aknowledge" read " acknowledge."
— 114, line 6, insert inverted commas after " same."
— 117, line 28, for " verse fulfilled" read " verse are fulfilled."
— 129, line 6 from bottom, Jor " upon" read " up on."
Book III.
Page 137, last line, Jor " eighty-eighth" read "eighty-seventh further."
— 145, line 3 from bottom, for " Job" read " John."
— 178, line 26, for "faithful" read "faithfully."
— 203, line 10, dele comma after "sank."
— 234, line 13 from bottom, for " truth" read " Truth."
Book IV.
Page 277, line 7 from bottom, for " civilised" read "civilis'd."

Book V.
Page 17, line 5, for "bis" read "his."
— 35, line 8 in note 2, read (Heb. ii. 5.)
— 38, line 7, for " tine" read " time."
— 48, line 2, for " udah" reacJ " Judah."
— 49, line 19, for " Israelities" read "Israelites."
— 54, line 27, hyphen between " covenant" and " people."
— 58, line 2 from bottom, for '-his'' read " His."
— 59, line 2, for " my" read " My."
— 69, line 9 from bottom, dele " they."
— 72, line 4, dele " and."
— 95, line 4, for " love" read " law."
— 99, line 4, for " Him" read "him."
— 101, line 6, for " He" read " he."
— 101, line 16, insert comma after "repine."
— 1 12, line 6 from bottom, for " Ps. xl" read " (Ps. li.)"
— 114, line 18 from bottom, for " xi. 18" read " v. 18."
— 129, line 10, for " remained" read " remain'd."
— 129, line 1 2, for " 1" after " me" insert " comma."
— 159, line 1, for " three of four" read " four of three."
— 172, line 24, for " xii" read "xl."
— 177, line 1,/or " iTibSan" read ri^V'&rJ."
— 197, line 10, for "give" read "given."
— 206, line 8 from bottom, for " having" read " have."
' — 219, line 2 from bottom, for " born" read " borne."
— 236, line 1, dele " that."
— 257, line 10 from bottom, for " Ps. xxxix" read " Ixxxix."
— 313, line 7 from bottom, dele " In."
— 318, last line, for "conusme" read "consume."
— 327, line 19 from bottom, for " bring" read "being."
— 330, line 3, after " saints" insert apostrophe, " Of His saints' long-harass'd"
— 332, line 13, for "ten" read "eight."

mt $\st JmR of $sa!ms.

PSALM I.

ARGUMENT.
WHEN man by nature ungodly, on hearing God's word concerning
Christ for justification, meekly receives it, he is blessed. But while
he at the counsel of his own heart resists it, he, at the least, remains
ungodly ; and may possibly decline to open variance with good
morals and decent society ; or even still further to systematic de
rision of all revealed religion.
The blessed man is at peace in himself by communion with God
through His word, and is confessed to be a blessing to all those who .
consult him in their straits, and is gladdening to their sight. Of the
ungodly it suffices the psalmist to say, that viewed in contrast with
the blessed man, he is neither at peace within himself, nor found of
such use to his neighbours in their straits. And though he may have
been far from declining into scandalous sin or blasphemy, and been
outwardly decorous in his behaviour as regards religion and public
morals, yet Christ will separate him as chaff from the wheat ere
death ; for Christ gathers the wheat alone into His garner.
Hereitis to be observed that the sinner andthe scorner are passed
over without further notice : the psalmist thereby implying, that
if the ungodly, or one without heed for God, perishes in his un
godliness, much more the other two.
1.
Blest man ! who turns by faith in Christ1
From his ungodly2 walk ;
Nor stands3 persistent in his sin :
Nor sits where scorners talk ;
1 The blessing in the first verse of this psalm is in the last of tbe second
shewn to come on all them that put their trust in Christ. The blessing of
God being thus the bond of union between the two psalms, it is to be con
cluded, as Mr. Thrupp observes, that David made the two a title to his book,
to indicate its two-fold subject — the people of Christ and Christ Himself.
2 Ps. xxxii, 6. li, 10. Rom. v, 6.
3 The tendency of sin to involve man in more desperate entanglements the
longer it is persisted in is implied by the three ve'rbs-vwalk, stand, sit — in
the original. B

PSALM THE SECOND.

But in Jehovah's holy law
Finds his supreme delight ;
Dispos'd in it to meditate
Devoutly day and night.3.
He's as a tree hard by a stream,
Which timely fruit4 puts forth ;
Whose leaves fade not, whose twigs ne'er fail
Of making5 good their growth.
4.
Not so th' ungodly. Like to chair,
By wind driv'n off the floor,
He in the judgment shall not stand ;
Nor with the saints be more.
5.
Thus while the blest, whom Christ upholds6
Attains the heavenly goal ;
Th' ungodly, whose way is his own,7
Makes shipwreck of his soul.
4 Matth. vii, 16. 5 Matth. xiii, 23. John xv, 5.
" Is. xxvi, 7 — 12. Ps. xvii, 5. cxlii, 3. John xiv, 6.
7 Prov. i, 22 — 24. Ps. xxxviii, 7. John iii, 19, 20.

PSALM II.

ARGUMENT.
The Spirit of Christ moves David to sing how the Heathen or
Gentiles and the people or Israelites (and subsequently other nations
brought under the bond of the covenant, Acts iii, 25, 26) shall aim

PSALM THE SECOND. 3
at defeating Jehovah's purpose of giving David's throne to his Son
and Lord, our Saviour Jesus Christ. The beginning of this attempt
was (as we know by Acts iv, 27) made against the Lord Jesus in
the days of His flesh ; when, under the vain idea of preventing Him
from ever attaining David's throne, they put Him to death ; suppo
sing that if He did not succeed to it in this life, there would be an
end of His claim. And the Jews further thought, that as the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance, the nation of Israel must
in that case attain the kingdom. (Matth. xxi, 38.)
But the event proved it to have been God's declared purpose from
the beginning that His Son should only sit on David's throne after
He had been raised from the dead, (Acts xi, 30) ; so that the very
act whereby the Jews thought to preclude Jesus from ever attaining
the promised kingdom, was that by which He became liberated from
the Law, under whieh He had been brought for our sakes. Rom. vii, 1.
Hereby too He redeemed all mankind, and provided for true be
lievers their only way of renewal unto life eternal through union
with Him in His spiritual body (Rom. vi, 4) wherein He Himself
ascended up to Zion above, there to await His Father's bringing of
Him into His Kingdom. Heb. i, 6. 2 Tim. ii, 7—13.
Meanwhile Gentiles, such as Mahommedans — and Jews, or other
peoples under the covenant — will again endeavour to usurp the king
doms of this world to the exclusion of Jesus and His people, by
knowingly, as before, breaking Jehovah's and Messiah's bonds asun
der and casting away their cords from them (2 Thess. i, 8) ; that
is, by sinning against light and conscience for the sake of worldly
ascendency in a collective capacity. The psalm concludes with a
warning to either against such infatuated ambition.
1.
Why burst the Gentiles1 into wrath —
The peoples a vain thought conceive ?
Rulers and Kings of earth, ye stand
Oppos'd to heav'n ! your subtleties2
Against Jehovah ye devise,
'Gainst His Messiah lift the hand!
1 v. 1. In. Acts iv, 27 " the people " being called ** Israel " are
thereby distinguished from " the Gentiles," but the Hebrew word for
" people '" being here in the plural indicates it to have been affirmed of
some beside the Israelites. At the time spoken of in Acts iv, 27 the
Israelites alone having received the revealed will of God in His word, the
Apostles applied this word "people" in its plural form to them alone.
But when I couple the fact of the original word being in the plural with
the reference in v. 9, 10 to what kings and judges of the earth shall do
against Messiah so as " to perish from the way," I think that this word
"peoples " in v. 1 contains a reference to what nations now in common

* PSALM THE SECOND.
2.
Their bonds let us asunder break,
Their cords from off us let us cast —
This 'tis, your vain attempts import.
He Who on heav'n's high summit sits,
With your hands will prepare His pits,3
Jehovah4 of your wrath make sport.
3.
Then shall He His long silence break
In anger, and down on their heads
Sore judgments in requital bring.
Yet,5 spite of this their turbulence,
Upon My holy eminence
Of Zion have I set My King.
4.
Of Him to Me6 Jehovah said
(And I the edict will proclaim)
" Thou " O Messiah " art My Son I
This day have I begotten7 Thee ! "
Yea this, wherein each enemy
Hath seen his heart's wish6 on Thee done.
with Israel put in trust with the gospel shall do to the same effect in a day
forthcoming — a day referred to in Ps. xxxiii, 10 and 2 Thess. iii, 3 — 12.
2 Matth. xxvi, 4, xxvii, 64. xxviii, 13.
3 Ps. vii, IS, xciv, 13. Is. xxiv, 17.
4 v. 4. " My Lord " is here found in the present Hebrew text ; but
Rogers shews " Jehovah " to be the reading of very many MSS.
6 v. 6. "Yet" to wit, notwithstanding My anger. Thus I explain this
clause by reference to Ps. Ixxxix, 33 — 7 making it a record of Jehovah's
faithfulness. Jer. xxxi, 37. Ez. xx, 9.
s v. 7. By Acts iv, 24 — 6 we learn that David spake not in the first two
verses of tliis psalm, but the Lord by the mouth of David ; that is, the
Holy Ghost — see the subsequent verses 29 and 31 ; much more then must
the Holy Ghost be held to be the speaker in v. 7, Who is the Spirit of truth,
John xiv, 17, Who is the Spirit that beareth witness, I John v. 6. Now the
first two verses being spoken by the Holy Ghost, Jehovah and His Messiah
being also therein mentioned as co-equals, while verse 4 asserts of Jehovah
that He is in a certain sense Supreme, there is here in the very title to this
book of Psalms brought forward evidence to the Divine Trinity in Unity,
so far as it pleased God to reveal it during the Mosaic dispensation. See
Numb, vi, 23 — 7. Further proof of the equality of the Son with Jehovah
is furnished by the Holy Ghost in verse 12 because none are to be blessed
but who put their trust in Him. Is. xxvi, 4. Jer. xvii, 5 — 7.
' ActsJ(ui, 32—41. Heb. v. 5. 8 Matth. xxi, 38.

PSALM THE THIRD.

" Ask Me, My King, and I will give
The Gentiles9 who Thy name have borne,
With all realms for Thine heritage.
Their concourse10 Thou, like potter's ware
Dash'd to the earth, shalt scatter far ;
And quell with iron sway their rage."
6.
Now therefore O ye Kings be wise,
Ye Judges of the earth give ear
To truth ! Jehovah fear, and kiss11
The Son ! lest if He angry be,
Ye from the way12 fall finally !
Blest man ! who trusts in Him for bliss.
9 Acts xv 16 17.
10 Is. xvii, 12—14. Joel iii, 9—16. Matth. xxiv, 30, 31.
11 "Kiss" is tantamount to worship, for thus was worship sometimes
rendered. 1 Kings xix, 10 — 18. The word may have been here chosen to
denote the worship due to the Son, in contradistinction to that demanded
for Jehovah, as a grateful acknowledgement of His standing between God
and man to be our Mediator, Deut. v. 5.
12 See Ps. i, 6. This expression shews that the peoples who have re
ceived revealed truth are in especial danger of offence at the counsel of
Jehovah concerning trust in the Son. See Phil, iii, 18 — 21 compared with
verse 3 of this psalm.

PSALM III.

TITLE.
A psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son.
ARGUMENT.
Agreeably with the title of this psalm we have in 2 Sam. xv, xvi,
xvii, an explanation of the circumstances under which David wrote
it. It appears to me probable, that on leaving Jerusalem (xv, 14)
and encountering that same day Shimei's taunts (xvi, 5) he encamp
ed at night weary according to v. 1 4. Being a general of long- tried
experience he (as I suppose) perceived of what advantage it would
be to the rebel force to pursue him at once and attack him that
night. (As Ahitophel counselled xvii, 1 — 3). This I take to be
the night referred to in v. 5 of this psalm. And I gather from the

6

PSALM THE THIRD.

psalm itself that after David had taken every precaution against sur
prise which was practicable, he betook himself to prayer (Gen. xxxii,
7 — 32. Phil, iv, 6, 7) and then lay him down to sleep. On awak
ing in the morning refreshed, and finding that the night had passed
over without a surprise, he concluded that, the Lord had heard him ;
and soon afterwards while his heart was glowing with gratitude to
God he penned this psalm.
For that he wrote it very soon after that eventful night, I gather
from v. 6, where his words indicate that he had not at that time
come into collision with the rebels as described in 2 Sam. xviii.
This psalm was probably written for the use of his loyal followers
in their public worship of God. And it was peculiarly fitted to in
fuse into them devoted courage ; teaching them by their king's
example to glory *in the Lord (v. 3) and not in their former exploits
of valour — to recognise the hand of God in their preservation from
surprise (v. 5) by way of answer to Shimei's scoff (xvi, 8) — and to
look for a speedy victory after the manner of the great victories
achieved by them through God in days gone by, (v. 7),
1. "
Lord how my troublers are increas'd !
How many 'gainst me rise !
How many of my soul give out,
God him all help denies !
2.
But Thou Lord art for me a shield,
When I am sore bestead !
My glory ! and the Lifter up
Of my dejected head !
3.
To God I cried ; and from on high1
His kind compassion gain'd;
I laid me down and slept and wak'd ;
For He my strength sustain'd.
4.
Of all the thousands 'gainst me set
Will I not be afraid.
Up Lord ! and save me, O my God
With Thy almighty aid !
1 Ps. v, 3. vii, 7.

PSALM THE THIRD. 7
5.
For Thou in former conflicts smot'st
The cheek-bones of my foes ;
And of th' ungodly brok'st the teeth2
With Thy avenging blows.
6.
Salvation to the Lord belongs !
Thy saints by Thee are blest ;
And through Thy righteousness alone
Do they attain Thy rest.3
18 v. 7. By the " teeth " of ,the ungodly Augustine supposes that princes
and leaders of states may be symbolised. For the states themselves are sym
bolically called "beasts" Dan. vii, 3, agreeably wherewith Jeremiah in ch.
1, 17, and again in li, 34, describes the king Nebuchadnezzar as the tooth of his
state. And like as a wild beast devouring his prey, breaks up its structure
to incorporate it with his own, so do victorious princes strip subject kingdoms
of their former constituent parts, dissolving them in order to combine them
anew under their own deputies.
The Church too, as Augustine observes, has her " teeth." Bee Cant, iv, 2,
vi, 6. Acts x, 13. But these err (as intimated in Ps. xiv, 4) if using their
commission to bring every thought into captivity to Christ, only for secular
aggrandizement ; whereas they are to present the converts an acceptable
offering unto God. Rom. xv, 16. 2 Cor. xi, 2.
3 Is. xi, 10. Heb. iv, 10. NOTE.
This is one of those psalms in which David may be considered to have
spoken in the first instance of himself as a member of Christ's house.
Heb. iii, 1 — 6 : secondly, as the Spirit of Christ moving him to write
meant the words thereof to be for the use of the Lord Jesus in the days of
His flesh : thirdly, as a member of Christ's mystical body may in this age
of the kingdom of heaven apply it spiritually to his own circumstances.
It is remarkable that the Spirit of Christ should have laid up in the Old
Testament records of the bosom-thoughts and outpourings of heart which
Jesus should cherish in communion with his Father on earth (Ps. cxix, 100) ;
while in the New Testament is recorded what He said or did or suffered from
others, agreeably therewith.
Thus at v. 4 it seems to me probable, as Augustine suggests, that He being
required by the will of His Father, to lay down His soul in the sleep of
death, might have been often mindful of this very verse, and of the manner
wherein the psalmist, after prayer, laid down his in sorrow — that so he
might prove God's judgment in his behalf, Is. 1, 4. For it was needful that
Christ should lay down His life of His own accord. Joh. x, 17, 18. Ps. xxxi, 5.
At His resurrection He could say that the Lord had sustained Him, after
the manner of David, but in a far higher sense. Joh. xix, 34, 35. 1 Joh.
v, 7—9.
As to the words which follow at v. 6, the employment of them by our
Saviour is not to be so interpreted as toelash with His prayer for His country
men " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !" but rather

PSALM THE FOURTH.

to be regarded as uttered in respect of that kingdom whereof David's was a
type ; which is to be entered on by Him after the destruction of the four mo
narchies seenin Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the overthrow of the antichrist.
The believer may at death take the language of this psalm to himself, and
in his happy spirit join the blessed spirits waiting for Christ's victory over
antichrist.

PSALM IV.

TITLE.
(After the Septuagint Version.)
To the Consummator or Bringer in of the Consummation, on
stringed instruments played with the hand. A psalm of David.
See Psalm xxxiii, 3.
ARGUMENT.
It is probable that this psalm was written while David was yet
one among Saul's courtiers. 1 Sam. xviii. Bythner seems to inti
mate a similar opinion, and Bishop Horne is not unfavourable to it.
As the third psalm spiritually symbolises the open revolt of anti
christ against Messiah predicted in the second psalm, so this
fourth exhibits the opposition to Messiah presented by that large
section of His covenant people who refuse to seek their happiness
in dependence on His word, after the manner of the ungodly man
in the first psalm. 1.
Hear me in my deep distress,
Author of my righteousness !
Often hast Thou set me free,
Now through Christ I call1 on Thee !
2.
Chiefs !2 how long will ye despise
Him, Who all my glory3 is —
Thinking happiness to meet
In what only proves a cheat ]
1 See the note on v. 9 of Ps. vi.
"' v. 2. " O ye sons of men." literally " sons of the chief man," to wit,
Saul. In the East to this day, the principal adherents of a leader are
called his sons.
3 Jer. ix, 24. 2 Cor. x, 17.

PSALM THE FOURTH.

Know ye how God dignifies
One who on His grace relies 1
On me God bestows his care,
Ready to receive my prayer.
4.
Be it, that at holiness
Flesh will chafe,4 yet why transgress 1
In night's stillness conscience heed,
And from pleasure's chase recede.
5.
Wash you, make you clean5 within,
Learn obedience to begin ;
Then with sacrifice draw nigh,
And on Israel's God rely !
6.
Where can one good thing be seen %
Ask the many in their spleen —
Lord ! do Thou the light impart
Of Thy face unto my heart.
7.
This one good6 hath taught me joy
Night and day without alloy —
They with corn and wine and oil
Being nourished the while.
8.
By Thy peace within my breast
I can lay me down and rest ;
Safe with Thee to ope mine eyes
In what morning7 I arise.
4 See Ps. xxx, 12, on the words " not be silent." Anger or chafing of
the flesh at the hardness of God's requirements is apt to overtake faithful
men unless they watch and pray against it. See Rom. xi, 2. Matth.
xiii, 21. 5 is_ £; 16. prov. xv, 8. Matth. v. 23—4.
6 Micah vi, 8. 2 Cor. iv, 3, 4. Ps. i, 1, 2.
7 Ps. iii, 5. xlix, 14. This reference to the doctrine or hope of the

10 PSALM THE FIFTH.
resurrection from the dead is that at which the Title points— a doctrine
which, though not made the subject of distinct revelation at the delivery of
the Law to Moses, was received along with others from the Patriarchs.

PSALM V.

TITLE.

Unto the Bringer of the Consummation, on behalf of her that
shall inherit. A Psalm of David.
In this interpretation of the Title, we follow the Septuagint ;
and in token of its applicability to the final struggle of the Church
with antichrist, we may, after Augustine, remark on the words
" bloody and deceitful man " (in v. 6), that the first persecution
of the Church aimed at driving Christians to idolatry by blood-
shedding : a subsequent attempt was made to accomplish the
same object by craft through the agency of heretics and false
brethren — and a third remains yet to be enforced with cruelty and
craft combined, when the Church shall again fall under one
master. — See his Discourse on Psalm ix, 27.
ARGUMENT.
I regard this psalm as having reference to some great strait in
David's life, when he had a momentous work to do, and felt his
inadequacy for the task ; felt too the scandal that would ensue to
God's cause (of which he was the champion), as also personally to
himself, were he through any error on his part to miscarry.
Accordingly, I suppose him to have prepared in his distress the
short petition (in v. 8) ; and to have devoted the verses going
before first to calling upon God, and then to suitable considerations
for stirring of himself up to lay hold on Him, (Is. lxiv, 7) — so
making as it were an oblation "of himself — and that he thus aimed
at offering the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man which
availeth much. (James, v. 16. Luke xviii, 1 — 8).
The shortness of the prayer, according to this conjecture, is no
argument against it ; since in great straits prayers are almost
always brief— being so worded as to express in the most concise
terms what one craves; the further pains being directed to the
offering of it in the worthiest manner possible.
In this sense, as it seems to me, David, after the invocation
(v. 1) pleaded that what he was about to ask was not what had at
first come into his heart (Eccles. v. 2), but had been carefully pre
pared. Now, too — what he had before in silence pondered — he with
further earnestness dwelt on in his urgent cry with uplifted voice

PSALM THE FIFTH. 11
(v. 2) ; fervently taking God for his God and his King, and pro
testing that he would habitually pray to Him.
Again, (v. 3) he made an oblation of himself by promising that
his first thoughts on waking should thenceforward be employed on
God before any other business — his voice should give utterance
thereto, to shew that he was not dozing; and to prove that it was
a prayer instead of a meditation, he would " direct it to God ;"
even as an archer resolved on not discharging his arrow at random
would aim at the object designed : his body also (so far as one yet
on his couch might do it) should be joined with his heart therein
for " he would look upward."
For a third argument whereby to stir himself up to calling upon
God he v. 4 — 6, reminds himself of the characters God hates,
that he may not verge in anywise by the frailty of the flesh to
wards such habits of mind — the wicked man — the evil one— the
foolish — the practiser of vanity or idolatry — the liar or mur
derer of souls, John viii. 44-^ the bloody man and deceitful, or
Slayer of bodies — the guileful.
Again, for a fourth ground of self-dedication he saith (v. 7),
"I also will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy
mercy" (Luke xviii, 13) —the house being so called in 1 Sam. i, 9,
24, and iii, 15, though it was the tabernacle or tent ; " and in
Thy fear will I bow myself toward Thy holy temple," i.e. the holy of
holies or chamber containing the ark and visible glory. See Exod.
xxv, 16 — 22, for the reason of bowing toward it. 1 Kings viii,
20. Dan. vL 10. "We see by v. 3, that worshippers in Israel
either looked upward or toward the temple ; but we only upward
to Jesus the true mercy seat and throne of grace— by setting His
name before us. Exod. xx, 24. 1 Cor. xii, 3. John xvi, 23, 24.
Then follows the petition in v. 8 : " The enemies" being those
that watched for his halting ; of which, in his zeal for God,_he was
apprehensive : and he describes them in v. 10. See Eom. iii, 13.
1.
Lord, to my words vouchsafe Thine ear,
No' hasty1 thoughts to Thee I'll bring ;
My cry attests the rev'rent care
Wherewith I'll pray to Thee, my King!

Soon as my mind from sleep is rous'd,
My praises Thou at dawn shalt hear :
Th' uplifted eye— the fervent heart —
Shall each its part in worship bear.
1 Eccles. v. 2.
(1)

12 PSALM THE FIFTH.
3.
With wholesome dread lest I from Thee
Decline, my God ! I'll mind me well,
In wicked men Thou'st no delight;
Nor evil tak'st with Thee to dwell;
4.
The fools shall ne'er'before Thee stand ;2
All the idolaters3 Thou hat'st; —
Destroy'st the liars ;4 — and the men
Of blood and fraud to punish wait'st.
5.
Nor will I public prayer forget;
But trusting in Thy mercies come6
Into Thy dwelling, and before
Thy mercy- seat my vows resume.
6.
Oh ! for Thy mercies' sake my God
Lead7 -Thou me in Thy righteousness ;
And since men for my halting watch,
Make Thy way plain before my face !
7.
No faithfulness is in their mouth ;
Within them all is wickedness ;
Their throat is as a hungry grave8
For dupes ensnar'd by their address.
2 1 Cor. x, 12. Ephes. v. 5. ; also, Ps. i, 5.
3 Deut. xxvii, 15. Ezek. xiv, 4. 1 Cor. viii, 4.
1 Eev. xxii, 15.
6 Gen. xv, 16. Is. xxx, 18. Rom. ix, 17—22, 23.
The Spirit who calls men to Christ, being with Christ the while, those
who yield to the Spirit in this matter are scripturally said to "come" rather
than " go" to Christ. Ps. xlii, 2. Luke ii, 16. Rev. xxii, 19.
7 v. 8. In the seven verses going before, the Psalmist may be considered to have
prepared himself by admonitory reflections for fervent utterance of his petition
in v. 8. A similar construction of a psalm occurs in Ps. xxviii. where v. 5.
contains the oracular response.
3 Augustine says that a grave, after having received its destined corpse, is
closed ; not so the deceiver's throat : it is an open sepulchre (Rdm. iii, 13) ever
craving more victims.

PSALM THE SIXTH. 13
8.
To ruin doom them, O my God !
Let them in their own toils be caught ;
In their transgressions cast them out,
Which they've 'gainst Thee profanely wrought.
9.
But let all those in Thee rejoice
Whom Thou hast with Thy Spirit seal'd ;
Since Thou Lord wilt the righteous bless,
And be on every side his shield.

PSALM VI.

TITLE.

To the Consummator, on instruments played with the hand (1
Sam. xix. 9), upon the eighth.
This, as is usually supposed, means " on the eight-stringed
lute," which had low tones corresponding to our base.
The word translated " consummator " literally means " one who
urges the continuance of a thing unto the end." This is usually
considered to have been addressed by David " to the chief mu
sician " as leader of the choir.
But with the encouragement given by the Septuagint (par
ticularly in the title to Ps. v.) it seems to me preferable (on the
supposition of David having written it) to conclude that by this
word he dedicated his psalm to that Divine Being Who was to
accomplish the work predicted.
This is the first of the penitential psalms, the others being the
xxv, xxxii, xxxviii, xl and xlix ; and we know by Jer. xxx, 8, 7,
that the true Israelites will be in great outward tribulation, if in
Christ rejoicing, up to the very day of the Lord's sending for them
to come into their own land ; so that special help may be con
sidered to be laid up for them in these penitential psalms against
that time, as well as general help for sorrowing servants of God in
all ages intervening.
ARGUMENT.
The Sixth is the first of the penitential psalms. It is thought to
have been written after David had sinned in the case of Uriah. It

14 PSALM THE SIXTH.
may be so, though .the Thirty-eighth seems to me more likely to
have been then written. One disadvantage of supposing that David
must have penned this psalm after commission of such grievous
sin is, that ordinary readers may tacitly conclude that this language
of David only becomes them if they have done some flagrant, and
scandalous sin — or otherwise not. Whereas there is no expression
to which David was in this psalm moved by the Spirit of Christ,
but what every true Christian will find occasion at one time or
other to make his own.
There being nothing within the psalm itself to suggest that it
was written with reference to the matter of Uriah ; and contain
ing, as it does, an intimation of David's being at the time sick
(v. 2) it seems preferable to suppose it written when to extreme
peril of bodily death had been recently super-added great depres
sion in soul at the thought of being cut off thereby.
Hezekiah's lamentation in Is. xxxviii, is equally plaintive, yet
we know that he had no special personal sin to deplore.

In wrath, Jehovah, chide1 me not !
Nor with Thy whole displeasure smite !
Jehovah ! see how weak I am,
And let me grace find in Thy sight !
2.
Heal me, Jehovah ! for strong pains
Sore shake my bones, and no less strong
My soul ! O smite not still ! I fail !
But Thou, Jehovah, know'st how long ! 3
3.
Return, Jehovah ! and infuse
Into my soul Thy quick'ning grace ;
And for Thy mercies' sake appoint,
That I in health may seek Thy face !
1 The Psalmist does not here refuse to be corrected (Is. i, >fi), which
would be contrary to the heart of one begotten of God (Heb. xii. 5 — 8.
Prov. iii, 11, 12. Deut. viii, 5) ; but only deprecates correction beyond
measure (Jer. x, 24). And the plea is the more pathetically urged in dutiful
exaltation of God as a Father, because of knowing that God could indeed
consistently with His covenant in Christ according to strict justice suffer
His whole displeasure to arise (Ps. clxiii. 2, cxxx, 3), only that for Christ's
sake He will not. Heb. vi, 11—20. Ez. xxxvi, 37.
2 1 Cor. x, 13.

PSALM THE SIXTH. 15

Once that my tongue were stiff in death,
No more could it the praises sing3
Of Thy great love ; once in the grave
My heart no thanks to Thee could bring!
5.
Exhausted by my groans I lie,
And (so my conscience writhes) perspire
In streams upon my couch all night ;
While scalding tears my eyelids tire.
6.
Begone ! desponding fears of wrath —
Ye workers4 of iniquity —
I hate ye. Hail! ye words Divine,
Which tell me of benignity.
7.
Jehovah hears my tearful moan !
Jehovah at my suit relents !
Jehovah alway will receive
The prayer5 His Advocate presents !

3 v. 6. Prolonged life is here desired for the worthy purpose of living to
the glory of God with that body and soul which otherwise could not be
engaged in praising Him during the sleep of death — though the spirit
should. — John ii, 26. Ps. xlix, 15. xxxi, 6. Hezekiah prayed in a like
strain. Is. xxxviii, 18.
4 The Psalmist appears to have been on his sick bed communing with
God. I conclude therefore that by " enemies " he meant the vain thoughts
under which he was labouring, agreeably with his language in Psalm cxix,
113 — 115, where the " vain thoughts " maybe concluded to be " the evil
doers," because of leading those that harbour them into sin against God.
We are not to suppose that any express revelation was communicated to the
Psalmist which occasioned the instantaneous transition from despondency
(in v, 7) to lively hope (in v. 8) ; but that by the teaching of God's Spirit
(Ps. xxv, 12 — 14), he was enabled to call to mind and possess in his soul
the power and comfort of God's promises.
5 v. 9. Of the three terms in Hebrew here used for prayer, the last, as
Bythner observes, literally means supplication through an advocate to a
judge ; according to Job's aspiration in xvi, 21, and ix, 32, 33, agreeably
wherewith he himself was made a type of such an one in ch. xlii, 7, 8.

16 PSALM THE SEVENTH.
8.
Be shame the lot of all my foes,
In sore vexation let them pine ;
Or to a better mind be brought,
And learn to join their prayers with mine !

PSALM VII.

TITLE.

A Shiggaion of David which he sang unto Jehovah concerning
the words of Cush the Benjamite. ARGUMENT.
Kennicott and Thrupp suppose this psalm to have been com
posed on the occasion of Shimei's cursing David, 2 Sam. xvi,
¦5 — 8 ; for in v. 3 David refers to some particular slander, such as
that of Shimei insinuating that David had caused the death of
Saul. In verse 4 we have a reference to David's double refusal to
take Saul's life. Verse 5 involves a reference to Shimei's words,
" The Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom
thy son; " while in verses 15, 16, David's reasons for not being the
treacherous character that Shimei represented proved descriptive
<of Shimei's own end. Compare too 1 Kings ii, 8, 9, and 39.

1.
Lord 1 on Thee do I rely,
Save me from mine enemy !
Lest, while none my soul defend,
Like a lion, he it rend !
2.
Lord ! If I this thing have done —
If this blood my hands be on —
If to one with me at peace
I have rendered injuries —

PSALM THE SEVENTH. 17

(Bather twice I spar'd the life
Of the man with me at strife)
Let him rend my soul and tread
In the dust my sacred1 head !
4.
Lord ! do Thou Thy might oppose
To the frenzy of my foes ;
And uphold me in the throne
Thou Thyself hast set me on.
5.
So shall Israel raise again
Bound Thee an united strain !
For their sakes do Thou on high2
Judge, and with my prayer comply.
6.
Lord! just judgment Thou wilt give
In Thy peoples' cause, who live
Close to Thee — then me redress
Meetly with my righteousness. 7.
Hasten Lord the promis'd hour,
When for evermore the power
Of the wicked Thou shalt curb ;
Lest the righteous he disturb.
8.
a Thou the hearts and reins dost try
With the strictest scrutiny !
Thee for my defence I have,
Who the upright heart dost save.
i v. 5. " Mine honour." 2 Sam. xix, 21. 1 Kings ii, 8.
2 v. 7. " Return thou on high." Mr. Thrupp observes : " The Jewish
Commentator Kimchi saith on this psalm, ' that when God does not notice
sins, He appears to descend from His judicial seat ; but when lie takes
cognizance of wickedness, He then appears to lift Himself up, and return
to His judgment throne on high.' " C

18 PSALM THE EIGHTH.
9.
Bighteous, Lord, Thy judgment is,
Though conceal'd from mortal eyes;
For the wicked doth provoke
Daily, if not feel, Thy stroke.
10.
When he will not turn, the Lord
Whets forthwith the glitt'ring sword;
Or the shaft of death is sped
'Gainst his persecuting head !
11.
He with schemes in guile conceiv'd
Travails, till by him believ'd
Bipe for birth ; but — brought to light-
Lo ! they mock his aching sight !
12.
He a pit in craft design'd
Digs of compass to his mind ;
But into it falls for meet
Share in his accurs'd deceit.
13.
To Jehovah I'll confess
In all times His righteousness ;
Whether bright or dark my days,
I'll unvarying sing His praise.

PSALM VIII.

TITLE.

To the Bringer in of the Consummation, concerning the wine
press. A psalm of David.
Agreeably with the interpretation of the Septuagint, this psalm

PSALM THE EIGHTH. 19
is here supposed to have been written for the service of God at the
season of treading grapes in the winepress.
This occurs in Palestine towards the beginning of the seventh
month of the Jews' sacred year, answering very nearly to our
October. This seventh month is the first of their civil year ; and, on the
tenth day of it, was the great day of atonement, when a reprieve
of the nation, for the year then entered on, was obtained through
the blood of the prescribed sacrifices (Heb. x, 3). Hence it
obviously prefigured the way in which the year of the Lord's
redeemed, as described in Is. lxiii, 4, should commence ; which
should be a day of tribulation to the Lord's faithful people, as also
of vengeance to His enemies.
The jubilee, when it recurred, commenced from that tenth day
of the seventh month of the sacred year.
That the Church is likened to a winepress is to be seen in
Gen. xlix, 11, 12. Is. v, 1 — 7. Lament, i, 15. Matth. xxi, 33 —
46. Rev. xiv, xix.

1.
O Lord ! our Lord ! throughout all lands
Thy Name is excellent !
Thy glory — high as heav'n.. o'er earth —
O'er heav'n 's pre-eminent \l
2.
Midst adverse hearts Thy pleasure is,
Babes2 should Thine heralds be —
That Satan's self success may own
Through such mouths due to Thee!
3.
When I Thy heavens — Thy fingers' work —
In night's still hours survey —
Thy stars in their own lustre bright,
Thy moon's reflected ray —
1 v. 1. Ps. cxviii, 16, — Prayer Book version.
2 v. 2. This is shewn to have been literally fulfilled in Matth. xxi, 15, 16,
but spiritually in Matth. xi, 25. xviii, 1—6, and St. Paul in 1 Cor. i, 27.
2 Cor. iv, 7. Is. lxii, 1—4.
c2

20 PSALM THE EIGHTH.
4.
I ask me what is man ] that Thou
To him should'st pay such heed,
As on unjust3 and just to send
All things Thou know'st they need ;
5.
Or, what the son of man? that Thou
Should'st visit and redeem
The race by ONE — the Word made flesh — 4
To make them heirs5 in Him!
6.
Destin'd with angels6 to consort —
Beneath them for a space'
Thou mad'st Him ; and on Him hast pour'd
The fulness of Thy grace!
7.
Beasts of the forest8 and the fold
Beneath His feet Thou 'st plac'd —
All birds that soar in air, and fish
That cleave the watery waste !
•" Matth. vi, 31, 32. 4 Heb. ii, 14. Ephes. v, 25—27.
K Heb. ii. 11. Phil, ii, 6. Rom. viii, 17. Gal. iv, 7.
* Luke xx, 36.
7 v. S. All the sons of Adam were made lower than the angels, but
only those whom the Father had given to the Son from before all eternity
(John xvii, 2) can be said to have been for a short space lower (Heb. ii, 7) ;
since they alone are to be made equal to them. This is done for them, not
as yet in themselves, but in Christ ; when they are viewed as His members.
John viii, 36. Luke xvi, 12. Hence the propriety of its being said in this
psalm that He was, rather than they were — made lower than the angels.
Adam himself needed to become one of the spiritual seed of his greater
Son, before he could be an heir to the promises he had forfeited by dis
obedience. But the psalm testifies that he, if a babe in Christ, shall
inherit the throne of glory, 1 Sam. ii, 8. Job xxxvi, 7, to the silencing
the least appearance of boasting on Satan's part, that he had frustrated
God's design in aught that He had originally purposed for man on this
earth. The Millennium — " the world to come " Heb. ii, 5, is the time
for God's vindication of His truth in this particular.
8 v. 7. Compare herewith Gen. i, 28. Matth. xxviii, 18. Heb. ii. 9.
Is. xxiv, 23.

PSALM THE NINTH. 21
8.
O Lord, our Lord! throughout all lands
Is Thy Name excellent!
Thy glory — high as heav'n- o'er earth —
O'er heav'n 's pre-eminent!

PSALM IX.

TITLE.

The title of this psalm may be rendered (after, the Septuagint)
" To the Bringer in of the Consummation on the death of the
Son. A psalm of David."
ARGUMENT.
The subject of this psalm is by various commentators, ancient
and modern, shewn to be identical with that of the Tenth, where
with in the Septuagint version it forms one composition. In con
firmation of this conjecture it is to be observed that the Tenth
psalm has no title of its own in the Hebrew, but is only separated
from it by a Selah.
Mr. Thrupp traces a further link of union between the two, by
shewing that by the structure of the Hebrew verses an acrostic
may be seen to run through the two, though there are several gaps
in the sequence of initial letters. " In the Ninth psalm each verse,
with some irregularities, begins with a fresh letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, while in the Tenth the remaining half of the Hebrew
alphabet appears, though more defectively, in the initial letters of
the alternate verses."
I suppose this Ninth psalm to treat of the mystery of
iniquity working in communities, societies, or cities of men, whe
ther in the city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt (Is. i, 10.
Hos. xi, 1. Rev. xi, 8) or in the cities of the Gentiles after they
had been incorporated with the Church of God : while I suppose
the Tenth to treat of the culmination of the mystery of iniquity in
the man of sin, the idol prophet (Zech. xi, 1 7) in Jerusalem alone
at the time of the end.
In support of this opinion I observe " cities " are mentioned
v. 6 and "nations" in v. 17 of the Ninth psalm; but in the

22 PSALM THE NINTH.
Tenth psalm, one "wicked" man is stigmatised throughout, and
the scene of his wickedness is " the Lord's land," v. 16. Zech. v. 8.
One grand source of strife within the Church of God through
out the Mosaic and Christian dispensations has been, and must be,
the question — " How shall man be just with God ? " Job ix, 2.
Hence in these psalms were foreshadowed the sorrows which those
within' the Church, who trusted in God's promise alone concerning
the Saviour for justification, should suffer from opponents on
this point through their misguided zeal for God (Rom. x, 2),
and desire for ascendency, as a Church, over all civil power.
Matth. xxi, 38. John xi, 49, 50.
1.
With my whole heart I'll praise Thee, Lord !
Thy wondrous works I'll magnify ;
I'll choose Thee for my great reward ! *
And chant Thy Name,2 O Thou Most High !
2.
My foes in terror backward roll'd,3
Shall at Thy presence fall and die ;
For Thou'lt my cause4 and right uphold,
Who sitt'st to judge, enthron'd5 on high.
3.
The Gentiles' cities6 Thou hast chid,
The wicked7 down to torment hurl'd,
Their names hast in oblivion hid,
And of their havoc rid the world.
1 Gen. xv, 1. 2 See verse 10.
3 In the case of Jesus this was literally fulfilled. John xviii, 6.
4 v. 4. I suppose David to sing these psalms unto God, v. 4, (under the
guidance of Christ's Spirit) through the personal interest he felt in what
should be achieved by his Son and what his Son should sustain. In 1
Chron. xvii, 17 is an instance of David thus making his Son's inheritance
his care, so as to be (v. 4) "his right and cause."
6 v. 4. According to Ps. xi, 4 : The Lord's throne is in heaven. To
this Jesus appealed (John xix, 11), and though His Father took judgment
away in His humiliation, until He had died (Acts viii, 33) ; yet how soon
did He rise up to vindicate His righteousness, on His having finished the
work given Him to do !
6 Is. xxix. xlvii. Dan. viii, 13. ix, 26. Rev. xvii. xviii. Matth. xxiv, 23.
1 2 Thess. ii, 8. Bev. xix, 20.

PSALM THE NINTH. 23

The Lord8 for ever shall remain !
His throne for judgment ready stands ;
Laws for the Gentiles He'll ordain,
To guide them in their several lands.
5.
Till then th' oppress'd will He receive ;
For those that know Thy Name, in Thee
Will rest their trust, Who ne'er dost leave
The souls, which seek Thee steadfastly.
6.
The Lord, who dwells9 in Zion, praise !
His deeds extol ! Who when of blood10
He takes account, their cry repays
Who humbly in His faith have stood ;
7.
Imploring11 each " Do Thou, O Lord,
Have mercy on me, and from grief,
Which those, by whom I am abhorr'd,
Heap on my head, vouchsafe relief !
8.
Though, if I'm 'neath their hate to die,
I trust Thee from death's gates to bring
Me up, that to Thy glory I
In Zion's12 heavenly gates may sing ! "
8 v. 7. By " The Lord " I here understand Him whom David called
" his Lord." Matth. xxii, 42 — 5. The original favours this interpretation,
for this throne is to be distinguished from that in verse 4. That being in
present use — this only ready for use at the appointed time (Ps. ex, 1),
although the Son had meanwhile to be brought by His enemies to the
gates of death, v. 13.
9 v. II. After that " judgment" referred to in v. 8, the Lord will dwell
in Zion. Then shall messengers be sent forth to rule over the Lord's
servants among the Gentiles. Ps. xiv, 36, 17. Is. xix, 24 — 5.
10 v. 12. Ps. exxxvii, 8, 9. Rev. xvii, 6. xviii, 24.
11 v. 13. Augustine suggests that the cry of the humble is contained in
the I3th and 14th verses. Bishop Horsley follows this suggestion.
" v. 14. Gal. iv, 26. Rom. xi, 26. Heb. xii, 22. Ps. 1, 2—6. Matth.
xxiv, 30.

24 PSALM THE TENTH.
9,
Their pit themselves, must Gentiles own,
' Has trapp'd — their net themselves has caught !
The Lord is by His judgment known,
Who to men renders that they've wrought.
10.
The wicked down to hell He'll cast ;
Yea, nations that apostatise ! 13
This doom, by saints believ'd, at last
Shall meet their long-expectant eyes !
11.
Arise, O Lord, lest man prevail !
The Gentiles 'fore Thy face14 arraign !
Whereat the residue15 may quail,
And know themselves to be but men !
13 v. 17. 1 Tim. iv, 1. 2 Thess. ii, 3. Rev. xix, 20,
14 Matth. xxiv, 31. 15 Acts xv, 16, 17.

PSALM X.

1.
Why standest Thou, O Lord, far off?
And midst distress Thyself dost hide ?
The wicked1 at Thy poor doth scoff,
And think to slay them in his pride.
2.
Let him with his in their own snares
Be caught, who of his heart doth boast ;
And with Thy land2 his bribes prepares
For souls in this world's gain engross'd.
1 v. 2. By "the wicked" I here understand the " idol shepherd " of
Zech. xi, 17, whom I identify with " the little horn " in Dan. vii, 9. xi,
36—39. 2 Thess. ii, 4. John v. 43.
2 v. 2. Daniel xi, 39 compare with v. 16 of this psalm.

PSALM THE TENTH. 25

Through pride the wicked, slighting God,
Upon himself alone relies ;
Heedless of wrath Divine, the rod3
He spurns, and scouts his enemies.
4.
At heart he boasts that no reverse
Shall e'er his impious4 aims defeat.
His mouth he opens with a curse,
Beneath his tongue he hides deceit.
5.
Throughout Thy hamlets he contrives,
In courts of rich ones secret snares,
To rob the guileless of their lives ;5
His eye upon Thy poor ones glares.
6.
With fraud and cruelty combin'd ;
The poor within his grasp he'd get ;
As lion now to spring inclin'd —
As fowler now to spread his net.
7.
Low bows he down in hopes the poor
May (as his strong ones urge) admire
A king so humble ! vainly sure
God ne'er will an account require !

3 v. 5. Mieah. vi, 9. Job ix, 34.
4 v. 7. Matth. xxiv, 24. Dan. viii, 12. xi, 36.
5 v. 10, Dan. viii, 25. Augustine and Jerome say, an innocent man is
slain when ensnared into the commission of sin. The courts here men
tioned are literally " courts having grass in them " and so " the courts
of rich men," as the Septuagint translate. It may here be indicated that
the idol prophet will introduce his own Sheiks to administer justice
throughout the land according to his laws, rather than the Mosaic.

26 PSALM THE TENTH.
8.
O Lord arise I Thy hand stretch out !
Thy humble saints avenge ! 6 for why
Thy notice should the wicked doubt?
Or else, Thy will to judge deny?
9.
Thou surely mark'st his lawless mind !
And for his deeds wilt him requite !
Search7 out his band, till Thou shalt find
None left alive for Thee to smite!
10.
For ever8 and for ever, Lord,
In Thine own land9 art Thou the King !
On all the Gentiles10 there that warr'd
Didst Thou condign destruction bring !
11.
Lord ! Thou didst stand far off, to fan11
Thy saints' desire ! Thou dost prepare
Their hearts for Thee, that by this plan
Thine ears may hear their fervent prayer;
6 v. 12. Luke xviii, 7.
7 v. 15. In Jer. 1, 20 as Ainsworth observes, the sins of God's people
being sought for are not found, because of His mercy in pardoning them ;
but here, of the wicked, they are not found because of TTi> judgment in
consuming the doers of them. Ezek. xxiii, 48.
8 Literally "for the hidden age and eternity." Ps. xii, 7. xxviii. 9.
xxxiii, 11. 9 v. 16. Deut. xxxii, 8, Is. viii, 8.
10 This " idol shepherd " being one of the Gentiles, as well as the King
of the North that comes against him, Dan. xi, 40, and the multitudes that
subsequently rush to that land, " desolate and without inhabitant," (Is. vi,
11. xvii, 12, 13. Joel iii, 9—14. Rev. xix. 17—24) for the purpose of
founding their empire there under Messiah. See Ps. I.
11 v. 17. This verse contains that solution of the inscrutable dealing of
God producing so much perplexity in the psalmist's mind in v 1 . See
Matth. xv, 28. 12 James v. 16.

12

PSALM THE ELEVENTH. 27
12.
T' award the orphan recompense,13
And of oppressors rid the meek;
That o'er the earth none sprung from thence14
Their spite on saints may longer wreak.
13 Luke xvi, 25. Prov. xi, 31 and verse 14 going before.
14 y. 18. After Adam fell from original righteousness he drew down
on himself the emphatic testimony that his lower element had by nature
become dominant in him ; where God said, Gen. iii, 19, " Dust thou art
and unto dust shalt thou return." Hence throughout the Scripture, man
in respect of having been taken from the earth at first, is said in regard
to his natural condition, to have it of the earth, as his mother. See
Job. i, 21. 1 Cor. xv, 47. Hence " a man of the earth " is an unre-
generate and unrenewed man, as opposed to one who by faith in Christ
having become dead to the things of this world is " an orphan in it and
poor ' while having God for his Father. John xiv, 18.

PSALM XI.

TITLE.
To the Bringer in of the Consummation. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
This interpretation of the title requires that there be shewn in
the psalm itself some reference to the bringing in of Messiah into
His Kingdom. ^
Now, David waiting for his kingdom in the days of Saul was
an acknowledged type of Messiah still waiting for His.
The time in David's life to which this psalm points I take to be
indicated in the first verse by his being bid " Flee as a bird to the
mountain." For in 1 Sam. xxii the King of Moab is recorded to
have granted an asylum to David's parents, v. 3. This place of
refuge I take to have been " the mountain " referred to. The
expression was probably a proverbial one founded on Gen. xix,
17. Thus I account for the plural " your " and the singular
" thou " in the first verse of the psalm.
The king of Moab was apparently chosen by David, not ap
pointed by God, for a protector of his family. Hence some of
his unprincipled adherents, perceiving in him this token of fear
(1 Sam. xxii, 2) counselled him to do the like himself, in defiance
of the Lord's command by Gad, v. 5 bidding him remain in the
land of Judah.
This was a very small area ; and any one without faith in God
might well doubt whether he could there in safety assert his claim

28 PSALM THE ELEVENTH.
to be Saul's successor, while Saul was on the alert after him,
and one of David's own lawless followers might denounce him
,to Saul. What is said about the foundations being overthrown
refers, as I would say, to Saul's slaughter of the priests, solely on
David's account, v. 18 — 23. For thus the very fountain-head of
the administration of justice was subverting it.
Advice like this from David's adherents to him, the Pharisees
gave to our Lord in Luke xiii, 31. But He, like David in this
psalm, intimated that His Father, on Whom He depended for the
Kingdom, could baffle all Herod's designs to put Him to death
before the appointed hour, though He should remain in the land.
David himself through fear and despondency eventually went out
of the land of Judea (1 Sam. xxvii) ; but Jesus, his Antitype,
never. Mark viii, 24. 1.
On Jehovah I rely,
He's my sure defence ! then why
Use ye to my soul this word,
" To your mountain flee, thou bird !
2.
" For their bow the wicked bend,
" Keady from the string to send
" Arrows with a stealthy art,
" And transfix the just one's heart !
3.
" Order's here thrust off its base —
" Justice made to wrong give place —
" Can the just then in this land
" To his cause1 a witness stand ? "
4.
Know the Tabernacle's space
For Jehovah's holy2 place !
For His throne, the heav'n ! His eyes
Thence men's counsels scrutinise!
1 v. 3, Ps. ix, 4.
2 v. 4. The reference here made to the Lord's Holy of Holies on earth,
as also to His throne in heaven is agreeable with the custom of that day
— which was to pray sometimes " towards the mercy seat," for the reason
given in Exod. xxv, 22. See Ps. v, verse 7, and sometimes towards
heaven. See Ps. v, verse 3.

PSALM THE TWELFTH. 29

True! the just much woe sustains —
But the Lord his lot ordains.
Wicked men on wrong intent,
He reserves for punishment. 6.
On the wicked at the end,3
Lo ! Jehovah snares4 will send ;
Blasting storm and fiery rain
Fill the cup they then shall drain !
7.
As Jehovah righteous is,
Justness loves He to devise ;
Stedfastly His face regards,5
Equity's approv'd awards.
3 In rendering this v. 6 I have inserted "at the end" agreeably with
the title ; because it is indisputably to be gathered from Holy Scripture
that this general punishment of the wicked shall only then be inflicted.
4 Is. xxiv, 17. Luke xxi, 35.
5 The word for "regards" is, as Bythner observes, used for a prophet's
gaze into futurity.
The psalmist had already in verse 5 repelled the insidious counsel
offered him, by calling to mind God's heed to the righteous and the
wicked. This however might be manifested only in a future state ; where
fore at verse 7 he further strengthens himself in dependence on God, by
calling to mind God's essential righteousness — saying that it is » pledge of
His ordinarily over-ruling events in this life to the encouragement of
piety and confusion of wickedness. Judges i, 7. Luke vi, 38.

PSALM XII.

TITLE.
According to the Septuagint the meaning of it is " Unto the
Bringer in of the Consummation concerning the eighth."
For the meaning of " the eighth " see Ps. vi.
ARGUMENT.
It has been supposed that David wrote this psalm upon evacu
ating Keilah. 1 Sam. xxiii. At Keilah he received Abiathar, the
sole survivor of the priests of Nob, massacred on his account by
Saul at the instigation of Doeg, xxii, 22.
Several incidents in that narrative give a pointed significance to
expressions in this psalm. The slaying of the priests might in-

30 PSALM THE TWELFTH.
deed be termed the making of " godly men to cease in Israel."
And, that this slaughter was brought about with much dissimu
lation on.Doeg's part must be evident. For when Doeg heard
from Ahimelech, how he had given David the bread lawful for the
priests alone to eat, he must have concealed his real intent under
the guise of approbation at Ahimelech's regard for the necessities
of Saul's chief officer. On no other ground can the absence of
apprehension in Ahimelech about what he had done to David be
accounted for. See 1 Sam. xxi, 1, and xxii, 14.
Doeg's destruction of the city of Nob by fire answers to the
devastation and sighing referred to in verse 5 ; and the expression
" vile one " in the last verse, may well be taken to stigmatise
Doeg, who was probably installed into David's post at court.
David, in his patient endurance of the slanderous misrepresen
tations of his conduct infused by Doeg into Saul's mind, and his
refraining of himself in dependence on God's word, until in the
course of nature Saul should die, and vacate for him the pro
mised throne, was the type of his greater Son and Lord in
patiently waiting for His kingdom — first under the calumnies
brought against Him in His own person in the days of His flesh ;
and thenceforward in the persons of His saints, even unto the
close of our age in the kingdom of heaven ; when He will come
to be on earth the acknowledged King of kings and Lord of lords.
1.
The godly man in Israel's thousands ceaseth,
He ceaseth, O Jehovah ! and there fails
The righteous 'mongst us ; only he, that leaseth
With double heart and flatt'ring tongue, prevails.
2.
All flatt'ring lips Jehovah surely quell eth,
Each boastful tongue that doth its license vaunt ;
That ev'ry mention of God's fear repelleth,
Asking " who me in use of mine shall daunt ? "
3.
Now, for my sorrowing servants' devastation,
For the deep sighing of my poor, Lo ! saith
Jehovah, I'll arise with indignation,
And free them from the boasters' noisy breath ! l
1 v. 5. "Him that pufteth at him," an expression evidently counte
nancing the reference of this psalm by the Septuagint to the times of

PSALM THE THIRTEENTH. 31

'Tis spoken ! pure the words are of Jehovah !
Of unmix'd truth ! in no part can they fail !
As silver to be tested seven times over —
Therefore let no man's heart within him quail.
5.
Thou, O Jehovah, from this generation,
Thy poor shall for the hidden2 age protect ;
Though now the vile one gains exalted station !
And miscreants every where their heads erect.
antichrist. See Ps. x, 5. The expression is here taken as one akin to
those in Is. xxxvii, 6 and 29.
2 v. 7. " Le-6lam." This word properly means " time hidden,'' and
when compared with its use in Ps. xxviii, 9, and xxxvii, 28, this hidden
time seems to me to denote the age of rest remaining for the people of
God. Heb. iv, 9. The sentence so explained means that the generation of
meek ones shall be continued in Israel unto that age, that they may inherit
the land.

PSALM XIII.

TITLE.

The title of this psalm may be translated after the Septuagint,
" To the Bringer in of the Consummation. A psalm of David."
ARGUMENT.
A comparison of this title with the contents will lead us to
conclude that this psalm was designed for the use of Christ's
people who patiently wait for the fulfilment in Him of God's
promises unto the Church, whether at the time present or in the
latter days. A reference to Is. xlix, 14, Luke xviii, 7, and Eev.
vi, 10, will vindicate this interpretation of the psalm before us.
1.
How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou me forget ?
How long wilt Thou from me Thy face avert ?
How long shall I with searchings rack and fret
My soul, like one that mourns a deadly hurt ?

32 PSALM THE FOURTEENTH.
2.
How long shall mine oppressor me despise ?
O my strong God, Jehovah ! bend Thine ear,
And answer ! let Thy light revive mine eyes,
Lest into death I sink through gloomy fear.
3.
Lest mine oppressor also me insult,
And say in triumph, " 'Gainst him I've prevail'd ;"
While my incessant troublers shall exult,
Because in constancy to Thee I've fail'd.
4.
But on Thy tender mercy have I leant ;
On Thy salvation firmly set my heart !
And to Jehovah songs I'll now present
For bounteous dealings far past my desert.

PSALM XIV.

TITLE.
To the Bringer in of the Consummation. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
The fool in this psalm (who is not one deficient in mental
ability but in honesty of heart) may be perceived by the language
of the first verse to be of a two-fold sort : one " corrupt and
abominable in his works," the other " not good." Here is im
plied that men evince their ungodliness of heart, either by thirst
for pleasure, or by self-righteous zeal for God ; both equally dis
regarding or ignoring what He by revelation had in Patriarchal
times made known to them. —
Firstly : as^to the inbred corruption of fallen man. Gen. iii, 3
— 19. vi, 5. viii, 21.
Secondly : as to the deliverance from inbred and actual sin to
be freely given them by God for faith in His promise concerning
the seed of the woman which should bruise the head of the
serpent. Gen. iii, 15. iv, 26. vi, 3 and 18. Ps. i, 1 and ii, 12.
xxxiii, 1, 2.
During Patriarchal ages the remnant, which in humble acknow
ledgment of their own inbred corruption, laid hold on the hope

PSALM THE FOURTEENTH. 33
set before them by faith in the promise, became more and more
slender ; while men in general at sight of the sin prevalent in the
world without immediate punishment, either fell into doubt whe
ther there could be a supreme God ; arguing that if there were,
He would not let sin be so rampant, and thereupon took advantage
of their doubt to indulge with impunity (as they thought) their
thirst for animal gratifications — or else, in zealous opposition to
the aforementioned class, they by the light of natural religion
(Rom. ii, 14, 15) contended, that God would indeed judge men;
but that owing to the faint tokens discernible in daily life of His
purpose so to do, they laboured under a heavy disadvantage in
persuading their fellow men to behave themselves wisely and to
do good : saying (see the arguments of Job's friends) that men
were by nature quite competent to practice virtue if only they
would ; and that if the sanctions of it were but clearly revealed to
men, these alone would through the force of right reason and
conscience (Rom. vi, 20) constrain men, without doubt, to live
virtuously. Hereupon, as is intimated in verse 2 of the psalm before us,
God in due time vouchsafed clear light concerning His eternal
principles of justice ; and not only so, but enforced it by all the
sanctions of reward and punishment in this life that such men
could desire, as had sanguine hopes of the improveability of human
nature by teaching alone.
God vouchsafed this light concerning His justice in the moral
law ; delivering it to a nation which He bound to Him by the
strongest ties wherewith man could be bound to his Maker —
namely, by those of gratitude for deliverance from bondage, and
establishment in a land which was the glory of all lands ; their
continuance in which was to depend on their keeping His law.
moral and ceremonial, which should be their righteousness.
Deut. vi, 25.
Now, therefore, there not only was the most explicit revelation
authoritatively made to the chosen nation, concerning God's heed
to the things done on earth (though wickedness might at times
go through life unpunished) ; but, further, on the nations round
about indirectly descended corroborative testimony to the same
great truth, so far as the knowledge of it had been retained by
them through the traditions of their fathers. Rom. ix, 1 7. Yet,
even in God's favoured nation (Rom. iii, 19) this testimony to
the rule of righteousness — instead of deterring the one class of
fools from calling in question, at heart, the existence of God
through propensity to self-indulgence : or deterring the other
from fond aspirations according to natural religion after the
improveability of human nature — only proved (what God had
intimated from the time of the fall by having freely given
man the promise of the Saviour, and of renewal by His Spirit
D

34

PSALM THE FOURTEENTH.

(Gen. vi, 3) that man, when unmistakeably knowing what God wills
him to do, and promises to reward him for doing, lacks the men
tal elevation and constancy needful for always choosing it, and
abiding in it under the changes of this mortal life. Rom. v. 6.
This was proved to the consciences of those among the Israelites
that had a zeal for God according to natural religion — who tried to
keep the moral law in their own strength ; yet when conscious
of inability to escape from condemnation for breaking it, they
did not, as honest men, give up the attempt, and despair of the
improveability of human nature by mere teaching, (which was
what God intended to effect in them by that revelation of His
law) ; but, as if He would overlook their breaches of the law and
determination to make it void through their traditions and narrow
interpretations of it, Matth. xv, (which was to behave as fools)
they devised a way of their own for being just before Him ! These
all " turned aside " (verse 3) ; and for their foolish pride were no
less filthy in God's sight (Prov. xv, 8, 9, Is. lxiv, 6) than the
unclean livers. Such of them too as were by office teachers,
placed in Moses' seat, by claiming a righteousness of their own
before God according to the holy, just, and good moral law, while
conscious of working iniquity, (Acts xxiii, 1. Kom. vii, 9. Matth.
xx, 22. Mark xii, 32, 33,) and by bringing many of their country
men over to their own opinion (for no other motive than that they
might make merchandise of them, Luke xvi, 14 — 18, as if there
was no account to be rendered to God,) rather than " call upon the
Lord " (verse 4) to bestow on them His righteousness (which they
surely might have done no less than the publican, Luke xviii, 13,
had they seen fit), were " fools " in the sight of God, though in
the world deemed " wise." 1 Cor. iii, 18.
Moreover, their dishonesty of heart was what they could not but
have been conscious of ; because of not having that tranquillising
persuasion of righteousness and innocence before God, which their
system of doctrine required them to claim before men. Verse 5.
Their mode of expounding the law did not unfold the way of
peace with God. Rom. iii, 17. Luke xviii, 14. On the contrary,
in the very occasions and places where they took credit for justify
ing righteousness, they were "in great fear" (verse 5) before
God, as described in Micah vi, 6, 7 ; where (as it is added in Ps.
liii, 5) " no fear was," that is to say, in respect of those humble
believers in the promise concerning Christ for righteousness, whom
these (that were zealous for God according to natural religion)
despised as fools ! God alone can bring a man peace concerning
righteousness, by dwelling within the heart ; and He dwells
in man's heart through faith in the promise concerning Christ.
Ephes. iii, 17.
These believers are begotten of God through faith in that pro
mise, and become " a generation of righteous " persons.

PSALM THE FOURTEENTH. 35
These have been persuaded of their being by nature fools, and
in need of salvation, to be obtained for asking it of God in the
appointed way and for calling upon Him.
These were his " poor" (verse. 6) — not in pocket but in spirit —
and this their " counsel ;" by which they meekly confessed them- '
selves fools, that they might become wise — abiding in the midst of
the self-righteous ; and through God indwelling, " in no fear ;"
while self-righteous ones held up them and their counsel to trie
scorn of the public, because (as they said) when they had faults,
" they made the Lord their refuge." Verse 6.
But who, continued the psalmist, is to redeem Israel as a nation
from the load of sin brought upon him by all these fools in the
midst of him? (Deut. ix, 14). "Who, but God? Wherefore those
Israelites are not wise who ridicule their brethren for making the
Lord their refuge — pretending that such make the Lord " the
minister of sin." Far otherwise ! — such make the Lord their De
liverer from sin, Who doth already save His people, that believe
in Him, from all their sins (Titus ii, 11 — 14), and will also, in a
day yet to come " redeem Israel" fully — even in this mortal body
— from the power of sin. For "in the regeneration when the
Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory" (Matth. xix, 28),
Israel shall be brought into enjoyment of " the redemption of the
body" (Luke xxi, 28. Rom. viii, 23. ICor.i, 30. Is. lx, 31), and
shall rejoice before the Lord the King to His glory and their un
utterable gladness. Verse 7.

PSALM XIV.

1.
No God1 — saith in his heart a fool —
Thus some their faith in God record,
Not living by a better rule,
But sleighting His revealed word.
1 v. 1. " No God"— that -is, don't let roe hear of Him— not saying this aloud,
but in the heart; knowing public opinion in his time to be the other way. Then
follow the words " corrupt are . they," when we might hare expected to find
' corrupt is he.' Who then was by the psalmist included with the fool, so as to
be antecedent to " they ?" Clearly those inv. 4-6 stigmatized by the Spirit of
Christ who though having faith in God so far as to teach in His Name, honoured
Him not as God, by heeding His revealed word. If ' the fool' acted on the
impulse of his own heart in attempting to live without thought of God; these
did so too, in attempting to justify themselves before Him in their own strength.
This school of self-righteous ones resembled the Pharisee in Luke xvm. 9, who
had faith in God, without repentance and charity : whereas the Publican^ had
all three— being one of the " poor" in spirit, who " called upon Jehovah, and

36 TSALM THE FOURTEENTH.
2.
These censurers, altho' apart
FrOm fools in words, in deeds are one ;
Their lip- talk's vain without the heart,
Good deeds by none of these are done.
3.
On Adam's sons, down from the sky
Once did Jehovah1 look; as though,
If with His law they would comply,
And after God2 would seek, He'd know.

He found them all in morals naught —
Found all astray together gone —
Who'd serve God, or would not, in thought;
Not one good thing did — not e'en one.
" made Jehovah their refuge.'' This psalm as accurately describes the habits of
thought characterising tliese schools, among those blessed with the light of revealed
truth at this day, as in the psalmist's : and we are persuaded that man shall
never outgrow the Scriptures, nor be permitted to " shame the counsel of the
poor." 1 v. 2. The different name for God is here to be noted. In v. i. "Elohim" —
God the Creators: here, " Jehovah" — God, the Redeemer— implying, that this
second Divine Person in the Triune God was commissioned by the Father to
bring into reconciliation unto Himself all that now in creation had through sin
in heaven or earth become derogatory to God the Creators. Col. i. 20. Jehovah
is that Divine Person, by Whom Elohim, according to covenant before the
foundation of the world, declares Himself. John i. 18; Rev. xiii. 8; 1 Pet. i.
20; Ephes. i. 4. Hence the propriety of the phraseology " The Lord — Jehovah
— looked down from heaven to see." as in Gen. xviii. 21.
2 God, i.e. Elohim— God, the Creators. Now Jehovah's looking down from
heaven seems to me a reference to His delivery of the Law of Moses. In that
law is not a word about the fall of man or the need of the new-birth before
fallen man can perform its commandments acceptably ; but it speaks to him, as
if he remained in the condition in which he was at first placed upon earth by
Elohim. Jehovah brought it so to Moses from Elohim. Yet by Jehovah's
word of promise in Genesis was brought from the same Elohim after the fall of
man, and promulgated to Israel by Moses, the doctrines of man's fall, and need of
new- birth. Gen. vi. 1-6. Now the moral law, worded as it is, if arbitrarily taken
up by the man to whom it said " Thou shalt not have so and so," " Thou shalt
not do so and so," in the persuasion, pleasing to his own heart, that he could so
use God's grace as to keep this law meritoriously, proved more glaringly than
ever before, that man " would not understand and seek after God — Elohim — the
Deliverer of that law. Rom. iii. 1 9. For Jehovah, the Messenger of the cove
nant, Mai. iii. 1, called fal'.en men in Genesis on Elohim's part to do this through
faith in the word of promise brought to Israel by Moses, equally with the law.
Hence St. Paul in Rom. v. 20 saith " The law entered alongside" (the antece
dently delivered promise, which was "of the fathers," Joh. vii. 22); and again
in Gal. iii. 19 "it was added."

PSALM THE FOURTEENTH. 37
5.
Ye wicked doers, is no dread1
Of My law's sanction 'mongst you all,
That ye My people eat,2 as bread ;
And none upon Jehovah call?
6.
Great is your fear of wrath, the while
God in the righteous seed abides.
The poor man's counsel- ye revile,
Himself who in Jehovah hides.
7.
Who'll out of Zion3 Israel give
Salvation ? Let Jehovah bring
His people back, t'ward Him to live, —
Jacob shall laugh, aye Israel sing !4
1 v. 5. They who pronounced that man a fool who said in heart, no God !
are here pointedly asked, have you no knowledge ? — in the emphatic sense of
the term in Psalm 9-10 — a knowledge only gained by faith in the word of pro
mise concerning Christ — a knowledge leading to quick understanding in the tear
of the Lord.
2 'Eat' is here used as in Acts x. 13 ; where Peter is bid " Arise, slay and
eat;" that is, By the sword of the Spirit demolish men's systems of false confi
dence concerning righteousness ; and, when shamed out of the counsel of their
own hearts, incoporate them, as one who eats them, to thy soul's refreshment,
in the new and spiritual brotherhood, of which thou art builder, in My mystical
body. See note to v. 7 of pjtft. Joh. viii. 34-36. After a like manner those
self-righteous possessors of belief in God stigmatised in v. 4, (James ii. 19) are
said to " eat up God's'' — Elohim's— people, because making their hearts sad
(Ezek. xiii. 22), by driving them to discontinuance from "calling on Jehovah;"
or from " stirring up themselves to lay hold on Him." Is. lxiv. 7.
The plurality denoted from the beginning to be in the one God (Deut. vi. 4.)
is in this psalm, as in the second, mysteriously indicated to be a plurality of
Three. The Holy Ghost— the Speaker— holds up Jehovah to men's worship, as the
way for man's justification before Elohim. 1 Joh. v. 7.
3 v. 7. The salvation, that is given, comes not of man's merit, but God's
mercy. It is also predicted to be "given out of Zion;" that is, when the
Saviour should be born from the grave at His resurrection in Zion: Is. xxvii.
16; Acts xiii. 33; and again when appearing there a second time to rescue His
remnant. Zech. xiv. and Is. i. 9.
4 The whole nation as one man. Is. lx. 21.— That latter generation. Ps.
lxxviii. 4.— "The Israel of God." Gal. vi. 16.

PSALM XV.

TITLE.
A psalm of David.
AEGUMENT.
The relation of this psalm to the preceding one becomes, upon
reflection, very manifest. In the Fourteenth, the psalmist had

38 PSALM THE FIFTEENTH.
testified that those alone in Israel were righteous " who called
on the Lord," and " made Him their refuge :" but that in offence
here'at others, who ran into the folly of justifying themselves be
fore God for their conventional obedience to His law, " shamed
the counsel of the poor who made the Lord their refuge ;" appa
rently alledging that this persuasion of God's readiness to forgive
those that penitently called on Him with faith in His promise
concerning Christ (Luke xviii, 13, 14. Matth. xviii, 21, 22), dis
couraged, or at least slackened men's zeal in the pursuit of virtue ;
and emboldened the unreflecting, in carelessness of living.
So far then, as the Fourteenth psalm goes, it truly testifies that
"the righteous" own themselves beholden unceasingly to the
Lord's mercy for justification ; but it says nothing about their
obligation " to maintain good works" and "to be rich toward
God," which is indeed required of them. Micah vi, 5 — 8.
Something therefore on this point was requisite to correct the
false impression of the self-righteous, which they founded on the
fact of those that sought justification by faith only, being always
calling upon God for pardon, 1 John i, 8 — 10. Accordingly this
Fifteenth psalm, which sets forth how he that is justified must also
be sanctified in order to abide in the tabernacle not made with
hands, and eventually see God's face in peace, is clearly a sup
plement to the preceding one, and an important link in the
vindication of God's plan for " giving salvation to Israel" (Ps.
xiv. 7), by justification through faith only. See Art. xi. of the
Church of England,

Jehovah ! I would tell,
How he thai 's justified,
Shall in Thy temple dwell,1
Shall on Thy hill abide !2
2.
Who uprightly3 doth walk
And deal in righteousness ;4
Who with his heart5 doth talk
Of Thy truth's plenteousness.
1 John xv, 3. xiii, 8 — 10.
2 Luke xvi, 12. Heb. xii, 14. 1 Pet. i, 13—20.
3 4 An epitome of duty to God and to our neighbour. Titus ii, 12, Luke
xx, 25. * John v, 40. Luke xix, 42.

PSALM THE SIXTEENTH. 39
3.
He gads not with his tongue6
To do his neighbour hurt;
What's in his brother wrong,7
He never doth distort.
4.
To him the vile appears
But vile,8 if e'en extoll'd ;
While one, the Lord that fears,
He doth in honour hold.
5.
What he by solemn oath9
Hath pledg'd himself to do,
To finish he's not loth,
Though it procure him woe.
6.
He seeks no usury,10
Nor doth for gain impeach11
The innocent: 'tis he
The heavenly hill shall reach.
1 Cor. xiii, 4—6. 7 John iv, 18. xxi, 15—17.
8 Mark xii, 14.
9 John viii, 55. Ephes. i, 3 — 7. Rev. xiii, 8.
10 2 Cor. viii, 9. " Heb. vi, 17—20.

PSALM XVI.

TITLE.

A Golden psalm of David. That is " precious as gold or gra
ven in gold." Ps. xiv, 9.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is one of those in which the Spirit of Christ within
David moved him to seek in his greater Son the full attainment of
God's promises.

40 PSALM THE SIXTEENTH.
On the one hand by bearing in mind what St. Peter saith in
Acts ii, 30, 31, we can safely reject the opinion of those who
alledge that David had not his Son here in view.
On the other hand to suppose, with Horsley, that throughout
this psalm he spoke in the person of his Son, as the Priest of
God, makes him put into the mouth of Christ words (at verse 4)
which would ill comport with His exalted dignity : whereas in
the mouth of David himself they might be taken to express a
laudable adherence to the God of Israel amidst the defection of
many among his subjects.
From wha,t St. Peter saith in Acts ii, 30, about David's know
ledge concerning his Son, as expressed in this psalm, having been
founded on God's oath to him, I gather that the psalm must have
been written subsequently thereto. Now, in 2 Sam. vii, 12, 13,
the time of that oath having been given is recorded.
It was when David was firmly seated on his throne in the city
of Zion, and at rest from his enemies. Being at that time minded
to undertake the building of a temple unto the Lord, a message
from God was brought him by Nathan forbidding him. Never
theless God promised to build for David a house, and to give him
a Son in Whom his kingdom should be established for ever, though
David himself should sleep with his fathers.
It is clear that this psalm contains light on that subject in addi
tion to what had been revealed at the time mentioned in 2 Sam.
vii, 12, 13. For St. Peter in Acts ii, 30, testifies how David, at
the time of writing this psalm, was aware that even this promised
Son in Whom the kingdom would be established for ever, should
first die and be raised up again, that He might reign therein.
2 Tim. ii, 8—12.
I suppose then that David in respect of himself, under the guid
ance of Christ's Spirit, uttered the whole psalm.
Taken in this sense, its words in David's mouth admit of an
easy and natural interpretation ; at the same time they betoken
the purest perception of his having no cause for self-exaltation
thereupon before God (Rom. iv, 2) : as though God, for the main
tenance of His own glory, in any wise needed David, even when
His glorious purposes for mankind should only be realised through
the Son to be born of David's loins.
I therefore understand him as saying in verse 1, " Preserve me,
O God, for in Thee do I put my trust," (as to the accomplishment
of all for which Thou hast taught me to look). Then, in verse 2,
I consider that David looks emphatically to his Son for attainment
thereof, according to God's word ; making special mention of His
Divine nature under the name of " my Lord : " and, adding,
that it was not for any augmentation of His own happiness
that He would work out this deliverance, but for that of His
Israel, destined during His millennial reign to live on earth in a

PSALM THE SIXTEENTH. 41
paridisiacal state ; and for that too of " the excellent ones " in the
separate state, whom David himself looked to join. Ps. xxvii, 13,
xxxix, 7. Luke ii, 29. Phil, iii, 20. Heb. xi, 10.
Then in verse 3, I understand David, by way of warning his
countrymen, to have execrated the folly of those who, owing to
pressure of trials in this life would draw back from such glorious
hopes in his Son after death, through fond expectation of present
help from other gods. Of this impiety Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii, 22,
23,) was subsequently a signal instance. I then suppose David,
(at verse 5) to have said (still with reference to what had been told
him about his ownself falling on sleep, and not only him but his
Son too,) " The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and my
cup ; Thou maintainest my lot." Here through the greatness of
the inheritance in the spiritual body (1 Cor. xv, 44) — after the
first resurrection — it seems to me David looked away from that,
then in his possession in the Lord's land : even as did Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Ps. xxxix, 12, Heb. xi, 10. And, like as God
had said to Abraham, in Gen. xv, 1 : " Fear not Abraham! I am
thy shield and exceeding great reward;" so did David speak in
the fifth verse.
Here then it was that he seems to me, in this psalm, to have
been a type of his greater Son ; Who, though born a King, with
the like cheerful acquiescence in God, looked off His sorrows in the
flesh to the joy set before Him. John viii, 54, 55. Heb. xii, 2.
Matth. xxvi, 39.
When David went on to say, in verse 7, " I will bless Thee
O Lord, Who hast given me counsel," I consider him to have
referred to Nathan's message, as above explained ; and when
speaking of " his reins having instructed him in the night season,"
I suppose him to have referred to that additional illumination con
cerning the death and resurrection of his Son from the grave, so
unfolded to him by God, as to make him writhe in his reins with a
sense of pain thereat (Ps. xviii, 1), which he probably received
about the time of his writing this psalm.
He then goes on to say, at verse 8, " I have set the Lord
alway before me," by Whom St. Peter explains that he meant
Christ (Acts ii, 25), through Whom he should attain the inherit
ance : " for Thou, mighty God, wilt not leave my soul to hell or
the pit " — here speaking of his own soul undoubtedly — though,
as St. Peter admonishes us, doing so because of his eye to that
of his Son, the Christ, which should likewise go down to the
grave and rise up thence. But, when he added, " Neither wilt
Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption," David, as Peter
saith, made distinct reference to his greater Son, for Whom should
be wrought the special miracle of seeing no corruption in the
grave, although He should descend down into it.
But I contend that the text further implies David's hope not

42 PSALM THE SIXTEENTH.
only of being himself raised from his grave, though seeing corrup
tion (Acts xiii, 36), but also of all the sanctified being so, through
this Holy One Who saw no corruption, with Whom they are mys
tically one Seed) Ps. xxv, 13. Is. liii, 10. Gal. iii, 16) ; saying
in conclusion : " Thou O God, wilt shew me the path of life, —
fulness of joy in Thy presence, — the pleasures for evermore."

1.
Mighty God!1 while here I live
Thy protection to me give !
On Thy never-failing word
Lean I with devout accord;
To Jehovah from the heart
Saying, Lo ! my Lord, Thou art !
2.
All the goodness2 promis'd me
Brings no increase unto3 Thee !
To Thy saints on earth it is
That the promise speaks of bliss,
And to th' excellent4 above,
Waiting5 for it, whom I love.
3.
Long in sorrow they shall pine,
Who to other gods incline !
Far let the libations be
Of their victims' blood from me —
Far their idols' names from once
Gaining of me utterance.

1 The different names of God employed here by the psalmist have been
carefully retained.
8 In verse 2, " goodness " is to be understood in the sense of prosperity.
In 2 Sam. vii, 28, David describes, what God confirmed to him with an
oath, by the very word used here.
3 The difference between al " in addition unto," and le " to " is pointed
and significant.
1 v. 3. The original word is addirei, a word in I Sam. iv, 8, applied by
the Philistines to the gods supposed to be tutelary protectors of Israel,
after the manner of their own deified heroes.
« Heb. xi, 39, 40.

PSALM THE SIXTEENTH. 43

Of my goodly heritage6
Thou, Jehovah, standest pledge !
Only through Thy strength may I
Reach that glorious destiny ;
And I magnify the grace
Which assigns me such a place !
5.
Thee, Jehovah, will I bless,
Who upon me didst impress
Words of counsel,7 and likewise
Night by night my reins chastise ;
Calling me to holier aims
Than my flesh by nature claims.
6.
For such hopes — surviving death —
I (whose life is but a breathf
Do by lively faith always
Set Jehovah 'fore my face !
On my right hand bides He near,
Lest I should be smit with fear.
7.
Hence my heart is glad ! my tongue
Hence extols His Name in song !
Hence my flesh in hope shall rest,
Waiting till by Him address'd9
Once again, and bid up high
Mount to immortality!

0 v. 6. A reference to the "goodness" in verse 2, though a different
form of expression. 7 2 Sam. vii, 5.
8 James iv, 14.
9 Job xiv, 10—15. xix, 25—7. 1 Cor. xv, 52.

44 PSALM THE SEVENTEENTH.
8.
For Thou, mighty God, in hell
Wilt not leave my soul to dwell ;
Nor Thine Holy One commit
To corruption in the pit :
But for His hast laid in store
Joys, with Him,10 for evermore !
10 1 Thess. iv, 14.

PSALM XVII.

TITLE.
A prayer of David. ARGUMENT.
That part of David's history given in 1 Sam. xxiii, 24 — 29, has
on many points good ground to be deemed the occasion of his
writing the psalm before us. But, as he had not then spared Saul
in the cave, and the third verse of this psalm seems to me to ad
mit of reference to that magnanimous act on David's part, the
circumstances in 1 Sam. xxvi, 25, seem a preferable occasion for
the composition hereof.
For, by the first verse of ch. xxvii it appears that David soon
afterwards felt worn out by Saul's untiring hostility ; and this
psalm expresses, at verse 15, such elevation of mind above the
trials of life as would lead one to retire from a harassing contest,
so that David might be supposed therein to have been content
with aiming at a share with other saints at the resurrection, in the
heavenly throne of which Hannah sang, (1 Sam. ii, 8, and Job in
xxxvi, 7, with which compare Rev. iii, 21). For into this mystery
David had an insight (Acts ii, 30). And like as Abraham, though
told that God would give him the land, found that God would
only do this through his seed, and accordingly looked to the
heavenly city (Heb. xi, 16), so too may David under the pres
sure of affliction.
Thus his spirituality of mind may have conduced to his retire
ment from Judea, though God had (1 Sam. xxii, 5) bidden him
stay therein. In this respect he fell short of his Antitype, Who
never went out of the land, though sore pressed, and compelled to

PSALM THE SEVENTEENTH. 45
retire into its utmost coasts (Mark vii, 24). But we should not do
justice to David, if we did not rather consider how, as a type of
Christ, in this respect he approached near his model ; though, in
common with every other person appointed in like manner to be a
type of Christ, he came not up to the perfect standard of obedi
ence found in Jesus as a man. Phil, ii, 8.
The area in which David was required by^ God's command
to live and maintain 400 men (1 Sam. xxii, 2 — 5), or rather 600
(xxvii, 2), without any act of rebellion against Saul or outrage on
his subjects, was small, and the duty arduous. He appears to have
employed his men as a volunteer corps against the inroads of
border tribes. See 1 Sam. xxv, 5, — 16.

Do Thou, Jehovah, hear the right !
Unto my cry incline Thine ear!
This pleading1 through Thine Advocate,
Heed, which I urge with lips sincere,
2.
From Thy majestic seat on high,
Just judgment in my cause assert ;
Let Thine all-seeing eyes discern
What in this strife meets my desert.
3.
My heart towards my foe Thou'st prov'd,
And search'd by night how 'twas inclin'd;
Yea hast me in the furnace tried;
And, as 'gainst him, no fault shalt find.
1 This is the. word for " prayer " used in the ninth verse of Ps. 6, and
there shewn to mean, according to Bythner, ' prayer through an advocate.'
Thompson, in " The Land and the Book," at p. 313 of vol. 1, says :
' Everything is done by mediation. Thus the centurion sent unto Jesus
elders, beseeching Him that He would come and heal his servant.' The
command of God in Job xlii, 7, 8, shews at what an early age the revealed
will of God in this respect may have served to originate this custom in the
Patriarchal families, and in an especial manner wm mode of access unto
God— after the ^aspiration of Job in vi, 17. ix, 2—33. xix, 25. God's
appointment of Abraham to intercede for Sodom (Gen. xviii, 17—33) was
to the same purport ; as also the Priesthood of Melchisedec, whose office
was for the same merciful end with the Aaronic, but unlimited. Heb. v, 1
—10. Melchisedec being supposed to be Shem.

46 PSALM THE SEVENTEENTH.

One word shall not my mouth escape,
To speak2 of God's anointed ill ;
Only to shun his wrath, I've pass'd
Long days in paths3 from hill to hill.
5.
For Thy word4 bound me to the land !
Hence, robber-like, o'er wilds I've stray'd;
But, lest I slip, be every plan
With Thy highways5 consistent made!
6.
Hear me, while I upon Thee call ;
O God ! a special6 kindness shew !
Thou Who by Thy right hand dost save
Those, that for Thee provoke a foe!
7.
E'en as the apple7 of an eye
Preserve me ! yea, with wings outspread
O'ershadow me! and from the throng,
Intent to slay me, hide my head !
8.
They, with their lusty feeding stout,
Boast how their prey in hand they've got;
E'en now my steps they've compass'd round,
Scanning the ground to track the slot.6

* Exod. xxii, 28. Acts xxiii, 5.
3 v. 4. The Hebrew word literally means " robbers' paths, out-of-the-
way tracks." 4 v. 4. 1 Sam. xxii, 6.
0 v. 5. Literally " roads bearing marks of much traffic, — with ruts of
waggons," — hence figuratively, honest dealings. See Is. xxxv, 8.
6 v. 7. Literally " make conspicuous Thy loving-kindnesses."
' v. 8. A petition singularly expressive of the security enjoyed by the
petitioner through trust in God. As also is the following one, — for the
wings to be extended over him to hide him from Saul's sight, who is sup
posed to be with his company hard by. Compare Ps. xxxvi, 7. Matth.
xxiii, 37.
8 v. 11. So explained by Dr. Adam Clark who deems the figure one

PSALM THE SEVENTEENTH. 47
9.
Like lion on the prey in reach
That instant ready-crouch'd to seize —
Or like young9 lion set on watch
To spring at prey from 'neath the trees.
10.
So lurks my foe hard by ! Oh rise,
And baulk, Jehovah, his design !
My soul snatch from this wicked one,
Who is in truth a sword10 of Thine —
11.
From mortal men — which are Thy hand,11
Jehovah !— from these mortal men —
Devoted to this world, and who
Their portion in this life obtain —
12.
From mortal men — whose earthly bent
With dubious12 blessings Thou dost sate —
Who've numerous heirs, and leave to babes
The residue of their estate —

taken from hunters looking intently on the moist ground for the impress of
the hart's feet, technically called " the slot."
9 Amos iii, 4. 10 Is. xxxvii, 26.
11 This pointed mention of mortal men being God's hand, seems to me to
contain a reference to Saul's act on returning from slaughter of the Amale-
kites, as described in 1 Sam. xv, 12, on which occasion he assumed the
standard of " a hand" in token that he had wrought the will of the
Lord. Exod. xvii, 16.
12 To me there appears to be here indicated a distinction between God's
Providential gifts for this life, (which like the sunshine and rain He sends
whether men be evil or good) and His grace, which brings renewal unto life
eternal. Like as in James i, 17, "every good gift" is to be distinguished
from " every perfect gift."

48 PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH.
13.
But as for me, Thy face I yearn
Array'd in righteousness13 to see ;
When in Thy likeness I awake,
I too with that shall sated14 be !
13 v. 15. Rabbi Menachem explains this righteousness to be God's own
in Christ, saying in his Commentary on Lev. x, as Ainsworth observes :
" There is no coming before the most High and blessed King without the
Shechinah, i.e. the Divine Majesty of God in Christ." This is David's
doctrine in Ps. xxxii, 1, 2. Also seePs. iv, 1.
14 Here is in Hebrew the same word as in the preceding verse for
" sated."

PSALM XVIII.

TITLE.

To the Chief Musician. A psalm of David, the servant of
Jehovah, who spake unto Jehovah the words of this song in the
day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies
and from the hand of Saul ; and he said.
AEGUMENT.
David, on looking retrospectively at God's mercies through his
past life, was here moved by the Spirit of Christ within him
(2 Sam. xxii,) to make it the occasion of praise to God.
But soon his contemplation was carried forward to far greater
things God would yet do for him, Who had spoken to him of his
house for a great while to come. 1 Sam. vii, 16. What God
would do for his Son and Lord, David regarded as done to him
self; not merely by identification of his name with that of his
greater descendant, but by spiritual union with Him in the taber
nacle whereof be used to speak (Ps. xxv, 13. xxvii, 5. xxxi, 20),
into which he was conscious of being built (Numb, xii, 7), so that
what should be done for his Son should be truly done for David
himself (Ps. xvi, 10, 11). Hence in verse 4 he at once antici
pates in spirit the resurrection of his Son from the grave (Acts
ii,24) , andapparently passes on to the contemplation of the Second
Advent of his Son and Lord in the glory of His Eather (Matth.
xxiv, 30. 2 Thess. i, 7. Eev. xix, 11—21. Is. xxx, 25—33. Heb.

PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH. 49
iii, 3—15). The Father doing all this in behalf of His Son (Is.
ix, 7. 1 Cor. xv, 25).
The following verses to the end of the psalm apparently point to
that coming age of the kingdom of heaven as the time for their full
accomplishment. For though St. Paul has testified to the initiatory
fulfilment of verse 49 in Kom. xv, 9, yet in Rom. xi, 15, he
speaks of the plenitude thereof (Acts xv, 16, 17). David
apparently dwelt rather on his Son's advent in glory than in hu
mility ; though this too seems touched on in verse 17.
A faithful commemoration on the believer's part of the deliver
ances already wrought through Christ for him will, as in David's
case, have the effect of stirring him up to anticipate what greater
ones God will still achieve for him in Christ, that he may reign
with Him. 2 Tim. ii, 7—13. 1.
With tenderest yearning, O my strength!
Jehovah ! I'll on Thee repose
My love ; on Thee, my Bock ! my Tower !
My Rescuer thro' th' eventful length
Of my past life ! my God, in Whose
Strong fort I'll to my latest hour
2.
Intrench me ! my protecting Shield !
My Horn,1 wherewith alone to have
Salvation ! and my rocky2 Nest !
My every wish to Thee I'll yield —
Jehovah ! so wilt Thou me save
From all my foes, and give me rest !
3.
Girt was I by Death's cords3 around,
By floods of lawless miscreants scar'd ;
Hell's cords begirt me! Death's foreclos'd!
Then to Jehovah in profound
Distress I cried; from heav'n He heard
The sorrows by my plaint expos'd.
1 v. 2. The emblem of a strong, plenteous, and triumphant salvation.
See Luke i, 69. . 2 See Numb, xxiv, 21.
3 v. 4. This noun (see marginal reference) is contained in the verb
" loosed " of Acts ii, 24. E

50 PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH.
4.
Then quak'd the earth, the mountains high
On their deep bases reel'd, upheav'd
In horror at their Maker's wrath !
His nostrils steam'd tempestuously,
Flame from His mouth the welkin cleav'd,
And scatter'd burning masses forth !
5.
Upon the bended heavens down
Descending, He beneath His feet
Deep darkness for a pathway cast!
With man's form, made to be His own,
Rode He on cherub's pinions fleet,
Fleet as the pinions of the blast!
6.
In darkness chose He secrecy !
Dark waters and thick clouds (as tho'
T' encamp) for His pavilion took!
Save that in front the brilliancy
Of dazzling lightning darted through
The gloom, and heav'n with thunder shook !
7.
Jehovah peel'd His thunder forth !
The Highest gave His awful voice !
Thick follow'd hail and burning coals.
Against the recreant* host on earth,
Launch'd He His shafts to quell their noise
And hurl to hell's abyss5 their souls !

4 v. 14. SeePs. xxi, 11.
8 Is, xxiv, 21. xxx, 33. Rev. xix, 11—21,

PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH. 51
8.
Then were the secret channels found
Of waters ! and a chasm vast
'Neath this world6 civilis'd was spied !
Bar'd, O Jehovah, at the sound
Of Thy dread fiat — at the blast
That from Thy nostrils rent it wide!
9.
Meanwhile He from above for me
Will send,7 and out of waters8 deep
Forth draw me ; and my Rescuer be
From my o'er-mastering enemy,
And foes that would unalter'd keep
The day of my calamity !
10.
Jehovah '11 be my only stay !
And thro' His love will set me9 free,
To serve10 afresh with ampler power ;
My righteousness11 will He repay,
And for my strict integrity
Requite me with the destin'd dower.12
11.
For I Jehovah's ways have kept,
Nor from my God profanely swerv'd,
But 'fore mine eyes His judgments set;
Ne'er from His law aside I stept,
But, as before Him, it observ'd,
Lest sin should o'er me vantage get.
6 v. 15. The word here used for " world " is translated by a word used
by St. Luke in chap, xxi, Verse, 26, apparently applied to the area of the
four empires seen in Nebuchadnezzar's vision. Dan. ii, 31.
7 v. 19. All these verbs are in the future tense.
a David thus speaks of Christ in the persons of His seed that are
in the world. Matth. xxiv, 31. Eev. xii, 15. John xvii, II. Acts ix, 4.
Col. i, 24. 9 j>s> ii 3 4.
10 See verse 28 of this psalm, andPs'. xvi, 8—11, and Prov. xxiv, 20.
" Phil, ii, 5—9. lls Ps. ii, 8.
E2

52 PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH.
12.
So shall Jehovah me endow
According to my righteousness,
And my hands' cleanness in His sight !
To one that's merciful wilt Thou
In mercy answering shew Thy face ;
With th1 upright shew Thyself upright ;
13.
With pure ones Thou wilt pure appear;
And with the froward froward be ;
For Thou th' afflicted souls13 wilt save !
The haughty looks Thou'lt tame in fear,
When Thou'lt my lamp14 relight for me ;
Yea, with Thy beams illume my grave !15
14.
For I'll a throng by Thee burst16 through ;
By my strong God a wall17 o'erleap !
Mark ye how perfect is God's way !
Jehovah's word is found most true,
A buckler which from harm will keep
All those that take Him for their stay.18
15.
Who but Jehovah is a Godl
Or who beside our Lord a Rock ?
'Tis God that me with strength doth hedge ;
Through Him the path of truth I've trod ;
My feet, like hind's, 'gainst ev'ry shock
Firm plants19 He on the cliffs sharp edge.

13 The mystical body of Christ in this mortal life.
14 1 Sam. ii, 9. Prov, xx, 27. xxiv, 20.
16 Ps. Ixxxviii, 12. Matth. xxviii, 3.
Ps. xxii, 16. n Ephes. ii, 14.
18 v. 18. " Ps, lxxiii, 18.

PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH. 53
16.
My hands for combat Thou dost train,
Mine arms a bow of bronze might break;
The shield of Thy salvation too
Thou'lt give ! Thy right hand will maintain
My prowess! and Thy guidance meek
Advance me to the honour due.
17.
For my steps under me a range
Far ampler Thou'lt assign ;20 nor shall
My feet the least incline to ship ;
My foes' track I'll pursue, nor change
That course till they beneath me fall —
Left, where they fall, a mangled21 heap.
18.
Girded by Thee with strength for war,
The rebels that Thy wrath provoke,
Thou'lt surely down beneath me throw;
For. Thou, the neck of all that are
My foes, hast destin'd for my yoke,
And I'll their hatred turn to woe.
19.
They'll cry, but without one to save22 —
Yea, to Jehovah they'll their cry
Uplift, receiving answer none—
Their host, (as dust a whirlwind drave)
I'll chase, or batter down, to lie
Like dirt for feet to trample23 on.

20 Is. ix, 7. Ps. ex, 1. 1 Cor. xv, 24—27.
« Eev. ii, 26, 27. 22 Prov. 1, 28—31.
» 2 Kings' ix, 34, 35. Is. li, 17—23.

54 PSALM THE EIGHTEENTH,
20.
Thou'lt from my people24 set me free,
And of the Gentiles25 make me Head !
Yea too, a people I've not26 known
Shall serve me, and spontaneously
Embrace my gospel, while thro' dread
My rule shall strangers27 feign to own.
21.
Soon shall those strangers fade away,
And from their coverts creep by stealth ;
(For grace alone can heal the heart).
Jehovah liveth! and I say
Be bless'd my Rock ! of my soul's health
Thou God ! above all praise Thou art !
22.
God will to me requital28 give,
The people's hearts will t'wards me draw,
Who 'midst all foes29 is my defence ;
Above all those that 'gainst me strive,
Thou'lt me exalt to raise me o'er
The man of fraud30 and violence !
23.
To Thee Jehovah then I'll bring
Amongst the Gentiles thanks31 decreed,
And Thy great Name in songs adore ;
For great deliverance to Thy King
Messiah, and His chosen seed
Dost Thou vouchsafe for evermore.

* Ps. ii, 3. » ia, xUX( 6. as Is- lv> 6- ps_ xxiij 3Q_
« Eph. ii, 12. Is. lx, 12. ss lBi Uilj llf
sa Ps. ex, 2. xxiii, 5.
30 Ps. x, 7, 8. xxxiii, 10—16.
31 Rom. xv, 9. xi, 15. Acts xv, 16, 17.

PSALM THE NINETEENTH. 55
PSALM XIX.

TITLE.
To the Chief Musician. A psalm of David.
AEGUMENT.
There appears to me to be a parallelism in this psalm : the first
part extending from the first to the end of the sixth verse, and
having for its counterpart the portion from verse 7 to 11. The
psalm closes in verses 12 and 13 with testimony to the effect on
the Psalmist's mind, produced by so much Divine glory. See Job
xlii, 5, 6. Is. vi, 5.
Parallelism is such an arrangement of a sentence or sentences
into two parts as provides in the latter a counterpart in some re
spect to the meaning of the former.
Instances of this arrangement are frequently pointed out in the
Psalms and Proverbs ; and it is made serviceable in divers ways :
Sometimes the first part is confirmed and heightened in the se
cond ;' at other times the latter is put in strongest contrast with
the former ; at other times some self-evident truth is set forth in
the former for the purpose of leading the mind to conclude the
like about the obscurer subject treated of in the latter. See Prov.
xvii, 3. xxvii, 3, and 21. xxv, 3. Amos iii, 8. An extended
parallelism similar to this in Ps. xix, is pointed out by Mr. Thrupp
. in Ps. xliv.
Accordingly, since by parallelism what is affirmed in the former
part must have its counterpart in the latter ; then in the psalm
before us, if tbe heavens declare the glory of G-od, so doth the law;
if the one hath its centre to which the several parts of the solar
system bear relation in their testimony to G-od their Creator ; so
hath the law its central object, Christ ; to which the several parts
bear a proportionate relation in their testimony to the glory of the
same Divine Author ; if the sun and its subordinate planets were
divided by God to every nation under heaven, so should this
law be.
But the law of Moses was never intended for all nations : one of
its provisions being that all to whom it was given should worship in
one place, to wit, Jerusalem. It was also to be followed by the new
covenant, (Jer. xxxi, 31 — 34) and could not in that sense be called
" perfect," as is this law spoken of in verse 7 of this psalm. See
Heb. vii, 19. "We may therefore rather conclude that " the law"
verse 7 was used in the sense of the " scripture," which con
ns the promise concerning Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost
ough faith in Him for renewal. Gal. iv, 30.
(1)

56

PSALM THE NINETEENTH.

In this sense our Lord used the word in John x, 34 with refer
ence to a passage contained in Ps. lxxxii ; also in John xii, 34 it
was so used by the Jews with reference to a passage in Ps. lxxii,
17 — 19 ; and by St. Paul in 1 Cor. xiv, 21 where he quoted from
1 Sam. x, 6 — 9.
When "the law" spoken of in verse 7 of this psalm is taken
to mean the revealed "W ord of God (including the Mosaic law), and
subordinated to the Spirit of life in Christ, all that is here said of
its being " perfect, converting the soul," &c, is in accordance
with the rest of the scripture.
Hence it appears that by the laws of parallelism (which doubt
less the Jews were well aware of), the sense put by St. Paul on
the fourth verse of this psalm, as predictive of the preaching of
the gospel to all the earth (Eom. x, 18) ought not to have ap
peared to the Jews of his day arbitrary. For, there is reason to
think that the psalm never was intended by the Spirit of Christ
to be used in any other sense than that authoritatively put upon it
by St. Paul's instrumentality ; the same sense may also have been
known by those that were taught of God in the times of the pro
phets, and in reality have been appealed to by St. Paul (in Eom.
x, 18) as the recognised teaching of the Church of the faithful,
that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Luke ii, 38.
1.
The heav'ns to God their witness bear ;
His handiwork their marvels are.
Day unto day this task transmits ;
And night to night the like repeats.
Nor voice nor gentlest breath of song,
Is heard their silent spheres among ;
O'er all the earth their line1 has gone —
Their beacon2 on all kingdoms shone.
2.
God 'midst their orbs the sun, for state,
Hath in a tabernacle3 set;
1 v. 4. The word in the Hebrew for ' line' literally meaning, ' a reed ' and
the reed being alike used for measurement and for music, the Holy Spirit has
used the word iu either meaning according to the subject in hand ; as here or in
Rom x, 18.
2 v. 4. "Words," Eng. Vers. Bishop Horne observes that the root of
the Hebrew term is used for expressing the meaning by signs (Prov. vi 13.
Job xxx, 9), where it meims the object of discourse. Hence it here means
" significant actions, operations." — Clarke.
3 Astronomers generally agree in reckoning the sun to be an opaque body
enveloped in a luminous fluid distinct from its own body.

PSALM THE NINETEENTH. 57
Which, like a bridegroom richly dight,
Beneath3 his canopy of light
Comes forth to run th' appointed length,
Exulting in unwearied strength.
Heaven's vault he traverses, and sends
His warmth to earth's remotest ends.
3.
God's perfect4 law, thro' Christ reveal' d,
Renews the hearts His grace hath heal'd ;
God's testimony5 faithful is,
And makes the simple truly wise.
God's statutes,6 based on equity,
Bring to the heart unfeigned joy.
God's pure commandment7 with its light
Assists the feeblest learner's sight.
4.
God's fear, twin sister of God's love,
Inclines the heart to things above.8
God's judgments9 His decrees fulfil,
Yet are they righteous all the while !
More priz'd than gold refin'd with skill !
Than honey, which the combs distil,
More sweet ! they teach for God regard,
And bring the learner great reward.
3 The literal Hebrew means "from under his veil." It was a sort of
canopy erected on four poles, which Jews held over the bridegroom's
head — and under which he continued during his progress.
4 Rom. xii, 2. It is here worthy of remark how every part of the law
has God for the source of its glory. God was in Christ reconciling the
world unto himself, (2 Cor. v, 19) ; and surely the Psalmist's mention of
his " Rockand Rescuer or Redeemer" in verse 14 denotes that his eye
was directed to his Lord and Son. Compare herewith verses 1 and 2 of
Ps. xviii.
5 The Hebrew term is derived from a root signifying " beyond," " for
ward." Thus the various types and promises refer to something beyond
themselves and point forward to the Lamb of God. — Adam Clarke.
6 " Precepts " — charges delivered by God for man's observance.
7 The " ordinance " or thing to be done.
B v. 9. Literally standeth up to perpetuity (Clarke), which is only true
of filial fear. Is. xi, 1 — 3.
9 "Decisions." This, as it seems to me, refers to the harmony between
God's predestination and Providential appointments ; more particularly

58 PSALM THE TWENTIETH.

5.
Lord! by this light my blame's immense,
Cleanse me from sins of ignorance ! 10
From deeds presumptuous me restrain !
Let not sin so dominion gain !
Then shall thy servant upright be,
And from the great transgression11 free.
Accept the worship of my heart,
Thou Who my Eock and Eescuer art !
those to be declared at the last day, which shall be found to harmonise
with His election of souls to be given to His Son before the foundation of
the worlds — yet will His righteousness in regard of rendering to every man
according to his works be conspicuous, (Acts xvii, 31). In this consists the
force of saying that these judgments are "truth," and righteousness as
well or equally," (Ps. xxxvii, 28) being "truth " in respect of His promises
in Christ to them that trust in Him ; and " righteousness," as giving to
all a recompence " according to their works " though not for them.
10 Sins of ignorance and presumption are similarly mentioned in combi
nation in Numb, xv, 27 — 36.
As a labourer, on setting out for his work before day-break, only at dawn
begins to discern inequalities in the land, ditches, miry places, &c, so the
Psalmist represents himself as made under the light of the glory of God
shining into his heart in Christ through the gospel (Gal. iii, 8. 2 Cor. iv, 4)
to detect his faults, and in self-abhorrence fly to his Redeemer for refuge.
I1 Apostacy. 2 Thess. ii, 3.

PSALM XX.

TITLE.

To the Consummator. A psalm of David.
This psalm is, as Mr. Thrupp observes, pre-eminently of a
typical character. Its full sense was doubtless intended by David
to culminate in the Messiah. From the time of Zion's true King
coming unto her " just and having salvation " all doubt as to the
import of this psalm was removed.
Messiah having offered His one accepted sacrifice for sins, is
now expecting till-His enemies be made His footstool; and though
Himself seated at God's right hand in heaven, is in the persons of
His members gone forth upon earth conquering and to conquer.
Those faithful members as one Church during this age of the
kingdom of heaven (see second Collect for Good Friday) ; but

PSALM THE TWENTIETH. 59
more especially at the latter end of it, when the Hebrew- Christian
Church shall have recQidgd her visibility, with a King at her head ¦
(Micah ii. 13), confident in the Captain of her salvation, and sure
of having all His petitions to His Father accomplished, shall in
the words of this psalm anticipate for herself a joyful career of
victory, beseeching the King of heaven and earth to hear her,
that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of His
Christ.
ARGUMENT.
The first three verses are supposed to represent the supplications
of devout Israelites in worship before the tabernacle in Zion, after
David the king had brought his offerings and burnt-sacrifice to
be presented by the High Priest.
Although these prayers in the first three verses may be con
cluded (as Scaliger quoted by Bythner observes) to have been
actually offered up before David's entrance on the work which he
had in hand, yet in the psalm itself they are brought into combi
nation with the thanksgiving in those of its close ; which purport
to have been offered up after the king's undertaking had been
crowned with success.
This would naturally ensue on the psalm being written subse
quently to David's return. For then he might commemorate the
offering up of the people's prayers before setting out, together
with the great encouragement from God he himself received in
that solemn service, at the time that he and the people were again
about to be assembled at the same holy place to render thanks in
the words of this psalm, and record their unalterable dependence
on the Lord's name.
After the word " Selah " (which is supposed to have denoted a
pause for solemn attention to what had been said,) we come to
the fourth verse ; which may, as Horsley suggests, be the oracular
testimony given forth by the High Priest (see 1 Sam. xxiii, 10 —
12) at the solemn service prior to setting out.
Then follows the fifth verse, which appears to be a comme
moration of the devout resolutions expressed by the Israelitish
worshippers toward their king, whom they regarded as the instru
ment in God's hand for their salvation (1 Sam. viii, 19, 20) ; while
the last clause may commemorate a loyal and devout salutation ad
dressed to the king himself: all which might have been uttered
in the first instance on retiring from before the tabernacle.
Then in the sixth verse is commemorated what is supposed to
have been the substance of David's full persuasion (whether or not
then uttered aloud,) at the time of his offerings and burnt-sacrifice
having been followed by the oracular response. So far we are to
suppose the psalm to commemorate the substance of what was

60 PSALM THE TWENTIETH.
actually done, and felt, and uttered by people, and priest, and
king, prior to setting out on the expedition in hand.
In the next verse, owing to mention being so expressly made of
chariots and horses as things not to be relied on, it is presumed
that the enemy did rely on them ; and hence a clue is found to
the event in David's life, on which the psalm was founded. For
from 2 Sam. x, 16 — 18 we learn that the Syrians came to the
succour of the Ammonites against David. The Syrians had many
chariots and horses, instruments and material for war which the
kings of Israel were by law forbidden to possess, (Deut. xvii, 16).
But God gave David the victory, as we learn by 2 Sam. x, 18, so
that he slew the men of seven hundred chariots and forty thousand
horsemen, and Shobach the captain of the host : in consequence
whereof the kings that had served Hadarezar with Hadarezar him
self did homage to David.
Accordingly the Israelites are supposed to have had the words
of thanksgiving (in verse 7) provided for their use along with
their king on returning to worship God before His tabernacle in
Zion. After this there appears to have been provided in the ninth
verse a form of words to denote what the people should say by
way of counterpart to what at verse 6 it is represented that the
king had said before going out to the war.
" Save Jehovah ! let the king hear, or as in verse 6, answer
us when we call." That is, so continue Thou henceforward to
grant the king's or Messiah's desires (even as Thou hast in the late
crisis) that he may be able, when we make our prayers to Thee on
such occasions as these, to bring us an answer after the manner in
verse 6 before going out.
Until the Consummation, when the kingdoms of this world shall
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, we have in
this psalm a model of the prayer which a people in mystical union
with their King in heaven shall offer to the Father concerning the
spread of His Kingdom on earth, that He may bring forth judg
ment unto victory.

Oh that Jehovah thee may hear !
The God of Jacob1 thee defend !
From out the sanctuary help —
From out of Zion strengthening send !

Gen, xxxii, 24 — 30,

PSALM THE TWENTIETH. 61
2.
Oh that thine offering may for thee
Before Him in remembrance rise !
And may He with acceptance look
Upon thy whole burnt sacrifice!
3.
Thy prayer in this thine hour2 of need
He after thine own heart will grant!
He all thy counsel will fulfil
According to His covenant.3
4.
In thy salvation,4 O our king,
Will we with all the heart rejoice !
And in God's name our banners . hoist ;
Jehovah hearken to thy voice !
5.
Now know I that Jehovah will
To His Messiah5 strengthening send;
And with His right hand's mightiness
Will him from heaven on high defend.
6.
Some will their chariots call to mind,
Some of their horses mention make :
But by the name of our strong God
Jehovah, we will courage6 take!
2 In the day of trouble. Verse 1.
3 1 Sara, x, 25— 27v.
4 That is, according to Mr. Thrupp, " salvation, of which thou art the
instrument to us."
" David in the first instance applied to himself this title ; but was aware
of its being further applicable to him as the type of his greater Son and
Lord, (see Ps. ii, 2) : while therefore the purpose for which David was to
be regarded as God's Messiah passed away with his natural life, that for
which his greater Son was to be so endures.
6 The same verb is to be understood before "chariots" and before
" horses " in this seventh verse, as before " the name." So De Burgh.
Exod. xxiii, 13.

62 PSALM THE TWENTY-FIRST. 7.
Down are they fall'n — but we erect
Outlast war's brunt ! Jehovah, save,
And for us always let the king,
What time we pray, Like answer have.

PSALM XXL

TITLE.
To the Consummator. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
Whether or not David, when moved by the Spirit of Christ to
indite this psalm, had for the occasion of it his conquest of the
Ammonites described in 2 Sam. xii, (which seems to me very
questionable) all commentators agree that a greater than David
was the grand object in view. " The King " (verse 7) was in a
preeminent sense David's Son and Lord. It seems to me preferable
to reckon this, like the Second, and the Twenty-second, among the
psalms exclusively applicable to Christ.
1.
The King shall in Thy strength delight,
In Thy salvation how rejoice !
On Him Thou'st His heart's1 wish conferr'd,
All that He sued for with His voice!
2.
Thou of Thy goodness2 dost forestall3
With timely succour all His need.
For His anointed head a crown
Of purest gold4 hast Thou decreed.
1 John x, 17, 18. Rom. iv, 25. Heb. v, 6, 6. ix, 15.
2 Ps. xxvii, 13. xxv, 13.
3 " Thou preventest Him," used by our translators as in the Collect for
Easter-day. The instances referred to may be taken to have been the pre
servation of Christ's bones from being broken (Exod. xii, 46) and the quick
ening of the Lord's body, and preservation of the blood and water from
His side — done for Him before His resurrection. 1 Cor, xv, 45, 46. John
xix, 34, 35. lJohnv, 6 — 9. John v, 21. Matth. xxvii, 52, 53.
4 Ps. Ixxii, 15. Matth. ii, 11.

PSALM THE TWENTY-FIRST. 63
3.
The life He ask'd of Thee Thou gav'st—
For time5 and for eternity !
Of Thy salvation He's made Prince ! 6
Thy brightness7 for the earthy8 eye !
4.
Him Thou on man's behalf hast set
To be for blessings9 alway sure.10
And through Thy countenance11 how vast
The gladness He'll by us procure !
5.
For in the Lord12 the King doth trust
To seat Him on the promis'd throne;
And He'll, Who sits on high,13 provide
That none shall thrust Him from His own.

5 Por " the hidden time " and for " eternity," as in Ps. xlix, 8.
6 Acts v, 31.
7 Heb. i, 3.
8 -1 Cor. xv, 47.
9 v. 6. The marginal rendering in our English Bibles is here followed.
The blessings meant being deliverance from the fear of death by wresting
the power of it from Satan and becoming Himself the Lord of it (Heb. ii,
14, 15), and using it in His quickened and spiritual blood and water for the
purpose of making believers in Him part of His sacrifice in God's sight,
while he pleads for them in heaven, (Heb. ix, 15 — 17. vi, 18 — 20. Rom.
xii, 1) according as is testified in the Collect for Easter Eve and Sunday.
10 Is. lv, 3. n Is. liii, 10, 11.
13 Bishop Horsley observes : " I cannot find that any interpreter has
attended to the circumstance that " Thou " in the first seven verses is
"Thou O Jehovah;" and in the five following "Thou O King." In
corroboration of this distinction, let it be observed that Jehovah Who had
in the former part of the psalm been addressed in the second person, is in
verse 7 spoken of in the third, as if to give notice of the transition from
address of the Eather to that of the Son.
13 The propriety of the title " Most High " applied here to God is to be
discerned in its reference to God's office of judging. Ps. vii, 7 — 17.

64 PSALM THE TWENTY-FIRST. 6.
Thine hand, O King, Thy foes shall reach,
Thy right hand reach Thine enemies !
A fiery furnace14 them Thou'lt make
Unto themselves — once Thou dost rise !15
7.
The Lord shall on thy part devour
Their myriads with the lightning's speed;
From out mankind too Thou'lt destroy
Their fruit, the offspring16 of their creed.
8.
Against Thee they a plot conceiv'd —
A plot beyond their strength17 t'effect.
For this shalt Thou them make Thy butt,18
Yea, at their face Thy shafts direct!19
9.
Be Thou, O Lord,20 o'er all the earth
In Thine own strength exalted high!
So shall we sing and praise Thy power,
In loftiest hymns of victory.

14 Luke xii, 49. Is. xlix, 26.
15 v. 9. " In the time of Thine anger " literally " of Thy face," trans
lated " wrath : " because, as Bythner observes, as regards the effect of
God's visitations upon men, there are in God two faces ; one bright,
wherewith He regards the good ; the other wrathful, wherewith He re
bukes the wicked.
Nevertheless Bishop Horsley observes, the Psalmist's expression lite
rally implies " the Son's presence," agreeably with 2 Thess. ii, 8, where we
read of " the brightness of His presence."
16 v. 10. Is. xxxi, 7. So Augustine. " Their fruit,— or those whom
they have seduced."
" Is. xxxi, 3. Their strength is here mentioned in pointed contrast with
that of the King, which is God's. Verse 1.
18 v. 12. " Their back," literally " shoulder." Ainsworth and Horsley
take it for " a butt : " the Targum, — " one shoulder, one company " — a
confederacy for good or bad. So Is. ix. 4 — 6. Joel iii, 9 — 14. Zeph. iii, 9.
19 Rev. xix, 18—21. Matth. xxiv, 30, 31.
20 Ephes. v, 5. 2 Thess. i, 8.

PSALM THE TWENTY-SECOND. 65
PSALM XXII.

TITLE.

After attentively considering the contents of this psalm it would
be unreasonable to question whether David had light enough
concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow (1 Peter i, 11. Acts ii, 30, 31) to make him competent
to prefix the title at the head of this psalm in the sense given it
by the Septuagint. The title according to them is —
" Unto the Consummation upon the help in the morning. A
psalm of David."
In the Hebrew it is —
" Unto the Consummator, on the hind of the morning. A psalm
of David."
Lightfoot on Mark xvi, 2, shews that by " the hind of the morn
ing " the Jews designated the earliest streak of dawn, low in the
sky, near the horizon. This in our climate is reckoned a sign of
the day proving fine.
^Eastern poetry being known to abound in figures enigmatically
applied, it is easy to understand how that application of &• favour
ite and familiar expression to the subject of this psalm may have
been intended to denote the writer's perception of the succour
which Messiah should receive from the Father at the appointed
time on the morning of the resurrection, according as the Septu
agint intimate. For it is to be observed that " the morning " in
the Hebrew title can have meant no common morning., but rather
such as is spoken of in Ps. xlix, 14. ex, 3. Moreover the word in
the Hebrew title for " hind " is akin to that for "My strength"
in verse 19, so significantly placed there in the last petition
preceding the Saviour's death and deliverance. This word for
"strength" in verse 19 is not elsewhere used; the word in Ps.
xxi, 1, being different; a fact which further favours the idea of a
special reference being made to it in the title under the kindred
term of the "hind" mystically used.
ARGUMENT.
As the Second psalm must be acknowledged to have been written
by David with the Messiah alone in view ; so also, it seems to me,
must it be said of this Twenty-second.
It is divided into two parts : the one extending from the first to
the twenty-first verse ; the other from the twenty-second to the
end ; the former predictive of the suffering, the latter of the tri
umphant Messiah. This latter part may again be distinguished
into two portions : the first, from verse 22 to 26, descriptive of
F

66 PSALM THE TWENTY-SECOND.
the triumphant Messiah's progress in this first age of the king
dom of heaven, wherein He should be first preached to " His
brethren," verse 22; (wherewith compare Luke xxiv, 47. Acts
i, 8. iii, 25, 26. xiii, 46, 47. Rom. ii. 9,) and afterwards to
" the great congregation," verse 25 ; (wherewith compare Luke
ii, 32. Is. xlix. 5—10). .
The second, from verse 27 to the end, wherein the Deliverer
should come to Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
whereupon the recovery of God's ancient people as a Nation and
Church to the worship of Him through His Messiah, should be to
the Gentiles as life from the dead, (verse 30, 31). Compare here
with Rom. xi, 26. .ix, 27—29. Zech. xiv, 9. Is. lx.

1.
My God, my God, why hast Thou Me forsaken?
Why stand'st Thou so aloof from Me contrite'?1
By day I moan, yet no response awaken;
Nor am I silent all the live-long night !
2.
But Thou the while, Most Mighty One, art holy!
Who sitt'st3 Indweller of Thine Israel's praise !
Times past our fathers in Thee trusted solely,
They trusted — and were 'stablish'd in their days.
3.
Though I too trust, yet I'm a worm8 and no man ;
A mark whereon the lewd their scoffs do wreak.
" Let God him save whom He doth favour ; " so one
His fellow haileth, while at Me they speak.

1 v. 1. "My roaring." The same word in the Hebrew, which in Ps,
xxxii, 3, is used to denote the sighing' and hard breathing of the afflicted,
groaning under the weight at his heart and as yet unrelieved. Is. liii, 4 — 6.
a Ps. xxix, 9, 10.
3 Applied to the Saviour in the same sense as it is to Israel, in Is. xii,
14; so too, "no man" (verse 6) means, as it seems to me, of no note :
the word, in the original, for " man," meaning one of distinction.

PSALM THE TWENTY-SECOND. 67

But Thou art He, Who from the womb did'st take
Me!
Thou wast My hope upon My mother's breast !
E'en in the womb Thou did'st unspotted make Me,
That I, when born, might on Thee wholly rest.
Oh stand not Thou far off, for great's the danger
Of My weak4 nature failing without aid !
My burden's great ! and I deplore Thine anger !
In flesh5 I trust not, but on Thee am staid!
6.
Me round-about strong bulls of Bashan8 compass,
All open-mouth'd, intent My flesh to tear —
E'en as some lion roaring loud and rav'nous,
Upon tbe prey beyond his reach doth glare.
7.
So are My limbs beyond My power to gather
From loosen'd joints, that to Myself I seem
Pour'd out like water ! while My heart together
Doth run, like wax beneath the solar beam.
8.
No potsherd in the summer's drought is drier;
My tongue thirst-stricken to My jaws doth cleave ;
Yea e'en to death Thou hourly bring'st Me nigher,
Resolv'd to lay Me in My destin'd grave!7

4 Compare Ps. vii, 10. He should not be " a proud doer." Ps. xxxi,
23. 1 Peter ii, 20.
6 Jer. xvii," 5. Matth. vi, 24. Ps. ex, 7. Luke xxii, 43. Heb. v, 8.
0 v. 12. By " bulls of Bashan " the doctors of the Jews are supposed to
be meant, who from their subjection under the Romans were themselves
unable to punish Jesus — according to the mysterious intimation in the
similitude. ¦> Is. Iii, 9.
f2

68 PSALM THE TWENTY-SECOND.
9.
For dogs8 too on My hurt intent stand round Me;
My hands and feet with iron spikes they've pierc'd ;
My bones start out, the while high from the ground
they
Uplift Me, there to hang — a thing accurs'd !
10.
Anon they stand and stare — then fall to parting
My garments, and by lot award My vest.
But, O My strength ! Who art My woes regarding,
In this exhaustion to My succour haste !
11.
From Thy dread sword9 do Thou my soul deliver !
My body10 too protect from heathen hands !
Save Me from Satan's11 last and worst endeavour,
Thou that hast rescu'd Me from Jewish12 bands !
8 v. 16. By " dogs " are supposed to be meant the Gentiles. Our Lord
so used the term for the purpose of instructing His disciples (Mark viii, 27) ;
thereby shewing the interpretation of this term current at the time among
the Jews.
Criminals were bound or nailed to the cross while extended on the
ground. After this the upright beam was reared up till it rocked into
its socket, with a shock that might dislocate many of the sufferer's joints.
9 Is. 1, 20. Heb. iv. 12.
10 v. 20. " My darling," or only one ; used also in Ps. xxxv, 17. This
word may mean the same as "the soul" in the former clause; but I
prefer thinking the word means " the body," or the whole human nature,
being so placed over against the former clause to denote the cumulative
intensity of the petition, — that the scripture might be fulfilled in the sight
of the unbelieving among the Sufferer's countrymen, according to Exod.
xii, 46. Zech. xii, 10, as recorded in John xix, 32 — 37. See also 1 Cor.
vi, 13.
11 v. 21. " The lion's mouth." Satan is so called in scripture. 1 Peter
v, 8, compare Heb. ii, 14. v. 7. Matth. xxvi, 38.
12 v. 21. " The horns of the unicorns ; " this I regard as a poetical
augmentation or enhancement of the term for the Jewish doctors in verse
12, upon there arising danger of the Gentiles dealing with the body of
Jesus otherwise than scripture had prescribed : it was past danger from the
Jews ; it had then been delivered from them by a marvellous interposition
of Providence in ordering of their hearts, so that the Lord should not die
by stoning, as He assuredly would if the Jewish doctors had availed them
selves of Pilate's last offer, in John xix, 6. Here, with verse 21, the former
half of this rjsalm ends ; and contains no intimation of the success attend
ing the Petitioner, (except so far as the mystical reference in the title to the
Name given Jehovah in verse 19 may denote it). This silence fitly repre
sents the way in which Jesus was allowed to yield up His spirit, before
God gave a token of His judgment. Acts viii, 33.

PSALM THE TWENTY-SECOND. 69

12.
Then I'll Thy Name declare13 among My brethren/4
Amidst the congregation15 Thee I'll praise !
Him, sons16 of Jacob, glorify ! and ever in
His honour watch your heart-felt songs to raise !
13.
For He th' affliction17 of the Man afflicted18
Despis'd not, nor abhorr'd, nor yet denied
The judgment19 crav'd; but "He Himself restricted
From judging, while He yearn'd t'ward Him Who
cried ! 14.
All people20 o'er the earth their ways shall ponder —
All kindreds to the Lord their worship bring —
Earth's noblest mightiest with adoring wonder
Shall hear the tidings that the Lord's their King !
15.
Yea too the nations under ground, forgotten
By man, and to their native dust return'd,
Shall bow before th' Afflicted Man down-trodden,21
Who kept not from the grave22 the life He'd
earn'd.
13 John i, 18. xiv, 8, 9. xvii, 25, 26. Heb. i, 1, 2.
14 First so called after the resurrection of Jesus. John xx, 17.
15 Luke xxiv, 47. Acts iii, 26.
16 John xvii, 1.
v v. 24. Addressed to the Jews to abate their prejudice against a cruci
fied Messiah. 1 Cor. i, 23.
18 Is. liii, 3. " The man of sorrow."
19 In this twenty-fourth verse, is a very clear indication of the judg
ment given by the Father in answer to Messiah's prayer.
so " The great congregation :'' verse 25 contrasted with verse 22. Is.
xlix, 5, 6. Ps. xl, 9.
21 v. 29. So in verse 7 He was called "a worm.''
22 v. 29. The last clause of this verse may be literally translated "for
His own soul He kept not alive :" that is, in the enjoyment of animal life
in union with the bodv. as He clearly by law had the power to do. John
x, 17, IS. Is. liii, 12. " Phil, ii, 8, 9.
(1)

70 PSALM THE TWENTY-THIRD.
A faithful remnant23 in the promise trusting
Shall for a seed be counted to my24 Lord ;
And they'll proclaim25 that He hath done this26
just thing,
To a new race27 begotten thro' their word.
23 Rom. ix, 29. xi, 26—31.
24 I am inclined to think Ewald correct in saying that David by Adonai
in this thirtieth verse, meant "my Lord." For he here employs a differ
ent name for the Lord from that in the verses preceding 8, 19, 23, 26, 27,
28, where the word is "Jehovah ;" and with the single exception of one
small vowel point the word Adonai is here the same as that in Ps. ex, 1.
See also xv, 2. Gesenius too is of the same opinion ; but if this be so,
how clear is it that David had his mind fixed on the Christ in writing this
psalm, like as Isaiah had in the fifty-third chapter of his book.
25 Is. xxx, 20. Jer. xxxi, 31—34.
26 Is. xii, 20. Bishop Lowth observes at p. 221 of his lectures on Sacred
Poetry, " the word that in our authorised version is rendered righteousness, might
with equal propriety be translated 'truth ;' and then by assistance of the
parallelism the just sense is restored, and the passage will run thus : — " They
shall come, and shall declare this truth, to a people that shall be born, (they shall
declare) that He ha'th performed it," that is, hath fulfilled His promises and
Divine predictions. 27 Is. lx, 21. Matth. xxiv, 31. xiii, 30— 43. xxv, 1—13.

PSALM XXIII.

TITLE.
A psalm of David.
AEGUMENT.
There is no expression in this psalm serving as a clue to the
occasion on which David wrote it.
It was probably written at a late stage of his life.
'In his mention of "the table," at verse 5, reference was
apparently made to similar language in verse 26 of the psalm
preceding. It seems to me therefore preferable to suppose that David on
arranging his book of psalms, from the Eirst to the Eorty-first,
composed this Twenty-third as an appendix to the Twenty-second,
— addressing Him, Who should suffer the death described in that
psalm, as " the Lord his Shepherd j1" Who should leave to David
himself but " the shadow of death" to pass through ; and that
too under His guidance : Who also meanwhile, until that day,
would supply in this doctrine, concerning " the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow," 'a table whereat to feed in the
1 1 Peter ii, 25. Is. xl, ii.

TSALM THE TWENTY-THIRD. 71
presence of his soul's enemies ;2 and to be anointed with tho oil of
gladness,3 whereby to be preserved in the house4 of the Lord, not
made with hands, for ever and ever. 1.
Can I whose Shepherd is the Lord,
E'er come to want or harm?
His fresh'ning pastures give me strength ;
His still streams keep me calm.

Lest I should slip, He holds me up,
And frees my soul from blame ;
Yet not for righteousness of mine,
But His own Holy Name.
3.
Although I were to death so nigh,
As in its shade to be ;
Its awful weight I know full well,
Would never fall on me.

For Thou 5 art with me ; yea, Thy rod"
Shews forth Thy cov'nant-love ;
Thy staff, that Thou my soul wilt chide
Lest I a loser prove.
2 Ps. ex, 2. 3 Ps. xiv, 7. 4 Heb. iii, 1—6. John viii, 35.
6 The Psalmist's direct address to the Lord in this fourth verse ex
presses the gladness at that moment poured into his soul. It is also an
enlivening transition from the meditative strain, to which he presently re
verts. 6 In Zech. xi, 7 Jehovah saith He will take unto Him two staves ; after
the manner of the Israelitish s.hepherds.
Here He is described as having them. The "rod,-' being straight and
smooth, was used for counting the flock. See Ezek. xx, 37. Jer. xxiii, 13, with
Whitby's note. It afterwards was identified with the sceptre (Ps. ex, 2) ;
kings being in early times called shepherds of their people. The " staff" had
a crook at its end ; and was used by the shepherd in pulling a sheep to him,
when he would deal with it, as seemed needful. Jer. xii, 3. Ps. cxviii, 18.
Deut. viii, 5. Heb. xii, 5. 1 Sam. xii, 22.
(1)

72 PSALM THE TWENTY-FOURTH.

5.
For me in presence of my foes,
A table7 dost Thou spread —
To overflowing fill'st my cup —
With oil anoint' st my head.
6.
Goodness and mercy such as this,
Shall be my constant lot !
And in His heavenly house8 I'll dwell
Because He changes not.
7 The mercies of God, through faith in the promised Christ, were fre
quently described, daring the Mosaic dispensation, under the similitude of
a " table." See Ps. lxix, 22, 23, quoted in Rom. xi, 9 ; also Matth. xv,
27. xxii, 2 — 4. There was doubtless herein a reference to the feast upon
a sacrifice (Exod. xxiv, 11, and 1 Cor. x, 18); but that figure received
its plenary fulfilment in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. John vi, 53.
1 Cor. x, 15—17. 8 Ps. xxvii, 4. Heb. ix, 11.

PSALM XXIV.

TITLE.
A psalm of David. AEGTJMENT.
David taking up the ark to the city of Zion out of the house of
Obed edom (2 Sam. vi, 12) is moved by the Spirit of Christ, to
speak of the temple to be erected in the latter days on the same
hill ; the glory whereof shall be greater than of that which Solo
mon built.
And while the opening words of this psalm (verse 1, 2) had
their legitimate application in David's own day, (inasmuch as
Jehovah, worshipped in that sanctuary, was He who had made the
earth (John i, 2. 2 Peter ii, 5, 6), Who would also subsequently
by civilisation make great (Rom. ix, 17) that part forming the
theatre of the four empires in Nebuchadnezzar's vision), yet these
verses are destined to have a far ampler application to the house
that shall be built on the same hill according to the latter chap-

psalm the twenty-fourth. 73
ters of Ezekiel. For then will the whole earth acknowledge one
Lord (Zech. xiv, 9) ; and the stage of the four empires (Dan.
vii, viii) will have become in a peculiar sense the Lord's ; in
asmuch as the nations located in that region will then be called to
worship the Lord at Jerusalem on appointed times. Zech. xiv, 16.
Again, as regards verses 3, 4, and 5, although they described
the sanctification needful for the justified, in order to have gone up
acceptably to worship before the tabernacle erected in David's
day ; and that the like sanctification is needful for the justified,
who are in the present age come unto mount Zion in heaven (Heb.
xii, 22) ; yet these verses describe to an extent hitherto, in respect
of fallen man, unprecedented on earth the sanctification which
shall characterise the remnant of Israel (Ps. xxii, 30, 31) in the
regeneration (Matth. xix, 28), to whom shall be vouchsafed "the
service of God " (Rom. ix, 4) on that holy hill of Zion, whereon
David's tabernacle stood.
This seems to me to be the significance of the name " Jacob,"
inserted in verse 6, in apposition to " the generation of them that
seek Him " Who is the Lord, (verse 3) ; for only in Jacob will
regeneration in the mortal body be displayed to the extent of
" the redemption of the body." Is. lx, 21. Jer. xxxi, 29, 30.
Luke xxi, 28. Rom. viii, 23. 1 Cor. i, 30.
And by Hos. vi, 15 we know that when there shall be a gene
ration of Jacob to seek His face the time for the new age in the
kingdom of heaven, (Heb. ii, 5) — the time for setting up the gates
of the new temple in Zion will have come. Matth. xxiii, 39.
Accordingly, immediately after mention of the race in Jacob
that would seek the face of Jehovah, the psalmist significantly
breaks out into an apostrophe in salutation of the gates of the
latter House which are to receive the King of glory. Haggai,
ii, 9.

Jehovah's is the earth1 outspread;
Its teeming wealth is His;
The regions civilis'd2 and they
1 In 1 Cor. x, 26 the first words of this psalm are employed to prove
that true believers in Jesus, Who was crucified and raised again, might eat
of the meat set before them by heathens, or buy the same in a heathen
market, with a good conscience ; needing nothing further for justification
in so doing, than thankfulness to the Lord as the Giver.
From this application of verse 1 it is plain that St. Paul took Jesus for
" the Lord Whose is the earth and the fulness thereof."
2 That is, "the region" which, after the Septuagint's designation of
oikoumene, gave the name of " oecumenical " to the councils in later ageB
convened within it.
This civilisation was to be ascribed to the collateral effect of the moral
light furnished by the Mosaic law to the philosophers of border nations,

74 PSALM THE TWENTY-FOURTH.
That therein dwell : for He decreed
Earth's place above3 and in the seas ;
And naught therein escapes His sway.
2.
But who shall to that hill ascend,4
Or in that sanctuary be,
Which for Himself Jehovah chose?
He with clean hands and heart unstain'd
Whose soul ne'er yearn'd for vanity — 5
Who by his oath abided close !
who gathered much truth therefrom for diffusion among their countrymen ;
combined with the illumination in respect of arts and sciences, which God
appointed to abound rather among them. The same word, for the civilised
world, viz. tebel, occurs in Ps. xviii, 15.
The reason of God's rule over this civilised portion of the earth being
mentioned as a greater assertion of His power than the preceding de
claration of His sway over the whole earth is, as it seems to me, because
in this world civilised — owing to wisdom and knowledge subverting the
inhabitants thereof (Is. xlvii, 10) — there should arise an organised attempt
to frustrate Jehovah's counsels concerning the exaltation of His Messiah
in authority over them.
3 "Upon the seas." Mr. Thrupp hence concludes that the Israelites
popularly supposed the earth to rest upon the sea ; and consequently that
the inspired writer here fell into a popular error. But this is by no means
the inevitable conclusion from the psalmist's use of the preposition here
translated " upon." It may mean " over against " (see Gesenius, 4 a),
as amongst us, Weston-super-mare, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Jer. v, 22,
shews how the Holy Spirit taught that the earth is against the sea ; and
Ps. xxxiii, 7, how the sea is laid up in store-houses. St. Peter in 2 Epis.
iii, 5, shews that the Spirit of God taught the Israelites to speak of the
earth i. e. land as " rising out of the water and in the water."
When the Psalmist spake of " the civilised world " as founded upon the
floods — the waters must here mystically mean peoples. Ps. lxv, 7. Eev.
xvii, 15.
4 In Heb. i, 3 St. Paul shews that Jesus having by Himself purged our
sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high — the holy hill of
Zion in heaven (Heb. xii, 22) ; and in Heb. ii, 5 — 18 he shews that this
ascension of Jesus is pledge of His believing people's advancement to be
with Him in glorified bodies at the appointed time. 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.
Philip, iii, 20, 21.
By Acts ii, 30 we may conclude that David was able to contemplate
this hope, — when Abraham too did so (Heb. xi, 12 — 16) : when too David
himself in Ps. ex, 1, spake of his Son's ascension; and further, that he
was able to contemplate the going up of his Son and Lord to the throne in
His temple, hereafter to be erected on mount Zion. Acts xv. 15 — 18.
To that glorious day for Israel (Acts iii. 19 — 21) the psalm before us
assuredly points. See too Is. i, 26. ii, 1 — 5.
The opening words of this psalm abundantly accord with that hope of
Israel ; and manifestly, as it seems to me, refer to it. For then indeed
will it be true in a peculiarly emphatic sense, that the earth is the Lord's.

PSALM THE TWENTY-FOURTH. 75
3.
He from Jehovah shall receive
The blessing, and shall righteousness
From His salvation's God obtain.
Of them that in the Christ believe
Lo ! this the generation is,
'Tis Jacob — which this grace shall gain.
4.
Your lofty heads,6 ye gates, uprear !
Ye of the hidden age ! and Lo !
The King of Glory7 shall pass through!
Who is He that this Name doth bear ?
Jehovah, quelling ev'ry foe !
Jehovah, mighty to subdue !
5.
Yea ! lift your heads, ye sacred Posts !
Ye portals of the hidden age !
To let, the King of Glory through !
Who is He that this title boasts 1
Jehovah, Who the war doth wage!
The King to Whom all glory's due!

Those glorious times for Israel it is to be observed were sung of in the
psalm last but one preceding' from verse 28 to the end.
Now it seems to me that it is with respect to the work of inherent
righteousness spoken of as wrought by the Lord, and the sanctification that
shall be wrought in the generation there said to be " counted to Him for a
seed," to whom that righteousness is imputed (Ps. xxxii), that this psalm
was written. For what the psalmist first saith of one person in verses 3 — 5,
in verse 6 he extends to a whole generation ; saying, "this is the generation
of them that should seek Him," i. e. Him who should do this — yea, Him
Who is One With Thee, Jehovah — this is Jacob : that is, this people shall
be out of Jacob alone — a testimony needful to have been added ; lest other
wise it might have been gathered from this psalm, that inasmuch as the
earth should in that day be so emphatically the Lord's that all should seek
Him, this generation should be born to the King the Son of David, out of
them all. Whereas it clearly appears from Zech. xiv. 16 — 19 that the
sundry families shall come up to worship the Lord — namely of those na
tions included in the number that have previously gone against Jerusalem,
— yet to "the remnant alone of Jacob " shall in that day be granted the
inspired ritual (Rom. ix, 4). For as Isaiah predicted (in lx, 15) of Zion:
" Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated so that no man went through

76 PSALM THE TWENTY-FIFTH.
thee, I will make thee an eternal exellenoy, the joy of many generations ; "
and at verse 21, " Thy people shall be all righteous."
6 Deut. xxiv, 15. That is by seeking happiness in ways conformable
with the fashion of this world. Ps. xxxix, 6. xxxi, 6. This can be affirmed
of none but the Christ. Rom. viii, 20.
6 The psalmist seems to me to bid the gates of that age, by a figure of
poetry, "raise their heads," in the same sense that Virgil in the Fourth
Eclogue represents the Fates bidding the Golden Age commence its course.
The setting up of the gate was and still is in the East in proportion to the
dignity of the house. Prov. xvii, 19.
7 v. 5. Called by St. Paul (1 Cor. ii, 8) " The Lord of Glory."

PSALM XXV.

TITLE.
A psalm of David. ARGUMENT.
Venema considers sundry expressions in this psalm favourable
to his conjecture of its having been written about the time de
scribed in 1 Sam. xix, 11.
In support of this opinion he observes how verse 1 indicates
that David up to that time had been untroubled by any special
transgression, such as he afterwards bewailed in 2 Sam. xii.
Verse 15 denotes that he was covertly attacked, after the manner
described in verse 1 1 of the nineteenth chapter of 1 Sam.
Verse 16 expresses his desolation at the prospect of being turned
adrift ; as he was, when Micha 1 let him down from the window of
his dwelling.
Verse 19 describes how bitterly Saul's emissaries hated him.
Verse 22 his persuasion that the deliverance of Israel was wrapt
up with his preservation, according to the promises of God.
Let us then set David before our eyes in this psalm, about to fly
from his home, an outcast ; confessing his reverses to be less than
his iniquity deserved — though conscious in the main of integrity
and uprightness (verse 21) : and let us observe how he prays
that no pressure of adversity may thrust him out of honest ways
consistent with true religion and loyalty. Compare verse 4 with
verse 5 of Ps. xvii, written at a subsequent period.
This psalm is the first of those sometimes called acrostic, be
cause of having for the initial letter of each verse a fresh letter
of the Hebrew alphabet in its order.

PSALM THE TWENTY-FIFTH. 77
It has however some irregularities, for which Mr. Thrupp
accounts on the principle first discerned, as he tells us, by Dr.
Forbes of Edinburgh, in his work on the Symmetrical Structure
of Scripture.
It has appeared to me probable, more particularly when looking
at the other acrostic psalms in this book, — the Thirty-fourth and
Thirty-seventh, — that they were so constructed to facilitate the
committal of them to memory.
It has been remarked that the connection between the suc
cessive verses is very slender; so that by reason of the alpha
betical construction of them any involuntary omission of one,
which otherwise might easily happen, would be prevented.
That certain portions of the scripture were more especially ap
pointed to be learnt by Israelitish youth, agreeably with the charge
in Deut. vi, 7, we may gather from the Lord's charge in Deut.
xxxi, 19. And these acrostic psalms seem to me peculiarly fitted
by their subject-matter for committal to memory ; being intended
to free all persons in public or private stations from perplexity at
God's dealing with them, when doing well and suffering for it.
1 Peter ii, 11—20. 1.
Lord to Thee my soul I offer,
All my trust in Thee I place !
Let not shame whelm my endeavour,
Nor foes on me heap disgrace !
Yea let none in shame be prostrate,
Who before Thee humbly bend !
Let but those, whose deeds demonstrate
Wilful sin, to shame descend.
2.
Shew Thy way Lord, I beseech Thee,
To my soul Thy law impart !
Lead me in Thy truth and teach me,
Thou Who my salvation art !
Call to mind Thy tender mercies,
And Thy favours in time past —
My youth's sins, and evil courses
Later left — behind Thee cast J1
1 Is. xxxviii, 17. Ps. 1, 17.

78 PSALM THE TWENTY-FIFTH.

Good and upright is Jehovah,
Therefore will He sinners teach;
Guiding meek2 ones with His favour,
Till they heaven in safety reach !
Truth and mercy those their guerdon
Find, who to His cov'nant cleave;
Yet not for their worth — since pardon
Through His Name they all must crave !
4.
Where's there one that fears3 Jehovah?
To that man His way He'll teach —
Yea the way4 His scripture ever
Bids men choose,5 who heaven would reach.
Till the Lord from death him waken,
Shall his soul in bliss6 remain ;
And his children7 not forsaken,
In the land shall bread obtain.
5.
More than this — amongst the remnant8
Taught of God His Name to fear,
Hidden9 life and the true cov'nant10
God will shew him even here !
" Ps. xxxvii, 28. Heb. vi, 13—20.
3 Compare Acts x, 34, 35. Luke xii, 4, 6. Ps. cxi, 10.
4 John xiv, 6.
6 Josh, xxiv, 15—22.
6 v. 13. " Dwell at ease ; " or, acccording to the margin in our bibles,
" lodge in goodness," which goodness is to be explained by observing its
meaning in Ps. xxvii, 13. The Hebrew word for "lodge" means "to
lodge through the night," which from being thus associated with " good
ness," suggests to me that the interval between death and the resurrection
is meant ; as in Job xiv, 14. And- the expression agrees with the New
Testament one " he shall fall asleep in Jesus. 1 Thess. iv, 14. Acts vii 60.
' Ps. xxxvii, 25.
» v. 14. The Hebrew word for " secret " properly signifies— a commu
nion or confidential intercourse with friends. So Gesenius. Gen. xlix 6.
Job xv, 8. Ps. cxi, 1. Prov. iii, 32. xv, 22. Heb. iii, 1—6. Compare
Ps. xxvii, 5. Col. iii, 3.
9 Joh vi, 45. Ps. xix, 9. Is. xi, 2, 3.
10 There never has been but one covenant available for the salvation of

PSALM THE TWENTY-FIFTH. 79
For this portion, O Jehovah !
Turn I longing eyes to Thee !
From the meshes of the fowler
Set my daily footsteps free !
6.
Lone I am and sore distressed —
Sick at heart with gnawing grief —
By mine inward foes oppressed ;
Whisp'ring how I'm past reprieve !
Oh cut short my mental anguish,
Bid me. of tormenting pain,
Let me not unpardon'd languish,
But release from sin obtain.
7.
Lord ! on Thee I rest me ever !
Save me from a shameful end;
Be Thou always my Deliv'rer,
And Thy servant's soul defend!
Thou, Who truth11 requir'st, be Witness
How in uprightness I live !
For to none without this fitness
Wilt Thou Thy redemption give.

fallen man. Heb. x, 1 — 10. And though believers may be taught the scrip
tural language respecting it (as our children are in the Church Catechism
where it treats of the two sacraments), yet God alone can give one a right
understanding of what is meant.
That communion with Himself now brought to true believers through
reception of the human and divine natures of Christ into union with then-
hearts, as baptism and the Lord's supper certify, — was granted to them, in
respect of renewal by the Divine Nature of Christ (Ps. li, 10) under the
Mosaic covenant, as participation in the sacrifices under it certified ; and
still earlier was granted to believers in the promise concerning Christ, and
certified by participation in the sacrifices offered during the patriarchal
and antediluvian ages.
11 Ps. li, 6. xxii, 2. Luke viii, 15. Heb. xii, 14.

80 PSALM THE TWENTY-SIXTH.
PSALM XXVI.

TITLE.
A psalm of David. ARGUMENT.
This psalm appears to me to be constructed after the manner
pointed out in my notes on the Fifth ; that is to say — a petition is
intended to be offered up : namely, that in verse 9 and all that goes
before is by way of preparing a worshipper for the solemn and
consistent utterance of it; after which the psalm closes with an
acknowledgment of God's goodness in granting that peace with
Him which brought the requisite assurance that He would not
gather the psalmist's soul with sinners. Heb. x, 22.
Assuredly no person can consistently pray " gather not my soul
with sinners" (viz. at death, 2 Kings xxii, 20) while himself
by choice living in sin, and taking sinners for his companions.
Before this petition can be consistently offered up by a professed
servant of God, he must be able to plead before God, after the
manner of the psalmist; who first in verse 1, asks God to judge or
account him righteous, (John viii, 50. xv, 1, 2. 1 Cor. iv, 1 — 6.
2 Thess. i, 11, 12) being able to call God for witness that he is of
an honest and good heart in the matter (Luke viii, 15), having
no guile (Ps. xxxii, 2) ; and that his trust is in Jehovah. Jer.
xxiii, 6.
Secondly, as pleaded in verse 2, he must not seek to remain in
the dark about his faults ; he must not be content with exaniining
himself, though he does this to the best of his power ; but beg the
Lord to examine him (Ps. cxxxix, 23, 24), and try his "heart
and reins " or affections and animal desires (Ps. vii, 9, 10) in His
furnace of fire which is twofold — one spiritual and inward, Is. ir,
3, 4 — the other carnal and outward. See Luke xii, 49. xxiii, 31.
Thirdly, according to verse 3, he must not look to God as an
angry Judge, but as a loving Father, (see Deut. viii, 5. Prov. iii,
11, 12. Heb. xii, 5 — 11) which nevertheless he will not do except
he hath a good conscience. 1 Tim. i. 19.
Fourthly, according to verse 4, he must be able to say that
he is not partaker with sinners, if he would have God not gather
him with them. Ps. 1, 16. Ephes. v, 7. 1 Tim. v, 22.
Fifthly, as testified by the psalmist for his own part in verse 6
he must be both instructed and humbled enough to seek the foun
tain opened for sin and for uncleanness, together with the living
water for the washing of his feet and hands (John xiii, 8  10.
1 Tim. ii, 8) that he may as a spiritual priest (1 Peter ii, 9) draw

PSALM THE TWENTY-SIXTH. 81
nigh to the throne of grace acceptably (Heb. x, 19—22), after the
manner that the priests ministering in the temple washed their
hands in the brazen laver at the west side of the brazen altar,
and thence going behind the altar " compassed it" by coming to
the inclined plane for going up to it on the south side ;
One evident effect of which statute was to give time for com
posure of mind before ministering at the altar.
Jesus Himself in His Divine Nature is our altar — that in the
temple having been a type thereof. Matth. xxiii, 19. Heb. ix, 14.
Sixthly, he must, like the psalmist, according to verse 8, con
cern himself about God's publie worship, as well as seek His
face in private.
By these means he may make proof to himself before God
concerning the consistency wherewith he takes up the psalmist's
petition : " Gather not my soul with sinners."

1.
Thou, Jehovah, Witness be
To my strict integrity !
And to judge me (who likewise
In Jehovah1 trust) arise!
Hoping that for this my trust
I shall be accounted just !
2.
Cause me all my faults to know,
Daily me my frailness shew ;
With thy fire's transmuting2 force -
Purge my heart and reins from dross :
For herein Thy love I see,
Who in truth have liv'd to Thee !

1 v. 1. Surely this pleading of the psalmist to Jehovah, how he trusted
in Jehovah for justification or standing accepted (1 Cor, x, 12. Eom. xiv, 4),
is an instance of his putting faith in the Lord, his Son and Lord, for j ustifi-
cation. 2 Is. iv, 4. Matth. iii, 11 ,
(1) G

82 PSALM THE TWENTY-SEVENTH.

Vain ones I've not sat among,
Nor the many join'd in wrong;
With my hands in innocence
Wash'd, Thy worship I'll commence,
That with contrite3 thankfulness
I Thy praises may confess.
4.
Lo ! Jehovah, to Thy shrine
Ever doth my heart incline —
Yea, the consecrated place
Hallow 'd with Thy glory's rajs !
Thou then gather not my life
With the men of sin and strife !
5.
As for me, while here I live
To mine uprightness I'll cleave !
Not but what I mercy crave,
And redemption4 from the grave !
Thee, Jehovah, I extol,
By whose judgment I am whole !5
3 Is. lvii, 15.
4 Ps. xxxi, 5. xlix, 8.
5 " The foot" of the soul is the heart's love, whereby faith worketh, i.e.
maketh progress. This " standeth in uprightness" or is accounted just, when
in the straight and plain way opened for believers in Christ. John xiv. 6. See
too John vii, 23. Acts ix, 34. Luke xvii, 19.

PSALM XXVII.

TITLE.
A psalm of David.
In the Septuagint there is added to this title "before bavin"
been anointed."
Even allowing this to have proceeded from a later hand than the

PSALM THE TWENTY-SEVENTH. 83
Septuagint, it is yet a question in what sense the writer prefixed it.
Many think it refers to David's having been anointed king,
either by Samuel— or over the two tribes in Hebron — or over the
whole twelve.
But if the anointing spoken of be taken to mean that by the
Holy Ghost ; then it is to be presumed that the anonymous author
of this title (seeing that the psalmist was already, when writing
this psalm, enriched with the unction of the Holy One), must
have used it in the same sense in which it is said of Messiah in
Ps. xiv, 7, that at resurrection He should be anointed with " the
oil of gladness " above His fellows.
David seems to me throughout this psalm to have looked for
ward to his departure from the body.
ARGUMENT.
The supposition that David throughout this psalm had exclusive
regard to spiritual foes is fully borne out by Augustine.
Indeed David can scarcely be supposed to have had regard to
any other than the heavenly tabernacle, which Moses had for a
model of the one built by him on earth (Exod. xxv, 40. Heb. viii,
5) ; for how else could he without disingenuousness have prayed
(as he did in verse 4) that he might be always in it, when he by
no means chose so to be in the earthly one, while permitted to
dwell in Zion.
Moreover his mention of "the sacrifices of joy " and " of be
ing hid in the secret of the Lord's tabernacle," and of " the land
of the living," shew that, like Abraham, he was paying regard
here to " the city which hath foundations, whose Builder and
Maker is God." Heb. xi, 10. 1.
Jehovah my salvation is,
My light ! what need I dread %
Jehovah's my life's strength ! of whom
Shall I then be afraid I1
2.
Malignant spirits oft intent
Upon my flesh2 to prey,
Themselves have stumbled at my feet,
And slunk asham'd away.
1 Eom. viii, 39.
2 " Flesh," that is— him— soul and body. Eom. vii, 18. The evil spirits
seeing David's failings reckoned him to be but "flesh" (see Gen. vi, 3.
1 Pet. v, 8) ; that is — unrenewed.
g2

84 PSALM THE TWENTY-SEVENTH.

Let then their host against me camp,
My heart shall own no fear;
Long war and fierce let them stir up,
I'll still be of good cheer I
4.
For one thing in times past desir'd,
While life lasts, shall I yearn —
To dwell for ever with my Lord,
And there His goodness3 learn.
5.
E'en here, when foes my heart invade,
To me He'll shelter give
Within His tabernacle's shrine;4
Where hidden,5 He doth live.
6.
Yea on a rock my feet He'll set,
And foes thence backward fling:
There joy I'll bring in sacrifice,6
And His high praises sing.
7.
Do Thou, Jehovah, of Thy love
My cry7 vouchsafe to hear,
Although I most unworthy am
Before Thee to appear.

3 Is. xxxiii, 17. 1 John iii, I, 2.
4 Prov. xviii, 10.
0 Col. iii, 3. Heb. vi, 19.
6 Fs. iv, 5. 1, 14.
7 This transition from blissful anticipations to deep self-abasement is in
dicative of the true believer's humility. See Is. vi, 5.

PSALM THE TWENTY-SEVENTH. 85
8.
Seek ye My face! Jehovah saith;
Hear'st thou, my heart,8 that word?
Thy face I'll seek ! then hide it not
From me, as one abhorr'd!
9.
Thou Who to be in parent's stead
Vouchsaf'st, do not depart !
For9 parents fail;10 but Thou of Thine
The tender Gatherer11 art!
10.
Thy way, Jehovah, teach, and make
My path of duty plain !
For inward foes false charges bring
To rack my heart with pain.
11.
Where'd be my stay,12 but for my hope,
'Mongst them that live, to see
God's goodness % Oh ! hope thou in God !
He'll thy salvation be !

8 This mode of translation is suggested by Archbishop Seeker. The
words " seek ye My face " may be regarded as the motion of God's Spirit
within the psalmist.
9 The Hebrew adverb in this tenth verse translated " when " I would
render as in verse 5 preceding " for."
No imputation upon the affection of parents for their children seems in
tended, but only a commemoration of God's promise to be the Father of
His people. Ps. ciii, 13. Luke xi, 13.
10 Luke xvi, 9.
11 The same word as in Ps. 1, 5, " gathereth. me," that is, to my kindred —
in Himself. Matth. xxiii, 37. Col. i, 19, 20.
12 The psalmist's language in this verse contains an apo-siopesis, or
abrupt suppression of the dreaded consequence, which is in the original left
to be understood ; as if he had said—1
But for my hope that I God's face
In life's bright land should see —
Hope thou in God ! He'll give thee strength !
'And thy salvation be.

86 PSALM THE TWENTY-EIGHTH.
PSALM XXVIII.

TITLE.
A psalm of David. _,
ARGUMENT.
In the former clause of the fifth verse, David appears to have
lamented, how little the wicked-doers in Israel regarded all that the
Lord had wrought by his hands for the deliverance of their nation.
This would imply that the psalm was written when many of the
victories and other tokens of God's dealing with Israel by David
had been displayed before their eyes.
Was there then in the history of David's later years a time
when he might peculiarly deplore the treachery of those around
him, as pointed at in verse 3 ?
There was, in the rebellion of Sheba son of Bichri (2 Sam. xx,
1 — 10) ; for then Joab slew Amasa out of jealousy, with great
treachery, and in a way to compromise David with the ten dis
affected tribes.
In this strait it may be supposed that David poured out his
prayers to God before His holy oracle in Zion (1 Kings vi, . 16,)
where was the ark (2 Sam. vi, 19), though the tabernacle was at
Kirjathjearim. 2 Chron. i, 4.
As it pleased God at that time to grant responses to worshippers
(1 Sam. xxiii, 11, 12), and David in the first verse of this psalm
so earnestly solicited a response — and that we see by 1 Sam.
xxviii, 6 — 15 how Saul felt like a lost man when unable to obtain
such — we may believe, with Bishop Horsley, that the transition
from anxiety to thankfulness observable in this psalm at verse
6, was owing to the response having been given, which Bishop
Horsley finds in the latter clause of verse 5.
Joab's end, as recorded in 1 Kings ii, 31, 32, illustrates God's
ordinarily retributive justice, according to verse 4, in this life,
(Luke vi, 38) ; while David's prayer, verse 3, compared with 1
Kings ii, 31, 32, at once vindicates this imprecatory clause; and
his charge to his son in 1 Kings ii, 5, 6 : for, as the vicegerent of
God, he could not otherwise have exculpated himself from all
share in Joab's treacheries, and bloodshed. Rom. xiii, 4 — 6. 2
Cor. x, 6. 1.
My Rock, Jehovah, Thee I seek
With cries for help ! Oh deign to speak !
Lest if Thou grant me no reply,
It seem my doom in hell to lie.

PSALM THE TWENTY-EIGHTH. 87
2.
Do Thou the plaintive accents heed,
As from my lips their sounds proceed;
Do Thou th'uplifted hands toward1
Thy holy oracle regard !
3.
Oh let me ne'er be drawn by stress
Of state affairs to acquiesce
In those who, while of peace they speak,
Sore vengeance on their neighbour2 wreak.
4.
For their misdeeds to them dispense
In Thy good time due recompence,
What woe on others they inflict,
Award them in requital strict.
5.
For, on the deeds Jehovah's wrought
In Israel, they bestow no thought !
" From Israel3 these will He expel,
Nor build4 one up with Him to dwell."
6.
'Tis utter'd-! be Jehovah blest !
Who heard the prayer to Him addrest;
Idlest be Jehovah!5 He in Whom
I with acceptance hop'd to come.

1 1 Kings viii, 29, 30. Exod. xxxvii, 6.
2 2 Sam. xx, 9, 10.
3 This is translated agreeably with Bishop Horsley' s suggestion, that the
words, in verse 5, " He shall destroy them, and not build them up," were
the oracular response solicited in verse 1 .
* Ps. cxxv, 1. Matth. xvi, 18. 1 Cor. iii, 9—11. Col. ii, 7. Heb. iii, 1—6.
6 This ascription of blessing to Jehovah a second time I take to be
an act of worship rendered to David's Son and Lord, in Whom his heart
trusted that he should not slide ; according as has been already explained
at Ps. xxvi, 1.

88 PSALM THE TWENTY-NINTH.

His people's6 strength Jehovah is!
And His Messiah7 this supplies !
Oh! bless therewith Thine heritage,
And feed them for the hidden age.8
0 v. 8. Instead of " to him," as the margin of our authorised English
version renders the word in our present Hebrew text, Rogers quotes
Dathe and others to shew that the correct reading is "to His people."
Compare Ps. xxix, 2.
1 See Scott's Commentary. Here Jehovah and His Messiah are com
bined in one Divine Counsel, as in Ps. ii, 2, Zech. vi, 13 ; and like as in
Ps. ii, there is no question about the word " Messiah " being inapplicable
to David, — so there ought to be none here.
P David (Acts ii, 3) foresaw Christ's resurrection, in order to sit on
his throne ; so here he prayed for Israel to be built up in Christ through
every generation, until that in which the remnant should be called to enter
on the inheritance in the Lord's land, at what is here emphatically called
ha-6-lam. Ps. xxvii, 13. Is. xxxiii, 13 — 17. xxxviii, 1. Ps. xxxvii, 2. Acts
xx, 32 shews how verse 9 is connected with tbe oracular response in
verse 5.

PSALM XXIX.

TITLE.

A psalm of David.
To this the Septuagint add " of the exode of the tabernacle,"
on which Ainsworth observes that in Levit. xxiii, 86, the name
for the solemn assembly on the last day of the feast of tabernacles
was so translated in the Septuagint. This day, the eighth, was the
great day thereof (John vii, 37) ; not because of ampler Sacrifices
to be offered on it, as Lightfoot shews, but doubtless for its mys
tical reference to Christ's predicted reign over Israel, in glory.
Maimonides, according to Ainsworth, says that this psalm was
appointed to be sung on that eighth day.
The feast of tabernacles was kept from the fifteenth to the
twenty-second of Tisri, answering in part to our September : it
was the seventh month of their ecclesiastical year and the first of
their civil. The feast was that of the ingathering of the latter
harvest, whether of the vine or olive ; and appears to have de
noted ecclesiastically the consummation of the festivals, but the
commencement of a new year civilly. Lev. xxiii, 24. xxv, 9.
On this account " the exode of the tabernacle " might mean at
one and the same time the finale of the old and the bringing-in of
the new sanctuary in the new year or age. Heb. ii, 5.

PSALM THE TWENTY-NINTH. 89
The Septuagint made it plain by their addition to the title that
this psalm in their estimation, pointed to a time in the History of
Israel (which is even yet future) to wit that of building up the
temple of the Lord, predicted by Amos, as referred to in Acts xv,
16, to be dedicated to the Lord in the Lord's land during the
millennium.
ARGUMENT.
The psalmist in the two opening verses calls on " the mighty,"
that is, of the Gentiles brought to the knowledge of God's will
by the gospel since the apostles' days, after his manner in verses
10 — 12 of Ps. ii, to beware of glorying in themselves (Jer. ix, 23)
and assuming to themselves the strength (1 Sam. xvii, 12 — 29)
wherewith to work righteousness and inherit the fulfilment of God's
promises to Israel under Messiah ; but rather to ascribe the glory
and the strength to God. Rom. v. 6.
This the psalmist calls " the glory of His Name," which He
will not communicate to man (Ps. ex, 1. Gen. xiv, 22 — 24); nor
can He be worshipped in the beauty of holiness " except this be
heartily acknowledged. Is. lvii, 15. John iv, 24, 25. 1 Pet. iii,
4. 2 Cor. vii, 1. 1 Cor. vi, 20. Ephes. iii, 14. Luke xviii, 13.
The psalmist then announces how, for the humbling of man's
lofty looks and arrogance in that respect (Is. ii, 10 — 22. 2 Tim.
iii, 1 — 13) throughout the nominally Christian nations at the time
of the great apostacy (1 Tim. iv, 1 — 4., 2 Thess. ii, 3 — 12), God
shall from heaven itself assert His supreme will concerning righte
ousness, as being by faith only. Verse 1 1 .
This mention of "the voice of the Lord" is here so emphatic,
as to indicate that the Lord will then resort to the immediate
utterance of His voice, in consequence of the ordinary means for
bearing witness to His revealed truth in a public manner having
been violently suppressed (Matth. iii, 16. Ps. xxi, 8 — 12. Is.
xxiv, 16—21).
By Gen. iii, 8 we know that prior to there being any temple of
God on earth " the voice of the Lord " was His means of com
municating to man His will.
So too (in Exod. iii) when He would' reform the abuses of it,
that had crept in during patriarchal times, He resorted afresh to
immediate communication with Moses by voice.
So too at the giving of the law, as Moses tells the Israelites
(in Deut. iv, 12), the worthiest thoughts they could form of God's
honour and majesty were by His voice, which they had heard ;
rather than by the tabernacle before their eyes erected according
to His command.
Again in Elijah's days, when God had essayed by that prophet
to delay the declension of the ten tribes from the faith ; and that

90 PSALM THE TWENTY-NINTH.
Elijah himself temporarily abandoned the work given him to do,
owing to the little effect which the judgments wrought on king
and people through his instrumentality had taken in producing
repentance, God was pleased to employ His voice at floreb, for
the correction and renewal of the reformer himself.
So too at the baptism, and again at the transfiguration of the
Lord Jesus, was that voice uttered from heaven, for the authori
tative correction of man's errors and instruction in righteousness
(John xii, 28 — 30) ; and the same voice is spoken of as destined
to be a distinctive feature of the Divine scheme for bringing in
the coming age of the kingdom of Heaven, in opposition to the
perversions of God's truth upheld by the " sons of the mighty,"
and their followers. Rev. xix, 17 — 21. Is. xxx, 30. Ps. lxviii,
33. Joel iii, 16.
" The voice of the Lord " is in scripture applied both to the
inarticulate sound produced by Him for His special purposes, such
as the thunder (Exod. ix, 28, 29, and xx, 18), as also to those
ones intelligible to human ears (Deut. iv, 12) ; and, like as the
thunder which is produced according to natural causes in the air,
when employed by God (Who is represented in all His agency
to speak and it is done, Ps. xxxiii, 9) for His purposes, is said to
be His voice (1 Sam. xii, 17, 11. Jer. x, 13), so (in Is. xl, 3) the
voice of a man, employed by God in a special manner, is called
"His voice," (see Matth. iii, 13). Accordingly by this rule "the
voice of the Archangel" (in Thess. iv, 16) may be the voice of
God, — as also that of "the strong angel," in Rev. x, 3. xvi, 17.
That mention should in this psalm be made seven times of " the
voice of the Lord," has undoubtedly a mystic signification, of like
import with that expression in Rev. x, 4.
Each time that mention is here afresh made of the voice of the
Lord, the effects ascribed to it have an intensive augmentation of
significance, — thus forming a climax of indescribable sublimity,
almost unparalleled in the scripture itself.
Firstly, (at verse 3) " The voice of the Lord " is " upon the
waters;" namely, those above the firmament (Gen. i, 6, 7), use
of which was made by God at the deluge (Gen. vii, 11), to which
reference is made at verse 10 of this psalm. In Is. xxx, 25, men
tion is made of the bringing down of great waters, as destined to
characterise that crisis. Matth. vii, 25.
In verse 4, " the voice of the Lord " is affirmed to be " with
power," or " very power " (Heb. i, 3) ; and for the third mention
of " the voice of the Lord," the testimony concerning it is, that it
is " with majesty," or "very majesty."
At the fourth mention of " the voice of the Lord," the tes-
timony is, " it breaketh the cedars," apparently by producing a
whirlwind as in Kings xix, 11. But Lebanon and Sirion or Her-
mon, mountains at the western and eastern corners of the northern

PSALM THE TWENTY-NINTH. 91
boundary of the Lord's land, are further said " to leap," indicating
an earthquake.
At the fifth mention of the " voice of the Lord," the testimony
concerning it is, that it " divideth," that is, distributeth the light
ning whithersoever its destructive power is to operate. Here
" the voice of the Lord" is clearly to be distinguished from the
thunder ; which an unenlightened reader at verse 3 might be dis
posed to confound with it. For in nature the thunder does not
" send out lightning, but follows it ; whereas here " the voice of
the Lord" disperses it abroad.
Again, at the sixth mention of " the voice of the Lord," it is
testified that it shaketh the wilderness ; that is, by an earthquake.
And here it may be thought this stage in the climax is not cu
mulative in its signification, but identical with that at verse 6 ;
whereas by the specification of the wilderness of Kadesh as that
shaken, we learn that the course of the earthquake and other
agencies evoked by " the voice of the Lord " is from the north,
downwards, through the breadth of the land to Kadesh on the
south — apparently to punish everywhere the Assyrian then filling
the land, (Is. viii, 8. xiv, 25). By the Assyrian may be meant him
that shall in that day be in possession of Babylon, and at the
head of a confederacy of the nations nominally Christian since the
apostles' time. Rev. xiv, 17 — 21. Is. xxiv, 43.
At the seventh and last mention of " the voice of the Lord," it
is testified that it "maketh the hinds to calve;" a proof of the
power of that voice in excess of those heretofore mentioned, —
those being on inanimate things, this on creatures irrational — yea,
on the hinds which of all beasts, it is said, experience most diffi
culty in bringing forth their young (Job xxxix, 1 — 3) ; about
which time they retire into the densest recesses : but " the voice of
the Lord " shall cause them even there prematurely to cast forth
their young, through terror at the uncovering of their thickets
in Lebanon to the light.
The last stage in the climax is reached : but, as though to de
note that there remains in His voice " the hiding of His power "
(Hab. iii, 4), and that "the half had not been told" (1 Kings x, 7),
there is added this mysterious clause, — " and it is His temple,
every whit of it," or, its every member " saying, glory ! " Here
" the voice of the Lord " which is the subject of the verb in the
first clause of verse 9, is acknowledged to be so in the second, and
ought -equally to be so in the third. For as Mr. Thrupp observes
(from whom I have derived the critical interpretation of this
psalm) the preposition in the original, before " His temple," trans
lated in our authorised version " in," is to be translated exactly as
the same is before "power" and "majesty" in verse 4, where
Mr. Thrupp would have it rendered " very," after Hengstenberg
and Ewald.

92 PSALM THE TWENTY-NINTH.
The propriety of the psalmist's device apparently consists in
the fact that the "voice of the Lord" (with which comes His
grace, bringing strength to serve Him in newness of life,) is not
like the antecedently mentioned demonstrations of " the voice of
the Lord," stunning and crashing, but gentle ; so as to leave re
sponsible man room for heeding it with reason and conscience,
that he may be drawn with his own consent to obey the exhor
tation in verses 1 and 2.
This refrainment from mention of " the voice of the Lord," at
reference to the last and most signal exemplification of its power,
may possibly be further intended to denote that in the day spoken
of, when the Lord shall have risen up to judgment, there will then
be no manifest employment of that voice by means of the gospel
to bring opposers to a better mind.
Those, who prior to that crisis shall have been renewed in heart
therewith, shall be secretly supported : namely, the Hebrew Chris
tian Church with her attendant virgins (Matth. xxv, 12) : but the
rest shall then have been left to experience the chastisements of
the Lord's voice in terrors.
Yet that the utterance thereof in terrors can never change
hearts is plain by the lesson on that subject taught. Elijah (in 1
Kings xix, 12) ; because God's grace only accompanies His " still
small voice " in His Word.
This is fitted by God to persuade men, that hear it, to repent and
gain the needful strength to serve God ; for it can make the dead
hear His voice. John v, 25. See too Luke xvi, 27 — 31. Where
fore it only remains for those who through all the intermediate
time until that eventful day, while hearing that voice in the gos
pel, refuse to receive it, to learn at last in spite of them to their
horror its power after a judicial manner ; when " all that are in
their graves shall hear it and shall come forth ; they that have
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation."
But the psalmist concludes by saying in verses 10, 11 that the
Lord, amidst all the displays of His voice in terrors, supplies by
tnat voice strength to His saints.

1.
Ascribe ye to Jehovah, Oh earth's strong ones,
Ascribe ye to Jehovah strength and praise;
Laud ye His Name, and with the beauteous
rev'rence
Of holiness to Him yourselves abase !

PSALM THE TWENTY-NINTH. 93
2.
On waters Lo ! the voice is of Jehovah !
The God of glory peals His thunder forth !
From waters multitudinous all heaven over
Jehovah sends vast torrents1 down on earth !
3.
Instinct with power the voice is of Jehovah !
Jehovah's voice — instinct with Majesty !
Jehovah's voice the cedars' trunks doth shiver
In Lebanon's stupendous forestry.
4.
E'en as a calf would skip,2 makes He the cedars —
Hermon and mighty Lebanon, as though
The young of unicorns, unto their borders
Roll in unwieldy gambols— to and fro!
5.
Jehovah's voice apart the lightnings breaketh !
Jehovah's voice the wilderness doth shake !
The wilderness of Kadesh 'tis He shaketh—
So through His land His way in wrath to take —
6.
Jehovah's voice the hinds brings to their labour
In forest- thickets open'd wide to air —
Yea 'tis His sanctu'ry, its ev'ry member
Renew 'd at heart is saying, Glory !3 there.
7.
Upon the flood4 of waters sat Jehovah-
Yea, and for ever doth he sit — a King !
Jehovah with His strength the saints will cover,
Jehovah into peace His saints will bring.
1 Ps. xxxii, 6.
2 v. 6. If to define clearly for the mind's eye the thing described be an
excellence in poetry, David here eminently exhibits it. The first attempts of
puppies at walking, being a succession of tumbles, will picture to us what might
be those of two very young unicorns at play. This, when transferred to the
above mentioned mountains, depicts the one rearing up its crags against those
of the other, and toppling to its base — the sight being with Jehovah sport — as
with men the play of unicorns. Is. xl, 15, 16.
3 With this verse the doxology universally used in the Apostolic Church,
" Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," is peculiarly
accordant. 4 The word in the tenth verse is the same with that for the deluge in Gen.
7, and is no where else in scripture used for any other inundation.
(D

94 PSALM THE THIRTIETH.
PSALM XXX.

TITLE.
A psalm and song-at-the-dedication of the house of David.
ARGUMENT.
By the fifth chapter of the Ilnd book of Samuel, we find that
David at thirty-eight found himself firmly seated on the throne of
Israel ; whereupon he applied to Hiram King of Tyre for car
penters and masons to build him a house in his newly conquered
city of Zion. And by following the order of the narrative (in
1 Chron. xiii) we learn that on the completion of the house, prior
to dedication of it according to the custom mentioned in Deut.
xx, 5, David intended to bring up the ark of God from the house
of Abinadab into his own city.
And by the twentieth verse of the sixth chapter of the Ilnd
book of Samuel, as well as by the last verse of the sixteenth
chapter of the First of Chronicles, it is clear that David did not
eventually bless this new house, until he had brought up the ark
of God into the city of Zion, as proposed.
But owing to the employment of kine to draw the ark on a cart,
after the self-devised method of Philistine priests (1 Sam. vi, 7 —
11), instead of bearing it on the shoulders of the Kohathites ac
cording to law (1 Chron. xv, 2 — 15), TJzzah was struck dead by
the Lord, for stretching forth his hand to the ark.
This sad event disheartened David, and he turned aside with the
ark to the house of Obed-Edom hard by (2 Sam. vi, 10). The
history as it is written in 2 Sam. vi, 6, represents this reverse as
happening to David after he had completed his house, though in
1 Chron. xiii. the same event is related before mention of the
commencement of it.
Taking then that order of narration which best suits this psalm
for that in which the facts occurred, we suppose that David on
having finished his house, assembled his chosen warriors to the
number of thirty thousand, for the honourable transfer of the ark
from Kirjathjearim (2 Sam. vi, 3. 1 Chron. xiii 6). But, as we
have said, on TJzzah's death he desisted in a dejected state of
mind, producing sullen silence toward God, and backwardness in
His service. Meanwhile, by. following the order of events pre
served in the Ist book of Chronicles,- xiv, 8, we learn that the
Philistines invaded the land.
Doubtless David regarded this event as a token of God's further
displeasure. For it might appear that God was allowing David's
<eneniies-to assail hiin ; notwithstanding that God had even then,

PSALM THE THIRTIETH. 95
to use the language of the psalmist at verse 6, " made his moun
tain so strong." 2 Sam. v, 12.
This affliction apparently had the intended effect of rousing
David out of his sullenness to calling upon God, as described at
verse 8 of this psalm ; lest through God's displeasure all that he
had been the means of achieving for Israel should be undone.
Such a state of David's mind will account for those expressions
in this psalm which describe him as figuratively " going down into
the pit" — as well in soul as in body — in the one respect because
of his repining at God's severity, in the other because of the
enemy's sword.
But David, as we read at verse 10, chapter xiv, of the Second of
Samuel, in this strait called upon God ; and his mention of the
same in the beginning of this psalm at verse 8 implies that he did
so in a memorable manner. This indeed was so, if he referred to
his relinquishment of offence at God's dealings, and instead thereof
betaking himself to his Lord, right humbly.
The issue of this calling upon God was a victory ; whereby
David, according to the language of this psalm, in verse 1, was
lifted or drawn up as out of a pit.
Then followed a second invasion, and a second victory ; chiefly
owing to David's observance of what God charged him to wait for
before attacking the Philistines. 2 Sam. v. 22 — 25.
Thus was the fountain of gratitude opened afresh in David's
heart, and he desired to bring up the ark into his city of Zion;
which he did, as appears in the Second of Chronicles, xv, 13 ;
then afterwards, as recorded in the last verse of that chapter,
David returned to bless his house (not household, as translated in
2 Sam. vi, 20).
Thereupon it may be supposed, that he then sang with the ac
companiment of music the psalm before us, every word of which
may now find a vivid illustration in the incidents referred to.
1.
Thee, O Jehovah, I'll extol,
Who brought'st1 me fainting to the birth;2
Lest foes should o'er me boast control;
Thou at my cry hast made me whole,
Jehovah O my God! and forth
Of Hades hast recall'd my soul !
1 v. 1. The original word refers to drawing up out of a spiritual dun
geon of moroseness, — for such might David's sullenness at ITzzah's death
have afterwards seemed to him, because of his disinclination to prayer
arid praise ; for to decline from God through offence at His dealings is
spiritual death. 3 Is. xxxvii, 3.

96 PSALM THE THIRTIETH.
2.
Ye saints3 unto Jehovah sing,
And praise Him for His holiness!4
His anger for a moment burns,
But His good pleasure life5 doth bring!
It may be eve entails distress,
But with the morning joy returns.
3.
Methought amidst my firm-bas'd peace6
No more reverses should I see;
So Thou'dst of Thy good pleasure made
My mountain strong ! but Thou Thy face
Didst from me hide, and instantly
Me in the dust affliction7 laid !
4.
Then I, Jehovah, unto Thee
Betook me ; and — self-love apart —
My supplication thus preferr'd:
Would my death to Thy glory be?
When love no more might warm my heart,
Nor on my lips Thy praise be heard!
5.
Hear, O Jehovah, and relief
Vouchsafe me ! be my help ! so I
My heart in piteous plaints pour'd out.
What shall I say? my poignant grief
Thou'st chang'd to dancing, and with joy
For sackcloth girt my soul about!

3 " Ye saints " — that is, ye priests.
4 God's holiness was the very attribute, by disregard of which TJzzah
procured his death.
5 Literally " lives," to wit— for this world and that which is to come
5 2 Sam. v, 12.
' 2 Sam. v. 17—24.

PSALM THE THIRTY-FIRST. 97
6.
Since therefore I by Thee am spar'd
That in Thy praise I should my voice
Lift up, and no more sullen8 be !
By me Thy name shall be declar'd;
In Thee I'll mind me to rejoice,9
And render thanks eternally.10

" The original word in verse 12 means to be silent ; but the silence meant
is that of moroseness. The original word is the basis of that used in Is.
xxix, 10, translated in our version " slumber," andby the Septuagint, " a
spirit of poignant mortification," in which sense the Septuagint here trans
late the original word for being "silent." What this silence is, St.
Paul further explains in Eom. xi, 8, by Elijah's offence at God's service
on finding himself, after all his efforts to reform Ahab, exposed by the
uxorious prince to Jezebel's lawless threatenings. Isaiah's word for deep
sleep may be reconciled with the poignant mortification by which the
Septuagint rendered it, on observing that this latter feeling produced a
state of declension from God's service corresponding to what would follow
from a spiritual slumber. Into this frame David fell.
9 Neh. viii, 10.
10 The Hebrew word for eternity in verse 12 seems to me to refer to the
hidden age, when David hoped to be alive and behold the glory of his Son
and Lord : as also did Hezekiah in Is. xxxviii, 11. See also v. 16 — 19. Ps.
xxvii, 13.. Job. xix, 25.

PSALM XXXI.

TITLE.

To the Consummator. A psalm, of David.
The Septuagint add " of mental distraction," with manifest re
ference to their translation of David's words in verse 22, and
apparently too in contrast with the subject of the succeeding
psalm which they, after the Hebrew, entitle " of understanding,"
producing mental composure, in reference to the eighth verse of
that psalm. H

98 PSALM THE THIRTY-FIRST.
AKGUMENT.
That David wrote this psalm in a time of great distress is plain
from sundry expressions therein, which notwithstanding furnish
no sure clue to the time of his so doing. We are left therefore
to select, out of the seasons of his distress, that which may seem
most in accordance with sundry expressions in this psalm.
It has been generally thought that David's evacuation of Keilah
(1 Sam. xxiii, 13) through fear of treachery was the season of
distress which would have been most likely to have furnished re
flections for the basis of this psalm.
For, as Mr. Thrupp observes, David's calling of God " his
strong rock and his fortress " (verse 2) may denote the pointed
contrast in his own mind, at the time, between the fortress from
which he had been compelled to retire through the intrigues of
his enemies, and that from which none could dislodge him ; of
which nevertheless he had in the first instance despaired (verse
22), being minded to think, that — while many execrated him as a
rebel — his neighbours in Keilah were ashamed of him — his ac
quaintance yet in the land dreaded to be seen with him, lest
they should be involved in his odium (verse 11) — and all men
forsook him — God would too. Verse 22.
But the response brought him from God by Abiathar reassured
him. The enemies who slandered him (verse 13) would in that case be
Saul's courtiers, by alledging that he was conspiring against Saul ;
and, though Jonathan was then alive, all communication between
them having been then for propriety's sake broken off, David might
truly use the language in verse 12.
And like as this language of the Spirit of Christ in David's dis
tress was to his Son and Lord a guide in what He should say and
think at His last trial (as is seen in our Saviour's quotation of
verse 5) ; so it may be intended for a like help to the Israel of
God in the great tribulation that awaits them (Jer. xxx, 6, 1) : as
also throughout the whole interval to every sorrowing believer,
when suiting his circumstances. The argument of this psalm may
therefore be traced out as follows. —
David, under lengthened discouragement in the prosecution of
his duty, to which God had called him, of waiting for the king
dom over Israel after Saul (verse 10), seeks solace for his soul in
God, under the misrepresentations circulated about him as a rebel,
(verses 11 — 18); and at length (verses 19 — 24) finds comfort in
contemplation of the happiness in store for God's people in the
life beyond the grave ; after the manner of Abraham (Heb. xi,
13 — 16) ; and concludes with bidding others, after his example,
not be weary in well-doing. Gal. vi, 9.

PSALM THE THIRTY-FIRST. 99

On Thee, Jehovah, I've relied!
Ne'er let me be reduc'd to shame!1
In Thine own righteousness2 Oh hide
My faults! and bear me clear of blame!3
2,
Bend Thou toward me low Thine ear !
And grant me speedily release.
As my strong rock do Thou appear,
My home wherein to taste of peace.
3.
My fortress Thou Thyself dost call,
Then for Thy Name's4 sake be my Guide,
And snatch my feet forth from the thrall
Of those, that meshes for me hide.
4.
Thou art my strength! my spirit I
With love into Thy hand5 resign ;
For Thou'st redeem'd it finally —
Jehovah ! God of truth ! 'tis Thine !
5.
Them, that for lying vanities
Shew their regard, I've held abhorr'd;
And my whole hope of happiness,
I've rested in Jehovah's word.

1 That is, in respect of the kingdom which it is known that I am waiting
for according to Thy promise. 2 See Ps. iv, 1.
3 That is unto attainment of the kingdom.
4 The first line of verse 3, seems to imply that God had revealed Him
self to His believing people by those titles (Deut. xxxii, 4 — 15) or David
would not have had warrant for so calling on Him. Exod. vi, 2, 3, and
iii, 13, " Luke xxiii, 46.
h2

100 PSALM THE THIRTY-FIRST.
6.
I'll from Thy mercy6 comfort take,
For Thou my trouble didst regard;
And by my fainting soul didst make
Thy kind instruction to be heard.
7.
Thou hast not me of life bereft —
Nor seal'd with death's' cold hand my doom-
But large occasion hast vouchsaf'd
For serving8 Thee in time to come.
8.
Jehovah, mercy on me shew!
For sorely I'm with care distress'd;
Mine eye lacks its once lustrous9 glow,
My soul my belly pine and waste.
9.
Life's spent in grief — years drag their length
In weary sighing — day by day;
Through my calamity10 my strength
Doth fail me; and my bones decay.
10.
Midst foes and neighbours too I bare
Reproach ; to greet me friends felt dread,
Lest in my odium they should share ;
And, if abroad they met me, fled.

6 v. 7. I Sam. xxiii, 10 — 12.
T 1 Sam. xxiii, 7. " The hand of the enemy " is here supposed to be an
expression of the same class with " the land, of the enemy. Jer. xxxi, 16.
" Ps. li, 10—12.
9 Ps. xxxviii, 10.
10 The original word does not always mean " iniquity," but sometimes
" calamity," which latter seems most in accordance with the tenor of this
psalm, wherein David laments unjust persecution and slander, versea
13—18 ; as in Ps. xvii, See Ps. xviii, 18.

PSALM THE THIRTY-FIRST. 101
11.
As though fear numb'd their faculties,
To them I'm one, that's ceas'd to live;
So quail they .at the calumnies,
Which foes against my life contrive.
12.
On Thee, Jehovah, I've relied,
And said my God art Thou! my days
In Thy hand, not ;my foes,' abide ;
Save me from their blood-thirsty ways!
13.
Shine on me with Thy blissful face;
And of Thy mercy me protect !
Let none, Jehovah, me disgrace^
Lo ! I to Thee my cry- direct !
14.
The wicked let disgrace confound —
Let them be silent in the grave!
Yea let the lying lips, which wound
The righteous, their requital have!
15.
How great Thy goodness11 which for all
That fear Thee Thou in store hast plac'd!
Which Thou hast wrought12 for those, that shall
Have Thee before the world confess'd!13
16.
From man's pride in the secrecy
Of Thy dread presence1* them Thou'lt hide ;
From strife of tongues for them with Thee
In Thy pavilion peace provide!

11 v. 19. Compare Ps. xxvii, 13. Is. lxiv, 4.
18 John xix, 36.
13 Mark viii, 38. Matth. x, 32.
v. 20. The promise in verse 19 appears to be a blessing, held forth as

102 PSALM THE THIRTY-SECOND. 17.
Blest be Jehovah whose kind care
In His fenc'd15 city I've been shewn!
I spake, as though cast off I were ;
But He my claim vouchsaf'd to own!
18.
Oh, all ye saints, Jehovah love !
Who true hearts16 saves, and treats aright17
The proud. Do ye the comfort prove
Of leaning on Jehovah's might !
an object to be attained in the life to come (Rom. viii, 24. Gal. v, 6. 1 Tim.
i, 1. Heb. xi, 26) ; but those in verse 20 speak of things to be enjoyed
in this life, for here only can the pride of man molest, and the strife of
tongues raise doubts about the soundness of one's religious profession. The
former promise (Ps. xxii, 8) appears to be enjoyed by the believer in com
munion with God alone (1 Cor. ii, 11) ; the latter in conjunction with all
them round about of like hope — fellow pilgrims. 1 John iii, 1, 2. Ps. xxvii,
5. Heb. iii, 1—6. viii, 5. ix, 11. Mai. iii, 16, 17.
16 Occasion may have been taken by David on his compulsory retreat
out of Keilah, to commemorate with thankfulness God's city, out of
which no man could expel the believer. For the same company of faith
ful confessors (verse 19), which is in one aspect a tabernacle or temple
(Jer. vii, 4) is in another a city ; even as the Son of David is a Priest
and a King (Zech. vi, 13). Hence His subjects are at once spiritual priests
{1 Pet. ii, 9) and citizens (Eph. ii, 19). This is the city sung of by
Isaiah (xxvi, 1), to which Abraham looked (Heb. xi, 16) Mthe mother of
us all (Gal. iv, 26), whence we look for the Lord Jesus (Phil, iii, 20),
wherein the glory of the Lord shall be manifested to His risen saints, —
a day to which David's words in verse 19 undoubtedly point, which will
be the completest counterpart on earth to the final bliss of all the faithful
in the new heavens and new earth. Rev. xxi. xxii.
16 Ps. xxxvii, 10.
" v. 23. That is, as it seems to me, God leaves proud doers to fall
grievously through lack of restraining grace which they slight ; though
He only doth this, that they may be humbled and learn their need of Him.
Ps. vi, 10. Phil, iii, 12, 13.

PSALM XXXII.

TITLE.
A psalm of David to give understanding.
ARGUMENT.
In verses 1—5 the psalmist testifies to the Israelite, that upon

PSALM THE THIRTY-SECOND. 103
confessing his sins with the resolve of not abusing the promised
mercy of God on which he lays hold (see verse 6 of this psalm,
and Is. lv, 6. lxiv, 7), and being without guile in the matter of
repentance and faith (Luke viii, 15. 2 Cor. vii, 10, as also verse
1 1 of this psalm) he is blessed of God.
This blessedness is shewn to consist in the lifting off from
him his transgressions — covering his sin — and not imputing his
iniquity — which is a description, according to St. Paul, in Bom.
iv, 3 — 9, of justification by faith alone in God's promise concern
ing Christ. Verse 6, declares ; that this description of the blessed
man applies to every one that is godly ; which is tantamount to
saying, that all who have regard to God need this confession of
transgression sin and iniquity, in act and habit, acquired and
inherent; and that they, during their day of grace (Is. lv, 6),
comply with God's requirement that they should make it ; for the
sake of fleeing from the wrath to come ; from which they abide
safe — not through their own strength (verse 7) — but that of God,
given them for faith in His promise. 1 Sam. xv, 29.
Nevertheless, in verses 8, 9, the psalmist admonishes these jus
tified ones to seek God day by day with prayer and faith in His
promise concerning Christ, as when they were first blessed for it ;
that they may receive of Him the instruction needful for under
standing (see the title of this psalm and Ps. xxv, 12 — 14) : for
that in those blessed ones, who are even renewed (Ps. 1, 10 — 12),
the old nature remains ; which, if left to itself, will recover its
dominion, making one again behave as without understanding.
1 Cor. ix, 27.
But some, that are so blessed or reckoned justified, are not
renewed, owing to some guile in their spirit (Rom. vii, 9. Jude
12) on which account the psalmist concludes with a solemn pro
testation in verse 10, that he who doth not continue this patient
waiting upon God, but draws back, is wicked (Ezek. xviii, 21 —
24. Heb. x, 35 — 39) ; and that " the righteous " ought to rejoice
in the Lord (verse 11), for this is "their strength." Neh. viii, 10.
Ps. xxx, 3—12.
Some commentators suggest that this eleventh verse has by a
mistake of transcribers been detached from the commencement of
the following psalm ; to which, say they, it ought to be restored.
On the other hand its proper place seems to me to be, where we
find it preserved in the present Hebrew scriptures ; for thereby
St. Paul's application of the term "righteous" in Rom. iv, 6, to
them that the psalmist spake of in the first verse of this psalm as
" blessed," is identified with that of the psalmist him'self.
The people, who in this psalm David called " blessed" at verse
1, and "godly" at verse 6, and "they that trust in the Lord,"
at verse 10, are finally in verse 11 called "righteous" and "up
right in heart."

104 PSALM THE THIRTY-SECOND. 1.
To lift1 transgression off man's head —
To cover his heart's fruitless aim —
This makes him just, and gives him rest;
To quit of charge man's inbred sin —
And guileless worship from the same
T' accept — this makes him truly blest.
2.
At first myself I'd justify ;
And though in soul a prey to doubt,
I'd speak not: yet I groan'd2 all day!
A fire consum'd my bones, that I
Was parch'd, as one in torrid drought ;
For Thy hand on my conscience lay.
1 There are four words for sin in the first two verses : —
Transgression, or doing what has been forbidden.
Sin, or aiming at happiness in the wrong way. Judg. xx. 16. Prov. xix, 2.
Job xxxiii, 27.
Iniquity, or the corruption of nature ; which, as a tree, has for its fruit
the forementioned sin by intent and act.
Guile, or fraudulent reserve in confession of sin or profession of honesty.
Acts v. 3, 4.
Transgression must be " taken away " from the sinner, if he is to be
saved from it ; for the penalty of it is death. Accordingly the Lord laid on
One the transgressions of all ; Who died, that those who believe in Him
and are at their prayer renewed or made one spirit with Him (1. Cor. vi, 17),
might not die. For the law did not require two men to die for the same
offence (Ezek. xviii, 20) and believers are in Christ one new man. Eph.
ii, 15. Col. xi, 12.
Sin must be " covered ;" which is done for the sinner hy giving him the
robe of Christ's righteousness to hide his nakedness. Gen. iii, 7. Is. lix, 6.
Iniquity, or moral depravity of nature must " not be imputed " or put to
the sinner's account.
Guile, must be " utterly driven out." This last is a work in man's
heart wrought by the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to sanctify.
The preceding work of non-imputation is the office of the Father : and
the first two are the work of the Word made flesh.
Thus the Three Divine Persons in the One God are here mysteriously
referred to in their work of justification.
For other like references to the ever blessed Trinity in Unity see Ps. ii,
2, xi, 7. xvi, 10. xxvi, 1. xxviii, 8. xxxiii, 6. xii, 1, 2.
2 The original word expresses those deep fetchings of breath, those hard
gasps, which lions, and bulls too, repeatedly draw or expel out of their
lungs, before they can pour forth their roar. The lion and bull apparently
cannot help this, it arises unbidden : a force laid up in their muscles or
nerves is developed, which constrains them to those hard breathings, till
they give it vent.

PSALM THE THIRTY-SECOND. 105
3.
Worn out, I to Thy word3 gave heed ;
My heart's false4 aim aloud deplor'd —
My inbred sin no more I hid —
Yea my transgression too, I said,
To Him I'll own, Who is my Lord!
So of my guilt Thou didst me rid.
4.
For this,5 whoe'er Thy grace6 receives,
Shall on Thee wait with contrite pray'r,
While yet Thou may'st of him be found.7
No trial him of peace8 bereaves;
In Thee he lives ; yea he's Thy care ;
And shall be with Thy blessing crown'd.
5.
Thou art my choice ! and Lo ! Thou say'st,
I'll teach thee and mark out thy track,
To keep thee bless'd and just with Me!
Be thou then ware, lest as a beast — 9
A horse or mule, which reason lack —
Thou of My promptings heedless be.

So too the sinner has a force disengaged within his bosom by the hand
of God on his conscience, which with silent striving he sometimes stifles;
but often, as in the psalmist's case, after long struggling he gives way to it
by making confession unto God.
3 See verse 6 of this psalm.
4 Lathis confession, verse 5, each of the four aspects in which sin was
above considered, are recounted, and humbly acknowledged ; only that
" guile " is called " the iniquity of sin " as being the most subtle part —
yea " the spirituality " of evil. Eph. vi, 12.
5 Namely, for justification ; as described inverses 1, 2.
6 See John vi, 44. iii, 19, 20. Prov. i, 22—30.
7 Heb. iii, 15. 2 Thess. ii, 9—12.
8 Matth. vii, 24.
0 Ps. lxxiii, 22. This charge is addressed to the man counted righteous,
and it marks possibly the occasion of David's own backsliding from justi
fication.

106 PSALM THE THIRTY-THIRD.
6.
Sorrow on sorrow shall o'ertake
Backsliders; but the souls that trust
In God, His blessings shall surround.
Be glad then righteous hearts ! and speak
God's praise ! for those He soothes,10 whom first
He grieves ; and heals, whom He doth wound.
10 Hos. vi, 1. Is. xix, 22.

PSALM XXXIII.

This psalm has no title ; owing, as is supposed, to its close con
nection with that going before, to which it is apparently a sequel ;
being such " a song of deliverance " (xxxii, 7) as Jehovah " com-
passeth them with," whom He accounts righteous (according to
the first verse of the Thirty-second psalm), by not imputing their
iniquity unto them.
ARGUMENT.
They that are " righteous," according to the rule of justification
revealed in the psalm preceding, are exhorted to praise God in
singing unto Him a new song ; to wit, concerning redemption
through Christ (verse 3). Redemption, which seems to me treated
of in verses 4, 5, is viewed throughout the subsequent portions
of this psalm in the extended sense attached to that word, (in
Luke i, 68 — 74. ii, 38) ; that is, it includes all the promises pledged
to Israel, whether through the suffering or the triumphant Messiah ;
in which sense also our Lord uses the word in" Luke xxi, 28.
The psalmist then introduces in verses 6 — 9 mention of God's
works by creation ; as well, as it seems to me, to denote that the
redemption whereof he sings, should, like creation, be not for
Israel alone but all nations (compare Ps. xix), and should con
sequently call forth the grateful praises of all; as also to deter
Israelites and Gentiles from hostility to that counsel of the Lord
(verse 11), from consideration of the utter futility of such an
attempt (See Ps. ii, 1, 2). By Acts iv, 25 we see how that oppo
sition was set up by Jews and Gentiles at the bringing in of this
first age of the kingdom of heaven : where it appears that the
chief cause of offence at the gospel of the kingdom or counsel of
the Lord (verse 11) was found in the way of justification by faith

PSALM THE THIRTY-THIRD. 107
only. Gal vi, 12 — 17. And sundry testimonies in holy scripture
denote that out of a similar self-righteous spirit Jews and Gentiles
will respectively renew their opposition to those, who at the bring
ing in of the coming age shall be found to rely on this "counsel
of the Lord " for their attainment of it. 2 Tim. iii. 1 — 5.
That the psalmist passes on to speak of the coming of age in the
kingdom of heaven (Heb. ii, 5,) is clear from verse 12, where the
nation and people spoken of as chosen for the Lord's own inherit
ance is undoubtedly the predicted remnant in Israel (Ps. xxii, 30,
31. Is. lxvi, 8), in whom He will be glorified.
And, like as in Ps. xiv, 2, " the Lord's looking down from
heaven on the sons of Adam," denoted His compassionating the
disadvantage they then laboured under concerning the knowledge
of His revealed will (for which reason He then gave Israel His
law by Moses); so here, at verse 13, a similar phrase seems to
me to denote a like token of compassion for men's ignorance con
cerning His will (see Ps. lxvii. Is. lx, 1, 2, Bom. xi, 15). By "the
place of His habitation," in verse 13, seems to me to be meant
the same " seat," as in Ps. ix, 7. Dan. vii, 13, 14; and by " His
looking upon the inhabitants of the earth and fashioning their
hearts alike " (verse 14) seems to me to be meant the inclining of
those nations inhabiting the area of the four great empires, into
one confederacy (Is. viii, 12. liv, 15. Joel iii, 2. Eev. xvi, 16, xix,
17) for their punishment ; while verses 18 and 19 seem to denote
that those who " trust in the Lord " according to the eighth verse
of the psalm preceding) shall, at that crisis, be in a remarkable
manner preserved from perishing by overmuch sorrow (Matth.
xxvi, 38. Jer. xxx, 6), or by the privations of famine (Is. -x,
23, xii, 17. xliii, 19). The psalm is then concluded with a protes
tation — for the use of those who, (as righteous persons according
to the doctrine of xxxii, 1, 2) offer it up in the mean time — that
the soul of the righteous, as of one family, waiteth for the Lord.
Jude, verse 14.

1.
Let strains of holy joy
Your hearts and tongues employ,
Ye righteous ! and Jehovah's name extol !
It surely ne'er beseem'd
The upright, to be deem'd
Remiss in praise of Him, who makes them whole.
(1)

108 PSALM THE THIRTY-THIRD. 2.
Let harp and festal lyre
Be heard with vocal choir,
While instruments, ten-string'd, the tones prolong.
In skilful melody.
And notes of jubilee,1
Pour fo.urth unto Jehovah your new2 song !
3.
Jehovah's word is right !
And stands in the full light,
"Of facts accomplish'd, as by Him foretold.
On all doth He impress
Judgment and righteousness !
All th' earth Jehovah's goodness doth enfold.
5.
The heavens overhead
Jehovah's word3 outspread.
Jehovah's spirit marshall'd all their host.
By Him the mighty deep
Was gather' d in a heap
And in storehouses4 wondrously enclos'd.
5.
Be all the earth advis'd,
And this world civilis'd,5
How 'tis Jehovah only should be fear'd.6
He spake, and it was done !
So soon as forth had gone
His fiat, all in ordor stood uprear'd.
1 Literally, " the trumpet." See Lev. xxv, 9.
2 Ps. xl, 4.
a v. 6. Although capital letters are not prefixed to "word" and "spirit,"
the above translation preserves the reference in the original to the Divine Per
sons in other parts of the Old Testament so named.
4 Gen.i, 9, 10.
5 v. 8. The word for " world " is in the original the same here as in xxiv, 1 .
6 This restriction of" fear" as a homage to the only true God, in contradis
tinction to angels or devils, is to be seen in Gen. xxxi, 43, 53. Deut. vi, 13.
Luke xii, 5.

PSALM THE THIRTY-THIRD. 109
6.
And He will bring to naught
The Gentiles'7 subtle thought,
With all the peoples 'gainst His will contrive ;
His long proclaim' d decree8
Shall stand immoveably,
And His heart's thoughts the latest age9 survive !
7.
That nation is confess'd
To be of all most bless'd,
Which for its God Jehovah hath alone-
It is the destin'd race,10
Which He designs to place,
In that rich heritage,11 He calls His own.
8.
Jehovah from heav'n' s height
Holds Adam's sons in sight,
Earth's multitudes inspects He from His throne ;12
Their hearts shaping13 to be
In one confed'racy,
To make them know1* the deeds, that they'll have
done.

' Ps. ii, 1 — 3. ix, 5—8. x, 15, 16. This frequent mention of the opposi
tion to be raised by civilised nations not blessed with the light of revealed truth,
as well ai by those that should be so, against the establishment of the Son of
David's kingdom on earth, shews that it was very expressly revealed to David;
and that Nebuchadnezzar, a Gentile, was far from having the first intimation of
it in his dream, as recorded in Daniel iii, 31—44.
8 v. 11. Gen. xii, 7. xxii, 16—18. Jer. xxxi, 37. Ezek. xx, 12.
0 Ps. xxviii, 9. Heb. ii, 5.
10 Ps. xxii, 30. Is. Ixvi, 8.
11 Deut. xi, 12.. Is. viii, 8.
12 Ps. ix, 8.
13 2 Kings iii, 10. Ps. xxi, 9—12.
" Jer. ii, 19.
(1)

110 PSALM THE THIRTY-THIRD.
9.
His vast host shall not bring
Deliv'rance to the king ;ls
The mighty shall not safety find in might.
The rider to his horse
Shall vainly have recourse,
To 'scape from God's swift messengers by flight.
10.
Behold! Jehovah's eye16
Observes those from on high,
Who only hope for righteousness" by grace ;
Their souls18 from deadly stress
Of deep grief in excess
To snatch, and fill with gladness19 in His ways.
11.
Jehovah unto Thee
Turns our soul with fervency !
Our shield art Thou, and we in Thee confide !
Jehovah! Jacob's Lord!
E'en as we trust Thy word,
Let mercy evermore on us abide !

15 v. 16. The original word "ha-melek " indicates that a particular king is
meant. Is. xxx, 33.
16 The frequent reference to Jehovah's all-seeing eye in this " new song " of
the righteous exemplifies the testimony, that " the secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him."
17 v. 18. Signal attention is by the psalmist called to this clause in the em
phatic word, " Behold !" and his purpose herein is, as it seems to me, to show
how the characteristic of the upright is to " hope in the Lord's mercy " for their
righteousness, which is imputed unto them according to the promise in the pre
ceding psalm. Ps. lxii, 12. cxliii, 2.
18 The original word for " soul '' might by some be thought to mean " the
animal life ;" mention being made of " famine " in the next clause of this nine
teenth verse. But when we see the unquestionable meaning of " soul " in the
twentieth verse, as teaching all who sing this song to plead, that no tribulation
shall make them offended or moved from the hope of the gospel, (1 Thess. iii, 3.
John xvi, 6), it seems to me preferable to take the deliverance spoken of to be
one after the manner vouchsafed unto the Captain of our salvation Himself.
Matth. xxvi, 38.
19 To " make to live," in the expressive language of scripture, means to have
the sense of enjoyment in the life spoken of. Is. xxxviii, 16. See too Rom. vi, 2.
The promise contained in this verse is of the same tenor with that in Ps. xxix,
11. Is. xxx, 18—21.

PSALM THE THIRTY-FOURTH. Ill
PSALM XXXIV.

TITLE.

A psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Ahi
melech ; who drove him away, and he departed.
The record of this event in David's life is to be found in 1 Sam.
xxi, 10—15.
ARGUMENT.
Supposing David, after his escape into the land of Judah, to
have written this psalm, the circumstances under which he did so
would be those detailed in 1 Sam. xxii, 1 — 5.
These, when taken into account, will shew how David was at
the moment exemplifying in his own person, for the instruction of
his heterogeneous adherents, the precepts delivered to them in this
psalm concerning God's ordinary extension of long life and peace
to them that yield themselves to- His holy word (verses 11 — 16);
though sometimes (as was then the case with David) He, for pur
poses of His own (whether in the service of the Church or the
training of His servants to more exemplary virtue) appoints unto
them afflictions. Verses 17 — 22.
St. Peter at the second chapter of his first Epistle, at verses 3
and 19 — 25, as also the third chapter, verses 10 — 18, employs this
psalm for the purpose of shewing those " of the dispersion " to
whom he wrote, how God's dealing with the apostles of Jesus and
their followers was reconcileable with His ordinary rule of grant
ing as a Father, long life and good days to them that " refrain
their tongue from evil."
And it is to be observed that in portions of scripture for the
fifth Sunday after Trinity, the church's ancient doctors employ
that exposition of the psalm before us by Peter to elucidate the
cause of his own desire, that the " Lord would depart from him "
under the particular circumstances detailed in the portion out of
the gospels for that day. Luke v. 8.
Peter apparently was conscious of godly motions prompting him
to become the close attendant of Jesus as His disciple ; but having
a family, he seems to have shrunk from the trials which God would
thereby lay upon him (after the manner that David would at first
have escaped from the trials God would lay upon him in the land,
by fleeing to Achish) ; but on witnessing the miraculous draught
of fishes, Peter viewed this reluctance on his part to endure pri
vation for Christ, as a sin unfitting him thenceforward for that
distinguished service, though at length penitent, and willing to

112 PSALM THE THIRTY-FOURTH.
suffer with Him. But Peter had then become the more fitted for
that service (see verse 18 of this psalm), and was in effect so told
by his Lord.
This psalm is an acrostic ; and the tenour of it (equally with
that of the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-seventh) favours the conclu
sion that this artistic structure was adopted for the purpose of
helping learners in committing these important portions of holy
writ to memory. Deut. vi, 6, 7. Prov. i, 4. Deut. xxxi, 19 — 30.
For this method of structure enables one who repeats the psalm,
to see at once whether he has omitted a clause.
The subject of this psalm is of great importance ; and, when
known, tends to prevent those who would embrace God's service
in expectation of long life and good days from being offended,
(Matth. xiii, 21) if, like David and Peter, notwithstanding their
dutifulness, appointed unto trouble. 1 Cor. iv, 9. 1 Pet. ii, 20.
They are admonished " to taste and see that the Lord is gracious "
nevertheless, according to verse 8. The word for " taste " in that
verse being significantly dwelt on in the title (where the word for
" behaviour " is a noun derived from that verb, and literally mean
ing " taste ") shews, as was observed in other psalms, that this
verse is one of special importance, in which is the key to the in
terpretation of the whole.
Now, " behaviour " may be supposed to have been in Hebrew
denoted by "taste; " because, as the intrinsic qualities of sub
stances are better determined by tasting of them, than by merely
looking at their appearance, so trial of a man by interrogations and
such like, is a better means of ascertaining his real capacity and
disposition, than mere outward observation.
Abimelech or Achish contented himself with the latter in re
gard to David, and consequently failed to discover his assumed
disguise. David himself too had run into the peril, in which he then was,
through doing the same thing towards the Lord, when His provi
dential dealings seemed too arduous to admit of his abiding any
longer in the land of Judah.
But now that he had escaped through the Lord's care and the
sending of His angel (Acts xii, 11) ; he was purposed to abide in
the land of Judah, as the Lord charged him (1 Sam. xxii, 5).
He declares his purpose in this psalm, and tells his ill-assorted
followers the same, though in the face of incalculable difficulties ;
having to maintain four hundred men in so small a tract, without
committing wrong or robbery.
As a doctor, on visiting a patient and finding that some drug
¦or draught has been administered of which the name cannot be
told him, presently tastes it to ascertain its nature, so would David
by no means flee, as before, from the threatening aspect of the
Lord's providential dealings, but embrace them in the path of
duty— thus "tasting" in the persuasion that he should find good.

PSALM THE THIRTY-FOURTH. 113

Thee, Jehovah, will I bless,
Whether glad or in distress!
With my mouth Thy praise shall be
Spoken forth unceasingly.
In Jehovah shall my soul
Make her boast, that she is whole.1
So the humble, at my voice
Waken'd, shall in Him rejoice.
2.
Come,2 Jehovah's praise proclaim,
And with me extol His name!
I Jehovah sought,3 and He
From all danger set me free !
Friends for me unto Him look'd,4
And were not, as men rebuk'd ;
I too cried ;3 Jehovah heard,
And 'midst perils was my guard.
3.
All they who Jehovah fear,
Have His angel5 camping near;
Taste and see Jehovah's love;
Blest is he who doth it prove!

1 v. 2. Luke xvii, 19.
2 David is supposed. to have been here addressing his ill-assorted adhe
rents (1 Sam. xxii, 2) ; and by mention of " the humble " in verse 2, as
also by that of " the broken-hearted and contrite of spirit " in verse 18,
shews how he himself had been brought into conformity with Christ. 2
Cor. x, 3—6,
3 We may suppose that David did not pray to the Lord for guidance
before he resolved on flight from his native land ; but rather after he found
his danger in Achish's court.
4 v. 5. It is here supposed that "they" might mean the friends and
kinsfolk of David in the land ; who hearing of his flight interceded with
God in his behalf, and were not disappointed, but on the contrary cheered
with the success of their prayers ; and that they thereupon went down to
him. 1 Sam. xxii, 1.
6 v. 7. One is put for many as in Is. xxxiii, 24, " the inhabitant " for
all. See too verse 3 in the following psalm. I

114 PSALM THE THIRTY-FOURTH.
Fear Jehovah, ye His saints!
So you'll cease from all complaints:
Lions' whelps6 may lack their food,
But Jehovah's saints no good.7
4.
Hearken, sons,8 unto my speech,
I Jehovah's fear will teach !
Wouldst thou length of life desire %
Wouldst thou after good aspire?
From all mischief9 keep thy tongue
Speak not aught to lead one wrong;
Evil leave, and kindness do,
Counsel peace and it pursue!
5.
O'er the just10 Jehovah's eyes
Watch, His ears regard their cries;
But 'gainst men of evil ways
Stedfast is Jehovah's face!

6 v. 10. The fiery spirits in David's band might be so designated.
1 1 John v. 14, 15.
8 The adherents of a leader are in the East to this day popularly called
his sons, as was observed in Ps. iv, verse 3.
9 It is to be observed, that though David's circumstances had now be
come those of special trial ; yet (where he had no special word from God
to the contrary) His ordinary rule for conduct was scrupulously observed
by David (see 1 Sam. xxv, 16, 16). He appears to have employed his band
of men as a volunteer corps for defence of the border from inroads.
10 v. 16, i.e. one justified by faith in the promise concerning Christ (Ps.
ii, 12) ; for by no other faith was fallen man ever accounted just with God,
after having heard His revealed will to that effect. Ps. xxxii, 1, 2. Hab. ii, 4.

PSALM THE THIRTY-EOURTH. 115
Should the just be plung'd in grief11
At their suit He grants relief —
To their broken hearts He's nigh,
Caring lest their souls12 might die.

Many breed the just one woes,
But Jehovah from all foes
Saves him, minding lest a bone
Might be broken13 — even one !
Woes in turn with vengeance due
Shall the just one's foes undo ;u
While Jehovah doth redeem15
Souls of saints to dwell with Him.

11 v. 17. Verses 11—16 inclusive are employed by David in propounding
God's ordinary method of dealing with men, for the promotion of virtue and
discountenancing of vice (Phil, iv, 8), enforced by the dread sanction of
Jehovah's eye upon the obedient, and of His face against the unruly. But, in
verse 17, on proceeding to enunciate God's anomalous dealing with the righteous
in cases like David's and Peter's, the nominative to the verb " cry" is inten
tionally left to be brought down from the fifteenth verse to indicate the fact
intended to be explained — to wit, of some who have complied with the Lord's
requirements in verses 13, 14, (as had David,) not receiving the promised good
in some instances and for some stages of existence; though eventually to receive
it, if not in this life, as David; in that to come as did Peter: he, too, like David
from Gath, " was delivered out of all his troubles," when God sent an angel
to open the prison doors for him (Acts xii, 11); but he was assuredly not less
loved or cared for, when God permitted him to " taste and see" by the death of
the cross, how good He is ! (2 Peter i, 11) for then God finally redeemed him
" from all his troubles." Verse 19.
12 Is. lvii. 16. See too the note on verse 19 of Ps. xxxiii.
13 v. 20. This was true of David at the time spoken of: but eminently true
of the Lord Jesus (John xix. 36), Who also eminently proved the precept in
verse 8 (see John viii, 54, 55), and became the King of saints [Phil, ii, 5—10].
There is a remarkable transition in verse 19 from the plural of verse 15 to the
singular. Although capital letters are not prefixed to 'just one,' yet the above
translation preserves the reference in the original to Messiah.
14 v. 21. "The desolate" are emphatically those whom God hath left.
I -Sam. xxviii, 15. Matth. xxiii, 68.
15 v. 22. " Redeem" sometimes means to deliver. Luke i, 68 — 74.

i 2 (1)

116 PSALM THE THIRTY-FIPTII.
PSALM XXXV.

TITLE.
A psalm of David.
AEGUMENT.
The language of David to Saul as recorded in 1 Sam. xxiv, 15
so closely agrees with that in the opening verse of this psalm as
to afford a fair ground for supposing it to have been written with
reference to that time of peril. The whole tenor of the compo
sition is in keeping with this conjecture.
David's constant embroilment at that time in a harassing de
fence of himself, by dexterously avoiding rather than encounter
ing his armed pursuer, obviously prompted him to employ those
warlike terms of the "shield" and "buckler" and "spear" in
calling upon God to defend him. For when the deepest feelings
of a man's soul have been' stirred by lengthened peril, his mind
runs on the instruments with which he is dealing.
The spirit of Christ seems to have moved David, by occasion of
his desire for God's interposition on his behalf in the conflict
with Saul, to use expressions fitted to have been preferred by all
mankind, as one Adam, to the Most High for His interposition
against the enemy, who (verse 7) " without cause" digged a pit
for the souls of all ; and by his agents untiringly seeks to draw
them with their own consent into it.
The spirit of Christ in Job seems to have moved him to use
expressions intended to raise in God's people an expectation of
His interposition on their behalf against Satan (ix, 32 — 35. xix,
25 — 29. xxiii, 6) ; and David's aspirations after the same Divine
interposition may be regarded as clearer and more definite prog
nostications of the same good purpose of God for mankind.
In this psalm no less than in psalm xxii, are passages to which
Jesus Himself referred ; when in the days of His flesh, waging on
man's behalf His conflict with Satan. And the same words not
only gave " a mouth and wisdom" to servants in Christ's house,
in regard to their contest with Satan in their own hearts, before
the resurrection of Jesus ; but, since that event, give the like to
the members of His mystical body in the same warfare ; who are
" filling up in their flesh that which is behind of the sufferings of
Christ for His body's sake which is the Church." Col. i, 24.
1.
Thee would I crave for me to plead,
Jehovah ! yea for me to light

PSALM THE THIRTY-FIFTH. 117
'Gainst those with me at strife ! Oh heed
My strait ! take hold Thou in Thy might
On shield and buckler! bring Thou nigh
Thy spear to my pursuers' sight,
To baulk them! and say in reply
To me, thy soul's defence1 am I!
2.
Let shame2 and terror be their lot
Who for my soul's subversion strive !
Let them be put to utter rout
Who my destruction would contrive!
As chaff is toss'd before the blast,
Them let Jehovah's angel drive !
Their way a drear and slippery waste — *
The angel urging them to haste.
3.
All without cause for me their net
They in a stealthy pit have laid —
A pit (so 'gainst me were they set)
For my soul's overthrow they'd, made.

1 Gen. xv, 1 . Let us call to mind how God hath according to this prayer
risen up as our Judge on high, to prevent His frail creature man from being
overpowered by the enemy of a higher nature, who ( " without cause or
fault " on Adam's part) " dug a pit for his " and our " souls."
Since the day that God preached unasked the good tidings concerning a
deliverance to our first parents in Eden, wherever the tidings have been
carried, and the believers therein have, like David, called upon God for
help in their trouble, He has in answer to their cry, wakened up in their
hearts a consoling sense of His promise in the gospel concerning His
punishment of their enemy, and final establishment of them in His service
free from all further molestation throughout eternity. Heb. ii, 10 — 16.
2 Can we not with the utmost propriety (as in duty bound to wish our
selves monuments of God's mercy rather than wrath) take up those damna
tory clauses in the fourth and four following verses ; directing them against
those agents of Satan who would prevent us from serving God and His
Christ ? How can we, who have by our baptismal vow renounced the devil,
take up any other language against him, and them that would do his work
against God and our souls ? If our spotless Advocate Himself pleaded
them that He might not, as a Man, be overborne by that enemy (who
would fain have wearied Him out with our perverseness, that He might
desist from our redemption) ought not we rather, in gratitude to Him ?

118 PSALM THE THIRTY-FIFTH.
Oh let destruction him surprise !
Let that same mischief,3 which he had
For me design'd, upon him seize;
And from it never may he rise!
4.
But in Jehovah shall my soul
Rejoice! in His salvation find
Its joy ! and since I'm rescu'd whole,
The bones4 of all my frame combin'd
Shall say, Jehovah Who's like Thee,
Who to the poor man art inclin'd,
Yea for the poor art wont to be
A high defence unfailingly1?
" In the retributive justice of God man, whom in the person of Adam,
Satan (taking advantage of his ignorance) drew by disobeying God into
his pitfall of death (Heb. ii, 14) ; even he, (in the person of the Son of
Adam) by descending into this pitfall in obedience to God (but by our
enemy's contrivance, at whose instigation men prepared it for Him) left
Satan to be involuntarily precipitated through his dupes' ignorance into
his own pit, from thence never more to rise. For when he, who knew well
enough how far his power against man extended by the law, stirred up men
to put it in force against One among them that had not sinned (1 Cor. xv,
56) —in hopes of thereby driving Him to at least disobey God so far as to
desist from His undertaking and decline from the Spirit of Counsel within
Him (see Ps. xxxiv, 8 on this) — he plainly exceeded his limits (John ix,
40, 41) ; sinning in craft, by employing the ignorance of man against God's
counsel during the whole day of grace given to the Jewish nation. But
when that day was closed (Luke xix, 42), and it became known to Satan
that the most ignominious death would not deter the Son of Adam from
accomplishing the work given him to do, he strove hy every expedient in
his power to dissuade his dupes from proceeding to extremities against
Jesus, which would involve him in the consequences of having exceeded
the limits set him by the law (Jer. xxii, 13. Ezek. xxix, 18). Accordingly,
in his panic and bewilderment he goaded Judas to remonstrance at the
chief priests, and on this failing, to suicide ; then he scared Pilate's wife
with a dream and stimulated her to control her husband, but in vain. The
ignorance of man (of which he had up to that time been taking advantage
to make men his tools in thwarting God's counsel) thenceforward ran
counter to Satan's, without the possibility of his arresting it ; and thus the
very same ignorance by which he had entrapped man into his pit of death
through disobedience towards God, now entrapped him in the same through
disobedience towards himself.
4 Just as it may be conceived that, were a man to have escaped the jaws
of a lion, there would creep through every bone in his body a fellow-feel
ing with his soul at his deliverance— so let a believer but see the power of
the devil against his soul, and he will surely be ready, with no com
mon emotion to say at contemplation of the work of redemption in Jesus,
" Lord, Who is like Thee !

PSALM THE THIRTY-FIFTH. 119
5.
Against me rose false witnesses
Asking of things unknown to me :
And in return for kindnesses —
To my soul's deep despondency —
Evil to me they render'd5 quick.
But as for me in sackcloth I
Went wrapp'd, when they look'd pale and weak ;
I fasted, as though I'd been sick,
6.
And pray'd; nor shall my prayer be vain
(Though they thro' it no comfort know)
But shall to me return again !
Yea I behav'd myself as though
I did a friend or brother mourn ;
With heavy heart I bow'd down low,
As one bewails his mother torn
Away, and to her burial borne.
7.
But when reverses o'er me broke,
And I might for some sympathy
Have look'd — they, quickly gathering, spoke
Against my name derisively :
Nor knew I wherefore, save that they
So will'd it; fiercely did they try
To take my soul's hope quite away —
Of hate the undeserving prey.
8.
How long wilt Thou, my Lord,6 look on?
My soul from their destructions snatch !
From lions pluck mine only one!7
So for my preservation watch!
5 v. 11. This is to be understood of men as agents of Satan against the
souls of true believers. Rev. xii, 10.
6 v. 17. The same name as in Ps. xxii, 30.
7 v. 17. The same word as in Ps. xxii, 20.

120 PSALM THE THIRTY-FIFTH.
Then in the great assembly8 I
My service with devout despatch
Will enter on, and magnify
Thy Name with thanks and praises high.
9.
Let not mine enemies in spite
Exult upon me, nor their winks
Exchange in triumph; for what's right
They speak not; rather each one thinks
How best the meek9 to mortify.
With open mouth each eager drinks
The tale of scandal, bold to cry
Aha ! I saw it with mine eye.
10.
This O Jehovah Thou hast known!
Oh keep not silence, nor aloof
Remain Jehovah! shew Thine own
Just Providence in my behoof,
My God, my Lord! how I have been
Thy servant10 shew ! let Thy reproof
Check those that " fondly over-ween,
And at my virtue fret their spleen."
11.
With scornful heart let them not say
Aha! we have our wish! nor let
Their boast be, now he is our prey!
In deep confusion and regret
Be they o'erwhelm'd, who at my hurt
Would triumph; rather let them get
Reproach and shame for their desert ;
That so my cause Thou may'st assert.

8 v. 18. The same word as in Ps. xxii, 25.
9 v. 19. John xv, 25.
v. 24, with which compare verse 27. See Ps. iv, 1. xxxvi, 10.

PSALM THE THIRTY-SIXTH. 121
12.
Let those lift up the voice with joy
And shout,11 who have my cause at heart ;
Yea let them cheerfully employ
Their voices; saying on my part
Be Thou, Jehovah, magnified.
Who at Thy servant's triumph art
Well pleas'd! so I'll be occupied
Thy praise proclaiming far and wide.

11 v. 27. Thus in this psalm we have an animated exhibition of the ear
nestness with which true believers lay hold on Christ for their Wisdom,
Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption (1 Cor. i, 30) : while in
Matth. xxii, 2 — 5 is an equally animated one of the lukewarmness through
which ¦insincere believers lose their hope in Christ. Rev. iii, 15.

PSALM XXXVI.

TITLE.

To the Consummator. A psalm of the servant of the Lord :
a psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
As the preceding psalm at verse 27 testified that "the Lord
hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant," so this treats of
what His servant is to render unto Him.
God's servant is to examine himself : —
First, as to watchfulness, in maintaining right thoughts about
the sinfulness of sin, however secret ; so as to cherish unabated
abhorrence of it. Verses 1 — 4.
Secondly, as to cherishing worthy thoughts of God's loving-
kindness as well in Providence, wherein it is shared alike by man
and beast (verses 5, 6), as also in grace and glory, wherein is
the excellence or pre-eminence of His loving-kindness. With this
God blesses the sons of men alone by redemption, and specially
(1 Tim. iv, 10) those, who by mystical union with the Son of Man

122 PSALM THE THIRTY-SIXTH.
(Ps. viii, 4, 5) are free indeed and heirs of grace and glory (John
viii, 36) — being thus of the Son of Adam, rather than of Adam.
Thirdly, as to imploring of God renewal day by day, verse 10,
(Ps. li, 10. 2 Cor. iv, 16) for his continuance in grace through
the imputation of God's righteousness to him, while without guile
and of an honest and good heart. Ps. xxxii, 1 — 3. Luke viii, 15.
Fourthly, as to praying against indwelling pride (verses 11, 12) ;
" the foot of the old man" — more especially in the shape of reli
ance on his own righteousness before God (Rom. iv, 2. Luke xviii,
9), as also against "the hand of the wicked" or pride of other
men in that respect, which is often brought to bear upon one that
knows God, for the subversion of the soul or destruction of the
body.

Vex'd with the plague of his own heart,1 aware
That 'tis transgression — when transgression saith,
" Within my heart it is " — meaning, but there —
The wicked comfort in that saying hath!
For whoso in that saying putteth faith
And (can he only keep it to himself) doth this
Call peace, is wicked ! by some other path
Than Christ expecting peace: and plain it is
God's not before his eyes ! from God's fear he hath
ease!

i This first verse is according to our authorised version taken to mean,
that the man who knows God (verse 10), on recollecting what sin wrought
in him during his unconverted state, and observing how it works in the
child of disobedience (Ephes. ii, 2) is instructed by the Spirit of Christ
within him to ascribe that transgression of the wicked to the utter want of
God's fear.
But there is considerable doubt whether this be the psalmist's meaning.
The translation adopted in the present version is " Saith transgression to
the wicked, it" (to wit, transgression) "is within my heart." Here as it
seems to me the first verse ought to end.
It purports to be a dictum uttered within man's heart with the authority
of an oracle; (for that is implied in the word rendered " saith"). This
dictum counsels ease at what a man knows to be transgression within him,
on the ground of its being in his own heart alone and not exposed to others
by act or word of his. No one can check him for it, let hi™ not then
trouble himself about it.
Observe how transgression, though impliedly personified, is studiously
divested of open and avowed personality, that it may be represented as
speaking by the soul of the person into whom it thrusts its insidious plea.
By this device, he who adopts the suggestion and unreflectingly solilo
quises as prompted — saying " it is within my heart " becomes the mouth-
• piece of the tempter; who likewise saith " it is in my heart," calling the

PSALM THE THIRTY-SIXTH. 123

As one that's right in his own eyes, he asks
No higher rule of life than this world knows,
Well pleas'd if he but in its favour basks.
Hence when his course is hateful found,2 straight
goes
His peace. Meanwhile his counsels doth he gloze
With words to shew him wise and good ; tho' long
He's ceas'd to be such. Late do his eyes close
In bed for all his plots — of purpose strong
In his unscrup'lous course — abhorring not what's
wrong. 3.
Thy loving-kindness3 is to heav'n extoll'd
Jehovah! and thy faithfulness above
The clouds! Thy righteousness we hold
As the great mountains! and Thy judgments prove

deceived one's heart "his ; " just as our Lord, in Luke xi, 24, makes an
unclean spirit talk of the soul's house as " his house."
2 The world will love its own (John xv, 19), but what it gives it can take
away (John xiv, 27) ; so soon then as it takes away its favour, (being com
pelled thereto in the course of its own administrative rigour) owing to
some fault committed by the professor through the latent working of sin
within him (about which he had been indifferent so long as only God knew
it and not the world), then at last will the worldling feel himself an object
of aversion ; and his fall will be irremediable ; for the world is inexorable.
Conscience has then no excuse for longer putting off its function of
accusing and goading the wrong-doer with remorse : not however because
his sin has been done against God (Ps. li, 4), but because it has been
"found" (Jer. ii, 26. Matth. xxvi, 6) to be hateful in the world. Until
this exposure overtakes one who thus makes light of indwelling sin, he
grows more and more corrupt (Eph. iv, 22), only all the while assum
ing with more effort and constraint the appearance of virtue (1 Sam. xii,
23. _ 1 Peter ii, 18, 19), till he employs his powers to the utmost in
enticing others into the same lax notions. That wickedness is deepest
which is deliberate — and that deliberation most absorbing, which holds
one's eyes waking to the exclusion of rest on one's bed. Prov. iv, 16.
3 v. 5. The word translated "mercy" in our authorised version is the
same which in verse 7 is translated " loving-kindness." Hence the word
being similarly rendered in both places serves to bring prominently into
notice " the excellence " of the latter instance of it.

124 PSALM THE THIRTY-SIXTH.
To our conceptions an abyss of love !
For Thou, Jehovah, man and beast dost save !
How too doth th' excellence our wonder move
Of loving-kindness4 meant for those to have —
The sons of men — O God, who till death5 to Thee
cleave ! 4.
Therefore beneath the shadow6 of Thy wings
Do they repose with an unbounded trust,
And with the comfort which Thy service brings
Shall they be satisfied ; they'll quench their thirst
With streams which forth from out Thine Eden
burst
Perpetual! for in Thee exists the fount
Of Living-waters — yea of life7 the first
Well-spring ! and in Thy light we learn to count
All things at their true worth8 — and all life's ills
surmount!9 5.
Thy loving kindness Oh do Thou renew10
To them that know Thee! yea Thy righteousness
To them, that upright are in heart and true,
Impute ! let not the foot of pride u success

4 Ps. xxxi, 19.
s Heb. iii, 6. Rev. ii, 10.
6 Matth. xxiii, 37.
7 John i, 4. 1 John i, 1.
8 Gal. vi, 14. 2 Cor. xi. 10.
9 2 Cor. iv, 17, 18. Rom. viii, 37.
10 Phil, ii, 13. Ezek. xxxvi, 37. 2 Cor. iv, 16.
11 v. 11. " The foot of pride." It has been shewn at verse 12 of Ps.
xxvi, that " the foot of the heart" is with the believer " love : " on this
principle of interpretation David is to be considered as here speaking of his
inward conflicts ; but after what he had said in verse 1 about transgression,
deceiving many a servant of God by prompting him' to say of it, because
kept to himself " its within my heart," he would not here say (as he had
in Ps. xxvi, 12) " my foot" — though indeed speaking of the pride inherent
in his old nature — but he calls it "the foot of pride," speaking as one
engaged in " putting it off." Eph. iv, 22.

PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH. 125
Regain within me ! from my steadfastness
May no proud hand12 of wicked13 men me move !
The workers of iniquity are these !
Pride14 was their condemnation e'en above;
So also here below — and so to th' end will prove !
12 " The hand," as contrasted with " the foot," seems to me to denote
the same pride, as employed against one by other men, after the manner
described in verse 4 preceding.
13 By " wicked," it appears to me, is not meant here, or in verse 1, the
man who sins without knowledge of the truth of God or profession to
follow it — for, according to David's phraseology in the First psalm, and St.
Paul's comment in Rom. iv, 5 on the Thirty-second psalm, such an one
is called the " ungodly/' — the man who lives without God in the world
(Eph. ii, 12.) But by the wicked is here meant the backslider, who having
been awakened by the word of Christ has commenced reformation and de
clined from it — being empty, though swept and garnished. Matth. xii, 44
and Ezek. xviii, 21 — 27.
Moreover, what is said of the wicked in verse 3 agrees herewith, where
it is said " he hath left off to be wise and to do good." It is also clearly
implied in verse 1 that he is aware of its being transgression at the time
that he tranquillises himself about it by the dictum thrust into him ; but
how could he be aware of its being transgression except he had light ?
(see verse 9 and Heb. vi, 4). With what earnestness then and searching of
heart is the servant of God here called to wait on him Who hath pleasure
in his prosperity ! Ps. ix, 17. 1 John i, 8. Rom. vii, 5. Ps. li, 2. Heb.
x, 19 — 25. Job xxxi, 33. Prov. xxviii, 3. 1 Kings viii, 38.
14 1 Tim. iii, 6. John viii, 44, 45. 2 Tim. iii, 1—5. Is. ii, 12. xiv, 12.

PSALM XXXVII.

TITLE.
A psalm of David. ARGUMENT.
This psalm, like the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-fourth, is an
acrostic, having its successive verses commenced with a fresh
letter of the Hebrew alphabet in their order — except that when
the letter " ain " should come in verse 28 a " lamed " occurs. But
Dr. Forbes observes in his " Symmetrical Structure of Scripture,"
that the " ain " is mysteriously concealed in that word le-olam
which is here translated "for ever," but which might, as it seems

126 PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH.
to me, be preferably translated, " for the hidden age ; " since the
word is different from that in verse 29 similarly translated.
The subject too of this psalm resembles in character those of
the acrostic ones which have preceded it. It is written with the
view of preparing those, who embrace the service of God with
hope of good days, against despondency or offence at His service,
if left long in adversity. It therefore still further favours the idea
that these acrostic psalms were so constructed for the purpose of
helping the memory to recollect them.
It is indeed a psalm that may be said, like the Book of Proverbs,
to have been written " to give subtlety to the simple, to the young
man knowledge and discretion."
For perspicuity's sake it may be of advantage to classify the
testimonies here given, to teach believers from early youth in what
light to look upon the prosperous wicked, lest they should " desire
the net of evil men." Prov. xii, 12.
v. 2. " They shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither
as the green herb."
9. " Evildoers shall be cut off," that is, even by special
judgments occasionally.
10. " For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be,"
that is, over the whole inheritance, in the new earth,
when their destruction shall be universal. "Yea thou shalt
diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Com
pare verse 36.
15. " Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their
bows shall be broken." Compare verse 17.
17. " For the arms of the wicked shall be broken."
20. " The wicked shall perish ; " compare verses 2 and 9,
" and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of
lambs ; they shall consume : into smoke shall they con
sume away."
22. " They that be cursed of Him," i.e. God, shall be cut off.
28. " The seed of the wicked shall be cut off."
35. " Yea though I have seen the wicked in great power, and
spreading himself like a tree that groweth in his own soil,
yet he passed away, and Lo ! he was not. Yea I sought
him, but he could not be found ! " Here, such an one as
" the Assyrian " is meant (Ezek. xxxi. Is. xiv) ; whereas
the wicked spoken of in verse 20 I take to mean the ordi
nary sort of them.
36. Finally, the Holy Spirit bids the discouraged believer
mark the end of the transgressor and of the wicked, in
harmony with the general rule laid down in Prov. xii, 12;
after the same manner that Herodotus relates, how Solon
told Croesus that none, (in the worldly sense or according

PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH. 127
to human judgment) could be deemed fortunate, until it
had been proved that his prosperity abided with him to
the end of a life full of days. Hence, he says " I sought
him, but he could nowhere be found : " agreeably where
with it is to be observed that there is no account of the
way in which " the King " in Dan. xi, 36 — 45 comes to
his end.
~v. 38. "The transgressors shall be destroyed together:" a refe
rence to the simultaneous destruction of transgressors
described in Rev. xix, 20, 21. Matth. xiii, 40, 41. This is
different from the destruction of them in verse 10, which
refers to that accomplished at the bringing in of the new
heavens and new earth. Rev. xxi. Is. Ixvi, 22 — 24.
Again, the testimonies for encouragement of the righteous are —
v. 3. " Trust in the Lord and do good ; dwell in the land, and
feed by faith," not " on ashes " (Is. xliv, 20). In the
Hebrew all these verbs are imperatives : compare Habak.
ii, 4.
4. " Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the
desires" (petitions) " of thine heart " (Is. lviii, 14), thus
spiritual blessings are promised forthwith to so patient a
believer : according to Matth. vi, 33.
5. " Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him ; and
He shall bring it to pass; and he shall bring forth thy
righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon
day." Here, as it seems to me, is promised success in
worldly business, in such a way as shall make the honesty
in which it was gotten, uppermost in the minds of look
ers-on. Ps. xix, 9.
9. "Those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth,"
that is, in the regeneration. Matth. v. 5. xix, 28.
11. " The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight them
selves in the abundance of peace." Here is no tautology :
for, as it is an inheritance to be entered on when the wicked
shall not be (verse 10), it points to the state of the meek,
not during the millennium, but in the new heavens and
the new earth. Rev. xxi.
16. " A little that the righteous hath is better than great
riches of the wicked." Jer. xvii, 11.
17. " The Lord upholdeth the righteous."
18. " The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their in
heritance shall be for ever:" that is, those who shall not
be of the generation to enter on the promises made to the
meek in their mortal bodies (referred to in verse 3) shall
have an enduring inheritance in heaven. Heb. xi, 14, 15.

128 PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH.
v. 19. Also, during this life, "they shall not be ashamed in
the evil time ; and in the days of famine they shall be
satisfied: " that is, this shall ordinarily be the case, ex
cept where God shall make it plain to His servants that
His wiU is different. 1 Pet. iii, 10—14. Ps. xxxiv, 17.
22. " Such as be blessed of God " (Ps. xxxii, 1) " shall inherit
the earth." Here is another description of the children
of God, called in verse 9 "those that wait on the Lord; "
and in verse 11, "the meek" so that there is no tau
tology in this twenty-second verse.
23. Also, " the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
and He delighteth in his way : though he fall, he shall
not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with
His hand." "I have been young and now am old, yet
have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg
ging their bread." Compare verse 28.
28. " For the Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not His
saints; they are preserved for ever" (Heb. vi, 11 — 20):
or for the hidden age.
29. "The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein
for ever," that is, in the new heavens and new earth.
Eev. xxi, 1.
33. " The Lord will not leave him in the hand of the wicked,"
(1 Peter iv, 18) that is, "the accuser of the brethren"
(Rev. xii, 10); " nor condemn him when he is judged."
1 Cor. iv, 1—6.
34. " Wait on the Lord and keep His way and He shall exalt
thee to inherit the land " — as contrasted with verse 7 —
another illustration of the testimonies in verses 9, 11,
22. " When the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it,"
which shall assuredly be fulfilled to those saints " who
remain not to the coming of the Lord " (1 Thess. iv, 15).
For the Lord shall come as described in Matth. xxiv, 30,
with all His saints; they having already been gathered
unto Him at the first resurrection (Phil, iii, 2. Rev. xx,
4) ; and having attended Him at the destruction of Jeru
salem (Zech. xiv, 5), wherefore they shall assuredly be
present with Him to see when the ungodly are cut off.
Rev. xix, 17—21. Matth. xiii, 30—39, 43.
37. " Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the
end of that man is peace (John xiv, 27) : as contrasted
with the wicked in verse 36.
39. "The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord," as con
trasted with the destruction of the wicked together, in
verse 18. So the Lord is alone the salvation of the righ
teous (Jude verse 8) He is their strength in the time of
trouble. 2. Cor. xii, 9.

PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH. 129
40. " And the Lord shall help them and deliver them from the
wicked ; and save them, because they trust in Him "
(Dan. iii, 17) : yea, when " taken away," He delivers
them " from the evil to come." Is. lvii, 1, 2.
Besides these testimonies there are others descriptive of cha
racter ; which will serve to confirm the patient believer in the
persuasion that he suffers according to the will of God, (notwith
standing that he is conscious of faults in his manner of suffering),
if he eschew the character of the wicked and resemble that of the
righteous. Thus in verse 12, " the wicked plotteth against the just, and
gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him ;
for he seeth that his day is coming : " compare verse 32.
*' The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow
to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of up
right conversation."
21. " The wicked borroweth and payeth not again."
Here the wicked may mean Satan himself, and the righteous,
Jesus ; so Horsley conjectures.
On the other hand, of the righteous it is written at verse
21. " The righteous sheweth mercy and giveth," which is to
be read in conjunction with verse 26, where he sometimes
"lendeth."
30. " The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his
tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in
his heart: none of his steps shall slide." See Ps. i, 3.
34. "He waits on the Lord and keeps His way, while the
wicked" according to verse 7 "prospereth" in "his
own."
Thus it is the mark of a righteous man to ask himself, whether
he is walking with God ; and it is greatly to be deplored when
this consideration is not thought of. For it is of unspeakable com
fort to a man, that he should with a good conscience say, " Whom
have I in heaven but Thee ?" Ps. lxxiii, 25.

1.
Tho' wicked men grow rich and great,
Fret not, nor let thy spleen have sway
Like grass that ripens for the scythe,
Or withers 'neath the sun, are they. K

130 PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH. 2.
Trust thou in God ! His will perform !
Dwell in the land, and feed in faith I
Whoso in God finds main delight,
His heart's1 petitions surely hath!
3.
Tho' thou the while reverses meet'st,
To God commit thy way, nor fear
But He'll thee bless, and make withal
Thine honesty2 as noon-day clear!
4.
Speak3 not to God, but for Him wait,
Nor deem another man's success
Through fraud, can 'bate the pitch whereto
'Tis God's intent thy pains to bless.
5.
Beware of wrath4 — from anger cease —
Fret not ! 'tis sin — and wicked men
Shall fail! but God's inheritance
Shall those, that wait for Him, attain.
6.
A little5 while and o'er the earth
One wicked man shall not be found !
The meek that whole inheritance
Shall have, and there in peace abound!

1 v. 4. Here is promised soul's health.
2 v. 6. Here is a blessing promised on the temporal affairs of such an
one. 3 v. 7. Literally, be silent towards Him : that is, do not make frequent
applications to Him on such worldly matters. See Exod. xiv, 15. Matth.
vi, 33. 4 John xvi, 6. James i, 19. Jonah iv, 9.
5 v. 10. Haggai ii, 6—9. Heb. iii, 1—6. xii, 26—29. Is. Lsv, 17, 18.
lxvi, 22. Rev, xxi.

PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH. 131

The wicked plots against the just,
And to the pitch of frenzy hates !
The Lord his spite but puny deems,
And on his doom's day contemplates.
8.
Against the poor the wicked draws
His sword; and with the bow is apt
To aim; but through his own false heart
His sword shall pierce — his bow be snapt.
9.
The honest gain, though it be small,
Fraud's ampler profits far transcends ;
For this the Lord by losses wastes,
But with His blessing that befriends.
10.
The just man's days to God are known ;
His heritage for aye endures ;
In trouble him God saves from shame ;
To him in famine bread ensures.
11.
As fat of lambs in sacrifice
By force of heat doth smoke send forth ;
The pamper'd wicked melt and mount
In vapour 'neath God's righteous wrath.
12.
The wicked for a loan entreats,
Receives it and the debt ignores.
The righteous hears what's ask'd; nor lends,
But gives it from his slender stores.
13.
A good man's steps the Lord ordains;
With kindly eye his way surveys; K.2

132 PSALM THE THIRTY-SEVENTH.
And tho' his feet do sometimes slip,
The Lord restrains them with His grace.
14.
Th' experience of a lengthen'd Life
Has me to this conviction led,
That God the righteous ne'er forsakes,
Nor leaves his seed to beg their bread.
15.
The righteous is compassionate,
And for God's sake doth succour lend ;
His seed is bless'd, and all his loans
Receives with increase in the end.
16.
Flee evil — good pursue — and live
For ever ! for the righteous Lord
His patient saints doth ne'er forsake ;
Yea doth their piety reward !6
17.
The wicked parent shame and want
Perversely for his seed prepares ;
While what they might have had, the Lord
Keeps7 for the just one, and his heirs.
18.
The just one's mouth with wisdom shews
How true8 and right God's judgments are!
God's law is written in his heart ;
To walk thereby is all his care.
19.
The wicked with malignant eye
The righteous marks, and seeks to slay;
The Lord will him from blame absolve,
Lest he to Satan fall a prey.
• v. 28. Ps. lxii, 12. ' Prov. xiii, 22. Rom. viii, 17. Gal. iv, 7.
8 v. 30 Ps. xix, 9. xxxiii, 4. Prov. xi, 31.

PSALM THE THIRTY-EIGHTH. 133
20.
Upon the Lord, O Israel, wait !
And cleave to His appointed way;
He'll thee within His land exalt,
Nor let one sinner in it stay.
21.
The wicked like some thriving tree,
In its own soil uprear'd, I've seen ;
Anon he'd gone ! nor left a trace
Of where his firm-bas'd seat had been.
22.
The just behold ! the upright mark !
His end is peace ! he's past the worst !
While one same9 ruin shall o'erwhelm
Transgressors, ne'er to be revers'd.
23.
'Tis God Himself the righteous saves,
In time of trouble He's their stay;
And from the wicked, for their faith,
He promptly snatches10 them away !
3 See Ps. lxxiii, i.
!° Is. lvii, 1, 2.

PSALM XXXVIII.

TITLE.

A psalm of David. To bring to remembrance.
We may hence gather that it was written by the psalmist for
his private use ; to the intent that by frequent recollection of his
backsliding, he might be the more watchful against that false con
fidence in his strength of heart towards God, which had proved
his downfall.

134 PSALM THE THIRTY-EIGHTH.
Although sundry commentators assume the occasion of David's
writing this psalm to have been different from that in 2 Sam. xi,
(to which I refer it) ; yet Bythner in his " Lyra," by one expres
sion on verse 6 (1499) clearly adopts it. Bishop Patrick too does
so, by implication, in a note on verse 5 ; where he refers to 2 Sam.
xi, 2 — 4. Scott avowedly does so, and Adam Clarke.
The terms of this psalm seem to me to describe the writer as
suffering not under the figure, but the reality, of sickness ; and
although no mention is made of David's having been visited with
sickness at the time spoken of; yet inasmuch as we learn from
Ps. ciii, verse 3, that under the Mosaic dispensation the healing
of one's diseases followed on the forgiveness of sins, so the inflic
tion of sickness would ensue on the commission of it ; or at any
rate, in the case of such an one as David, on his protracted con
tinuance in it. However, in Ps. xii, 8, there is mention of a heavy
sickness having pressed on David at some period of his history,
of which there is no specific mention in the Books of Samuel ; we
are therefore at liberty to assume that in Ps. xii, 8 the same sick
ness was spoken of as in this Thirty-eighth psalm.
Moreover David seems to have been already prepared for acknow
ledgment of his sin, by the time that Nathan was sent unto him ;
for he at once acknowledged it (2 Sam. xii, 13). What then if
sickness by God's appointment contributed to bring about that
change in him ?
Looking at the narrative from this point of view, Nathan's re
course to a parable would be ascribable rather to his pains in
opening the subject aright before one to whom, as his father and
king, he was the more bound to shew tender respect. David may
be considered to have recovered from his sickness by the time
Nathan was sent ; and the message of Nathan, bearing from God
an assurance of pardon upon the king's making confession to God's
minister, may have been in reality granted in reply to petitions and
vows such as those in the conclusion of this psalm (verses 17, 18) :
this theory seems to me more particularly in harmony with the
title. See too Hezekiah's example in Is. xxxviii, 15, and Saint
Paul's Acts ix, 1 7.
ARGUMENT.
The first verse is almost word for word the same as that in Ps.
vi, and means that David deprecated God's unmeasured wrath,
though conscious of having deserved it.
From the second to the end of the tenth verse he describes the
effects of his malady upon him mentally and bodily ; acknowledg
ing in verse 3 that he traced its infliction to a particular sin, which
in verse 5 he stigmatises as his " foolishness " — a word through
out scripture used to designate those habits which men indulge
through want of fear before God.

PSALM THE THIRTY-EIGHTH. 135
The eleventh and twelfth verses describe what effect he per
ceived the sight of his malady to have had on his attached follow
ers, friends, kinsmen — and then again on those disaffected persons
who wished him gone ; the former regarded it as sent from God,
and were confounded thereat (for none had expected such an in
stance of human frailty in so eminent a servant of God) ; but the
latter invented and circulated reports to the unsettling of men's
minds, and undermining their loyalty.
In verses 13 and 14, he describes his maintenance of silence;
and in 15 and 16, his hope in God Who had chosen him to be
His servant, notwithstanding his grievous declension — using a plea
similar to that of Moses for the Israehtes in Exod. ix, 16. In 17
and 1 8 he expresses his resolve on humbling himself before God :
and in 19 and 20 distinguishes three classes of persons that were a
disquiet to him — his enemies, or those who had a personal hostility
to him — and "those that hated him wrongfully," supposing him
probably to have been accessary to Saul's death, and Abner's — and
then again those " who rendered evil for good " — the cause of vari
ance with these last being that of difference on religious grounds,
when on every other they had reason to be devoted to him.

1.
Oh! smite me not, Jehovah, in Thy wrath,
Nor let Thy whole displeasure 'gainst me rise !
For fast Thine arrows thicken in my path,
And heavily Thy hand upon me lies.
2.
'Twas thro' Thine anger health forsook my frame —
'Twas sin procur'd this anguish in my bones,
My head is bow'd down with intensest shame,
And conscience owns its load in sighs and groans.
3.
My sores, due to my stubborn foolishness,
Men's nostrils with their loathsome stench offend;
I drag me through the day in deep distress,
Forc'd with my shrieks ofttimes the air to rend.
4.
All my desire, my Lord, is in thy sight,
Nor doth there 'scape Thine ear a single groan ;

136 PSALM THE THIRTY-EIGHTH.
Faint is my heart; my strength fails, and the light,
That brighten'd once mine eyes, is wholly gone.
5.
When loyal followers and friends approach,
They stand o'er-aw'd to contemplate my stroke ; 1
The disaffected schemes seditious broach,
Lik'ning my rule to an usurper's2 yoke.
6.
But I the while, as tho' I had been deaf,
Heed naught of this — I'm silent as the dumb.
I own myself unworthy the relief
Of once returning them their answer home.
7.
For in Thee, O Jehovah, do I trust!
My Lord, my God! I hope that Thou Wilt hear!
Thine am I ! and, were I trod in the dust,
My mockers too elated would appear.
8.
For I alas ! in conscious frailness halt ;
Compunction brings the colour3 to my face,
And shall — for with such grief I'll Thee exalt,
Yea with confession due await Thy grace!
9.
My foes forthwith the livelier hopes conceiv'd,
Seducing some to whom I ne'er did wrong,
And some too, who from me had boons receiv'd;
Who hate me, and that good4 for which I long.

1 See xxxix, 10.
8 2 Sam. xvi, 8.
3 Ps. xliv, 15,
4 Ps. iv, fi. Micah vi, 8. 1 Peter iii, 13. John xv, 18.

PSALM THE THIRTY-NINTH. 137
10.
Oh leave me not, Jehovah, to their sword
Nor stay Thou, O my God, from me aloof.
But hither with benignant aid, my Lord!5
My sure salvation ! speed to my behoof.
5 See the note on Ps. xxii, 30.

PSALM XXXIX.

TITLE.

Unto the Consummator, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
In undeviatingly translating the first word of this title, after the
example of the Septuagint, care has been taken to see how the
contents of the psalm subjoined correspond therewith.
In every instance hitherto the leading idea of the psalm has
been found altogether in harmony with their interpretation of the
word. The same test applied to the present psalm may seem to fail :
and as the word Jeduthun is admitted to be the name of a mu
sician mentioned in 1 Chron. xvi, 41, and xxv, 1 it may be thought
clear that the first word of this title ought to be translated " to
the chief musician." But in verses 7, and 12, 13, there is surely
reference enough to what God would through Messiah do for
David, to account for his having dedicated the psalm to that
Divine Being, to Whom he had chief regard in composing it.
ARGUMENT.
The subject of this psalm being generally thought to be inti
mately connected with that of the psalm next preceding, it is
probable that both were written about the same time — at that
stage of David's life recorded in 2 Sam xii.
Looking at the word " stroke " in verse 10, a conformity there
in with the history in 2 Sam. xii, 15 may, as it seems to me, be
traced ; shewing that this psalm was written after the death of the
child borne by Bathsheba; though not very long after, as I gather
from verse 13.

138 PSALM THE THIRTY-NINTTH.
In the first six verses David may be supposed to have de
scribed the restraint he imposed on himself in the presence of
his courtiers, particularly after the acknowledgment of his sin. He
apparently resorted to this silence for the sake of escaping morti
fication ; but sorrow under this restraint made him weary of life
(John xvi, 6) ; for being a prophet and pardoned by God it was
not agreeable to the Divine will that he should be silent in regard
to that office (see Peter's fidelity in charging on his countrymen
their denial of Jesus, though he too had done the same, Acts iii,
14) : wherefore God's word burned within him (Jer. xx, 7 — 9) till
he brake silence.
Yet it appears to me that, though he did this at the motion of
Christ's spirit within him, he at that time allowed himself to be
biassed by his fleshly feeling of despondency ; so as, after the man
ner of Moses in Numb, xi, 15, and Job in chapter vii, to speak in
a strain of impatience towards God, as though weary of longer con
tinuance in mortal life, which to him should be full of disaster
(2 Sam. xii, 10, 11). The utterances in this mood continue, as it
seems to me, to the end of verse 6.
At verse 7 he, as I think, records what were his convictions at
the time of writing this psalm, under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost. This he did with the intent of confessing and shewing to
God's people in after time, how he had erred in the utterances put
on record in the former verses, though holding the root of the
matter within him.
There is in this latter portion of the psalm a pointed antithesis
to the former — the psalmist arriving indeed at the same conclusions
as before, but in a different frame of mind and on different grounds
of induction ; and finally concluding with a petition the very re
verse of his demand, when first breaking silence.
First, at verse 7, he emphatically describes himself as waiting
God's pleasure (of which not a word had been said before) ; inti
mating that, let the mortification he had to undergo be what it
might (Sam. iii, 39), he, who had brought it on himself, would be
willing to bear it, so long as God saw it needful — that patience
might have her perfect work (James i, 3). Though he had a desire
to depart (Phil, i, 23), he would wait God's time (2 Kings vi, 33) ;
only he (who had received by Nathan's mouth an assurance of
forgiveness) prays that he may be rid of his transgression — to wit,
in respect of impatience (John xiii, 8) ; and intimates that had he
been removed from this scene of probation so speedily after God's
pardon of his sin, as he clamoured for ; he could but, with the
foolish, who know not God's ways, have served for a rebuke. He
therefore prays, in verse 13, that he may be spared to recover
spiritual strength (Rom. v, 6) ; that, ere he depart, he may be for a
better purpose to the souls of his countrymen, than that of a warn
ing alone. Ps. li, 13.

PSALM THE THIRTY-NINTH. 139

Th' ungodly1 in my sight
So strictly did me watch;
I said, good heed I'd take,
No false word should he catch.
2.
My mouth I'd muzzl'd keep !
Thus dumb was I; for from
E'en good words I refrain'd ;
But grief fill'd me with gloom.
3.
Then did my heart within
Wax hot; and while I mus'd,
It into flame forth burst —
And thus my tongue I us'd.
.4.
Let me, Jehovah, know
Mine end — my days' short span-
And I shall put to proof
How frail am I — a man.
o.
My days an hand-breadth are,
Mine age with Thee is naught;
The low2 man's vanity,
And he of th' higher sort
6.
In vain allurement walks;
Vain longings each annoy:
In either state one heaps,
Uncertain who'll enjoy.

1 Joab, David's nephew, the ready tool of his designs against Uriah (2
Sam. xi, 14) may well he supposed to have heen here more particularly
intended. 3 Here is the same contrast in the original, as in Ps. xlix, 2.

140 PSALM THE THIRTY-NINTH. 7.
My Lord,3 now Thou 'rt my hope
Why wait4 III exclaim.
Free me5 from sin, lest I
Be but of fools the shame !
8.
Dumb6 was I and my mouth
I open'd not, since Thou
It didst ! forbear to smite !
Beneath Thy stroke I bow!
9.
The great man, as he were
Moth-eaten,7 fades by Thee
Convicted;8 surely too
The low9 man's vanity!
10.
Grant that my prayer — my cry10—
My tears — accepted be;

3 Instead of regarding Adonai or "My Lord" as here by Jewish reve
rence inserted in place of the name Jehovah (when that venerated name
has been left unmolested in the fourth and twelfth verses), I rather believe
David to have emphatically here used the name "My Lord" for his ap
pointed Son (as in Psalm xxii, 30. ex, 1) with reference to Whom he in
verse 12, when praying to Jehovah, called his prayer by that particular
word denoting prayer through an advocate. See Ps. iv, 1. vi, 9.
4 Phil. 1, 23.
5 John viii, 32. xiii, 10. Ps. li, 7. '
11 v. 9. Here in contrast with verse 2 the psalmist is dumb ; but for how
different a purpose ! not that he might escape the strife of tongues which
he should provoke — by discharge of his duty as a prophet of God — but
under a deep sense of God's mercy in rendering unto him less than his
iniquity deserved. Ezra ix, 13.
7 Gadsby, in his " Wanderings," observes, " It is no uncommon thing to
find dresses consumed in a single night by moths in Egypt.
8 v. 11. The word for "rebukes" is in the original one implying con
victions of sin by the precepts or statutes of God's law.
9 Here again is a contrast to verse 5.
10 The prayer — the cry — the tears are intended to denote how David in
creased in the urgency of his supplication. " The cry " being mark of a

PSALM THE FORTIETH. 141
For I a stranger am
And sojourner11 with Thee,
11.
Jehovah! as were all
My fathers ! Oh ! prolong
My days; till, ere my death,
In grace again I'm strong!
petitioner so earnest as to raise his voice aloud (see Gen. xxvii, 34). " The
tears " being, when in secret communion with God, a still greater mark of
earnestness. See Is. xxxviii, 3 — 5.
11 v. 12. So far is David's calling himself a stranger and a. sojourner
from being a proof of his only having had regard to God's promises con
cerning this life and utter uncertainty about a future state (as Mr. Thrupp
suggests), that it most emphatically shews the contrary— the language be
ing a proof for him (as for Abraham, Heb. xi, 13) that, though aware of
God's promises to his Son concerning the throne over Israel, for his own
share in salvation he looked above. Lev. xxv, 23. Luke ii, 29, 30.

PSALM XL.

TITLE.
To the Consummator. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
When we read in Acts ii, 30 how David, "knowing that God
would raise up Christ from the dead, spake of the resurrection of
Christ," I see no difficulty in supposing that the Spirit of Christ
spake by David's mouth throughout this psalm with reference to
Christ alone (1 Pet. i, 10 — 12), as in the Second and Twenty-
second psalms.
For how to find in David's punishment of the Amalekites after
their capture of Ziklag (1 Sam. xvi, 1), a foundation for the open
ing verses of this psalm, I know not.
David's recovery of his wives and children with those of his
followers was undoubtedly a great relief to him after the anguish
produced by their unexpected capture ; but it seems inadequate to

142 PSALM THE FORTIETH.
the terms wherewith this psalm is opened from verse 1 to end of
verse 4.
There seems to me in these words, especially where mention is
made of being " brought out of mire to stand on a rock' and to
have a new song," an indication of some decisive victory after a
protracted sustainment of shame ; and that too, one that settled
the position of the conqueror.
Now David's rescue of his kindred from a marauding party of
Amalekites was not of that decisive character in his life ; when he
had yet every thing to begin in regard to acquisition of the king
dom over Israel after Saul's decease.
All commentators agree that the words of this psalm are to be
applied in some sense to our Lord Jesus Christ ; only, many think
that it is in a secondary one ; whereas I incline to those who ap
ply it to Him solely throughout.
Patiently indeed did Jesus wait until the Lord His Father
should make known the righteous judgment, for which He sued, in
regard of the charge brought against Him, for which He was
crucified. John xix, 7.
We have certain psalms going before ( e.g. xxi, xxii) shewing
how the Spirit of Christ did by the mouth and pen of David direct,
what Jesus should say and what He should speak ; which ac
cordingly in the days of His flesh He diligently read (Is. 1, 4).
Let it then be supposed that the Spirit of Christ, commencing in
this psalm with what Jesus should say at His resurrection, went on
through the rest of it to describe, what He after His resurrection
and ascension should by his Father's will do, in regard of His me
diatorial office on man's behalf in this first age of the kingdom of
heaven (Heb. ix, 15), for our sanctification (see verses 5 — 8) ; and
further to describe what should be the sufferings of Christ in the
persons of His members on earth during the same (Col. i, 24,)
until His " coming a second time without sin " (that is, no more,
as now, bearing sin by His sacrifice from off us) " unto salvation "
(Heb. ix, 27, 28). This is substantially Augustine's view of the
psalm ; and I am persuaded that St. Paul in Heb. x, 5 — 14 ex
pounds it upon this system of interpretation.
If the Spirit of Christ wrote beforehand in holy scripture what
Jesus in the days of His flesh should there as a man read, that He
might speak and do it ; where is the inconsistency in supposing
that the same Spirit still further put on record therein, what He
should do and teach during this first age of the kingdom of hea
ven, in the persons of them that are members of His mystical
body for the filling up that which is behind of the afilictions of
Christ in their flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church ?
Explained on this principle of interpretation, the psalm de
scribes what is being done by Christ since His ascension in His
own person before the throne of God — and what He is suffering on

PSALM THE FORTIETH. 143
earth in our persons in great humility — He speaks in His own
Person from verse 1 to 8 inclusive ; but from the sixth to the
eighth verse describes what He, as the High Priest of a better
and more perfect tabernacle (Heb. ix, 11), presents to God, on
behalf of His people since His ascension, that He may sanctify
them (Heb. x, 12); and then from verse 9 to the end, describes
what He doth and suffereth in the persons of His apostles and
their successors and all that believe in Him through their word.
— Compare verses 9, 10 with Ephes. ii, 17. iii, 21 with Eom.
xv, 3, 4.
In the last verse the Spirit of Christ moved David to speak of
Christ as emphatically "the poor" (2 Cor. viii, 9): a title taken
up in the first verse of the next psalm, and there shewn to belong
to Him in the members of His mystical body during this first age
of the kingdom of heaven. 1.
In patience for Jehovah's time
I waited with unceasing prayer ;
While He thereto His ear inclin'd :
From out the pit's dread roar and slime
Uplifting, to the rock1 He bare
My feet; and future path defin'd.
2.
Then in My mouth a song2 before
Unknown He put — a song of praise
Unto our3 God ! This gracious gift
Shall many learn, and evermore
With reverence in Jehovah place
Their hope, and hearts unto Him lift.

1 The spiritual manhood (1 Cor. xv, 44 — 46) raised up after the power
of an endless life. Heb. vii, 16. Ps. xxi, i. Rom. viii, 11.
2 Concerning redemption of the body, as being the completion on this
earth of Christ's victory over Satan, through His death. Luke xxi, 28.
Rom. viii, 23. Heb. ii, 14, 15. See too the note on Ps. xxxiii, 3.
3 The possessive plural pronoun here expresses how the Spirit of Christ
should be in His faithful ones on earth — members of His mystical body — ¦
praising God in this first age of the kingdom of heaven because of His
having given His Son, the Son of David, to be not only a sacrifice for our
sins, but also our food and sustenance in the holy sacrament of His supper.
Heb. x, 19—22. John vi, 53. xix, 34. 1 John v, 6—9.

144 PSALM THE FORTIETH.
3.
Be blessings to that man vouchsaf'd,
Who on Jehovah4 sets his hope;
And neither the self-righteous heeds,
Who claim to be by merit sav'd;
Nor those, that to men's lusts give scope,
And cheat of bliss by lying5 creeds.
4.
Thy works are wondrous, O our God
Jehovah! which for us Thou'st wrought,
And still dost daily on us shower!
Fain would I, with prepar'dness6 shod,
Recount them; but Lo! at the thought
They crowd upon Me past My power.
5.
Nor offering7 nor sacrifice
Would'st Thou ! but Lo ! mine ears8 for Me
Hast digg'd, the while burnt-offering
Thou'st with sin-offering wav'd likewise.
Then straight I said, I come to Thee !
Glad to fulfil Thine ordering!

4 Jer. xvii, 5 — 7
5 Ps. cxix, 29. John viii, 44.
6 Ephes vi, 15.
1 A writer in the " Journal of Sacred Literature," for January, 1860,
observes, that in Lev. vii, 37, we have an enumeration of the Levitical
sacrifices ; and that of these all are mentioned in verse 6 of this psalm
except the last, the asham or trespass offering ; yet that Isaiah in liii, 10,
expressly saith, that Christ should be made a trespass -offering.
Can it be that the Spirit of Christ significantly forbore from saying here
at verse 6 that this sacrifice also was superseded, to denote that the sacrifice
of Christ should be an asham in the hearts of His people on earth, while
being sanctified? See Heb. x, 11, 12
9 Bythner suggests, that "ears" is in this instance to be taken for the
whole body (because the part most appropriate to express at the time of
the psalm being written, the service which Christ should render). Accord
ingly I understand the Spirit of Christ to provide for Jesus to say unto the
Father — when risen from the grave and beholding the marvellous works
(verse 5) wrought in Him as a Man (Ps. xxi, 3) — " I perceive by what
Thou hast done in Me, that Thou dost not now require sacrifice or offering
or burnt-offering or sin-offering, but Thou requirest that of Me which
Thou hast prepared, as a trespass-offering (Is. liii, 10. 2 Cor. v, 21) to be

PSALM THE FORTIETH. 145

Thy righteousness to every sort
I've preach'd — from naught9 of it refrain'd —
(This Thou, Jehovah, know'st) nor hid
Within Myself the good report :
But Thy salvation have explain'd,
And to Thy feast all nations10 bid]
7.
Thy mercies therefore do not Thou
Withhold, Jehovah ! but alway
Me with Thy love and truth surround!
For 'neath a load of sins11 I bow
In shame before Thee; yea dismay
Thereat doth Me well nigh confound!
9 Acts xx, 27.
10 Ephes. ii, 17.
11 So Paul, as one with Christ, at sight of the little constancy under
temptation of certain for whom he had travailed in Christ in Corinth, said
in 2 Cor. xi, 29 : " Who is weak and I am not weak ?" and in Gal. iv,
19, 20 : " I am in doubt of you." So too 2 Cor. 19—21.

ministered by Me, through the service of them that feed thereon in their
hearts (Numb, xviii, 9) of whom My spiritual body, which Thou hast pre
pared for Me, shall be formed ; which Thou wilt beget of My incorruptible
seed through Thy word (1 Peter i, 23), and sustain during this mortal life
under My High Priesthood (Heb. ix, 15) Personally discharged by Me in
My glorified body.
In regard of this meaning for soma in Heb. x, 10, compare Ephes. iv,
4 and 16, also Rom. vi, 6—10.
Thus I understand the Spirit of Christ here to provide that Jesus should
say, " I come " — not referring it to His incarnation, hut to His resurrection
in the spiritual body, as the first verse of this psalm represents ; nor is
there anything incongruous in this, when the language in Ps. ii, 7 is shewn
in Acts xiii, 33, and Heb. v, 5 to have been spoken, not of the incarnation
of Christ, but His resurrection — " to do Thy will " or good pleasure (verse
8), to wit that specified in Heb. x, 10 ; whereby, " they which are of the
sacrifice," are sanctified. For that part of the body of Jesus which is
by our faith within us offered unto God (Mai. i, 11), is the trespass-offering
or asham now accepted under the High-Priesthood of our Lord.
Hence in Rom. vii, 4 somatos is used instead of thanatou, and in 2 Cor.
iv, 10 necrosin rather than thanaton.
But the soma of the sacrifice used never to be carried by the Aaronic
High Priest into the Levitical holy of holies. The priests offered it in
the holy place— agreeably wherewith true believers, as Spiritual Priests
(1 Peter ii, 9) present themselves in Christ's mystical body unto God
I,

146 PSALM THE FORTIETH.
8.
Be pleas'd, Jehovah, Me to save ! 12
Jehovah ! to My succour haste !
And cause all those, who would destroy
My soul, their due reward to have —
A quick reward13 — who, when disgrac'd14
They see Me, laugh aloud for joy!
9.
Let all rejoice that on Thee wait !
Let all, that Thy salvation love,
Say, Be Jehovah prais'd alway!
Poor though I be, yet on My state
My Lord15 looks down; come from above
O God, My help! make no delay!16
12 Rom. viii, 26.
13 So the Septuagint at verse 15 ;' apparently reading in their copy of the
Hebrew, words meaning " at the heel," see (Ps. xlix, 5) instead of the
word meaning "wages," or "reward," as in our present Hebrew text.
14 Christ is put to an open shame in ungodly members. Heb. vi, 6.
15 See Ps. xxii, 30. See also note 3 of Ps. preceding.
16 Habak. ii, 3. Heb. x, 27. Luke xviii. 8. Rev. xxii, 20.

(John viii, 35. Rom. xii, 1) ; Whilst " the hope set before them " (which
is the blood of Christ, which they hold fast), reacheth unto that within
the veil — i.e. unto the presence of God in heaven itself — having been
carried thither by the Lord Jesus at His ascension — and by this, they too
enter into the holiest (Heb. x, 19) ; because He by two immutable things
" pledged himself" to believeTS " to be medium " in bringing them, where-
ever they are on earth, into the place whither He the Forerunner hath
for us entered. Heb, vi, 17 — 20.
Now, as regards the variation in this verse between the quotation by St.
Paul and the Hebrew text, I prefer supposing Paul to have altered the
Septuagint for himself, by the Spirit's guidance ; as did Matthew in xxi, 5 ;
it being but the improvement of an uninspired translation into an instru
ment for unfolding what the Spirit of Christ had previously suggested in
the inspired Hebrew. Hence I would say that this alteration by St. Paul
became subsequently inserted into copies of the Septuagint to the exclu
sion of their original translation. Similar instances of amendments of their
text may possibly be adduced in Deut. vi, 13 compared with Matth. iv,
10 ; and in Ps. xiv, 3 compared with Rom. iii, 13 — 18.
The Hebrew in verse 6, as Mr. Thrupp observes, is remarkable, and
bears every mark of being authentic ; not speaking of one ear, as in Exod.
xxi, 6 and Is. 1, 5 ; nor yet using the word in Exodus for " piercing," but
one meaning "digged;" thereby denoting something beyond that indi-

Psalm the fortieth. 147
cated in Is. 1, 5 : to wit, the very formation of the ear wherewith to hear,
or be obedient and willing.
Accordingly I thereby understand to be meant that the Father, by mak
ing the soul of Christ a trespass-offering — asham (Is. liii, 10), would give
him a seed to be His body — a willing, obedient seed — who nevertheless
should only live in Christ to God. See John viii, 31. Gal. ii, 20. Rom. viii,
10. But this clause of verse 6 is in the Epistle to the Heb. x, 6, altered,
(and, as I say, by St. Paul) so as to give an authentic exposition of what
the Spirit had thought fit in an earlier day to predict more obscurely.
It was altered into '• a body hast Thou prepared Me," or " perfected for
Mb."
The Holy Spirit's purpose in using the " ear " to represent the body of
Christ in David's day, may have been somewhat altered, when Christ had
in His own person rendered the predicted obedience, and was risen up
(John x, 17, 18) to intercede. That part of the prediction in this verse of
the psalm before us had become fact ; and it thenceforward rather needed
to be unfolded, how the same clause remained to be fulfilled in respect of
what Christ should suffer, after His resurrection and ascension (Col. i, 24),
not personally, but in His members mystically, by crucifying the flesh
(Gal. v, 24) and being crucified unto the world (Gal. vi, 14) ; all which
should, at the time Paul wrote, be fulfilled in a body prepared for Him as
the Head (Ephes. iv, 15). For previously to the setting up of the kingdom
of heaven, true believers in God's promise concerning Christ, renewed by
the Spirit of God, had been built up in the house of Christ (Heb. iii, 1 — 6.
John viii, 34 and xv, 15) ; but, during this first age of the kingdom of
heaven, they that believe in Jesus are made members of His mystical body
(Eph. v, 22, 30).
Hence it may have become of more importance to shew in this first age
of the kingdom of heaven, that they who hear the Gospel must be " of the
body " (Heb. x, 10) which was at the crucifixion " offered by Jesus, once
for all " (Heb. x, 12), " and present themselves therein a living sacrifice "
(Rom xii, 1, Heb. ix, 17) if they would be saved (John vi, 53—63). For
thus, only are they, who believe in Jesus, and are old enough, to know good
from evil, delivered from the curse of the law, and at peace with God, as
being part of the sacrifice (Rom. vii, 1) ; being reckoned justified for their
faith. Of this the sacraments are seals to the believer ; inasmuch as the one
certifies that he is buried into Christ's death (Rom vi, 3) ; the other that
he is kept buried therein. But this portion of the flesh and blood of
Christ, which hath death held suspended in it, which is so kept for the
cleansing of the souls and bodies of them that feed on Jesus in their hearts
by faith (I Cor. vi, 13) — is one of "the wonderful operations" of the
Father, spoken of in verse 5, whereby He perfects the mystical body of
His Son. Compare Ps. xxii, 26. xxiii, 5. xlix, 8, 9.
This " will," verse 8, or " good pleasure " of the Father (Heb. x, 9, 10.
Luke xi, 14) — so called in contrast with the "commandment" kept by
Christ in the days of His flesh — is what Jesus in His risen manhood
" delights" to do (Matth. xi, 25. John xvii, 1—4. Phil, ii, 12, 13) ; "by
the which will, we of the body of Jesus Christ offered once for all, are
sanctified." Heb. x, 10."
" In the volume of the book," verse 7, is by the Septuagint rendered
"in the head or commencement of the book or roll." Supposing then,
with Augustine (see his words on verse 7) that " the book " spoken of was
that of the psalms, and that the reference was to the second verse of the
First, then, being a manuscript of skin fastened to a rod, it in the course
of being unrolled would be wound round this rod. Thus " what was writ
ten of Him " would be " in the volume or folding of the book " as well as
l2

148 PSALM THE FORTY-FIRST.
" in the commencement." Otherwise "the book" might mean the whole
Old Testament, in which case the prophecy in Gen. iii, 15 might be that
referred to. See Rom. xvi, 29.
Then in verse 9 the Spirit of Christ moved David to write how Jesus,
when risen for our justification, though first preached to His own people,
(Ps. xxii, 22, Acts iii, 26) would, on their rejection of Him, (Thess. ii, 15)
turn unto " the great congregation " — the Gentiles (Ps. xxii, 25. Is. xlix,
6) ; not pleasing Himself — since He would have to receive converts as the
true Israelites into union with Himself after a diverse manner of external
worship : one as converts from the Jews, the other as from among the
Gentiles. Rom. xv, 3.
But this He would do for the Gentiles, without refraining (verse 10)
from aught of what had been provided for His own people, the Jews,
(Luke xiv, 16 — 24), that His Father's Name might be declared. John
xvii, 25, 26.
Thus from the day of the calling of St. Paul to be the apostle of the
Gentiles, by whom more especially Christ preached to the great congre
gation (Acts ix, 15. Ephes ii, 17), the contents of verses 9, 10 are in course
of fulfilment up to this day ; but after the manner described in Rom. xv,
3—7. Is. xlii, 2—4.
In the next two verses Christ in the persons of His mystical members on
earth, is represented as bearing their reproach (Luke xv, 5. Heb. vi, 6,
Matth. xxv, 35, 30. Gal. v, 2—4. 2 Cor. xi, 29. 1 Cor. i, 25.)
In this sense the Spirit of Christ is to be regarded as now saying in the
persons of His members on earth, " innumerable evils have compassed
Mb about," according to verse 12. For these are the afilictions of Christ
which are behind (Col. i, 25) ; and thus it was, as Bishop Horne shews,
that when Saul persecuted the saints, the wounded Head cried out from
heaven, Saul ! Saul ! why persecutest thou Me ? Acts ix, 4.

PSALM XLI.

TITLE.
To the Consummator. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
That David, by " the poor," in the first verse of this psalm,
meant more particularly his Son and Lord, is very probable from
the fact of the psalm preceding having been so expressly appli
cable to the Lord Jesus, as to hardly admit of being in any sense
applied to David. And in the very last verse of that psalm he
makes the Saviour speak of Himself as "poor and needy"; so
that the poor one spoken of in this first verse of the next psalm

PSALM THE FORTY-FIRST. 149
may fairly be taken to mean the same. Each expresses something
of its own concerning this poverty. But the Septuagint trans
lators seem to me to have been so fully persuaded of the same
person being spoken of in both places, that they have transferred
the words " poor and needy " from the former one, as their trans
lation for " the poor," in this.
The Hebrew word for "poor" means the "weakling" — the
exhausted one — like Isaiah's " root out of a dry ground."
With this psalm before us ends the first of the five parts into
which the whole Book of Psalms is distinguishable in the Hebrew
Bible. It is the part supposed to have been written and arranged
by David himself.
Wherefore like as David began the book with pronouncement of
a blessing upon the man who hath not walked in the counsel of
the ungodly, and at the last verse of the second psalm shewed that
this blessing comes on all those that put their trust in the Son, the
Messiah ; so, as some conjecture, he here concluded the book with
a further blessing on the man who would get understanding con
cerning the cause of the Saviour, the Son that should proceed
from his loins, being made the poor or weakly One. There is much
significance in the word here used by David in the first verse
which is here rendered " considereth."
It is a word placed in the title of those psalms in which some
thing relating to the Saviour is more especially refered to, which
is therefore pointed to as most important to be understood. See
Ps. xxxii.
Thus the blessing here pronounced on him who hath under
standing concerning the poor — that is, the person who in the last
verse of the preceding psalm saith " I am poor and needy" means
him that understands, Who it is that is so designated ; and where
fore He is poor.
We see by the gospels, that after our Lord's disciples had at
tained the blessing promised to them that believe in the Son, they
had great difficulty in believing wherefore He was made poor
(Luke xviii, 34), and that when they had gained understanding
thereof they were freed from all further perplexity about the suf
ferings God might permit to fall upon His people in this life, and
were ready to suffer with Him, and to succour according to their
ability those that suffered ; more especially when suffering for His
sake. Thus David opened this book with a blessing on those that
would trust in Christ, and closed it with a further one on those who
would suffer with Him, that they might be glorified together — the
latter blessing being evidently in advance upon and completive of
the former. Phil, i, 29.
In explaining the psalm going before, we have shewn that it
foreshadows the sufferings of Christ in respect of the members of

150 PSALM THE FORTY-FIRST.
His mystical body in this first age of the kingdom of heaven (Col.
i, 24) ; as distinguished from the meritorious ones borne by Him
in His own person.
And the psalm now under consideration seems to me to shew
how a like fellowship in Christ's sufferings was required by God of
those who were the servants of His house (Heb. iii, 5) before
He suffered in the flesh for our sins. Thus it pleased the Father
that the unity betwixt Christ and His people should be practically
and experimentally confessed by them — Christ for His part, be
cause of that unity, sharing in the burthen of their sins (xl, 12),
and bearing the same from off them (xxxii,) and His people shar
ing in that of His sufferings.
It has been observed that in each of the first three verses of
this psalm the name of God is repeated ; and then He is addressed
as one God : which is thought to have been intended for a token of
the mystery of Three in One watching over the man that getteth
understanding concerning Him Who though He was rich, yet for
our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be
rich. See Matth. xi, 22—27.
All that is said in the rest of this psalm concerning the suffer
ings of the poor, and the deliverance granted him by God, either
has been fulfilled in the servants of Christ's house such as Moses
and David, the latter of whom in the following verses pathetically
deplored the mortification he endured — one while from pretended
friends visiting him in his sickness and wishing it might be fatal
to him that they might be rid of his rebukes ; at another from the
treachery and desertion of his bosom counsellor, Ahitophel — or
they have been fulfilled in tin? person of Christ Himself in the
days of His flesh, as in the case pointed out by our Lord, when
applying verse 9 to Judas (John xiii, 18) — or else they are in
the course of fulfilment in the members of Christ's mystical body
during this first age of the kingdom of heaven, as particularly de
scribed in the psalm preceding.
In any one of these senses the sufferings are according to scrip
tural usage said to be borne by Christ, because sustained for His
sake, in His strength, by faith in His merit, and intercession — the
Saviour being One, whether the sufferings have been borne by
servants in His house, or by Himself in the days of His flesh, or
by His friends, the members of His mystical body, in the same
house. Heb. ix, 11. John viii, 35.
The language in verse 2 seems to me as distinctly predictive of
the resurrection from the dead, as that of Hannah before David's
days, in 1 Sam. ii, 6 : and what convinces me the more of this is,
that after David has in verse 10 asked to be raised up from his
sick bed that he might recompense the treachery of Ahitophel,
and such-like abettors of treason against the Lord's anointed — he,
Jn verse 12, after the manner of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as

PSALM THE FORTY-FIRST. 151
explained by St. Paul in Heb. xi, 8 — 16, testified that his hopes
were directed to promises concerning a better state than that in
which he then lived unto God — that state in the hidden age in
which he should be set before the face of the Lord for ever. This
is the state on earth for which I believe him to have said in verse
2, that the Lord " would make him live, to bless him upon earth."
How plain is it from David's arrangement of these psalms, that
the faith which justifies is only that put in the promises of God
concerning His Son Jesus Christ !

1.
Blest man ! who understanding gains
Concerning Him Whom God made poor !
Deliverance out of all His pains
Jehovah will to him ensure.
2.
Jehovah will that blest one shield,
And vivify for recompence
On earth;1 nor ever will him yield
To any foe's malevolence. 3.
In hours of languishing upon
The bed Jehovah will revive
His strength, Thou wilt — the Three in One-
For bed of pain a healthful give!2
4.

Thus, as of understanding, I
Thee, O Jehovah, did implore
(For I'd backslidden grievously)
My soul in mercy to restore!

1 Is. xxxiii, 17.
3 Ps. xxxix, 13.
2 " To make his bed," "or turn it" is, as Hengstenberg observes, to be
understood in the sense of turning it into an healthy one.

152 PSALM THE FORTY-FIRST.
5.
My foes give out to my reproach
" With him at once ends life and fame ; "
He too that doth my bed approach
In friendship's guise, like tale doth frame.
In whispering groups mine enemies
Against me spiteful scoffs devise;
" Some devil " say they " breeds him this,"
And from that bed he ne'er shall rise.
7.
He too with me most intimate
Of all, in whom I plac'd full trust,
Who of my bread partook — ingrate
His heel hath out against me thrust.
8.
Now, O Jehovah, raise my head,
That I may recompense their deeds !
In this do I Thy favour read,
That yet my foe but ill succeeds.
9.
And as for me Thou dost engage
T' uphold me in mine uprightness ;
And to me for the hidden age
Ordain'st3 a lot before Thy face !
10.
Oh Israel's God! Jehovah! hear
The blessings which in fervent strain
We offer,4 and to Thee would bear
Eternally ! Amen ! Amen !
3 Dan. xii, 13. An age extending from the first resurrection (1 Thess.
iv, 16) to the passing of sentence judicially at close of the millennium.
Matth. xxv, 31.
4 This last verse, corresponding with the thirteenth of the psalm, is the
form of doxology written for the conclusion of the book.

CONTENTS.

§00! tfrje ^^r0tt&.

PAGES
Psalms XLII. to LXXII  1—133

lack X\t ®|iri>.
Psalms LXXIII. to LXXXIX  135—238
100& i\t Jowrtlj.
Psalms XO. to CVI  239—319

BOOK THE SECOND.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND BOOK.

The Author craves his reader's indulgent perusal of his metrical
paraphrase ; which he has added, because thinking it of use in
exemplifying the coherence of parts and unity of subject pervading
each psalm.
Christ and the people of Christ form the two-fold subject of
almost every psalm : the instances are few in which the one or the
other is exclusively treated of.
The tribulation of Israel, from each writer's day until the time
of Christ's coming to establish His ancient people in great hap
piness in His land, together with the conditions of service to
be paid therein, preparatory to the attainment of eternal glory,
seem to form the leading themes of this book.
It ends at the seventy- second psalm, with a glowing anticipation
of Messiah's personal reign over Israel,

tfjie JfliMtk turn nf tlie Ranter.

PSALM XLII.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm to give instruction. To the sons
of Korah.
ARGUMENT.
The few indirect references in this psalm to the condition of the
writer suit David better than any other character in Jewish history ;
so that he may be concluded to have been its author. On this
supposition, the period of David's life within which this psalm
was written would be that recorded in 2 Sam. xv. — xvii. He, in
all probability, wrote it not long after the composition of Psalm iii.
This conjecture is further corroborated by the Septuagint doctors
having ascribed the next psalm to David, for that psalm contains
at its fifth and last verse the same words as are in the fifth and
eleventh of this.
It is to be assumed that David, though admitted to close com
munion with God in private, was longing for restoration to the
privilege of publicly worshipping Him before the ark in Zion.
David himself had, when leaving Zion, sent back Zadok and
Abiathar with the ark of God, (2 Sam. xv. 24 — 26 ;) but when his
adherents stumbled at the thought of the ark being in the possession
of Absalom, (as though God would be with whichever had. His ark,
irrespective of the justice of the question at issue, after the manner
of their fathers in 1 Sam. iv. 2 — 5,) David, aware of the strength
of their prejudice, and fearing lest it might lead them to despair of
success, or to desert him, was much distressed.
His soul could not any longer contemplate exclusion from the ark
of God for a season, with that patient dependence on God that had
characterised him when making God's restoration of him thereto in
Zion the proof of God's favour. (2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.) He became
weak through the weakness of his adherents, who were, humanly
speaking, necessary to him. So that he might have said with Paul,
" Who is weak, and I am not weak?" (2 Cor. xi. 29. )
Such power has the strife of tongues to alter the bearing or
pressure of one's own act upon one ; though aware that its real
merits remain as before in the sight of God, with whom the
penitent has to do. ti)

2 PSALM THE FORTY-SECOND.
The psalmist, in the third verse, designates those that brought up
this complaint against him by the pronoun "they;" but surrounded
as he was by his followers, the complainers could be none other
than some among his own adherents.
In the fourth verse, he describes his soul as inordinately depressed
at this clamour, and disposed to call up to view pictures of joyful
processions to the ark of God in Zion ; for the purpose, as it seems
to me, of vexing itself with the contrast in which it then was —
a feeling which, if indulged, would lay one open to despair, such as
Saul's, (1 Sam. xxviii. 15; xxxi. 4,) — a peril against which David
seems to have watched after the manner that Paul directed the
Corinthian elders to do, in 2 Cor. ii. 7.
The psalmist, therefore, combatted the depression of his soul by
faithful recollection of God's promises, (verse 5 :) but in verse 6
he confessed that his soul was still dejected, and accordingly re-
Bolved on setting before his mind the whole of God's afflictive
dealings with him during his public career in that land of Jordan
where he then was. (2 Sam. xvii. 24.) For by 1 Sam. xxii. 3,
we find that David had once been driven to seek a refuge in the
land of Moab, which was the southern portion of this vale of Jordan,
having Zoar for its furthest city : whereas he was now in the
northern, about Mahanaim.
Seeing that his soul, in its desire to record bitter things against
him, would suggest that he was driven from the presence of the
Lord, and from access to His ark, for his sin in the matter of
Uriah, 2 Sam. xii. 10, (which was only fleshly impatience under the
punishment God thought fit to inflict on him in the flesh, though
forgiving his sin,) David would point to the like affliction sent by
God upon him in the commencement of his career, when in eminent
favour with God, and without one imputation on his character, to
show that his soul ought rather to reckon this latter exclusion from
the public worship of God sent, like the former, for the purpose of
training him in patience under adversity, and not of driving him to
despair. Thus it seems to me that David argued with his own soul
in this psalm: and in verse 8, with exquisite tenderness, (as
Habakkuk after him did in iii. 17, 18,) said, "Yet the Lord will
command His loving-kindness in the day-time ;" and though to the
last his soul continued to be cast down — for the reason shewn in
Rom. viii. 7 — yet he stayed himself upon his God.

The hunted hind for cooling streams distressingly
doth pant ;
And so my soul imploreth Thee, O God, one boon
to grant !

PSALM THE FORTY-SECOND. 8
That I once more with Thee, O God, the living God,
may be,
To worship at Thy mercy-seat, and there Thy good
ness see. 8.
By day and night my tears have been to me in
place of food,
Such grief it was to hear the men who to me faithful
stood,
Of me, their king, despondingly "Where is Thy
God1?" enquire;
As tho' cast off by Thee I were, and victim of Thine
ire. 3.
My soul distracted with this doubt, by many at me
thrown,
Is minded in no measur'd mood its outcast state lo
own;
And tells me1 how, but for my sin, I might have
gone this day
With an attendant multitude up to Thy house to
pray. 4.
Alas! O Gocl, my soul to grief is stubbornly in-
clin'd,
Thy dealings I'll then in this land of Jordan bear
in mind ;
To set the trials now my lot at stately Hermon's
base,
'Gainst those that me at Zoar's8 hill o'ertook in
earlier days.

1 Ver. 4. De Burgh quotes Hengstenberg to show that the future tenses
in this verse are indicative of the frequently repeated action in the past,
precisely as they occur in Ps. lv. 14 ; but as it seems to me, tho soul of
David did this in its wilfulness, to aggravate his distress,_ the meaning of
the clause may be substantially conveyed in the version given.
2 Ver. 6. Dr. Thrupp observes : Mizar (-C£fn).and Zoar (isi?) are con
nected words, both signifying mean, or little. There are, probably, many spots
B 2

4 PSALM THE FORTY-SECOND. 6.
As waterspouts from out the deep3 of heav'n over
head,
Evoke the deep beneath on earth to rise and rage in
aid ;
So judgments order 'd by Thy will, descending from
on high,
Call up the judgment4 of men's tongues to seal
my destiny. 7.
Thy waves and billows in their might have o'er me
their full sway.
Yet will Jehovah loving-kindness bid for me by
day!
And in the night His statutes5 shall be with me
as a song,
When I'll my prayer unto the God of my soul's
life prolong. 8.
To God, who is my rock, I'll say, Why hast Thou
me forgot %
Why flee I 'fore mine enemy, as though Thou
heard'st me not 1

on the banks of Jordan from which Hermon and Zoar would be simultaneously
visible. Porter, in his "Giant Cities of Bashan," p. 100, observes, the whole valley
of the Jordan, from Hermon, at the base of which, its fountain gushes forth,
down to Zoar at the Dead Sea, is a huge rent or fissure in the earth's crust.
The river Jordan — the descender — has also this peculiarity, that whereas
other rivers have their mouths on a level with the ocean, this has its springs,
and flows to a depth of about 1300- feet below the ocean, where it enters the
Dead Sea. Also that sea is found to be, at a short distance from the Jordan's
mouth, suddenly deeper by another 1300 feet. These observations serve to
shew that the entire region from the base of Hermon to Zoar might with
propriety be looked at connectedly, as has been suggested in the interpretation
of this psalm.
= Ver. 7. Gen. i. 7.
4 The Divine visitation on David in respect of expelling him from the
land on the western side of Jordan, had the same effect on the minds of his
countrymen generally on both occasions. Compare 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, with
verses 3 and 10 of this psalm.
5 Ver. 8. Ps. cxix. 54.

PSALM THE FORTY-THIRD. 5
While these,6 that should defend me, who cast at me
that word,
"Where is thy God?" pierce thro' my soul as tho'
'twere with a sword. 9.
Why art thou so cast down, my soul'? Why so
disquieted %
And cherishest desponding fears, of guilty doubting
bred?
Hope thou in God! for I believe, that God I yet
shall praise,
Who is my God, and only can bring smiles back
to my face.
c Ver. 10. The word translated " enemies " in this verse is different from
that so translated in verse 9, and rather means " these that press upon
me" — a description applicable to his superstitious adherents. (Ps. lvii. 4.
James iii. 6. Eph. vi. 16.)

PSALM XLIII.

ARGUMENT.
It has been already observed, that this psalm has by the Septu
agint doctors been ascribed to David.
Two expressions in the psalm itself favour this ascription of the
authorship to David : one, in verse 3, where mention is made of
"Thy holy hill and Thy tabernacles." By the former of which
is to be understood the hill of Zion, made by David his city in
2 Sam. v. 9, called "the holy hill," when he carried up the ark
thither, (2 Sam. vi. 17,) where the place of shelter for it is called
" a tabernacle."
From 2 Chron. i. 3, we learn that there remained the tabernacle
of the congregation yet at Gibeon-. Hence it may be "tabernacles "
in the plural here occurs : though it may be that other tabernacles
beside that immediately covering the ark might have been set up
for the use of the officiating priests in David's time in Zion.
I am not aware that any inspired writer called Zion " the holy
hill," whose composition dates after Solomon's erection of hi3
temple on the adjacent height of Mount Moriah ; but by Ps.
Ixxviii. 68, it is thought that the whole range had the name of
Mount Zion,

6 PSALM THE FORTY-THIRD.
The other expression which favours the ascription of authorship
of this psalm to David is that mention of " the harp "in verse 4,
which being here mentioned by itself was characteristic of the
sweet psalmist of Israel.
On the supposition then of David having been the author, the
time of its composition will apparently best agree with that in
2 Sam. xv. — xvii. ; so that its subject is the same with that of the
psalm preceding it.
Accordingly, " the unmerciful nation" would be Israel, that had
gone after Absalom; and Ahitophel "the deceitful and unjust
man." In the second verse, David would, on this supposition, be pleading
with God, that by being driven for any length of time beyond
Jordan, he would be virtually driven from the throne; though
God had not only promised to pardon his soul, but to make him
the progenitor of Messiah, who should sit on his throne. He is
therefore to be considered as, by this question in verse 2, depre
cating God's prolonged displeasure, though aware of God's purpose
in the course of providence to afflict him. (2 Sam. xii. 10.)
By verse 3, he is to be regarded as asking for the light of God's
Spirit to guide him, (Ps. li. 10 — 13; John xiv. 17 — 26,) to make
him patient until it should please God to restore him to his city.
At verse 5, he expresses his disapprobation of his soul's dejection,
which was undue, considering God's other mercies at that very
time abounding towards him ; and he is led to set the promises of
God before his mind for refreshment in hope, (Heb. xii. 1 — 3,) for
the joy of the Lord is our strength, (Neh. viii. 10,) and God's
people in this way cherish hope, (Rom. viii. 18 — 24; 2 Cor. iv.
17, 18.) But while this psalm was in the first instance applied by
David, under the guidance of the Spirit of Christ, to his own circum
stances, it clearly admits of application to the remnant of Jacob in
the great tribulation, (Jer. xxx. 6,) when the apostate nations of
Christendom, with their false prophet and civil head, will be " the
unmerciful nation" and "ruler'' meant in verse 1, and the Hebrew-
Christian remnant will take up the second verse after the manner
of Peter, (1 Pet. ii. 20.)
Some anticipation of this employment of Psalms xlii. and xliii.
by Israel collectively in the days of Messiah must be conceived to
have guided the mind of him who in Hezekiah's days arranged this
book of Psalms in the present order, and placed it in the Scriptural
canon. That compiler appears to me, by the significance of the arrange
ment in other cases as well as this, to have been guided therein by
the Spirit of Christ. For although it is assumed that David wrote
this forty-third psalm as well as the forty-second, yet to the com
piler is due the credit of having here placed the forty-third im
mediately after the forty-second. By this means, the compiler's
purpose in placing it at the head of this second book is pretty clear.

PSALM THE FORTY-THIRD. 7
For the forty-third regulates the application of the forty-second,
after the same manner in which the seventieth does the sixty-ninth.
That the compiler had the coming of Messiah before his mind is
apparent from the psalms that follow, down to the fiftieth.
And like as Psalms Ixviii. and lxxx. seem to have been written in
expectation of the tribes being destined once more to march after
the ark to the Lord's inheritance, as did Israel of old through the
wilderness ; so the third verse of this forty- third psalm, " 0 send out
Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me;" seems to have been
taken by the compiler to denote that some visible token for the
guidance of the tribes, similar to the Pillar of Cloud in the wilder
ness, would in that day be granted. See Ps. lxvi. 5, 6 ; Isa. Iii. 12 ;
lviii. 8; Micah ii. 12, 13. 1.
Thy judgment give in my behalf, my controversy
plead,
O God., against a nation, which in this my urgent
need,
No mercy sheweth ! yea, on me deliverance bestow,
From that consummate man of fraud,1 not slack to
strike his blow. o
O God, who art my only strength, why leav'st Thou
me alone %
Why am I made beneath my foe's oppression to
strive on 1
Oh, send Thou forth Thy light and truth to guide my
weary feet,
Till I again Thy holy hill and tabernacles greet.

Before the altar there of God will I my hours
employ —
Of God, Whose goodness doth alone impart to me
true joy :
Yea, there with practis'd hand I'll strike the harp's
melodious string,
And Thy high praise, O God, my God, in grate
ful accents sing.
1 Vol-. 1. Sain. xvi. 2d.

O PSALM THE FORTY-FOUKTH. 4.
Why art thou restless, O my soul, within me, and
cast down 1
In God set thou unmov'd thy hope ! nor think that
He doth frown
Upon thee, tho' He chasten thee; for now draw
near the clays,
When I, return'd, 'fore Thee, my God, shall lift my
voice in praise.

PSALM XLIV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. For the sons of Korah ; for understanding.
ARGUMENT.
By sundry passages in this psalm it is clear that the psalmist's
people were, at the time of its being written, in dire national
distress. Nevertheless, from an expression in verse 9, it is clear that they
were, as a nation, in possession of their country ; mention being
made of " their armies going forth," though only to sustain re
verses ; because of God not going forth with them as He had when
He brought them out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. But by
verse 11 we learn that they were "scattered among the heathen."
Now in 2 Chron. xxix. 5 — 11, we have, in Hezekiah's address to
the priests and Levites, a detail of the nation's disasters closely
corresponding with that in this psalm.
The disasters themselves had occurred in Ahaz's reign ; but the
psalm does not suit that period, because there was no national re
formation such as is described in this psalm (ver. 17 — 26) until
Hezekiah's reign.
Without doubt there was a faithful remnant in Ahaz's days, who
might have entertained the sentiments expressed in this psalm ;
but " we," at verse 17, would in that case only have represented
that " remnant : " whereas it is clear that the writer of this psalm,
in using the word " we," could speak for the nation that had been
originally brought out of Egypt, and planted in the Lord's land.
No one could more appropriately use such language on behalf of
the nation than Hezekiah, who, according to 2 Chron. xxix. 10,
was minded to " make a covenant with the Lord ; " and who, in

PSALM THE FORTY-FOURTH. 9
association with the priests and Levites, could, as the representative
of the nation, make use of the language of ver. 17, 18, by the same
authority wherewith he could conclude peace with Sennacherib.
Moreover, it is clear from Isa. xxxviii. 9, that Hezekiah was in
spired to write psalms ; and, according to verse 1 1 of that chapter,
had a hope of seeing "the Lord" — meaning David's promised
Son, the Redeemer of Israel — " in the land of the living." So that
the references to that Redeemer in verses 4 and 23 of this psalm,
may with entire propriety be ascribed to Hezekiah as their author.
The mention, too, in verse 16, of the "voice of him that
reproacheth and biasphemeth," well agrees with Hezekiah's
language concerning Rabshakah, in Isa. xxxvii. 3.
Granting, then, that this p*salm was penned with reference to
special circumstances befalling Judah in the writer's own day, this
in nowise precludes us from recognising the design of Christ's
Spirit to depict thereby the sufferings of Christians — " the only
remnant of the true Israelites " — in this first age of the kingdom
of heaven, (third Collect for Good Friday,) according to the use
made of verse 22 by St. Paul in Rom. viii. 36.
But the Scripture teaches us to look forward to a time, when the
Jews, as a nation and church combined in one, exactly as when the
psalm was written, though dispersed in many countries, but under
one King, (Micah ii. 12, 13,) and thus recovering their visibility
as a Christian Church, shall take up the language of this psalm in
the service of God with such force and propriety of interpretation,
as to make it seem to have been rather written for that crisis in
their national history, (Jer. xxx. 5 — 7,) than for the one at which
the inspired writer penned it.
This final trouble of Jacob, before his redemption as a nation and
church from further trials, (Luke i. 68 — 74,) the psalmist seems to
me to have had before his mind ; and to have depended for attain
ment of that salvation on the Most High, who sitteth over all from
the beginning, whose zeal will perform for the Son of David all
that He hath promised. (Isa. ix. 7.)
In testimony hereof may be adduced the expressions in verses 4
and 23—26.
To this point also, as it seems to me, may be referred that
exhortation in the title to a right understanding of this psalm ;
which is only to be attained through faith in God's promises to
David concerning Christ— an exhortation which receives further
light by observing how Jesus Himself in Matt. xxiv. 15, and St.
Paul in 2 Tim. ii. 7, used the same.
If, indeed, Israel's ancient doctors entertained such views as these
concerning the scope of this psalm, (and St. Paul's quotation of the
twenty- second verse in the eighth chapter of Romans, where he
had, at ver. 18 — 25, been speaking of Israel's sorrows until the
redemption of the body, makes it probable,) how significant and
suggestive of glorious hopes becomes that unquestionable reference

10

FSALM THE FORTY-FOURTH.

to the first verse of this psalm in our Church's Litany, where it is
provided that of this first age in the kingdom of heaven we shall,
as the only true Israelites, say, " We have heard with our ears,
O God, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works
that Thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them."
1.
Our ears, O God, have heard
The tale our fathers told,
Of what Thou in their days
Diclst work— i-the days of old.
2.
How Thou with mighty hand
The heathen forth didst drive ;
That they might in Thy land
Take root instead, and thrive.

It was not their own sword,
Nor their own arm success
Secur'd ! 'twas Thine award ! '
Thou didst their efforts bless !
4.
Thou, 0 my God and King,
Art He ! to Jacob's seed
Do Thou salvation bring,
The glorious rest2 decreed !
5.
Sore did we push our foe,
And underfoot down thrust ;
Who not in sword nor bow,
But in Thy Name did trust.
1 Ver. 3. Vs. vii. C. Gen. xv. 16. Exod. xii. 40, 41.
2 Ver. 4. Deut. xii, 9. Ps. xxxiii, 12.

PSALM THE FORTY-FOURTH. 11
G.
The safety that we knew —
The shame our foes that whelm'd —
To Thee were always due,
And so by us proclaim'd. 7.
But Thou hast cast us off,
And put our hosts to shame !
We're spoil'd ; and they, that scoff
At Thee, our homesteads3 claim.
8.
As sheep to slaughter driv'n
Are we abroad dispers'd ;4
To strangers sold — nay, giv'n —
And Thou not reimburs'd.5 9.
A scandal are we made
To them we roam among —
A shaking of the head
To all that round us throng.
10.
Confusion 'fore me stalks,
Shame mounts up in my face ;
While that blasphemer talks
In angry vengeful phrase.
11.
All this reverse we feel,
Yet swerve we not from Thee,
Nor in Thy cov'nant deal
With smooth duplicity.
3 Ver. 10. 2 Chron. xxviii. 18.
4 Ver. 12. 2 Chron. xxix. 9.
K Ver. 12. The loss to ourselves is apparent, but not so the advantage
thereby to Thy service : no other people or nation is taken into Thy service
in our stead, (Isa. lxiii. 18. 1 Sam, xii. 9—22. Isa. Iii. 3.)

12 PSALM THE FORTY-FIFTH.
12.
Our heart is not turn'd back,
Nor from Thy way declin'd,
Tho' to death's shade our track
'Midst dragons6 is confin'd. 13.
Did we God's name reject,
Or to a"strange one bow,
Would not God this detect,
Who doth all secrets know 1
14.
Far other ways we keep,
When daily for Thy sake,
Our foes count us for sheep
Men to the shambles take.
15.
Sleep'st Thou, my Lord % Awake
Arise ! nor stand aloof
For ever ! Let there break
Light on us from above !
16.
Our soul's bow'd down with grief,
Prone on the earth we crawl ;
In mercy bring relief,
And burst Thy captives' thrall.
8 Ver. 19. A place of desolation. Mai. i. 3. Isa, xxxiv. 13.

PSALM XLV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, or lilies — probably, says
Dr. Thrupp, a kind of cymbals of lily shape — for the sons of Korah,
for instruction, or understanding. A Song of loved ones, being the
virgin?, probably, mentioned in the psalm.

PSALM THE FORTY-FIFTH. 13

ARGUMENT.
This psalm, like the second, seems to treat of Christ primarily,
without there having been any event in the author's own history
to be in the first instance commemorated.
Aben Ezra reputes David to have been its author.
We have the inspired authority of the Apostle Paul, in Heb. i.
7 — 9, for affirming this psalm to be spoken primarily of Christ — yea,
in some respects solely, where it is written :
"Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and
ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity ; therefore God,
even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above
Thy fellows."
The King, in verse 1, is Christ coming as the Bridegroom, (Matt.
xxv. 10 ;) and it seems to me, that His coming to reign on earth in
great glory is spoken of at verse 4 as the requital of His patience in
awaiting the King His Father's time for exalting Him, according to
the prediction in Ps. ii. 8, and ex. 1. See John xiv. 30, 31.
Upon this supposition, the gathering of the elect remnant out of
Jews and Gentiles (Rom. xi. 5 — 25) during this first age of the
kingdom of heaven, (which was a mystery — Ephes. iii. 3 — rarely
hinted at in Scripture,) seems to be merely glanced at in the words
that " because of truth and meekness and righteousness" His Father
shall retributively exalt Him, (Isa. ix. 7,) when He shall at length
have entered on His kingdom after a " terrible " manner. Compare
Ps. lxvi. 5. But during this time in which the word of truth and
meekness and righteousness is bring preached, the Hebrew-Christian
Church, which is the Queen spoken of in verse 9, has been brought
out of the world, and (after the manner of the Jews) betrothed in
infancy to her Spouse.
Of this, the Epistle to the Hebrews may be regarded as testimony.
It was only upon the Hebrew-Christian Church losing her visibi
lity, that any Christian Church from among the Gentiles ever
thought of claiming to be mother of the Churches on earth.
But upon Jerusalem bring overthrown, a competition sprang up
between the Churches of the chief cities of the then civilised world
for the coveted pre-eminence.
The Romish Church at length, in the course of God's pro
vidence, was permitted to usurp this pre-eminence on the ground of
" old Rome being the chief city." See the sixth canon of the
Council of Nice, and the third canon of that of Constantinople. Thus
it seems to me that any reference in this psalm to the gathering in
of the elect remnant out of Jews and Gentiles in this first age of
the kingdom of heaven is only by implication.
For "the kings' daughters" that are among the honourable
women of this Queen, must surely be such as avowedly attend upon
the Queen, according to the custom of an ordinary Jewish marriage.

14 PSALM THE FORTY-FIFTH,
Ordinarily, on such occasions among the Jews, there would be no
honourable women for attendants on the bride before the bride
herself was visible. Moreover, the bride would choose her
attendants, and hold them engaged by their own promise to wait
upon her.
I therefore suppose this psalm to point to a time forthcoming,
when the Hebrew-Christian Church (already on earth, but hidden
in the remnant according to the election of grace from out of the
Jews of each generation, Rom. xi. 5) shall have recovered her
visibility : exactly as our Lord has depicted in His parable of the
ten virgins, which He prefaces with saying "Then" — that is, at a
particular time in the first age of the kingdom of heaven, or in the
interval between that and "the age to come," "this kingdom
shall be likened unto ten virgins," (Matt. xxv. 1,) for the visibility
of the virgins presupposes that of the Queen. On this point, then,
it may suffice here to observe, that as the Hebrew-Christian Church
lost its visibility upon the Jews being carried away captive from
Jerusalem, so that Church — the Queen — cannot be expected to
recover her visibility until the Jews shall have returned to their
own land.
This they may do by the permission of the European powers,
while yet cleaving to Moses ; and it may be appointed to the Hebrew-
Christian Church to undergo much sorrow in their midst, when
once more visible, (Rev. xi. 3,) ere the time spoken of in this
psalm shall have arrived for the Lord's actual return in glory.
(Matt: xxiv. 30.)
But after the returned Jews shall have sustained another siege in
Jerusalem, (Zech. xiv.,) and the country shall be "desolate without
inhabitant," (Isa. vi. 11,) a remnant of the citizens rescued by the
Lord at His appearance on the mount of Olives, shall be " the
generation" (Ps. Ixxviii. 4) which the Lord shall prepare, as were
the Apostles in this first age, to be vessels of mercy to " the out
casts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah," (Rom. xi. 32,) and " so
all Israel shall be saved," (ver. 26.)
It seems to me, then, that these ministers of the Lord Jesus, while
seeking in chief their own nation, will incidentally teach all of the
Gentiles that they can persuade ; and in this way will the Churches
be in each nation formed, which shall be avowedly, as virgins,
purposing to bear the Queen company against the Bridegroom's
coming. In this way, five being ready to go in with the bride to the
marriage, shall be incorporated with the Israelitish Church and
nation in the Lord's land at His coming ; but the five foolish, losing
the opportunity, will be left to repent, and serve as Gentile Churches
(Zech. xiv. 16) in all parts of the area of the four empires seen in
Nebuchadnezzar's vision, during the millennium.
The Queen — the Bride — will, as I gather from Scripture, on
entering the Lord's land at that time, (under the guidance of angels,

PSALM THE FORTY- FIFTH. 15
Matt. xxiv. 31, with which compare Ps. Ixviii. 1, and lxv. 5, and
lxxx.,) experience regeneration, (Matt. xix. 28,) even in the very
flesh ; by the same power that heretofore fashioned a pure body for
our Lord in the womb of the blessed Virgin. (Jer. xxxi. 29, 30 ;
,Isa. lx. 21, lxv. 18— 20.)
This " redemption of the body " (spoken of in Luke xxi. 28, Rom.
viii. 23, 1 Cor. i. 30,) seems to me darkly referred to in the
tenth verse of this psalm, by the charge "forget also thine own
people, and thy father's house."
For as Eve needed to be "bone of Adam's bone and flesh of
his flesh," in order to be a help-meet for him, even so should the
case be with the bride of the last Adam on this earth. (Eph. v.
25—32.) The expression "Kings' daughters" in verse 9, I take to mean
literally women of that rank ; " the daughter of Tyre," to be some
nation at that time most conspicuous for mercantile success and
maritime power, as was Tyre in the psalmist's day, the expression
" daughter of Tyre " being similar to that of" daughter of Babylon."
(Ps. cxxxvii. 8.)
At the same time, what is at verse 12 testified that she shall do,
implies her conversion to the true faith, not indeed by the preaching
of "the deliverers out of Zion," for then she would be included
among "the virgins bearing the Queen company," whereas her
title, " daughter of Tyre," indicates her attainment of the truth of
the Gospel through the present succession of ministers from the
Apostles of the Lord and Saviour. If England might hope to be
designated by this name, "daughter of Tyre," how consolatory
would be the expectation !
The concluding verses of this psalm, from verse 13 to the
end, describe the holy, happy state of Israel, as a nation and a
Church, (Ps. xxxiii. 12 — 21,) in the Lord's land during the
millennium, and the share of her happiness which she will
extend to other nations in their several localities.
1-
Forth from my heart is welling
An all-important word!1
I 'd of the King be telling-
Things heretofore unheard.
No pen that ready writer has,
My tongue's compliance2 shall surpass.
1 Ver. 1. See John iv. 14 ; Joh xxxii. 18, 19.
2 The psalmist compares his tongue to a pen, not surely because of the pen
of the readiest writer going so fast as the tongue, hut to denote that it was
in this instance as fully under the guidance of the Spirit of Christ, as a pen
under that of a ready writer. (Acts xi. 17 ; John i. 23.)

16 PSALM THE FORTY-FIFTH.
2.
Than Adam's sons Thou'rt fairer !
Grace on Thy lips is pour'd !
'Tis God's will that for ever
Thou shouldest be ador'd.
In might Thy sword gird on Thy thigh,
In glory and in majesty !
3.
And in Thy majesty ride on,
To win, because of truth
Meekness and righteousness, renown ;
And what Thy right hand doth,
Shall blazon Thee ! fast in the hearts
Of foes shall stick Thy poignant darts.
4.
Thy throne, O God, for ever
And ever doth remain.
Straight is Thy kingdom's sceptre —
Sure token of Thy reign.
Because Thou righteousness dost love
And to the wicked hostile prove
5.
Therefore, as on no other,
Upon Thy sacred head,
The oil of joy for ever
God, e'en Thy God, hath shed !
Of myrrh, aloes, and cassia3
The robes smell, which Thou dost prefer,
6.
From many an ivory mansion,
Wherewith men made Thee glad.
Kings' daughters their attention
Unto Thy presence paid,
And on Thy right hand in the sheen
Of gold of Ophir stood the Queen.
3 Ver, 8. Compare Isa. lx. 6—13.

PSALM THE FORTY-FIFTH. 17
7.
O daughter, pause ! and ponder !
Give ear ! to thine own kin
And father's house no longer
Cleave thou !. so shalt thou win
The King's love ! for He is thy Lord,
And let Him be by thee ador'd !*
8.
There shall with an oblation
The daughter be of Tyre —
Yea, rich ones of a nation
Thy5 favour shall desire :
And thou, king's daughter, inly bright,
With gold-wrought robes shalt be bedight.

In this, thy inwrought6 raiment,
Thee to the King they'll bring ;
Virgins, that be attendant,
In order following.
With joy and gladness shall the train
Into the King's house entrance gain.
10.
For fathers shall be children,
For whom thou shalt procure
Iri every land dominion.
And I'll make7 to endure
From age to age thy name, wherefore
Peoples shall praise thee evermore.
i Ver. 11. Lev. x. 3 ; Ps. ii. 12.
s Ver. 12. From Ps. xlviii. 7, it is probahle that England (if the country
here called Tyre) will provoke God's displeasure, hy certain conduct of its
rulers towards His ancient people. The feminine pronominal suffix shews
that this offering is brought to the Queen. _
s Ver. 13. The raiment is her Lord's, Rev. m. 18 ; but it must ha put on
hv each Christian's own self. Matt. xxii. 12 ; Rom. xiii. 14 ; Col. iii. 12,
'7 Ver. 17, The Father here oracularly speaks, as in verse 6,
C

18 PSALM THE FORTY-SIXTH.

PSALM XLVI.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. For the sons of Korah. A song on
Alamoth, probably a species of musical instrument. See 1 Chron.
xv. 20.
ARGUMENT.
The first three verses speak of vast commotions on the earth's.
surface, which may be deemed with great probability literal ones,
according to Luke xxi. 25 — 27.
For by Jer. xxx. 6, 7, it appears that a great tribulation shall
overtake Jacob prior to his deliverance ; after the same manner
that a woman's birth-pains unavoidably in the course of God's
Providence precede her happiness in becoming a mother. See
John xvi. 20—22.
Under all this tribulation the believing Israelites will have for
their support "the river," (verse 4,) which in the day referred to —
namely, when the city of God spoken of in Isa. i. 25, shall have
been built — may probably have a literal meaning. See Ezek. xlvii.
For by Rev. xxi. 1, 2, we find that in the Jerusalem of the new
earth there shall be such means of renewal, in place of that which
we now have of God through the operation of the Holy Ghost
personally present. For we are told in John xvi. 7, that the Holy
Ghost has come to minister this grace by the word and
sacraments during the Lord our Saviour's absence. By verse 5, 1
understand that God is in a special sense to be in the midst of the
city, or Hebrew-Christian Church, in her tribulation, described in
verses 1 — 3 ; which shall afterwards be the city in the Lord's land,
as described in Isa. xxvi. 1 — 4. For the same Israelitish community,
which is in one respect a Church, is in another a city; as has
already been observed in notes on Ps. xxxi. 20, 21 ; Phil. iii. 20.
Those citizens will have been gathered from among " the outcasts
of Israel and the dispersed of Judah," through the Jewish
missionaries sent forth by the Lord, (Rom. xi. 26,) after " the
northern" shall have first destroyed Jerusalem, and been there
upon himself overthrown, (Zech. xiv. ; Joel ii. 20.) " God shall be
in the midst of her," for support of her, along with her attendant
virgins, the Churches from out of the Gentiles, (Isa. xxx. 20 ;
Matt. xxv. 1 — 13 :) and " at the appearing of the morning," will
help her with angels sent to gather her out of every land ; so soon
as the sign of His presence shall have been displayed to the
assembled multitudes of Gentile zealots in the valley of Jehoshaphat,
(Joel iii. 14—16; Matt. xxiv. 30, 31.) These last I take to be
described in verse 6, while the happy state of the Hebrew-Chris
tian Church, full of hope, as described in Ps. xly. 13, is expressed

PSALM THE FORTY-SIXTH. 19
in verse 7, (Isa. xxx. 29,) where through the Lord's timely help of
her with the mission of angels, and the great sound of a trumpet,
she is enabled to say, " The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob
is our refuge, or high fortress !" (Isa. xxv, 9.)
Then follow, in verses 8, 9, words expressive of the light enjoyed
by the Hebrew- Christian Church, concerning God's dealings,
(Amos iii. 7,) spoken of in verses 1 — 3, for the general prostration
of men's opposition over the whole world, (verse 9.)
This, it is intimated in verse 10, will be God's doing, as
conspicuously as in Exod. xiv. 13, God having permitted man at
that time to exalt himself like another Pharaoh, for the purpose
specified in Rom. ix. 17. 1.
God is our refuge and our might,
In straits our succour close at hand :
Earth's quaking ne'er shall us affright,
Nor ocean's mingling with the land.
2.
Its depths shall roar and toss on high
Huge waves the lofty cliffs to shake ;
A river shall the while supply
Its' gentle1 streams to gladsome make
3.
The city2 and the sanctu'ry
Of God most Holy and most High !
Her midst He'll hold immoveably,
At day-break3 He'll with help be nigh !
4.
The -Gentiles rag'd, uprose their powers !
He spake, back reel'd their multitude !
Jehovah of Sabaoth's ours,
Our high defence is Jacob's God.
5.
Come ! see Jehovah's works appear !
War's schemes He to confusion turns !
The bow He breaks, snaps through the spear,
And in the flames the chariot burns !
i Ver. 4. Ps. xxiii. 2. 2 Ver. 4. Isa. xlviii. 18.
3 Ver. 5. Exod. xiv. 27. Luke xviii. 8.
c 2

20 PSALM THE FORTY-SEVENTH. 6.
Be still, and learn your God to own,
Who'll win o'er earth pre-eminence !
Jehovah to be ours is known !
And Jacob's God our high defence !

PSALM XLVIL

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. For the sons of Korah. A psalm.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm seems to me to be in its subject, as well as place, in
termediate between the forty-sixth and forty-eighth. It describes
the hopes of the Hebrew-Christian Church, when her Lord shall, by
manifestation of His sign in heaven, have made it clear to the
nations of the civilised world, that He " hath gone up," to wit, on His
throne ; according to the sense of this phrase in Ps. vii. 7, for the
purpose of administering judgment : the throne being that in Ps.
ix. 7, Dan. vii. 9 — 13. See also the eighth verse of this psalm :
the shout and sound of the trumpet are, as it seems to me, to be
explained by Isa. xxvii. 13. 1.
Ye tribes ! clap hands1 devotedly !
Lift up to God triumphant strains !
Jehovah in dread majesty
To earth's remotest outskirt reigns !
All nations He'll beneath2 us fling,
Yea, fling them down beneath our feet ;
And Jacob's excellency3 bring
T' inherit His own chosen seat.
1 Ver. 1. Burton, in his "Lake Regions of Central Africa,'' vol. i. p. 396,
says "The chief of M. Sina was the Sultan Masanza. This chief has
considerable power. He is never approached by a subject without clapping of
hands and the kneeling, which in tliese lands are the honours paid to royalty.
See also vol. ii. p. 69.
2 Ver. 3. Ps. xviii. 37-42. Isa, lx. 12; xliii. 4,
» Ver, 4, Ezek, xx, 40—44,

PSALM THE FORTY-EIGHTH. 21
3.
Lo ! God hath gone up with a shout —
Jehovah — with the trumpet's ring
Shrill-piercing ! Oh, with hearts devout,
Praise ye our God ! praise ye our King !
4.
For God, our King, takes as His own
All lands, (the tidings learn aright,)4
And seated on His holy throne,
Illumes all nations with His light.
5.
Their willing5 chiefs themselves have join'd
Unto the God of Abraham's race !
For God hath to His will inclin'd
Earth's shields !6 and got Him endless praise.
1 Ver. 7. See 2 Tim. 7, 8.
6 Ver. 9. Ps. ex. 3.
6 Ver. 9. Ps. lxxxiv. 11. Rom. xiii. 4 — 6. Prov. xxi. 1.

PSALM XLVIII.
TITLE.
A song and psalm. For the sons of Korah.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm has apparently been prepared against the day, when
the city and Temple that are to continue during the millennium
shall have been built, and be iu all their grandeur before the eyes
of them that shall take up this song.
The assembling of the kings, and their consequent dispersion
(after the manner of Gen. xi. 9,) which precede the erection of
the city, seem likely to be coincident in point of time with the
manifestation of the Son of Man in heaven, (Matt. xxiv. 30,) when
"every eye" — that is, not of those alone that believe (as in Zech.
xiv. 5 ; Acts i. 9 — 11,) but of "all flesh," or all kinds of persons
there assembled (Joel iii. 12,) — shall see Him. (Rev. i. 7.)
What if it be God's pleasure in this way to silence the erroneous
notions prevalent in that multitude about the way of " man being
just with God ?" (Job ix. 2 ; Ps. 1. 6.)

22 PSALM THE FORTY-EIGHTH.
The ships of Tarshish may be expected to be those of England.
At verse 8, the psalm represents the enraptured worshippers in
that happy age confessing that all which had been foretold of the
calamities or blessings on Jerusalem, had been fulfilled to the
praise of God's truth. In verse 9, the retrospective survey of all
God's dealings with Israel is represented as a beloved theme for
meditation, whereat their souls break forth into exhortations of all
Israel, and of the Gentiles, too, to come up for worship there and
praise of the Lord.
The last verse seems to denote, that if the Gentiles will do this,
they shall be saved from the final rebellion into which the great
bulk of them shall relapse, as described in Rev. xx. 8, 9, to which,
apparently, some of the Israelites will be their prompters. See
2 Pet. iii. 3, 4, compared with Isa. lxv. 20 ; Jer. xxxi. 30.

Great is Jehovah, greatly to be prais'd,
In our God's city — mount of holiness.
On Zion's north side is its beauteous site ;
A thing of gladness for the earth uprais'd1 —
The great King's city — in whose palaces
Touching God's care the inmates have sure light.
2.
Lo ! the confed'rate2 kings assembled there
Together, and together passed by —
That presence3 saw they, and they marvelled,
Nor for repose could they a moment spare ;
With panic terror smitten suddenly,
In utter rout their scatter'd squadrons fled.
3.
Fear there upon them took its with'ring hold,
And chas'd them, rack'd with pain, as travail doth
On woman anguish sharp in childbed lay.
1 Ver. 2. Hi:; is hy De Burgh explained to mean "elevated," and
by Zech. xiv. we learn that the surface of Jerusalem will undergo great
changes ; so that Zion may be much elevated.
2 Ver. 4. Ps. xxxiii. 15. Isa. viii. 9 — 12.
3 Ver. 5. The sign of the Son of Man, here supposed to he referred to,
may be regarded as having heen manifested considerably before the building
of the new Temple on Mount Zion, spoken of in the verse before.

PSALM THE FORTY-EIGHTH. 23
An east wind too old ocean's billows roll'd
Upon the ships of Tarshish in Thy wrath,
Strewing their fragments on the yeasty spray.
4.
All that we've from the ancient4 Scriptures heard
Of fore-determin'd favour from above,
So have we seen upon this city shewn —
Jehovah of Sabaoth's city — rear'd
To be the city of our God : in love
God will for ever slablish here His throne.5
5.
Upon Thy loving kindness have we thought,
O God, within Thy Temple's hallow'd midst.
So as Thy Name, O God, is Thy high praise
Unto earth's furthest outskirts!6 fully fraught
With righteousness7 Thy right hand! for Thou didst
Deal due requital to men's perverse ways.
6.
Now thro' Mount Zion let the echo sound
Of laughter, now let Judah's8 maids be glad,
Because of Thy dread judgments.9 Ponder well
The strength of Zion ! walk in rapture round
About her, and let due regard be had
Unto her towers, right their number tell.

On her munitions10 spend your heart's best powers,
Her lofty palaces extol, that ye
May to that latter generation11 of them sing !
i Ver. 8. Ps. xciii. 5.
5 Ver. 8. Ps. xlvii. 8. Isa. ix. 7. Jer. iii. 17. Acts ii. SO.
6 Ver. 10. Numb. xiv. 21. Rom. ix. 17.
» Ver. 10. Ps. xxi. 8 ; xiv. 4.
8 Ver. 11. 2 Sam. i. 20. Ps. xcvii. 8.
9 Ver.. 11. Ps. xiv. i; lxvi. 5. Rev. xvi. 6.
10 Ver. 13. Isa, xxvi. 1.
» Ver. 13. Fs, xxii. 30 ; xxxiii. 12 ; Ixxviii. 4.

24 PSALM THE FORTY-NINTH.
This God's for ever and for ever ours,
And each and all He'll guide unfailingly,
Till death12 to all men here an end shall bring.
13 Ver. 14. " He will he our guide unto death ;" that is, as it seems to me,
until death, as described in Rev. xx. 14, puts an end to the existence of mortal
man in a state of probation on this earth, (see Ps. xvii. 14, 15, and x. 18,) and
to the propagation of the race.
If this interpretation of verse 14 be correct, how significant becomes the
psalm next following in its bearing on this momentous subject.

PSALM XLIX.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. For the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
ARGUMENT.
It may be that the address to all nations with which this psalm
opens (an unusual one during the Mosaic dispensation), was in
tended to denote, that the redemption whereof it speaks should be
universal, as tbe Gospel attests it to be. (1 Tim. ii. 6. Heb. ii. 9.)
For that there should be a redemption of souls, and that of all
souls, though past the power of the rich to procure, is undoubtedly
implied in verse 8 ; and God's purpose touching the accomplishment
of it is affirmed in verse 13. 1.
Hear this, all people o'er the earth,
Both high and low, both rich and poor !
A word to all alike I bring :
My mouth shall tell of wisdom's worth
By parables1 the ear I'll lure,
And with the harp dark speeches2 sing.
1 Ver. 4. This psalm may be compared with our Lord's parable of the rich
man and Lazarus, (Luke xvi. 19 ;) or, with that spoken by Him against
covetousness. (Luke xii. 16 — 21.)
2 Ver. 4. The "dark'speech,'' or saying, I take to be that concerning the
redemption of all mankind, which was then secret. This "speech" is con
tained in verses 8, 9.

PSALM THE FORTY-NINTH. 25
2.
Wherefore should I for love of wealth,
And what therewith I might procure,
Store sorrow 'gainst my evil3 days —
Days, when at length through failing health,
What pleas'd might haply please no more,
But at my heels4 dread chidings raise 1
3.
They that trust wealth for their supplies,
And boast their riches' vast increase,
Can ne'er one soul redeem from death.
(Their soul's redemption5 passes price,
And though on earth awhile it cease,
Ne'er knows corruption's faintest breath.)
4.
One same event to all they see,
If wise, if foolish, equal come ;
In death, too, that at once they quit
3 Ver. 5. " The evil days of man's life " I take to be those so designated in
Eccles. xiii. 1, " when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure." See 2 Sam. xix. 35.
4 Ver. 5. Literally, " the evil of my past deeds dogging my heels." So of
the wicked it is said in Ps. cxi. 11, " Evil shall hunt the violent man to over
throw him." See 1 Tim. vi. 10.
5 Ver. 8. The translators of our Authorised Version have put verse 8 in
parenthesis, and I would include therein the ninth too : to this effect, " For the
redemption of their souls is precious, and ceaseth on earth (that is, personally)
till the hidden time, yet shall still uninterruptedly live, and not see
corruption." On this meaning of Djto, see Ps. xxviii. 9, with note thereto. On this
meaning of )> see OC/m^, Ps. Ixxiii. 4, with Rogers' note. If it be borne
in mind that Ps. xc. is alleged to have been composed by Moses, and the
former part thereof mysteriously treats of Christ working out by death,
after the figure of the Paschal lamb, the redemption of His Israel, (as is
endeavoured to be proved in my notes thereon,) then it were to be expected
that references should by subsequent psalmists have been made to that more
ancient portion of Scripture. And such seems to me to have been the case.
See Ps. xxvii. 5 ; xxxi. 20 ; lxi. 4.
Its " ceasing from life on earth till the hidden time," I take for a dark
saying, (verse 4,) concerning Christ's present departure unto the Father,
(John vi. 61, 62, and xiv. 28 ;) while that His sacrifice for our redemption
does not see corruption, is fulfilled in John xix. 34.
Love of this present evil world (verse 6) on the part of God's ancient people,
(Luke xvi. 14; John xi. 50,) was the occasion of their rejecting Jesus and
crucifying Him : this led to His departure from the earth. Nor will they, as

26 PSALM THE FORTY-NINTH.
Their wealth : so, as some remedy,
Grand tombs6 they choose them for a home,
And on their lands their names transmit.
5.
Small honour ! when their souls the while
Lodge7 not in Christ, as saints with theirs ;
But like dead beasts, unhousell'd lie.
Their trust in wealth doth them beguile
Of that good hope ; yet do their heirs
Speak8 after them implicitly. 6.
In their grand tombs like sheep they're laid
Death on them holds a sweet repast,
And rules them with unchalleng'd sway !
The upright in the morn9 his head
Shall lift triumphant ; while there waste
The rest, still left to death a prey.10
7.
But God, e'en in the hour of death
My soul11 will from the grave redeem.
a nation, "be redeemed from all their enemies, in the full extent promised to
Israel under the triumphant Messiah, until He returns. (Luke i. 74. Acts
iii. 19—21.)
0 Ver. 11. In the present Hebrew text is here read a word meaning "their
midst," but the Septuagint evidently had in their manuscript D"Vij?> (trans
posing two letters,) "their sepulchres." Compare with this last reading Isa.
xxii. 16. See also Matt, xxiii. 27—29.
7 Ver. 12. The significance of this expression is cleared up hy Ps. xxv. 13,
in the words translated in the margin, " his soul shall lodge for the night in
goodness,"' — a manifest reference to verse 1 of Ps. xci. , meaning, in God. See
Col. iii. 3 ; Ps. xxvii. 13. The indiscriminate condemnation of the rich, as a
class, in this verse, is qualified by its being said inverse 20, "andunder-
standeth not." Agreeably herewith, our Lord's unqualified declaration
concerning the rich in Mark x. 23, He limited in verse 24 conformably with
the sixth verse of this psalm. See Ps. lxii. 10.
8 Ver. 13. Compare Horace. Lib. i. Ep. i. 14.
9 Ver. 14. At commencement of the day of judgment — the first resurrection.
See 1 Cor. xv. 23 ; 1 Thess. iv. 15—18 ; Rev. xx. 4—6.
10 Ver. 14. Rev. xx. 5.
11 Ver. 15. Ps. xxv. 13. John xi. 25, 26. The soul, separated from the
body, but yet, as it seems to me, in company with the small seed of the body

PSALM THE FORTY-NINTH. 27
For He my spirit12 will receive !
This gain13 forthwith the upright hath
For pledge of more ; although he seem
Left, like the rich, without reprieve.

Then, just one, be not thou distress'd,
Nor doubt God, if the fool14 thou seest
Made rich and honour'd in his house :
Him like thyself shall death arrest,
Nor of his grandeur leave the least
Remainder with him for his use.
9.
Him he and others happy thought,
(For so will men repute of one
That's seen to thrive by his own care,)
But, like hie sires, from light shut out,
He'll die ! since those, who headlong run
In sin, the grave15 of beasts shall share.
(1 Cor. xv. 38,) in a state of sleep, shall " lodge in goodness " for the night or
hidden time intervening between the dissolution of the soul from body and
the resurrection-morn ; that is, shall lodge in Christ, as Stephen fell asleep in
Jesus — being thus "under the altar." (Rev.vi.9. Matt, xxiii. 19. Jobxiv.12.)
12 Ver. 15. That is, the receiving of a believer's spirit hy God unto
Himself immediately upon death, or dissolution of body, soul, and spirit,
(1 Thess. v. 23 ; Luke xvi. 22 ; 2 Cor. v. 8, compared with Ps. xxxi. 5,) is
a pledge that God will in due time bring the body and soul too from the
grave. (Ps. xvi. 10.) The psalmist's own words are, " for He shall receive
me ; " but by " me " I understand that part of a man which, at the time of
dissolution, shall not cease to think, and, in the ease of the believer, live to
God by conscious worship, viz, the spirit. See Ps. Ixxiii. 24 ; John xi. 26 ;
Heb. xii. 23.
The doctrine of the resurrection not having been clearly spoken of during
the Mosaic dispensation (but rather the memory alone of what had previously
been revealed tb the Patriarchal Church being then retained, Luke x. 24,)
the psalmist here says nothing respecting the existence of the unbelieving
Israelite during the dissolution of his human nature, and only speaks of
his body and soul as asleep in the tomb ; but the Lord Jesus speaks of such
an one's spirit. (Luke xvi. 23.)
13 Ver. 15. Philip, i. 21—23.
u Ver. 16. Compare herewith verse 13. By the fool is meant in Scripture,
not one deficient in mental power, but in heart averse from God. (Ps. xiv. 1.)
So, too, wisdom is that of the heart in the fear of God. (1 Kings iii. 1 2.)
15 Ver. 20. Not that they shall never be raised therefrom, any more than
the beasts ; but in respect of being out of Christ, their bodies and souls are
left in graves resembling those of beasts.

28 PSALM THE FIFTIETH.
PSALM L.

TITLE.
A psalm of Asaph.
This psalm so closely resembles in its style those other eleven
in the third book, ascribed to the same seer, (1 Chron. xv. 17, 19 ;
2 Chron. xxix. 30,) that the title may readily be taken in its usual
sense.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm opens, like the preceding, with the announcement of
a message from God to all nations upon earth.
The Israelites of Asaph's day may be assumed to have known
that this general diffusion of revealed religion, by their instru
mentality, (see Ps. xix.,) should follow on the raising up of the
Prophet, like Moses, from among their brethren, unto whom they
should hearken. (Deut. xviii. 18; xxxii. 43; Ps. lxvii. 1 — 4.)
"Zion made perfect in beauty" seems to me to admit of
comparison with St. Paul's " spirits of just men made perfect,"
(Heb. xii. 23,) whence may be gathered that the heavenly Zion
is spoken of in verse 2.
For this reason, then, it may be concluded, that the appearance
of Jehovah here spoken of agrees in point of time with that pre
dicted in Zech. xiv. 5.
This view is further confirmed by observing, that from the
seventh verse to the end, the instructions given are of the nature
of precepts concerning sanctification.
Hence, as it seems to me, is determined the sense in which
"judge" in verse 6 is to be taken, namely, to rule and govern.
(Ps. lxvii. 4.) For at the time spoken of in Zech. xiv., the coming of
the Lord with all His saints will, as we believe, inaugurate that
recall of a remnant of Judah (Zech. xii. 7; Rom. xi. 26, 31)
which shall be carried on among the outcasts of Israel and
dispersed of Judah, in lands where it will be impossible for them
to offer sacrifices of beasts, conformably with the Mosaic law.
And the eighth verse of this psalm will be warrant for teaching,
that God doth not "reprove" them for not bringing such sacrifices ;
although He would " reprove " them (John xvi. 8) if they did not
(according to verse 6) stand " in covenant with Him by sacrifice,"
which by the Gospel we may plainly see is to be done with faith
in Jesus, through whose sacrificial death salvation is sealed to the
believer. Though this sacrifice was not in Asaph's day nor long after
known, yet it might even then have been perceived to be not one
of beasts according to the Mosaic ritual.
Now we gather from Ps. li. 18, 19, and Ezek. xly. 15, that

PSALM THE FIFTIETH. 29
sacrifices of beasts shall again be re-enacted in the new Temple
during the Lord's millennial reign — possibly in a sense commemora
tive of His great sacrifice of Himself on Calvary — like as during
Asaph's time and onward till the coming of Christ's crucifixion they
were anticipatory thereof.
This psalm may hence be allowed to hold forth an intermediate
light concerning the way of man being just with God, exactly
corresponding with the condition in which the Hebrew-Christian
Church will be placed at the close of the times of the Gentiles by
the Lord's coming, as predicted in Zech. xiv. 5, and the re-estab
lishment of Israel iu the Lord's land at a considerably subsequent
interval. For like as the mention in this psalm at ver. 16 and 23
of thanksgiving for sacrifice, was no sufficient ground for the
Israelites' relinquishment of sacrifices of beasts, until God should
make it plain that the time had come for that requirement ; so after
the day of the Lord's shewing Himself to the remnant of Judah out
of the heavenly Zion, this psalm will be no warrant for their con
tinuing to bring Him no other sacrifice than those of thanksgiving,
when He shall have at length, by re- establishment of them in the
land and explicit declaration of His will, made it plain that
the sacrifices of beasts are to be offered.
1.
Almighty God hath spoken —
Earth hath Jehovah call'd,
From where day forth hath broken,
To where it's left the world.
In Zion, fully perfect1 made,
His glorious face hath God display'd.

Our God shall keep no further
Strict silence : forth before
His face shall blaze the ether —
Around Him tempests roar.
His voice thro' heav'n2 and earth shall reach,
So He His people's hearts but teach.

My saints unto Me gather
(So runs the high decree)
i Ver. 2, Heb, xii. 23, 2 Ver. 4. Luke xxi. 10—12, 25.

30 PSALM THE FIFTIETH.
By sacrifice that have their
Fast covenant with Me.
God's righteousness shall heav'n3 shew forth,
For God Himself is Judge on earth.

Hear, while I speak, My nation,
O Israel ! against Thee
I'll raise My protestation,
Thy God Who'm known to be.
No sacrifice will I require
To be before Me made by fire.
5.
From thee I'll take no bullock,
No he-goat from thy fold,
For steers on every hillock
In My control I hold:
The fowls that 'bove the mountains soar,
And beasts that wild lands wander o'er.
6.
Were I to faint from hunger,
I'd not apply to thee :
When all the sky that's under
On earth belongs to Me.
Will I on flesh of bullock gloat,
Or quaff with relish blood of goat %
7.
To God make of thanksgiving
A sacrifice ; and pay
Thy vows for daily thriving,
To the Most High alway :
Or if in trouble, on Me call,
And I'll deliver thee from thrall.
8 Ver. 6. That is, the heavenly Zion shall authoritatively correct (Philip.
iii. 20) the then prevalent error concerning righteousness with God. Rom. iii.
24,' 25, Compare Ps. xcvii., xcviii.

PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST. 31
8.
Thou, God, the wicked askest,
My laws why dost thou teach ;
Or of My cov'nant taskest
Thy lips to mourn the breach ;
When for My truth thou hatred hast,
And dost My words behind thee cast %
9.
Thou unto thieves dost pander —
Adult'rers quitt'st of blame —
Thy mouth is giv'n to slander —
Thy tongue deceit doth frame ;
Yea, slander thou dost fasten on
Thy brother, thine own mother's son.4
10.
These things, while I kept silence,
Thou didst through the vain thought
That I'd with thee alliance
And thou'd'st set Me at naught.
But I thy faults in righteous wise
Will set out strictly 'fore thine eyes.
11.
Backsliders, this consider !
Lest I past rescuing
Transport ye ! the provider
Of praise for offering
Exalts Me ! thus the way to Me
In God's salvation shall he see.
1 Ver. 20. In contradistinction to the children of the same father by
another mother— a brother in the full sense. (I)e Burgh.)

PSALM LI.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm of David, when Nathan the
prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

32 PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm has been as generally in the Christian Church, as it
was in the Jewish from Hezekiah's day, taken for a standard of
instruction in the fundamental doctrines of repentance and faith .
An explanation of the way in which David here exercised these
graces will furnish us with the needful instruction in our own use
of them. Some commentators, however, and they by no means of least
note, have argued that the language of the fifth verse makes it
impossible that David could have written this psalm upon the
occasion set forth in the Hebrew title : while what is said in the
last two verses, incline them to think that he did not write it at
all, but that it was composed during the captivity.
Both these objections admit of a distinct reply : and firstly, in
regard to the alleged unsuitableness of the words " against Thee
only have I sinned," for David's reference to his sin in the matter of
Bathsheba. How, it is asked, could he say this, when sinning so grossly
against Uriah ?
Let now the circumstances of. that sin be searched into. In
regard to the adultery there were no witnesses to accuse either
party, so that the Levitical law was inoperative. (Lev. xx. 10. Deut.
xxii. 22, and xix. 15.) The case was similar in regard to Uriah's
death, he knew not to whom he owed it. (2 Sam. xi. 14 — 17.)
David therefore for some months was secure in his sin; not
merely because of being a king and above law, (Prov. xvii. 26,)
but because of there being no witnesses to put the law in motion
against him. In this lull of all suspicion, God, being deeply
displeased, made Nathan acquainted with all the details, and sent
him to charge on David the double guilt of adultery and murder.
Nathan, who had revered David not only as his king, but as an
eminent prophet of God, proceeded to execute his delicate
commission with much prudence. For he doubtless saw how
David might attempt to defend himself on the plea of there being
no proof — which would only be morally worse for him.
Accordingly, he devised a parable for David's ear, which gained
from his lips a sentence of condemnation, which Nathan forth
with applied to David himself, saying, " Thou art the man ! " To
David's credit, he had no recourse to evasion or palliation of
Nathan's charge in any particular ; he at once unreservedly
acknowledged his sin: and the Lord empowered Nathan to say
" The Lord also hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die ! "
How now do these facts comport with the words in this fifth
verse, on the supposition that they are David's! Do they not
shew, that God took up the cause of Uriah ? teaching David that
in whatsoever way he sinned against others, he sinned not so much
against them as against the Lord, who was their Avenger ?
David's deep conviction that God knew all, and would reckon

PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST. 33
with him for all, moved him to testify so emphatically in the fifth
verse that his sin was against Him ! against Him ! to such a degree,
as to transcend far that degree in which it was a sin against this or
that other, in regard to whom David was secure of exemption from
blame. God would exact redress for wrongs done to His creatures,
whether or not they ever might know by whom they sustained that
wrong. This unlimited right claimed by God to undertake every injured
person's cause, was what David meant to acknowledge when saying,
" Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight " —
with Thine eye upon me while committing it. Like as God, dropping
all notice of intermediate agents, traced Uriah's murder up to David,
saying, " Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword," so
David glorified God's word by Nathan, by dropping all intermediate
objects, and confessing it to have been done against Him, Him
only ! that He might be justified when He spake by Nathan, and
be clear when He judged.
It will surely be now admitted, that the words of this fifth verse
are most suited to David's case, and that they were eminently fitted
for the use to which they were put in the congregation of Israel —
namely, to exemplify what repentance toward God should be : to
wit ; that it should be characterised by readiness to justify God in
all that He by His word shall charge on one, and clear Him of
inaccuracy or of undue rigour.
By the words which follow, David further exemplified what it is
to have faith in God. For when David heard Nathan say, " The
Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die," he believed
the word so spoken in the name of God : he gave glory to God, by
trusting that He could, consistently with His hatred of sin and
love of holiness, nevertheless spare David's life, and cleanse him
from such enormous outrages as adultery and murder. It was,
however, far more difficult for David in that early stage of the
Church's progress to have so glorified God by faith, than for us
to do the like in the light of the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord.
For David lived under the Levitical law — a law which inculcated
on God's behalf the principle that " without shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin." (Heb. ix. 22.) Yet God required
David to believe that He could and would put away his sin,
though not telling him what sacrifice to bring, that the blood
thereof might be sprinkled on him ! And David believed God : in
his great strait he asked not for a ceremonial sacrifice in token of
God's cleansing of him, but believed the word only !
David, however, by his sins of adultery and murder, had perpe
trated what it was nowhere provided in the law to pardon. The
adulterer, ifLconvicted upon the testimony of two witnesses, was to
be stoned; the murderer was to be hanged on the tree : there was
consequently no intimation by law that David could be pardoned,
no provision for his ceremonial reconciliation.

34 PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST.
But God said by Nathan, " The Lord also hath put away thy sin ;
thou shalt not die :" and David believed it.
To a man trained up in the service of God under the ceremonial
law this was a peculiarly arduous trial of faith ; his education made
it natural for him to doubt whether he had pardon " upon earth "
(Matt. ix. 6) that instant, (Luke xviii. 14,) even from God Him
self, unless there was some shedding of blood appointed to seal it
in his flesh, agreeably with God's own law. So thought the nine
lepers that were " cleansed " through faith in Jesus as they went
to the priest, after they had been by him furnished with the
sacrifices, which he could not legally give to their Samaritan
comrade. (Luke xvii. 12 — 18.)
In David's case, the priests no more dare furnish him with a
.sacrifice for his ceremonial purification from adultery and murder,
than they could give the prescribed sacrifices for Israelites to a
Samaritan stranger.
God appointed to David no special sacrifice by the mouth of
Nathan, (as David commemorates in verses 16, 17,) saying only,
" The Lord hath put away thy sin : " but David was persuaded that
what God had said, He could consistently with justice and holiness
perform! (Rom. iv. 20, 21.)
May we not conclude that David's previous habits of sincerity in
worship, (until he fell into this sin,) his conspicuous exemption from
undue reliance on ceremonial cleansing to the disregard of spi
ritual in the heart, coupled with the doctrine held by him concern
ing sin inherited by birth as well as aggravated by practice, and
some light vouchsafed him concerning the death of that Lamb of
God which the Levitical sacrifices were appointed to foreshadow,
helped him in receiving with worthy faith the tender mercy
wherewith the Lord commissioned Nathan so promptly to say, " The
Lord also hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die ?" This tender
pity toward David in his awful transgression has its counterpart
in that of the Lord Jesus toward Peter; and Peter was remarkable
for his previous sincerity ; even as We gather from the Psalms that
David was. Here, then, is the exemplification furnished by David of
faith in the word of God — what it should be — how unreserved —
under the heaviest conceivable load of guilt, if truly repented of.
How David believed that God would cleanse him by sprinkling of
him with blood, although not instructing Nathan to bid him take
any clean beast to a priest to offer for him, is plain from David's
words in the seventh verse, as compared with those in the second.
Fori consider that his mention of" hyssop" in the seventh, was
not for the sake of the hyssop itself, but to shew that he looked
unto God Himself for purging with blood : since it was by means of
a sprig of hyssop the priest sprinkled the sacrificial blood. (Lev.
xiv. 6.) But the words in verse 7, "Thou shalt purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean," are in my estimation but tantamount
to those in verse 2, " cleanse me from my sin,"

PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST. .'};>
The third thing exemplified by David in this psalm, is his
resolve on using justification by faith for procurement of sanc
tification, instead of reposing in his state of justification as in
itself sufficient for him to attain unto. So far from doing this,
David here uses the pardon, freely and promptly given him, in
urgent prayer that he might be renewed unto holy living. He
did not look upon God's readiness to forgive him, when penitent,
as an indication of God's indifference to sin in His people : on the
contrary, he glorified God's holiness by saying, at verse 6, " Behold,
Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part
Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." " Make me to hear of
joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken (' as a
lion,' Isa. xxxiii. 13, by convicting me of sin; when re-set by
Thee) may rejoice." (Hos. vi. 1.)
Then prayed he, from the tenth verse to the end of verse 17,
for a measure of the Spirit of Christ to be restored to him for
his renewal; that he might therewith bear fruit as well in
regard to teaching others God's ways of bruising and healing,
(verse 13,) as also in yielding the fruit of praise out of a living
heart melted with contrition at the thought of God's pardoning
forbearance ; not that he for a moment thought any service of
his contrite heart could be intrinsically acceptable without blood
shedding: on this point, his language in verse 17 is to be taken
in connection with that in verses 2 and 7.
This explanation of David's testimony in the psalm before us
concerning repentance and faith, assuredly shews why it has been
universally used for the same purpose in the Christian as in the
Jewish Church.
The minister of Christ is to testify to all the indispensableness
of repentance towards God, and of faith towards our Lord Jesus
Christ, (Acts xx. 21 ;) and these graces are to be exercised after
David's manner : that is, there is to be the same clear confession
of sin, by nature and by practice, as in verses 3 and 5 — the same
readiness to own unto God one's conviction of sin by His word,
without attempt at evasion or palliation, on the plea of such
being available before man by technicalities of law : for this did
David in verse 4, and St. Paul shews it to be incumbent on
" every " man, by citation of this verse in Rom. iii. 4.
Again, there is to be the same persuasion which David had in
verse 6, that God appreciates sincerity and requires it; as also
that outward ritualistic cleansing is but a shadow of that required
in the inner man, and can never be substituted for it. Such is
the lesson here given concerning repentance toward God.
Furthermore, as regards faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, we
are taught by David's example, that it is to be implicit according
to Christ's word ; and that it is effectual for our justification " on
earth " that instant, if only we penitently rely on Christ's merits,
how heinous soever our sin has been ; glorifying God by saying,
d 2

36 PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST.
" Thou shalt purge me (with hyssop) and I shall be clean : Thou
shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ! " It is the more
easy for us, who live after the sacrifice of Christ has been offered,
to say this, than it was for David who was required to look forward
to it, through mysterious types which were to be relied on because
granted by God !
And while we glorify God by believing, notwithstanding our
deep sense of the sins committed by us, that He can, consistently
with His truth in the law and His hatred of sin, justify us for faith
only in the sacrifice of Christ; we are, like David, to look to Him
alone to grant us this remission of sins, "Who alone can in the
hidden part make us to understand wisdom." The utter impotence
of mere man to make his fellow understand wisdom in the inner
man is conclusive against his pretensions to confer, in the absolute
sense, forgiveness of sins " on earth." To the man Christ Jesus
alone is this power given. (Matt. ix. 6.)
Lastly, we must learn hence, by David's example, to use our
hope of justification in seeking sanctification : being persuaded
that, owing to sin inbred in the old man, (verses 3 and 5,) we
must be born again, (compare John iii. 5 — 7,) created anew-
renewed in the spirit of our mind, (Eph. iv. 23.)
These plain lessons concerning repentance toward God and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ, here furnished by David's example,
justify the Church's ancient doctors in their liturgical employment
of it to that end.
Having already explained the way in which David glorified
God, by believing His word only that He had put away his
sin, without appointing him any sacrifice — when his sin was so
great, that it surpassed all by which it had been provided in
God's law that there should be ceremonial atonement; it hav
ing also been shewn that the "not" in verse 16 is com
parative, implying only that David knew God to have provided
a blood for his cleansing, which no beast's blood could ade
quately typify — a blood which should procure "the unspeak
able gift" of the Spirit to make the believer a new creature,
and " cleanse, as with water, by the word," (Eph. v. 26 ;) we
cannot but remark a mysterious purpose of God in thus in
spiring David to write of the ceremonial law as defective,
though it was yet to continue in use for upwards of a thousand
years, before its abolition in the sacrifice of Jesus at His cruci
fixion. But this language, inspired by Christ's Spirit, was, as Justin
Martyr teaches in his Dialogue with Tryphon, page 240, one of
the first notes premonitory of God's purpose to change the Leviti
cal law. At the same time David is, at verse 18, wrapt into an
ecstasy, and then moved to sing of God eventually so blessing Zion
(then taken for his own city, 2 Sam. v. 7, and made the recep
tacle of the ark, vi. 12,) and building up Jerusalem, (see Ps. xxii.
27,) as that the sacrifices of beasts shall then, (according to the

PSALM THE FIFTY-FIRST. 37
divinely revealed liturgy, (Ezek. xliii. 18 — 27, and Bom. ix. 4,) be
acceptably offered.
In this respect, the fifty-first psalm must be regarded as a peni
tential tone, designed for use by Judah in the latter days ; according
to the tenor of Zech. xii. 10 — 14. 1.
Of Thy compassion upon me, O God,
Have mercy ! of Thy tender pity strike
Out of Thy record the dark multitude
Of my misdeeds — habit and act alike —
For I my many acts of sin do own,
And that its habit with my growth has grown.
2.
Against Thee only I this sin have wrought —
This evil in Thy sight — so I confess ! »
To justify Thy charge against me brought —
To clear Thee, Who Thy judgment dost express.
Lo ! sin was given with my shape to me,
And I at birth in sin began to be.
3.
In trunk and root thus I incur Thine ire,
For, lo ! Thou dost the closest acc'racy
Inside and out alike for truth require
In mortal man ! yet in the secrecy
Of my internal being even Thou
Thyself shalt make me Thy true wisdom know !
4.
Yea, Thou shalt purge me, and I shall be clean !
Shalt wash me, and I shall be white as snow !
Oh, let me hear of this release from sin,
Make too my heart hereat with rapture glow !
O God, in me this heart, that 's clean, create,
And with Thine own my spirit renovate !
5.
Me of Thy presence do not Thou deprive,
Nor let Thy Holy Spirit me forsake !

38 PSALM THE FIFTY-SECOND.
Oh, let Thy saving health make me to live,
And Thy free Spirit hold upon me take ;
That to transgressors I may teach Thy ways,
And they become the subjects of Thy grace.
6.
O God, from stain of blood deliver me,
Thou God of my salvation ! and my tongue
Of righteousness shall sing aloud to Thee,
How that to Thee alone it doth belong.
O Lord, make love out of my lips to flow,
And Thy high praise my mouth shall truly shew.
7.
For Thou dost not of sinful me desire,
That I a beast in sacrifice should bring,
A contrite heart, O God, dost Thou require ;
Thou wilt not disregard that offering !
A broken spirit brought in sacrifice
Thou surely never wilt, O God, despise.

In Thine own time to Zion do Thou good !
The ramparts of Jerusalem uprear !
Then shall it please Thee to receive the blood
Upon Thine altar of the ram and steer ;
In that glad day, when Thou shalt Zion bless,
These shall be offerings of righteousness.

PSALM LIT.

TITLE.

To the chief Musician, for instruction. A psalm of David, when
Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David
is come to the house of Ahimelech.

PSALM THE FIFTY-SECOND. 39
ARGUMENT.
The title of this psalm in the Hebrew tells us that it was written
by David, upon the occasion of Abiathar's flight to hiin, and nar
ration of Doeg's massacre of the priests of the Lord at the bidding
of Saul. (1 Sam. xxii. 6 — 23.) Regarded in this light, the psalm
admits of a direct and ready interpretation throughout its entire
extent. But it acquires a further significance when contemplated from
the point of view evidently entertained by the inserter of it into
the Psalter, who is supposed to have been Hezekiah. For this
psalm is evidently taken by St. Paul in connection with that
before and after it, (see Rom. iii.,) whence it is to be inferred,
that the inserter was known to have classed it with them for
contemplation from a special point of view in relation to each
other. On this supposition, it may be observed, that like as the fifty-
first psalm records David's specification of one way in which God
(" Elohim," ver. 1,) works in the earth, (John v. 17,) so in this fifty-
second psalm, in verse 1, another mode of His doing so is specified,
("for He does what He permits." Ezek. xx. 25 ; Rom. ix< 17, 18.)
And again, in Ps. liii. 2, is to be seen a third mode of His doing
this : namely, by delivery of His law, whereby to make men know
the foolishness of their own wisdom, and their obligation to receive
meekly that of God. (1 Cor., i. 19— 25.)
Consequently, a further lesson to be iearnt from contemplation
of these three psalms in connection with each other is, that the
self-complacency of the avowed enemy to God at success in defy
ing Him by saying, (as in Ps. Iii.,) "Evil, be thou my good;"
as also the self- commendation of him, who according to Ps.
liii. 4, would do God's will to perfection in his own way, and
persistently browbeat those that enter upon the performance of
it in God's way ; are of akin with David's own false security, as
referred to in Ps. li. 4, in regard to adultery and murder ; merely
because of the Mosaic law being for lack of witnesses inoperative
against him.
When God rose up to judgment, David found that he had lived
for some time past in a fool's paradise, touching impunity in sin ;
even so the avowed enemy of God (El,) will (as we learn from the
fifty-second psalm, brought into this connection,) have to confess the
same, when God, as described in the fifth verse, rises up to judg
ment upon him : and so, too, will the proud worker of righteousness,
(Ps. xxxi. 23,) when God (Elohim, as set forth in Ps. liii. 5,) scat-
tereth the bones of him that encampeth against thee, O bumble
believer in God's promise concerning justification by faith.
Thus "the goodness of God," (Rom. ii. 3—5,) which is only
expressly mentioned in this first verse of the fifty-second psalm, is
to be seen in the instance of His working on earth, referred to in

40 PSALM THE FIFTY-ISECOND.
Psalm liii. 2 : although self-righteous men perverted it, accord
ing to verses 3, 4, of that psalm, into an occasion of obstinate
continuance in self-righteousness. And His greatest display of
goodness in working on earth is when, as David confessed in the
fifty-first psalm, verse 4, He convinces of sin them that are in error !
Here He " breaks their bones as a lion," and they learn to bless
Him for it.
."" Hence " the boasting," which is only expressly mentioned in this
fifty-second psalm verse 1, is not only "excluded" (Rom. iii. 27) in
that instance, but in the two others.
The massacre of the priests of the Lord at Nob, which is the
first instance recorded in Scripture of persecution by the chief
authority in the state, appears to have been here made by the
Spirit of Christ a mystical foretoken of subsequent persecutions
of God's saints by the authorities in the state under which they
live ; which will culminate in that persecution of them by Anti
christ, when sitting in the temple of God, shewing himself that he
is God, (2 Thess. ii. 4,)referred to, apparently, in verse 5, where
it is remarked that ^DN£>, {arrb o/cnvtifiaTos, Septuagint,) in the
Chaldee paraphrase is explained to mean " He will cause thee to
depart from inhabiting in the place of the Shechinah or Tabernacle,
the place of God's presence." Compare Dan. xi. 44, 45. This will
be the most difficult instance of all wherein " the goodness of God
in enduring it from day to day " is to be patiently believed in by
His meek ones that suffer for His sake. See Matt. xxiv. 22 ; Luke
xviii. 1 — 8. 1.
O mighty man, why boast
Of all the harm thou dost,
When only day by day
God takes thee not away 1
2.
Lies doth thy tongue forth deal,
As keen as polish'd steel ;
Evil's thy choice, not good —
Falsehood, not rectitude.

In men's ears thou dost pour
Words that may them devour,
O tongue, full of deceit,
That lovest souls to cheat !

PSALM THE FIFTY-SECOND. 41
4.
Thee surely God shall smite1
And quench thy blaze outright ;
Thee from His house He'll drive
And rend from them that live.
5.
This shall the righteous see,
And shout derisively —
Behold the man, at length,
That made not God his strength,
6.
But took full stores to be
His chief security,
And dwelt by wealth's increase
In wickedness at ease !
7.
In God's house let me be
Like a green olive-tree ;
And in God's mercy I
Will trust eternally. 8.
Let Thy just dealing be
For ever prais'd by me ;
While I laud with my voice
Thy Name, Thy saints rejoice.
1 Ver. 6. Jj?^ from yra, to destroy, as buildings.
I^PIi » ^W > *° snatch away, as burning coals from a fire.
Isa. xxx. 14.
?jrtB;, „ np; , to expel from a house or land.
tppytfi, „ «fts5 , to root out, strictly of trees and herbs.

42 PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD.

PSALM LIII.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician, upon degeneracy, for instruction. A
psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
The structure of this psalm is enigmatical, its style is sententious
and abstruse ; but great help in the elucidation of it is to be derived
from the third chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. That
Apostle is there found to have quoted from this psalm in support
of his argument, as also from the two next preceding ; whence we
gather, that these three were in his day arranged in the same order
as at present.
The Apostle in that chapter describes, by help of these psalms,
three classes of persons, or schools of thought. One, of those who
assume to themselves the innate strength to understand and seek
after God, (wherewith compare Rom. v. 6.) Another, of the fools,
who assume that God pays no regard to the things done on earth ;
in consequence of which they live as they list.
Into these two schools the natural man, constituting the world,
is divided. A third sort mentioned by the Apostle in that chapter is that of
those, who through faith in the revealed word of God concerning
man's fall from original righteousness, as also concerning the offer
of justification therefrom through faith alone in the promised
Christ, that so they may acceptably ask for renewal by the Holy
Ghost, are, upon their asking for it in this way, begotten again of
God unto newness of life. St. Paul refers to the first of these
classes in the words of the fifty-first psalm at Rom. iii. 3, 4,
asking, " What if some did not believe ? shall their unbelief make
the faith of God of none effect ? God forbid : yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar ; as it is written, That Thou mightest be
justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art
judged." The proper foundation of faith in God is the promise
from Him : and His promise came, as the book of Genesis shews,
long before the delivery of the law — even from the time of man's
fall. (Gen. iii. 15.)
Accordingly, the question in verse three, " What if some did not
believe ? " applies to a state of the world long prior to the delivery
of the law — in fact, to as early a date as the record of Cain. (Gen.
iv. 1—16.)
The delivery of the law to Moses in nowise superseded the use
of that primeval promise, which was from its delivery the ground
of faith in God. Far otherwise : " the law was privily brought in

PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD. 43
along-side " the pre-existent covenant of promise ; as the same
Apostle argues in Rom. v. 20, and again asserts In Gal. iii. 19,
"was added" to it.
The fact of Moses having been commissioned by God to pro
mulgate the delivery of the promise concerning Christ in the book
of Genesis, equally with the law in Exodus, ought to have precluded
the Israelites from distinguishing between the latter and the former,
as if the latter was to be observed by them because given by their
lawgiver, and the former not ; when, in fact, both were commended
to them on the same authority — though the promise was given to
mankind at large, and the law to them alone. St. Paul, in Rom. iii.
4, tacitly gathers this conclusion from the fourth verse of the fifty-
first psalm for the readers among his own nation, who would
think of the circumstances under which David uttered that ago-
nising confession of sin. These circumstances would admonish
them, that his confession arose not out of his understanding and
seeking after God ; for, on the contrary, owing to the Mosaic law
being in his case inoperative through lack of witnesses, he con
tinued utterly apathetic in regard to such sins as adultery and
murder, until God Himself (of whom the fool saith in his heart
that He works not on earth) brought home to his conviction the
charges specified. But upon David's glorifying God by unreserved-
acknowledgment thereof, God forthwith assured him of pardon
through faith in the covenant of promise ; whereupon David was
restored to justification, and made able acceptably to " call upon"
God for renewal. (Isa. lxiv. 5 — 7.)
This conviction- of David, followed by justification through
faith in the promise of the Spirit through Christ for renewal, took
place under the Mosaic law, but was wrought in him by God
without the help of it. It was wrought by the use of the covenant
of promise, which therefore was here tacitly shown by St. Paul to
have continued in full force during the time of the Mosaic covenant
being in operation : and that covenant of promise, unlike the law,
having been given to all mankind, St. Paul significantly concludes
thereby, in Rom. iii. 4, " Let God be true, though every man were a
liar : " whereas of the iaw the Apostle afterwards saith at verse 19,
" Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to
them that are under the law : that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God." His meaning
being, that if the Israelites, who had the advantage of the law, did in
no instance understand and seek after God, (though those among
them who refused to believe for justification contended that they
could,) much more the Gentiles understood not nor sought after
God, whom God had not so helped with His promulgated standard
of righteousness.
The Apostle then asked, at Rom. iii. 9, What then? was it
owing to us Jews being better than the Gentiles, that God gave us
the law ? No, but to prove by what should happen to the favoured

44 PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD.
nation after bestowal of that law, what would have happened to
any other, had it been chosen instead of Israel for vindication of
God's wisdom in appointing after man's fall, that as sin should
come upon all men in the course of nature through the sin of one,
this might be a precedent for grace coming upon all through the
righteousness of One — owing to all being proved guilty before
God, (ver. 19.)
The Apostle, at the tenth verse and onward, by citation of words
out of the fifty-third psalm, supplemented by passages out of other
psalms and out of the prophets, shews that the Israelites, who did
not believe the promise of God for justification, (whether they
were fools, that said in their heart God works not in the earth, or
persons trusting in themselves that they were righteous,) were
alike gone out of the way of God's law, without exception, and in
no single instance did what was good in God's sight according to
law. The Apostle then, at verse 27 of this third chapter, when he
asks, "Where is boasting then ? It is excluded. By what law?
of works ? Nay : but by the law of faith," refers apparently to
the first verse of the fifty-second psalm, in which the proud, self-
righteousness worker is asked, Why boastest thou thyself, thou
man mighty in mischief? Whereas thou only continuest upon
sufferance, because " the goodness of God endureth yet daily," or
from day to day.
By this argument of the Apostle, founded on the fifty-third
psalm and two others next preceding, sufficient light seems to me
to be thrown on the sententious and abstruse language of this fifty-
third psalm.
When it was written by David is not certain, only, from mention
of Zion in the last verse, it is to be concluded that he wrote it not
until after he was king in Hebron, and had taken Zion for his own
city. But as his name for " the fool " in the first verse is Nabal, and
that one of that name of similar character came into collision with
him while in the forest of Hareth, it is not unlikely that Nabal's
character was before his mind when writing this psalm.
In the Hebrew title it is said to be " upon Mahalath," and it is
observed that this word, in Exod. xv. 26, means disease ; which,
as Hengstenberg observes, agrees well with the tenor of this psalm,
being upon the moral disease and degeneracy of man.
In the first verse, which saith, " The fool hath said in his heart,
There is no God ; corrupt are they and have done abominable ini
quity: there is none that doeth good, no, not one;" the Targum
paraphrase is, " There is no government of God upon earth." If this
be compared with the testimony in Ps. x. 11, "The wicked hath
said in his heart, God hath forgotten : He hideth His face ; He will
never see it ; " and again, in verse 13, " Wherefore doth the wicked
contemn God ? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require

PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD. 45
it," there will be reason for thinking the first clause of this fifty-
third psalm to mean, " The fool hath said in his heart, God
worketh not in the world." Compare John v. 17.
Then what follows, about God affording proof that He doth
so work, (by delivery of His law to Moses, as we gather from St.
Paul's argument above referred to) supports this interpretation.
The next clause of this first verse being in the plural, makes it
enigmatical. We should have expected to have found " corrupt
is he, and hath done abominable iniquity ;" but instead of this,
we have " corrupt are they"
Guided by St. Paul's argument, founded on this psalm in Rom.
iii., I gather from the last clause of the second verse the desired
clue to the party included with " the fool " in the personal relative
pronoun " they " of the first.
We are therefore to suppose the psalmist, (while speaking in
the latter clause of. the first verse in behalf of God, and in vindi
cation of those that from the time of the fall put their faith in
His promise,) to have implied, that a certain portion of the un
renewed, because unbelieving world, (who were earnest in religion
after their own fashion, and assumed that all men could, if they
liked, understand and seek after God,) stigmatised the corruption
of their fellow-men, (who were indifferent to religion,) by affirm
ing of them, " The fool hath said in his heart, God worketh not in
the earth."
But the psalmist condemns them that in (heir own strength and
wisdom give utterance to this censure, equally with those whom they
censured ; because of unbelief in both alike. See Rom. iii. 3, 4.
" Some " being thegreater part, after St. Paul's manner. (1 Cor. x.
7,9,10. Heb. iii. 16.)
In this latter clause, then, of the first verse, the universal de
pravity of man by nature is set forth by the inspired psalmist
after the testimony in Gen. vi. 5, and viii. 21.
In the book of Job is to be seen how, his friends, while zealous
for God, according to natural reason, opposed Job's hope of justi>-
fication by faith in the promise ; and. gave utterance to a desire,
that a clear promulgation of a standard of righteousness should
be furnished by God ; as being all that those needed for perform
ance of virtue meritoriously, who would not speak like the fool ;
but understand, (as they were by nature well able to do,) and
seek after God. See Job iv. 7 ; viii. 6 ; xxii. 22.
Accordingly, in compliance with this aspiration of the zealous
natural man, and for the correcting of his error, by compelling him
through the condemning power of the law (if honestly applied to
his conscience) to come unto the promise, with repentance toward
God and faith toward Christ for justification, (Gal. iii. 22 — 24,)
the psalmist seems to me in the second verse to say ; God from
heaven made apparent unto the children of men, that He worketh
in the earth, " to see if there were any that did understand and seek
(2)

46 PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD.
after God :" that is, not to ascertain this for Himself by the
result, but vindicate among men His foreknowledge hereof in
providing justification for them that should glorify Him, as David,
in the fifty-first psalm, is shewn by Paul to have done ; and, as
the Apostle says there, " every " man ought to do to the glory of
God ; though by so acquiescing in God's word concerning him, he
should make himself to have been a liar when talking of his
natural ability to understand and seek after God.
Then the third verse testifies to the issue of that delivery of the
law to Moses, whereby God made Himself apparent, as working
in the earth, to the rebuke of the fool, and the encouragement of
the self-righteous to the utmost of their desire ; who assumed that
they needed no farther help from Him, for righteousness.
St. Paul brings home the same conclusion by the law — not to
Gentiles alone, against whom the self-righteous Israelites so
applied it, (Gal. ii. 15,) but to Jews themselves, (Rom. iii. 19.)
Then, in the fourth verse, the psalmist, with rigorous sternness, asks
these self-righteous zealots, whom he stigmatises as " workers of
iniquity," Have they no knowledge, who are conspicuous for "brow
beating those that hope for justification through faith in God's
promise, after the manner of David in Ps. li. 4 — calling in question
their doctrine — deriding their reliance on imputed righteousness
through faith in God's promise — pretending that it is made by the
advocates for it an excuse for sin, and for indifference about pro
gress in virtue, till they shake the faith of some of these little
ones, and slay and eat them, as a wild beast would his prey, that
they may incorporate them, when devoured, with their own com
pany of zealots — Have these censors of " the fool," asks the
psalmist, no knowledge ; that is, have they, with all their fancied
wisdom, taken leave of their wits ; when saying that God, though
working in the world, notices only ceremonial purification, and not
that of the heart? Compare Matt. xv. 7 — 20, and xxiii. 25—28.
This is clearly their condemnation : they surely can have no
common sense : since, with all their sin at heart, they have main
tained their self-righteousness, and " They have not called upon
God ;" that is, have not, as needy and destitute souls, craved His
compassion after the manner of David in the fifty-first psalm.
For to "call upon God" is to ask His help; but only according
to the covenant of promise, whereby He hath given the believer
warrant to do so through His Advocate. See Rom. iii. 21 — 26.
Then, adds the psalmist in verse 5, " There were they " — the self-
righteous zealots for the law—" in great fear :" some, as in Micah
vi. 6, 7, by nature's apprehension of God's offended majesty even
to the extent of the soul's failing before Him, (Isa. lvii. 16 ;) some
in the hour of death, when appalled with the notion of purgatory —
appended by that school before and after the coming of Christ to
the infliction of death — (John ix. 1,2.) Whereas, saith the psalmist,
" no fear was there ;" that is, need not have been, had they availed

PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD. 47
themselves of God's way of salvation through faith in His promise.
For He would then have been in them the hope of glory. (Ps.
Ixxiii. 25, 26.)
But, owing to their renunciation of their own mercies, (Jonah
ii. 8,) God, at that awful hour of death, (" Whose wrath is pro
portioned to His fear or majesty," Ps. xc. 11,) " as a lion breaketh
all the bones " of that man, who self-righteously encampeth with
the emissaries of Satan, (Ps. xxvii. 3,) against them that put their
trust in God for justification by faith. For in that hour of death
God makes them know that He despises their righteousness — that
it cannot profit them.
This description of God, when convincing of sin the self-righ
teous sinner, by comparison of Him to a lion breaking all one's
bones, appears to be taken from the eighth verse of the fifty-first
psalm, and may have been inserted by Hezekiah at the time of his
arranging these three psalms for the Second Book of the Psalter —
along with other variations in this psalm from the fourteenth, as
being more suitable to the prevalent form of error in his day, to
which circumstance I would attribute the substitution of Elohim in
verses 2, 4, 6, for Jehovah, in the fourteenth. David's likening of
God, in Ps. li. 8, to a lion when convincing him of sin, appears from
Hezekiah's song in Isa. xxxviii. 13, to have made a great impression
on him : and on this account it seems to me probable that he
inserted it in this fifth verse.
In the sixth verse, the psalmist declares that the salvation of
Israel must be a gift from God — or the salvations — that is, not only
in regard of the eternal rest in which all true believers shall find a
share, but in regard of that bringing a chosen generation of
Israel rest in their own land from all their enemies. See Luke
i. 68—75. Let us hence learn, then, to shun alike the class which affect in
their hearts to think that God leaves the world unnoticed, so that
they may live with impunity as they list ; and that other class,
which takes up earnestly the service of God, but in the persuasion
of their own sufficiency to do God's will.
The world is still divided into these two classes : but " God's
people " are they who, receiving meekly His conviction of them
universally in His word as sinners by nature and practice, accord
ing to Ps. li. 1 — 4, give Him glory herein, as did David, by
repentance toward Him with faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ —
through Him calling upon God, and making Him their refuge.
These shall never be ashamed ; they shall be enabled to say without
fear, in the hour of death, " Where is thy sting ? " (1 Cor. xv. 55 ;
Heb. xi. 14, 15.) 1.
To say but in the heart, God worketh not
Nor heedeth aught on earth, proclaims the fool ;

48 PSALM THE FIFTY-THIRD.
Yet they that on their fellows prov'd this blot
In time primeval, what was their life's rule 1
2.
Said they " God worketh not in us, but we
Of our own heart seek Him, and earn His grace ]
Then, like the fool, they did iniquity,
And worsen'd in corruption all their days.
3.
But that there might be proof hereof, God gave
Unto the sons of men from heav'n His law ;
And made apparent what from those He'd have,
Who claim'd to understand and near Him draw.
4.
Not one by his own virtue kept that rule,
All under it from its demands declin'd —
The zealot sinn'd, and not alone the fool —
That law prov'd both corrupt in heart and mind.
5.
Have those who say they keep. My law forgot
Their censure of the fool for his heart's thought %
If I heed things on earth, heed I or not
Men's hearts % assuredly the heart, if aught.
6.
How boast they of My law, who haste to slay
And eat and with themselves combine1 anew
My meek ones, which in Me believe 1. shall they
Who call2 not upon God, one good thing do ]
7.
Great was their fear, where thou, meek one, hadst none:
For, lo ! of those that waged war with thee
God did in His own time break every bone,3
And leave expos'd that thou their shame should'st see.
1 Ver. 4. See the note to Ps. iii. 7.
2 Ver. 4. Isa. lxiv. 7.
* Ver. 6, Isa. xxxviii. 13; Ps. li, 8,

PSALM THE FIFTY-FOURTH. 49
8.
Who out of Zion shall to Israel give
Salvation ? In what day God back shall bring
His captives, Jacob shall through joy revive,
And Israel in grateful rapture sing.

' PSALM LIV.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, for instruction. A psalm
of David, when the Ziphim came and said to Saul, Doth not David
hide himself with us ?
ARGUMENT.
By the title of this psalm in the Hebrew, we learn that it was
composed when the Ziphites had brought out Saul against David.
The circumstances are recorded in the twenty-third chapter of
the first book of Samuel, where it appears that David, who was
then in the forest of Hareth, having heard that the Philistines
were robbing the threshing-floors near Keilah, went to the rescue
and repelled them. After this he entered Keilah ; but Saul, on
hearing of it, would have besieged him there, only that David
consulted the Lord, by Abiathar, whether the men of Keilah
would give him up ; and on learning that they would, he
withdrew into the wilderness of Judrea ; remaining there for
some months, with his four hundred followers, until the Ziphites
informed Saul of his whereabouts, and stirred him up to take the
field in pursuit of David.
The Ziphites, being of the tribe of Judah, were David's clansmen,
but they are designated by him " strangers," for their unbrotherly
act. (Verse 3.) It was an officious loyalty on their- part ; for David
was no rebel, and had done the Ziphites no harm.
By the "oppressors," are to be understood Saul and his cour
tiers, who were aware of God having commanded Samuel to anoint
David to be Saul's successor ; so that they clearly set not God
before them, while thus persecuting him for this alone.
It was precisely at this crisis, indicated in 1 Sam. xxiii. 19 — 24,
that it is to be supposed David composed this psalm.
His situation was perilous in the extreme. The area in which
he was required to move with four hundred men, was not larger
than Norfolk and Suffolk ; though the country was rugged. David
had been commanded by God to remain in Judsea, (1 Sam. xxii. 5 ;)
but he might not resist the lawful authority of Saul by violence,
E

50 PSALM THE FIFTY-FOURTH.
nor inflict any spoliation on his countrymen : yet he had to main
tain four hundred men, for whose acts he was responsible.
We may here remember that the land was unenclosed, and con
sequently that it might be occupied by David for his men, as the
tribes of Bedouin Arabs do at this (lay in the same district. The
soil, in parts, admits of cultivation ; and in three months' time,
what is sown at the right season of the year, may be reaped.
Besides this, David supported himself, as we suppose, by reprisals
on the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, for their
raids on the Israelites : thus constituting himself captain of a volun
teer police force. Still his straits may well be conceived to have
been great, when he might not do any violence to fellow-country
men who, like the Ziphites, did him a disservice, nor openly join
battle with Saul.
The plea of God's name, which he urged in the first verse, is
one that admits of being persuasively urged in the most dis
couraging circumstances, as may be seen by the example of
Moses, in Exod. xxxii. 11 — 14, and Joshua vii. 7 — 9; but
according as a petitioner has the better cause, he may the
more boldly use it.
The name of God may be described as a word appropriated by
Him to Himself : no creature may presume to ascribe a name unto
the Creator. It belongs to Him alone to reveal by what word He
will be called.
There is a significance in every word which God has made
proper to Himself, either denoting some attribute of His perfect
being, or some office in which He has engaged by covenant for
His creatures' good.
Thus, whether His name of Comforter, or of Jesus, or of
Shepherd be called to mind, it is to be looked on as denoting
to the believer that He will be all thereby implied to those who
truly wait on Him. As His name has been given invariably by
Himself, it aptly denotes how He primarily and supremely doeth
all things for His own glory, which is implied in the psalmist's
testimony in Ps. xxiii. 3, that He leadeth His saints in the paths
of righteousness for His name's sake, not for their worthiness.
In this sense David prayed in the first verse of the psalm
before us : " Save me, O God, by Thy name, and judge me by Thy
strength." In 1 Sam. xv. 29, that prophet rebuked Saul for disobedience
in regard to the Amalekites, intimating that he ought to have
thought more of having God with him than of having his army ;
and Samuel significantly there calls God " the Strength of Israel."
Thus this latter clause of the first verse is more nearly allied to
the former than at first appears ; God is, in truth, the strength of
them that serve Him acceptably ; as the Apostle Paul teaches in
Rom. v. 6. In this sense Job said to his friends, (xxiii. 6,) " Will
He plead against me with His great power ? No ! but He will put

PSALM THE FIFTY-FOURTH. 51
strength into me." And in the same strain St. Paul saith to the
Philippians, (iv. 13,) "I can do all things through Christ Who
strengtheneth me."
It is clear, from what has been said, that according as a
petitioner has the better cause, he may the more boldly ask
God to save him by His own name, and judge him by Hia
strength. David was in the way that the Lord had bid him go ; and, by
setting the Lord before him, was refraining from use of force
against his master, which otherwise would speedily have rid
him of his straits. Whereas his royal master was not setting
God before him. Thus David not only could pray to God with
a conscience testifying that he was in the right, but that his
" oppressor " was in the wrong. He emphatically marks this
ground for prayer in the third verse with a " Selah."
On this account he had such clear anticipations of help from
above, as he expresses in the next verse, saying, " Behold, God is
my helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul;" among
whom was the heroic Jonathan, whose conduct about this time,
related in 1 Sam. xxiii. 15 — 18, is doubtless here referred to.
David then at verse 6 uses the remarkable expression, " I will
freely sacrifice unto Thee : I will praise Thy name, O Lord, for it
is good:" either thereby meaning, the sacrifice of praise out of
a grateful heart, while even yet unrelieved, or that of beasts so
offered in anticipation of God's answer.
The issue justified David's implicit reliance on God's name and
strength : for we read at 1 Sam. xxiii. 25, while Saul was on one
side of a mountain, and David was moving round it on the other,
a messenger called Saul away to repel an inroad of the Philistines ;
so that David was rescued by God's interposition, and looked on
his enemy in full retreat.
This psalm is the last of the three appointed to be read on the
morning of Good Friday, and it is of advantage to us to study its
significance before use of it, with application to our blessed Saviour
on that day. Bearing in mind David's circumstances when com
posing it, we cannot but own with how much greater force it might
throughout be used by our Lord in the agony of the crucifixion.
How truly was He doing His Father's work, making Himself of
no reputation, and consenting to be in straits, until His Father's
time for exaltation of Him !
With what truth may we conceive Him to have prayed, " Save
me, 0 God, by Thy name, and judge me by Thy strength. Hear
my heart's wish, which I utter with my mouth! for strangers
have risen up against me, even mine own nation, who behave
as aliens, from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to
the covenant of promise : who in the unscrupulous means re
sorted to for procuring evidence against me, by bribery and
subornation of false witnesses, have not set God before them ! "
je 2

52 PSALM THE FIFTY-FOURTH.
The sacrifice which He would freely offer would be that of His
own self. The burden of our sins laid upon Him by His Father
was His difficulty. The outrage done by them unto His Father's
majesty, produced in Him sorrow at that hour beyond what He
could express. He could say nothing in palliation of their cul
pability; but only after having done all that was in Scripture
written of Him, lay down His life a sacrifice, and leave the
case of mankind with His Father to do what should be pleas
ing to Him ! For His own name's sake His Father heard Him,
because He had by covenant with Him before the foundation
of the world given Him for His inheritance the elect souls
among men.
In conclusion, let us remember how persuasive a plea with
God is that founded on His name; and bear in mind, that the
more clearly we are in the way of God's commandments the
more cheerfully we can urge it, and add thanksgivings, as St.
Paul exhorts in Heb. xiii. 15, 16. This is the sense in which
the name of the Lord is a strong tower. (Prov. xviii. 10.)
1.
O God, by Thy Name save Thou me !
By Thy strength vindicate !
For what my mouth doth plead to Thee,
My heart doth meditate. 2.
Of mine own tribe against me rise,
Those I must strangers call ;
Yea, without God before their eyes,
Would rulers me enthrall.
3.
Lo ! God 's with me ! these, that befriend
My soul, save Thou, O Lord !
Requite my foes, ordain their end
In Thy truth by the sword.
4.
To Thee, Jehovah, cheerfully
My sacrifice I '11 bring,
And of Thy Name, most dear to me,
Will the high praises sing.

PSALM THE FIFTY-FIFTH, 53
5.
For out of all adversity
Hath He deliver'd me.
The flight of every enemy
Mine eye doth surely see !

PSALM LV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, for instruction. A psalm of
David.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is on internal evidence concluded to have been
written in the commencement of Absalom's rebellion, when David,
perceiving it to be no longer safe to continue in Jerusalem, (see
ver. 9 — 11,) withdrew beyond Jordan. (2 Sam. xv. 14.) Ahitophel,
too, David's confidential counsellor, was seduced from his
allegiance. This last reverse, coupled with the unnatural conduct of Absalom,
quite unmanned David, especially as he was aware of its being
among the predicted consequences of his own lamentable sin.
He would, therefore, had it been possible, have renounced the
cares of royalty, renounced, too, the society of his fellow-men,
saying, at verse 6, " Oh, that I had wings like a dove ! " But reflec
tion soon checked these vain longings; he remembered that he
could not strip himself of the responsibility belonging to him in his
exalted station.
Accordingly, in consideration of his being the rightful king
divinely appointed, he, for a warning to all in that or any future
generation, asserts the certainty of Divine vengeance overtaking
them which engage in rebellion ; saying, in the form of an impreca
tion at verse 15, "Let death seize upon them, and let them go down
quick into hell," as did Korah and his company that rebelled
against Moses. (Rom. xiii. 1 — 2.) He then records the comfort he
found in prayer ; saying, " As for me, I will call upon God ; and
the Lord shall save me. Evening, morning, and at noon, will I
pray and cry aloud : and He shall hear my voice."
Thus David would omit none of his usual times for prayer, but
rather redouble his earnestness therein, under the pressure then
weighing him down ; adding, at verse 22, " Cast thy burden upon
the Lord, and He shall sustain thee : " which St. Peter inculcates
on all Christians. (I Pet. v. 8.)

54 PSALM THE FIFTY-FIFTH.
Commentators tell us that the full meaning of the Hebrew word
for " burden" or " care " is " that which is given thee to bear," or
is laid on Ihee, ^7>?), from 2ni f to give; in fact, " thy cross," to
use our Saviour's language ; which it belongs to God to choose and
to us to bear.
Our burden that is appointed for us, generally comes from God,
as did David's, through His retributive award upon our misconduct
or error of judgment: but David shews us how it is to be turned
into a blessing, by humbling oneself before God under His mighty
hand : it then becomes a pledge of salvation, for when we are thus
judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we should not be con
demned with the world. (1 Cor. xi. 32.) Whereas, if we receive not
this correction, whereof all are partakers, then, saith the same
Apostle, in Heb. xii. 8, " are ye bastards and not sons."
It is instructive to observe how God appointed that the reverses
and successes which befell His inspired servants, while descanted on
by them, should be prefigurements of what would be suffered or
rejoiced in by our Saviour, when He should, at a time long
subsequent, come in our nature to do the will of God in our
behalf. Thus, after the same manner in which St. Paul shews that
Sarah's exclamation at Isaac's circumcision " Cast out the bond
woman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be
heir with the son of the free woman," was intended by the Spirit
of Christ to notify, what God would do from that day forward on
behalf of those that seek of Him the righteousness that is of faith ;
even so David's confusion of soul and dismay at Absalom's
rebellion, and at Ahitophel's treachery, and at the disaffection of
Jerusalem, were clearly intended to foreshadow that sorrow of
soul overtaking his Son our Lord in that same city, in the garden
of Gethsemane, when the burden of our sins was by His Father
appointed to be borne by Him in such manner as to glorify God
under that load on man's behalf.
For then was His soul exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.
If David had an Ahitophel, so had He a Judas, of whom He
could use the words in this psalm about betrayal by one's friend,
On this internal evidence it is clear, that this psalm was signifi
cantly placed in close connection with the fifty-fourth, which the
Christian Church has from early times appointed to be read in the
public service on Good Friday.
This fifty-fifth psalm is not appointed to be so read ; but it is as
clearly suited to describe the bosom thoughts of our blesssd
Saviour in Gethsemane as the fifty-fourth on Calvary. Thus at the
sixteenth verse and onward, we may consider to be described how
our Saviour betook Himself to prayer when all our sins were
specially charged by His Father upon Him, seeing that He would
intercede for us ; and " being in an agony, He prayed yet more
fervently, (Luke xxii. 44 ;) and was sustained by the coming of an
angel to strengthen Him," lest, as His human nature was limited,

PSALM THE FIFTY-FIFTH. 55
it might otherwise fail under the burden laid upon Him. (Isa.
lvii. 16.) Whereby was exemplified the last clause of this twenty-
second verse, "He shall never suffer th& righteous to be moved."
This ordering of all events in the civilised world down to this
hour, after the model thus announced beforehand from the earliest
times of man's history in Scripture,- ought to be with us unanswer
able evidence of the truth of the Gospel.
It is also unmistakeable evidence of the regard God has had
from the beginning of the world to the work of redemption
wrought by His Son ; seeing that He, in the earliest days of man's
existence, appointed that what befell certain typical personages
among them, should foreshadow what Christ should say or deplore
either in His own person or in His mystical body ; and to this hour
so orders the course of this world as to fulfil these predictions in
His Church. If God has such continual regard to His Son's work,
surely we ought.
Remembrance of Christ's work for us ought to be daily ruling
our minds, that we may live for Him who hath loved us, who is
our Advocate with the Father, and will bring us, if only faithful
unto death, into His own eternal rest.
1.
0 God, unto my prayer incline Thine ear,
Nor from Thy suppliant Thy face avert !
The moans and plaintive lamentations hear
Wrung from me through the tongues of them that
hurt
My credit : sore in me my heart is pain'd ;
Yea, o'er me death its terrors doth exert,
Long has my breast by weight of grief been
strain'd,
And horror in my soul an influence gain'd.

O for the wings, said I, as of a dove,
That I away might fly, at rest to be !
Then to some distant desert would I rove
To hide me there in lonely secrecy.
So from this gale — this hurricane— my flight
I'd hasten ; for, lo ! treason openly
Stalks thro' the city ! Lord ! by day and night,
Guile in her midst defeats both law and right.

56 PSALM THE FIFTY-FIFTH.
3.
And this sore wrong it was no rival did —
That were to be endur'd — no enemy
Thro' hate oppos'd me, or I might have hid
Me from him ; but 'twas thou didst magnify
Thyself against me, who mine equal wert —
My guide — my solace — in whose company
To God's house I repair'd, and did concert
What counsel best might threat'ning ills avert.
4.
Let death arrest them ! in their wickedness
Let the abyss engulph them quick ! but I
My invocation will to God address,
And to my call Jehovah shall reply.
At eve, at morning, and at noon I'll press
Frequent intreaties ; yea, aloud will cry ;
For He's my soul snatch'd from th' o'erwhelming
stress
Of men resolv'd to put me past redress.
5.
To God I leave them — He, Who doth abide
Of old, shall judge them, though prosperity
Has long embolden'd them to cast aside
His fear — yea, judge that chief, who stealthily
Smote those at peace with him, and did profane
His cov'nant — who, though civil outwardly,
Had war at heart, and seeming to maintain
My cause, work'd really to the rebels' gain.
6.
Upon Jehovah, then, thy burden cast,
And He shall thee support, nor ever let
The righteous be o'ertask'd. But Thou, at last,
O God, the pit's mouth shalt wide open set,
And down to torment the backsliders thrust.
Ere life's half spent plotters and slayers must
Expect their death ; but I in Thee will trust !

PSALM THE FIFTY-SIXTH, 57
PSALM LVI.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician. Upon the mute dove among strangers.
A golden psalm of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
Some commentators are inclined to think that the subject of the
psalm is indicated under the name of the " wandering dove." In
support of this view, Hengstenberg points to verses 6 and 7 of the
psalm preceding, " I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove, (n3i,>,)
lo, then would I wander far off," (PTHW, from which ff'prn here,
which he takes to be a second genitive governed by n3i\) See
De Burgh.
In the title of the twenty-second psalm is a similar insertion of a
mystical emblem, having reference to an expression at the nine
teenth verse of that psalm.
ARGUMENT.
The title of this psalm in the Hebrew tells us that it refers to
David's embarrassing situation as a fugitive in the court of Achish,
King of Gath.
After much consideration, it seems to me preferable to reckon
that it was composed by David while yet in Gath, than after he
had escaped to the cave of Adullam, as recorded in 1 Sam. xxii. 1.
For though his words in the former clause of verse 7 (which
might be more correctly rendered, " protection with them is by
wickedness ") would favour the idea that he had then escaped out
of their reach, as also would the former clause of the thirteenth verse,
where he saith, " For Thou hast delivered my soul from death ;"
yet these two passages may equally be supposed to have been
written while yet in Gath, if we interpret the deliverance of David's
soul from death to have meant, that God gave him discernment at
once of the Philistines' intention to put his fidelity to proof by
employing him in a plundering expedition against his countrymen,
as also fortitude to decide on renouncing these terms of bodily
safety at all cost.
On this latter supposition, the unity of the poem seems now to
me to be more conspicuously maintained.
For in this way his reference, as we suppose, in the first two verses
to the persecution of him by his own countrymen, (which drove him
for preservation of life into exile,) would even in Gath operate to
exclude him from returning thither, while Saul lived, and so
account for the verbs in these verses being in the present tense.
And would equally account for those in the fifth and sixth verses
being in the same, which are assumed to refer to persecutions of
him by the courtiers of Achish,

58 PSALM THE FIFTY-SIXTH.
This view of tho psalmist's condition at the time of writing this
ode brings out in stronger relief his testimony in the eighth and
ninth verses to comfort in God and soul-rest, though yet wandering
and in the presence of enemies. This method of interpretation
has also the advantage of making David's dread of sin more than
death the leading idea commemorated in the. psalm, since he gives
expression to it in the third and fourth verses, and again in the
seventh, and in the eleventh and in the thirteenth.
To dread sin more than death is a noble resolve, worthy to be
the burden of an inspired psalm.
Moreover, it seems to be here specially commemorated, as
though the substance of the vow upon the psalmist's part referred
to in verse 12.
This observation derives additional force when finding it here
coupled with thankful mention of God's " word," by which, at
verses 4 and 10, is considered to be meant that word brought him
by Samuel from God when anointed to be Saul's successor. (1 Sam.
xvi.) Saul's forfeiture of the throne for his family by remissness on
this head, brings into stronger prominence David's decidedly ex
pressed resolve here, in the hour of his direst strait, to choose the
fear of the Lord.
The words of this psalm so explained suit every one in the
house of Christ, of every class and age. God's vows are upon us
from the hour of our baptism, renewed in most instances at con
firmation, and possibly too in some great extremity when brought
to the brink of ruin or of death. To be in these circumstances
impressed, as David seasonably was, with the lively resolve to die
rather than willingly commit sin, is a token of Divine grace
vouchsafed for the soul's deliverance, on account of which we
ought to render praises, and to take courage concerning God's
purpose to carry on the good work which He hath begun.
(Philip, i. 6.)
Like as David had a few followers to accompany him in his flight
to Gath, (1 Sam. xxi. 4, 9,) but nevertheless inconsiderable compared
with the whole Israelitish nation over which he was destined to
reign ; so that great Son of David, our blessed Saviour, has, since
the Apostles' days <o this, had in every generation but a small
band at any one time whose hearts the Lord has touched, and
lamentably disproportioned to the rest of their fellow-men ; who
either will not have Him to reign over them, or even know not that
they ought to have Him.
But, during all this interval, while like David waiting for Saul's
avoidance of the throne in God's good time, our Lord waits till His
Father shall give Him the kingdoms of this world ; and a word is
given Him by God on which His faithful followers rely, after that
manner in which David's slender band relied on that word brought
him from God by Samuel. That word was set forth by Peter in

PSALM THE FIFTY-SIXTH. 59
Acts x. 34, as follows : " Of a truth I perceive that God is no
respecter of persons : but in every nation he that feareth Him and
worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. The word which
God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus
Christ : (He is Lord of all :) that word, I say, ye know." Then, at
verse 43, St. Peter gives it in these terms : " To Him give all the
prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in
Him shall receive remission of sins."
This is the word from God to our blessed Lord of which we
more particularly say, " In God will I praise His word. In Jehovah
will I praise His word ! "
For this we ought like David to render God praises according to
our vows, in the closet, in the family, in His house of prayer, and
at His table.
For this we ought, with godly jealousy over ourselves, as dreading
sin more than bodily death, to ground in remembrance of past
mercies on this head the renewed entreaty, " Wilt Thou not deliver
our feet from falling, that we may walk before God in the light of
the living? "
We cannot doubt that David on this head derived comfort from
God's words to Joshua, in chapter i. 5, " As I was with Moses so I
will be with thee, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; " and
we, too, may thence gather the like, as St. Paul teaches in Heb. xiii.
6, "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I
will not fear what man shall do unto me."
1.
In mercy unto me, O God, incline !
For day by day mean1 men would me devour :
Spies too, in high authority,2 combine
To draw me day by day within their power.
2.
Fear, not of them, but Thee, bids me beware
How, rebel-like, I combat force by force :
And points to flight (since Thou art everywhere
Alike my Guardian,) as my last resource.
1 Ver. 1. Mean man. («fa«)
2 Ver. 2. "In high authority,"(cho) translated in our Authorised Version,
" 0 Thou most High." But it is nowhere else in this ahrupt way taken for
Ji'te, (Ps. ix. 3,) and, as De Burgh suggests, had better ha referred to
David's enemies. So Di"iBp| in Ps. Ixxiii. 8. If this implies, as I think,
that they were in authority over him, or had commission from the king
against him, this shews me his cause of fear — namely, that he could not
forcibly resist them without sin. (l Sam. xxvi. 9—11.)

60 PSALM THE FIFTY-SIXTH.
3.
In God will I His word of promise praise,
In God my trust unchangeably I place !
What troubles flesh may yet against me raise
I'll fear not. I'll in God the danger face !
4.
Day after day each casual word they wrest :
To work me ill is all they meditate.
They dog my steps — a mocking crowd ; or lest
I'd see them, for my soul in ambush wait.
5.
The shelter that these peoples3 can bestow,
On terms4 of sin alone might be for me :
Let then the long-doom'd5 peoples be laid low,
O God, according to Thy just decree !
6.
My wand'rings in Thy book dost Thou record !
And in Thy bottle6 treasurest each tear !
Full sure I am, soon as my prayer 's preferr'd,
With God for me, my foes shall flee in fear.
7.
In God will I His word of promise praise,
Yea, in Jehovah, trusting to His grace !
What troubles man7 may yet against me raise
I'll fear not. I'll in God the danger face !
3 Ver. 7. D'BS, the " peoples," a term in the plural always applied to
Gentiles, hut nevertheless restricted to those within the Lord's inheritance.
4 Ver. 7. tojnote IVfte) Mr. Thrupp, following up Bishop Horsley, trans
lates those words " vainly (or wickedlj',) safety is from them," meaning the
Gittites, as D'as? in the next clause proves. Mr. Thrupp justifies this
translation of jurt? hy Tfcorto . "falsely," or " in reliance on falsehood,"
in Levit. v. 22, and of idS, " from them " in the sense of " belonging to them
to give," hy the use of ) in the last verse of Ps. iii.
5 Deut. vii. 1—26.
0 Lachrymatories are found with the mummies in Egypt, hut of earthen
ware. This of David's is skin.
' Ver. 11'. crw, in contrast with ito in verse 4, and tt!i>j in verse 1.

PSALM THE FIFTY-SEVENTH. 61

Thy vows, O God, are on me ! praise to Thee
I'll pay ; and how Thou 'st sav'd my soul, will tell :
Thou'lt too my feet save from iniquity,
Till I with Thee in endless light shall dwell.

PSALM LVII.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. Destroy not. A golden psalm of David,
when he fled from Saul in the cave.
ARGUMENT.
By the title prefixed in the Hebrew to this psalm, we learn that
it was written by David upon his escape from Saul in the cave, as
related in 1 Sam. xxiv. Saul, as we there learn, having three thou
sand men under his command, and being in pursuit of David, with
drew into a cave at Engedi to sleep : but David and his men were
at that very time in the sides of that cave. By what thereupon
occurred, we get the explanation of an obscure expression in the
title, which, however, is evidently of more than ordinary signifi
cance, being in the titles of three other psalms of similar tenor to
this fifty-seventh.
At the fourth verse of the twenty-fourth chapter of 1 Samuel, we
read that the men of David said unto him, " Behold the day of which
the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine
hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good to thee.
Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And
it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because
he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto his men, The Lord
forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's
anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the
anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants with these
words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose
up out of the cave, and went on his way."
After this David is stated to have said to Saul, " Mine hand shall
not be upon thee." _
Here is conceived to be the clue to the explanation of nrj£J?£l bs
in the title, which means, " destroy not."
The forbearance shewn by David, because of Saul being the Lord's

62 PSALM THE FIFTY-SEVENTH.
anointed, in refusing to avenge himself on Saul when in his power,
and rather endeavouring to disabuse Saul's mind of erroneous impres
sions against him, or leave it to the Lord to avenge him, is an
instance of grace in operation within one, which might well be made
the subject of thanksgivings in psalms. David's conduct in this
instance was in every respect fitted to work the desired change in
Saul's mind towards him ; which doubtless, had it been effectual,
would have tended to the lengthening of Saul's life and reign.
For a time it did change Saul's disposition ; but by and bye, as re
corded in 1 Sam. xxvi., Saul's old jealousy returned upon him, and
he again went in pursuit after David with a large force, and was a
second time spared by David; who on that occasion took Saul's
spear away, which was stuck in the ground at his bolster, where
Saul lay asleep, and his chief captains asleep round about him.
On this occasion, David used the very words riOtpft" vN accord
ing to the ninth verse of chapter xxvi.
The leading particular in David's conduct which gave rise to
his psalm having now been ascertained, we can see how the several
verses harmonise therewith.
It begins with David's saying : " Be merciful unto me, 0 God, be
merciful unto me ; for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow
of Thy wings shall be my refuge, until these calamities be overpast."
In other words, As I have shewn mercy to Saul, oh, requite me
with the like ; for I do not avenge myself, but trust in Thee to bring
me out of all peril unto the throne to which Thou hast destined me.
' ' I will cry unto God most High ; unto God that performeth all things
for me." That is, ( to use the language of Ps. cxxxviii. 8, ) " Who
perfecteth that which concerneth me."
David then records his reliance on God for protection, even by
intervention of angels if necessary, rather than that he should sin
by repelling the force of constituted authority with force. As David
was promised the kingdom, he is sure that God will not allow the
promise to drop through, if he only waits on God to give him it.
Accordingly he saith, at verse 3," He shall send from heaven, and "
— that is, rather than not — " save me from the reproach of him that
would swallow'me up. Selah, or mark that ! God shall send forth His
mercy and truth." It is important to observe how these two attri
butes of God are emphatically spoken of in the Psalms and in the book
of Proverbs, as the inspired writers' ground of hope that they shall
attain God's promises. See more particularly Ps. lxxxv. 10, and
Prov. xvi. 6. For in this way due acknowledgment is made to God,
on Whom men depend for fulfilment of His promises in Christ.
The next verse, the fourth, where David said, " My soul is among
lions ; and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons
of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp
sword," we can easily find an application of these words to Saul
and his host : upon whose description in this verse Bishop Horne
remarks, " The fiercest of beasts, the most devouring of elements, and

PSALM THE FIFTY-SEVENTH. 63
the sharpest of military weapons, are selected to represent the
power and fury of David's enemies."
After this, from verse 5 to the end of the psalm, David breaks out
into anticipations of full deliverance and triumph ; and we can well
understand how in proportion to the grace wherewith he had for
borne from avenging himself when Saul was in his power, in the
same would be his persuasion of the Lord in due time avenging him.
Over and above the benefit to be derived from studying the drift
of this psalm, so as to ascertain the direct application of it made by
David to himself, it is of importance to enquire into the figurative
use of it by the Christian Church from early times in our era. For
only by refreshing our memories with the adaptation thereof unto
the Lord Jesus Christ, between the time of His death and that of
His resurrection, may we hope intelligently to use it in His praise
upon Easter-day, when it is appointed to be read in the public service.
I cannot doubt that the early Fathers of the Church handed
down authoritative tradition from the time of the Apostles them
selves concerning the psalms which had reference to Christ : for
St. Luke saith, (xxiv. 27,) the Lord Jesus, " beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself." Moreover, the Holy Ghost was
promised to " bring all things to their remembrance of that nature,
whatsoever He had said unto them." (John xiv. 26.) Although, there
fore, it may require much meditation and more enlightenment than
we have received to trace out herein the references to Christ's resur
rection, yet we are to be persuaded that there is the highest war
rant for search into them.
It may also be looked on as one of the more abstruse ways in
which the Scriptures furnish profitable exercise to pious minds.
For my own part, beside the general fitness of this psalm to
express the dependence of Christ Jesus on His Father in the sea
son of His continuance in the grave, after the manner of David in
the cavern while Saul lay there, I see in David's expression, (ver. 1,)
" In the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge," an indica
tion that the Spirit of Christ was, at the time of David composing
this psalm, adapting it (possibly without his knowledge) to the far
higher subject of his greater Son's destined continuance in the
grave until His resurrection on the third day.
The expression, "In the shadow of thy whigs," occurs in the
ninety-first psalm, which there is strong reason to believe was written
by Moses. In that case, it would have been deeply pondered over
by David ; and he would have quoted from it in this verse.
Now since the ninety-first psalm was written about Christ alone, '
it would, on the above-mentioned supposition, follow that David
was thinking of Christ's death, which is clearly implied in that
ninety-first psalm, when in this fifty-seventh saying, that in the cave
with Saul over against him, he would make the shadow of God's
wings his refuge.

64 PSALM THE FIFTY-SEVENTH.
He is to be considered as in effect saying, that like as Christ
would do at the time of His dying, so would he do in the time of
that great danger to himself from Saul.
In the ninety-first psalm it may be seen that the expression," Under
the shadow of Thy wings I will make my refuge," contained a refer
ence by Moses to the way in which God had sheltered those Israelitish
families, on whose door-posts the blood of the paschal-lamb was
sprinkled, from the entrance of the destroying angel upon them to
destroy their first-born. By that language Moses was moved to
describe how Christ, the true Paschal- Lamb, when dead, should in
regard of His body be watched over by his Father with outspread
wings as it were, so that the destroying angel should not touch Him
Who was about to be " the first-begotten of God from the grave."
The Father accomplished this for His Son, by changing His natural
manhood to spiritual, and His soul into a quickening spirit, while
yet on the cross instantaneously upon His committal of His Spirit
into His Father's hands. (Ps. xxi. 3 ; John xix. 34 — 36 ; 1 John
V. 6—8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 44—46.)
Hence Christ saw no corruption.
Satan, who had the power of death, (Heb. ii. 14,) might not
approach unto Him and infect Him in body with that taint.
In the comment furnished by me on the ninety- first psalm, is
to be seen how Satan, when perceiving that the betrayal of Jesus
(which he had done everything in his power to promote) might
indeed lead to the actual death of Jesus — which he had looked on
as inconceivable, and on that account had recklessly risked, on the
presumption that the Jews by attempting such a sin would weary
out Jesus, and incline Him to desist from further interposition in
their behalf — at the thought of the awful guilt recoiling on himself in
case such sacrilege should be submitted to by Christ, (Whom he well
knew Jesus to be,) became panic-stricken, and did all in his power,
as one smitten with remorse at risk of so great a sin, to prevent the
perpetration of it, but in vain. Satan was therefore at that crisis
reduced into a desponding condition, symbolised in this psalm (lvii.)
by Saul's sleep in the cavern, while David, whom he would have
'killed, was hid by God in its sides along with his men.
In my comment on Psalm xci. has been further shown how
it is probable that this desponding state of Satan continued after
he saw the actual death of Jesus, and the dissolution of Him into
body, soul, and spirit. But when he saw the angels from heaven take
the spirit of the thief that was saved, and his own subordinates
take that of the other thief to the place of torment ; and the Spirit
of the Lord Jesus " proceeding, (as St. Peter testifies) along with
them to the spirits in prison," (1 Pet. iii. 19,) there happened to him
precisely the like to what happens to one of us fallen men, who in
prospect of death, or under some awe-inspiring conviction of sin,
vows repentance and relinquishment of all sinful courses if only
spared; but after an alteration in condition bringing relief, undergoes

PSALM THE FIFTY-SEVENTH. 65
a relapse, and resolves on persistence with more determination
than ever in the old course.
Even so (with reverence pursuing the adaptation of this psalm
to Christ) I would say, that on Satan being brought into this
despondence, the mind of Christ (Who had already been secretly
changed by the Father from a natural to a spiritual man) was like
that of David towards Saul — one of refrainment from avenging
of oneself upon him, now that he was by remorse in Christ's power —
one of refrainment from reproach even, so as not to drive him to
despair. Rather than that, Christ's mind was to produce, as David
attempted in Saul's, a permanent change in the mind of his assail
ant. But, owing to the Father's hiding of Himself at the cruci
fixion and after, so as not to declare openly His judgment concern
ing His Son until the third day, Satan plucked up fresh boldness
to assail Christ, by attempting to claim His body for corruption.
Compare Jude ver. 9. But here, to use the language of the sixth
verse, he fell into the pit that he had digged. Saul's despair is a
foreshadowing of this.
In conclusion, " God's mercy and truth," of which David sings at
the tenth verse, was exalted above the heavens in the bringing up
of Christ from the abyss, and from the grave, (Rom. x. 7 ;) and as
David said, ver, 8, " God made His Christ awake the dawn;" that is,
anticipate the morniDg by rising very early on the first day of
the week, the third after His descent into the grave. (Matt, xxviii. 1.)
1:
To me, O God, shew mercy,
Shew mercy unto me !
This peril shan't deter me
From fervent trust in thee !
2:
Yea, till it's past, my shelter
Beneath Thy wings shall be !
Calling on God, my Helper,
Who worketh all for me.
3..
That slanderer1 He'll from heaven
Rebuke, who'd me devour :
His mercy shall be given
And truth forth in my hour.2
1 Ver. 3. Slanderer, diafio^og. Rev. xii. 10.
2 Ver. 3. John ii. 4 ; xvi. 20, 21.
F

66 PSALM THE FIFTY-SEVENTH. 4.
I'm in the midst of lions—
Of foes, as brisk flame, fierce —
As sharp spears for defiance —
With tongues, like swords, to pierce.
5.
Be Thou, O God, exalted
Above the heavens high ;
And vows to Thee by all paid
Alike beneath the sky !
6.
For me had foes prepared
A net my feet to catch.
But, lo ! in it are snared
They that for me did watch !

My heart, O God, is ready,
Ready my heart to sing !
Wake tongue and harp and psalt'ry,
Day's first dawn preluding.

Thy praise will I rehearse aye,
And midst all tribes tell forth ;
But who can of Thy mercy
And truth recount the worth 1

O God, by all iii heaven
Be Thou exalted high,
O'er earth too be there given
Praise in full harmony !

PSALM THE FIFTY-EIGHTH. 67

PSALM LVIII.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. Destroy not. A golden psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
The connection of this psalm with that next before it, is shown
by the insertion of that significant expression fintpl-rv!*, " destroy
not," in the title of each.
Its connection also with Psalm lvi. is to be gathered from find
ing the word £??#, " congregation," or rather, " council," which
occurs in the first verse of this fifty-eighth psalm, inserted in the
title of the fifty-sixth, the word being one not in frequent use.
At the same time, this word is in the title of the fifty-sixth joined
with n3i\ "a dove," which is taken from the sixth verse of the
fifty-fifth, shewing that psalm to have been originally placed in
connection with these three next following.
This fifty-eighth psalm appears to have been composed by David,
with reference to a somewhat earlier stage in his perils during
Saul's life, than those referred to in the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh.
The former of these was composed on his imminent peril in the
court of Achish of Gath; the latter on his subsequent peril
in the cave of Engedi, where Saul lay asleep : but this fifty-
eighth was composed upon that crisis in his history recorded
in 1 Sam. xix. 1, where Saul bade all his servants — that is, as
I would say, his &7^, or council — slay David.
To this cruel and iniquitous order from the fountain of justice
appointed by God in Israel to be representative of Him, Jonathan,
Saul's heroic son, would not consent; and informed David of it,
who, by the help of Michal, Saul's daughter, (who also was his
wife,) escaped with his life, and repaired to Samuel at Naioth,
and told him all that Saul had so counselled.
It seems to me probable that this fifty- eighth psalm was written
while David stayed with Samuel at Naioth. It commences with
a question indicative of what the fountain of justice under God in
Israel ought to speak, asking, " Do ye indeed speak righteousness,
O council ? " the word being derived from QW, " ligavit," to denote
how the members thereof are bound by oath to serve the state or king
faithfully. "Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?" This
they would do by judging according to evidence of facts, and by
issuing decisions upon disputed questions in religion according to
the written law of God. v 2

68 PSALM THE FIFTY-EIGHTH.
In the second verse, David's reply to his question records the
utter disregard Saul and his council had for such considerations
in the exercise of their high authority under God : " Yea," saith he,
" ye work wickedness ; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the
land." That is, ye deliberately consult how far ye can safely use
violence in executing your unjust decrees.
In verse 3, David saith, " The wicked are estranged from the
womb: they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies."
This testimony I explain by comparison of Hezekiah's expression
herewith, who, in Isa. xxxvii. 3, is recorded to have said, " The
children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to
bring forth;" whence it would appear, that to enter on per
formance of an undertaking after much struggle within oneself
about so doing, was proverbially spoken of at that time in Israel
as a coming to the birth.
If the struggle within one ended in relinquishment of that
purpose, then it was said, " the child had come to the birth, and
there was not strength to bring forth." Can Psalm cxxxvii. 9, be
so explained? See, too, Hosea xiii. 13.
Now, in regard to the taking up of God's service, (which
all male Israelites, having been made children of the covenant
at circumcision, were bound to do when old enough for moral
responsibility, that they might by their own act aknowledge
themselves children of the commandment,) among those that
did expressly so take it up, after much inward conflict, some
would do this in their own strength, with natural zeal alone —
yea, the greater number — while only a few comparatively would
hearken to the testimonies in Scripture, (Ps. li. 1 — 13,) concerning
their conception in sin and their duty to believe in God's promise,
that faith in Christ should be counted to them for righteousness ;
that, being justified, they might acceptably ask of God renewal
with His strength.
Thus of those in Israel who came to the birth in this important
matter, and had strength to bring forth, there was still a question,
whether their strength was self- derived, or sought of God in the
appointed way.
When our Lord referred to this doctrine in John iii., in His
conversation with Nicodemus, that master in Israel clearly used it
in the figurative sense employed by Hezekiah, but our Lord in the
sense (as it seems to me) intended by David in this third verse.
For David here pointedly contrasts those who have a zeal for
God or for religion in their own strength, with some others like
himself, who, in verses 10 and 11, he speaks of as " the righteous,"
using that term in the sense given to it by St. Paul when ex
pounding Ps. xxxii., (Rom. iv. 1 — 8 ;) and he testifies that their
variance with men like himself in the matter of God's service,
professed by either sort, is one of estrangement from the outset
— from the womb — speaking lies of them that hope in the Lord

PSALM THE FIFTY-EIGHTH. 69
for righteousness, and make Him their refuge, (Ps. xiv. 6,) mis
representing them, and so justifying themselves in persecution
of them.
Hence, as St. Paul wrote in Rom. iii, 13, speaking of the same
school of zealots for the law according to natural wisdom, " Their
throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues they have used
deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips." So here
David saith, "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which
will not hear the voice of the charmers, charming never
so wisely." -
Here is a truly graphic description of this school, which to this
day is conspicuous for turning a deaf ear to all exposition of God's
true doctrine concerning justification, how movingly soever it be
urged on them ; at the same time that they persist in their in
culcation of error, upon opportunity, with a high hand.
In the next four verses, the psalmist, after comparing this council
with Saul at its head to young lions with tusks, or molar teeth,
which he prays God to break and wrench out of their jaws, com
pares their power (though he was yet under its influence) to the
short-lived continuance of the mountain-torrent after a water
spout, which, though irresistible at its onset, subsides almost as
suddenly as it rose ; or to the archer, who being about to launch
an arrow, finds it fall at his feet, because of the bow having been,
without his being aware of it, all but sawn through, so that it
snapt upon being bent ; or to the snail, which leaves a slime
on his path, so that he cannot go far at a time, or he would
waste away all his substance ; or to the abortive • offspring of
woman, disappointed of seeing the sun ; or to the fierce, but
short-lived blaze of thorns, which one has been at great trouble
to gather when in the desert, and which, when placed under the
pot and lit, after suddenly flaring up, in the midst of its vigour goes
out before the pot is even warmed. So will God take them away,
as with a whirlwind, in the full vigour of their life and wrath.
Thus they shall not be allowed to see the realisation of their
plans, though " working wickedness in the heart, and weighing
the violence of their hands in the land."
All this testimony agrees with St. Paul's concerning the same
school in 1 Thess. v. 3, " When they shall say, Peace and safety ;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child, (that is, by God's providential appointment,)
and they shall not escape."
Touching this interposition of God, for the nipping of their
hopes in the very budding, we have reference in Ps. vii. 12 — 15 ;
lxiv. 7; and in Matt. xxiv. 21, 22. Moreover, St. Paul seems, in
writing to the Corinthians (2 Cor. iv. 17,) to speak in a like strain
with this of David, concerning the comparative transitoriness of
the tribulation, for the strengthening of faith wherewith to be

70 PSALM THE FIFTY-EIGHTH.
accounted " righteous," by saying, " For which cause we faint not ;
but though our outward man perish, our inward is renewed day
by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory ; while we look not at the things that are seen, but at
the things that are not seen : for the things that are seen are
temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal."
The psalmist then said, in the last two verses, "The righteous
shall rejoice, when he seeth the vengeance : he shall wash his feet
in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is
a reward for the righteous : verily He is a God that judgeth in the
earth." Here let it be observed, that we are to be far from reckoning
David to have vindictively said what we read in the tenth verse,
and to have thirsted as it were for the blood of Saul and of his
council. The resolve of David to refrain from taking the life of
Saul, when in his power, shews the contrary, as the significant
words nrit??£rbw, " destroy not," denote.
But we are hence to learn, that like as now in God's time of
mercy " the righteous,'' in conformity with His written word,
avenge not themselves, but rather give place unto wrath, hoping
to soften their enemies by kindness ; who, alas ! in too many
instances, repudiate it and harden themselves, as did Saul, by
stopping their ears like the deaf adder ; yet, when the time for
Divine judgment shall have come, the " righteous " will be entirely
conformed unto God therein: having no hankering, like Lot's wife,
for that which is valuable or alluring in the company doomed by
God for opposition to Him, but rejoicing at God's righteous
judgments out of fear and love of God, as is testified in Rev.
xv. 3, 4. For it is to be remembered, that if injustice is culpable
anywhere, it is most so in those who are placed by God in the
seat of judgment as His representatives in the land, or in His con
gregation. Wherefore, in proportion to their presumptuous wrong
doing in defiance of His high majesty, shall be the joy of His
suffering faithful ones at sight of His will, that His Church should
become "the habitation of justice," (Jer. xxxi. 23,) being finally
vindicated. For the language of that usurping council has practi
cally been ever, " Tush, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the
God of Jacob regard it." (Ps. xciv. 7.)
How unfeignedly, then, will the righteous rejoice at unmistak
able proof to "man," that He doth see and regard the doers of in
justice. What David here wrote commemorative of his treatment by
Saul and his council, he may not have supposed would have been
inserted in Scripture, as descriptive of successors to Saul and that
council within God's congregation in after ages, but we have proof
that the compiler of this Second Book of Psalms (supposed to be
Hezekiah, who placed them in the sacred canon) so reckoned
them. For while this fifty-eighth treats of the council of the

PSALM THE FIFTY-EIGHTH. 71
wicked judges sitting in the seat of judgment — in the heritage
of the Lord ; the fifty-sixth treats, as its title indicates, of the
council of the mourning dove — the company with David, an
exile from the Lord's inheritance among the heathen in Gath —
for a spiritual emblem of the Church of the elect : and the fifty-
seventh treats spiritually of the great Son of David — the Lamb of
God — while in the grave, but saved from His enemy ; as was David
in the cave's side from Saul, his pursuer.
To suppose that God presided over the formation of the Old
Testament canon, by moving Hezekiah to arrange the psalms
found extant in his day in such an order as to furnish pre
monitory instruction to God's people in every forthcoming
generation, is only agreeable with what is known to have been
the way in which He appointed that of the New Testament to
be compiled. There we see that the Epistles which St. Paul
wrote to different churches during his comparatively short
ministry, to correct errors that sprang up, apparently without
any system, among them, are found to comprise instruction on
every variety of error that has hitherto sprung up during all
these after ages in the Christian Church.
In like manner, it is to be observed that the Epistles to the Seven
Churches in Asia delivered by the Lord to St. John are so arranged,
though treating of the things at that time to be reproved or com
mended in each, as apparently to foreshadow the order in which
the characteristic feature of each Church shall successively gain the
ascendancy in the Christian Church throughout this age, so as to
end in a state generally corresponding with the Laodicean. We
are, therefore, bold to say, that those who arranged the fifty-
eighth and three previous psalms in their present order, read
them with some such discernment, of their mystical signification,
as we do.
In this sense, this fifty-eighth psalm was fitted to be a guide to
them that, after Hezekiah's day and onward to ours, should bear
rule in civil affains or in religious, how, as a council, to discharge
their responsible office — being God's representatives in the seat of
judgment — as He would have them speak for Him! upon peril
of His interference to supersede them if they did not. (Luke xvi.
14, 15.)
This psalm was, therefore, fitted to have been a great help to the
council in our Lord's day; which, nevertheless, as we may see by
the record of their conduct in the Gospels, defiantly persisted in
everything here held up by David to reprobation ; for the reason
here assigned by him, namely, of being "estranged from the womb,
going astray as soon as they were born, speaking lies."
Hence the language of this psalm is even more emphatically
true of the council in our Lord's day, which condemned Him to
the place in the cavern described in the fifty- seventh, than to
David's own treatment by Saul and his council : while the fifty-

72 PSALM THE FIFTY-EIGHTH.
sixth — descriptive of the mourning council with David^ at its head
in Gath — is still more applicable spiritually to the disciples of the
blessed Jesus at the crisis described in the early chapters of the
Acts of the Apostles. Hence, too, at this very day, in our privi-
leged portion of the Christian Church, this psalm is most valuable
for guidance of our supreme court of judicature in questions of
doctrine — the Privy Council — together with all who, as the bishops,
or the judge in the Court of Arches, sit to try and decide questions
of doctrine.
Their duty is to " speak righteousness," and to "judge according
to truth," which must be by delivery of decisions according to God's
written word, and the Articles and the Liturgy of the Established
Church — enquiring how far the defendants in suits have contra
vened, or otherwise, those standards of doctrine. They are to
deliver a clear reply from these documents, lest the trumpet
give an uncertain sound ; and not to garble their enunciation
of the true doctrine, in order to abate the offence taken at it
by them that are " estranged from the womb," under whose
tongues is the poison of asps, who are as the deaf adder, and
will not be won to learn God's truth, try what you may to
gain their attention.
So soon as the judgment delivered is one of expediency, it
resembles Caiaphas's, in John xi. 49. The desire for smooth
things rather than truth from the seat of judgment, just as it
gains greater influence, opens a door for all error, and is the
precursor of the anti-Christian combination in council foretold
in Ps. ix. and x., and referred to in 2 Thess. i. 4 — 12, and ii.
1 — 12, which has to be endured by "the righteous," after
the manner indicated in the significant prefix nriaJ.prbN, and
predicted in Isa. xxvi. ; until that glad day, when it shall please
the Lord to return and restore all things to Israel. (Acts iii. 19 —
21 ; Rev. xix.) 1.
Do ye indeed speak righteousness,
O council ? or the thing that's true
Decree ye 1 your heart dexterous is
In, ways the simple to undo;
And wield with cunning in the land
The pressure of a crushing hand.
2.
The wicked1 treat God's word with scorn,
And to their brethren are strange
1 Ver. 3. D,V^"!, "the wicked," to be distinguished, as appears to me,
from " the ungodly." See my note on verse 11 of Ps. xxxvi.

PSALM THE FIFTY-NINTH. 73
E'en from the womb ; so soon as born
With false conceits astray they range :
Beneath their tongues snakes' poison lies,
They turn a deaf ear to the wise.
3.
O God, the strong tusks do Thou break
Of these young lions !2 their great teeth
Wrench out, Jehovah ! let them take
What course the swoll'n torrent hath,
That past has rushed ; or let them be
As archer, that doth lustily
4.
Bend his strong bow, but find it crack,
And drop the arrow at his foot ;
Or snail that wastes upon his track ;
Or woman's dead, abortive fruit ;
Or 'neath a pot the kindled thorn,
Now fierce to blaze, now ceas'd to burn.

The righteous shall Thy vengeance greet
With thankfulness ; and dip that day
In blood of wicked men his feet :
So that a man cannot but say,
There's to the righteous a reward —
To deeds on earth God pays regard.
2 Ver. 6. D'T??, "lions." So in Ezek. xix. the princes of Israel are
styled " young lions."

PSALM LIX.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. Destroy not. A golden psalm of David ;
when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.

74 PSALM THE FIFTY-NINTH.

ARGUMENT.
The title of this psalm informs us that it was written by David,
when Saul sent some of his guards to slay him in his own house,
as recorded in 1 Sam. xix.
In the verses next following on the first, David describes the
blood-thirstiness of his assailants ; and pleads before God his
innocence in regard to Saul. His words are, "Deliver me from
the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men. For, lo !
they lie in wait for my soul : the mighty are gathered against me ;
not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and
prepare themselves without my fault : awake to help me, and
behold ! " He then adds, in verse 5, words which require special
notice, saying, "Thou, therefore, 0 Lord God of hosts, the God of
Israel, awake to visit all the heathen : be not merciful to any wicked
transgressors. Selah," or mark that !
It may here be asked, by what train of thought was David led,
upon occasion of danger from the guards of his own king, who
were Israelites, to ask of God visitation upon all the heathen ?
My reply is, stress is here to be laid on the word " all ;" as
if David's thought was, "When my own countrymen behave as
bad as the heathen, and are as great enemies as the Philistines
themselves, to him whom God hath made the champion of Israel
against the heathen, they deserve to be reckoned heathen — the
worst heathen — because, in defiance of light concerning God's
favour to Israel, leading the lives of heathen ;" and consequently,
as he here addeth, " wicked transgressors ;" that is, sinners against
light and knowledge — covenant- breakers — which the rest of the
heathen were not.
Accordingly, the psalmist's thought was that God would join
those Israelites with Gentiles in punishment, who had lived the
life of Gentiles.
A stigma was attached to the name "strangers" — "heathen"
— in the mouth of an Israelite, which made the use of those terms
by David to characterise such Israelites as were then doing Saul's
cruel bidding against him, the more pointed.
In Psalm liv. 3, there occurred a similar instance of his stig
matising the Ziphites — his own clansmen — as strangers, for offi
ciously denouncing him to Saul.
It need not, therefore, be doubted, howsoever it might be
unlooked for, that David, when saying in verse 5, "Awake to
visit all the heathen ; be not merciful to any wicked trans
gressors," had his own countrymen that behaved like heathen
more especially in his mind's eye.
This interpretation is borne out by observing that, in the next
verse, he does not scruple to compare them with dogs, though we
know that dogs (which in the East were and are to this day the
only scavengers) was the name scornfully given by Israelites to all

PSALM THE FIFTY-NINTH. 75
Gentiles ; as it may be remembered, that our Lord reminded His
disciples, when saying, " It is not meet to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs."
The words at verse 6 are, "They return at evening: they
make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Be
hold, they belch out with their mouth : swords are in their lips :
for who, say they, doth hear ? " Alluding, as I suppose, here
to their blasphemies against the God of Israel, in Whom they knew
that David put his trust ; and they impiously promised themselves
impunity in such blasphemy, while they inflicted on David the pain
of hearing it. Because of this dishonour done to God on David's
account, he would himself render unto God the more honour.
Hence, at verse 8, he triumphs in God when saying, " But Thou,
O Lord, shalt laugh at them," — that is, though they encompass my
house round, and seem to cut me off from all escape — "Thou shalt
have all the heathen in derision ;" here again using the word " all "
emphatically as before.
The former part of the next verse obviously corresponds with
that of the last verse : and accordingly will be Best read, " 0~ my
strength ! I will wait upon thee, for God is my defence."
Here, as it seems to me, ends the former part of this psalm ; in
correspondence wherewith follows the latter, ending with the same
protestation on the psalmist's part. " Unto Thee, O my strength,
will I sing." It seems to me that the latter part of this psalm,
beginning at verse 10, contains what may be regarded as an
oracular answer to the prayer of the former part. Its com
mencing words are, " The God of my mercy shall prevent
me;" words which, when explained by the third verse of the
twenty- first, evidently refer to Christ — David's greater Son —
and shew that the psalmist's own sorrows had been the occasion
of his soul being wrapt in vision to behold those of his greater
Son, in the far-off future ; and to receive from God an assurance
concerning punishment of the Saviour's nation, as heathen and as
dogs, after the manner in which David characterised their conduct
to himself. His words in continuation are, " God shall let me see
my desire upon mine enemies. Slay them not, lest my people for
get it ; scatter them by Thy power, and put them down, O Lord
our shield."
Now, these words could not be applied by David to his own
personal enemies ; but they have for ages, down to this day, been
receiving ample fulfilment in respect of the unbelieving part of
David's nation ; who, as a nation, have, since their rejection of the
Gospel preached first to them by the Apostles, been thrust down
to a level with other nations in respect of it — there being an elect
remnant equally taken out of them, and out of the Gentiles during
the present age — while the Israelitish nation, as such, is as the pre
diction in verse 11 foretokened, not slain or absorbed into others,
though scattered by God's power among the rest of the nations.

76 PSALM THE FIFTY-NINTH.
On the contrary, it is kept separate from them ; but it is brought
down or degraded. Meanwhile, the psalmist, in the person of Christ,
his Son, contrasts His people with these reprobate Israelites ;
exactly as in these days of the kingdom of heaven, we see an elect
remnant out of the Jews and Gentiles made to be the new people
of whom Christ saith, " They are Mine."
These, too, are the people, for whose sake the Jews, who
nationally rejected the Gospel, are kept scattered, not allowed to
become extinct ; lest we, that are now the people of God, should
forget their punishment, and err after their example of unbelief.
(Rom. xi. 28.)
This issue is again and again deprecated in the New Testament
as destined to take place in spite of God's warning : an instance of
which is to be seen in 1 Cor. x. 1 — 11, where St. Paul testifies
that the Israelites, in their progress through the wilderness, are
a foretoken of the judgment hanging over the heads of us, the
Christian nations, for a like sin : only, he adds, that their chasten
ing was a judgment inflicted in this world, under which many
might live to repent and be saved in regard to their souls :
whereas that to fall on us, by taking place at the resurrection
of the just — at which the ends of the several antecedent dis
pensations shall meet — will be inflicted upon the wicked on earth
at that day, in the final irreversible condition where probation
shall no more find a place, but only wrath. (Isa. xxvi. 14 — 21 ;
Rev. xx. 10.)
This terrible consequence of unbelief hanging over the heads of
Christian nations, which is to be inflicted when the Lord wakes up
to judgment, is again spoken of by the same Apostle, in Heb. x.
26 — 31, when he wrote "If we sin wilfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth — (which is the very sin
David is seen in the fifth verse of this psalm to have charged
upon his tormentors) — there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that
despised Moses' law, (as did David's contemporaries,) died with
out mercy under two or three witnesses : of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, a common thing, and
done despite unto the Spirit of grace ? For we know Him that
saith, Vengeance belongeth unto Me ! I will recompense, saith
the Lord ! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God."
In the twelfth and three following verses, the condition of the
Jews, as at present continuing— in respect of national degradation-
is likened to that of dogs, living on the refuse of great cities among
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
This state of the psalmist's own people nationally, is at verse 14

PSALM THE FIFTY-NINTH. 77
significantly spoken of as "night," while in verse 16, he empha
tically predicts that he shall sing aloud of God's mercy in " the
morning :" that is, of the Lord's return to restore all things to
a chosen generation of Israel at the time of the first resurrection.
(Ps. xc. 13, 14; xxxiii. 12.)
Thus the latter half of this psalm appears to be a prophetical
reply to the former, denoting that in God's good time ample re
tribution shall be inflicted on David's enemies, along with that on
those of his greater Son.
This language resembles that in the sixth chapter of the Book of
Revelation, where, at the opening of the fifth seal, the souls under
the altar, that were slain (as David had not been) for the word of
God and for the testimony which they held, on crying with a loud
voice, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? " are told,
"that they should rest for a little season, until their fellow-
servants and brethren, that should be killed as they were, should
be fulfilled."
There is also another coincidence that strikes me between
the language of David in this psalm against his reprobate
countrymen, and that in the Revelation proclaimed against the
reprobate among us for imitating their sin. For like as after
saying at verse 6, it is their pleasure to be as dogs, he, at
verses 14 and 15, is commissioned to say, "Let them return —
let them be as dogs." Even so in the last chapter of Revelation,
verse 11, there is sent forth from the throne of the Lamb this
decree : " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he that
is filthy, let him be filthy still."
Surely this manifest application of the latter half of this psalm
before us to this age of the kingdom of heaven in which we live,
demands our solemn attention.
For my own part, I find here fresh cause for admiration at the
internal treasures of God's Word, and at its evidences of having
been compiled under His superintendence. For what do I here
see ? David, (as we know by 1 Chron. xxv.,) long after his writing
of this psalm, regulated the order in which the priests should take
duty in courses before the ark : and how the singers should perform
their part in public worship there. To these singers he from time
to time gave certain psalms to be sung. Forty-one of them he
himself arranged in a book, which became part of the Scripture
canon. But not until Hezekiah's time, as is supposed, were
those arranged in the Second Book of Psalms, extending from
the forty-second to the seventy-second, and inserted in the
Scripture canon.
Now it would appear that not only was David inspired with the
Spirit of Christ, who wrote these psalms ; but also Hezekiah, or
whoever else arranged them in their present order, and prefixed
the titles, setting forth the occasions on which they were written.

78 PSALM THE FIFTY-NINTH.
For the fifty -ninth, which so clearly treats of the judgment inflicted
upon the Jews in our age, is significantly placed by the compiler in
conjunction with the fifty-eighth and fifty-seventh, which treat of
Christ in the grave and Christ persecuted in His mystical members ;
although it must be evident to all that the judgments upon the
psalmist's people, in fulfilment of this fifty-ninth psalm, did not
begin to take place till after the Jews had rejected the Gospel,
preached first to them by the Apostles, after Christ's resurrection —
that is to say, seven hundred years after Hezekiah had arranged
them in this order.
How wonderfully, therefore, has the Scripture in this instance
been arranged beforehand : and -still more wonderfully is it now in
the course of fulfilment by Him, Whose hand
" Shapes our ends
Eough hew them how He may ! "
1.
O God, defend me from mine enemies,
From them that up against me rise, defend !
Agents of crime a foul assault devise,
And bloody men my soul would from me rend.
For no misdeed of mine, Jehovah, no
Transgression, with alacrity they bend
Their minds how best, as they pace to and fro,
To force their way and slay me at a blow.
2.
Do Thou, Jehovah, God of Hosts, awake
To help me ! God of Israel, visit all
The heathen ! upon wilful sinners take
Full vengeance ! They return at evening's fall
To yelp like dogs ; and round the city make
A circuit, and mouth blasphemies and brawl,
Asking with scoffs, Who'll us to reckoning call \
3.
But Thou, Jehovah, shalt their folly chide,
Yea all the heathen in derision hold ;
With Thee, my Strength, will I alway abide !
In mercy shalt Thou promptly me enfold !

PSALM THE SIXTIETH. 79
Now for my foes this wish unto me yield,
Slay Thou them not, lest mine own should be bold1
In sin, as they ; but make them scatter'd — peel'd —
So Thou abase them low, O Lord, our Shield !
4.
Waste them with judgments, that they may not rise !
Force them to note how to earth's furthest coast
God swayeth in His wrath2 the destinies
Of Jacob. Be that mark'd ! So what they most
Affect, that let their doom be ! let them prowl
At evening forth, scaring the night with cries
As dogs that through a city wine and howl,
In search of offal, clearing pan and bowl.
5.
But I will of Thy power freely sing,
Yea, of Thy mercy loudly will I tell,
In that glad morning,3 when Thou back shalt bring
All man had forfeited4 to Israel.
For in the day of mine adversity
Thou didst provide that I should safely dwell.
To Thee I'll sing then, O my Strength, to Thee !
God of my mercy and security !
1 Ver. 11. Compare Rom. xi. 28. 2 Ver. 13. Ezek. xx. 32, 33.
3 Ver. 16. Compare Ps. xc. 13—17. i Ver. 16. Acts iii. 19—21.

PSALM LX.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician upon, the lily of the testimony. A golden
psalm of David, to teach ; when he strove with Aram of the two
rivers (Mesopotamia) and with Aram-zobah : when Joab returned,
and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.

80 PSALM THE SIXTIETH.

ARGUMENT.
This psalm appears to have been written by David about the
time spoken of in the eighth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel,
agreeably with its title.
In the first three verses, reference is supposed to be made to the
distracted state of Israel during the latter part of Saul's reign.
In the next two verses, reference is supposed to be made to that
message brought to David from God by Nathan, recorded in 2 Sam.
vii., announcing to him God's purpose to build him a house and
kingdom, that should be established for ever. (Ver. 16.)
Accordingly, in the next two verses, he announces his confident
expectation of first consolidating Israel under his sway — Shechem
and Succoth, Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah ; then,
in the two following verses, the nations round about — Moab, Edom,
and Philistia. The last four verses contain a call upon God for
help, and a profession of implicit reliance upon His strength for
victory. The expression, " Thou hast given a banner to them that
fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth," is a
remarkable one, and is considered to have ultimate reference to
that of the Son of David who should be his representative for
ever upon His father's throne.
The word for " banner" is the same with that so translated in
Exod. xvii., where it is written " Moses built an altar, and called the
name of it Jehovah-nissi," the " Lord my banner;" upon the occasion
of the Lord saying that "the hand, or Spirit of the Lord, would
fight against Amalek from generation to generation."
When Saul was sent against the Amalekites, he apparently
thought that he had succeeded to this commission ; for he set up an
ensign of "a hand," (1 Sam. xv. 12 ;) but he disobeyed the Lord, and
was rejected. But David was assured by Nathan that the Lord
had given him an undying token of favour.
This, as I take it, David, with probable reference to Saul and to
Moses in the passages before mentioned, considered to be the ban
ner spoken of ; but his pious suffix " to be displayed because of the
truth," shewed, his sense of the work thereupon given him to do.
What now may be taken to be the banner that God has defini
tively set up in David's house, " to be displayed because of the truth ?"
It surely is that of Christ crucified. (1 Cor. i. 23.) The Spirit of the
Lord will cause this work of love for man's redemption to be un
derstood and received in due time by all people. Those who
receive it are " the beloved ones " in the fifth verse, for whose sake
David records his persuasion that God would with His right hand,
or the energy of His Holy Spirit, deliver the representative of
David's house from all opponents to his rightful ascendency.
(Ps. xviii. 43; xxii. 27; xvi. 8—11.) Reference is made to this
banner in Canticles ii. 4, in Isa. xi. 12, and again in Isa. xviii. 3
and lix. 19.

PSALM THE SIXTIETH. 81
In this present age of the kingdom of heaven, the language of
the psalm before us is not suited to describe the method to be fol
lowed in fighting under the banner that is to be lifted up because
of the truth. (John. iii. 14, 15 ; xii. 31, 32.)
Since after the example of the blessed Son of David, Who was cru
cified for us, those that follow Him faithfully must be ready to lay
down their lives rather than relinquish this banner, and lay out
their lives in conformity with His example of love to others. (1 Pet.
ii. 21.) But in the times which shall usher in the age to come, (Heb.
ii. 5,) it seems manifest, from sundry passages of Scripture in the
prophets of Israel, that the Lord God will once more call a chosen
generation in Israel to wage literal war for Him, in consequence
of civilized man's persistent obstinacy in perversion of God's
truth, for the sake of which the banner above spoken of has been
displayed. At that crisis, the appointed leader in Israel shall with truth
apply to his countrymen the first three verses of this psalm.
Meanwhile, let us consider after what manner God calls us to fol
low this banner, which is worth more to us and all men than life
itself, "because of the truth." See Gal. v. 11, and vi. 14, 15.
1.
Against Thy nation, O our God,
Thy wrath has been severe ;
Withdraw then Thou Thy chast'ning rod !
Our people quake with fear.
The cup of trembling thro' the land
Hast Thou thrust into each one's hand !
2.
Yet of Thy love hast Thou made known
To them Thy name who fear,
A banner to be fully shewn,
For truth's sake far and near.
O let, then, Thy beloved live,
To whom Thou didst this token give !

God's holy promise cannot fail !
Gladly will I divide
Shechem, and mete out Succoth's vale,
O'er Gilead I'll preside,

82 PSALM THE SIXTY-FIRST.
And o'er Manasseh. Strength I'll draw
From Ephraim, and from Judah law.

My washpot shall be Moab ; o'er
Edom I'll cast my shoe.
Philistia, do thou as before
Triumphs1 o'er me renew.
Who'll me into the city bring 1
And Edom's strong ones 'neath me fling 1

This wilt Thou, O our God, achieve,
Who hast our armies left :
Thou surely canst our cause retrieve,
Though of man's help bereft.
Through God shall we acquire renown,
And all opposers trample down.
i Ver. 8. 1 Sam. xxxi. 8, supposed to he spoken tauntingly.

PSALM LXI.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician, upon Neginah. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is justly reckoned to be closely connected with that
going before, the subject of which is explicitly set forth in the
title. In support of this conjecture, it may be observed, that both
psalms alike begin with a reference to perils lately passed through;
both likewise speak of that threatening aspect of affairs having been
exchanged for one of bright expectation, as well for the psalmist as
•for his nation : since at the fourth verse of the former psalm he
wrote," Thou hast given a banner unto them that fear Thee ;" and
in this latter, at verse 5, " Thou hast given me the heritage of those
that fear Thy name."

PSALM THE SIXTY-FIRST. 83
We may, then, without violence done to any part of the psalm
before us, but rather in entire accordance with its drift, reckon it
to have been written by David under the same circumstances in
which he composed the preceding one, only that in the former he
treats rather of national triumphs, in this latter of spiritual
blessings : but this makes it more fit for the general use of God's
people of every age and nation.
We suppose, then, that David, in regard to the adverse circum
stances spoken of in the commencement of either psalm, refers to the
distracted state of Israel, and to his own fugitive condition towards
the close of Saul's reign.
But David, after reigning about seven years in Hebron, (2 Sam.
v. 5,) had, as it is supposed by the time of writing these two
psalms, been accepted as King of Israel : and (as is to be seen in
2 Sam. vii. 12,) had received from God by Nathan a message that
God would build him a house : " And when thy days shall be ful
filled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed
after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will estab
lish his kingdom." This promise, extending to the end of verse
16, though primarily referring to Solomon and his descendants, had
its plenary reference to Christ, in Whom alone God will " estab
lish David's throne for ever."
Hence David is to be looked on as having regard to this promise
in Christ, when saying, " Thou hast given me the heritage of those
that fear Thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king's life : and his
years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever : O
prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. So will I sing
praise unto Thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows."
Not that David, in so saying, supposed that he himself, without
seeing death, should have life thus prolonged ; on the contrary,
God had said, " When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep
with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee."
But David so spake because hoping to be raised again from the
dead through the rising again of his greater Son, the Christ, whose
days God would first in that way " prolong," (as we see by Isa. liii.
10,) that so David's, as king, might be commenced anew, to be
employed in the service of God. For in that new life the people of
God will not be idle; but, as we read in Rev. xxii. 3, "His
servants shall serve Him."
There is to be observed a considerable similarity between this
psalm and the twenty-seventh, and both seem to me to denote that
David, as a student of Scripture extant in his day, had in his
mind the ninety-first psalm, the composition of Moses, which speaks
of the Christ dwelling when on earth in the secret place of the
Most High.
This sixty-first psalm agrees with the contents of 2 Sam. vii.
and Psalm lx., rather than with those in 2 Sam. viii.
G 2

81 PSALM THE SIXTY FIRST.
1.
Hear my cry, O God \l yea, all
Through my Advocate I plead !
From my country's3 utmost bound
My heart-broken accents heed !
2.
To the Rock3 above me far
Lead me ! Thou thro' years gone by
Hast to me a shelter4 been,
From th' oppressing enemy.
3.
In Thy tabernacle I
Will by choice for ever5 stay !
'Neath Thee, with Thy outspread wings6
Passing o'er, I'll rest alway !
4.
Thou, O God, hast heard my vows7
And of those Thy name that know
Dost on me the heritage
Thro' my promis'd seed bestow.
5.
Thou to Thine anointed king8
Wilt in him new life extend ;
1 Ver. 2. 'rrcDljl denotes prayer through an Advocate, and there are ample
references in this psalm to Christ, proving David's use of it in this sense.
2 Ver. 3. ywri, clearly the land of Palestine.
3 Ver. 3. See Deut. xxxiii. 4. The song which G-od commanded Moses to
write, (xxxi. 19,) to he a witness for Him.
4 Ver. 4. See 1 Sam. xxiii and xxvi.
6 Ver. 5. This could not he the literal tabernacle, hut that heavenly one,
(Exod. xxv. 40,) whereof that on earth was a type, called in Ps. xci. 1, in?
"secret place."
0 T|B33-inp-s, the covert, i.e., "the secret place," in Ps. xci. 1. By mention
of " the wings," David refers to the Lord's " passing over " of the family
which had the hlood of the paschal-lamb on the door-poBts. See Exod. xii.
23, as explained hy Bishop Lowth on Isa. xxxi, 5.
7 2 Sam. vii.
8 1 Sam. xvi. 13.

PSALM THE SIXTY-SECOND. 85
He shall in Thy presence stand,
Serving ages without end.

Of Thy mercy9 and Thy truth
That new life for him prepare ;
So he in more worthy strain
Daily will exalt Thee there.
9 By these attributes the elect are given to Christ, though if the Lord were
strict to mark offences, they could not stand in the judgment. See 2 Sam.
viii. 15. Hence, in Prov. xvi. 6, it is written, " By mercy and truth iniquity is
purged,"

PSALM LXII.

TITLE.

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun. (1 Chron. xxv. 1, 3.) A
psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm has divers points of similarity with the thirty-ninth ;
for instance, in regard of its being in the title, like that one, to
Jeduthun. Moreover, the psalmist in both expresses the same resolve to
wait on God in silent suspense : he also in both uses the emphatic
TJW, or " only." Also in verse 11 of Psalm xxxix is the same con
trast E^S, or " great man," with D"1N"?3, or the " common man,"
which is introduced by the psalmist in verse 9 of the psalm before
us : in both cases prefaced by TfM .
These coincidences lead me to think that whichever of the two
might have been written first, David had it in mind when writing
the other.
Now it has occurred to me to observe, that just as Psalm lxiv.
is supposed to have been written about the same time as the seventh,
but not inserted in David's own book because of preference for the
seventh, so this sixty-second might have been written earlier than
the thirty-ninth — in fact, when David's reputation was unsullied,
and eminent for patient endurance of wrong during Saul's reign :
but that when he wrote the thirty-ninth, his lamentable declension
made him shrink from applying this sixty-second to himself, though
he embodied some expressions taken out of it in the psalm which
he inserted by preference in his own book.

86 PSALM THE SIXTY-SECOND.
Although the psalm contains no specific petition, it expresses
how David, in silent suspense of soul before God, made continual
prayer, like that spoken of by St. Paul, out of a heart too full for
words. (Rom. viii. 26.)
But the whole psalm admits of being far more forcibly employed
by David's anointed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ ; who in the silence
of His soul waited habitually upon His Father for help, that He
might do and say what His Father would have Him, as the
Messenger of the covenant.
How emphatically could He, Who would never use power of His
own, as God, for extrication of Himself out of difficulties into which
He should in the providence of God have been brought, protest,
" From God cometh my salvation ! He only is my rock ! I shall
not be moved ! " How becomingly could He interrogate His per
secutors in the language of verse 3, " How long will ye imagine
mischief against a man — yea, the man ! " How entirely do the words,
" Trust in Him at all times, ye people," agree with those of our
Lord in Luke xviii., " Men ought always to pray, and not to faint."
How entirely did He exemplify conformity with the word from God
in the close of this psalm, when saying to Pilate, " Thou couldest
have no power at all against ME, except it were given thee from
above," (John xx. 11 :) as also by relying on His Father's mercy
to requite Him for the wrongs which Satan and his agents heaped
upon Him in His condemnation and death, by bestowal of the elect
souls on Him for His spoil, which in strictness of the letter were
forfeited to justice, and deserved to be a prey of Satan, who by the
law had the "power" of death against them ! See Isa. liii. 11, 12 ;
Col. ii. 14, 15; Heb. ii. 14, 15. 1.
Only to God my soul
Looks silently ; each shock
I bear, from faith unmov'd :
Only He is my rock !
2.
How long against a man
Will ye your snares devise \
You shall be as a wall
Which bows and prostrate lies.
3.
Only to cast him down
Aim they — it's their delight :

PSALM THE SIXTY-SECOND. 87
They bless him with the mouth,
At heart with curse they spite.
4.
Only on God, my soul,
Wait in devout suspense :
Only He is my rock,
My fortress, my defence.
5.
Me He'll preserve unmov'd,
In Him my safety lies —
My refuge from the plots
Of watchful enemies. 6.
Hear me, O people, hear ! .
On God always rely !
Pour out your hearts to Him !
He'll all our wants supply !
7.
Only vain are the men
Of low grade ; and a lie
The high ones : yea, if weigh'd,
Lighter than vanity.

Choose not them that oppress,
Nor them that confiscate ;
Yea, let not honest gains
O'er-much your hearts elate.
9.
One word th' Almighty spake-
Twofold it prov'd to be ;
" To ME belongeth power,
And mercy, too, to ME ! "

88 PSALM THE SIXTY-THIRD.
10.
For without fail to each
Who keeps Thy word, O Lord,
Dost Thou, as he has wrought,
A recompense award.

PSALM LXIII.

TITLE.
A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
ARGUMENT.
The title states that David composed this psalm when in the
wilderness of Judah. Again, it is to be observed, that in the last
verse the psalmist speaks of himself as being the king.
Now commentators incline to the idea that David wrote this
psalm about the same time in which he wrote the forty-second, when
flying from Absalom.
But surely the peaceful tenor of David's mind in this psalm
forbids that conjecture ; his mind is evidently untroubled, as regards
his conduct before God, which it was not when writing the forty-
second ; and his single regret is that he is debarred from access to
the tabernacle, (verse 2.) Now, in 2 Sam. v., we find that David
was for seven years and a half after Saul's death king in Hebron ;
and by 2 Sam. vi., compared with 1 Sam. vii., we find that the ark
was meanwhile at Gibeah, near Kirjath-jearim, or Baalah, in the
house of Abinadab. Here, however, was the residence of Saul's
family, for the place was called " Gibeah of Saul." (1 Sam. xv. 34.)
So long then as Ish-bosheth reigned, and Abner lived, (2 Sam. ii.
10,) David would be debarred from access to the tabernacle. May
we not then suppose that some time during these two years and a
half, while David reigned in Hebron, but was sojourning in the
wilderness of Judah, he composed this psalm ?
The psalm divides itself into two parts : the former, from the com
mencement to end of verse 5, containing his morning thoughts ;
the latter, from verse 6 to the end, his thoughts for the night.
The country in which the psalmist is, scorches him with its
torrid heat ; but he takes occasion by this, to find a choice method
of expressing his soul's fervour in love toward God. The very
faintness, too, of his body, when he is so parched and without

PSALM THE SIXTY-THIED. 89
water, shall be interpreted to be a craving on his flesh's part for
God. We are sure that the psalmist, who wrote under the guidance of
the spirit of Christ, would not ascribe to himself feelings of de-
votedness to God in excess of what he actually felt ; for every true
servant of God avoids this disingenuousness.
What an eminent instance, then, have we here of earnestness in
the worship of God ! Discomfort of body is not allowed to inter
rupt the purpose of the soul, but compelled to subserve it. And
this, too, in a time, as we suppose, of great prosperity on David's
part, when (alas, for man's gratitude ! ) fervour in prayer is harder
to be maintained than in adversity.
The occasion of his soul's thirst was not God's absence from him
in spirit at that time, but his own inability to appear before God
in the only place of the land where He had promised to meet and
bless the worshipper : namely, before the ark of the covenant in
the tabernacle. (Exod. xxv. 10 — 22.)
Here is to be observed how much store David set by access to
the public worship of God : he intimates that he was much helped
in his conceptions of the exalted majesty of God by beholding the
Liturgical service, which was the express counterpart of that
rendered by higher orders of beings in higher places. (Exod.
xxv. 40.)
There only, it is to be remembered, might sacrifices be lawfully
offered up ; there were the appointed Priests and Levites, in their
sacred garments, with the choir chaunting, with help of many
instruments, the praises of God.
Remembrance of the elevation in soul derived from sight and
hearing hereof in God's house, made David deplore the efforts of
his mind in the wilderness to form conceptions of God's power
and glory as flat and feeble.
He then kindles his soul with recollection of what tokens were
with him then in private of God's presence, though debarred from
sight of His power and glory in the sanctuary. " Because," saith
he, " Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise
Thee."_ In this and the two following verses is to be observed the com
bination of service to God with body and soul alike. Thus, where
the heart is sensible of the lovingkindness, the lips shall speak it.
Where the heart will bless or think good of God's name, the
hands lifted up shall testify to the soul's employment. Where the
soul, in the midst of bodily thirst, shall be by grace able to liken its
refreshment to the most nourishing food that can be wished for by
one parched up with drought, the mouth, though rough with thirst,
shall praise God aloud with joyful lips.
The latter half of this pgalm commences at verse 6, with the
words, " When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate upon
Thee ill the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help,

90 PSALM THE SIXTY-THIKD.
therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." The psalmist
here refers to the fourth verse of the ninety-first psalm, a psalm
assumed to have been written by Moses, and therefore part of
Scripture in David's day. The allusion there is to the Lord's
overshadowing of a family in Israel while in Egypt, which had
the blood of the paschal lamb upon its door-posts. Thus David
hoped to be overshadowed by God in Christ, his passover ! Thus
he rejoiced with trembling. For to shew that he was not elated
with success and confident, he added in the eighth verse, " My
soul followeth hard after Thee : Thy right hand upholdeth me."
The verb for " following hard after," is one taken from the
figure of a hound outstretched in running, so that its belly is
brought close to the ground. This implies that David found it
hard for his soul to do what God would have him in regard of
the patience and charity towards those of whom he spake, possibly
adherents of Ish-bosheth, or if not them, then his own adherents,
who were too strong for him. (See 2 Sam. iii.) Nevertheless, amidst
the strife of opposite feelings within him on his bed, he hopes
they will not be charged on him while abiding under the shadow
of the Lord's wings, and depending on the right hand of God —
that is, the Spirit of Christ — to sustain him in the resolve of his
soul to make God's word the rule of his conduct.
Then, in the ninth verse, he refers to those who would debar
him from that establishment in the kingdom over Israel to which
he had been designated by God, (1 Sam. xvi.,) as Israel in general
knew ; so that their opposition to him was carried on against God.
On this point he saith, " But those that seek my soul, to destroy
it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth : " that is, into the
place for lost spirits in torment. (Luke. xvi. 33.) "They shall
run out like water by the hands of the sword, they shall be a
portion for jackals " — by being unburied. " But the king shall
rejoice in God. All they that swear by Him, (namely, God,) shall
glory : but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped."
Swearing is here put for worship in general, as in Isa. xiv. 20,
which place confirms the above application of " swear " to God,
and not to the king. Also in Rom. xiv. 11, this word as used by
Isaiah is translated " confess " — another part of worship — showing
that, as well in Isaiah as in this psalm, a part of worship is put
for the whole. Thus the psalm ends by inculcating worship of
God under all circumstances, in private and public, when one
can. What fervour does this psalm invite us to cultivate in the
worship of our covenant God, whose mercy and loving-kindness
in Christ Jesus are so much more fully revealed ! Yet how few
emulate David here ! There is even a tendency among us to set
private worship against public, and worship with the heart against
that with the body too! David was plainly far from doing
either.

PSALM THE SIXTY-THIRD. 91
1.
O God, Thou God of mine,
Thee will I early seek !
For Thee my soul doth pine,
My flesh, tho' I be weak
And spent1 with thirst, for Thee cries out,
As in a land parch'd up with drought !

O that I might again
Thy power and glory see,
As erst I Thee have seen
Within the sanctu'ry.
My lips with praises shall confess,
Better than life Thy favour is !

Thee, while I live, I'll bless !
My hands I'll in Thy Name
Lift up, and will Thy praise
With joyful lips, proclaim.
In this my soul shall be as glad,
As tho' I choicest dainties had.

When on my bed reclin'd,
I do remember Thee ;
On Thee I'll fix my mind,
Long as the night watch be.
And for the help Thy presence brings,
Sing 'neath the shadow of Thy wings.

Hard after Thee its way
My soul speeds ! Thy right hand
Ver. 2. t|5, being masculine, must refer to the psalmist himself.

92 PSALM THE SIXTY-FOURTH.
Holds me ! but for a prey
They that my soul demand,
Down 'neath the earth among the dead
Shall they themselves be hurried.
6.
At the sword's point their blood
Shall stream forth ; they shall lie
Unburied ; but in God
The king's joy shall be high.
Who swears by Him2, shall boast in truth ;
But shame strike dumb the liar's mouth.
2 Ver. 11. In truly making oath, the essential point is to lift the
mind's eye to One who seeth in secret. Now the king spoken of in Ps.
Ixxxix. 18—20, is clearly God aswell as man. And since that psalm is
stated to have heen composed in MoseB' day, it might well have heen quoted
here by David, as it had previous to him been by Hannah, in 1 Sam. ii. 10.
David, who found himself called by the name there given Messiah, reUgionsly
made that Messiah his model, and made oath in His name. Compare Ps. xxi,

PSALM LXIV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
The title of this psalm in the Hebrew ascribes it to David.
In its current of thought it bears a close resemblance to the
seventh. All ¦ the expressions in it would best agree with the
supposition of its having been written about that time of his life.
He had then an unsullied reputation of the highest kind ; but
because of his designation to the throne after Saul, (1 Sam. xvi.,)
he was the object of that king's jealousy. The courtiers also
recommended themselves to Saul by crafty insinuations against
David's loyalty. On this account, David was for about ten years
of Saul's reign a fugitive : but he never broke out into rebellion.
In this respect he was perfect, (ver. 4,) a term which, by 2 Tim.
iii. 17, may be taken to mean " thoroughly furnished unto every
good work."
It was hard for him to endure for so long a space, without
breach of loyalty, such protracted wrong from the king he served,
at the instigation of rivals at court, as described in the psalm

PSALM THE SIXTY-FOURTH. 93
before us, having the promise "of God alone in the tenth verse
for ground of hope that he should be Saul's successor.
Nevertheless, the word of God is the firmest foundation that
can be conceived. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not
Christ's word. In the first chapter of Genesis the word of God
is _ seen to have called all things into existence; and Scripture
saith that the same word shall bid them depart, and be rolled
away as a scroll shrivelled in the fire. (Ps. cii. 26.)
The word of God was, therefore, foundation enough for David's
patient continuance in well doing, although it was long for him
to wait in prayer till relief came.
But he lived to succeed Saul, and to reign himself forty years.
It is not, however, always the case, that God lyings relief as to
bodily health, or wealth in this world, to them that trust in Him.
He did not thus in the case of David's greater Son, Whose
treatment at the hands of His countrymen David was unconsciously
foreshadowing, while in the psalm before us engaged upon his
own. The Lord Jesus made supplication and prayer unto His
Father in the days of His flesh, with strong crying and tears,
(Heb. v. 7,) and it pleased His Father, Who was able to save Him
from death, to interpose only after His bodily death in such a
manner as to " make all men fear, and declare the work of God ;
wisely considering of His doing." (Ver. 9. ; Matt, xxvii. 54.)
In Matt. xxii. may be seen how the countrymen of David's
greater Son far exceeded their forefathers in malignant plotting,
as described in this psalm, from verses 2 — 6, with the result
predicted in verses 7, 8. See, too, Matt, xxviii. 12 — 15.
This dealing of God 'with the great Son of David, (followed
as it was by ample vindication of Him after death, at His glorious
resurrection,) is what makes it far easier for us, than it was for
David and others under the Mosaic covenant, to rely upon the
word of God, as given in the tenth verse, for their support : if
even we should be during mortal life unrelieved in our bodies or
families. "In Christ we can greatly rejoice," as St. Peter saith, (1 Pet.
i. 6,) " though now for a season, if need be, in heaviness through
manifold temptations : that the trial of our faith, being much more
precious than of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise
and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Who
the righteous are, that shall be glad in the Lord, is sufficiently
pointed out in the two following clauses of the tenth verse : in
the former, " they trust-in the Lord," not merely for extrication
from bodily difficulties and trials of this life, which are minor ;
but for the most important of all matters — namely, how to be
just with God. Now on this point there has always been among
fallen men great difference of opinion within the Church, even
from the days of Cain and Abel.
In David's time, as we learn from the fourteenth psalm, there

94 PSALM THE SIXTY-FOURTH.
was a section of his countrymen raising their voices on high about
righteousness before God, who, as he saith at verse 4, were con
spicuous for not " calling upon the Lord " in that matter of justifi
cation ; at the same time that they " shamed the counsel of the
poor," or meek, " because he made the Lord his refuge."
These last words furnish an authentic explanation of what it is
to " call upon the Lord " in the matter of justification. See Isa.
lxiv. 6, 7. If our language is that of the psalmist in Ps. cxliii. 2,
then we shall thankfully lay hold on the righteousness freely
offered us in Christ for our wedding garment. If, however, we rely
on our compliance with the externals of religion, as the Pharisees
did on their rigid observance of the ceremonial law, regardless
of their inner man, (Matt. xv. 14 — 20,) then we shall trust in
ourselves that we are righteous. (Luke xviii. 9.)
On this ground, the Pharisees in our Lord's day behaved towards
Him after the manner described in this psalm from verses 2 — 6,
yet accounted themselves righteous.
The latter clause in verse 10 of this psalm speaks of them that
are righteous as being " upright in heart." This the Pharisees in
our Lord's time could not think themselves. On this point their
thought was as in verse 5 — Who shall see ? But sanctification,
though distinguishable from justification, is ever combined with it
in the case of those who are righteous, as described in the tenth
verse ; that is, " who trust in the Lord, and are upright in heart."
These believers dutifully employ the state of acceptance with God,
into which they are for their faith freely brought in Christ, in
asking of God for Christ's sake a measure of the Holy Ghost's
virtue for their renewal. (Ps. li. 10.) Then are they born of God,
partakers in the Spirit of Christ — the spirit of adoption ; and in this
way, through Christ's Spirit, are ever aiming at mending their lives
according to His holy word ; not in deed and word alone, but in
thought : and thus, having proof day by day of their life toward
God in Christ, are complete in Him. (Col. ii. 10.)
I.
Hear Thou my voice, O God, in prayer ;
From me that harm avert
My foe doth threaten ; let no snare
Of plotters work me hurt.
g-
As weapon sharpen'd is their tongue—
As arrow keen their word —
In stealth 'tis at the perfect flung,
When risk is not incurr'd.

PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH. 95
3.
In plots one makes another bold
Hid from their victim's sight :
Say they, Who shall our deeds behold %
Or, what we 've done, requite ?
4.
In idle tales fresh means they find
Charge upon charge to heap,
The guile of each one's subtle mind
In treachery is deep. 5.
A shaft shall suddenly be sent
From God their schemes to foil :
Yea, their own tongues by the event
Shall on themselves recoil.
6.
Adherents straightway in sore fear
Shall shrink from them, and say,
This hath God done ; His hand is here —
His will He doth display.
7.
The righteous shall true gladness know,
And on Jehovah call ;
And with an upright heart shall shew
His glory forth to all.

PSALM LXV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm and song of David.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm, with the two following, is thought to have been made

96 PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH.
introductory to the sixty-eighth, in which the outpouring of the
Holy Ghost upon Israel was predicted.
De Burgh observes that at the fifth verse, where it is written, "By
terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us," a reference
is made to the wonders wrought in Egypt, for the sake of fore
tokening still greater ones to be yet wrought for Israel at the time
of the Lord's return to bring Israel back into their own land ; ac
cording to Jer. xxiii. 7, 8.
In Isa. lxiv. 3, " terrible things " are again spoken of as at that
time to be done by God : and it is to be observed that the original
word for " terrible," is the same that, in Deut. x. 21, and 2 Sam. vii.
23, is applied to the wonders wrought for Israel's deliverance out
of Egypt.
A similar reference to the "terrible" things which God will
perform for Israel, is to be seen at the fifth verse of the sixty-
sixth psalm, whence the connection in subject between the two is
apparent. Mr. Thrupp adopts this view, and thinks this sixty-fifth psalm
written to commemorate more especially the work of the first
Divine Person in creation; the sixty-sixth, that of the second in
redemption ; the sixty-seventh, that of the Holy Ghost in conversion
of the nations. According to this view, the three form a suitable
introduction to the sixty-eighth.
The mention at the third verse of man's fallen condition, when
the theme for consideration is to be the works of God in nature,
(from verse 6 to the end,) calls for special notice at a time when
scientific men amongst us are preferring to study nature, and dis
cover her secrets without the help of revealed religion — without any
acknowledgment of man's fallen state.
Now that God intended our first parent to exercise his mind
upon His works in nature, may be seen by what is written (Gen.
iii. 19,) about God causing the beasts of the field to pass before
Adam, that he might give them names.
Surely this was an exercise in the science of natural history. It
hence is to be inferred to have been God's will that he and his
descendents, if they had remained without sin, should have exer
cised themselves in investigation of His works during the first six
days of the week ; and to have desisted therefrom on the seventh,
for the purpose of then bringing, by reflection on what had been
learnt, praise and thanksgiving unto God.
The contemplation, indeed, of God's purpose to make the Lamb
of God a sacrifice would also have been for meditation on the se
venth day: for by the Book of Revelation we learn, (xiii. 8,) that
though man had never sinned, and there had been no devil, yet the
Lamb of God should have died. Possibly, because moral respon
sible creatures like angels and men needed some exemplification of
the extent to which the holy Creator bad a right to exact devoted
service of them, if He required it : even to the laying down of life,

PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH. 97
without question of His love. But God did not require of any
mere creature this exemplification of His glory. Within Himself
He covenanted that one Divine Person should take the nature of a
creature, and in that nature give the required example.
But along with this meditation on the revealed word concerning
the Lamb of God, man might, as we suppose, (had he continued
innocent,) have found inexhaustible material for exercising himself
unto gratitude and adoring wonder at His Creator in His various
departments of creation.
And for this purpose, as it seems to me, did God appoint the
continuance and reproduction of things in certain courses by what
are called laws, after having without law called them into
existence. He laid obligation on Himself to reproduce things by generation
from pairs, or in the order of the seasons of a year, for the purpose
of supplying His intellectual creatures, angels and men, with some
subjects of investigation suited to their capacities ; and not because
of anything in these creatures themselves, which necessitated His
reproduction of them in the ways appointed by Him in nature.
So far as He Himself was concerned, He could have reproduced
all these creatures by word of command, exactly as He at first
made them ; and as Jesus did with the baked bread and the broiled
fish, (Who came to be the express image of His Father and to
shew forth His glory.) It is not a whit more explicable by man's
researches into nature how pairs reproduce their kind, or the
seed in the ground brings forth a fresh germ, than how the
baked bread multiplied itself and the broiled fish, when vitalised
in the case referred to. Only if God had carried on every thing in
nature as He commenced it, with a newly uttered word in each
instance, men would have had far fewer opportunities of investi
gating the nature of His works.
The case is materially altered now that there is a devil, and that
sin has come into the world. For to these incidents we owe the
supplementary revelation in Scripture in which are recorded the
inconceivable aggravation of the sorrows of the Lamb of God ; and
the way wherein His work of redemption should be available for
fallen man's recovery through faith unto original righteousness, and
re-establishment in that rest with God, of which the Sabbath was
the primeval pledge.
According to this view of God's dealings, He, upon the fall
of man, added to the scheme of nature intended for man's in
struction the written revelation; because of the scheme in
nature, though suited for man in innocence, being too hard
for him to receive, when fallen, without further assurance
from the Divine Creator : more particularly in respect of its
being possible for Him to forgive sin — whereof, as Bishop
Butler admonishes us, there is no intimation in nature, but
altogether the contrary. Though, (as is confessed in the third
a

98 PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH.
and fourth verses of this psalm,) the subject of cleansing and
forgiveness is to fallen man of most importance. Little comfort
could he have as a student of nature without some authentic
testimony from the Creator on this momentous question for
him ; on which God's works in nature were not intended to
speak. And yet, too many scientific men of the present day osten
tatiously proclaim their disregard for that revelation in Holy
Scripture ; as though they knew better than God how to
enter on the study of His works in nature with comfort and
gladness !
It is the office of the Church of Christ in this fallen con
dition of man to testify and vindicate the compassion of God,
in appointing that scientific inquiries into His works of nature
should be carried on in harmony with His revealed word.
So say the first four verses of the psalm before us.
At verse 8 the psalmist saith, "Thou makest the outgoings
of the morning and of the evening to praise Thee." The morn
ing and the evening constitute one day, which is the smallest
portion of time into which men usually divide the year : so
many days make a week, so many weeks a month, so many
months the year : thus it is built up, and made to stand com
plete, and ready to be crowned, if so it please the Almighty to
do with it, for man's comfort.
Then again the psalmist referred to the same notion of a crown,
as a completion of many antecedent stages in growth preparatory
thereto, by dwelling on the stages of the husbandman's labour from
breaking of the clods for the seed and the sowing, and the fall of
the former rain thereon, and the springing up of the tender blade,
and the fall of the latter rain for swelling of the grain in the blade's
ear ; whereupon takes place the crowning of all that is gone before !
This the psalmist depicts from verse 9 to 11.
In this mention of a crown at verse 11, is a reference to
two ideas, both of which appear to have been before the psalm
ist's eye : one, of the glory and beauty wherewith a crown
sets off the wearer's person, or the statue's figure ; the other,
of that completeness which the last finish of a work may
give to a long series of preparatory stages conducive thereto.
The year is completed by the earth's course round the sun
through one entire revolution. It is built up as it were of
one season put upon another : seed-time on winter, summer on
seed-time, reaping time on summer. Just before the sickle is
put in, the entire landscape is, according to the psalmist's
description, crowned by God for the current year, and seems
to laugh in men's eyes and sing. How rich is the hue, as
of frosted gold, pervading the outstretched expanse of oats !
how welcome by contrast the nutty brownness of the weightier
ears of wheat, standing in dense throng over acre upon acre

PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH. 99
traversed by the enchanted eye at a glance! Of what plenty
does the goodly sight speak to every beholder ! No one can look
on it unmoved, even though having no direct interest in the crop :
the beauty alone of the sight suffices to gladden one, and stir
thoughts of gratitude in one toward the bounteous Giver.
But what must, or ought to, be the frame of him who has
the immediate stake therein — to whom it is the realisation of
his labours, his hopes, his prayers too, I trust, through the
long months last past — who depends on the crop for where
withal to pay his rent and carry on his business ? Far ought
he to be from merely taking the produce with satisfaction,
and estimating what balance it may leave him after payment
of expenses : he ought to think of the great and adorable Giver !
The very anxieties that he has felt during the preceding portions
of the year concerning this return upon his labours — the very
risks he has run — tend to make the sight of that plenty,
covering the head of the landscape as a crown, more especially
gladdening to the husoandman ! He, more especially, has watched
this crop through allits preparatory stages, and laboured to bring
about this much desired consummation of his plans ; how truly,
then, does it seem in his sight a goodly crown of them ! — a
munificent completion of what had previously in this year
been given as an instalment — as well as an ornament for
glory and for beauty upon the ripe year's head, ere it passes
away ! 1.
Devoutly silent1, praise, O God,
In Zion on Thee waits ;
The pilgrim reaching Thine abode
His vows there dedicates.
Oh Thou that dost true suppliants hear,
'Fore Thee shall all mankind appear.
2.
Yet not, as guiltless, do we come —
Far different thoughts have we ;
Our conscious sins would strike us dumb,
If Thou wert strict2 to be.
But Thou Thyself wilt be our stay,3
And all our sins wilt purge away.
1 Ver. 1. Compare herewith verse 1 of Ps. lxii., 'iri: rravt , and Ps'. lxv. 1,
rrtrtri rppi,.
2 Ver. 3> Ps. cxxx. o>
5 Ver. 3. Joh xxiii, 6.
H 2

100 PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH.
3.
That man, whom Thou dost choose, is blest—
Whom Thou to Thee dost knit,4
And cause within Thy courts5 to rest !
For this, O make us fit ;
And in Thy house — Thy temple — we
All our desires surpass'd shall see.
4.
Deeds terrible in righteousness
Wilt Thou, O God, ordain
For our deliv'rance from distress,
When Thou to us again
Eeturn'st f Who to earth's utmost end,
Or o'er the sea, for us wilt send ;
5.
Who in Thy strength, begirt with pow'r,
Dost set the mountains fast ;
Who when advancing tempests lower
Rebuk'st the raving blast;
Thou stilPst the tumult of the seas,
And bidd'st the peoples' madness cease.
6.
The dweller in earth's utmost bound
With awe of Thee is smit.
When day sheds light7 the world around —
Or night with stars is lit —
No tribes but at the sight rejoice,
And for their gladness find a voice.
* Ver. 3. Col. ii. 19.
" Ver. 4. The spiritual house is here intended, spoken of in Ps. xxvii.
4 — 6, and explained in Heb. iii. I — 6 ; viii. 2.
6 Ver. 5. Deut. xxx. 1—7. Isa. xliii. 6.
7 Ver. 8. The meaning of "the outgoings," '»siD; is determined by
reference to its use in Ps. xix. 6, where issto is the sun's rising. The
idea seems to he that in Deut. iv. 19, that the Lord, hath divided those
signs to every nation under heaven. In Ps. xix. 5, as well as here, that
gladness is poetically ascribed to the heavenly orbs themselves which the
sight of them begets in mankind universally.

PSALM THE SIXTY-FIFTH. 101
7.
Thou dost the stiff clods energise,
And moisten with Thy rains,
From out the ever-full supplies
That cleave the heavenly plains ;
And bring' st men by Thy guardian care
The corn,8 Thou didst for food prepare.
8.
Each ridge dost Thou with genial rain
Impregnate plenteously —
The soften'd furrows swell the grain —
It bursts forth joyously,
And prospers, till — maturely grown —
The year Thou dost with goodness crown.
9.
Fresh up-sprung blades Thy footsteps mark —
A fatness from them drops,
The plains are grassy, as a park,
¦ The downs are cloth'd with crops :
Vast flocks and herds the pastures graze,
And all the landscape shouts Thy praise.
8 Ver. 9. QJM pan. These words seem to me to point to Gen. iii. 19, and
incline me to think that to God's own teaching man owes his making of bread.
By mention of bread in Gen. iii. 19, it may be safely concluded that Adam
knew what it meant. In Gen. iv. 3, Cain's offering is called "a mincha; "
and in Levit. ii. 1, the mincha is shewn to have been a meat-offering of fine
flour. This act of Cain's may well be reckoned to have been grounded on the
usage of Adam and Eve in Paradise. The corn may be supposed to have
grown there of itself, as afterwards in a Sabbatical year in Palestine. (Isa.
xxxvii. 30.) Owing to the succession of the seasons, the grain would need to
be stored for the purpose of bringing a mincha throughout the year ". at the
end of days," or Sabbath. (Gen. iv. 3.) What little labour was needed to prepare
the bread at every seven days' end in Paradise, would be a much more signi
ficant token of our first parents' combined intention to render thanks, than
the simple plucking of ripe fruit to lay before God, without a special com
mand. Compliance with what God had prescribed for a thankoffering to
Him, would be much more fitted to train man in worship, than his offering
thanks out of his own mind. (Heb. xi. 3, 7.) If also it had been commanded
our first parents to eat the mincha before God, after offering it, as afterwards
they were to eat part of the sacrificed beast in token of acceptance ; then
the very condemnation in Gen. iii. 19, to eat " bread," would convey a pledge
of mercy : at the same time that the labour needed to raise corn for that pur
pose in the deteriorated soil would divert the sorrowers from excessive grief.

102

PSALM THE SIXTY-SIXTH.

PSALM LXVI.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A song ; a psalm.
ARGUMENT.
The first five verses of this psalm apparently refer to God's
judgments upon earth about the time of His return to usher in His
glorious reign over Israel in His own land. About that time will
He call forward a chosen remnant of Abraham's natural descendants
to be the instruments of His awe-inspiring operations. Similar
judgments have been already spoken of in the forty-sixth psalm, at
verse 8.
In the next three verses a particular miracle is specified, which
seems to be spoken of in Isa. xi. 10 — 16, xliii. 1 — 7, agreeably with
what had been foretokened in Ps. lx. 4, 5. In the remaining
verses of this psalm, from the eighth to the end, the psalmist's own
experience of God's dealings seems to have furnished him with the
subjects of meditation, upon occasion of which he was wrapt into
ecstasy, wherein he saw God's future judgments.
Now these passages will b& equally suited to describe God's
dealings with us.
To " hold the soul in life " is a different thing from holding the
body therein. This latter is the gift or maintenance of animal life,
but the former of spiritual, which is only in Christ.
Again, the feet spoken of as " not suffered to be moved," taken
in connection with the subject for thanksgiving in the preceding
clause, are to be considered to mean those of the soul. Now these
feet are the affections, as may be gathered from the eighteenth
verse of this psalm, where the "regard" spoken of denotes the
way taken by the soul, through predilection or love. So, too,
Augustine observes on Ps. xxvi. 12.
By Ezek. xviii. 4, and other passages, it seems to me, that the
soul of each one is an emanation from God appointed by Him to
be joined with a mortal body in the mother's Vomb. Now through
the mortal flesh is transmitted the taint of original sin, with con
sequent condemnation under the curse of the broken command
ment. Thus, as it seems to me, are fulfilled St. Paul's words in
Rom. viii. 20, how that " the creature was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same
in hope."
The soul is to be regarded as pure, when emanating from the
fountain of purity ; but it becomes subject to influence by motions
of sins in its flesh. Against these, it is " by nature " (through the

PSALM THE SIXTY-SIXTH. 103
meritorious efficacy of Christ's sacrificial death for all men) per
mitted to retain some of those impressions respecting right and
wrong in a moral sense, which were originally written upon our
first parents in their innocence. These are extended to the babe
everywhere, according to John i. 9.
In proof hereof, nowhere do you find men devoid of all ability to
know right from wrong morally in some degree ; though it may
vary, according to the amount of moral light remaining by tradi
tion in the tribe or nation. But in certain isolated cases, mis
sionaries find heathens in respect of moral susceptibility outstripping
any light lingering in their tribe or nation on the subject of claims
of a troubled conscience.
Conscience may safely be taken, with Leighton, to mean " a
power which the mind or soul hath of looking in on itself," and
schooling itself by the principles wherewith it is impressed. This,
then, is the soul's condition everywhere by nature, (Rom. ii. 14 — 16,)
with principles of righteousness to some extent impressed upon it ;
to which the motions of sins in the flesh run counter : and when
these latter draw the soul's choice their way, (of which the soul
shall give account at the last day,) they draw it into sin. (See
Eom. vi. 20, 21.) Hence, as St. Paul saith in Rom. vii. 14, the
soul is " sold under sin." But it is the privilege of the Church of
God to be in possession of God's revelation concerning His reason
for doing this.
Hereby it appears that had He, when Adam sinned, promptly
punished him to the full extent provoked, Satan might have
boasted that His purpose in creating man had been frustrated.
Against this contingency He provided, and pledged Himself to
defiance of Satan's worst efforts in this direction by fore-determined
election unto life in Christ of a certain number of the descendants
of that very pair whom Satan should seduce.
To carry out this counsel it pleased Him to forbear from arresting
the condemnation unto death by the broken commandment coming
in course of nature upon all born of Adam and Eve ; to the intent
that He might save all through the righteousness of ONE, even
as Satan had brought condemnation on all through the sin of one.
For Divine Justice itself could not complain at Divine Mercy
taking the same way for recovering man unto holiness, which
itself had taken for condemning them, though they had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression. (Rom. v. 14.)
Thus Divine Mercy, in the Wisdom of God through Christ
crucified, rejoices against the judgment of God concerning mani —
the victim of Satan's fraud. (James ii. 13 ; Ps. lxxxv. 9 — 13.)
This is "the righteousness of God" so extolled in the Psalms,
which the psalmist, at verse 8, calls them that know it to praise.
Now the Church of God, blessed with the revelation of His
way of salvation in Christ, is further authorised by most certain
warrant of Holy Scripture to declare, that not only hath God

104 PSALM THE SIXTY-SIXTH.
provided through the merit of Christ's sacrificial death that every
soul, wheresoever born, should have some rays more or less
of moral light by nature impressed on it at birth, with which
the soul looking in on itself might by the conscience school itself ;
but hath further provided in the case of children born within
His Church, and so within the way of being trained up in " the
nurture and admonition of the Lord," (Eph. vi. 1 — 4,) that each
soul should be joined unto Christ in His sacrificial death ; whereof
the sacrament of baptism is the authentic sign and effectual
seal. Of this God gave evident proof in His appointment of every
male child under the Mosaic covenant to be circumcised at eight
days old. Israelitish boys were thus sacramentally enrolled in
the family of God.
The Christian Church is not one in which He would be less
merciful than in the Mosaic ; but more clear in development of
His purpose on this head. And since there is not in Christ male
and female, for we are in Him as the angels of God, (Gal. iii.
28, Luke xx. 36,) it is to be gathered from Scripture, that children
(of either sex, and not males alone, 1 Cor. vii. 14,) are "holy," or
admissible to the covenant of grace along with their Christian
parent ; because in the Christianity of the parent is a pledge that
there will be done what the Church is appointed to require to
be observed for training up the child in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord : like as the Jewish parent, whose babe was circum
cised, was required to do. (Deut. vi. 6 — 7, and 20.) We are
then, on the Church's most sure warrant out of Scripture, to be
persuaded, that in every instance of a child of a Christian parent
being baptized, it is by the operation of the Holy Ghost buried into
Christ's sacrificial death. (Rom. vi. 4 ; Col. ii. 10 — 13.) Hereby
the child's soul is incorporated with Christ in His mystical body.
Why should it be thought an incredible thing that God should
do so much for the child of each Christian parent ? If it has
been correctly stated already that He hath in each instance joined
the soul to a body of sin, why may He not be believed to join
the same, where His rules can be complied with, to the body
of righteousness ? (Rom. viii. 10.) For the sacrificial flesh of
Christ in His spiritual body has motions proper to it — motions
Godward — counter to " the motions of sins" proper to the body
derived from the first Adam. (Rom. vii. 5.) By this provision
it appears that for the soul of a Christian babe is secured the
help of the godly motions of Christ's spiritual body, in augmen
tation of those impressions in conscience shared in common with
all children whatsoever, as a counter-power morally to the soli
citations of lust in the flesh. It now appears that the soul of
the baptized Christian child is in the condition described in Gal.
v. 17, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are set the one over against the other, so

PSALM THE SIXTY-SIXTH. 105
that ye cannot do the things that ye would ; but if ye be led
of the Spirit, ye are not under the law : " that is, by reason of
your incorporation with Christ in His sacrificial death, Who Him
self thereby passed from under the law, the baptized soul is in
its nonage looked on by the Father as passed with Christ from
under the law : so that He can of His mercy forbear from dealing
with it according to law, because of sins the signification or full
consequence whereof it does not know. Meanwhile, the parent or
other teacher on God's behalf is afforded opportunity for training
up the child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, until he
be of age to answer for himself, (which with us is at fourteen
years of age, when the Church calls the baptized to confirmation,)
after which the Father will be expected to charge on souls, though
in Christ, those sins of which they do not repent according to
the baptismal vow, and strive to be rid : while further, praying
(if not already having done so) for new birth of the Spirit where
with to walk in newness of life.
Now is to be seen how the soul is a free agent and morally
responsible. For if the soul inclines to the motions of sins in
the flesh, it clearly doth so freely, with its "regard" (verse 18)
against better knowledge in conscience ; and of this shall give
account at the last day. (Rom. ii. 16; iii. 6.)
But if the soul inclines to the godly motions in Christ's spiritual
flesh, agreeably with conscience and Christian nurture and admo
nition, then it yields itself to Christ, for Him to bear rule ; it
devotes its old nature to burial under His new manhood ; and in
this way acquires in Christ strength of heart in choosing what
is to mortify the flesh and exalt Christ. (Eom. v. 6 ; Phil. iv.
13.) Hence the yoke of Christ is perfect freedom. (Matt. xi. 30 ;
1 John v. 3.)
Should the soul not yield itself to Christ that it may have this
liberty to do good, it is responsible, and shall be judged at the last
day, if out of Christ. (John xv. 1 — 7.) Thus it is that they
whom God holds in Christ, (verse 9,) have crucified the flesh with
its affections and lusts, (Gal. v. 24,) that is, done them habitual
displeasure for Christ's sake ; whereas they who are the children of
the wicked one, have crucified Christ afresh, and put Him to an
open shame. (Heb. vi. 6.)
Now I trust it is plain how God is to be praised for " holding
our soul in life, and suffering not our feet to be moved." For if
God were strict to mark offences, who could stand ? (Ps. cxliii. 2 ;
Heb. vi. 16—20.)
The Father forbears from charging with sin, because of the motions
of sins in the flesh soliciting the soul, those who refuse to "regard" —
or incline to — entertainment of them ; and devote themselves to
burial into Christ's sacrificial death, that they may have riddance
of them, and strength to walk in newness of life. The psalmist's
own experience on this head is to be seen in verse 16, where he

106 PSALM THE SIXTY-SIXTH.
speaks of his prayer unto God for help according to His promise
in Christ. (See Ps. 1. 14, 15.)
The psalmist, by preferring to God a prayer known only to God
and himself, and getting the desired light or relief, knew that his
prayer had reached the unseen God. He is careful to say, God
did this of His mercy, not in acknowledgment of any intrinsic
merit in his service. Hence his gratitude in verses 8, 9, and for
the trials which had stirred him up to prayer. (Ver. 10 — 12.)
For God creates the fruit of the lips. (Isa. lvii. 19.) Instead of
sacrifices of beasts, we are to bring on our hearts that of Christ, but
we ought to add thank-offerings. Many, alas ! among us never vow
these — and many that vow never pay. Were these vows more
observed, all the wants of Christ's Church in the world would be
amply provided for. Who, then, shall be backward? Who is there
that cannot say God has done for him what the psalmist confesses in
verses 8, 9 ?

To God, all lands, keep jubilee I1
The honour of His Name
With music blazon !2 dread is He
In working ! at His fame
Let foes submit dissemblingly,3
Mankind at large in transports be !
2.
Come, see His works, in thought discern'd ;
How awe-inspiring they !
The sea into dry land He 's turn'd ;
Through it we '11 find4 a way :
There we 11 rejoice ! supreme His power
For ever ! let the rebels cower !

Our God, O all ye peoples, bless !
His praise abroad repeat.
1 Ver. 1. Win : for the force of this word, see the note on Ps. c. I.
" Ver. 2. Vtt3! : for the force of this word, see the note on Ps. ci. 1.
a Ver. 3. Compare Ps. xviii. 44.
* Ver. 6. See Ps. xi. In this verse, '"n»' is in the future, and also nnota .

PSALM THE SIXTY-SIXTH. 107
Our souls in life how doth He place !
And steadfast keep our feet !
Though with us Thou, O God, hast dealt,
As men with fire silver melt.

Thou left'st us prey to many a snare —
To be bow'd down with woe —
Th' invader's iron yoke to bear —
Through flame and flood to go —
But now, made meet through penitence,
Brought'st us to Thine inheritance !

There will I with burnt-offerings
Ascend unto^ Thine house ;
Which, spite of vain ones' murmurings,
I promis'd oft in vows.
To Thee the steam of rams shall rise,
And steers be slain in sacrifice.
6.
Hear, ye that fear our God, what He,
Who souls in life doth hold,
Hath done for mine ! Hear words that be
In justice of Him told.
For He, most merciful, hath heard
My prayer, with lips devout preferr'd.
7.
Did I regard iniquity,
In vain my prayer I 'd urge :
But I my soul in secrecy
From such vain thoughts did purge.
And prais'd be God, my soul Who lov'd,
He kept my feet from being mov'd ! ,

108 PSALM THE SIXTY-SEVENTH.

PSALM LXVII.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth. A song ; a psalm.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm distinctly predicted God's employment of His ancient
people on His merciful errand of evangelisation among mankind.
But at the time of its being written, and for ages afterwards, it was
contrary to all probability; for from the going forth of the Israelites
out of Egypt to David's time, and long after, Israelites alone were
brought by God into covenant with Him under Moses ; while
the surrounding nations of Gentiles were bitterly opposed to the
Israelites, and not at all likely to receive from them instruction in
religion, if even the Israelites were willing to give it.
How marvellous is the manner in which God is working out the
fulfilment of this prediction ! First, the Saviour expected by the
Israelites was born to the house of David ; and though that people
nationally rejected the claim of Jesus to be the Christ, yet God
gathered a small company out of them by the preaching of Jesus —
a company, in point of numbers, quite inadequate, without God's
special help, to accomplishment of the work given them by Jesus
to do. (Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20.) Nevertheless, after His ignomi
nious public execution, but triumphant resurrection, indisputably
proved to those disciples, they went forth to proclaim, in the first
instance, to their own countrymen, and afterwards to the Gentiles,
that " there is none other Name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved, but ouly the Name of our Lord Jesus
Christ." To use the language of the psalm before us, God was merciful
unto the converts from out of the Jews who clave to the Lord Jesus,
and blessed them, and caused His glory in the face of the Lord
Jesus to shine unto them, that they might be fitted for His errand
of mercy to the Gentiles. (2 Cor. iv. 6.) The psalm before us
holds out but this one way for the conversion of the Gentiles ;
namely, through the instrumentality of the Israelites. (John iv. 22.)
The requisite compliance with this stipulation is to be found in
the fact that the earliest propagation of Christ's Gospel among the
Gentiles was made by apostles exclusively taken from among the
Jews. But the propagation of the Gospel by us of the Gentiles
among ourselves, after experience of 1800 years, does not, in point
of prevalence, come up to the legitimate expectation raised by the
latter verses of this psalm.
More than half of the human race at any time on the earth have
never yet heard of Christ Jesus. Neither is there any sign as yet

PSALM THE SIXTY-SEVENTH. 109
of that amelioration anywhere of the climate, and that agreement
of nations to live in peace together under Messiah, and of that
rectification of all abuses in government, which forms the subject of
the close of this psalm. Whether, then, are these transcendent
blessings to be looked for through the present ministry derived
from the apostles in reliance on the Saviour's words, " Lo ! I am
with you alway, even to the end of the age ? " or rather by the
return of the Lord from heaven "to restore all things?" Un
questionably by this latter mercy. (See Acts iii. 17 — 21.; Rom.
xi. 11—36.)
The present gathering of Gentiles unto Christ, which seems to
be pointed to in the third and fourth verses, by mention of some
that shall have become peoples in covenant with the God of
Israel, and so to be distinguished from the "Gentiles " in the second
verse, is due to God's " mercy," in providing that Jewish per
verseness should not for generations frustrate God's love towards
mankind in Christ Jesus " when all things are ready ;" and for the
same reason, lest perverseness of Christians out of the Gentiles
should do the like, God has provided for the recall to favour of
all Israel when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Rom. xi.
30, 31.) 1.
O God, be merciful, and grant Thy blessing ;
Thy glorious face, oh, to Thine Israel show !
That we Thy way in Christ ourselves professing,
May cause all Gentiles that same way to know.
2.
Ho ! ye, become His peoples, sing His praises ;
God's peoples all, His praises gladly sing !
Sing how His rule inveterate wrong displaces,
And doth unto all countries comfort bring.

Praise Him, all peoples, His true light possessing !
Then shall the earth her increase largely give ;
Then God, our God, shall grant us all His blessing,
And in His fear earth's furthest wanderers live.

110 PSALM THE SIXTY-EIGHTH.
PSALM LXVIII.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm, a song of David.
ARGUMENT.
Bishop Hor?eley considers this psalm to be " prophetic of deli
verance from the captivity, and of the conversion of the nations."
Like as a person, on gaining the summit of some high ridge
commanding a vast range of landscape, fixes his gaze in the first
instance on hills bounding the horizon ; so the inspired writers,
having the future of their nation unfolded in vision, seem to have
often dwelt first upon Israel's latter end, in the most distant part
of the field unfolded befoie them.
As the eightieth psalm appears to have been written by Asaph in
anticipation of the outcasts of Israel being called by the Lord,
about the time of His return, to begin their march toward the land
of promise ; so seems this sixty-eighth psalm to describe the call to
be addressed to Judah about the same time.
By Numbers x. 35, we learn, that the first verse of this sixty-
eighth psalm is a formula to be used upon notice being given for the
setting forward of the ark.
It is significantly recorded in Numb. x. 33, that upon the occa
sion of Israel first leaving Sinai the ark, by God's admonition,
went three days' journey in advance, " to search out a resting-place
for them."
This command, like that of the same kind to Abraham, in Gen.
xxii. 1 — 4, was doubtless significant in divers ways of what God
should do for Abraham through his expected Son.
Amongst the rest, when compared with our Lord's words, in
John xiv. 1 — 3, it may foreshadow after what interval from His
coming He should call the chosen remnant of His nation (see Ps.
xxxiii. 12; Ixxviii. 4 — 6,) to enter on the inheritance promised
to Abraham in the Lord's land at the commencement of the
third millenary after His ascension — one day being here taken
prophetically for a thousand years.
In the sixty-sixth psalm there is an undoubted intimation at
ver. 5 — 7, of a march appointed for a remnant of the ten tribes,
about the time of the Lord's return to bless them ; at which shall be
wrought wonders similar to those wrought on bringing Israel out
of Egypt under Moses, and apparently in the same places. On this
point compare Isa. xi. 10 — 16, and xviii. The psalm before us
seems to speak of events contemporaneous with the above. (See
ver. 22, 23.) As Joel, in his early day, looked forward to the full
accomplishment of the promised outpouring of the Spirit upon
Israel; (ch. ii. 23 — 32,) so seems the psalmist to have done here at
verse 9. As Peter, in Acts ii. 16 — 21, shewed the outpouring of

PSALM THE SIXTY-EIGHTH. Ill
the Holy Ghost's gifts, at the Pentecost next following our Lord's
Ascension, to be in fulfilment of that prophecy of Joel — that is, an
instalment thereof ; so Paul's exposition of the seventeenth and
eighteenth verses of this psalm in Eph. iv. 7 — 16, may be regarded
as the initial fulfilment of God's promise herein. The presence of
the Lord in Zion, as once on Sinai, predicted in verse 17, is entirely
in accordance with what Isaiah was instructed to fore-announce in
lx. 13 : and that very temple seems be spoken of in the twenty-
ninth verse of the psalm before us. In the eighteenth psalm, from
verse 32 to the end, predictions of Israel's final establishment in
ascendency over all nations, under the reign of their Messiah,
seems to be foretold in terms similar to those employed in the
latter part of this psalm.
This language, which agrees with what is used by the prophets
touching the same times, (see Isa. xii. ; Zech. ix. 13,) unques
tionably indicates, that whereas in this present age of the kingdom
of heaven, during the national divorcement of Israel, the battle is
carried forward " with burning and fuel of fire " alone, in support
and commendation of the word of His grace, (Isa. ix. 1 — 7 ; 2 Cor.
iv. 1 — 12,) in the age to come the Lord, on returning to Israel,
will subdue the obstinate rebelliousness of mankind by the terrors
of physical force. (See Jer. xxv. 31 — 38.)
1.
Let God arise, and let His enemies
Be scatter'd ; let all them before Him flee,
That hate Him ! as by flame wax liquefies,
So at God's presence let the company
Of sinners; but let righteous hearts rejoice
Before God, and in rapture lift their voice.
2,
Sing unto God ! breathe music in His Name !
Prepare His way, Who thro' the wilderness1
Is riding : very Jah,2 His Name ! proclaim
Before Him, " Father He of fatherless —
Judge He of widows — lone ones'3 families —
Bound ones gives freedom — rebels straitnesses.4
1 Ver. 4. See, too, verse 7.
2 Ver. 4. 3 is here taken to be intensive, as in Ps. xxix. 4, and had not
St. Paul, by Eph. iv. 8, in the words "unto men" shewn that 0TOa>
in verse 10, was to he rendered 'as in Jer. xlix. 15, it might have seemed
preferable to render it hy this rule " very man."
3 Ver. 6. See Ps. cxiii. 9.
4 Ver. 6. So in Ps. xviii. 26, God deals frotoardhj, by withholding grace.

112 PSALM THE SIXTY-EIGHTH. 3.
When Thou, O God, 'fore Thy host wentest forth—
When thro' the wilderness Thou marchedst — lo !
Heav'n bow'd before God's presence5 — quak'd the
earth.
Yea, Sinai heav'd with a convulsive throe,
Before the face of Israel's God ! but Thou
A plenteous rain didst graciously bestow
4.
Upon Thine heritage, and when distress'd,
Confirm it : there Thy congregation dwelt —
There to the poor,6 O God, Thou gavedst rest
Of Thy mere goodness7 — there the Lord forth dealt
His bread — the word — and female companies8
With glad acclaim sang of its victories.

Kings at the head of armies fled — yea fled —
All social fabrics at that word gave way —
Spoils of all realms were 'fore its heralds laid —
And she, at home abiding, shar'd as they.
Although ye've been as scullions,9 not the rays
Off doves' wings shall surpass your splendour's blaze.

6 Ver. 7. See Judges v. 4, 5.
0 Ver. 10. Isa. lxi. 1. Matt. xi. 5. Isa. xi 9.
7 See ver. 12, and Ps. xiv. 16.
8 Ver. 12. nVnpnon. By Exod. xv. 20, 21, and 1 Sam. xviii. 7, we see
what part the women of Israel hore in all that was of interest to the nation,
though, denied advantages of education, common with males. A little reflec
tion will convince one that like as Miriam's songs and those of the women in
David's day were not to he confounded with the achievements of Moses and of
David, or rather of God hy them, which formed the theme of their song ; so
surely ought not the song of the women in this psalm, who " tarried at
home," to be substituted for that of the messengers, or of the word which
they preached.
0 Ver. 13, ffnM) )'? "betwixt the two rows of stones" on which were
laid the pots and kettles in a camp. See Ps. lix. 14, 15, as to the down
trodden state of the Jews, until in retribution there shall he laid on Gentiles
some such terror, as led Egyptians, in Exod. xii. 36, to load them with gifts.

PSALM THE SIXTY-EIGHTH. 113
6.
That day the Almighty scatter'd kings, bright shone
Thy congregation, as might Salmon's10 snow,
Piercing high heav'n, illumin'd with the sun.,
High is God's hill, and Bashan high ; but low
That and all other high ones, when compar'd
With this which God to be His own declar'd.
7.
In this Jehovah will for ever rest ;
Above it are the chariots of God,
Angelic myriads ! and as when He press'd
Mount Sinai, so shall this hill too be trod
And sanctified with His beloved feet,11
When in His holy place He'll Israel meet.
8.
On high ascending Thou th' enslaving crew
Hast led enslav'd ;12 and Thou hast gifts receiv'd
For mankind, yea, for the rebellious too,
That Jah13 — God all in all — when they believ'd
His Word, might dwell14 in them ! be blest the Lord,
Who daily doth to us His gifts accord !
9.
The God that gives salvations, lo ! is ours ;
And to the Lord Jehovah doth pertain
The ways15 of death, hence wheresoe'er the powers
Of earth their disaffected state maintain,
God will the heads in righteous judgment wound
Of all persistently rebellious found.

19 Ver. 14. Salmon, Judg. ix. 47, 48; the same with Ebal.
11 Ver. 17. Isa. lx. 13. Ezek. xlviii. 35.
» Ver. 18. Col. ii. 15.
13 Ver. 18. Jah is the name of God in respeot of self-existence. (Exod,
iii. 14 ; John viii. 58.)
11 Ver. 18. John xiv. 23.
« Ver. 20. Prov. xvi. 25. I

114 PSALM THE SIXTY-EIGHTH.

10.

From B-ashan, said the Lord, I'll bring again,
From Bashan I My people back will bring —
From the uncover'd bottom16 of the main ;
That in exulting accents they may sing,
" With feet dipp'd in the blood of foes we came, >?
And our dogs' tongues were redden'd with the same.
11.
0 God, Thy goings have they witnessed !
(The goings in His house of God my King)
Foremost Thy progress singers heralded —
Next damsels did their pleasant timbrels ring
And minstrels after them play'd " Give ye praise
To God, the Lord, all ye of Israel's race."
12.
There's with his tribe the prince of Benjamin,17
And Judah's rulers with their counsellors,
There Zebulun's and Naphtali's are seen.
O congregation of God's worshippers,
Thy God hath mov'd thee hither thus to throng !
Vouchsafe, O God, to make our virtue strong !
13.
To deck Thy temple at Jerusalem
Shall kings bring presents. Tame the spearmen's18
host —
10 Ver. 22. Isa. xi. 15. See, too, Isa. xviii.
17 Ver. 27. Judah and Benjamin, to the south of Palestine, and Zehulun
and Naphtali, farthest off to the north, are perhaps intended to represent all
the tribes. (See Zech. xii. 7 ) Mr. De Burg observes, the monarchy having
originated in Benjamin with Saul, was perpetuated in Judah, and Naphtali
with Zehulun is mentioned in Judges v. 18, and Matt. iv. 15, 16, as first
sharers in the Gospel, (Isa. ix. 1, 2.)
18 Ver. 30. ro^ rpn, These words are by some rendered, "the wild
beast of the reed," meaning some monarch likened to such, as he of Egypt
or Assyria. But rpn has already in the eleventh verse been translated a
"multitude," and this is its first derived meaning after primarily signifying
a wild beast. The reed is used for lances and arrows.

PSALM THE SIXTY-NINTH. 115
The numerous bulls19 with calves attending them —
Till each one doth redeem him, at the cost
Of silver,20 as a poll-tax : scatter far
The Christian peoples21 which delight in war.
14.
From Egypt shall ambassadors22 come forth,
And Cush shall unto God stretch out her hands.
Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth,
O to the Lord sing praises ! Who commands
From highest heav'n, whereon of old He rode,23
With voice of mightiest pow'r sends forth abroad.
15.
To God ascribe ye strength ! o'er Israel
His excellency hovers ! to the clouds
His strength soars in th' ascendant ! terrible,
O God, art Thou, from that shrine which enshrouds,
In secrecy Thy being ! strength and power
Doth Israel's God upon His people shower.
Blessed be God !
w Ver. 30. In Ps. xxii. 12, bulls of Bashan are Jewish doctors. Ac
cordingly, they here mean doctors of persecuting Christian Churches.
» Ver. 30. See Ps. xiv. 12.
31 Ver. 30. D'B», is only spoken of peoples enlightened with revealed
truth. See Isa. xii.
32 Ver. 31. The Septuagint use irpE<r/3f<f.
ss Ver. 33, The angel in Whom God's Name is, (Exod. xxiii. 21,) Who is
celebrated throughout this psalm, is here identified with God. See Prov.
viii. 22.

PSALM LXIX.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim. A psalm of David.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is thought by Mr. Thrupp to have been written by
David about the very close of his life. On this supposition, when
i 2

116 PSALM THE SIXTY-NINTH.
we find him likening himself to one confined in a wet and miry
dungeon, we are minded to observe that in many instances ex
cavations were made under houses in Jerusalem for the sake of
storing rain water. In these, on the drying up of the water, there
would be mud. Jeremiah was lowered into such a rock-hewn
chamber, as we read in ch. xxxviii. 6. A prisoner's lot in such a
situation is desolate in the extreme ; and it may be aggravated by
considerations about neglect of one shewn by kinsmen,, and
aspersions of one's good name by enemies. This, then, might
be taken for a picture of David's actual condition, when stricken in
years, and possibly unable to quit his chamber, he received tidings
of his son Adonijah's disloyal proceedings, as recorded in 1 Kings
i. 24, brought him by Nathan the prophet, who also announced
the defection of Abiathar, the high priest, and of Joab, the captain
of the host.
Adonijah was reported to be then holding a feast; having
slaughtered many oxen and sheep for that purpose ; and all his
brethren, except Solomon, had upon invitation gone to the feast.
When the conviction was brought home to David, that his sons
cared but little for their father's directions compared with their
own inclinations ; and when their professions of allegiance were
belied by their conduct respecting Solomon, we may imagine David
venting his grief in tbe language of this psalm.
The Lord Himself had appointed Solomon to be the successor of
David (1 Chron. xxii. 7,) and had declared that he should build
the house for which David had of late years been making unheard
of preparations.
For Adonijah, therefore, to set his father's declared will aside
and to draw Joab and Abiathar, and all his brethren but Solomon,
after him, was an opposition not to David alone, but to God.
At no period of David's life, therefore, could he more truly say,
that " he was become a stranger unto his brethren, and an alien
unto his mother's children," Joab being a sister's son.
Hence, too, David might say, as at verse 9, " The zeal of Thine
house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that re
proached Thee are fallen upon me ; " since he had an absorbing
desire to see the projected temple built, with the Lord's permission,
by Solomon ; and he might think that God's appointment of Solomon
to do this caused all the rest of his brethren and Joab and Abiathar
to reproach him, who in so doing rather reproached God.
Among slighter and more doubtful indications of the occasion,
observes Mr. Thrupp, on which this psalm was written, may be
mentioned the possible reference in verse 4, " that which I took
not away," to David's indulgence of Adonijah, when he began to
create himself a court establishment; as also in the thirty-first
verse, " This shall please the Lord better than a bullock that hath
horns and hoofs," to the fat oxen of the sacrificial feast, with
which Adonijah inaugurated his demonstration.

PSALM THE SIXTY-NINTH. 117
Lastly, the imprecations in ver. 22 — 28 receive an important
illustration from the parting charge of David to Solomon in 1 Kings
ii., respecting Shimei and Joab and Adonijah.
But while David's mind was awakened to mourn in these strains
before the Lord over his own trials, the Spirit of Christ so ordered
his utterances, as to make him foreshadow what should be done by
a forthcoming generation of Israel to his Son and Lord : and at
the same time to provide that blessed One with a guide and light
in communing with His Father in heaven.
In the eleventh chapter of St. John's Gospel we have an interest
ing proof of this psalm having been applied to the blessed Jesus in
His lifetime. For when He, at the first passover after entrance on
His ministry, drave out of the temple with a small scourge the
sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and over
threw the tables ; and said unto them that sold doves, " Take these
things hence, make not My Father's house a house of merchandise,"
His disciples remembered that it was written, " The zeal of Thine
house hath eaten me up," which is the ninth verse of this psalm.
No other psalm has supplied in the New Testament more
notifications than this of what should be done to Jesus — David's
anointed Son.
For our Lord Himself is recorded, in John xv. 25, to have re
marked how the hatred borne Him by His countrymen fulfilled the
first clause of the fourth verse of this psalm : His words being,
" But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled, which
js written in their law, They hated Me without a cause."
Again, in the fifteenth chapter of Romans, at verse 3, St. Paul
shews how the words of the ninth VerseJulfilled in the mystical body
of Jesus, " The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen
upon Me," because of the Father having appointed, that owing to
the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews in their national capacity,
and their consequent repudiation as a nation for the destined
period until the times of the Gentiles should have been fulfilled,
(1 Thess. ii. 15, 16 ; Rom. xi. 25,) the elect remnants out of
Jews and Gentiles respectively should be called during this first
age in the kingdom of heaven to aim at uniformity through unity
of spirit, but without the help thereto that a divinely revealed
liturgy might have afforded, (Rom. xv. 5, 6;) it being a privilege
reserved for the chosen generation of the Lord's own people to
have such a liturgy, (Rom. ix. 4.) Again, in the twenty-first verse,
where it is written, " They gave me gali to eat, and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink, " this passage was literally fulfilled,
when Jesus was on the cross. (Matt, xxvii. 34; John xix. 28, 2 J.)
Again, our Saviour is thought to have referred to the twenty-fifth
verse, when saying, in Matt, xxiii. 38, " Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate." But in Acts i. 20, the words, "Let their
habitation " — or carefully constructed edifice, such as a temple —
" be desolate," are recorded to have been applied to Judas, as the

118 PSALM THE SIXTY-NINTH.
leader of such accursed ones, " who was the guide to them that
took Jesus." Also, in Rom. xi. 9, St. Paul applies to the Jews of his
day and forwards even till this hour, for their rejection of Jesus,
Who caused His Gospel to be first preached to them, the words of
the twenty-second and two following verses.
The application of the curses in this psalm to Judas, and those
impenitent Jews who wilfully rejected Jesus after the manner in
which Shimei deliberately rejected David, and Adonijah and Joab
rejected Solomon, though knowing God to have chosen the one
and the other, shews that they are to be looked on as solemn
foretokens of what shall ultimately devolve on obstinate unbelievers,
when their day of grace shall have run out unimproved, who
cannot be allowed to prolong for ever their rejection of the Divine
Will. The Son of God — the incarnation of Divine Love — will
consent to Divine Justice taking its course ; in other words, say,
" Let their habitation be desolate : " like as in the parable of the
barren fig-tree He said, "If it bear fruit, well; but if not, after
that, thou shall cut it down." Compare Rev xxii. 11, 12.
The counter-spirit to that of proud self will even against God is
this to which expression is given in the twenty-ninth verse, which
was pre-eminently exemplified in David's Son and Lord, Who is
"the Captain that bringeth many sons made like Himself unto
glory." Who was made perfect through sufferings. (Heb. ii. 10.)
" I am poor," saith He, " and sorrowful : let Thy salvation set Me
up on high." Thus Jesus gave glory to God under all His sorrows,
and humbled Himself while bearing our sins, till His Father
should exalt Him. 1.
A flood of grief o'erwhelms My soul ;
Save Me, O God ! men's doubts in mire1
Involve Me ! nor can I control
Their scoffing, tears Mine eyelids tire ;
Drought chokes My throat, dim grows My sight
While waiting for My God ! the ire
Of those that hate Me waxes worse in spite,
And unto death would Me remorseless smite !
2.
Yet that of which they had not been by Me
Bereft, came I to finally restore ! 2
1 Ver. 2. "Mire." What is said in verse 4, about persons hating the
sufferer, I take to be an explanation of the figurative terms in verses 1, 2 
waters, mire, floods.
2 Ver. 4. "That which I took not away," I refer to Christ's purpose
of bringing back to man that life of which Satan had defrauded him.

PSALM THE SIXTY-NINTH. 119
O God, Thou knowest My simplicity,3
In thinking that the love for them I bore
Should win Me theirs : nor are conceal'd from Thee
The sins that with heart-anguish I deplore,
Committed in Me 'gainst Thee o'er and o'er.
Yet let not these My members, O my Lord
Jehovah of Sabaoth, at My grief
Be shaken ! nor let those that in Thy word
Do trust, be sham'd for My sake ! grant this prayer
By Me in their behalf preferr'd —
By Me, Who for Thy sake reproach do bear,
And blush at the blasphemer's harden'd stare.
4.
My brethren Me to be a stranger hold,
My mother's children for an alien,
Because Thy truth with zeal to all I've told,
How Thou Thy house4 art pleased to maintain :
For this in speech against Me they are bold ;
So when these disputants Thy words arraign,
And of Me in no measur'd terms complain,
For Thy sake is reproach upon me lain.
5.
Did I shed tears % did I My soul afflict
. With fasting % it provok'd a sneer :
Did I to use of sackcloth Me addict %
My self-abasement prompted them to jeer.
The drunkard's song was I ! now, then, My prayer
In Thine accepted5 time, Jehovah, hear !
Me of Thy truth, O God, and mercy spare !
Save Me from those, sore hate against Me bear !
3 Ver. 5. It seems to me that verse 20 justifies this interpretation of
foolishness. 4 Ver. 9. "House." This is that spoken of in Heb, iii. 1—6, and John
viii. 34—36.
s Ver. 13. "Accepted time," See 1 Cor. vi. 2.

120 PSALM THE SIXTY-NINTH.
6.
Let not this flood of passion Me o'erflow !
Let it not Me engulph, as would the deep !
Let it not cast Me in the pit6 below
Men's feet, and buried there in silence keep !
Hear Me, Jehovah ! tender is Thy care
'Tis grievous Thine averted face to bear,
Sore's My distress ; O grant with speed My prayer !
7.
Draw nigh unto My soul! and of My blood,
Do Thou, O God, condign avenger be !
My spiteful foes that o'er My doctrine7 brood
In hatred, all are fully known to Thee !
Some surely would — then did I fondly think
In pity shew their sympathy with Me ;
But, no ! for Me, when at death's very brink,
The meat they'd give was gall, and vinegar the drink !
8.
Oh, then, do Thou their table make a snare —
Make that a trap which once their souls might heal :
Gross darkness for their recreant minds prepare,
And 'neath their self-made burdens let them reel.
In retribution sorrow on them pour —
Let them Thy righteous anger duly feel —
Leave desolate8 their house, was Thine before —
Nor longer in their midst dwell,9 as of yore !
9.
Since Whom Thou smitedst10 for them,Him they smite!
Whom Thou to grief devotedst, them11 they grieve !
" Ver. 15. "The pit," to wit, of the grave. A mysterious indication of
the death of Christ, with which the prayer in verse 18, " redeem " my soul,
agrees. And that in verse 26, " Him whom Thou hast smitten."
7 Ver. 19. The doctrine of Jesus was that which stirred up the hatred of
the Pharisees against Him. See Matt. xii. 14.
8 Ver. 25. Matt, xxiii. 38.
» Ver. 25. Exod xxix. 45, 46.
«> Ver. 25. Isa. liii. 6.
11 Ver, 26. This change from the singular to the plural shews the

PSALM THE SEVENTIETH. 121
The wantonness hereof in them requite !
Forbear by grace their nature to relieve,
Iniquity to their iniquity
So add Thou ! let them not believe,
And live ! but from Thy book be finally
Expung'd, nor number' d with the righteous be.
10.
But I a man of sorrows am and poor !
O God, let Thy salvation up on high
Exalt Me, in My members all earth o'er
With thankful songs Thy Name to magnify.
This worship will Jehovah rather seek,12
Than gift of ox on th' altar laid to die.
Be glad hereat, ye humble saints ! ye meek,
Who unto God your heart's wish only speak !
11.
His poor ones surely doth Jehovah hear !
Far 'tis from Him His pris'ners to despise.
His creatures all in heav'n, in earth, in air,
In sea, join in His praise your harmonies !
For God will Zion save ! the cities waste
Of Judah build! and there that seed, thence chas'd,
Shall serve Him, never more to be displac'd.
intermixture of the personal with the mystical body of Christ running
through this psalm.
»3 Ver. 31. Compare John iv. 23, 24.

PSALM LXX.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm of David, to bring to remem
brance.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is found upon examination to be a transcript of the

122 PSALM THE SEVENTIETH.
last five verses of the fortieth. Now between the fortieth and the
sixty-ninth there is a remarkable agreement in subject.
Supposing, then, that this sixty-ninth was composed by David at
the very close of his life, the pious compiler who inserted it in the
Second Book of Psalms, perceived, as I would suggest, the lack of
some prayer for a sequel to it, after the manner of that appended
by David himself to the fortieth : and in this way the last five
verses of that psalm became the seventieth in this Second Book.
Upon this supposition, these five verses ought to be here inter
preted in the same sense as in the fortieth. Now in that psalm
Christ is sung of at commencement as rising from' the bottomless
pit to proclaim from heaven, in the persons of His Apostles
and their successors, with the power of the Holy Ghost, His new
law to "the great congregation," (verse 9.) But the opposition
that His soul, now changed into a quickening spirit, and provided
for the sanctification of His people, as their asham, or trespass
offering, meets with in their persons, (which constitute His mystical
" body " spoken of in verse 6, according to Heb. x. 5,) constrains
Him as High Priest, pleading their cause before His Father with
the blood of His sacrifice, to say, as in verse 12, that their iniquities
(which He reckons mystically His) have " taken such hold upon
Him that He is not able to look upward — they are more in number
than the hairs of His head — therefore His heart faileth Him."
Then follow the last five verses of that psalm, which are to be
regarded as foreshadowing what interpretation should be put by the
High Priest in His Father's presence, upon those strivings of His
Spirit in the hearts of His mystical members, which are too deep
to find articulate expression, (Rom. viii. 26 ;) but which He —
the Searcher of hearts — Who knoweth what is the mind of His
own Spirit, (1 Cor. ii. 11,) averreth to be an intercession according
to the will of God.
It hence appears that the fortieth psalm, in the part preceding
the last five verses, is descriptive of " that which is behind of the
affl ictions of Christ in His flesh — His mystical flesh — for His body's
sake, which is the Church," (Col. i. 24,) since whatever has been
truly done for God by the Apostles and their successors, or by
others of the mystical body, at any one time on earth, has been so
achieved through the Spirit of Christ in them, by their holding Him
Who is the Head of the body— the Church. (Eph. iv. 13—16.)
Does, then, this sixty-ninth psalm in like manner treat of post-
resurrection times ? Yes. For after having in the first part (ver.
1 — 21) treated prophetically of the indignities to be offered to the
Son of David in person, it goes on from the twenty-second to the
twenty-eighth verse, in what are called the imprecatory sentences,
to say what our High Priest should ask His Father — to Whom
belongeth vengeance — to adjudge those perverse Jews who, after
making void the commandments of God to Moses by their own
traditions, while God required them to approach Him with faith in

PSALM THE SEVENTIETH. 123
His promise concerning Christ according to that covenant and
sacrificial table, (Matt. xv. 6,) so soon as it should be fulfilled
in that great sacrifice of God's Lamb, and that Lamb's new law be
proclaimed with the power of the Holy Ghost, would then reject
Jesus for the sake of rigid adherence to the covenant of Moses ; on
the plea of its having been once given them by God, Who because
of His uhchangeableness cannot be conceived to have changed His
law. How now, I ask, was this entrenchment of the Jewish mind in
the unohangeableness of God, as their supposed justification in
rejection of Jesus, to be otherwise broken down, than by the most
explicit representation of Him, (Who should fulfil the former part
of the sixty-ninth psalm, by what should be done unto Him at His
death, verse 21,) as here adjuring His Father, by the merits of His
blood-shedding, to turn their sophistical misuse of the unohange
ableness of God to their own undoing ; because persisting in use of
the type as efficacious, when brought to naught in the thing typi
fied ? (Justin, Dial. Con. Tryph., p. 228.) If any thing could be
conceived suitable to open Jewish eyes which read this psalm, and
may by the Gospel see fufilment of the former part of it down to
verse 24 in Jesus, (to see how foolish is their rejection of Divine
mercies made theirs in Jesus,) it would be these imprecatory
sentences, which are only to have effect by the power of Him Who
they own can do no wrong !
St. Paul, in Rom. xi. 7 — 11, shews how these imprecatory sen
tences point to the criminal obstinacy of the Jewish people as a
nation, during this present age in the kingdom of heaven, ushered
in by the Apostles themselves. Nevertheless, these imprecatory
sentences are followed by others, (34 — 36,) speaking better things,
and things which accompany salvation, touching an elect remnant
of the Jewish people. For after that the Saviour is represented
by His royal progenitor David as saying at verse 29, "Let Thy
salvation set Me up on high," namely, at My resurrection and
ascension, the acceptable worship of God, (spoken of in verse 13,
compared with 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2,) is set forth from ver. 30 — 32,
which is offered during our entire age in the mystical body
of Christ, through Christ as our propitiation and Adyocate, with
worship of the Father by converts, whether out of Jews or Gen
tiles, in spirit and in truth, (John iv. 24,) to the discarding of
those Levitical sacrifices which the Jews as a nation still affect to
rely on.
It may be, too, that the designation, " His prisoners, " in verse
33, is to be restricted to the Saviour's own nation, to whom the
foregoing imprecations are undoubtedly to be limited ; as also the
closing verses 35, 36, concerning Zion's reconstruction ; agreeably
wherewith St. Paul, in Rom. xi. 25, saith, that "blindness in
part hath happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles
be called in ;" and again in verse 28, "as concerning the Gospel

124 PSALM THE SEVENTIETH.
they are enemies for your sakes" — that is, left without grace
that should take away their enmity — " but beloved for their
fathers' sakes."
It is hence clear that the sixty-ninth psalm is as far-reaching
in its scope and tenor as is the fortieth, so that the compiler
rightly judged, (as we can perceive, who live after the times
when his nation have by culpable obstinacy provoked the curses
so held out, instead of being scared by them therefrom.)
Rightly did he judge that such imprecations should be meekly
received, if they were to be escaped, in the meekness and low
liness of spirit characterising the Sufferer at verse 29 in the psalm
which contained them.
Rightly, then, did the compiler of this Second Book of Psalms
for promotion of this reflection, have recourse to David's inspired
petitions at tbe close of the fortieth psalm, so closely in accordance
with the sixty-ninth. What, then, are we to gather from these
verses of the seventieth psalm so introduced ? Let us gather
that the Spirit of Christ is eminently a Spirit of prayer and in
tercessory pleading ; and that according as we have a larger
portion of it we shall be more given to prayer <and suplication.
Let us also gather herefrom that we are to make God our refuge,
not only from bodily evils and earthly reverses, but in the most
important of all matters, as did the Sufferer in the sixty-ninth psalm,
namely, in that of justification from sin, which in His case had
not been committed by Himself, though done in His mystical
body, from which He would not be separated in His Father's
judgment; (verse 6 — 9, and 17 — 20,) whereas in our case the
sins are not only that original but the actual. Let us also gather
herefrom the propriety of meekly praying to God, after our
Saviour's example, for guidance into His will under difficult dis
pensations of His dealings, such as this in which His very un-
changeableness is plausibly but unscripturally made to appear an
insurmountable hindrance to our doing that which He would in
deed have us do, but at which our prejudice chafes.
Here it is to be observed that the imprecatory sentences of
the sixty-ninth psalm are virtually recited in a supplicatory form,
(ver. 2 — 4,) shewing how we are to follow Christ in this matter,
and solemnly call on God to do justice against those who in
their ignorance would culpably work with Satan and his agents
against Christ's soul, now a quickening spirit, (1 Cor. xv. 45,)
which within His sacrificial flesh and blood cleanses and rege
nerates the members for the time being on earth of His mystical
body. (Heb. x. 29, 30.) If it be asked how it is that God delays
so long to answer prayers presented by our High Priest, our answer
is to be found in reference to two passages in the New Testament :
one in Matt. xv. 22 — 28, where Jesus, Who came to shew the
glory of His Father, delayed to answer the Syrophoenician mother,
while He, through her constancy in prayer, wrought the needful

PSALM THE SEVENTIETH. 125
change in His disciples concerning the comparative non-importance
of purification in the flesh according to the Levitical ritual, (lxix.
30, 31,) where the worshipper has the better purification of which
that Levitical ceremonial was but the type.
During all this first age in the kingdom of heaven the Father
is waiting for the members of Christ's mystical body, who night
and day prefer through the Spirit of Christ in them petitions
analogous to these in the psalm before us, the inarticulate yearning
which their High Priest interprets before Him, until the destined
number of elect souls, whether out of Jews or Gentiles, learn to
worthily appreciate the transcendent value of spiritual renewal as
evidenced by its fruits, (Luke ix. 50,) above mere external con
formity in ritual ; which, after all, may denote a community like
a whited sepulchre. (Matt, xxiii. 27.)
The other passage, whereby the Father's delay to answer these
petitions preferred by His Son is to be explained, is that in Luke
xviii. 1 — 8, where it is to be seen that the Father bears with
difficulty, so to speak, these pleadings of His elect for the recovery
of the Lord's own people, and the subsequent happiness of all other
nations to His greater glory, (Rom. xi. 15,) while the elect of the
generations yet remaining to be born into tbe world of Jews and
Gentiles are to be gathered therefrom into the mystical body of
Christ, until the times of the Gentiles shall have been fulfilled.
(Luke xxi. 24; Rev. vi. 11.)
The verses, therefore, from the second to the end of the fourth
are provisions for pleading of the imprecatory sentences of the
psalm preceding in a Christ-like spirit of meek and lowly submission
to the Father. The petitions in verses 2 and 3 are, on the one hand,
against those who would, for the sake of ritualistic uniformity,
throw stumbling-blocks in the way of them that by their life give
charitable observers scriptural evidence of their new-birth, (Rom.
xv. 1 — 7 ;) and in verse 4 they are, on the other hand, in behalf
of those who would worship God in spirit and in truth, with faith
in Jesus, and would steadfastly say, to the glory of God in Jesus,
as regards those imprecatory sentences, " Let God be magnified."
(Rom. iii. 4 ; ix. 20.)
The last verse shews that we ought, as members of Christ,
according as His Spirit abounds in us, to have so all-absorbing a
concern for our heavenly Father's glory, as that a summons from
Him to leave this life ought never to be unwelcome, but rather
the crowning of our devoutest wishes. So that, like Paul, we would
rather depart and be with Christ, as being far better for us ;
except that it seems to be God's will that we should do work for
Him at present here. 1.
O God, with speed Thy servant extricate !
To help Me, O Jehovah, come in haste !

126 PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIRST.
Let those who would My soul make desolate
Abash'd find all their efforts to be waste.
Let them, a routed rabble, back from Me
Recoil, who 'd have Me hopelessly disgrac'd.
That shame by their Aha ! thro' enmity
They'd heap on Me, on them requited be.
2.
May those, who rest their souls' expectancy
On Thee, have gladness therein multiplied !
May they, that love Thy truth, say constantly,
Let God in ev'ry1 word be magnified !
But I am, in My mystic members, poor
And needy ! Oh, be Thy relief supplied
With speed, O God ! Thou only canst restore
My weal ! Jehovah, make delay no more !
1 Ver. 4. Reference, as it seems to me, is here made to the imprecatory
sentences of the psalm preceding, implying that the meek will receive them
from God in the spirit of St. Paul, when saying, in Rom iii. 4, " Let God he
true, and every man a liar ; " and in Rom. ix. 20, " Nay, but, O man, who
art thou, that repliest against God?" Hence I use " every " in my paraphrase
as Moses seems to have said, in Deut. viii. 3, " Man shall live by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

PSALM LXXI.

ARGUMENT.
This psalm is generally considered to have been written by David
in extreme old age : and it immediately precedes that which by a
note at its close purports to be the very last he ever wrote.
These two are also thought to be closely connected together in
their mystical sense : David being in this one speaking the language
of the Spirit of Christ within His house, (Heb. iii. 1 — 6,) at the
time that the Mosaic covenant, under which they were admitted
into that house, should be waxing old and ready to vanish away,
(Heb. viii. 13,) while in the seventy-second speaking the language
of the Spirit of Christ within the same house at the time of the
members giving utterance thereto being admitted thereinto under
the New Covenant. See 2 Cor. vi. 1 — 3, compared with Isa. xlix.
8, and Heb. viii. 8—12.
David experienced much anxiety in his extreme old age, owing

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIRST. 127
to the rebellion of his son Adonijah, quite sufficient to account for
his expressions of distress in this psalm ; for deliverance from which
he put his trust in God ; not, however, because he thought himself
worthy from his own intrinsic righteousness to be thus protected,
but according to God's righteousness, on which he very explicitly
here testifies his reliance.
The righteousness of God is a very important phrase in the
psalms and prophets; meaning, a way of justification freely offered
to believers in God's promise concerning Christ, in opposition to
men's reliance on their own righteousness in keeping God's com
mandments for justification before Him. Thus, in the fifteenth
verse, righteousness and salvation were with the psalmist terms
closely connected, implying that the one who penitently receives
the righteousness of God for his justification, may, when in that
state, acceptably ask, as he is bid, for a measure of the Spirit of
Christ day by day, that he may be renewed, until he irreversibly
obtains eternal salvation. In thankful acknowledgment of that good
hope, David said, at verse 15, "My mouth shall shew forth Thy
righteousness and Thy salvation all the day ; for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God ; I
will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only."
After which David adds, " 0 God, Thou hast taught me from
my youth ; and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.
Now, also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me
not ; until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and
Thy power to every one that is to come."
On looking over David's eventful life, from the time of his being
anointed to be Saul's successor in the throne of Israel, recorded in
1 Sam. xvi. , it is easy to conceive with what fervency he may have
written, "O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth." God
singled him out, from among his countrymen and from his brethren
in early youth, to be the future king, and endued him with grace
to be pious, and loyal, and discreet, and the champion of Israel.
Also, on looking through his history, we must acknowledge that he
was always clear of self-righteousness, and in the time of his
greatest triumphs gave the glory to God ! so that he could truly
say, " Hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works." Bearing
this in mind, we can see on what word more especially is stress to
be laid in the prayer offered up by him at the time of writing this
psalm, which is contained in the next verse, as follows : " Now
also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not ; until
I have shewed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power
to every one that is to come." The stress is clearly to be laid on
" Thy ;" and he may be understood to say, " What I have done all
my life, while performing the commissions with which Thou hast
put me in trust, now that I am old still prolong my life, that I
may do, in the matter of establishing Solomon for my successor,
which, (however much it is opposed by my family and court,) is

128 PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIRST.
Thine appointment. " Here at once appears a reason for this psalm
being brought into such close proximity to that following one re
lating to Solomon.
In that following one, God's strength and power, as displayed in
that Son of David of whom Solomon was a type, are set forth, both
to that generation contemporary with David and to every other
coming after.
David being oppressed with the infirmities of old age, and de
serted by his family and by very many of his courtiers, who re
sented his advancement of Solomon for his successor to the rejection
of his elder son Adonijah, felt himself, humanly speaking, over
tasked. But he hesitated not to abide by what God had appointed,
(1 Chron. xxii. 6 — 19,) glorifying God's strength and power, whereof
he in his eventful life had in sundry critical junctures found con
spicuous proof.
This done, he betook himself afresh to exaltation of God's righ-
teousness, on which, and not on his own worthiness, he relied for
ground of hope that he should succeed in establishing Solomon for
his successor: saying, "Thy righteousness, also, O God, is very high,
Who hast done great things : who is like unto Thee ? "
How truly may we, who live after the events which David was
commissioned to bring about, in regard of securing Solomon for his
successor, join David in exaltation of God's righteousness ! For
had Solomon's been that on which God had made the happiness of
Israel and of mankind at large to have depended, none of the
great things would have been done for us by God, that are pre
paratory to the full prosperity foretold in the seventy- second psalm.
All the hopes raised by David therein would have collapsed through
the shameful libertinism of the favoured successor to David. But
God laid help upon One that is mighty : One, indeed, like Solomon,
in regard to being of David's line, and of having appointed to Him
a peaceful reign on earth ; but further, of being destined to perform
in His mortal lifetime all God's pleasure and to make an end of
sins — to make reconciliation for iniquity — and to bring in everlast
ing righteousness. (Dan. ix. 24.) We live under the blessings of a
spiritual nature brought in by that predicted Son of David of Whom
Solomon should be a type : but that Son is as yet, like David him
self in Saul's days, only expecting from His Father those earthly
blessings spoken of in that psalm. We, however, can truly set
our seal to David's faithful anticipations thereof in the psalm before
us and say, " Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, Who hast
done great things. 0 God, who is like unto Thee ? "
After this, in the twentieth verse, David records for his own part
what by fair interpretation can but be regarded as his hope of
being raised again from his grave, after the same manner in which
in the sixteenth psalm he had been taught to say the same of Christ,
his greater Son. " Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither
wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption."

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIRST. 129
As David had doubtless read in Job xiv. 14, " If a man die, shall
he live again ? all the days of my appointed time will I wait till
my change come, (from natural to spiritual, 1 Cor. xv. 44 ;) Thou
shalt call and I will answer Thee, Thou wilt have a desire to the
work of Thine hands," we may boldly say in this hope David wrote
at verse 20 : " Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles
shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths
of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me
on every side."
Happy shall we be if, when spared to be old and grey-headed,
we can at prospect of death faithfully commit our spirits into the
hands of our Creator, saying the same words.

1.
In Thee, Jehovah, trust I ! let not shame
O'er take me ! in Thy righteousness
Deliver me ! and grant me so to frame
My course, as to attain desir'd success.
2.
Be Thou my sure retreat, for maintenance
Of my just sway ! who does not know,
Thy word1 concerning my deliverance —
How unto me a tower and rock art Thou ]

Grant me, O God, successfully to cope
With the unrighteous man2, and him defy !
For Thou, O Lord Jehovah, art my hope,
From my youth upbn Thee do I rely !

Thy care hath been vouchsaf'd me from the womb,
Of Thee unvarying shall be my praise !
I'm an offence and stumbling-block become,
Yet, hast Thou been my refuge all my days !
i Ver. 3. 2 Sam. vii. 5—16. ' Ver. 4. Joab : 1 Kings ii. 5.
K

130 PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIRST. 5.
Oh, in mine old age cast not Thou me off,
Nor when my strength decayeth, me desert—
For, lo ! at me mine enemies do scoff,
And for my soul's hurt craftily assert,
6.
God hath forsaken him — his doom's at hand-
Arise, and seize him — hope for him is past !
But, oh, my God, aloof no longer stand !
For my relief, O God, unto me haste !

Shame be to them that would my soul confound,
Be theirs the hurt they would procure for me !
But I'll in hope endeavour to abound,
By speaking more and more in praise of Thee.

My mouth shall all day long Thy righteousness
And Thy salvation rapturously shew ;
Upon Thy righteousness alone lay stress,
And in Thy strength, O Lord Jehovah, go.
9.
From my youth upward me, O God, Thou'st taught;
And I Thy works have hitherto declar'd :
Now, also, when to life's last limits brought —
Bow'd down with age's burden and grey-hair 'd---
10.
Forsake me not !3 till I my sense express
To this and every generation yet to come
Of Thy great glory, power, and righteousness.
To vie with Thee, O God, who dare presume %
3 Ver. 18. So 1 Tim. iv. 13,

PSALM THE SEVENTY-SECOND. 131
11.
Sore troubles heretofore to me Thou'st shew'd,
And yet may to my seed ; but me again
Thou'lt quicken and bring from the earth renew'd,
To praise Thee in a new and worthier strain.
\2.
With harp and psaltery, then, my God, of Thee —
Of Thee— O Holy One of Israel,
I'll sing in raptures ; and what victory*
Thy righteousness secur'd for me, will tell.
4 Ver. 24. Compare I Cor. xv. 67.

PSALM LXXII.
TITLE.
A Psalm for Solomon.
AKGUMENT.
The title of this psalm is iifi /tpp, which the Septuagint translate
E/9 ~S,aKu3fiiov, meaning with reference to Solomon. This shows
that those Jewish rabbies regarded tbe last clause of this psalm as
decisive proof of its being one with reference to Solomon, and not
of his composition. We have here, therefore, on the authority of
the Septuagint, the signification of " for " given to the preposition
b. The last clause seems to make it certain that the psalm was
written by David, in all probability at the close of his reign, after
the transaction recorded in 1 Chron. xxii. 7 — 19.
David in writing it seems to have hoped that his son Solomon's
reign should prove a prefigureraent of that to be entered on by
Christ. Solomon's history shows how lamentably, during his reign
of forty years, he declined in every respect from the pattern here
set out for him ; although he, in a certain degree, attained unto it.
The psalm is divided into three parts. The first, from the be
ginning to the close of the eighth verse, predicting that Christ's
kingdom should be one of peace, because of righteousness ; the
second, from verse 8 to 15 inclusive, saying, that it should extend
from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth ; the third, from
verse 16 to the end of verse 17, describing the abundance of all
m 2

132 PSALM THE SEVENTY-SECOND.
natural productions and the vast increase of population, all rejoic
ing in the rule of Christ their King.
" The first two strophes," observes Mr. Thrupp, " correspond to
each other, in consisting of exactly seven verses each ; but the
third, or epode, formed of three long verses, is the culminating strain
of the psalm."
Hengstenberg remarks that on the righteousness of the King
everything else in this psalm absolutely depends. To it is traced,
in the first strophe, the perpetuity of His dominion and its peace.
To it, in the second, the universality of it. A parallel passage is
to be found in Isa. xxxii. To it, in the third, is ascribed because of
His life — the reward of righteousness — the happiness of mankind.
(Ps. xxi. 4.)

Give to the King Thy judgments, O my God,
Yea, to the king's Son 1 give Thy righteousness,
Then o'er Thy people will He wield a rod
Of righteousness, and Thy poor saints will bless
With judgment: His officials,2 high and low,
In people's ears glad sounds of peace shall raise
By righteousness : and His avenging blow
Shall crush th' oppressor : men of ev'ry race,
Long as the sun lasts, His lov'd Name shall praise,
While, like grass wet with dew, saints flourish in His
days. 2.
From sea to sea His empire shall extend,
On either side Euphrates to earth's bound ;
The desert-tribes beneath His yoke shall bend
Their necks ; and hostile warriors on the ground
Creep fawning to His foot; tribute shall kings
Of Tarshish and the isles bring ; they that reign

1 Ver. 1. The King and the king's Son alike mean Christ. David set
this particular of Solomon's position in the fore-front of his psalm, as being
the first thing out of many to follow in which he doubtless hoped that his son
should, as king, he more like ChriBt, than he himself had heen or could he.
2 Ver. 3. In the clear atmosphere of Palestine, proclamations were usually
made to the population' from an adjacent mountain or hill. (See Josh. viii. 30,
and Judges ix. 7.) Hence, in Isa. Iii. 7, we have the Gospel spoken of as so
proclaimed. As governments claim the authority to make proclamations,
" mountains and hills " may in this psalm be the officials of government..,

PSALM THE SEVENTY-SECOND. 133
O'er Sheba and o'er Seba offerings
In like sort; poor ones who to Him complain,
Shall find a helper; He'll their cause maintain;
And their souls from the foe, as their Avenger,3 gain.

Yet shall He live ! to Him of Sheba's gold
Store shall be offer'd ; for Him constantly
Be prayer made ; day by day shall there be told
Far forth His praises ; through fertility
A patch* of hill-corn shall wave in the breeze
Like Lebanon's rich foliage ; while the throng
Of many a city shall, like grass, increase ;
All joining to exalt Him in their song,
Who, as the sun itself, doth their glad life prolong.
4.
To Israel's God, Jehovah, be there giv'n
All blessing ; unto Him, who doth alone
Work marvels ; to the highest heav'n
Be His praise sounded ; let the whole earth own
His goodness ; and His glorious Name
From age to age be kept in memory !
Amen, doth this devoted heart exclaim ;
Amen, let all in unison reply !
In this hope David, Jesse's son, doth frame
His last prayer, summing up here his soul's inmost5
aim.
3 Ver. 14. The use of 7S?*, " shall redeem," shows that he should do this
as the Avenger of blood, next of kin to the persons slain. When we consider
that David wrote the twenty-first and twenty-second psalms, there can be no
doubt in our minds about his reference here to Christ's deliverance of His
people's souls by laying down His own life, hence the emphatic significance
in the next verse of His having life. (See Rev. i. 18.)
4 Ver. 1 6. De Burgh observes nBQ, " a handful," only here; but DQ is
in Chaldee a part of the hand. (Dan. v. 5, 24.)
5 Ver. 20. -ibS, " are perfected." " The devout heart can desire no greater
glories than these." (Thrupp.)

(2)

BOOK THE THIRD.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD BOOK.

The psalms of this book extend from the seventy-third to the
eighty-ninth. The first eleven of these are Asaph's : and bear internally
such a characteristic likeness in style, as to confirm the ascrip
tion of them in their titles to one author. It is rendered very
probable by 2 Chron. xxix. 30, that this book was compiled
by Hezekiah.
The writer of the first eleven psalms seems from internal
evidence to have been habituated to worship before the Lord
at Nob, or in Gibeon. (2 Chron. i. 3.) He writes as one
mourning the decay of religion in the place of his sojourn,
though rejoicing in the unalterable purpose of God to dwell
thenceforth in Zion. (Ixxviii. 10.) But his spirit is lifted up
in vision to see the far-off time (for which we yet wait) of
Ephraim being called to j'oin with Judah in return to the Lord's
land. (Ps. Ixxx.)
The remaining psalms form by their subjects a suitable sequel
to Asaph's. The eighty-fourth being descriptive of pilgrims
journeying to Jerusalem out of the country of Ephraim, or of
the other ten tribes, as the direction of the Valley of Baca in
dicates. The eighty-fifth describes the return of Israel in heart
unto God, which should be effected by the meritorious life, and
atoning death and resurrection for performance of the mediatorial
office, to be accomplished by David's anointed Son. The eighty-
sixth and eighty- seventh describe the sorrows and ultimate triumph
of Christ and the people of Christ. The eighty-eighth predicts,

138 PREFACE TO THE THIRD BOOK.
that by the Saviour, born from the grave in Zion, should be
provided for Israel that propitiation with which all of every
race (which should, with faith therein, seek of God a measure
of His Spirit for renewal) should be born there. After this,
the eighty-eighth, (with good reason supposed to have been
written during the tribulation of Israel in Egypt,) speaks with
lively anticipation of Christ's subjugation unto death for His
people's sake; while the eighty-ninth, (supposed to have been
written while Israel was in the wilderness,) shews the clear
light thus early vouchsafed concerning the Beloved, Who
should be God's King over Israel in the Lord's land as long
as the sun and moon should endure.
Thus this book, like the preceding one, ends with expectation of
the personal reign of Christ.

PSALM LXXIII.
TITLE.
A psalm of Asaph.
ARGUMENT.
The subject treated of in this psalm is of the deepest interest to
all God's faithful people — those of Israel that aim at living unto
Him " with a clean heart."
It deals with their tendency to repine under the adversity He
appoints for them, when they contrast therewith the outward
prosperity of the wicked. A psalm so expressive, as this is, of
the writer's communion with his own heart before God, by a
sustained train of reflection, has not been hitherto met with. It
breathes the doctrine of the Spirit of Christ on this subject, as may
be seen in the first and second verses, in the thirteenth, and again
from tbe twenty-first to the end. Similar experimental reflection
is to be discerned in Ps. lxxv. 1 ; lxxvi. 10 ; Ixxvii. 6 — 9 ; Ixxviii.
7, 8, 37 ; lxxix. 8 ; Ixxxi. 11—16.
Where such consistency in pious reflection runs through psalms
ascribed in the Hebrew^ titles to Asaph, why should we be loth to
think that these titles are worthy to be relied on? Especially when
Hezekiah, in 2 Chron. xxix. 30, coupled Asaph's name with
David's, which put him in the same rank with David as an
inspired writer. Moreover, Asaph is in that verse dignified with
the distinctive title of "the seer;" and in justification of this
testimony it is to be observed, that in proportion to the extent of
the compositions ascribed to Asaph, as compared with those of
other inspired writers, the Spirit of Christ seems to have spoken
in the first person by the mouth or pen of none more frequently
than that of Asaph. Witness Ps. 1. 5 — 15; lxxv. 2 — 10; Ixxviii.
1, 2; lxxxi. 5 — 16; lxxxii. 6, 7.
In regard to the application of this psalm, after Asaph's manner,
to each one's experience, that would live to God with a clean
heart, tbe prosperity of the wicked is a perplexing fact. Where,
then, in the face of this fact, are the proofs of God's wisdom and
goodness in the moral government of the world ?
The psalmist's first step to surmounting this difficulty is
given at verse 15, where he saith, If this should make me think

140 PSALM THE SEVENTY-THIRD.
it vain to serve God with a clean heart, " behold ! I should offend
against the generation of Thy children," O God ! — against them
that are made new creatures in Thy Christ by bestowal of His
Spirit upon them for renewal, in answer to their prayer for the
same. (Ps. li. 10 ; Prov. i. 23 ; and St. Paul's comment in Heb. iii.
1 — 6, on Numb. xii. 7 ; John viii. 34 — 36.) How could I call in
question the wisdom of the family of the faithful from the time of
man's fall ? Since Abel died in God's service, and Cain the wrong
doer lived, the whole generation have been sufferers for righ
teousness' sake; yet they abode to the end with God. How can
I suppose them all to have been deceived in believing that God
careth for His people, and compassionateth their sorrows ? Still,
as Asaph intimates, the difficulty remains, while looking at the
course of affairs in the world ; but he solves it in the sixteenth and
seventeenth verses by saying, " When I thought to know this, it
was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God.
Then understood I their end."
The psalmist learned from the word of God, as it is expounded
by men enlightened with the Spirit of Christ in the sanctuary (1
Pet. i. 11,) that there is a judgment day, when all will be righted.
Compare Philip, i. 28. Meanwhile, God requires all His faithful
people to walk by faith and not by sight. Wherefore, for this
reason, He allows the wicked (who are to be distinguished from
the ungodly by choosing darkness rather than light) to prosper
in outward respects. God's frame of behaviour in regard to them
is thereupon likened by the psalmist to the state of one asleep,
while they are stirring. Accordingly, God's calling of them to a
reckoning is poetically compared to His waking up. Then are the
wicked found to have climbed up slippery and dizzy eminences,
whence, without warning of any kind— without the preparatory
discipline of adversity — they are suddenly and irretrievably cast
down. Thus it is in the sanctuary made plain to the believer, how
much better it is to be chastened by God, as one He loves, and to
be held back from prosperity ; than to be left to one's own devices
for a season. (Heb. xii. 3 — 6.) 1.
To Israel truly God is good —
Them, which are clean in heart.
But I scarce any longer stood,1
Or chose the just man's part ;
So much was I disturb'd to see
The foolish in prosperity.
1 Ver. 2, Ps. i. 5. 1 Cor. x. 12, 13.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-THIRD. 141
2.
For till2 their death no pains have they,
Their stoutness never wastes,3
Scarce cross'd by others' is their way,
Or theirs by others' tastes :
So pride's a collar4 for their neck,
And violence a robe to deck.

With fatness, how their eyes stand out !
More than they'd hop'd, they snatch :
So with their mouth they heav'n flout,
Nor meet on 6arth their match.
Hence unto them His (God's) people turn,
And shall by them be made to mourn.
4.
Yet they exclaim, how should God know '{
The Highest notice take %
Lo ! such the wicked — such they who
On earth most progress make !
Methinks my heart in vain I cleanse,
And wash my hands in innocence.
5.
This thought perplex'd me day by day ;
For should I so decide,
In what condition have all they,
By Thee begotten, died ]
It surely not in vain could be
That they were all renew'd by Thee !
6.
Still what I thought hereon, to me
Did minister but grief,
2 Ver. 4. De Burgh observes, some read "until their death," for which
use of 7 . Compare Isa. vii. 15, " until he know."
3 Ver. 4. " Their strength." See margin, " fat ;" compare Ps. xxxi. 9.
* Ver. 6. " As a chain." See Gren. xii. 42 ; Judges v. 30.

142 PSALM THE SEVENTY-THIRD.
Until within the sanctuary
Of God I found relief.
The saint's lot here I could defend
By thinking of the sinner's end —
7.
Thinking, how Thou to slipp'ry heights
Ungodly men dost raise,
The sharper from midst of delights
In torment to abase :
To desolation how they're brought !
With panic terrors how distraught !

As when one wakes up from a dream,
What scar'd, doth fancy prove ;
So shall the mightiest sinner seem,
Once Thou, O Lord, dost move,
(Like one that out of sleep doth wake,)
And of their image notice take !

Thus was I rack'd at heart with pain,
And in my reins distress'd.
Fool that I was thus to complain,
And stubborn as a beast !
Yet doth Thy hand Thy servant guide
That I might close to Thee abide.
10.
Thy counsel shall direct me here,
And hence translate to bliss.
In heav'n who 've I, as Thou art, dear 1
And what ought I to miss
On earth with Thee 1 tho' flesh may fail,
Thy strength will fit me to prevail.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FOURTH. 143
%. 11.
For, lo | all they that live from Thee
Apart, must die abhorr'd.
'Tis good for me then to draw nigh
To God, and in the Lord
My God to trust ; that far and near,
I may instruct men in Thy fear.

PSALM LXXIV.

TITLE.
Of Asaph, to give instruction.
ARGUMENT.
Wide-spread desolation of Judaea, with desecration of the temple
in Jerusalem, form the burden of this psalm : on this account it has
been thought to have been written after the destruction of Jeru
salem by Nebuchadnezzar, while the writer was in captivity.
But evidence out of the psalm itself in two particulars precludes
this opinion : one, at verse 2, where the writer by saying, " This
Mount Zion," speaks as an inhabitant thereof; whereas, after
capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, Zion was levelled with the
ground : another, at verse 9, where it is written, " We see not our
signs ; there is no more any prophet ; neither is there among us any
tbatknoweth how long," — that is, how longthis desolation is to con
tinue. Now at the carrying away of the Jews to Babylon, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and Daniel, were prophesying ; and to Jeremiah it was re
vealed that the captivity should last for seventy years. (Jer.
xxiv. 11.)
Will, then, the desolations in Ahaz's time suit altogether the
language of this psalm?
Now, according to 2 Chron. xxviii. 24, the doors of the house of
the Lord were shut up by that profane prince ; moreover, idolatrous
services were performed in the cities of Judah, by that king's de
sire, according to the custom of the Assyrians. At the commence
ment, too, of Isaiah's book, which may fairly be taken to speak of
the reign of Ahaz, we have, in chap. i. 7, mention of desolation and
burning of cities by strangers.
All this might furnish a fulfilment of the third and fourth verses
of this psalm, and of the eighth. But, on the other hand, Isaiah
was at that time a prophet in the land ; which would not agree
with words in verse 9, " There is no more any prophet." It is

144 PSALM THE SEVENTY-F0URTH.
true that in the time of Manasseh, as described in 2 Chron. xxxiii.
1 — 11, that prince filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. (2 Kings,
xxiv. 4.) Isaiah, too, having been martyred by his order, it might
be that no other prophet contemporary with Manasseh, as Joel, had
then arisen.
Moreover, there is a considerable amount of agreement between
the eleventh verse of this psalm, " Why withdrawest Thou Thy
hand — even Thy right hand? pluck it out of Thy bosom," and
the last verse of Isa. lxiv., "Wilt Thou refrain Thyself for these
things, 0 Lord? Wilt Thou hold Thy peace, and afflict us very
sore ?"
Supposing, too, that Isaiah, in the close of his book, described the
state of Judsea towards the end of his days, we have in chap. lxiv.
10, 11, a description of the desolation produced by fire in the cities
of Judah and in Zion and in the temple, entirely in accordance with
what is deplored in this psalm, at verses 3 — 8.
Shall it, then, be concluded that the author of this psalm lived
in Manasseh' s day ? But again, the words in verses 1 and 9, as also
those at verse 3, about " perpetual desolations," preclude this idea.
Only on the supposition that this psalm was written in the spirit of
prophecy, can we perceive the significance of that question, inverse
1, " Why hast Thou cast us off for ever ? " And of that designation
in the third verse of the desolations as "perpetual," and of that in
the ninth verse, "neither is there among us any that knoweth how
long;" namely, for how long "the wrath unto the uttermost"
(1 Thess. ii. 16) has been predetermined.
This reference on Asaph's part to God's purposes concerning
Zion and Jerusalem at the close of this first age in the kingdom
of heaven and ushering in of the final "restitution of all things
to Israel," is entirely in keeping with similar references in other
of these psalms, ascribed to him in their Hebrew titles, (lxxv. 10 ;
lxxvi. 10—12; Ixxviii. 4—6; lxxx. 1—19.)
On the supposition, then, that this psalm was written by Asaph
in vision, with all the desolations to befal Jerusalem and the temple
unrolled to his mind's eye ; and that he, as is usual with prophets,
paid regard to the conclusion of them ; the psalm before us would
in that case be specially fitted to be used by the generations in
Israel appointed to witness the latest desolations of Jerusalem, and
its temple, as depicted by Zech. xiv., and our Lord in Matt. xxiv.
21 — 31 ; while admitting of an adaptation by intermediate gene
rations subsequent to Asaph's own day, whose lot it should be to
deplore desolations in Zion and Jerusalem after the manner in
which it had been Asaph's own lot, as we gather from Ps.
Ixxviii. 60 — 64, to have cognizance of those by the Philistines
in Shiloh, or by Saul at Nob.
Let it then be here considered how this psalm is fitted for
special use by that remnant of Judah which the Lord shall choose
as foretold in Zech. xiv. 2, when they shall wish for " words to

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FOURTH. 145
take with them in turning unto the Lord." (Hos. xiv. 2.) With
what pathos will that remnant, to whom the Lord shall have
revealed Himself on the Mount of Olives, take up the reflections
here supplied from the twelfth verse to the end, for their en
couragement ! With what emphatic appropriation of the God of
heaven for their God will they say, " For God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth ! " With what emotions
of national enthusiasm will they call to remembrance, as here in
structed, how He, for their fathers' sakes, " divided the sea by His
strength," (verse 13,) and '• brake the heads of leviathan in pieces "
— or Egypt's princes, with the whole power of that kingdom — in
" the waters ! " How will they cheer themselves, notwithstanding
their extreme inaptitude for the journey that shall then lie before
them through the wilderness, (Isa. xliii. 16 — 21.) with the thought,
that God gave their fathers meat from the clouds and water out of
the riven rock, while in the wilderness, that they might be " in
habitants " thereof, (verse 14;) and dried up Jordan to make a way
for them into the Lord's inheritance, (ver. 15.)
The psalmist's words in the sixteenth and seventeenth verses will
then teach them to identify the God of grace with the God of
nature — to confess Him Who wrought for them the wonders in
Egypt to be the same that rules the day and night, and divided to
the nations their inheritance, (Deut. xxxii. 8,) aud maintains un
broken the succession of the seasons, according to that covenant of
which the rainbow is the siga. (Gen. viii. 22.)
But inasmuch as the remnant of Judah, when recovered to God
by faith in tbe Lord Jesus as their Messiah, shall be the peculiar
object of hatred with the nations at that time bearing, since the
Apostles' day, the name of Christian ; how pathetically will this
sorrowing Christian Church — the destined bride — ask of Jehovah
deliverance from the reproach cast upon them for the truth's sake
by the foolish peoples that with gross corruptions of His doctrine
blaspheme His name ! With what tender persuasiveness will they,
as a Church under persecution, but now renewed and incorporated
with Christ in His mystical body, speak of themselves unto God by
the name given the faithful of their nation of old time, in Canticles
ii. 14, of "His turtle-dove," (ver. 19,) and ask Him not " to give
them over to the wicked," nor forget the congregation of His poor
and meek-spirited ones for ever ! How moving will be their lowly
entrenchment of themselves in the favour secured to them under
the covenant granted to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
(Exod. iii. 15,) sealed with the blood of that Saviour with Whom
through faith they shall have been incorporated, by feeding on His
sacrificial flesh and blood ; and with Whose Spirit, in answer to
their prayer, they shall have been quickened, so as to be one with
Him, (Jo/ viii. 32—36,) having tbe Spirit of Christ in them to
make them free. (Rom. viii. 9.) How persuasively will this elect
Church urge the Almighty God, in ver. 22, to "Arise and make

146 PSALM THE SEVENTY-FOURTH.
their cause His own ; " adding, that the tumult of the blaspheming
pretenders to the name of Christian in the dark places of the earth,
full of the habitations of cruelty, increaseth more and more ! (Ver.
23; Isa. lx. 2.)
Such is the scope of the psalm before us, and such its special
fitness for the use of the psalmist's own nation.
Meanwhile, " the only remnant of the true Israelites " is at
present that of the elect out of the Jews and the Gentiles,
incorporated in the mystical body of Christ in one new man,
and at their own earnest prayer daily renewed by His Spirit.
(See third Collect for Good Friday.) We" therefore can intelligently
claim an interest in all that God did of old for Israel. They are, in
Christ, "our fathers." (1 Cor. x. 1.) AH that is recounted in verses
12 — 17, as having been done by God of old for Israel, we, too, can
take for pledges of what He will do for us to bring us to " the
resurrection of the just." (Luke xiv. 14.)
We can, as of His elect in Christ, speak of our Church as His
turtle-dove ; and amidst the threatening aspect of worldly affairs,
pray Him to look upon the covenant sealed with the blood of His
dear Son ; pleading that we for our part are careful to attest our
share in it by drawing near to His table ; and would urge Him on
His part to accomplish specially what He hath promised by covenant
to His Son ; for Whom the kingdoms of this world are destined ; in
Whose day the reproach shall be rolled away from off His people
throughout all the earth. 1.
Hast Thou, O God, thrust us away for ever 1
Against Thy sheep, which in Thy pasture dwell,
Why smokes the fierceness of Thy hot displeasure—
This congregation — for which Thou didst sell,1
2.
Time past, the hosts of Egypt 1 O ! remember
The measur'd2 lot of Thine inheritance,
Which Thou redeemed'st,3 as Thy tribe's Avenger,
The Mount of Zion— Thine own residence.
1 Ver. 2. See Isa. xliii. 3, " I gave Egypt for thy ransom.''
2 Ver. 2. 1031!). De Burgh observes "the rod, or tribe : " the former is
preferable, denoting the measuring rod, and so the inheritance itself. See
Ps. Ixxviii. 55.
8 Ver. 2. Pi)i>2 . In Ruth iv. 7 — 10, is a record of tho manner in which
one that had the right of kinsman, redeemed the inheritance ; but in Levit.
xxv. 25, is the law upon this subject.

P'SALM THE SEVENTY-FOURTH. 147
3.
The desolations in Thy sanctuary
Done by Thine enemies, come4 and survey j
How in assemblies with uproar they carry
Their standards8 for idolatrous display.
4.
Once, one was famous, who with axe hard driven
Fell'd the thick trees, Thy house to decorate:
Now, when the carved work thereof is riven
With axe and hammer, men rejoice thereat.
5.
Upon Thy temple torches cast they flaming—
The habitation of Thy name they spurn —
Throughout the land are men in secret aiming
All synagogues of God alike to burn.
6.
No sign is granted— there is now no prophet—
To none is shewn how long this wrath shall last.
0 God ! shall the blasphemer ever scoff at
Thy name 1 and his reproach the sceptic cast 1

Alas ! Thy hand — Thy right hand — Thou withdrawest!
Oh, that Thou'd'st pluck it from Thy bosom6 forth !
Thou God, my King, for our salvation warrest
Of old amidst the nations of the earth.

4 Ver. 3. T!M?B nanrti An expression in Gen. xxix. 1, shewn to mean
"come." s Ver. 4. " They set up the signs of their divination for true signs," with
their standards — emblems of victory— for proof of the divinations being
true. 6 Ver. 11. As the outer garment of the Easterns has no sleeves, the hands
and arms are enveloped in the folds of the robe, hence the drawing of the hand
out of the bosom denotes performance of a work without slackness ; as may he
seen hy the contrary in Prov. xxvi. 15.
i 2

148 PSALM THE SEVENTY-FOURTH. 8.
By Thee the tide — now parted — now united —
The dragons and leviathan7 swept o'er !
By Thee was meat8 from out the clouds provided,
In that waste howling desert not before
9.
Inhabited,9 for him— the people— bidden
To journey through it in th' appointed course:
And waters from the cloven rock were given,
And rivers dried, that he their beds might cross.
10.
By Thee the day and night succeed in order,
Light, too, and heat the sun doth circulate :
By Thee each nation holds its proper10 border:
And seasons change, for herbs to vegetate.
11.
Mark how the foolish people, O Jehovah,
Against Thy name their tongues profanely move !
Oh, do not to their multitude give over
The gentle soul of Thine own turtle-dove !"
12.
Oh, be the covenant by Thee regarded !
For where gross darkness12 reigns, dwells cruelty.
Let not th' oppressed seem by Thee discarded,
That Thy name, by the poor, may praised be !

i Ver. 14. By Ezek. xxix. 3, Egypt's king is shewn to be here meant.
8 Ver. 14. The latter clause of verse 14 may with more propriety be con
strued with the next verse ; besides, tar) could only mean Israel.
9 Ver. 14. By Exod. xiv. 3, we find it to have been a thing unlooked for
that the desert should be "inhabited." See Deut. xxxii. 10, and Jer, ii. 6.
n> Ver. 17. Deut. xxxii. 8.
" Ver. 19. Cant. ii. 14.
" Ver. 20. Isa. lx. 2.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIFTH. 149
13.
Arise, O God, to right Thyself! how daily
The fool his scoffs against Thee forth doth pour,
Eemember ! mark, too, how of them that hate Thee
With height'ning tumult swells th' insulting roar !

PSALM LXXV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. Destroy not. A psalm of Asaph ; a song.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is one that has in its title the significant expression,
riHtprrbs , " destroy not !" to denote that the sufferers spoken of
in it should not avenge themselves, but commit their cause to
the care of God. Only three others, the fifty-seventh, fifty-eighth,
and fifty-ninth, have this prefix: they having been written by
David, and this by Asaph. This psalm bears a marked resemblance
to the song of Hannah in 1 Sam. ii. The writer, therefore, of this
seventy-fifth must be considered to have had that of Hannah in
mind. This circumstance corroborates the testimony in the title as to
its authorship. For if Asaph, being a contemporary of the grand
son of Samuel, (I Chron. vi. 33 — 39.) be only supposed to have
had a predilection for the worship before the Lord in Gibeon,
(2 Chron. i. 3,) his tendency to mourn for the decline of Ephraim
from the Divine favour, (Ps. Ixxviii. 9,) and his attainment from God
of dark foreshadowings of Ephraim's final recovery to that favour,
(Ps. lxxvii. 15 ; lxxx. 1 ; lxxxi. 5,) seem natural. But what is
said in verse 6 of Ps. lxxv., compared with Ps. xlviii. 2, (where
the city of the great King is said to be on the north side of Zion,)
will explain, that promotion coming from neither east, nor west,
nor south, implies by a periphrasis that it comes from the great
King, whose city is on the north side thereof.
It would hence seem that Asaph, at the time of writing this
seventy-fifth psalm, was not at Gibeon, but in Jerusalem, since
he speaks in the first verse as one of the congregation addressed by
the Divine speaker from the second verse to the end.
Hannah's song was exclusively spoken with reference to Messiah ;
because speaking of Him as King of Israel, when as yet there was
no king among them. May it not then be concluded that this
seventy-fifth psalm was likewise composed with exclusive regard to
Messiah ?

150 PSALM THE SEVENTY FIFTH.
An examination of its contents will favour this supposition.
For in the first verse the psalmist evidently speaks as one of the
congregation of the faithful. This is plain from the use of the
pronoun in the first person plural. From the words that follow,
" For that Thy Name is near Thy wondrous works declare," all that
can be certainly gathered touching the occasion of this psalm having
been written is, that it was not when the God of Israel had de
livered any express message by a prophet; for then the psalmist
would have pointed to that more direct evidence of God being
near. It is also to be concluded that tbe wonderful effects spoken of
were of a spiritual nature upon some that reverently relied on the
Name of the Lord. In Exod. xx. 24, was to be seen the promise
that "wheresoever the Lord recorded His Name, there He would
come unto the children of Israel and would bless them."
In David's time, He had placed His Name in Jerusalem. (Deut.
xiv. 23, and xvi. 2; Ps. Ixxviii. 68.) Again, in Exod. xxiii. 20, God
speaks of the Divine Messenger, or Angel, who should lead the
children of Israel in the wilderness, as bearing His Name ; that is,
being of the same nature and dignity with Himself.
Also, at tbe tenth verse of the ninth psalm, David speaks of the
reverence wherewith those who experimentally know the Name of
God, (which is here commemorated,) would treat it; saying, "And
they that know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee, because
Thou, Lord, never failest them that seek Thee." By this reveren
tial acknowledgment of spiritual mercies wrought in accordance
with the prayers of certain in Jerusalem calling at that time on the
Name of the Lord, are we to conceive that His nearness to them
was perceived ; so as it would not be by their carnally-minded
fellow-countrymen. After this exordium, the psalmist, as it seems
to me, was at once wrapt into the realms of vision, and his voice,
or pen, was made use of by Christ to speak concerning His opera
tions among the kingdoms of the earth, until He come in His
kingdom. It may not here be inopportune to observe that Isaiah,
(xxx. 27,) in speaking of tbe Lord's coming in glory, uses, as does
the psalmist here, tbe Name of the Lord for the Lord Himself.
Messiah's revelation is opened in verse 2 as follows, " When I
shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly."
Some prefer here to understand " the set time " for " the con
gregation," because congregations in Israel being held at appointed
times, the word came secondarily to mean an appointed time. It
is also true that Messiah waits His Father's time for bringing Him
into His kingdom. (1 Tim. vi. 15; John xiv. 30, 31.) But it is
to be observed, that in the fourth verse of the preceding psalm the
same word is found, and there must mean " congregations," which
favours much employment of that word in the same meaning here.
Moreover, by Ps. xl. 9, as well as in many other places of Scrip
ture, the comipg gf the Lord is preparatory to an extensive procla*

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIFTH. 151
mation of His righteousness for man's salvation : so that what
knowledge concerning God's Name had been limited since Moses'
day to Israel, should at Messiah's coming be extended to a far
greater congregation.
Here, then, may be seen that the Divine speaker's word in this
second verse is a reply to the psalmist, speaking on behalf of the
congregation of Israel in the first verse.
This observation seems to me to settle the question as to the
sense in which to take 1?ift , which is only expressed in the
second verse, though implied in the first.
Our Saviour's words, in John x. 16, may very well be compared
herewith. In Isa. li. 5, the Spirit of Christ similarly saith, " My
righteousness is near ; My salvation is gone forth, and Mine arms
shall judge the people ; the isles shall wait upon Me, and on Mine
arm shall they trust."
In verse 3, the Divine speaker thus continues : " The earth and
all the inhabitants thereof had been disolved, did I not bear up the
pillars of it." After which follows, " Selah," or Mark! These
words are entirely in accordance with what is ascribed to Messiah
in other places of Scripture, as being Him by whom His Father
works. (Prov. viii. 15 ; Rev. i. 5.)
This expression, " tbe pillars of the earth," is one first found in
Hannah's song, verse 8 : and by St. Paul's language in Gal. ii. 9,
and 1 Tim. iii. 15, and our Lord's in Rev. iii. 12, " pillars " are to
be taken for men of commanding ability and influence, given by
the Lord to His congregation or to a nation, for consolidation of it
under Him or upon Him ; lest otherwise the fabric of society there
should fall to pieces.
Thus the Lord consolidates the social fabric as well as that of
the congregation. "He maketh men to be of one mind in a house."
Rulers in the congregation or in the state ought, therefore, to con
fess that they look for confirmation of their power to Jlim ; that
His Name may be proved nigh them by the union of the members
with each other under their authority.
The contrary principle appears to be stigmatised in the fourth
and fifth verses as " boasting ; " where we read, " I said unto the
boasters, Deal not arrogantly, set not up a horn, lift not up your
horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion" (the
thing contended for — the word for which in this place, though am
biguous, D^n appears to be here fixed in this sense by Q'H^ in
the next verse, ascribed to God, and by n3t?Qi~iJ7l in the last
verse) " cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet
from the south. But Grid is the Judge : He putteth down one, and
setteth up another."
To the psalmist, then, as one of the congregation in Jerusalem,
the Divine speaker would be here made to say, "Be patient under
the adversity which you bear, that know My Name ; who in
spiritual blessings among you perceive it to be nigh you, Avenge

152 FSALM THE SEVENTY-FIFTH.
not yourselves, nor seek promotion or exaltation to the predicted
ascendancy over the earth, (Ps. xxii. 27,) by alliance with any
power in the east of Zion, or west or south — powers which would be
dissolved were not I to stablish in them men to be pillars of their
social systems ; but wait till the Almighty sends Me to bring you from
out of your midst the predicted ascendency." (Rom. xi. 26.)
In this mention of God as the Supreme Arbiter of all, whether
in the congregation of Israel or in the outer world, reference is
afresh made to Hannah's song at verses 6 — 8 : after which, in verse
8, this Divine arbitration is described as one of judgment upon the
powers in the east, south, and west, whose assistance the congrega
tion of Israel is warned against seeking for help in gaining the
predicted ascendency.
David's language, in Ps. xi. 5, 6, describes God's award of doom
under the same figure, and Jeremiah's in xxv. 15 — 28. The words
of this eighth verse are: "For in the hand of the Lord" — the
Prince of the kings of the earth, by Whom His Father works —
" there is a cup, and the wine is red," — fermenting or foaming up —
" it is full of mixture," or drugged liquor; "and He poureth out
of the same : but tbe dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall
wring them out. and drink them," namely, the before-mentioned
competitors for power, setting up their horn in the east, west, and
south of Zion.
According to tbe.figure here used, the Divine speaker likens Him
self to the judge who, by His sentence, occasioned the delivery of
a drugged cup, according to custom, to a criminal about to be
executed, (Prov. xxxi. 6;) the olvov ea/wpvia/ievov of Rev. xiv. 9 —
12, is a reference to the same custom. The cup, owing to this
custom, came to denote death itself; hence our Saviour prayed,
" Father, let this cup pass from me !" (Matt. xxvi. 39.)
According to this interpretation, the Divine speaker would mean,
that for a punishment of the nations, in whom He had stablished great
men to be pillars, (2 Kings v. 1,) who had abused their power, He
would permit evil spirits to delude and infatuate them, as He did
in Ahab's case. (1 Kings xxii. 22.) For what the Lord permits,
He does : though it is in righteous punishment of their misdeeds
that Messiah accomplishes their fall, according to His Father's
will, by those infatuating agents.
Homer, in his "Iliad," O 527, has a passage very similar : —
" Grief is the common texture of life for unfortunate mortals
Woven for them by the gods, who themselves know nothing of sorrow.
For, by the threshold of Zeus stand two urns ; each of them holding
Gifts, for bestowal on man : one of evils, the other of blessings.
He for whom thundering Zeus commingles the contents of both urns,
Now has a prosperous season, and now has a time of affliction.
He upon whom Zeus sends, unmingled with blessing, the evil,
Driven by stern destitution to wander on earth as an outcast,
Passes a vagrant life not honour'd by gods, nor by mortals." 525—33. Dart.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIFTH. 153
At the ninth verse, the Divine speaker then saith, " But 1 will
declare, or make plain, at the hidden age ;" that is, at the coming
of the Millennium, when the mystery of God shall be made mani
fest. (Rev. x. 7.) /T?^» being the first pers. fut. Hiphil, formed
from "T33, coram ; Ev^p.j having the signification of " the hidden
age," or Millennium, in Ps. xxviii. 9.
" I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the
wicked also will' I cut off" — the horn of the ox, the chief of the
domesticated animals, being the emblem of strength, (1 Kings
xxii. 11 ;) " but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted." This
psalm so explained, is clearly descriptive of our condition, as being
of the congregation of the Lord during this first age in the king
dom of heaven.
" For that His Name is near, His wondrous works declare."
Our Lord's words in John siv. 12 — 14, throw light on this passage.
For the Lord Jesus during His ministry wrought many miracles,
as means to an end ; the end being conversion of souls to His
Father's greater glory in their everlasting happiness. Now, as
the end or accomplishment of a work is more honourable than
the means conducive thereto, so must the conversion of a soul be a
greater work than a miracle wrought" on inanimate or irresponsible
matter. In this sense, then, the apostles of Jesus wrought greater
works by His Name, through faith in His Name, than had He
Himself. On this account we of His congregation thankfully say,
" His Name is nigh us." Through His ministers He now preaches
to the great congregation, (Eph. ii. 17,) composed of other nations
than Jews alone. (Ps. xl. 9 ; John x. 16.) Moreover, that cup
due by His Father's judgment to us, He at the close of His ministry
in theflesh drank in our stead to the very dregs; leaving us,who are
of His congregation, only the sweet peace thereupon ensuing
through the sealing of the new covenant in His blood. What a
cup is this that He hath left for His congregation to drink of — a
cup of death, indeed, but of a death that is the gate of life !
(Rom. vi. 4; Collect for Easter evening.) How truly may we
say, " Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto Thee do we give
thanks : for that Thy Name is near Thy wondrous works declare !"
Therefore will we be patient, (James v. 7,) and wait for the coming
of the Lord a second time, (Act viii. 13,) to make known God's
counsel to His brethren in the face of Jesus Christ.

0 God, we render thanks to Thee !
Thy Name to those is near,
Who eall upon Thee faithfully ;
In whom Thy works appear.

(2)

154 PSALM THE SEVENTY-FIFTH. 2.
Wait ye the time that there's to Me
The congregation brought ;
A full salvation,1 just and free,
Shall then by Me be taught.
3.
From earthly powers no help can come,
Their fabrics were dissolv'd,
Did I not pillars fix, on whom
Their weight might be devolv'd.
4.
To those who'd from their fellows win
Supremacy, cried I,
Refrain, ye wicked,2 from this sin,
Lift not the horn on high !
5.
From th' east or west ascendancy
Or from the south ne'er comes.
God is the judge — this lifts He high —
That He to ruin dooms.
6.
There's in Jehovah's hand a cup,
The wine thereof He'll pour
For wicked princes to drink up,
Who proudly grasp'd at pow'r.
7.
At that time hidden I'll be near,
And Jacob's God will praise !
Off wicked ones the horns I'll tear,
The saints' horns will I raise !
1 Compare Ps. cxix. 123, and Isaiah li. 4 — 8.
2 Ver. 4. By the "wicked" are meant those who siu against light, as
distinguished from the ungodly.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-SIXTH. 155
PSALM LXXVI.
TITLE,
To the chief Musician on Neginoth. A psalm, a song of Asaph.
AEGUMENT.
Commentators generally incline to think that this psalm depicts
the overthrow of Sennacherib. (2 Chron. xxxii. 20 — 22.)
The words from the fifth to tbe ninth verses are descriptive of
that judgment from heaven on the Assyrian army advancing
against Jerusalem; and through all history there is no other
instance but this, of an army so advancing having been destroyed
by the immediate interposition of God from heaven.
In verses 1 — 3, the psalmist speaks of the deliverance of Jeru
salem as already accomplished.
If this were to be taken literally, it would bring down the com.
position of this psalm to the age of Hezekiah ; and consequently
preclude Asaph, the contemporary of David, from being, as set
forth in the title, the author of it. It is, however, customary with
the prophets to speak of things appointed by God to happen, as
already accomplished. Now, in other psalms ascribed to Asaph,
the Spirit of Christ stirred him up to sing of events even yet
remaining to be accomplished ; as in Ps. 1. 5, where he foresees
the coming of Messiah a second time in great glory ; and in Ps.
Ixxviii., where he is inspired to sing of" that latter generation,"
(ver. 4 — 6,) which the Lord will bring into the inheritance
promised to Abraham. Is it, then, utterly improbable that the
Spirit of Christ should, even in David's day, have stirred up Asaph
to foreshew the destruction of an army before Jerusalem ?
Commentators think that in the tenth verse is a further fore
shadowing of destruction appointed to Antichrist's army, or that
of " tbe Northern " before Jerusalem, after the manner of that of
Sennacherib, as foretold more fully in Joel ii. 20 ; Zech. xiv. 6.
Some commentators would, in accordance with the Septuagint,
render the latter clause of this tenth verse — " The survivors of the
wrath shalt Thou cause to keep festival." (See Zeph. iii. 13.)
Whether or not this sense be given to the latter clause, the future
tense used in the former shews that the Spirit of Christ carried
forward the psalmist's mind to foretoken an overthrow subsequent
to that which at commencement of the psalm he spake of in the
past tense.
In the persuasion that Asaph is author of all the psalms ascribed
to him, my theory is that like as the Lord Jesus Himself, in Matt.
xxiv., predicted a destruction of Jerusalem, to be partially fulfilled
about forty years after His decease, but went on to speak pf an

156 PSALM THE SEVENTY-SIXTH.
ultimate destruction thereof in ver. 21 — 28, at which time the
entire chapter will receive its plenary fulfilment, (which I think
is plain from comparison of St. Paul's interpretation of the signs
in verses 12 and 14, which should be precursors of it, see Col. i.
6, 23 ; Philip, ii. 21 ; 2 Tim. i. 15 ; with what fulfilment of the
same is now looked for,) even so Asaph may be supposed to have
foreshadowed the destruction of Sennacherib's army before Jeru
salem ; and afterwards, in verses 10 — 12, to have been carried
forward to that destruction after a similar manner of a host yet
to be gathered against Jerusalem, when the entire psalm will
receive its plenary fulfilment.
The psalmist's testimony in verses 1 — 3, of what God had done
for Jerusalem, can be endorsed by our observation at this late
stage in Israel's wanderings, that, only by what God revealed to
man through His prophets of that nation in the Old or New
Testament, is there any knowledge gotten anywhere of the name
of the Lord.
In proportion as nations once enlightened with the Jewish
Scriptures decline from heed to them, they decline from the
knowledge of God ; and those nations to whom these Scriptures
have not yet been carried, rise not out of their heathenish igno
rance of Him.
The fourth verse, which is addressed to Zion, is as follows : —
" Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of
prey." To call kingdoms " mountains " is in entire accordance
with prophetical phraseology, as may be seen in Isa. ii. 2 — 4.
The rise of a great empire, such as has been witnessed in the
present year, has dazzled our imaginations by the grandeur of the
victories : still it is but " a mountain of prey." Hence it is
profitable to be reminded by such a passage as this in verse 4,
that in Zion, now carried up with the Lord to the paradise above,
(Heb. xii. 22 ; Philip, iii. 20,) is a better kingdom, of which we
trust to be subjects — the kingdom sung of by Asaph in Ps. 1. 1 — 6.
The growing proportions of this kingdom entail loss on none :
they rather bring the greater happiness for this life along with
the brighter hopes for that hereafter, the more it gains the
ascendency within us. (Luke xvii. 21.)
If the signal deliverances of Jerusalem shown the psalmist, as
we suppose, in vision, justly entitled him to contrast it for glory
and excellence with the mightiest of earthly kingdoms ; how much
more may we of this day proceed in the same strain, who learn by
the Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He came to fulfil in
mortal flesh all righteousness : and when proved righteous, did
here in this city consummate that sacrifice of Himself, at His
crucifixion by the guilty citizens, for the redemption of all
mankind.- His Father's providential government permitted wicked men to
put Him to that ignominious death, (agreeably with the rule

Psalm the seventy-sixth, 157
laid down in Ps. Ixxiii. 18^-20;) and He, by submitting thereto,
and glorifying the while His Father's justice, (Matt. xxvi. 53 ;
John xix, 11,) made compensation, as Man, for the outrage done
thereto by other men's sins; and afforded His Father the op
portunity of recompensing Him — the Holy One and the Just —
(for the wrong done Him by Satan and his agents in stimulating
men to such violence against Him,) with the gift of the elect souls,
which in strict justice had become by law guilty of eternal death.
(Isa. liii. 10^12.)
In this instance, assuredly, is conspicuously to be seen how
" the wrath of man shall praise God, and the survivors thereof He
shall cause to rejoice."
Lord Byron, in his Hebrew Melodies, when describing the
Assyrian's destruction, clearly seems to have had before his view
Asaph's prediction from verse 5 — 9, for he says-*-
" The eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and ohiH."
an idea not suggested by the language of Isaiah xxxvii. 36.
The psalmist, at verse 11, added a practical exhortation, which
if right to be observed in his day in acknowledgment of God's
mercies, is surely equally so in ours. "Vow," said he, "and
pay to the Lord your God. Let all that be round about Him
bring presents unto Him that ought to be feared," or to "the
Terrible." It is probable that special vows to be made by pious worship
pers in apprehension of impending calamities, are what the
psalmist here enjoined. And it is remarkable, that though
Hezekiah arranged these psalms of Asaph for the sacred canon,
(in the commencement of his reign, as we suppose, and con
sequently prior to the destruction of Sennacherib's army,) and
further, may be concluded to have made vows to God in his
distress, yet, pious as he was, it happened that " he rendered
not according to the benefit done unto him." (2 Chron. xxxii.
25.) And his example, doubtless, had a corresponding effect upon
his subjects. Consequently, God's wrath was provoked ; but upon
Hezekiah's repentance, the infliction of national punishment was
deferred till after his death.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Without
this fear there is no proper appreciation by us fallen beings of the
Divine Majesty ; though it is not good to have it unrelieved by
love, which is to be gained by learning Christ's love to us.
(1 John iv. 10.) This fear mainly restrains youth from self-
indulgence, (Jer. ii. 9,) and is enforced by our Lord with awe-
inspiring vehemence. (Luke xii. 4, 5.)
Isaac lived a very peaceful life ; but yet Jacob, (Gen. xxxi. 42,)
significantly speaks of God, as " Isaac's fear : " showing that Isaac
must have so comported himself, as to leave on his child's mind
the conviction that he profoundly reverenced Almighty God.

158 PSALM THE SEVENTY-SIXTH.
In Isa. xi. 2, 3, the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit are perfected in
the fear of God. And St. Peter (1 Pet. i. 17) very movingly
saith, " If ye call upon the Father, Who without respect of person's
judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your
sojourning here in fear." 1.
In Judah God is known,
In Israel is shewn
How far surpasseth all men's thoughts His Name !
Salem His temple has,
Zion's His dwelling-place.
There shield, and sword, and arrow, tipt with flame,
And battle brake He ! O blest mountain, how
Above all those of spoil to be extoll'd art thou !

Stout hearts lie here a prey !
Slept their last sleep have they —
The men of might — all use of hands they've lost 1
The war-car and the horse
.Have fallen in their course,
Soon as Thine Angel breath'd * upon that host !
O God of Jacob ! terrible in wrath,
When Thou to judge arisest, who may cross Thy path!
3.
From heav'n down was hurl'd
The doom upon this world
At Thy word : earth beheld it, and was still'd.
His meek ones God would save
When He that judgment gave !
Of this then we're persuaded ; Thou hast will'd
The more man rages, more Thy might he'll see,2
And the surviving remnant praise ascribe to Thee !
1 Ver. 6. Isa. xxxvii. 7, compared with verso 36.
'•> Ver. 10, Eom. ix. 17—23.

psAlm the seventy-seventh. 159
4.
To Him Who is the Fear
Of all that Him draw near —
Your God — Jehovah — vow and duly pay !
Tis of His own He takes,3
When one an off'ring makes.
Oh, render then, as you've receiv'd, this day !
Of princes He shall in a wine-press4 tread
The spirit ; and o'er earth of all kings be the Dread !
3 Ver. 11. 1 Chron. xxix. 14. 4 Ver. 12. Tsa;. See Eev. xix. 13—21.

PSALM LXXVII.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun. A psalm of Asaph.
ARGUMENT.
The pensive and desponding character of this psalm seems to me
attributable to Asaph's grief at the decline of religion in Ephraim,
where it is probable that he ordinarily lived, his worship of God
being paid at the tabernacle in Gibeon.
Asaph's predilection for Ephraim may be gathered from his pre
dictions concerning that tribe's restoration to the Divine favour.
See his mention of Jacob and Joseph, in verse 15, and verse 67 of
Ps. Ixxviii., and Ps. lxxx. 1.
The writer, in pouring out his heart to God, makes no mention
of any outward enemy, as particularly to be dreaded, but rather
mourns over his inward burthen. This is quite after Asaph's
manner, who aimed at "setting the heart aright and keeping
the spirit steadfast with God."
This psalm is therefore the more fitted for use in worship amongst
us, when privately mourning over inward defects; or lamenting
dissensions in the congregation wherein we worship.
Scott observes that the abruptness of the original is very ex
pressive of agitation of mind. The first verse literally being :
" My voice unto God, and I cried !
My voice unto God, and He gave ear unto me ! "

160 PSALM THE SEVENTY.SEVENTH.
Till his prayer received a gracious answer this agitation of mind
continued ; he describes it from the second to the end of the fourth
verse. In the original. Hebrew, the word in verse 2 translated
"sore," is literally "my hand," and the Septuagint version shews
it to have been the same in their copies.
It is probable, says Scott, that a just paraphrase of the second
verse may be : "In the day of my trouble I have restlessly implored
help of the Lord ; in the night extended I my hand, (that is, in
prayer,) and ceased not,"
In the third verse, the psalmist describes his inward perturbation
by a word expressive of the tumult of waves in a storm ; or that of
an enraged, disorderly multitude.
Compunction and despondency may have combined in reducing
his soul to the condition of the troubled sea : insomuch that thoughts
of the Lord's mercy and truth, of His former loving-kindness and
of the comfort which he had experienced in religion on other
occasions, instead of giving him encouragement, served to enhance
his disquietude.
Assuredly personal trials of a complicated nature excited within
the psalmist the sharp conflict so affectingly described from the
fourth to the end of the tenth verse. May the Lord save the reader
from such a state of mind ! but if, alas ! it should be his lot to be so
distracted, he must acknowledge how fitted this psalm would be
for his use. How important, too, is it to observe the resolve to
which the psalmist came in this agonised state of mind : when, as
recorded in the eleventh and twelfth verses, he comforted himself
under the persistency that he perceived in the hand of the Lord
over him by saying, " I will remember the years of the right hand
of the Most High, (with which compare Ps. cii. 11, 12, and civ.
33, 34.) Then added he, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary,"
(with which compare Ps. Ixxiii. 17.) The psalmist's faith, aided
by grace, by and bye obtained the ascendency over his rebellious
will — his unbelief — and his temptations. He was then convinced
that " the way of God," or the exercise of His sovereign authority
over the world, the Church, and every individual, is under the
direction of infinite wisdom, and ordered in perfect justice, truth,
and goodness.
The psalmist then engaged himself in a strain of elevated re
flection on God's dealings of old with his nation, until relief came
to him from above, while so employed.
This extends to the end of verse 15, after which, from verse 16
to the end, he ponders on God's deliverance of Israel out of Egypt ;
by all which the psalmist gathered, that as God's way in the Red
Sea had been too vast for the Egyptians or the Israelites to scan at
the time, though it had ended in the gracious effulgence of mercy
on Israel expressed in the last verse, where we read, " Thou leddest
Thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron," so the
psalmist would leave us to conclude his own persuasion to have been,

PSALM THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH. 161
that God, as the Shepherd of Israel, was then leading him through
the dread trials under which he groaned : and that his pilgrimage
would end in the sunshine of God's favour, if only he abode with
God through the temptation. (Luke xxii. 28.) This is in entire
accordance with the testimony of St. Paul : " AH things work to
gether for good to them that love God. Nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord." The psalmist's words in ver. 19, " Thy way is in the sea, and
Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known,"
shew that, according to his judgment, (under guidance of the Spirit
of Christ,) this view is to be combined in the believer's mind with
that other view of God's dealings mentioned in ver. 13, " Thy way,
0 God, is in holiness."
The sum of this profound contemplation of the Divine dealings
with us is very happily put in verse by the poet Cowper in that
well-known hymn — " God moves in a mysterious way,
Hia wonders to perform !
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His vast designs,
And works His sovereign mil.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain ;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain."

If the redemption of Jacob and Joseph out of Egypt by the
passage through the Red Sea and the wilderness according to the
covenant sealed with the blood of the paschal lamb was mysterious
and inscrutable at the time, but afterward found to be full of justice
and mercy ; how much more so is the redemption of all mankind,
wrought out at the crucifixion of His Son our Saviour, God
manifest in the flesh !
How utterly inscrutable was God's dealing with Jesus at
that time to the believer and unbeliever alike ! but how clearly
is now to be seen through the Gospels, in that terrible judg
ment upon sin in the flesh of the Holy One and the Just, that
" the cross of Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of
God ; " and that by means of Christ's crucifixion God led His
sheep out of condemnation to a far worse death than by immersion
under the sea, into the glorious light of His love and of His recon
ciled countenance in the face of Jesus Christ !
M

162 PSALM THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH. 1.
To God I lifted up my cry-
To God my cry — and He gave ear !
I told the Lord my misery —
I ceas'd not to stretch forth in prayer
My hand the live-long night — my soul
Would wail — defying my control.

The thought of God did me amaze,
My spirit was o'er-aw'd ;
Thou mak'st mine eyes on darkness gaze,
I cannot speak a word.
I think of all Thou'st done for me,
And that I could unmindful be !
3.
I've ponder'd o'er the days gone by
Thro' hidden ages' flight —
The song dear to my memory,
In watches of the night
I cherish : but my heart in vain
My spirit's searchings strives to rein.
4.
For ever will the Lord forsake
His servant and deny
Me favour I will He from me take
His mercy finally %
From cov'nant grace is God intent
To cut me off, and not relent 1
5.
Then said I, my distress is this —
The life-long1 discipline

1 Ver. 10. rftif, in ver. 6, hears the usual signification of years; as the
Septuagint rendered it by 'aWoiuxng, in the singular number, they may have

PSALM THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH. 163
Of the Most High ! the prodigies
Of Jah, flhis heart of mine
Shall ponder o'er, and in my verse
I will His miracles rehearse.
6.
The sanctuary is God's way !
Who's a great God, as God \
Wonders of might Thou didst display
'Mongst peoples, when Thy rod2
Of power did from slavery
Jacob's and Joseph's sons set free.

At sight of Thee the waters fled,
O God ! the depths shrank back.
Dark mists and torrents from o'erhead
Were pour'd upon the track
Of Israel's enemies, the sound
Of thunder shook the trembling ground.

The sea too is for Thee a way —
A path the troubled deep !
No creature's eye Thy footsteps may
Detect ! yet Thou, like sheep.
Didst lead Thy host toward their land
By Moses' and Aaron's hand.

had a different word in their copy. The shortness of man's life seems to me
to he hy this word contrasted with that of the Almighty ; on which account,
what to God appears short is to short-lived man awfully protracted.
2 Ver. 15. Ps. ex. 2.

« 2

164 PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH.

PSALM LXXVIIL

TITLE.
Of Asaph, to give instruction.
ARGUMENT.
In the twenty-ninth chapter of the second Book of Chronicles we
read at verse 30, " Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes
commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the
words of David, and of Asaph the seer." This was upon the
occasion of the purification of the temple at Jerusalem, in the
commencement of Hezekiah's reign.
What the title of this psalm therefore saith about Asaph being
its author, who was the contemporary of David, may be readily
accepted ; (for it only brings down tbe history of Israel to David's
time,) but we may conclude, that it owes its place in the sacred
canon, immediately after the seventy-seventh, to Hezekiah's use of
it at his re-opening of the temple. Although from the fourth verse
to the end it contains but a recital of God's dealings with Israel,
according to His people's behaviour towards Him, from their
egress out of Egypt until the establishment of David on the
throne in Jerusalem ; yet a special interest attaches itself to it,
owing to two particulars : one, that this recital of God's dealings
with Israel, is called "a parable — a dark saying of old: " the
other, that St. Matthew (xiii. 35) says, that " without a parable
Jesus spake not unto them ; that it might be fulfilled which was
Bpoken by the prophet:" after which is quoted the second verse
of this psalm. A marked stress is therefore authoritatively laid
on this entitling of the psalm before us a " parable," in the
sense in which the Lord Jesus spake parables.
Now we know that generally in the parables spoken by our
Lord, and specially those recorded in Matt, xiii., reference was
made by our Saviour to operations in husbandry or customs in
social life to exemplify and illustrate God's dealings with men's
souls according to His Gospel, for their recovery through faith in
Christ unto holiness and everlasting happiness.
In what sense, then, could this meaning of a parable be ap
plicable to the psalm before us ? How could it be in any sense
deemed " a dark saying of old ? "
Here let it be observed, how it has from earliest times been
appointed that events actually occurring in the patriarchal
families should be foreshadowings of God's dealings in a long
subsequent period with mankind in the matter of salvation by
grace.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH. 165
Thus in Gal. iv. 22 — 31, we are authoritatively taught, that
the facts occurring in Abraham's family, of Hagar first bearing
a son to Abraham, by Sarah's arrangement, and afterward of
Sarah's casting out the son of Hagar for mocking her own
son Isaac, was a foreshadowing of what God, after lapse of
many generations, would bring into operation among His believing
people ; by causing His congregation under the Mosaic covenant to
give place to that under the New Covenant in Christ's blood : it
being now God's pleasure, that the Holy Spirit for man's renewal,
(which during the Mosaic Covenant could only be obtained of God
in the way therein opened,) should now be only procurable from
Him through prayer in the Name of Jesus under the New
Covenant. (1 John v. 4, 5.) It plainly is in the power of Him
alone Who presides over all things, thus to make events in long
after ages so answer to those in man's early history, as by com
bination of the two to bring to light a protracted allegory or
parable. In the tenth chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to
the Corinthians, from the first to the fourteenth verse, that Apostle
saith, "The things which happened to the Israelites in the
wilderness are our ensamples," or typical figures of us, " to the
intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also did."
Now the author of this psalm, whom Matthew calls "the
prophet," here extends this view of St. Paul's concerning the
allegorical significance of Israel's wanderings in the desert, to
their subsequent vicissitudes until the establishment of David their
king on his throne in Jerusalem, where the psalm leaves him. To
use St. Paul's language, then, tbe psalmist, in calling what he was
about to write " a parable " — a dark saying of old— meant that his
recital of God's past dealings with Israel was an ensample or type
of what should in long after time be God's dealings with His
nation, in the matter of their establishment under the true David
in the promised inheritance.
Asaph the seer seems to have spoken under the influence of the
Spirit in the person of Christ, when saying, " Give ear, 0 My
people, to My law ! incline your ears to the words of My mouth !
I will open My mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of
old," so far speaking in the person of Christ. Afterwards, he
purposely passed from the use of the first person singular to that in
the plural, for the sake of denoting his delivery of what followed
in his own person. St. Matthew quotes this psalm just so far as
to shew the coincidence between Christ's Spirit speaking by
Asaph's mouth, and by His own mouth in Jesus. In the fourth
verse, there is mysterious reference to "a latter generation," and
again in verse 6, which God hath fore-determined in covenant
with Christ to give Abraham for accomplishment of the promises
unto him concerning inheritance of the land of promise. The psalmist
then significantly commences at the ninth verse with mention of
the way in which the generation of descendents from Abraham,

166 PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH.
in the day of the exodus out of Egypt and onwards until the time
of the typical David, frustrated God's promises to Abraham con
cerning the inheritance ; though led forth for the purpose of in
heriting it, and fully furnished with weapons needful for so doing.
" The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned
back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God,
and refused to walk in His law. And forgat His works and '
His wonders that He had shewed them."
It is conjectured, as seems to me rightly, by later commentators,
that Ephraim's vacillation here described, related not to any
flight of that tribe more particularly in literal battle, for none
such is any where mentioned ; but rather to purely spiritual
pusillanimity and tergiversation ; agreeably with the two following
verses. Let it then be observed, that the psalmist commences his
strictures upon Ephraim's conduct, after the tribe had been settled
in their lot in Canaan, and had the tabernacle located at Shiloh in
their midst, (see verse 60 ;) since at the twelfth verse, he speaks of
their having forgot what their fathers saw in Egypt.
The psalmist may therefore be considered to have censured them
for not having driven out the Canaanites, as they were charged to
do, and might have done, had they trusted in God to bless them in
performance of His commands. (See Josh. xvi. xvii.)
This bad example infected the other tribes, and the issue hereof
was answerable to the prediction in Deut. vii. 3, 4 ; Josh, xxiii. 12,
13. The psalmist then enters on a recital of the wonders wrought
by God for their fathers, which they had forgotten.
The psalmist recites, too, the backsliding of their fathers, and
how God recovered them therefrom by chastisements, producing
repentance, which opened the way for mercy. But at verse 40
the psalmist makes the ingratitude of their fathers reach its
highest pitch, in the avowal (at Numb, xiv.) that in consequence
of their unfitness to cope with the Canaanites, whom they were
commanded to invade, they would elect a captain under whom to
return to Egypt. This act of their fathers the psalmist stigmatises
in verse 41 by calling it " a tempting of God, and limiting* the
Holy One of Israel."
* Ver. 41. Dr. Thrupp observes, " The true sense of fiort has heen
missed by critics, in signifies ' a cross.' The last letter of the alphabet
which bore this name was in the old Hebrew of a cruciform shape. Now a
cross may be used as a mark, (see Gesenius' Lex.,) hence we have the word
rnR used in the Hiphil for setting a mark upon any one. Ezek. ix. i :
w fWl, ' and set a mark.' (See also Joh xxxi. 35 : »»ti ') ]W '», ' Who will
give me a hearing ? ' . 'IB }SJ, ' Behold my sign ! ' to wit, ' The Almighty
shall answer me ! ') It is also used in the Piel for making marks or scrawls.
1 Sam. xxi. 14 : 'And made marks on the doors of the gate.' In a somewhat
different form, the word is used for marking out boundaries. (Numb.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH. 167
The psalmist then reverts to their ingratitude in forgetting the
wonders wrought for them in Egypt : his aim being to shew their
descendents contemporary with himself, that their later forefathers,
in the time of Hophni and Phinehas, had for like ingratitude been
deservedly thrust down from the privilege of having the tabernacle
in their midst : (verse 60) instead of which God had set it up in
Judah, whither consequently they ought to be gathered.
Here is to be perceived the propriety of Hezekiah's using this
psalm to call the same tribe thither in 2 Chron. xxx. 3. Is there not
here, too, a type of the behaviour manifested by the Jews in crucify
ing our Saviour, when He called them, as St. Matthew denotes,
to enter on the inheritance through the New Covenant in His
blood? Did they not, in reply thereto, "cross the design of the
Holy One of Israel by drawing back from the inheritance ?" Further
more, is there not to be here perceived a type of what has
happened in the Church formed out of the elect remnants both of
the Jews and of the Gentiles in this present age of the kingdom of
heaven, since the Gospel has been preached? For this is at
present "the only remnant of the true Israelites," appointed to
sojourn as pilgrims and strangers in the earth until the Lord's
return, but meanwhile given a commission to " go into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature. (Mark xvi. 15.)
Like " the children of Ephraim, which though armed and carry
ing bows, turned back in the day of battle ; " so have tbe Churches
of Christ in this age, corresponding to the sojourn of the fathers of
Ephraim in the wilderness, refused under different excuses to
preach the Gospel to every creature. Consequently, like as God
transferred His tabernacle from Shiloh to Jerusalem ; so will He at
the appointed time return " to that latter generation of His ancient
people " spoken of in the fourth and sixth verses, according to Acts
iii. 19 — 21, and xv. 14 — 18, when He shall send Jesus Christ a
second time — the true David — to establish finally in Jerusalem, and
from thence over the earth, the knowledge of His Name.
Thus by the help of Matt. xiii. 35, and 1 Cor. x. 1 — 14, the

xxxiv. 7, 8.) But furthermore a cross is the symbol of thwarting : when
we thwart a man, we cross his path or his purposes : hence ttie sense
which the verb in the Hiphil hears in the present passage, which is exactly
that of the English word to ' cross ! ' The use of the English word ' cross,' at
least as a substantive, has doubtless heen much influenced hy Christian
associations ; and when we speak of the crosses a man has to endure, it is
perhaps doubtful, whether we should explain the expression by a reference
to the original symbolism of the cross, or to our Saviour's sufferings. Yet wo
can hardly doubt that it was providentially designed, that the instrument of
our Saviour's death should be one which had already borne this symbolical
meaning." In the ''Edinburgh Review" for January, 1870, is a carefully
compiled record of symbolical use of the cross from the earliest times and
everywhere ; leading to the conclusion that it was known like the Zodiac
to antediluvians. Justin Martyr tells of the paschal lamb in Egypt being
roasted with two sticks in the form of a cross.

168 PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH.
psalmist's designation of his psalm as a parable — a dark saying of
old — is vindicated, and made intelligible to our understandings.
Two considerations here press upon the mind : one, that the
length of time during which the children of Israel were doomed to
wander in the wilderness because of having refused to enter on the
land of Canaan, when called so to do ; namely, forty years, may be
a mysterious foreshadowing of the whole term for which the Jews
as a nation might provoke the Father to exclude them from being
brought "the second time," under their Messiah — the true David
— into the inheritance of the Lord for ever. Had the Jews, as a
nation, when the Gospel was first preached to them after the
Saviour's ascension, received it, their exclusion would possibly
have been much shorter : but upon their national rejection of it,
(1 Thess. ii. 15,) they provoked infliction of the whole period,
beyond which the blessing of the whole earth, through recovery of
Israel under the true David to the temple of Jerusalem, should not
be delayed. What if that " uttermost " limit was a jubilee of years
for every year of the forty inflicted on their fathers in the
wilderness ?
This would be exactly two thousand years ; which counted from
the year of Christ's crucifixion, (which was the thirty-first jubilee,
after entrance of Israel into Canaan under Joshua, when jubilees
first began to be counted,) would make the return of the Lord's
favour to Israel to be looked for about the year 2030 of our era.
See Levit. xxvi. 1 — 11 ; xxvii. 24.
The second subject for contemplation suggested by the psalmist's
parable explained as above is, that although the fathers of Ephraim
seem to us Christians to have been particularly slow in relying on
God's support in all that they had to do for Him, after His wonder
ful miracles in their behalf; we of the Christian Church, who have
by faith been persuaded of greater wonders wrought for mankind in
the righteous life, meritorious de^*' ~~"Smphant resurrection
and ascension of the Lord Jesus, are more-Julpably backward in
regard of the missionary labour given us to do, as well as in the
individual " setting of the heart aright, and having the spirit
steadfast with God." (Verse 8.)

Give, 0 My people, ear unto My law,
To the instruction of My mouth incline.
A parable1 My lips shall speak ; I'll draw
Dark sayings? to be ponder'd line on line,
1 Ver. 2. Louth, in sect. xiv. of "Heb. Poet." says the word Ircpip, or
"parable," in one of its senses, is expressive of power, or supreme authority :
and when applied to style means something energetic, excellent, or important.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH. 169
From what we've heard and known in time of old,
And by our fathers have been taught ! this song
Once writ, unto their children shall unfold —
That latter generation2 — of each tongue
How to Jehovah doth the praise belong.
2.
In Jacob He a testimony set —
A law in Israel, and our fathers bound
To teach3 it unto all they should beget
From age to age, until there should be found,
On earth that latter generation— that
Ordain'd to rise — which would their children tell
In God how to put trust, and tremble at
His word ; that thenceforth they might ne'er rebel
As did their fathers, who from God thus fell.
3.
The sons of Ephraim for warfare4 arm'd,
And camp'd around the ark,5 when put to proof
Shrank back, at conflict with strange creeds alarm'd ;
They held them from God's covenant aloof —
Averse from ordering the heart aright ;
With wav'ring minds they set aside His law —
Against the heathens' customs6 loath to fight —
Unmindful of the works their fathers saw —
When He in Zoan's field with Egypt's might did war.
In this psalm, we have for a parable a recapitulation of Israel's backslidings
from the exodus till the establishing of the kingdom under David, the type
of Messiah. By 1 Cor. x. 1 — 14, we find this dealing of God with Israel in
the wilderness to be a counterpart of that from Christ's bringing of Israel
by His sacrificial death out from under condemnation by law, until His estab
lishment in glory on earth. (Bev. xix. 11.) Here, indeed, is a parable full
of dignity, and awe-inspiring.
' Ver. 4. ]iin« "ri-fy with which compare Ps. xxii. 30 ; xxxiii. 12 ; cii. 18.
» Ver. 5. Deut. v£ 6—9.
* Ver. 9. It is supposed that no reference is here made to any special
deficiency in military discipline on the part of the Ephrahnites ; but that, as
now the progress of Christ's Church is likened to that of an army and called
" militant," so Ephraim is here spoken of as " armed " for that warfare.
5 Ver. 10. Shlloh was near Mount Ephraim.
6 Ver. 10. Jer. x. 3.

170 PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH.

Their fathers saw the tide on either hand
Divided, as a wall, till they passed through —
Saw the flood stand congeal'd ; 7 while t'wards the
land
Of promise, lo ! a cloudy pillar drew
Them on 'neath mist,8 as it advanc'd, by day ;
And all the night long with a beacon-flame !
Then through the desert, as they took their way,
From the cleft rock at His command there came
Rivers of waters — to the murmurers' shame.

But in the wilderness they sinn'd yet more,
Through discontent provoking the Most High.
Meat for their lust began they to implore,
Profanely tempting God : for lo ! their cry
Was, Can God in the wilderness spread out
A table % By the rod indeed was riven
His rock that pour'd forth streams to slake our
drought ;
But can bread9 also for us here be given,
Or beasts for food into this waste be driven ?

Jehovah deign'd to mark this discontent :
Now fiercely against Jacob forth there broke
His anger, and for Israel chastisement.
Because through lust for former10 food they spoke
Irrev'rently, nor did in God put trust,
Nor unto Him with thankful patience look :
Although so in the desert at their first

7 Ver. 10. Exod. xv. 8.
5 Ver. 14. Ps. cv. 39 ; 1 Cor. x. 1, 2.
9 Ver. 20. The Israelites at this time, though having manna, craved
wheaten bread. Numb. xxi. 5.
i° Ver. 23. Numb. xi. 5, 6.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH. 171
Entrance, when dreading11 hunger did He brook
Their petulance, that to their full they took

Of manna — angels' food — which daily fresh
Fell from the clouds — the corn of heav'nly fields —
And were then taking, while they bread and flesh
Demanded ! Lo ! all this He hears, and yields !
Forth from the east a wind12 He straightway sends,
A south wind also on His bidding speeds :
Soon thick as dust upon them flesh descends —
Yea, feather'd fowls— bred 'midst the marshy reeds
Innumerable, passing all their needs.
8:
They eat and fill themselves ; they're gorg'd, and
glad
To gratify their lust ; but while this meat
They still devour, God on them vengeance had.
A plague assail'd them with its fev'rish heat ;
The fattest of them found an early grave —
The youth of Israel, when scarce begun,
Reft of life's bloom — yet the survivors gave
Scant heed ; not slow their sinful ways to run,
But dull to think on what for them He'd done !

9:
Therefore their days did He in vanity
Consume — their troubled years with varying grief:
So often as He slew them, piteously
They sought of God forgiveness and relief.
God was their Rock — their only Rock — they cried,
11 Ver. U. Exod. xvi. 3.
12 Ver. 26. It seems to me that one of these winds brought the pestilence,
the other the quails. (Numb. xi. 31.)

172 PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH.
The High God their Redeemer, yet their tongue
Spoke what at heart they felt not, so they lied ;
They car'd not, tho' their heart t'ward God was wrong ;
Nor chose they in His cov'nant to be strong.
10.
But in the fulness of compassion He
From charging on them their misdeeds forbore ;
And tho' chastising would not utterly
Destroy them ; yea, time after time when sore
Provoked at their readiness afresh
To murmur, yet did He Himself restrain
From unrestricted wrath : for that but flesh
They were, would it content Him to complain —
A passing wind, that cometh not again,
11.
How often did they in the wilderness
Provoke Him, and His Holy Spirit grieve !
Yea, they did in their petulance express
Resolve the promis'd heritage to leave13
For Egypt, tempting God and traversing
The Holy One of Israel's decree —
His outstretch'd hand no wise remembering —
Nor rescue of them from their enemy
In Egypt, in the field of Zoan, wondrously.
12.
For He had Egypt's river turn'd to blood,
Barring their crowds from its refreshing wave.
Of flies too had He sent a mingled brood,
Which man and beast all but to frenzy drave.
13 Ver. 41. "Yea, they turned back." This is the central point in the
parable. For "the latter generation" (ver. 4 and 6) was given by covenant
to Abraham in Christ for accomplishment unto him of the promise concern
ing the inheritance.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH. 173
Next frogs in slimy swarms had every bed
And oven crept into ; next on their grain
And vines and herbage divers locusts fed ;
Then hail o'erwhelm'd their cattle in the plain,
And by hot thunderbolts their flocks were slain.
13.
Those plagues He'd summ'd up in that dreadful
night
Of death, when in the fierceness of His wrath
With horrid sounds He'd scar'd them, and with sight
Of evil angels14 crowding round His path ;
While He His jugdment dealt to every home —
Slaying the first-born — stripping of their pride
Ham's tabernacles — with an equal doom
On high and low : but to His own a Guide
He'd prov'd, lest any hurt should them betide.
14.
Safely He'd led them onward ; and from fear
Exempted them ; but brought the refluent sea
Upon their enemies — fed them, till here
Unto the border of His sanctuary —
His mountain, which His own right hand had won,
He'd stablish'd them, driving the heathen thence
Before them ; marking out by line thereon,
Each tribe's just share in His inheritance,
Thus making Israel dwell within the heathens' tents.
15.
Yet for all this, thro' frailness, God most High
They tempted, nor His covenant observ'd ;
But like their fathers dealt unfaithfully,
And, as a treach'rous bow, from duty swerv'd.
With images His jealousy they prov'd ;
Then, seeing how His Israel had err'd,
u Ver, 49, See Wisdom xvii.

174 PSALM THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH.
Far from His tent in Shiloh He remov'd
The tabernacle He at first had lov'd.
16.
His ark then to captivity He gave,
His glory into the Philistines' hand,
Who did His people cruelly enslave,
Filling with cries of the oppress'd His land.
The fire, His wrath had lit, their youth devour'd,
No bridal hymn was o'er their maidens sung,
Their priests by fierce idolaters o'erpower'd,
Were slaughter'd ; and yet, the hush'd crowd among,
No lamentations of the widows rung.
17.
Then did the Lord, as just from sleep awake,
Or like a mighty man warm'd in His frame
With wine, shout loud ; and on the invaders take
A signal vengeance, to perpetual shame
Condemning them by their opprobrious wounds :
But Joseph's tabernacle, as before,
He chose not, nor His Name plac'd in the bounds
Of Ephraim : for He set Judah o'er
The tribes, and Zion lov'd for evermore.
18.
There He His sanctuary builded high
T'ward heav'n, and deeply founded in the earth;
And call'd the shepherd David to be nigh
Unto Him ; as the ewes, come to the birth,
He tended. Thence that youth did He advance
Over His people — Jacob — to preside,
And govern Israel — His inheritance.
So he for them did uprightly provide,
And with his skilful hands discreetly guide.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-NINTH. 175
PSALM LXXIX.
TITLE.
A psalm of Asaph.
ARGUMENT.
The plaintive tone characterising all these psalms ascribed to
Asaph, inclines me to look upon them as proceeding from one pen.
Supposing Asaph to have lived chiefly at Gibeon, and witnessed
with grief the decline of religious zeal there perceptible, and to
have ascribed it to that demolition of the place of worship in Nob,
before removal of the tabernacle to Gibeon, it is easy to understand
how remembrance of all this may have been with Asaph an
occasion of mourning before God.
It would then be quite conformable with Scriptural precedent,
that the Spirit of Christ should be considered to have taken
occasion by this direction of the psalmist's mind to exercise his
spirit in elegiac strains, anticipative of calamities to befal the
tabernacle then erected by David, according to Ps. Ixxviii. 69,
in Zion ; so framing his words, that they should be applicable to
desolations overtaking the temple, to be subsequently erected in
Jerusalem in Solomon's day, by Ahaz's declension, (2 Chron.
xxviii. 21 — 25 ;) and subsequently in Manasseh's day, (2 Chron.
xxxiii. 1 — 11 ;) and again in Jehoiakim's, (2 Chron. xxxvi 5 — 7 ;)
and to those which afterwards overtook the renovated temple —
according to Micah iii. 12, in the time of Titus — and is, as we
gather from Zech. xiv., yet to overtake another temple in Jeru
salem in a day forthcoming, as agreeably with our Saviour's
anticipatory foretokens in Matt. xxiv. 21 — 31.
Hezekiah's insertion of this psalm immediately after Asaph's
prediction in Ps. Ixxviii. 68, 69, concerning " the sanctuary to be
established for ever in Zion," may therefore be regarded as a
vindication on Hezekiah's part of Asaph's enlightenment as a
prophet. For by this seventy-ninth psalm, foretelling desolations
of the temple in Jerusalem, it would be plain to all, that Asaph
had been aware of God's favoured city and temple being appointed,
notwithstanding, to lamentable reverses, as Hezekiah had found :
which, however, ought not to breed in men's minds any doubt of
its being " finally established."
According to this view, some parts of this psalm would be
found more descriptive of one desolation than of another.
Thus, taking the statement in 2 Chron. xxix. 30, for warrant in
thinking that Hezekiah arranged these psalms of Asaph in the
order they now stand, with a view to their use in the temple

176 PSALM THE SEVENTY-NINTH.
service as re-constituted by him, he would be considered to have
found some expressions in this psalm descriptive of what he was
calling the ten tribes to deplore, (who might have special regard
for Asaph,) along with himself, &s having occurred in the days of
his father Ahaz. (2 Chron. xxviii. 24.) But again, other passages
of this psalm were subsequently found to describe more graphically
the desolations of the temple taking place after Hezekiah's time,
in the days of his son Manasseh : such as the words in verses
2, 3, which are borne out by 2 Kings xxiv. 4, where occur the
very words. But again, those of the first verse agree better
with the desolations in Nebuchadnezzar's day. (2 Chron. xxxix.
17—19.) When we consider how in the third verse of the fifty-fourth
psalm it is clearly to be gathered, as compared with the title,
that the Jews themselves reckoned David to have called his own
countrymen "strangers," for their heathenish behaviour to him;
and how in verse 5 of Psalm lix., he may on the same grounds be
reckoned to have emphatically included his own countrymen, that
were Saul's guards, among " all the heathen ; " we may, without
violence to Jewish modes of thought, suppose the writer of this
seventy-ninth psalm to have in vision stigmatised those false
brethren of the faithful Jews in the days of Ahaz and of Manasseh
as " heathen," (verse 6,) that to their shame knew not the God
of Israel, when they had the best opportunity of doing so, and to
their condemnation had not " called on Him." (On which point
see Ps. xiv. 4.)
Hence their scoffing at God's people for worship of Him
(verse 4) would be the more aggravated ; being conduct which
it more particularly behoved God to rebuke, for the honour of His
name, (verses 10, 12 ;) whereas the other heathen were instruments
ifl God's hands of punishing such backsliders; although not so
meaning it. (Isa. x. 7.)
In regard to that expression inverse 11, "Let the sighing of
the prisoner come before Thee," of course it is open for some
to think it particularly referred to Manasseh in captivity ; but it
seems preferable to take it as mention of one for sample of a class ;
just as "inhabitant" is used in Isa. xxxiii. 24.
After recital in the first seven verses of the afflictions weighing
down God's people, the psalmist, from the eighth to the end, pleads
with God on their behalf in very moving petitions.
Pains taken in observing these pleas, will be amply rewarded
by the hints to be gathered from them about the ordering of
prayer unto God under all circumstances, prosperous or adverse ;
but more especially in the latter, which were those, as we have
supposed, of the psalmist himself.
Let it then be observed, that in these petitions he nowhere
makes mention of the fidelity with which he and others had abided
with God under persecution, as a ground for God's interposition.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-NINTH. 177
Yet Hezekiah had done this in Isa. xxxviii. 3, and had been
accepted. The psalmist, as it appears to me, refrained herefrom, because
of the extent of the declensions among his countrymen, that were
in vision passing before his mind.
Thus he spake after the manner of Moses in his mediation for
Israel, when Aaron himself had led the way in idolatry. (Exod.
xxxii. 11 — 14.) When Ahaz, and Manasseh, and Jehoiakim, led
the way in it, the national backsliding was similar.
Declensions from God on the part of governments are more
serious than those in any other sections of the nation ; for
governments are everywhere representatives of God, (Rom. xiii. 4,)
to do justice by His appointment, whether or not they know Him.
Precisely; then, as Moses in the crisis just referred to, based all
his pleas for God's mercy on God's name and promises, and on what
would be spoken against His name by backsliders and idolaters,
if he did not spare His people ; so did the psalmist, because (as we
think) foreseeing in the Spirit of Christ backslidings to be headed
by tbe king himself; as in Ahaz's day, and Manasseh's, and Je-
hoiakim's. Now to found our pleas for mercy on the name, and
attributes, and offices, and promises of God, is the most submissive
and contrite strain that can be resorted to. It indeed belongs to
God's all-sufficiency, that He should originate everything He doth,
from reasons within Himself; that is, for His own name's sake :
as Samuel admonished his countrymen in 1 Sam. xii. 20.
The form of prayer for public service in our Church appears to
have been framed on this principle ; which is obviously the only
one on which prayers can be framed for all present to make use
of with equal truth.
Indeed, the petition in the former part of verse 8, with which
the psalmist commences his pleas, is transferred to our Church's
Litany, which begins (after the invocation) with the words —
"Remember not, 0 Lord, our iniquities, nor the iniquities of
our forefathers." (2 Kings xxi. 14, 15 ; xxiv. 4.) So that the
compilers of that Litany would seem to have here taken the
psalm before us for their model.
Another point to be observed in the psalmist's petitions is, that
notwithstanding all the calamities outwardly pressing upon Judah,
he in his prayers entreats God to purge them of their sins, (verse
9 ;) whereby it is plain, that he looked on his own sin and that
of his fellow-men as the fundamental source of their troubles,
and to be that which especially needed to be remedied ; agreeably
with our Saviour's precept, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and His righteousness, and all things needful and profitable for
you shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi. 33.) This is charac
teristic of Asaph ; as may be seen by his solemnly recorded
convictions in Ps. Ixxiii. 1, 27 ; lxxiv. 18; lxxv. 7; lxxvi. 7;
Ixxvii. 13, 14; Ixxviii. 7, 8, 56, 57. No effectual injury can be

178 PSALM THE SEVENTY-NINTH.
otherwise done us than by our own consent, through our own sin,
whereof we refuse to repent.
It may be difficult for persons in extreme bodily distress to
pray exclusively, as the psalmist would here have them, for
cleansing from their sins ; but this only shews more conspicuously
devotedness unto God, when under such circumstances pleading
chief concernment for the glory of God's name.
The prayers of our Church's public service are characterised
by the practice of leading worshippers out of themselves to con
templation of God's names, and covenant-offices, and promises.
If we consider by what names God had caused His people in
the psalmist's day to trust in Him — such as " the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," (Exod. iii. 15 ;) and
"the Strength of Israel," (1 Sam. xv. 29;) and "the Redeemer,"
(Job xix. 25 ;) we must acknowledge what far more explicit
encouragement to do so He hath now granted us by His names
of " Our Father in heaven," and " Jesus," and " Comforter."
Moreover, if we compare what pledge the psalmist had in his
day from God, that Pie would purge away His people's sins,
(Job xxxiii. 14 — 30 ; Deut. iv. 25 — 31 ;) with what He hath given
us, by accomplishing the foreshadowed sacrifice of His Son at
His crucifixion, (which those of beasts under the Mosaic covenant
typified,) we shall see unspeakably greater obligation to be
laid upon us to " call upon God," as " the heathen," according to
verse 6, "do not," in the name of Jesus. Upon penitently and
faithfulji/asking of God pardon and cleansing in reliance on that
name, the Holy Ghost imparts it to us, (John v. 24,) thereby
bringing us regeneration, or confirming us therein. Seeing that
He causeth us to be through faith incorporated in our hearts with
Christ, in Whom the Father has laid up for us forgiveness of sins,
righteousness, and eternal life in Christ's keeping — not in ours,
within us. But all this is given by covenant, to the end that
while our day of grace lasts, we may daily ask in Christ accept
ably, as justified persons, for renewal with the Spirit of Christ,
without which we are none of His. (Rom. viii. 9.)
By the Spirit of Christ so obtained is it that we are enabled,
as the sheep of His pasture, to live to God thenceforward, and to
go on " from strength to strength, till every one of us appeareth
before God in Zion." (Ps. lxxxiv. 7.)

The heathen into Thine inheritance
Are come, O God : their troopers have defil'd
Thy holy fane : and false inhabitants
Streets of Jerusalem in heaps have pil'd.

PSALM THE SEVENTY-NINTH. 179
2.
Thy slaughter'd saints unburied left to lie,
The fowls and beasts have with their bodies fed :
Amidst their neighbours' scorn and ribaldry
Their blood, like water, has been largely shed.

How long wilt Thou, Jehovah, angry be \
For ever \ shall Thy jealousy blaze forth
Like fire % upon those ignorant of Thee,
And realms not calling on Thee, wreak Thy wrath !

For Jacob have these plund'rmg bands devour'd —
His dwelling-place they've savagely laid waste :
By Thee discarded — by our foes o'erpower'd —
In mis'ry low indeed are we debas'd !
5.
The sins of former times remember not
Against us, for the glory of Thy Name !
O God of our salvation, purge the blot
Of sin from off us — free our souls from blame !

Why should the heathen arrogantly say,
Where is their God % Oh, that He in our sight
Among the heathen would His might display,
The spilling of Thy saints' blood to requite !
7.
Oh, let the sighing of the pris'ner reach
Thine ear ! let those in bondage, doom'd to die,
Be sav'd, O Lord ! and to our neighbours' speech
Against Thee, do Thou to their face reply !
H 2

180 PSALM THE EIGHTIETH.
8.
So purg'd from sin, and in our souls restor'd,
As sheep in Thine own pastures taught to graze,
By us shalt Thou be piously ador'd,
And to all generations shewn Thy praise.

PSALM LXXX.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim : a testimony of Asaph,
a psalm.
ARGUMENT.
The writer of this psalm in verse 14, by the expression " this
vine," speaks as though in the land where the vine was planted.
(Ver. 9,)
Moreover, in the first verse he speaks of the congregation of
Israel as represented by Joseph, to whom his father gave the
birthright, after Reuben's displacement; and entreats of God to
rise up, as He was wont, wheij in the cloudy pillar He gave the
people notice of its being time for them to begin their march
onward : sayings " Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir
up Thy strength, and come, and help us ! " Now the order of
march observed in the desert is described in Numb. ii. 3 — 34,
and x. 14. Judah, who encamped on the east side of the taber
nacle, with Issachar and Zebulun, began the march. Then the
tabernacle, which by the time of the vanguard being fully in
motion had been taken down, was carried forward by the sons of
Gershon and Merari. Next commenced the march of Reuben,
Simeon, and Gad, who were encamped on the south of the taber
nacle : showing that tbe Israelites were to put themselves in
marching order according to the direction of the sun's course from
east to west. By the time that these were in full march, the
Kohathites were ready to carry forward the sanctuary with the ark :
after which came the tribes on .the west of the tabernacle, Ephraim,
Benjamin, and Manasseh.
When Israel used thus to march, the congregation, it is to be'
remembered, was undivided.
Is it then unreasonable to suppose, that this psalm was written in
the spirit of prophecy for a time when the congregation of Israel
shall be stirred up to reunion ? My persuasion is that " Asaph
the Seer," who in Ps. Ixxviii. 5, was inspired to write "a

PSALM THE EIGHTIETH. 181
testimony " for " that latter generation," in this psalm also pro
vided a form of words to be actually used by the congregation of
Israel in a day yet future, when in the captivity in which the ten
tribes now are, as well as the two of Judah and Benjamin, the Lord
shall return to His ancient nation, owing to the declension of the
present remnant of the true Israelites, as a congregation, from the
charge to preach the Gospel to every creature, as predicted in
Ps. Ixxviii. 4—8. (See Deut. ix. 4—6; Matt. xxiv. 12—14.)
Asaph therefore in this eightieth psalm maybe considered to
indicate, that like as Israel in the wilderness might not commence
marching, until the pillar of the cloud which went before them
rose up high into the air above the tabernacle ; so there will be
granted His ancient people, in that day spoken of, some visible
token of His presence corresponding to the cloudy pillar, which
will tell them when to set out for the Lord's inheritance.
On this supposition, the petition in the third verse, " Cause Thy
face to shine," which is repeated in the seventh, and again in the
last verse, receives considerable illustration. (Compare 2 Cor. iv.
6.) For in Numb, ix., from verse 15 to the end of the chapter,
it appears that if the cloud rose from the tabernacle in the night,
(when it manifested itself by fire, ) preparation for marching was at
once to be commenced. Hence the Lord's " causing of His face
to shine " may denote that, as though Israel were at that time in
the darkness of night, (Isa. lx. 4; Philip, ii. 16,) they shall be
called to set out in the order indicated ; as also they set out from
Egypt by night.
This supposition that the psalm before us was written by Asaph
in David's day, in anticipation of the final exodus of " the latter
generation " out of the captivity at present overtaking Israel, will
also allow of that expression in verse 4 being taken in its full
force ; where the psalmist asks, " O Lord God of hosts, how long
wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? Thou
feedest them with the bread of tears, and givest them tears to
drink in great measure." For from that day to this the prayer has
not been answered ; nor will be, until Ephraim be again called
forth in the order of march at first indicated at the Lord's return.
To suppose that Asaph the seer was thus taught by the Spirit of
Christ to speak even in David's day a form of prayer to the Lord,
to give that "latter generation " of Ephraim notice to begin their
march after His luminous cloudy pillar, is no more wonderful, than
the undoubted enlightenment of Isaiah about 250 years after
wards to speak in chapter xi. of his book, at verse 12 — 16, about
" the outcasts of Israel " being gathered unto the Lord's land
along with " the dispersed of Judah : " when, as he saith,
" Ephraim shall no more envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim : "
where also a passage through the tongue of the Egyptian Sea,
similar to that of Israel under Moses through the Red Sea, is
spoken of.

182 PSALM THE EIGHTIETH.
Nor is the ascription of this enlightenment to Asaph by Christ's
Spirit more wonderful, than that of Zechariah, in the ninth chapter
of his book, 400 years afterwards, who, in the thirteenth verse,
saith, "When I have bent Judah for Me, filled the bow with
Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, 0 Zion, against thy sons, 0
Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man, the Lord
6hall be seen over them."
Then in the tenth chapter, at verse 10, Zechariah speaks of
Israel being brought on their march by passage through the sea,
in a manner equally as wonderful as when Moses led them ;
where it is written, " And he shall pass through the sea with
affliction ; and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps
in the river shall dry up " — an event referred to in Ps, lxvi.
6. Zechariah too, in chapter vi., verse 12, saith, "Behold the
Man Whose Name is the Branch, and He shall grow up out
of His place ; and He shall build the temple of the Lord : "
words which, though not expressly repeating, yet appear to be
va reference to those of this eightieth psalm, at verse 15, "Behold
the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted; and the
Branch that Thou madest so strong for Thyself." The original
word here translated " Branch," being literally Son, but evidently
meaning a bough of the stock, apparently refers to the language
of Jacob in Gen. xlix. 22, where, speaking of Joseph, the dying
patriarch said, " Joseph is a fruitful bough, (literally, son,)
even a fruitful bough by a well ; whose branches (literally,
daughters) run over the wall." This "bough" of David's stock
is to be reckoned to be Jesus, Who shall be sent " a second time "
by His Father unto Israel after the flesh, (Acts iii. 19 ; Rom. xi.
31,) at that day when His present Church in its tabernacle con
dition, as in tbe wilderness, shall have been as it were " burned
with fire and cut down," (as Asaph has it in verse 1 6,) for conduct
like to that which brought the same on Ephraim prior to Asaph's
day. (Ps. Ixxviii. 62 — 64.) The Lord Jesus also significantly
predicted such a visitation, when saying in Luke xxiii. 31, " For
if they do these things " that they are doing to Me, Who am " a
green tree ; what shall be done in the dry ? " that is, when the
congregation mystically called My body shall, through superstition
and corruption of My truth, have provoked Me to depart from it,
leaving it without power to bear fruit, what shall the wrath of
God permit violent men, as fire, to do against it ?
Those times seem truly setting in on us at this very day : con
sequently they are to be regarded as so many indications of the
time drawing near for the Lord's coming a second time to His
ancient people, and fitting them to be the ministers of His pure
Gospel to all mankind. Then indeed, when " the times of refresh
ing shall have come from the presence of the Lord," owing to the
declension of nations now Christian from the pure Gospel, the heart
of Israel shall be turned unto the Lord, and they shall call upon

PSALM THE EIGHTIETH. 183
Him by the Name of Jesus, as their Lord, the God of Sabaoth,
and He will be their Shepherd : so will they not go back from Him
any more, as they have done ; but shall be finally saved.
This psalm so explained was given by Asaph in David's day
to be sung in the tabernacle service. Of course David did not in
clude it in his Book of Psalms ; because he there inserted in the
Scripture canon only a select portion of his own compositions,
which reach from the first to the end of the forty-first psalm.
When, however, Hezekiah, as related in 2 Chron. xxix. 30, re
vised tbe Book of Psalms, expressly adding a book of Asaph's to
that of David's, it is obvious that this eightieth, interpreted as
above, would be deemed by him most fit for the purpose of
gathering any from among the remnant of the poorer sort left
in the land of the ten tribes to worship in Jerusalem, and en
tirely in keeping with the tenour of his letters or messages.
(2 Chron. xxx. 6 — 13.) And he might invite them to look to him
as the representative of David's line for the time being, according
to verse 17, and Psalm Ixxviii. 70 — 72. For Hezekiah himself
looked earnestly for the coming of the Lord in bis family. (Isa.
xxxviii. 11.) By this consideration the place of this psalm in the
Psalter is accounted for ; and also the title given it by the Septua
gint, namely, against the Assyrian. For Shalmaneser, as it is
supposed, had. then carried captive the bulk of the ten tribes. But
tbe psalm so explained, though thought by the Septuagint to be
applicable to the captivity under Shalmaneser, in reality reaches to
our times, as did the seventy-eighth ; and includes that desolation
of the Lord's vineyard which we believe to be now impending
over us. 1.
The prayers of Israel vouchsafe to heed,
Shepherd ! that Joseph, as a flock, dost lead !
From 'twixt the Cherubim forth let there blaze
Thy beams ! 'fore Ephraim and Benjamin
And 'fore Manasseh rise, O God ! again
Turn us ! and bless us with Thy glory's rays !
2.
O God, Jehovah of Sabaoth, Thou
Long time Thy people's prayers dost disallow
In anger! hence with weeping eat they food,
With weeping drink they ! sore those at our side
Thwart us ; and foes, amongst themselves, deride !
God of Sabaoth, turn us for our good !

184 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST.
3.
A vine from out of Egypt hadst Thou brought,
And planted it, when thence the heathen sort
Thou hadst uptorn : deep its root did it strike :
The hills were cover'd with its shade,
This side and that, as cedars, boughs it made,
Which to the sea and river stretch'd alike.
4.
Why hast Thou then her hedges broken down,
And at the feet of passing plunderers thrown,
For boars to waste, and wild beasts to devour ]
God of Sabaoth ! we beseech Thee take
Fresh pleasure in the vineyard Thou didst make,
The branch Thou for Thyself endu'd'st with pow'r.
5.
'Tis desolate by burning — 'tis cast down —
They perish 'neath the terror of Thy frown.
Be Thy hand on the Man of Thy right hand —
The Son of Man — Thou for Thyself mad'st strong,
So, O Lord God of hosts, shalt Thou prolong
Our days, and fit us 'fore Thy face to stand !

PSALM LXXXI,
TITLE.
To the chief Musician upon Gittith ; a psalm of Asaph,
ARGUMENT.
This psalm appears to have been written by Asaph, for the use
of Israel, as represented by Joseph, in the opening of the seventh
month in a jubilee year.
This opinion is in part founded on the title, wherein this psalm
is said to be upon "Gittith;" which may be taken to mean "at
the ingathering of the vintage ; " as in that of Ps. viii. This sum-

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST. 185
ming up of harvests for the year with thanksgiving was appointed
to be annually celebrated at the feast of Tabernacles, to be held on
the fifteenth day of the seventh month, (Lev. xxiii. 34,) the feast
of Trumpets having been held concurrently with that of the new
moon on the first of that month, (Lev. xxiii. 24,) and the great
annual Day of Atonement on the tenth thereof, (Lev. xxiii. 27.)
Besides this, the word W'ln, which means to rejoice as in the
jubilee, points to the same conclusion. Also the words in verse 3,
" Blow up the trumpet," followed as they are in the fourth and fifth
verses with what is by Mr. Thrupp taken for a reference to the
Divine appointment of the trumpet to be sounded at festivals,
would (when accompanied, as in this psalm, with reference to its
special significance) naturally point to its use on the feast of
trumpets, which was specially " for a memorial." (Lev. xxiii. 24.)
On looking at Numb, x., we find the command to make two
silver trumpets given, and the occasions specified on which they
were to be used. This revelation was made in the first month of
the second year. Yet it appears to have been the first reference
to that "voice as of a trumpet," (Rev. iv. 1,) wherewith we find in
Exod. xix. 16 — 20, the delivery of the law on Mount Sinai was
preluded. The literal words of verse 5 are : " In His going forth
against the land of Egypt." Perhaps "against," might be taken
for "over against," so as to describe the remarkable direction in
which the host of Israel was commanded by God to march ; which
was in itself highly deserving of notice. For by Exod. xiv. we find
that Moses was commanded to lead Israel away from the direct
road to Palestine out of Goshen, towards the sea. And after Israel
had been brought through the Red Sea, the cloud going before
the host instructed Moses to lead them on with their backs to the
promised inheritance, "against" or "over against" the land of
Egypt, down the promontory of Sinai, with a narrow strait of the
Red Sea, called "the tongue of the Egyptian Sea," interposed
between them and their former masters.
Now, adopting Mr. Thrupp's view, that the " statute " or " law "
in the fourth verse, and " the testimony " in the fifth, referred to
God's institution of the use of the silver trumpet in special com
memoration of His use of " a sound as of a trumpet " at the delivery of
the law; (referred to in the seventh verse in the words, " I answered
thee in the secret place of thunder ; " to wit, from the pavilion in
the impenetrable cloud on the summit of Sinai :) that could not with
propriety be dated from the time " when He went out through the
land of Egypt ;" (as our version has it,) and very loosely by the
word " after He had gone forth against the land of Egypt," (as
Mr. Thrupp has it ;) when by Numb. x. 1, we learn that it was not
ordained for a testimony until the first month of the second year,
after marching down the promontory of Sinai. But there would
be propriety in pointing to the fact of the first formation of a
trumpet having been appointed by God, in commemoration of

186 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST.
that ever-to-be-remembered sound "as of a trumpet," first heard
(as I think) by the Israelites at delivery of the law ; if the psalmist
be taken to say, that it was given " in His (that is, Jehovah's)
going over against the land of Egypt : " for in this direction had
Israel been marched at that time spoken of.
If we recollect how in Isa. v. 2, Israel, at going forth from Egypt,
is compared to " the choicest vine ;" and in Jer. ii. 3, it is testified,
" Israel was holiness to the Lord," at " their espousals and their
going after Him in the wilderness ; " and that by 1 Cor. x. 2,
" they were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea ;"
and by Heb. xi. 29, we learn, " by faith they passed through the
Red Sea;" it will not surely be unscriptural to suppose that the
prophet, in speaking at ver. 5 of Jehovah's going forth against the
land of Egypt, speaks of Christ's house (in the sense ascribed to it
in Heb. iii. 1 — 6) as co-extensive with His people. But hardly
had He gone onward down the promontory of Sinai ; when (saith
Christ, superseding Asaph, of which we have other instances in this
prophet's psalms,) " I heard (among them) a language I know not : "
that is, a language of discontent— a muttering of perverseness—
language which I, saith Christ, had the less reason to expect, Who
had so recently eased their shoulder of the burden — language which
I answered on Mount Sinai, where the delivery of the law, preluded
by the voice as of a trumpet, shewed why I had led them away from
the promised inheritance.
This explanation of verse 5 will tally with the parallel passage in
Ps. cxiv. 1. For my persuasion is that OV, in the singular is never
applied to any but Israel ; and if in the plural to Gentiles, it is to
those of them that have been blessed with the light of revealed
truth. It follows then that the latter clause in verse 1 of Ps.
cxiv. is cumulative in its testimony to " the righteousness of God ; "
as Christ, in Micah vi. 5, asks His people to see it displayed in His
behaviour in their midst; when, in Numb, xxiii. 21, Balaam would
have had Hini curse at least a remnant of them, that were by
idolatry committing abomination. God's righteousness was mani
fested in accepting the rulers and better sort as representatives of
their nation on account of their faith ; which for the sake of what
Christ incarnate would perform to uphold God's majesty He could
do, if it pleased Him, consistently with His hatred of idolatry.
Thus by His righteousness He forbore from charging on the
nation the sins of "the strangers" that were among them. (See
Gen. xviii. 32 ; Numb. xvi. 22 ; Jer. v. 1.) Hence in the first verse
of Ps. cxiv. it may be understood to be testified : " When Israel
went out of Egypt — the house of Jacob from a people of strange
language " — evidently referring to this fifth verse of Ps. lxxxi. —
" Judah was His sanctuary ; " that is, Christ vouchsafed to make
the nation His dwelling-place — His house — (Heb. iii. 1 — 6,) though
in the midst of Egyptians ; aye, in the midst of strange talkers
among His own people !

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST. 187
There is then a special significance in calling the delivery of the
law, at verse 7, an "answering " of Israel— implying that the strange
language was in Israel. And we have supposed this discontent to
have been occasioned by their surprise at being led away from the
inheritance to be given them, into " the waste, howling wilderness."
(Deut. xxxii. 2.) For much use had been made by Moses of the pro
mised inheritance to draw the Israelites, as one man, after him.
(Numb. xvi. 14.) This use of " answered" is to be found in Matt.
xxii. 1 ; xxviii. 5 ; Luke xiv. 3. One reason of God pursuing this
course with Israel is stated in Exod. xiii. 17. Having been kept
in abject bondage, they needed to be trained in the regulation of
themselves. (Judges iii. 2.) Assuredly God's delivery of the law,
whereby, out of a horde of families, they were constituted a nation,
(Deut. iv. 7,) was an answer to their understandings : giving a
reason for the cloud having led them along side the shore of the
Red Sea, over against Egypt.
The delivery of God's law was preluded by the thrilling sound as
of a trumpet waxing louder and louder — a sound, it may be, never
before heard — and so piercing, that it forced the Israelites to ask
(Exod. xix. 16, and xx. 18, 19) that Moses should speak with them
instead of God; "but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
Thus this sound as of a trumpet wrung from Israel the general
confession that there was a Divine Being on the mountain,
with Whom they could not hold communion, or they should
die. This confession precluded them from ever afterward listen
ing to the insinuation, that Moses had, like subsequent legislators,
among the Gentiles, first prepared his code, and then pretended to
receive it from an imaginary being in the gloomy recesses of some
forest-clad or cloud-capt mountain. Hence the subsequent appoint
ment in Numb. x. of the silver trumpet for a memorial (if that in
strument be supposed to have been never till then made on earth,
and to have a sound somewhat suggestive of that heard at com
mencement of delivery of the law) would be, as here described, a
" testimony to Joseph " of the personal existence of God, " Whose
face man cannot see and live." (Exod. xxxiii. 20.) This inter
pretation of the fourth and fifth verses is shewn by Pole's synopsis
to have been inclined to by some critics.
This interpretation invests with mysterious significance Ezekiel's
likening of God's ministers to watchmen sounding the trumpet, (ch.
xxxiii.;) as also St. Paul's reference to the same similitude in
1 Cor. xiv. 8 : as also to his mention of the use whereto that
employed on Sinai is to be put at the first resurrection. (1 Cor.
xv. 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16.)
These, then, are the expressions on which is founded the opinion,
that we have here a psalm to be used at the jubilee. But its mention
of the "God of Jacob," in the first and fourth verses, and of
"Joseph" in the fifth, as representing Israel, shews that the
writer was in a situation to speak of Joseph (to whom Jacob

188 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST.
gave the birthright, which entitled to a double portion, Gen.
xlviii. 5,) as the representative of Israel. But this pre-eminence
Joseph bad lost in Asaph's time, as he tells us in Ps. Ixxviii.
60—67. What remains, therefore, but to conclude, that Asaph
was in the spirit of prophecy here stirred up to write a psalm
for the use of Israel, as represented by Ephraim, Benjamin,
and Manasseh, at the jubilee of the Lord's return "a second
time;" (Acts vii. 13,) when, as above observed, the great
trumpet shall be sounded, wherewith shall be ushered in the
resurrection of the just ?
Here inquiry may advantageously be made into the circum
stances pressing on Asaph, which became the probable occa
sion of his being thus stirred up to prepare a song calling
Israel under Ephraim's presidency to the jubilee ; though it
could not be called into use till the day of " the deliverer
turning away ungodliness from Jacob." (Rom. xi. 26.) For it
is to be observed, that David used to be led into certain cir
cumstances, which became with him the occasion of pouring
out bis soul to God in sacred song; whereupon, in the heighth
of his joy, or, on the other hand, the profundity of his grief,
being wrapt into ecstasy, the Spirit of Christ spake by his
mouth dark sayings concerning Christ, which the psalmist him
self desired to search into. (1 Pet. i. 12.)
The following remarks seem to me fitted to explain the occasion
of Asaph's being thus stirred up to deliver a jubilee-psalm for a
day which was at his time so far removed — a psalm in which, from
the sixth verse to the end, Christ's Spirit subordinates Asaph's to
Himself, so as to deliver this call of Israel under Ephraim to jubilee
in His own name.
Asaph, being contemporary with David and a seer, (2 Chron.
xxix. 30,) may justly be supposed, from his characteristic mention
of Joseph, as representative of Israel, (see Ps. lxxvi. 2 — 6 ; lxxvii.
15 ; Ixxviii. 9, 60 — 67 ; lxxx. 1, 2,) to have dwelt in Gibeon, where
was the tabernacle that had in the wilderness held the ark, and
which even then held the brazen altar made by Moses, (2 Chron.
i. 3,) and continued to do so, till Solomon's building of the temple
in Jerusalem ; that is to say, in all probability, till after Asaph's
death. Supposing, then, that Asaph mourned over the decline of God's
favour to Ephraim, as we gather that he did from his plaintive
notices of that tribe's backsliding in Ps. Ixxviii. 9 — 11 and 56 — 60,
this sorrow on his part might be the occasion of his soul being
lifted up in Christ into ecstasy to proclaim such a call of Israel
to jubilee, as he would literally have done had the ark of God
been carried to Shiloh after it was sent by the Philistines to
Bethshemesh, (1 Sam. vi. 19 ;) or had it been placed in the
tabernacle, after that sacred edifice had been transferred to
Nob or Gibeon.

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST. 189
Asaph's spirit lifted up in Christ heard, without doubt to his
great comfort, Israel called under Ephraim to the jubilee ; think
ing possibly that the time when Messiah — " the Son of man made
by God so strong for Himself" — should come (Ps. Ixxx. 17)
would not be very distant. For he was taught in spirit to foresee
(as we know by Ps. Ixxviii. 70) that he might not hope for, nor
desire, a revocation of the Divine favour from David's line in Zion,
and a transference of it back to Ephraim in Shiloh at any time ;
and consequently that the coming of that " Son of man " alone,
Whom God had made so strong for Himself, (Eom. v. 6,) should
be the time for Ephraim being, without disparagement of Judah,
called to immediate following of the ark ; as that tribe with
Benjamin and Manasseh had been used to do in the wilderness.
(Numb. x. 12 — 27.) When God should send Messiah to bring
the "outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah" (at the jubilee
referred to in this psalm) into His inheritance, never more to be
thrust out therefrom, then only should His call to Ephraim be
made without provoking Judah to envy ! For although in the
time of Eehoboam the ten tribes under Jeroboam gave a sort of
headship to Ephraim, yet that prince through policy called them
to worship the calves ; and so they continued to do till carried
into that captivity, whence they shall not return till the Lord
come a second time at the jubilee forthcoming. (Acts iii. 20 — 23.)
This consideration invests the psalm before us, in my opinion,
with a mysterious import, lifting up the mind with thoughts of
God's sublime majesty, Who,
" Deep iu unfathomable mines,
Of never-failing skill,
Doth treasure up His vast designs,
And work His sovereign will I "
Asaph's words in sundry places— e.g., in Ps. Ixxiii. 1, where he
saith, " God is loving unto such as are of a clean heart ;" and in
ver. 25 of that psalm, where he saith " Whom have I in heaven
but Thee ? " and in Ps. Ixxviii. 8, where he rebukes Ephraim in
his day for not " setting their heart aright, and keeping the spirit
steadfast with God"— shew him to have been an eminently holy
man : and he appears to have been favoured, as much as any
prophet in the Old Testament, except Moses, with visions, in
which Christ in Spirit spake by the psalmist's mouth. For
this was clearly the case in Ps. lxxv. 2—10, and Ixxviii. 1, 2,
and here, from verse 5 to the end. The gracious language of
the Divine Speaker, from the fifth verse to the end, is only to
be paralleled by those from His ."lip" through Moses, in
Deut. v. 28, 29, and through Himself, in Matt, xxiii. 37. It
has also been observed that the Lord's words in ver. 10 are
faithfully opened out in those of the Lord Jesus, as recorded
John xv. 7.
(2)

190 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST.
We Christians, who are at present " the only remnant of the
true Israelites," when reciting this psalm, are to remember that
the events foreshadowed in the feasts of Passover and Pentecost
have been fulfilled in Jesus. Accordingly, the Gospel trumpet
should now be sounded on those occasions, when they annually
recur, with special reference to such parts of our Saviour's work
as correspond to those festivals.
Of the Feast of Tabernacles the fulfilment in Jesus yet remains
to be accomplished at the great day of His return, for which this
very psalm is intended. Meanwhile, we cannot do better than
imitate Asaph in admonishing ourselves that " God is loving
unto them that are of a clean heart," and that it is well for us,
like him, to say, " Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? " It is
well also to remember his regret at Ephraim's declension from
God by " not setting the heart aright, and not cleaving steadfastly
in spirit unto God ;" and how God gave up those backsliders
" unto their own hearts' lusts, so that they should walk in their
own counsels."
Let us " abide in Jesus," and see that " His Word abides in
us :" for then shall it be well with us in body and soul. " No
good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly,"
even as the Lord Jesus spake : saying, " Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness ; and all these things
shall be added unto you." 1.
To God, our strength, the God
Of Jacob, sing aloud!
Keep jubilee ! the pleasant timbrel bring !
Sing psalms with minstrelsy,
Bring harp with psaltery,
Let silver trumpets at this set time ring !
Our feast of the new moon devoutly heralding !
2.
This law to Israel
Did Jacob's God reveal —
To Joseph did this testimony shew !
When traversing the land
Counter1 to Egypt's strand
1 Ver. 5. 75? "against," " over against,'' within view. Compare V73?
in v. 6 of Ps. cix. .

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIRST. 191
Across the sea ; where rose in mutt'ring low
Strange language to Mine ears, I "never" deign to
know.2 3.
Yet I the weight that shov'd
His shoulder had remov'd —
His hands from modelling the clay had spar'd—
When in Mine ears his cry
Uprose ! then answer 'd I
From Sinai's secret place ; whence lightning glar'd—
A trial,3 too, at Meribah prepar'd. 4.
Hear, O My people ! I
To thee will testify,
O Israel, if thou 'It to Me give ear !
No strange god shall there be
Worshipp'd along with ME.
'Twas I of Egypt's bondage did thee clear !
Ask what thou wilt, My answer thee shall cheer !
5.
But all that I might plead
Would not My people heed —
Yea, Israel would have for Me no love !
So I at length forbore
From striving with them more ;
To run the length, then, their hearts' lust them drove,
Chose they, well pleased in that sort to rove.
6.
O, had My people's choice
Been guided by My voice-

Had Israel but walked in My way,
2 Ver. 5. Matt. vii. 23 ; xxv. 12.
» Ver. 7. Deut. viii. 2, 3.

192 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SECOND.
How soon would I have brought
Those in their land, that fought
Against them, to subjection 'neath their sway,
And enemies abroad for their sakes kept at bay 4
7.
Then ev'ry neighbouring state,
Which did Jehovah hate,
Should unto Him have feign'd5 submission shewn ;
But His own people's sun6
Should never down have gone ;
For them the finest wheat would have been grown,
And honey yielded from the cleft of stone.
1 Ver. 14. Exod. xxxiv. 24.
6 Ver. 15. Ps. xviii. 44 ; because grace alone' can heal the heart.
« Ver. 15, Isa. lx. 20.

PSALM LXXXII.
TITLE.
A psalm of Asaph.
AKGUMENT.
We may suppose Asaph in his earlier days to have lived and
worshipped at the tabernacle in Nob, and there to have composed
those plaintive psalms in which be mourned the confusion over
taking Ephraim after the capture of the ark by the Philistines,
which had occurred in the days, as we may conjecture, of his
grandfather. I am inclined to reckon Asaph contemporary with Samuel's
grandsons, (see 1 Chron. vi. 33 — 39,) and to have flourished rather
before David, and to have written most of his psalms before David
was in Jerusalem, and had brought the ark out of Kirjath-jearim
into the city of Zion. On that supposition, the judges and rulers
rebuked by Asaph in this eighty-second psalm would be Samuel's
sons and Saul.
In the eighth chapter of the first book of Samuel we learn the
character of Samuel's sons. At verse 5, the elders of Israel came

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SECOND. 193
unto him, saying, " Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in
thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations;"
for, according to verse 3, " his sons turned aside after lucre, and
took bribes, and perverted judgment." These are the very faults
complained of from verse 2 to verse 5 of this psalm. But Saul,
who was eventually given to the nation for king, proved no more
careful administrator of justice in the fear of God than had Samuel's
sons. Hence, as it seems to me, Asaph, in tbe psalm before us, testifies
(by implication) that although God had been by Israel rejected for
the avowed king, (which indeed He was while judges were specially
raised up by Him,) yet was He, as Moral Governor of the world, an
unvarying scrutiniser of every thing which judges or rulers, as His
representatives, decreed and decided. " God," saith he, "standeth up
in the congregation of God ; He judgeth among the gods or rulers."
This is a truth that ought to be constantly brought forward, and
impressed upon all parties in courts of justice. It is implied in
the appeal made to God by solemn oath in such courts. In Exod.
xviii. 21, are given the qualifications for the office of judge. Those
set to judge are to be " able men, such as fear God, men of
truth, hating covetousness." And in 2 Chron. xix. 6, 7, when Jeho-
shaphat set judges in the land, we read that he said, " Take heed
what ye do : for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, Who is
with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the
Lord be upon you ; take heed and do it : for there is no iniquity
with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts."
The presence of the Lord in courts of justice, no matter what
the form of government under which they administer it, is here very
plainly set forth, (with which compare Rom. xiii.) Also in Isa.
iii. 13, we have testimony on this point in remarkable agreement
with that of Asaph's in this psalm at verse 1. " The Lord," saith
Isaiah, " standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people."
A reference to this doctrine is, as it seems to me, to be found in
Matt. v. 22 — 26, where we read that He said, " Agree with thine
adversary" — the defendant, who hath done thee wrong — " quickly,"
or readily, thou that art the party wronged, the prosecutor, if
he penitently ask it of thee ; that is, be forgiving — " whilst thou
art in the way with him," either going to the suit, or dragging thy
cause through the court; " lest," if thou wilt not, through vindic-
tiveness ; "at any time the adversary," or defendant, in his distress,
"deliver thee to the judge " — that is, appeal to the Supreme Judge,
the Lord — (thus shown to be standing up in the congregation
of God;) and then He reckon with thee for what thou thyself
owest to Him, and, on account of thy unforgiving spirit, cast thee
into that prison of His, whence thou canst never come out. (Com
pare Matt, xviii. 21 — 35.)
We are not to be surprised at this testimony respecting the
standing up of God in the courts of justice, for -He is also judge in
each one's conscience.

194 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SECOND.
This awe-inspiring fact is solemnly inculcated by the Lord Jesus
Himself on an occasion recorded in John x. 30 — 37, wherein He
quotes the very words which He in Spirit spake by Asaph's
mouth, as recorded in verses 6 and 7 of this psalm. On that oc
casion, private persons among the Jews had been about to stone
Him for calling Himself the Son of God, whereupon He said, " If
He called them gods to whom the word of God came, (and the
Scripture cannot be broken,) say ye of Him, Whom the Father
hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest ; because
I said, I am the Son of God ? If I do not the works of My Father,
believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe
the works : that ye may know and believe that the Father is in
Me, and I in Him." The Lord Jesus here intimated that His
hearers were under obligation, as in the presence of God, (in Whom
we live and move and have our being,) to judge righteous judg
ment in His case.
Considering how God by miracles bore testimony to His truth,
in saying that He was the Son of God, He gave thereto understand ;
that if they refused to act according to the voice of conscience
thereon, God, as Moral Governor, would bring upon them the con
sequences of their frowardness indicated in the psalm before us.
This presence of God, the God of truth, everywhere, to be recorder
as in a book of what men shall give an account of in the day of
judgment, is more than anything else fitted to overawe men, and
incline them to ingenuousness. But Asaph lamented, in verse 5,
that the judges in his day — first Samuel's sons and then Saul-
were deplorably indifferent on this point.
It is interesting to observe what use Asaph made of the song of
Hannah, the mother of Samuel. There was occasion to make this
remark in treating of the seventy-fifth psalm, and more than one
reference to the same composition is to be detected here.
First of all, in the last clause of verse 5, where Asaph said,
" All the foundations of the earth are out of course." Here is
a reference to Hannah's words in the eighth verse of her song,
where she saith, " The pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He
hath set the world upon them;" that is, made them the foundation
of the social fabric — the idea being, that leading men, having
influence over their fellows, being advanced in the course of God's
providence to authority, as His representatives, for administration
of justice, are pillars. If they are out of course — that is, answer
not the purpose for which they were so advanced to authority —
the breaking up of the social fabric must ensue : it is the judgment
of God upon maladministration.
The duties are substantially the same everywhere, as stated in'
verses 3 and 4 : namely, "to defend the poor and fatherless, to do
justice to the afflicted and needy ;" that is, to establish their right
when justly urged ; and to "rid them out of the hand of the wicked."
This psalm is remarkable for reference to a custom prevalent

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SECOND. 195
among those in authority in the early ages of mankind, when the
administration of justice and of any kind of power in sacred or
secular affairs was held to be exercised on God's behalf, and in de-
pendance on Him, with accountability to Him. The custom was that
the rulers themselves, in a subordinate sense, should bear His name,
and be reckoned gods to the community at large. Traces of this
usage are to be seen in Homer. But in Exod. iv. 16, we have
God Himself accommodating to this custom His teaching of Moses,
and impressing Moses with a sense of the dignity He had conferred
on him in appointing him to be ruler over Israel, by saying, " Aaron
shall be thy spokesman to the people, and thou shalt be to him in
place of God." Then, at the seventh chapter, He saith, "See, I have
made thee a god unto Pharaoh : and Aaron thy brother shall be
thy prophet." So in Exod. xxii. 28, the statute runs : " Thou
shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people;"
meaning, that the rulers are gods.
All this was to show the responsibility resting on those who, in
the course of God's providence, were advanced to the administra
tion of justice in society. Hence may be conceived the stinging
reproof in Asaph's exclamation — or rather Christ's by Asaph's
mouth, in verse 6 — against judges, neither knowing nor under
standing their accountableness, as gods, to God in their midst :
" I have said, Ye are gods ; and all of you are children of the
Most High : but ye shall die like Adam, and fall like one of the
princes;" that is, like Satan, who, as our Saviour saith in John
viii. 44, "left his first estate, and abode not in the truth."
To this interpretation I incline, and see in it a reference to
Hannah's song at verse 8, where mention is made of " princes
upon the throne of glory." Thus it is intimated in this psalm that
there is none too high for God to pull down, nor any too insigni
ficant for God to bring to a reckoning.
Asaph then concludes his psalm with a prayer for the coming
of the promised Messiah, intimating that His rule would be the
only effectual remedy for these instances of maladministration
among judges. Here is the third reference in this psalm to Hannah's
song ; for she expressly predicts that the Lord, in the person of His
Messiah, shall judge the ends of the earth, and inherit the throne
of glory. Thus Asaph's mention of Messiah in Ps. Ixxx. 1 7, as
" the man of God's right hand," the Son of Man, Whom He hath
made so strong for Himself, is followed up in this psalm with a
prayer for His speedy coming. It hence appears that the coming
of the Lord was the hope and consolation of Asaph, as it had pre
viously been of Moses, Hannah, Samuel, and was of David, Isaiah,
Hezekiah, and all the saints under the Mosaic covenant ; as the only
effectual remedy for the disturbances revolutionising civilised society,
just as we learn by the New Testament to hope for it. For then,
and then only, shall there be peace and happiness on a sure founda
tion in Israel or the rest of the world.
o 2

196 PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD. 1.
Within God's congregation God doth stand ;
Among the judges Judge Himself is He;
How long will ye in unjust judgment band
Together, and the wicked let go free 1
2.
Defend the poor and fatherless ; uphold
The needy and afflicted in their cause ;
The weak and lowly in your arms enfold,
'Gainst their tormentors vindicate God's laws.
3.
In vain doth one of God's dread presence talk,
They know not, neither will they understand ;
On in their darkness 1 they persistent walk,
Perverted are the pillars 2 of the land.
4.
Then hear My judgment ! ye are gods, I've said ;
Of the Most High the children ye are all ;
But go ye down, like Adam, to the dead,
And, like to him of princes highest, fall.
5.
Oh, token of God's presence to the wise !
Foretoken of His coming here we see :
O God, Thou Judge of all the earth, arise,
All nations Thine inheritance shall be !
1 Ver. 5. 1 Johnii. 11.
a Ver. 5. Gal. ii. 9 ; Ps. lxxv. 3.

PSALM LXXXIII.
TITLE.
A Song or Psalm of Asaph.
AKGUMENT.
The petition with which this psalm opens is characteristic of
almost all Asaph's psalms. They are eleven in number — from the

PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD. 197
seventy-third to this eighty-third ; and in almost all there occurs a
lamentation at the unchecked course that evil men were allowed to
run. •
The seventy-third psalm opens with this complaint ; though in
the latter part is shewn how Asaph prevented the regret felt at
wicked men's success from shaking his trust in God for protection
and for vindication of His own cause.
In the seventy-fourth psalm, at verse 10, there is a similar com
plaint ; where he asks, " O God, how long shall the adversary
reproach ? Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy Name for ever ? Why
withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand ? Pluck it out
of Thy bosom!"
In the seventy-fifth, he commences with thanksgiving, because of
having had in vision an assurance from Christ, (Who from the second
verse to the end speaks by Asaph's mouth,) that when it shall
please the Father to send Him "for the gathering again of Israel
unto Him," (Gen. xlix. 10,) He will remedy all these disorders
ensuing on unchecked irreligion and maladministration of re-
sponsible offices, such as Asaph had deplored.
After this, in the seventy-sixth, is a vision vouchsafed to Asaph
of an interposition by God from heaven in this direction for the
summary overthrow of a blaspheming invader of Israel before
Jerusalem. This was partially fulfilled between two and three
hundred years after in Hezekiah's reign by the overthrow of
Sennecharib, and may have contributed materially to that king's
expectation of Messiah's speedy appearance for the gathering unto
Him of the great congregation, (Isa. xxxviii. 11 ;) but we incline
to think that this vision of Asaph's will be still more signally
fulfilled at the overthrow before Jerusalem predicted in Zech. xiv.
In the seventy-seventh psalm, Asaph is afresh afflicted at the
prevalence of iniquity in his time, owing to some grievous mis
conduct, (doubtless occurring in his day,) of which he omits to
make a special record: hereupon he renews his lamentations at
the long-continued sway of the wicked in Ephraim — giving ex
pression to despondency in unwonted terms from verse 7 to 11,
asking, " Will the Lord cast off for ever ? And will He be
favourable no more ? Is His mercy clean gone for ever ? Doth
His promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious ?
Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies ? " To this he
replies, by reflecting that the endless existence of the Almighty
makes His long continuance in forbearance towards the wicked
exhausting to one like Asaph, whose existence on earth is limited.
Seeing, then, that this transcendent superiority of the Creator
over His intelligent creature is unalterable, Asaph says, I'll accept
it as a fact, and seek support for my hope of His rising up to
punish the wicked and rescue His faithful people, by what is
recorded of His doings on Israel's behalf heretofore.
Thus we have here a pious variation of counsel concerning

198 PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD.
hope in God under long sustained affliction, in a similar vein to
that in Ps. Ixxiii. After this, in the seventy-eighth psalm, he
is by tbe Spirit of Christ enabled (as was the case in the seventy-
fifth psalm) to take, in Christ's name, a retrospective survey of
God's patient dealings with Israel from the Exodus to David's
establishment at that present time in Zion — a retrospect which
was at once a soothing answer to Asaph's lamentations at God's
delay to punish wrong doers ; and at the same time announced in
verse 2 as intended* for a dark fore-shadowing of the course ap
pointed by God to be pursued with His spiritual Israel at a time
far removed ; which is only now being fulfilled in this age of the
kingdom of heaven.
But hardly has he in the close of Ps. Ixxviii. predicted the
prosperity of Israel under David, before he is taught by the
Spirit of Christ to anticipate great calamities in Jerusalem itself
on account of conformity with their forefathers in iniquity, as
stated in verse 8 — calamities realised in Manasseh's day, and in
the captivity under Zedekiah, and even unto the present time.
After this, in the eightieth psalm, in compassion as it were for
his sorrow at the decline of religion in Ephraim, where he probably
grew up in the school of the prophets, he is taught to call the
tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, (which in a generation
previous to his used to have the ark amongst them,) to march once
more next after that ark, as of old in the wilderness — a call which
at his time was not to be responded to by them " for the years of
many generations " — not even until the Lord should return to
"receive the congregation," as indicated in Ps. lxxv. 2, for
Whose return he significantly petitions God in verses 14 — 19.
After this, Psalm lxxxi. is a song provided for use by Ephraim,
Benjamin, and Manasseh at that march.
Then in the eighty-second psalm, Asaph, in all probability stung
with indignation at some acts of oppression witnessed by him in
Ephraim, pours out in song his reliance on God to remedy such
injustice effectually in the day of the promised Saviour's return, for
which in the eighth verse he prays : since, as he states in the
fifth verse, he found all his endeavours to awaken in the judges
and rulers spoken of a sense of their responsibility, by reminding
them of God standing in their midst, ineffectual.
Thus almost all the psalms preceding this eighty-third are in
their spirit plaintive — deploring God's delay in vindicating His
own cause ; but all alike attuned to reverent persuasion of God's
accomplishment of this vindication " in His own times." (1 Tim.
vi. 15.) Consequently, the opening verse of this last psalm by
Asaph is in a characteristic strain.
The repetition thrice of a petition to the same effect is not
meaningless tautology — it is a scriptural form of expression, in
dicative of solemnity — it intensifies the statement, whatsoever it
may be. (See Luke xviii. 34; Acts xv. 16.)

PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD. 199
The call, therefore, that Asaph in spirit is stirred up to make,
purely (as it would appear) in visioa, is hereby intended to
denote one felt by him in his spirit to be of uncommon urgency.
" Keep not Thou silence, 0 God !
Hold not Thy peace !
Be not still — i.e., inactive — 0 God ! "
In the next four verses he states the emergency :
" For, lo ! Thine enemies make a tumult,
And they that hate Thee have lifted up the head :
They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people,
And consulted against Thy hidden ones.
They have said, Come-, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance ;
For they have consulted together with one consent,
And are confederate against Thee ! "
Here occurs a very unusual expression for description of God's
congregation on earth — God's Israel — (Gal. vi. 16,) the generation
of that people in whom the promises to Abraham are to be fulfilled .
They are here called "Thy hidden ones." That is not the or
dinary name in Scripture for the Church of God on earth —
especially in Israel, where the whole nation was appointed to be
sacramentally enrolled by circumcision in the family of God.
In its ordinary state, the company of true believers at any one
time upon earth (being they that dwell in the secret place of the
Most High) is encompassed with a vastly preponderating community
of nominal believers, from whom they are not to be distinguished by
ordinary lookers on.
, This enclosure of the elect within a company of nominal mem
bers, as the kernel of a nut within its outer shell, is in the ordinary
course of God's providence permitted to take place, for prevention
in the ordinary way of any such confederation being entered into
by the avowed enemies of God round about, as is depicted in this
psalm. For otherwise, owing to the paucity of true believers at
any one time upon earth, were this ascertainable by the avowed
enemies to the worship of the God of Israel, the sight would
continually prompt them to such a confederacy for their destruction.
The paucity of the elect is therefore ordinarily concealed from the
openly unbelieving world, by the very great number of worldly
people who render an outward homage to truth by nominal
confession of it. These resemble the stakes employed in culti
vation of the hop plant, which are necessary for the development
of the cultivated root, and after answering their purpose are, at
the gathering of the crop, taken away.
Although the human mind is apt to stumble at this way taken

200 PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD.
by God for covering " His hidden ones," it is the duty of God's
ministers to vindicate His perfectly equitable dealing in this
matter with all that hear the Gospel, while carrying it out. For
there are no means of knowing who the hidden ones are but by
their own attention to rules in God's word for their observance,
such as Asaph particularises — of " having a clean heart," which
they pray God to create in them ; " and of " setting the heart
aright, and keeping the spirit steadfast in His covenant."
Now those who do this have for their comfort the inward
testimony so long as they do it, entitling them to reckon them
selves " God's hidden ones," and by their fruits give others reason
to know them for such. But were they to leave off this examining
of themselves daily whether they be in the faith, they would be no
longer entitled to reckon themselves such ; for " he that endureth
unto the end shall be saved."
But by far the greater part of professed Christians at any one
time upon earth, cannot be prevailed on to take these pains about
inward conformity of heart with God's word, or to receive the
only true way for attaining to it. Consequently, by verdict of their
own consciences they cannot at that time reckon themselves of
His hidden ones.
Yet it is by their own wilful neglect that they remain in this
state — resembling the stakes in the hop-grounds above described,
and the shell protecting the kernel of the nut. Here, then, is an
ample vindication of the way taken by God for bringing His
elect on their pilgrimage through the midst of enemies to His very
Name, by leaving them mixed up with a formidable array of
nominal members.
It has already been shewn that Asaph makes use in his psalms
of Hannah's song, which had been written more immediately
prior to his day. But in this u9e of the expression " hidden
ones," he seems to me to have referred to the promise found in
a psalm, commonly ascribed by the rabbies to Moses, and therefore
long prior to Hannah's — the ninety-first, at the fourth verse of
which we read, " He shall cover Thee with His feathers," namely,
Thee in the secret place of the Most High ; to which David also
referred in Ps. xxv. 12 — 14, and xvii. 4 — 6.
" The enemies" so conspiring against "the hidden ones " are from
verse 6 to 8 specified, and are ten in number, consisting of the nations
in Asaph's day located entirely round the Lord's inheritance. From
verse 9 to the end, Asaph prays God to rescue His hidden
ones from their malice by an immediate interposition from heaven,
with the expectation that the destruction of these confederated
infidels will astound the lookers on, who hear of their fall, and
bring them to renunciation of their long cherished idolatries, as
well as to confession of the One Lord, Whose Name is Jehovah,
to be Most High over all the earth. This conclusion of the
, psalm evidently shows that Asaph was here inspired to anticipate

PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD. 201
a signal deliverance of Israel, to be wrought by God at the return
of Messiah to receive the great congregation. In this way the
psalm before us is seen to be an appropriate sequel to the three
psalms next preceding, according to the interpretation above given
to them.
Now from reasons above stated, the congregation of Israel must
be in an almost unparalleled condition outwardly, when it can be
described as " God's hidden, or treasured ones ; " that is, so de
fenceless in human respects, as to have no nominal members, and
without any protection, humanly speaking, in their paucity of
numbers, except the " cover of God's wings."
On this very account the sight of them invites the surrounding
nations — not believing in the God of Israel — to form a con
federation against them for their utter destruction ; which, if it
could be effected, would apparently frustrate God's promise to
Abraham, about " the latter generation " spoken of by Asaph in
Ps. Ixxviii. 4.
Now it has been observed that there is no mention of Jerusalem
or Zion in this psalm, though there had been in Psalm lxxvi., so
that it is reasonable to conclude that a time is spoken of when
Jerusalem should not be standing.
By Zech. xiv. we gather that after the destruction of Jerusalem,
which has been assumed to be predicted in Ps. lxxvi., there will
be a small remnant preserved in the ruins of Jerusalem to be the
nucleus of the missionary band which shall " go forth of Zion as the
deliverer, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Rom. xi. 26.)
It is very probable that some years may elapse before this small
remnant be prepared for their missionary labours.
May it not then be assumed, that during this interval, when the
chosen survivors of that last siege of Jerusalem — that latter gene
ration whereof Asaph spake — are as " God's hidden ones " in
training for this missionary work in gathering the outcasts of
Israel and the dispersed of Judah, (Isa. xi. 12,) these nations or
tribes round about Palestine, who after the overthrow of the great
invader before Jerusalem will be well aware of what is going on
in Palestine, " desolate," and comparatively " without inhabitant,"
(Isa. vi. 11) — and observing how small is the remnant of hidden
ones — shall enter into this confederation for their extinction, one
and all? (See Ps. xxi. 8 — 12.) If these nations be at that time
reduced to be the mere roving bands they were in Asaph's day, the
propriety of his designation of them by their primitive names will
be at once seen. It has also been observed, that Asaph significantly
mentions but two, among the wondrous deliverances from invaders
granted by God to Israel of old, as precedents for His doing the
like in the day forthcoming — that over Sisera by Deborah and
Barak, with that over the Midianites by Gideon. Both of these
it has been observed took place in the great plain of Esdraelon,
where are Megiddo and Endor and the Kishon.

202 PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD.
Now in Rev. xvi. there is mention of an overthrow yet to be
granted at Megiddo, or Armageddon ; and prior to that final one
over the false prophet in Rev. xix., which is to take place in the
Valley of Jehoshaphat. (Joel iii. 12.) May it not then be conjec
tured with some appearance of likelihood, that Asaph's prediction
in this psalm points to a rescue of God's hidden ones at Megiddo
by an intervention similar to that in Deborah's day or Gideon's ?
Now in both these exigencies, an unarmed band in one instance,
(Judges v. 8,) and a comparatively small one, as well as unarmed,
in the other, (Judges vii. 20 — 22,) were the instruments of
deliverance. May it not then be destined that a company of these
hidden ones, small and unarmed, shall rescue their fellows ? The
effect thereof on the nations of the East would greatly tend to
bring about that reception of Jehovah for God, which the mission
ary remnant shall then be supposed ready to go forth and preach,
for gathering together ' ' the outcasts of Israel and tbe dispersed of
Judah." But the nations of the West will remain to be dealt
with at the day indicated in Rev. xix. 11 — 21, compared with
Matt. xxiv. 29—36.
This comprehensive review of Asaph's eleven psalms persuades
me that Hezekiah, in adding them in their present order to David's,
(2 Chron. xxix. 30,) treated them as genuine and authentic
writings of that seer. Of course it is to be presumed that they do
not stand in the order in which Asaph composed them : those in
which Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh are mentioned may have
been among his earlier ones, and that in which he speaks of David
as ruling in Zion — the seventy-eighth — one of the latest ; but
Hezekiah arranged them in their present order after a rule of his
own. 1.
O God, no more in silence wait,
Best not inactive, be not still,
O God, for lo ! with head elate,
Thy foes in tumult thwart Thy will —
Against Thy people counsel take,
Thy hidden ones a prey to make !
2.
Come, let us crush them, is the cry,
That they no more a nation be ;
And Israel's name beneath the sky
Be blotted out of memory.
They 've with one heart together met
'Gainst Thee to be confederate.

PSALM THE EIGHTY-THIRD. 203

Edom and lawless Ishmael,
And Moab and the Hagarene,
With Amnion, Amalek, Gebal,
And Tyre and the Philistine ;
Pledg'd too is Assur in this plot
To subsidise the seed of Lot.

Smite them, as Thou didst Midian,
Or Jabin's captain, Sisera,
Whose host, by Kishon hurried on,
Sank drown'd, or slain at Endor lay :
Their chiefs make Zeeb and Oreb like —
As Zeba and Salmunna, strike !
5.
Who said, God's houses let us take
For prey. My God, like to a wheel
Or wind-borne thistle Thou them make !
As fire burns the wood-capt hill,
So with Thy tempest them surround,
And in Thy hurricane confound !

Their faces fill with shame, that they
May, O Jehovah, fear Thy Name !
Yea, do Thou them in ruin lay
That men beholding1 may exclaim,
Thou, Who 'rt alone Jehovah call'd,
Art the Most High o'er all the world !
i Exod. ix. 16.

204 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FOURTH,

PSALM LXXXIV.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician, upon Gittith ; a psalm for the sous of
Korah.
ARGUMENT.
The psalm before us is generally supposed to have been writ
ten for the use of worshippers out of Ephraim and other of the
ten tribes, that should be prevailed on by Hezekiah's messengers
to come up to worship at the great festivals in the Temple at Jeru
salem. (See 2 Chron. xxx. and Exod. xxxiv. 23.) A psalm com
posed with this design may be as well fitted to promote attendance
on public worship among us Christians, as to do this among the
Israelites. Its accommodation therefore in spirit to ourselves shall
go hand in hand with a literal explanation of it.
For 250 years the ten tribes had, at the instigation of their kings,
desisted from going up to Jerusalem, and had attempted to worship
the God of Israel under the form of a golden calf, set up in the
southern and northern extremities of the kingdom, at Bethel and
Dan. We may then imagine with what emotion those that were
persuaded by Hezekiah's messengers to renew their worship of God
according to the Mosaic law, would prepare for setting out at re
currence of the three great festivals of the year upon this pious
service. They would picture to themselves the very buildings, as
the first verse supposes them to do, and cherish the love of them,
till the soul within would become highly emotional — disposing the
worshipper to utter, as is implied in the second verse, in an ejacu-
latory strain, " God ! living God ! my heart and my flesh crieth out
for Thee ! "
The psalmist then makes the worshipper speak with partiality
of " the bird " that dwells in so sacred a place — the sparrow, a
native of the country ; and the swallow, a migratory bird, that
happens to make a nest there for rearing her young. Then
follows a highly wrought blending of the literal journey to
Jerusalem for worship, with the progress of a soul in the
secrecy of its self- regulation to abiding communion with God
in holiness.
This blending of tbe literal and spiritual pilgrimages is continued
from the fourth verse to the end by use of several terms in ambiguous,
but strictly appropriate senses. First, in the fourth and fifth verses,
where we read, " Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, they
will be still praising Thee. Selah! Blessed is the man whose

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FOURTH. 205
strength is in Thee, in whose heart are the ways (to Thee.")
Here, "house" both means the literal one at Jerusalem, and
that heavenly one of which the tabernacle built by Moses was
an acknowledged pattern. (Heb. viii. 5.) In the literal tabernacle
the priests alone could dwell; that is, habitually reside, and so
obtain the Messing literally spoken of : but in the holy place of
that heavenly tabernacle, whereof Moses's was a pattern, every
converted soul, whose strength is in Christ, could dwell or abide
by faith, as a spiritual priest.
So David testifies in Ps. xxvii. 4, 5, and our Lord in John viii.
34—36, and St. Paul in Heb. iii. 1—6, and St. Peter in 1 Pet. ii.
4, 5. Thus the worshipper — dwelling literally in Ephraim, or other
of the ten tribes — could in his own experience verify the testimony
in verse 4, "they will be still praising Thee ! " at the same time
that he might be legitimately fired in his soul with the thought of
mingling, during his stay in Jerusalem, among the priests, who
habitually continued in the tabernacle before the ark of God.
, In like manner there would be a play upon the word " ways,"
in the latter clause of the fifth verse — that word being intended
by the psalmist to characterise both the causeways prepared for a
considerable distance out of Jerusalem to facilitate the progress
of pilgrims, and the divinely appointed means of grace — such as
reading of the Scripture, prayer, public worship, and so forth —
which are ways needful to be " in the heart " of one who
would, like the sparrow or the swallow, abide by choice with
God. Then in the sixth and seventh verses the psalmist's words are,
"Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well ; the rain
also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength ; every
one of them in Zion appeareth before God." Here the valley of
Baca may mean literally a parched vale near Jerusalem — the valley
of Rephaim — where grew the tree called Baca, which likes a dry
soil, and distils a drop of pure liquid from its flowers, whence its
name, as if it wept ; or it may mean the valley of weeping — that
being the meaning of the word Baca — and humiliation at sin with
tears of contrition, being a fitting frame for worshippers coming out
of idolatrous tribes to worship the Lord God of their fathers
according to law, after so long a discontinuance of that service.
That the valley of Rephaim had these trees growing in it — called
in the margin of our Bible " mulberries " — may be gathered from
comparison of Josh. xv. 8, and 2 Sam. v. 18 — 25. Now these
worshippers, in whose heart are the ways to God's house, or
to God, make this dry vale a well, by the discreet use they
find for their time in passing through it. The drought and
privation are with them the occasion for special exercise of
the soul in thirst for God, as described in the second verse,
where the faintness of the soul through exhaustion is made
by the worshipper to be one expressive of his desire for

206 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FOURTH.
communion with God at his journey's end: thus he consecrates
his faintness to God by the soul's resolve. In this way he finds a
well of living water for the soul in the very vale of drought for the
body. In the last clause of this sixth verse, where it is said " the rain
also filleth the pools," the words for " rain " and " pools " may also
mean "teacher" and "blessings."
According, therefore, as the reader of the psalm retains for the
moment one or other interpretation of the valley of Baca in mind,
so will he give a meaning to these words. The great Teacher, Who
" speaks to the hearts of His faithful people," is He Who causes
His word to be in their hearts, " a well of water springing up into
everlasting life " — covering them, or causing them to abound in
blessings. This would be a more refreshing rain to those pious
devotees than literal rain to their thirsting throats, while passing
through that scorched valley exposed to the sun. The use of rain,
in the sense of virtue of the Holy Ghost, is a frequent metaphor in
Scripture. (See Joel ii. 23, and Zech. xiv. 17.) When it is added
in the seventh verse, " They go from strength to strength," the
word for " strength " may also mean " a company " — thus referring
either to the increase of grace obtained from God by dedication of
the soul to Him under privation, or to the encouragement pilgrims
on tbe road to Jerusalem might gain, when finding the companies
of like-minded persons increase as they drew near the house of
God, though when they set out they had to pass on "long
way through hostile scorn." (2 Chron. xxx. 10.) The last
clause of the seventh verse is, " Every one of them in Zion
appeareth before God ; " which, according as the reader is
dwelling on the journey up to Jerusalem to worship, or on
the soul's efforts after closer communion with God, means
that the privilege is attained of standing before God in the
literal Zion at close of the journey to Jerusalem, or in the
heavenly at close of the pilgrimage of life.
In the prayer that follows, the Christian, who remembers
that Jesus — God's Messiah or Anointed One — is at God's right
hand making intercession for us, can as truly take up the
petition, " Look upon the face of Thine Anointed," as the
grateful Israelite in Hezekiah's day might use the same with
reference to the reigning head of David's line, who had so
piously summoned them to worship once more in Jerusalem;
and who was, for the time being, representative of tbe
Anointed King of Israel, that should arise in David's
family. Agreeably, then, with that double signification of the Lord's
" courts," as meaning either those of the literal Temple, or
those whereof the literal were a pattern, the devout Israelite
might say in the language of the tenth verse, " For a day
in Thy courts is better than a thousand (elsewhere.) I had

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FOURTH. 207
rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness." Taking "courts" and "house" in
the spiritual sense above mentioned, the Christian worshipper can
at this day say "Amen" with all the heart to this asseveration, and
meditate on the testimony which follows : " For the Lord God is a
sun and shield ; the Lord will give grace and glory. No good
thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. 0 Lord
of Plosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee."
The structure of this psalm admirably depicts the inseparable
union betwixt true heart-felt faith, and attendance on public
worship. The soul of a truly godly person would rather expose
its body to faintness and exhaustion, as represented in this psalm,
than be separated from public acknowledgment to God, as He has
commanded, of what it owns in secret to be due to Him.
Where health admits of attendance on public worship on the
Lord's-day it will be regularly aud gladly paid, and this psalm
will with such worshippers be a favourite ; its words will furnish
them with such utterances as they could hardly otherwise
conceive. 1.
Supremely dear Thy tabernacles are,
Jehovah of Sabaoth, unto me.
How craves my soul, yea pines, to sojourn where
Jehovah's courts these eyes may daily see !
My heart, my flesh, within this wasted frame
God! living God ! impel me to exclaim.
2.
There, happier than I, her chosen home
The sparrow,1 native of our clime, hath made ;
The migratory swallow,2 too, hath come,
And in security her eggs hath laid,
Jehovah of Sabaoth, at th' abode
Of Thee, of Thee, Who art my King, my God !

How blest are they— Thy priests— who alway dwell
Within Thy house ! how gratefully Thy praise
1 Ver. 3. lis?, is literally any bird in general ; but see Ps. cii. 7.
2 Ver. 3. iVvt, only here and in Prov. xxvi. 2, the name for a bird ; else
where, "liberty." So in Ps. civ. 17, nrDn, "piety," for the stork.

208 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FOURTH.
Repeat they ! Ye that hear me, ponder well,
What 'twould be thus to consecrate your days !
Blest man, whose strength upon Thee doth repose,
Whose heart the way that leads to Thee hath chose !

Though not in form, in spirit priests are they,
And while through Baca's8 vale they journey, still
Amidst its drought a well find by the way ;
Bain, too, from heav'n pools4 for them doth fill ;
From strength to strength advance they, until each
In Zion doth God's long-sought presence reach.
5.
God of Sabaoth, unto Thee I pray ;
The face of Thine Anointed look upon !
O God, our Shield, inside Thine house one day
A thousand out beats by comparison.
Far rather of Thine house I 'd keep the door,
Than those of others be the ruler o'er.
6.
O God Jehovah, Sun to us art Thou
For guidance — Shield for due security !
On us both grace and glory Thou 'It bestow,
Jehovah, nor wilt one good thing deny
To upright workers, let our trust but be,
Jehovah of Sabaoth, firm in Thee !

' Ver. 6. Dr. Thrupp observes, the word »3|n may either signify " weep
ing," or else denote a certain tree resembling the balsam tree, whence distilled
white drops of a cold and pungent taste, and the name of which was probably
derived from its weeping property.
1 Ver. 6. ThewordfniD has both the sense of "rain "and "a lawgiver."
rfo-j|, taken here to mean"pools," as ifit were the plural of rcna, which would
be rtoia, (see Cant. v. 4.) But rma, is " blessing," and so Gesenius here :
" The autumnal rains cover it with blessings."

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIFTH. 209
PSALM LXXXV.
ARGUMENT.
As the psalm preceding was supposed to have been composed for
the encouragement of those among the remnant left in the land of
tbe ten tribes, who would receive Hezekiah's invitation to the
festivals in Jerusalem, so this psalm may be reckoned to have been
composed upon beholding the large measure of success vouchsafed
to that pious call.
This-psalm may have been the work of Hezekiah himself, or of
some one, like Isaiah, among his contemporaries.
According to this view, the recovery of a goodly number of the
residue, left by Shalmaneser in the inheritance of the ten tribes, to
worship according to the Mosaic law in Jerusalem at the three
great festivals, (Exod. xxiii. 17,) after they and their fathers had
for 250 years been worshipping the golden calves, is in the first
three verses regarded as an evidence of God's grace.
The bulk of the ten tribes remained indeed in their captivity ;
but these reformed ones gathered out of the poor of the land left
therein by Shalmaneser appear to have been looked on as re
presentatives of their tribes ; and the Lord is thanked for having
given them grace to shake off a captivity worse than that of the
Assyrian— captivity under idolatry.
According to the third verse, all sin being traced up to the
withdrawal of God's grace (and the lapse of the ten tribes into
idolatry being assumed to be proof of God's wrath, which had
been provoked by them, and which had procured for them that
withdrawal,) the happy change of mind in these converted ones out
of the residue is taken for an evidence of God's having turned
Himself from His fierce anger.
For it is assumed, that He would not have given His grace in
furtherance of Hezekiah's invitation — making it effectual — had He
not " forgiven the iniquity of the tribes, and covered all their sin."
(See Hezekiah's doctrine in 2 Chron. xxx. 6 — 12, and 18 — 27.)
From the fourth verse to the end of the sixth, the psalmist then
makes this token of God's favour to the ten tribes an occasion of
pious entreaty, that God would give Judah grace to amend their
lives, and walk more closely in His ways : for he intimates that
their iniquities, wherewith they provoked the Lord to anger,
" withheld good things from them," (Isa. lix. 2,) and specially the
chief good — that of Messiah, upon Whose coming would ensue all
temporal and spiritual prosperity, as they gathered out of Scripture.
(See Luke i. 74.)
In the sixth verse, where the psalmist asks, "Wilt Thou not
revive us again, that Thy people (united Israel) may rejoice in
p

210 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIFTH.
Thee ? " he appears to have had in his mind the close of the
ninetieth psalm, where Moses prays, from verse 13 to the end, for the
coming of Messiah. Then, in the seventh verse, a petition is put
up for the coming of Messiah under the name of God's mercy and
salvation : for so did Simeon, in Luke ii. 30, entitle the infant
Saviour, when receiving Him into his arms. This prayer for the
coming of Christ, to bring them remission of sins, shews in what a
worthy sense he had in the first verse praised God for having
brought back even then "the captivity of Jacob;" so that the
psalmist, though earnestly desiring the temporal prosperity of his
nation, (which was promised in Messiah's days,) was yet already
complying with what the Lord Jesus subsequently shewed to be
the invariable will of God ; namely, that we should seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. (Matt. vi. 33.)
The psalmist then makes at the eighth verse a pious declaration of
his intention to wait iu patience for what light the Lord would grant
him on behalf of His people — His saints — in answer to his petition ;
adding significantly, " but let them not turn again unto folly."
Hereupon it seems by his language in the ninth verse, that
he perceived within himself some intimation of that measure of
the Spirit of Christ within him being further increased and
illuminated; so that he was moved to confess the word of truth
to be very nigh unto them that fear God. (See Deut. xxx. 12 — 14.)
" Surely," said he, " His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that
glory may dwell (or permanently reside) in our land ; " by " glory "
being meant the promised Saviour, as we see by Isa. xl. 4, 5,
compared with John i. 14, whence he seems to have been
confirmed in the persuasion avowed in ver. 4 — 6, that the lack of
fear toward God and consequent wrath of God occasioned delay of
the Lord's advent. At this moment his spirit was lifted up into
ecstasy, so as to give in a few masterly words a summary of the
results of the ministry of Christ Incarnate in their land. Breaking
out into the following strain, he said : —
" Mercy and truth are met together :
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good,
And our land shall yield her increase.
Righteousness shall go before Him,
And shall set us in the way of His steps."
By mercy and truth are here meant the divine attributes so
called. Owing to man's fall from original righteousness, these
attributes were at variance concerning him. Mercy would spare
him, because the woman had been deceived into the transgression ;
but truth required to be upheld, which had said, " In the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIFTH. 211
Passing therefore all that the Lord Jesus did preparatory to His
sacrificial death to qualify .Himself for making that offering at His
crucifixion, the Spirit of Christ in the psalmist speaks here of that
sacrifice as received by God, and fed on by the faithful Israelite.
(Lev. vii. 16.) But the life that is in this spiritual and quickened
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, (being of higher order than the natural
life of the faithful partaker,) though it be in the food, subordinates
the eater to itself — thus incorporating the partaker with Christ in
one mystical body.
Hence like as a gardener, who has engrafted a slip upon some
choice stock, finds it in very deed growing on that stock when once
knit thereto; so God tbe Father, in His "mercy" and His " truth,"
finds the faithful partaker of the sacrifice of His Son one with
Christ : consequently the death that Christ died, for no sins of His
own, but for those of the world, is made available for that believer's
deliverance from death in his own proper person in compliance
with God's broken commandment.
Hence God's " truth," touching the death of him that sinneth,
is upheld ; while the sinner, if penitent and believing in Christ's
merits, is spared, because of Christ's death being accepted in the
stead of the penitent's. Thus "mercy" rejoices against judgment,
(James ii. 13,) yetnot at the expense of " truth.:" " Mercy and truth
are met together." In like manner, " Righteousness and peace,"
as attributes of God, "have kissed each other," so at one are they
concerning fallen man in Christ. For whereas Righteousness is
inflexible in its demands upon man according to the Mosaic law,
and cannot but have wrath at him for departure from God's word,
Peace on the other hand would fain bring him into reconciliation.
Now the believer in Christ's propitiation and advocacy before
His Father, having been incorporated with Christ, (as before
shewn,) has for his own in God's sight the very obedience which
Christ in the days of His flesh rendered unto the law for righ
teousness. Jesus is made unto us — His members — " the righ
teousness of God." (2 Cor. v. 21.) The Father sees the believer's
old nature buried in Christ's sacrificial flesh and blood by the
believer's devotion of himself thereto ; while Christ's Spirit ob
tained by that believer in answer to prayer for a measure of the
same, lives in him because of the Saviour's righteousness, (Rom.
viii. 10,) which the Father also sees in that believer. Hence
"Righteousness and peace have kissed each other" concerning
those members of Christ, that have His Spirit within them from
day to day for their renewal.
In the eleventh verse we understand the psalmist to say that
" Truth," or the reality of all God's promises, " springs out of the
earth" in regard of that substance of the blessed Virgin taken to be
the manhood of the Lord Jesus, at His resurrection. (Acts xiii. 33.)
Again, "Righteousness," or the Lord's Divine nature, "looked
down," or became united therewith in that part of the Church laid
J?2

212 PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIFTH.
inthegrave. (Isa.liv. 1.) (So in Ps. liii. 2, "looked down," denotes
Divine interposition.) Then inverse 12, the psalmist (or rather, the
Spirit by his mouth) spake of the Christ by the name of "that good
one ;" whereby He had, it may be, some years previous taught Micah
to speak of Him in ch. vi. 8, making it clear of Whom he spake by
mention of the national prosperity to be consequent on the gift of
Him. Lastly, where it is said, " Righteousness shall go before Him, and
shall set us in the way of His steps," we who live at this late
stage in the Church's progress, when the finished work of redemption
is laid open before us in the New Testament, see here mentioned
the doctrine of justification by faith, for the purpose of putting the
penitent hearer of the Gospel in a state of acceptance ; that he may
use it in prayer unto the Father through the Saviour, for bestowal
of a measure of the Spirit of Christ ; without which he cannot rise
up from the dead and walk in newness of life. He could not
acceptably ask this of God except he were in a state of reconcilia
tion; but this state, for justification, is granted him and applied by
the Holy Ghost upon his believing the message of Christ. (See
John v. 24.) It then rests with the believer, when justified, to yield
to the grace of the Father, (John vi. 44,) which continues to draw
him, and pray as he is bid for a measure of the Spirit of Christ for
his renewal. But this very many, after they have been for their
faith justified, neglect to do, or soon decline from doing — through
requirement to ask afresh day by day. For they are " straitened in
their own bowels." (2 Cor. vi. 12.) God is more ready to hear
than we to pray.
Now when we read in Isa. xxxviii. how Hezekiah in his sick
ness said, " I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land
of the living," it may be we have some reluctance to conclude
that he there spake of the promised Messiah: but when we connect
that petition of his with what we have seen that Hezekiah had
read in Asaph's eightieth psalm, at verse 17, about "God's hand
being upon the man of His right hand, even the Sou of Man,
which He had made so strong for Himself; " and Asaph's prayer
in Ps. lxxxii. 8, that God would arise and judge the earth : for that
"He should inherit all nations," and couple therewith the wondrous
summary in this psalm of the benefits accruing to mankind from
the finished sacrifice of the glory dwelling in the land, we become
persuaded that the coming of Christ was very much in Hezekiah's
thoughts, and in those of other believers — his contemporaries.
Now we have supposed in tbe above explanation that the
psalmist was led to the wondrous enlightenment here received
concerning the benefits to ensue on Christ's coming, by having
viewed with thankfulness the evidence of God's grace drawing
penitents from out of the remnant of the ten tribes to renounce
idolatry, and return to the worship of the Lord according to the law ;
whereupon he followed up this token of God's mercy to the ten

PSALM THE EIGHTY-FIFTH. 21 5
tribes with prayer for like favour to Judah, that so the coming of
Messiah for salvation of them and of all Israel might be hastened.
By the answer he obtained we also see how acceptable was his
prayer. We therefore, who have to thank God for the accomplish
ment of this redemption, and this bestowal of forgiveness of sins and
eternal life in Christ on them that believe, cannot do better than
imitate the psalmist in prayers for the Lord's coming again, and
for preparation thereunto by instruction in the fear of God, (verse
9.) We need daily to pray that we may have our part in the
Saviour's propitiation confirmed to us, lest we turn again unto
folly. Whence, in Asaph's words, we do well to remember, that God
is loving unto them that are of a clean heart, and that we ought
to set our hearts aright, and in spirit cleave steadfastly unto God.

Thou to Thy land hast healing favour shewn,
Jehovah ! Thou in Jacob a return1
Hast wrought, forgiving their iniquity —
Their sin Thou'st cover'd — we this mercy own !
Not now against them doth Thine anger burn,
Thou look'st upon them with benignity.
2.
O God of our salvation, like return
Work Thou in us ! let not Thy wrath be rife
Against us : let its weight not alway be
Upon us, and to generations yet unborn
Continue ! Wilt Thou not give us new life,
That we, Thy people, may rejoice in Thee 1

Cause that Thy mercy we, Jehovah, see —
Yea, Thy salvation grant us ! Lo, I'll hear
What God Jehovah speaks ; for He will tell
To saints His peace ; but let them steadfast be !
Salvation's nigh to them that know His fear,
That glory in our favour'd land may dwell.
1 Ver. 1. n>y0 n?ti is literally, "Thou hast turned a return;" evidently
referring to the remnant returning to the worship of God, after having for
250 years been in idolatry.

214 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SIXTH.
4.
Lo, Mercy has with Truth in cov'nant stood,
And Righteousness with Peace agreed !
Of earth sprang Truth; and Righteousness look'd
down
From heav'n. Jehovah '11 give us One2 that's good,
Whose righteousness shall Him precede,3
That in His footsteps we may place our own.

2 Ver. 12. See 1 Pet. iii. 13, as a comment on Micah vi. 8.
3 Ver. 13. Here appears to me distinct mention of justification by faith
and sanctification hy the Spirit, when obtained in answer to prayer for it,
that we may follow Christ's steps. (1 Pet. ii. 21.)

PSALM LXXXVI.
TITLE.
A prayer of David.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is in its Hebrew title ascribed to David : and from
internal evidence it would seem best to suppose it to have been
written by him during the rebellion of his son Absalom.
In the commencement David pleads before all things for the
preservation of his soul, according to his words in the second
verse, "Preserve Thou my soul, for I am holy," or as the
margin explains, " one whom Thou viewest graciously."
This petition for his soul's preservation is followed up by two
others to the same effect in the fourth verse.
In the early part of Absalom's rebellion the Israelitish nation
was alienated from David through his sin, (see 2 Sam. xvi.,) and
on the supposition that the psalm before us was written at this
time, we think it would be a natural transition for David's mind to
pass, as he doth here in the eighth verse, to mention of the gods of
the nations round about : remembering as we do how in Judges
xi. 24, Jephthah is described as asking the children of Ammon,
" Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee
to possess ? So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SIXTH. 215
before us, them will we possess." Even so we here suppose David
to pray, that the hearts of his own nation may be turned once
more to him.
The way he takes of doing this, while labouring under a sense
of his own unworthiness, is (as we think) by repudiating the
common notion prevalent in heathen peoples, that the devils
which they worshipped under this or that name (1 Cor. x. 20)
really give to each nation its land. (Compare Dan. x. 12 — 14.)
Instead whereof David implies, that as the God of Israel made
all nations, so in a time forthcoming He (according to fore-
announced purpose) will cause all to come and worship before
Him and glorify His Name, (see Ps. xxii. 27,) for as David takes
occasion to testify, "Thou art God alone."
Moreover, as God had spoken of the throne of the kingdom over
Israel being established for ever in David's house, (2 Sam. vii.
12 — 15,) David appears to have felt, that through his sin he had,
so far as it was possible, frustrated God's purpose of blessing man
kind with knowledge of Him through Israel, by alienating Israel
from him.
Still he appears to have here pleaded his hope that God would,
for the sake of His promise to recover all nations to the knowledge
of Him through that Son to be born of David's line to sit upon his
throne, in mercy repair the effects of David's sin in this respect, by
turning the hearts of his own nation back to him, as a means to
that end. For God had said, that He would not take away His
mercy from David's family, as He had from Saul. (2 Sam. vii.
16') David also appears to contrast with marked significance the way
in which usurping devils moved the nations worshipping them, to
suppose they severally held so much territory as each nation's god
gave it, with that in which God would bring the kingdom of His
Son through the instrumentality of Israel. (See Ps. ex. 2, 3.)
That way taken by devils was the unscrupulous one of prompting
this or that nation, found to be the stronger, to grasp dominion by
violence in utter disregard of justice. (See Ps. lxxv. 4 — 7.) But
the God of Israel ordained the rise and fall pf kingdoms in equi
table and merciful judgment, (Gen. xv. 16; Jer. i. 10, and xviii.
7 — 10,) and in an especial manner would stablish in righteousness
that of David's Son, as the Spirit of Christ had often previously
taught David to foretell. (See Ps. xiv. 3, 4, and xx. 7.)
It seems to me, then, that David, in verses 8 — 10, with great
humility, as one deeply contrite for the effects of his sin in
alienating his own nation from him, prayed, " seeing that Thou
wilt do all this for the promised Son to be born of my seed,
0 restore the heart of the nation to me, as the fitting pre
paration for what is to be done to Thy glory by my greater
Son ! "
In the rest of the psalm he, as it seems to me, prays that he

216 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SIXTH.
may be renewed in heart with the Spirit of Christ, so as to be
fitted to use that authority over Israel, when restored to him,
for the furtherance of Messiah's kingdom ! According to this
exposition he alludes in verse 14 to the rebellious counsels of
Ahitophel and others, when saying, " The proud are risen against
me;" and by asking in verse 17, "Shew some token upon me
for good, that they who hate me may see it and be ashamed,"
he must be taken to mean some evidence of returning popularity
with the nation, which should discourage the disaffected like the
son of Bichri (2 Sam. xx.) from attempts to excite rebellion.
This psalm so understood at once explains why Hezekiah, at the
crisis in which he compiled the second and third books of Psalms,
(2 Chron. xxix. 30,) should select it for insertion here in the sacred
canon of Scripture.
In conclusion, it is to be observed in regard to the mysterious
fact of God, Who has made all nations, allowing them to go to such
lengths and for so many ages in their scandalous adherence to
false gods, (under the idea that they owed to them national existence
and prosperity ;) that if indeed this state of rebellion on earth was
unrelieved by the announcement in verse 9, (which pledges Him
to reduce all mankind eventually to entire subordination, and is
alone worthy of His supreme majesty,) this rebelliousness would
appear to be persisted in with impunity ; and so be an encourage
ment to deluded nations and devils in their defiance of His
revealed word.
But St. Paul, when in the case of Pharaoh touching upon this
subject of opposition to God, (which only pervades fallen men and
devils,) asks significantly at Rom. ix. 24, " What if God, willing to
shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction :
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared unto glory, even
us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles ? "
Now in this psalm before us, as it has been above explained, we
have in the case of its author — David — the example of one among
the elect vessels bowed down with shame at the part he had at that
time taken through sin in seriously emboldening this opposition to
God's purposes concerning effectual remedy of this rebellion, through
the Son that should be given him in after time to sit on his throne.
(Acts ii. 29 — 32.) David is bowed down with shame at the cause
he had given the enemies of the Lord in Israel to blaspheme.
(2 Sam. xii. 14.)
In this way David exemplifies his own words, when saying in
verses 8, 9, to the glory of God, " Among the gods none are like
unto thee; nor are their works like Thine." Thou briugest
Thyself to the rightful ascendency in hearts through the pro
duction of penitential grief in their breasts at having so opposed

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SIXTH. 217
Thee, or done any thing to hinder Thee, which is a way of working
neither known nor pretended to by the gods of the nations.
We are therefore to be assured, that either in this life, while yet
in a state of probation, we — moral, responsible creatures — shall be
brought to a state of heartfelt grief at opposition to God in Christ
through sin, (which will be for us as it was for David, of incal
culable benefit ;) or if we do not humble ourselves, and by penitent
prayer, like David's, seek here of God the needful grace to exalt
Him through His Son our Saviour, we shall be sorry enough that
we did not do so, when repentance will be unavailing. For it be
longs to God's sovereignty as Maker of all to assert His majesty,
and bring all moral, responsible creatures — devils as well as men —
to own " what an evil thing and bitter it is to sin against the Lord,"
and that His fear is not in one. (Jer. ii. 19.) Of this there can
be no room for doubt.
So it behoves all moral, responsible persons to be wise in time,
and repent like David with all their heart of wilful opposition to
God's word ; and to pray — " Teach me Thy way, O Lord ! I will
walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy name." There
is the utmost danger in delay to render this reasonable homage to
Him Who created and redeemed us.
For if David, a highly -favoured child of God, through false
security and disregard of the working of sinful lust within him,
was betrayed into an excess, which reduced him to the distress
expressed by him in this psalm, how can any careless person, who
has hitherto escaped from any scandalous excess, safely make that
fact warrant for impunity in delaying to repent and be converted ?
He may be cut off ere he has time to repent, unless he repents with
out delay.
Let all be in earnest about fleeing from the wrath to come,
by such faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as worketh by love unto
obedience and sprinkling of His blood upon tbe soul for its
cleansing. 1:
To me, Jehovah, bow Thou down Thine ear,
Accept Thou me, who needy am and poor,
Preserve a soul by Thee, my God, held dear,
Grant to Thy trusting servant refuge sure.
2:
Be merciful, Jehovah, unto me,
For I to Thee pour out my daily plaint;
Cause Thou Thy servant's soul true joy to see,
For, Lord, to Thee my soul do I present.1
1 Ver. i. Eom. xii. 1.

218 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SIXTH.

Good art Thou, Lord, and to forgive inclin'd,
And merciful to those that call on Thee ;
O let my prayer with Thee, Jehovah, find
Acceptance ; to my voice attentive be !

In trouble shall my call on Thee be heard,
Who kindly to reply wilt not decline :
For 'mongst the gods there's none like Thee, O Lord,
Nor are their works to be compar'd with Thine !
5.
Thee, Lord, all nations Thou hast made, shall come
To worship ; Thy great Name shall they extol :
For who of all Thy wondrous deeds can sum
The number "? Thou alone art God o'er all !
6.
To me, Jehovah, do Thou teach Thy way,
And I will walk in truth — Thy Name will fear —
My vows to Thee, O Lord my God, I'll pay,
And evermore Thy glorious Name revere.
7.
For great indeed Thy mercy is to me,
Who from the lowest hell hast snatch'd my soul :
The proud, O God, assail'd me craftily —
Blood-thirsty plotters— spurning Thy control.

But Thou, Lord God, art full of tenderness,
Nor unto wrath provoked easily —
Sure to keep promises and wrongs redress :
0 turn and shew me mercy speedily !

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH. 219
9.
To me, son of Thine handmaid, give Thy might,
And for my good some token on me shew ;
That foes may shrink ashamed at that sight,
Since Thou, Jehovah, dost Thy help bestow.

PSALM LXXXVII.
TITLE.
A psalm or song for the sons of Korah.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm sets forth God's purpose of making Zion the city
through which He will bring all nations to the acknowledgment of
Him to be God alone, their God and Saviour. As such it is a pecu
liarly appropriate pendent to that which preceded it ; in the ninth
verse of which David had said, "All nations whom Thou hast
made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall
glorify Thy Name : For Thou art great and doest wondrous
things ; Thou art God alone ! "
David indeed said this under great distress, at feeling that
through the alienation of Israel from him in consequence of his
sin he had done much, humanly speaking, to thwart God's purpose
of making Israel His instrument for gathering all nations unto
Him in the days of the promised Son to be given David to sit on
his throne. David was in that psalm praying in a deeply penitent
frame that God, Who had forgiven him, would be pleased to turn
the hearts of Israel back to him, in furtherance of His declared
intention to make Israel His instrument for recovery of all nations
unto Him.
It is not to be concluded from the circumstance of this eighty-
seventh psalm so appositely following on the eighty-sixth, that
David ever had this consolatory assurance that the evil effects of
his sin, so far as related to the alienation of Israel from his family,
were obliterated. But it is to be concluded herefrom that Hezekiah,
by whom, or in whose time, this book of Psalms was arranged and
placed in the Scripture canon, perceived the fitness of this psalm
as a sequel to that preceding it. The circumstances in which

220 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH.
Hezekiah was placed, toward the latter end of his reign, made this
persuasion peculiarly consolatory. For in consequence of the
captivity of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser, in the seventh year
of Hezekiah's reign, the poor remnant in their land was moved to
return to worship of the Lord God of their fathers in Jerusalem
according to the Mosaic law.
Moreover, the Assyrian monarch had been subsequently over
thrown in his assault on the kingdom of Judah. Under these
circumstances Hezekiah, who has been shewn to have looked for
the coming of Messiah even in his day, may have derived great
comfort from this eighty- seventh psalm, thus placed as a pendent
to his forefather David's prayer at the ninth verse of Ps. lxxxvi.
And the discernment wherewith this arrangement of the psalms now
spoken of was made may be fairly taken for an indication of the
inspiration which guided the compiler.
The psalm may be, by the help of modern commentators, some
what altered in its terms from the Authorised Version as follows : —
I Ver. 1. His is the foundation upon the hills of holiness.
2. Jehovah hath loved the gates of Zion, above all the dwellings
of Jacob.
3. Glorious things (hath He spoken,) each being to be spoken
for thee, thou city of God. Selah.
4. I will cause Rahab and Babel to remember to know Me.
Behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia, (remember Me too.)
5. This one has been born there. (Who and where ?)
Even to Zion shall it be said, Man, yea man has been born
in her ; and He that is Highest will stablish her.
6. Jehovah will record in writing (the names of) the peoples
(converted to Him, in the book of life,) " This one has been born
there." 7. Singers too, (the peoples so converted, each one for himself,)
as pipers, (for gladness, will record,) "All my fresh springs are in
Thee!" the verb " record " being brought down from the verse
preceding. This translation of the first verse differs not from that in the
Authorised Version, save only in order of the words, so as to be
more animated.
In the second verse is explained Who is spoken of, and where
be the mountains. A marked similarity maybe discerned between
this testimony so explained, and that of Isaiah contemporaneously
in chapter xxviii. 16: "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay
in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner
stone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste."
The Lord's preference for Zion over Jacob's dwellings is in entire
accordance with what Asaph had written in Ps. Ixxviii. 67 — 70 ;
and must have seemed to be receiving conspicuous fulfilment, when
the ten tribes had been carried captive by one King of Assyria, and
Judah miraculously released from his successor.

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH. 221
With the language* of the third verse, that of the Lord in Hosea
i. 19, may fitly be compared : " I will betroth thee unto Me for
ever." In the fourth verse there is a close resemblance to David's
language in Ps. xxii. 27 : " All the ends of the world shall
remember and turn unto the Lord ; and all the kindreds of the
nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's,
and He is the Governor among the nations." The word " Behold,"
by varying the structure of the sentence, gives animation to the
grouping of these names of nations. What is meant is, that
Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia are to be subjects of the same grace
as Egypt and Assyria, through the instrumentality of Zion.
The last clause of this fourth verse had better, as it seems to
me, be reckoned the first of the fifth, being precisely similar to the
last clause of the sixth. Its testimony, " This one hath been born
there, without saying where or who, is singularly in accordance
with Gabriel's refrainment from specification on the same subject
in Luke i. 35 : " The holy thing that shall be born of thee,"
as though at a loss for an adequate term. Then follows the
speaker's description of that which he found no one term fitted
to express ; just as in the first verse the mysterious announcement,
bursting upon us without preface, is cleared up in verse 2 :
" Even to Zion shall it be said,
Man, f yea, man has been born in her,
And He shall stablish her that is Highest ! "
Here is to be perceived a second coincidence in this psalm
with the voice of the Spirit of Christ in David. For in the second
psalm is found, at verse 6, " Yet have I set My King upon My holy
hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto Me,
* Dr. Thrupp observes on the third verse, that the word iM in Piel
followed hy a signifies in 1 Sam. xxv. 39, " to ask a woman in marriage." In
Pual it is used impersonally in a corresponding passive sense, followed as
before hy s, " of the woman ; " Cant. viii. 8, being the only passage beside
the present one in which the Pual occurs. nilM? is the accusative after the
Piel verb implied in the impersonal Pual, it expresses the words in which the
demand is made. The ordinary rendering of this verse is in itself not free
from objection. The preposition 2 after a word of speaking, signifies by
general usage not merely " concerning," hut " against,'' (though in 1 Sam.
xix. 3, there is an instance to the contrary.) Accordingly, Jerome con
scientiously wrote, not de te, hut in te; hut what meaning he attached to his
own rendering is not clear.
t Horne here ohserves, that Dr. Durell thinks this an Oriental reduplication
for " the greatest of all men." In support of this view it is to he observed
that the Son. of David is called in the New Testament "the last Adam,"
because recovering the elect out of mankind unto God, which were lost in
the first Adam, at his fall. Whence St. Paul, in 1 Cor. vi. 13, saith, " the
body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." (See also 1 Cor. xv. 45.)

222 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH,
Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and
I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance."
Now it might have been thought that this prophecy had pointed
to Messiah's birth of the Virgin, which took place at Bethlehem.
But St. Paul, in Acts xiii. 33, authoritatively teaches us, that it was
spoken concerning Messiah's resurrection, which took place in Zion,
or Jerusalem. Now this eighty-seventh psalm appears to be the
correlative of that second psalm on this momentous subject of
the birth of Messiah for salvation of all men, and for building
of them up in one new man in Zion.
We have already seen how in the third verse Zion is described
as tbe married wife, " the mother of us all," (Gal. iv. 26,) which
" had not the husband " at the time of Isaiah's writing his pro
phecy in chapter liv. 1, as there quoted and explained by St.
Paul in verse 27. But she was " to have the husband " at the
time of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which appears
to be what was darkly hinted at in the third verse of this
psalm, under this mysterious intimation of "the wondrous words,"
constituting the foundations of Zion, being each one of them
to be spoken for her by Him that spake those promises. And
now in this fifth, Zion's giving of birth to Messiah from tbe
grave is correlatively spoken of as " His being born there,"
just as in the second psalm the Father, Who is the speaker, saith,
" Thou art My Son ; this day have I begotten Thee ! " name!}',
from the grave. For the Church of God's elect, " the Jerusalem that
is above — that is free — that is the mother of us all," is simulta
neously in three states or modes of existence : one being that of
the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven ; another, that of the
bodies of those spirits sleeping in Christ, and hid with Christ in
God, (Col. iii. 3 ; Ps. xci. 1,) till the resurrection ; a third, that
of souls in mortal bodies under probation on earth.
The Spirit of Christ in Isaiah, chapter liv. 1, addresses this Church
in regard of the bodies that are asleep in Christ ; and significantly
bids her " bring forth without travail," (for the grave hath no
pangs,) when, (as St. Paul explains in Gal. iv. 27,) " she that had
not the husband " — the Father — shall have Him returning unto her
to do " glorious things " in her in regard to Christ's body laid in
sleep in the grave in her midst, though already spiritual and
quickened. This is to be followed, as is intimated in the pregnant
words of this fifth verse, by scarcely less wonderful things concern
ing each of those who by the word concerning Christ going forth
from Zion shall be caused, whether out of Israel or Gentiles, to
remember to know God — a work described in Messiah's own
language when on earth in John v. 24 — 29.
The last clause in this fifth verse, " He shall stablish her that is
the Highest," refers I think to the Father returning to her in the
grave, and "giving her strength to bring forth." (See Gen. xviii,
10, compared with Heb. xi. 11.) The appropriateness of the figure

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH. 223
is to be discerned by observing that the primeval word of promise
in covenant between the Father and the Son is that whereof, when
received into man's heart by faith, the Father begets the elect.
Jesus, when in mortal flesh, received that word concerning the
Father's acceptance of His life in ransom for men's forfeited lives.
He laid down His life in firm faith that God would bring Him
again from the grave according to His desire. (John x. 17, 18 ;
Ps. xii. 10). Hence He had passed from that part of the Church
which is under probation, to that which is, as to the body, in the
grave ; when the Father visited in His person " the mother of
us all" — laid in Zion ; and raised Him up — the last Adam — Man
indeed — Man new-made !
In the sixth verse we read, Jehovah shall record in writing
(the names of the peoples) in the Lamb's book of life, (Rev. xx.
12 — 15, and xxi. 27,) that this one hath been born in her. For
just as in Gal. iii. 16, St. Paul employs the word "seed" literally
for Christ in His own person, and mystically for Him when
including all His spiritual members ; so apparently doth the
divine speaker in this place by the psalmist's mouth use the de
monstrative pronoun " this," in the expression, " This one hath
been born in her," (compared with use of the same words in the
preceding clause of verse 5.) The doctrine of the resurrection of
Christ " recorded" in the New Testament by the Lord is the
foundation spoken of in the first verse, on which resfr divers
primary doctrines — concerning every hearer of the word being
joined by the Spirit to Christ in His sacrificial death for regene
ration, (John v. 24,) — and raised up in the power of Christ's
resurrection in his spirit, upon his asking the Father in Christ's
name for that spirit of adoption, (Rom. viii. 10; John v. 25,) —
and yet again, that doctrine touching those that are made alive
in Christ by faith, if continuing faithful unto death, being made
alive first (as to their bodies) at Christ's return, (1 Cor. xv. 23,)
after which shall follow in due order that of all mankind. (John
v. 29 ;" 2 Cor. v. 10 ; Rom. ii. 6 ; 1 Pet. iv. 17.)
And like as in verse 6 it is said, that God records of each. child
that he was born there, namely, in Zion, (which He only began to
do from the setting up, of the kingdom of heaven there, when
" the faith" received this addition to its rule, 1 John v. 4 — 11 ;
because of regeneration being then first granted by burial into
Christ's sacrificial death, Who was laid in Zion, 1 Pet. ii. 6;) so it
is in the seventh verse correlatively testified concerningthe children
of God; that they thenceforward only by being born there, through
participation in Christ's sacrificial death, obtain for asking the
needful renewal with the Spirit of adoption. (Gal. iv. 6.)
It may be supposed that when Hezekiah placed this wonderful
psalm, or saw it placed in the order here appointed for it in the
sacred canon, he was fired with the hope of Messiah's speedy birth
in the line of his (^Jsendants. But we who live at this late stage
(2)

224 PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH.
of the Church's progress perceive, that though a great instalment
of the blessings here promised in Christ to Zion (concerning the
conversion of nations to God through her instrumentality accord
ing to David's prayer in the psalm preceding) was vouchsafed on
the setting up of the kingdom of heaven at the Pentecost next
following Christ's resurrection ; yet it has not exhausted, nor is it
destined to exhaust, the full sum of blessings in store for Zion
here spoken of.
We know by Acts iii. 26, that the Lord Jesus had according to
His prayer (Luke xxiii. 34) forgiven His nation their crucifixion
of Him ; and if they as a nation would have accepted His Gospel,
when exclusively preached to them first, the Father would sooner
have granted that outpouring of the Spirit upon them symbolised
by Joel ii. 23, uuder the similitude of the former and the latter
rain. But they as a nation rejected the Gospel, contradicting and
blaspheming; whereupon they provoked the Father to send upon
them wrath to the utmost term that He would allow it to extend •
namely, until the times of the Gentiles, that is, their day of grace
under the Gospel, should be fulfilled. For, were it not that God
set limits to the consequences of human perversity, mankind
would be for ever deprived of the benefits of Christ's death in the
extent that "His soul hath desired" — which is, according to the
number of the elect given Him — written by His Father in His
book referred to in the sixth verse of this psalm.
Accordingly, the Father had foredetermined, that when those
nations of the Gentiles that upon the Israelitish national renun
ciation of Jesus for Messiah should rather be blessed with the
Gospel, according to Isa. xlix. 6, should have in their turn filled
up the measure of their iniquity, like the Amorites, (Gen. xv. 16,)
through perversion of it; then because of their wickedness, (and
not for the goodness of the ancient people of God in that day,
Deut, ix. 5, 5, ) He would return for the sake of His covenant
with Abraham sealed in Christ, unto a generation of his natural
descendants ; whereupon should be granted to Zion that out
pouring of the Spirit which shall be exhaustive of all the blessings
in this psalm declared to be in store for Zion, and for the world
through Zion, as St. Paul indicates in Rom. xi. 15 — 36. For
then alone shall the prophecy in Isa. xix. 21 — 25, and that in
Isa. xxx. 18—25, be fulfilled, which tally with that in the fourth
and seventh verses of this psalm.
Meanwhile, how thankful ought we to be whose birth has in the
course of God's providence been ordered in a land where the Re
formed faith is in the ascendant. In most other parts of Chris
tendom corrupt doctrines obscure the way of salvation and hinder
souls from knowing that they must be born again of God in Christ
by burial into His death, that they may be regenerated ; and so,
being in acceptance with God, ask through their High Priest for
renewal with His Spirit. For generationst^ast has this Re^
formed faith been by the very Government secured for the instruc-

PSALM THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH. 225
tion of every one in our land ; and we, praised be God, are
taught to know what is meant by Messiah, Son of David, being born
from the dead in Zion, (Rom. i. 3, 4,) namely, that it means,
salvation is of the Jews ! (John iv. 22,) and we, praised be God,
have heard and been made to drink into that spirit, (1 Cor. xii. 13,)
and are with the whole heart minded to say, " All my fresh springs
are in Thee ! " For we believe Him Who said (John iv. 10) He
would be in us a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.
1.
He it is the sure foundation
On the holy mountains laid —
Yea, Jehovah ! Who for Zion
Jacob's tents relinquished. 2. ,
In what's being spoken for1 Thee,
City of our God, He said
Wondrous things : let this for ever
In our hearts be cherished.

" Me to know Rahab and Babel
Diligent 1 11 surely make :
See Philistia too this lesson: —
Tyre and Ethiopia take."
4.
" There was born this One ! " in God's time
Shall to Zion it be said ;
" Man — yea, Man — was born in her ; and
Her the Highest stablished ! "
5.
'Mongst the peoples when Jehovah
Doth His book of life indite,
" There was born this one '' — for token
Of salvation — He will write.
i Ver. 3. Compare Isa. liv. 1-0 ; Gal. iv. 26—31.
Q

226 PSALM THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH. 6.
As our pipers make the mountains
Echo with their melody ;
Singers shall rehearse in gladness,
All my fresh springs are in Thee.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

TITLE.
A song or psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician,
upon degeneracy, to afflict, to give understanding, of Heman the
Ezrahite. In 1 Kings iv. 31, " Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman " are said to
have been the sons of Mahol, meaning "affliction." For in 1 Chron.
ii. 6, they are shewn to have been the sons of Zerah, the son of
Judah. To assume that these are the Ethan and Heman mentioned in the
titles of this and the following psalm, (rather than the Heman and
Ethan mentioned in 1 Chron. vi. 33, 44, contemporaries of David,)
has this advantage, that their being called " sons of Mahol," agrees
with the title of this psalm ; while that they are brothers, (as
those in 1 Chron. vi. were not,) is a primd facie reason for their
psalms being together.
Dr. Lightfoot prefers to take the titles of these psalms as point
ing to the sons of Zerah ; and places the date of them about the
time of trouble in Israel, described in Exod. i. (See page 24 of his
" Chron. Temp.")
Of the Messianic psalms — that is, of those which bear exclusive
reference to Christ — this seems to me one ; along with the second,
the twenty-second, the fortieth, the ninety-first, and the hundred
and tenth.
If " Mahalath," in the title, be interpreted here, as in that of the
fifty-third psalm, to mean " disease," with reference to the radical
derangement in man's moral being, this word will be a significant
notification, on the part of him that placed it in its present order,
and inserted it in the sacred canon, of this psalm being upon the
sufferings of Messiah, as the Bearer away of the burden of our sin
from off His mystical members.
The word " L'annoth," derived by Hengstenberg from ¦"!??, to
afflict, is explained to mean "to produce grief," as this psalm,
(if understood as applied to Messiah suffering for us) should

PSALM THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH. 227
do throughout all ages: also "Maschil" means "to give in
struction."
ARGUMENT.
The Holy Spirit was pleased, as we now see by the light afforded
us in the New Testament, to put on record in Scripture in very
early times dark notices of God's purpose to bring the promised
Messiah into the grave, ere God would declare His judgment upon
the cause of us men of which Messiah should be the Advocate.
Not only was the purpose of God concerning Messiah's death ex
plicitly set forth, so late as iu the days of Isaiah, who in chap. liii.
wrote at verse 9, " He (namely, God) made His (namely, Mes
siah's) grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death ; "
but the same Divine purpose was hundreds of years previous
revealed to David in Ps. xxii., where at verse 15 occurs
the testimony, "And Thou shalt bring Me into the dust of
death." Moreover, a still earlier testimony by hundreds of years was
borne to the same effect by Moses in the ninety-first psalm ;
which is another exclusively treating of Messiah. It begins
with speaking of Him as lodging for a certain space in the
darkness of the grave ; upon His having been, through the
permission of God's providence, dealt with in His mortal body
by Israel, after the manner wherein each family therein had
been commanded to do with the Paschal lamb on the night
of their redemption out of Egypt under Moses.
With these instances brought to mind of explicit declarations in
the psalms concerning Messiah's death, it need not seem improbable
that it should have been so plainly spoken of in this eighty-eighth
psalm. For at the third verse, (supposing this psalm to have been
written with reference to the Messiah,) that it might be for His
use when come in mortal flesh, we read, "My soul is full of
troubles : My life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with
them that go down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no
strength. Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the
grave, whom Thou rememberest no more : and they are cut
off from Thine hand."
According to this method of interpretation in the tenth and
three following verses, the Messiah enquires of His Father, (the
Spirit of Christ moving the psalmist while wrapt into ecstasy, so to
¦ speak, as in. Ps. cii. 23 — 28,) " Wilt Thou shew wonders to the
dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee?" And there is
added, "Selah," or, mark! Again he asks, "Shall Thy loving
kindness be declared in the grave, and Thy faithfulness in
destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and
Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness ? "
To put a question to God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit
concerning a wonder, amounts to the strongest persuasion on the
q 2

228 PSALM THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH.
speaker's part that God will do the thing enquired about, rather
than that His promise should fall to the- ground through compliance
with His own providential appointments or express injunctions.
So thought Abraham in Gen. xxii. 5, compared with Heb. xi.
17—19. '
- It is unquestionably in that sense Job, in a still earlier day than
Moses, designing to testify, through the Spirit of Christ, that there
should be a resurrection of the dead, was moved to propound those
glad tidings in the animated form of a question ; as though asking,
would God do so much as that for a man ? intending the hearer to
be cheered with the idea that He would : Job's question is, (ch. xiv.
14,) " If a man die, shall he live again ? " That he shall, is left to
the reader to conclude. For the words which follow shew Job him
self to have so concluded ; where he saith, " All the days of my ap
pointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and
I will answer thee : Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine
hands." By St. Paul's language in 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52, we learn that "the
change " spoken of is that from natural to spiritual manhood in the
morning of the resurrection. And we know how Job, in the nine
teenth chapter, spake of his resurrection at the return of the Re
deemer in that morning. Almighty God therefore clearly willed
that the hope of the resurrection of the dead should from time to
time be refreshed by revelations thereupon to them that were moved
by the Spirit of Christ.
We are accordingly assigning no peculiar sense to the tenth and
three following verses of this eighty-eighth psalm, when taking them
to be the most emphatic mode of testifying by implication, that God
would wait till Messiah was in the grave before shewing the judg
ment that the Saviour asked Him to pronounce on our cause which
at His crucifixion He should advocate. For when God, in the course
of His providence, permitted Jews and Gentiles, instigated by Satan,
to plot for the betrayal and death of JeBus, He as our Messiah took
that opportunity of bearing on His heart before His Father the
burden of our sins — having them, indeed, at that time specially
charged by His Father upon Him, both in Gethsemane and
at Calvary.
Agreeably with the requirement of His Father, He would not be
separated from us men — his brethren — in the judgment that His
Father should pronounce. Having God's elect among men given
unto Him by covenant as of marriage, He would abide the result of *
answering for them with His own human soul. Hereupon the
Father, as is here indicated, deferred the manifestation of His
judgment concerning His Son's sacrificial death on our behalf
for the redemption of all mankind from under tbe curse of
the broken commandment, until the third day after His death.
This psalm so explained in respect of verses 10, 11, 12, is not, as
commentators in general observe, different from all others, as being

PSALM THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH. 229
without one ray of hope. So far from that, it in these very verses
expresses the Saviour's firmest expectation of being raised from the
grave after having descended thereinto.
The psalmist while writing it seems to have been held in a trance
like state of consciousness, while apparently going in vision through
an enclosure in the grave, after the manner indicated in regard of
Messiah in the second verse of the ninety-first psalm,
In the thirteenth verse the psalmist adds another expression of a
cheerful nature, saying, " In the morning shall my prayer prevent
Thee," or, anticipate Thy raising of Me up ; agreeably with Ps. lvii.
8, where it is written, " I myself will awake early," or, anticipate
the dawn in that morning ; agreeably also with Ps. xc. 14. For
by " the morning," is emphatically intended in the Psalms again
and again, that of the resurrection. (Ps. xlix. 14.)
The psalmist then was led by the Spirit of Christ, after record
ing that glorious persuasion and worthy reliance on the Father, to
renewed lamentations at his desolate and forsaken state, answering
as we see by the Gospels to the impenetrable gloom in which our
Saviour's yielding of Himself to death was wrapt in the view of
His disciples until the judgment declared on the third day after
ward. The doctors who arranged the Public Service in the Church of
England for the day on which we commemorate our Lord's sacri
ficial death, by their insertion of this psalm among the number
proper for it, bear witness to the general opinion of the Christie1'
Fathers that this psalm treats of Christ.
1.
O God of my salvation,
Jehovah ! I have cried
By day and night before Thee !
Let me not be denied !
My soul with inward grief doth sigh,
And I unto the grave draw nigh.
2.
One to the pit appointed
I'm deem'd, whose use is o'er
Of limbs— one disembodied —
Not to be car'd for more.
In darkness Thou hast made me dwell —
Yea, even in th' abyss1 of hell.
> Ver, 6, Rom. x, 7.

230 PSALM THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH.

Hard on me lies Thine anger,
It's billows o'er me course ;
All who were mine acquaintance
Thou didst from me divorce ;
Yet I with outstretch'd hand all day,
Jehovah, unto Thee did pray.
4.
Wilt Thou exert Thy wonders
Upon the dead 1 shall they
Be raised up to praise Thee 1
Thy love wilt Thou display
E'en in the grave, and the abyss
Itself make known Thy faithfulness \
5.
Yea, wilt Thou cause Thy wonders
To be in darkness known  •
Where all things are forgotten,
Thy righteousness be shewn ?
I've pray'd, Jehovah, heretofore,
And tiH. the morn will pray the more.2
6.
Jehovah, Thou discardest
My soul, and dost conceal
Thy face, and hast death's nearness
From youth up made Me feel !
O'er me prevaileth Thy fierce wrath,
Thy terrors, lo ! have cut me off.
7.
Thou daily dost, like water,
Thy terrors round me pour ;
None other of the people3
Is with me in this hour.
Lover and friend Thou 'st from me put,
In darkness mine acquaintance shut.
2 Ver. 13. Luke xxii. 44. s yer_ i g. Tsai i;jj. g.

PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH. 231
PSALM LXXXIX.
TITLE.
A psalm of Ethan the Ezrahite, to give instruction.
Who this Ethan was has already been shewn in remarks on the
title of Psalm lxxxviii. It follows that this psalm with its com
panion ranks, as Lightfoot observes, among the very oldest portions
of Scripture.
ARGUMENT.
The mention of David's name may seem to preclude the possibility
of so old a date being assigned to the composition of this psalm.
But what in the third verse is now written TV-T, being originally
without points, and (as, we will suppose,) not known to be intended
for a proper name, would be considered by the psalmist himself
to mean "one beloved." (See Isa. v. 1.) This observation gains
some support from the fact of the psalmist speaking in verse 2 to 7
of what effect this counsel of the Lord should have in heaven : as
though he were referring to the primeval covenant between the
Father and the Eternal Word.
Then at verse 10 he mentions the destruction of Egypt, under the
name of Rahab.
Now as the word n^^n^l occurs in the fifteenth verse ; and in
verses 30, 31 are mentioned " law, judgments, statutes, command
ments," it seems to me that this psalm cannot have been written at
the time assigned by Lightfoot, but after delivery of the law.
Hence this mention of Egypt's destruction is to be deemed not
prophetical, but historical.
The eighty-eighth psalm , therefore, may have been composed as
Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, during the affliction described in Exod.
1 ; but this eighty-ninth during the wanderings of Israel in the
wilderness. As the lives of men appear not to have been curtailed
to threescore and ten years until that journeying of Israel in the
wilderness, it surely does no violence to probability to conjecture
that Ethan may have lived to write this psalm at an early date in
that pilgrimage.
At the twelfth verse, the psalmist's thoughts are turned to the
promised land. And there is no apparent reason for refusing to
believe that " the wisest of their age," might have in earlier days
visited that land, through a desire for better acquaintance with what
their fathers, 215 years previous, were conversant. Nor is it
improbable that some of the Israelites retained wealth to a late
period preceding the Exodus> since in Joseph's days they had been

232 PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH.
nationally at tbe summit, as it were, of honour. The best educa
tion in that age was mainly procured by travel.
The true pronunciation of the letters TH in the third verse might
possibly have been revealed by the Lord Himself, when He bade
Samuel anoint Jesse's son, so called in 1 Sam. xvi. 13 ; or after
wards when He had declared David a progenitor of Messiah. (2
Sam. vii. 11 — 16.) On this supposition, Nathan's language would
be considered to have intentionally made reference to this older
prophecy of Ethan.
The letters TH , as found in this psalm, form a monosyllabic
name, but in David's time it had become dissyllabic by addition of
a > . Might not the older form of pronunciation have been used in
this psalm until David's time ?
If this conjecture be admitted, other particulars in this psalm
will tally better therewith than any other supposition. For the
psalm will then have been solely written with a view to Messiah,
verse 20, (as we have assumed to have been the case with the
preceding one.) In that case, it will serve to fill up the wide hiatus
between the mention of Messiah as King under the name of Melchi-
zedec in Abraham's day, and Hannah's mention of Him in 1 Sam.
ii. 10. Indeed, on this view of the eighty-ninth psalm, the points
of similarity in Hannah's and divers of David's to it are to be
accounted for, by supposing that these inspired writers, when
using expressions identical with some in this psalm, quoted there
from. See the use TTpn in verse 19 of this psalm is put to in
Ps. xvi. 10.
This view will also render more intelligible subsequent pro
phecies, which though spoken of David, require to be understood
of Messiah alone. (See Ezek. xxxiv. 24 ; xxxvii. 25. Hos. iii. 5.)
That the son of Jesse chosen by God to succeed Saui should
have borne from circumcision the name of David, would then
be regarded as an event, denoting the overruling providence of
God. A like instance of God's favour is to be seen in the case of Josiah,
(2 Chron. xxxiv. 1,) who received that name at his circumcision,
about 365 years after the prediction in 1 Kings xiii. 2.
If this psalm be supposed to have been written with Messiah
alone in the psalmist's view, then the language in verse 19 can be
seen to be perfectly applicable, as it would not at all be in that of
the literal David. For the words, " I have laid help upon One that
is mighty," would be applicable to the Word made flesh, but not to
the shepherd-youth. (See Ps. Ixxviii. 70.)
The twenty-seventh verse would also be literally applicable, and
the twenty-ninth and thirty-third; as may be seen by comparing
herewith Col. i. 18, and Isa. liii. 10. The alteration of God's
dealing with His Messiah in the thirty-eighth verse, might be
regarded as resulting from the cause indicated in verse 30 — 33
going before.

, PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH. 233
Again in ver. 45, " The days of His youth hast Thou shortened,"
which could not be applied to the literal David, would be strictly
true in regard of Messiah ; whence the mysterious words in Ps. cii.
23, 24, may be regarded as a reference to these.
Lastly, it could not be said of the literal David, that "he bore
in his bosom the reproach of all the mighty peoples " — that is, of
nations of Gentiles joined in faith unto the people of the God of
Abraham, (Ps. xlvii. 9,) but it is true of our Messiah at this very
time : Who is making intercession for us out of the Gentiles along
with the remnant out of His ancient people, according to Rom. xv.
1—7. The fifty-second verse is one evidently added by the inspired in
serter of this psalm in the sacred canon.
This psalm so explained seems to foreshadow events reaching
even past our time. For if in the fifteenth verse the words were
applicable to the trumpet-calls to Levitical festivals, how much
more to the great call by the jubilee-trumpet in the Gospel? And
if the words in verses 38 — 45 were applicable to the Lord Jesus in
the days of His flesh, they appear to be equally susceptible of ful
filment in the events about to overtake His mystical body in this
age prior to His coming again ; which it is thought that an universal
suppression of public worship in the name of Christ may be per
mitted to precede.
The eighty-eighth psalm appears to be an elegiac lamentation
over the inward and personal sorrows of Messiah : this eighty-
ninth over His outward in His mystical body.
1.
Jehovah's mercies will I praise for aye,1
Yea, with my mouth Thy faithfulness make known.
I said, for ever mercy shall bear2 sway !
Thy faithfulness wilt Thou in heav'n enthrone !
2.
A cov'nant with My chosen have I made ;
To ONE belov'd3— My servant— have I sworn,
Thy seed4 shall be for ever stablished,
And age on age Thy throne shall be upborne.
1 Ver. 1. " The hidden age." (Ps. xxviii. 9.)
s Ver. 2. " An oracular voice." (Compare James ii. 13.)
3 Ver. 3. Originally written without points, and probably not known at
first to he a proper name.
* Ver. 4. iBa. liii. 10.

234 PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH. 3.
Thy works, Jehovah, shall the heav'ns declare —
Thy faithfulness the angels' company :
Por whom in heaven with Thee shall one compare,
What angel to Jehovah liken'd be ?
4.
Most dread is God th' angelic host among—
By those His throne surrounding to be fear'd.
Lord God of hosts ! who else like Thee is strong,
Whom round about Thy faithfulness doth gird 1
5.
Thou dost control the raging of the sea —
The surging of its billows Thou dost quell.
As one that's slain lies Rahab5 crush'd by Thee :
Upon that foe Thine arm resistless fell !
6.
Thine are yon heavens— Thine this subject earth—
The world and all its fulness of Thee came : 6
By Thee created were the South and North-
Tabor and Hermon triumph7 in Thy Name.
7.
Strong is Thine arm; Thy hand— Thy right hand— high!
Justice and judgment constitute Thy throne:
Yet, for abatement of severity,
Mercy8 andTruth ne'er let them work alone.
6 Ver. 10. Viscount Massareene observes, "Lower Egypt, enclosed hy
the eastern and western branches of the Nile, was called Delta, from the
shape of that Greek letter." For the same reason, Bochart and others think it
was called Hahab, from the Egyptian Rib, Eibi, or Riph, •' a pear."
6 Ver. 11. Ps. xxiv. 1.
7 Ver. 12. Ps. lxv. 13. Just as in Ps. cxiv. it is said, verse 10, " all God's
works shall praise Him," because prompting men who enjoy the use of them
to do this ; so the West and the East, the little hill and the,, great mountain,
by their respective characteristics of beauty or grandeur, move men to praise
Him, Whom they piously regard as the Creator : and thus these mountains
" triumph in His Name."
8 Ver. 14. Ps. lxxxv. 10.' Prov. xvi. 6.

PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH. 235

Blest is the people taught Thy trumpet's9 call,
In Thine eye's light, Jehovah, shall they live !
In Thy Name shall they keep high festival,
And in Thy righteousness true service give.
9.
[ For Thou of their souls' strength the glory art !
Our horn is high, on which Thy favour shone :
Jehovah safety doth to us impart,
And, lo ! our King is Israel's Holy One !
10.
In vision to Thine Holy One,10 said'st Thou,
One mighty, from the people, I appoint —
One lov'd, that to Me doth His service vow ;
Him with My holy oil do I anoint !u
11.
With Him My hand shall be established,
And He shall stay Himself upon Mine arm ;
No enemy shall be replenished
At His cost, nor a miscreant do Him harm.
12.
All foes before His face will I beat down ;
All those that hate Him, plague and terrify ;
My faithfulness and mercy Him shall crown,
In My name shall His horn12 be lifted high.
0 Ver. 15. See remarks on Ps. Ixxxi. 3 — 5, on which account, from this use
of the word nww, I would place the time of the composition of this psalm
after Numb. x. I .
10 Ver. 19. *fiw : this same word is used in Ps. xvi. 10, shewing the divine
nature of the King predicted, (Acts iii. 14,) but different from Him called the
" Holy One " in the verse preceding, Who is the Father, ta^to' Bii"lj?, (see
verse 26.)
n Ver. 20. 1 Sam. ii. 35.
" Ver. 24. 1 Sam. ii. 10.

236 PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH. to.
His hand will I establish in the sea —
His right hand in the rivers13 — He shall cry,
Father, Thou art My only God to Me,
And My salvation's Rock unchangeably !
14.
My first-born14 He o'er all earth's kings shall be—
Him, in that age15 hid, mercy I'll ensure—
His seed shall in My cov'nant stand for aye,
And as the days16 of heav'n His throne endure.
15.
If it be found His seed My law forsake —
That way wherein they once devoutly17 trod —
Reverse My judgments, and My statutes break,
Their sins then will I visit with a rod,
16.
And stripes appoint for their iniquity :
Yet will I not My mercy from Him take,
Nor let My faithfulness His hopes belie,18
My covenant with Him I'll never break.
17.
By My own holiness once have I sworn,
That I the One belov'd would ne'er belie :
For that time hidden19 souls unto Him born,
In life will I uphold unfailingly.
13 Ver. 25. In prophetical language, "the sea" means the aggregate of
mankind ; and " the rivers " the several nations. (See Ps. xciii. and its note.)
14 Ver. 27. A dark prediction of the Saviour's resurrection, (Col. i. 18,)
but containing an allusion to the destruction of Egypt's first-born,
« Ver. 28. The same word as in verses 1, 2, 4, 28, 36, 37:, 63. In verse 30,
it is 1$); in verse 47,1^,
is Ver. 29. Deut. xi."21.
" Ver. 30. Jer. ii. 2, 3.
is Ver. 35. Heb. vi. 17.
19 Ver. 36. ojis^ as inverse 28.

PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH. 237
18.
Before Me as the sun, shall be His throne ;
Yea, like the moon, for ever stablished ;
And as the bow, that is the cloud upon
For witness, earth a flood20 no more may dread.
19.
But Thou with Thine Anointed hast been wroth,
Thy Servant's covenant Thou void hast made ;
Profan'd His crown, by casting it to earth,21
His hedges and strongholds in ruin laid.
20.
Wayfarers, as they pass, all Him despoil —
Unto His neighbours a reproach is He ;
His foe's right hand breeds Him incessant toil
And all His enemies Thou'st fill'd with glee,22
21.
His sword's edge hast Thou blunted, nor in war
Upheld Him ; Thou hast clouded o'er His fame —
His throne cast down, and cut short His career23
In early youth, shrouding His head in shame
22.
How long wilt Thou Thyself, Jehovah, hide % 2i
For ever"? shall Thy wrath like light'ning blazel
Bethink Thee for what brief space I abide !
And grant that not in vain pass all My days !
23.
What man of might shall death to strike be loth \
And from the grave shall such deliv'rance find \
™ Ver. 37. Gen. ix. 13.
- 31 Ver. 39. John xii. 24.
33 Ver. 42. Matt, xxvii. 39-43.
=3 Ver. 45. Dan. ix. 24—27.
a* Ver. 46. Isa. xxx. 18.

238

PSALM THE EIGHTY-NINTH.

Where are Thy former mercies, Lord, by oath
Unto the lov'd One in Thy truth consign'd %
24.
O Lord, unto remembrance do Thou call,
How cruelly Thy servants slander'd are ;
How 'fore Thee in My bosom I of all
The mighty peoples25 the reproach do bear,
25.
Wherewith, Jehovah, lo ! Thine enemies
The steps of Thine Anointed have sore press'd !
O let our prayer to Thee accepted rise !
Be Thou for evermore, Jehovah, bless'd !
Amen, Amen.
28 Ver. 50. That is, cast upon Me in the members of My mystical body
hy the nations enlightened with revealed truth. (Isa. xx. 3 ; Jer. xxx. 7.)

BOOK THE EOTJETH.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH BOOK.

This hook, hy commencing with the ninetieth psalm, which is
ascribed to Moses, is with great propriety brought into juxta
position with those ancient ones of his contemporaries in the
close of the book preceding.
Moses is to be considered to have been herein soliloquising
in the desert at the prospect of death, with hope of translation
forthwith to the more immediate presence "of the God of Abraham,
of Isaac, and of Jacob, until the promised return of the Lord —
the seed of the woman — (His departure being dated from the
time of man's fall) — to restore all things, of which the Sabbath
at its institution was the pledge to man in innocence.
This is followed in the ninety-first with a vision of Him, Who
in His two natures, Divine and Human, united in one Person,
should in Himself accomplish the recovery pf man unto fitness for
rest with God, where he shall " cease from his labours, as God
did from His," at the institution of the Sabbath.
This consideration shews how much the subject of the ninetieth
and ninety-first psalms had to do with the institution of the Sab
bath. The ninety- second is "A hymn for the Sabbath." The ninety-
third is in the Septuagint entitled, " A hymn for the day before
the Sabbath" — a title which ¦ being only borne in the Greek ver
sion, distinguishes it from the ninety-first, which bears its title in
the Hebrew. This circumstance in regard of the ninety-second,
indicates a subsequent authorship ; and the contents shew the
Sabbath spoken of to be different from that celebrated in the
preceding psalm — the preceding one being anticipatory of that
rest with God whereof that primeval one instituted in man's inno
cence was a pledge ; whereas this of the ninety-third appears to be

242 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH BOOK.
commemorative of the Sabbath given specially to the Israelites
in the wilderness, (Ezek. xx. 12,) which was a pledge to them of
a Sabbatical rest promised to a chosen generation of Abraham's
natural descendants in the Lord's land in paradisiacal happiness ;
being at the same time a type of that rest with God that is to
follow, and to be entered on by the sanctified in Christ of every
age and nation in glorified bodies. The ninety-fourth is entitled
in the Greek version, " A psalm for the fourth day before the
Sabbath," and is remarkable for enumeration of the reasons why
God's people should not rebel against the Government under
which they live, through stress of persecution for righteousness ;
instead of which they should wait upon God to interpose in their
behalf about the time of His return to usher in His millennial
reign. The ninety -fifth is in the Greek version entitled, " A psalm
of praise, for David," (which may be regarded as a name for the
Messiah, if what has been said on the use of that name in the
eighty-ninth psalm be admitted.)
The insertion of this psalm into our morning service shews it
to have been clearly found to be a most appropriate invitation of
assembled worshippers to praise God in expectation, as St. Paul
expressly shews, (Heb. iii. 7, to iv. 7,) of the rest with Him,
which is only to be attained under the rule of " the beloved One,"
our King. The ninety-sixth is entitled in the Greek, " A psalm for
the time when the house hath been built after the captivity," for
David. It may therefore be regarded as one intended to be sung
in that temple yet to be built in the Lord's land at the expiration of
the present captivity, which may be said to have (in the estimation
of the Septuagint doctors) been upon their nation in their day —
and consequently, in that sense to have not yet ceased. The ninety-
seventh is entitled, " A psalm for David, when His land is esta
blished " — that is, by the restoration of all things. (Acts iii. 21.)
The ninety-eighth is entitled, " A psalm for David," and is of similar
import. The ninety-ninth is in title and import similar. The
hundredth, entitled in the Hebrew, " A psalm for praise," is ob
viously to be used by a company of divers nations converted to
God, in the temple hereafter to be built in Jerusalem.
After this remain six more psalms. Now, to me it seemed hard
beforehand to conceive how the lofty subject of the foregoing ones
could be adequately sustained ; so as to preserve the consistency of

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH BOOK. 243
the book. But on examination, the hundred and first, entitled in the
Hebrew, " A psalm for David," was found to announce what rule
His representative for the time present in David's line would
exercise over those around him — a testimony most" certainly
fulfilled already in Him Whom we, as being of His kingdom, exalt
in our hearts ! So that this psalm is of the most awakening import
to us who at present are " the only remnant of the true Israelites ; "
while it remains to be literally fulfilled in the Lord's own land
among the chosen generation of His own people at His return to
reign over them.
The hundred and second, entitled, "A prayer of the afflicted," is
found to be the outpouring of one, who in his extremity of sorrow
finds consolation, after the manner of Moses in the ninetieth psalm,
by calling to mind what a pledge of rest is given to them that die
in faith, by the name of God as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and
of Jacob. In this state of hope amidst sorrow, the mourner, while
meditating on the rebuilding of Zion, is transported beyond himself
into ecstasy, in which he is made to utter words, which David's
anointed Son should in His pre-eminent affliction use, when called
to pour out His soul unto death ; whereupon, as St. Paul testifies in
Heb. i. 10, the Father by the psalmist's mouth utters oracularly a
declaration of the Sufferer's co-existence with Himself, if even He
should be appointed to die. After this the hundred and third psalm,
entitled, " A psalm for David," is one of gratitude to God for His
covenant mercies. And the hundred and fourth, hundred and fifth,
and hundred and sixth, are three parts of a composition intended to
supply the pious with themes for meditation on the goodness of God :
in the hundred and fourth, as apparent towards man in general by
what Scripture teaches concerning God's settlement of the earth
after the deluge, and preservation of the seasons, and productions
of the earth for maintenance of life in comfort thereon : in the
hundred andfifth, as manifested in God's favour to them that received
His covenant, when He brought Israel out of Egypt and planted
them in the land of Canaan : in the hundred and sixth, as exhibited
in His long-suffering endurance of Israel's backsliding again and
again, ere He drove them for their persistent impenitence into
that captivity in Babylon, in which they are assumed to have
been when the psalm was written.
It must be acknowledged, that in these six psalms the lofty
e 2

244 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH BOOK.
subject of the preceding ones is marvellously sustained : and that
the whole supply God's people with a book of peculiar value in
helping that meditation which prepares the soul for readiness to
depart in peace when the Lord shall call one.

PSALM XC.
TITLE.
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is ascribed in the Hebrew original to Moses. An
objection hereto has been started on the ground, that whereas the
psalm, at verse 10, speaks of human life being in the writer's time
shortened to seventy and eighty years at furthest, Moses lived in
an age when human life had not been so far curtailed — he himself
dying at the age of 120, and Joshua of 110 years. But it has been
shewn in reply, that the Israelites, by refusing to invade Canaan on
the first call to do so, drew down the sentence, that the entire
generation should wander forty years in the wilderness and there
die. Now the adults to whom this sentence was applicable, (as
distinguished ' from the children which were to inherit the land,)
were counted from twenty years old and upward. Supposing, then,
that the adults — varying from twenty to forty on going out of
Egypt — died in the wilderness ; this would virtually amount to a
demise of that entire generation within the time specified in this
psalm ; namely, at threescore years and ten or fourscore.
The oppressed condition of the Israelites in Egypt may well be
reckoned to have been unfavourable to longevity ; so that there
might have been few adults over forty at the time of the Exodus.
The exceptional length of life in the cases of Caleb and some few
others eminent for piety, would be no ground for questioning this
rule. There is therefore good reason for concluding, that this
shortening of life for the entire generation contemporary with Moses,
was with him a subject of penitential meditation ; since he here was
thinking of others under his care, as well as of himself; who,
though older, knew that for his error in striking the rock a second
time, when he ought only to have spoken unto it, he too while in
the wilderness should depart out of this life. Again, it is to be
observed in the title how Moses is specially called " the Man of
God" — a testimony to his authorship in regard of this psalm,
corresponding with that in the title of the eighteenth, where David
is similarly characterised as " the servant of the Lord." Then,
again, the entire psalm bears the impress of desert-life and scenery ;
and is conceived in the spirit and frame of a pilgrim wandering
without settled home on earth.

246 PSALM THE NINETIETH.
Moreover, it has been observed that the first line of this psalm,
" Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place," is substantially the
same with that in Deut. xxxiii. 27, " The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath thee are the everlasting arms " — the word for
"refuge" being substantially the same with that here for dwell
ing-place." The psalm itself consists of a prayer, commenced at the twelfth
verse, preceded by sundry reflections tending to solemnise the mind
in offering the prayer therein. These reflections in the former part
are divisible into three. One, comprised in the first two verses ;
another, in the third and onward to the end of the sixth ; a
third, in the seventh and onwards to the end of the eleventh.
In regard to the first, there is only one sense in which mortal
men on earth could be said to have made God their dwellings place ;
namely, in the sense Enoch so did ; who by lifting up the heart to
Him with faith, walked with Him.
Moses makes this custom of the holy men that had ever gone
before him, the precedent with himself for the like : and in return
for this communion with God sought by them of old time, he here
seems to say, that they were received by God upon death to dwell
with Him for ever — to be as undying as the angels.
We are warranted in so understanding Moses here, when we
compare with this passage our Lord's testimony in Luke xx. 37,
where He said, " Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses
shewed at the bush ; when he calleth the Lord the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not
a God of the dead, but of the living." The Lord Jesus here
declares, that Moses understood in the manner worthy of God, (as
the Sadducees did not,) the language which God commissioned him
to speak to the children of Israel for their comfort under their
oppression. Tell them, said God, " I am (not I was) the God of
Abraham." Agreeably herewith, Moses saith in the psalm, " Thou art the
dwelling-place " of all from the beginning that have chosen Thee for
their exceeding great reward. This, however, would only go to
shew the preservation in life of the spirit of the just man made
perfect : but in correction of this narrowing of God's mercy in
Christ, the Old Testament saints were inspired to speak of them
selves as not having their persons apart from the body: con
sequently, while their bodies should be in the grave, their language
concerning themselves was, " I am in the grave " — while my body
is in silence, " I go down into silence." Hence Hezekiah saith,
" The grave cannot praise Thee; death cannot celebrate Thee" —
meaning, that he wished rather to glorify God in his body, soul,
and spirit, which are God's, rather than in his spirit alone. (Com
pare 2 Cor. v. 4.)
It was part of the Saviour's promised victory over the Tempter,
who should bruise His heel, or human nature, to bruise the

PSALM THE NINETIETH. 247
Tempter's head, by His own resurrection, which should be the
pledge of His people's. (John xiv. 19.) Christ would leave nothing
belonging to Him under the dominion of death. " In the morning "
He would wake up His members from their sleep as to the body
and soul in Him, and " satisfy them with His likeness."' This is
intimated in the mysterious saying, " underneath are the everlasting
arms " — tantamount to our Saviour's promise in John xiv. 20, " At
that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and
I in you. " In other words, the Divine Nature underlies the
human for the bearing up of those that live to God in Christ.
(Rom. xiv. 7 — 9. Also in Col, iii. 3, " Our life is hid with Christ
in God." Ps. xxvii. 4—6.)
The prayer at verse 12 becomes in verse 13 a petition for the
coming of Christ, to which Moses referred in Exod. iv. 13, and
xxxiii. 13 — 23. The word " return " is there equivalent to
" come to make restitution of all things designed by God for
man, until Adam forfeited them by sin: (Acts iii. 21,) that so to
man may once more be brought the prospect of passing, after a
life on earth spent as in paradise, (Isa. lxv. 17 — 25 ; Rom. viii.
18 — 23,) to rest with God in the ''changed" and "spiritual"
body, whereof the Sabbath instituted in the time of man's innocency
was the pledge to our first parents. For establishment in that rest
with God in the glorified body Moses prays as the sum of his wishes.
(Heb. xi. 26.) St. Paul's hymn of triumph over death in 1 Cor.
xv. 58, ends with language remarkably similar. A comparison
also of Job. xiv. 12 — 15, with the close of this psalm, will tend
to explain and conferm this interpretation of it.
1.
To Thine Thou,1 Lord, a home2 hast been
In ev'ry generation' seen
On earth, since man it's soil first trod.
Thou ! Who, ere earth began to be,
Alone from all eternity
To all eternity art God !3
2.
Frail man4 Thou into dust5 dost bray —
Thou, Who to Adam's race dost say —
1 Ver. 1. 'Jis.
z Ver. 1. ;i»n, "a home ;'' in Deut. xxxiii, 27, rraM? .
3 Ver. 2. ^M.
* Ver. 3. uitog.
5 Ver. 3. The mortal remains are soon reduced to dust in hot countries.

248 PSALM THE NINETIETH.
Form'd of the dust to dust return !6
Did man a thousand years outlast,
They were to Thee, as watch that's past-
Who all the future dost discern !

Strong as a whelming flood sweeps on
Its course, down have their millions gone
To sleep in undistinguish'd clay !
As grass, tho' green when day began,
Scorch'd up at eve is sere and wan,
Brief stewardship of life have they !
4.
Lo ! at Thine anger scar'd we faint ;
For Thou unveil'st the heart's intent —
The very heart dost open lay !
Alas ! the labour of our days,
Beneath the terrors of Thy face,
Flits, as a finish 'd tale, away !
Threescore and ten 's the sum of years
For mortals in this vale of tears ;
Or if to fourscore years they stay,
Length'ning of days is lengthen 'd pain.
Life 's a mere thread soon cut ; and then
The spirit 's borne its destin'd way.
6.
Yet where 's the man of heart discreet,
Who, to Thy glory, owns it meet
That Thy wrath should be as Thy fear V
Be ours the wisdom to implore
Grace that shall lead us more and more
To learn Thy mercy, while we 're here.
" Ver. 3. «w5 is to be taken to refer to God's sentence iu Gen. iii. 19.
7 Ver. 11. So Gen. xxxi. 42, testifies to "fear" heing tantamount to
majesty. Compare Ps. Ixxxix. 7.

PSALM THE NINETIETH. 249
7.
Wilt Thou, Jehovah,8 long delay %
Return !9 and bear our ills away !
Repent Thee of severity !
Let rather mercy on us dawn
By Thy return in that bright morn,10
When all thereafter glad shall be !
8.
Let Thy work11 wrought in us appear,
And in our children shine forth clear,12
Who in tears sow to reap13 in light !
Oh, let Thy beauty on us be —
Th' award of Thy last scrutiny —
Because establish'd in Thy might !
6 Ver. 13. The first use of this name in the psalm before us.
9 Ver. 13. mw> here speaks of the restoration of all things, including
" the resurrection of the just," (Luke xiv. 14 ; 1 Cor. xv. 23,) at the return
of God iii mercy to man, according to the promise in Gen. iii. i5.
10 Ver. 14. So Ps. xlix. 14 ; xlvi. 5 ; Exod. xiv. 27 ; Luke xviii. 8 ; Ps.
xvii. 15.
11 Ver. 16. Compare 2 Cor. iv. 16—18, and v. 10 ; also 1 Cor. xv. 54—58,
Isa. xxvi. 12, and 2 Thess. i. LO.
12 Ver. 16. Matt. xiii. 43.
13 Ver. 16. Compare Ps. xcvii. 11.

PSALM XCI.

ARGUMENT.

In regard to the authorship of this psalm, there is a rabbinic
canon referred to by Hilary and Jerome, that a psalm without a
title setting forth the author of it, if preceded by one whose author
is in that way particularised, is to be likewise ascribed to him.
Now the ninetieth psalm hath a title declaring it to be the work
of Moses ; so far then the conclusion that he likewise wrote this
ninety-first is favoured by rabhinic testimony. A careful examina-

250 PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST.
tion of the psalm itself will furnish much internal evidence to sup
port that assumption, as well on account of the affinity of the one
to the other in subject, as also on account of words and phrases
used in the latter peculiar to Moses.
The objects in nature referred to throughout this psalm are such
as might have been met with in "the great howling wilderness,"
or were actually encountered by the Israelites in their wandering
there. The appalling catalogue of the Divine artillery from the fifth to
the end of the seventh verse, only has its realisation in the judg
ments overtaking the Israelites in the wilderness ; as, for instance,
in Numb. xvi. 47, where Aaron may be said to have beheld " thou
sands falling at his left side and ten thousand at his right hand,
without its coming nigh him :" except, indeed, we were to bear in
mind, what God wrought in Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron
for the redemption of Israel out of that house of bondage ; which
is universally acknowledged to have been a type of that to be
accomplished by the promised Saviour of mankind.
Never before, nor since those plagues, has such a manifest
distinction, as is in this psalm intimated, been drawn between
the property and persons of the wicked as contrasted with those
of the righteous. Thus in Exod. ix. 4, it is promised, " The Lord
shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt ;
and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel."
So, too, in chap. x. 23 : " But all the children of Israel had light
in their dwellings." And again in xi. 4 — 7 : " About midnight
will I go out into the midst of Egypt : and all the first-born in the
land of Egypt shall die ; but against any of the children of Israel
shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may
know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyp
tians and Israel." Again, the figurative mention in the fourth verse
of the God of Israel as having wings like a bird, so as to " cover
with His wings, and cherish under His feathers," is the earliest
place in Scripture where direct reference is made to this figurative
description of God, first used by Moses in Deut. xxxii. 11, where
he wrote : — " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on
her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him."
But this emblematic representation of the Lord's care over His
people that trust in Him, does not exactly suit the reference in
verse 4 of the psalm before us. For in that similitude the purpose
of the Lord in thrusting forth His people into temptations for the
sake of training them to endure hardness is set forth by the maternal
eagle's stirring up of her tender brood, and launching them from
the nest, that she may force them to fly ; while she is ready to dart
beneath them if they lose themselves, and to bear them up on her
broad back.
The reference in verse 4 of Ps. xci., is to- the fostering care of a

PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST. 251
hatching bird for her callow young with her feathers and extended
wings, as in Matt, xxiii. 37.
Now Moses records such an interposition of God for shelter of
Israel in Exod. xii. 23, where he wrote, " The Lord will pass
through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood
(of the paschal lamb) upon the lintel and the two side posts,
.the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the de
stroyer to come in to your houses to smite you."
It is by a comparison of Isaiah's language concerning the Lord,
in manifest reference to that deliverance wrought by Him at the
Passover, (chap. xxxi. 5, 6,) as explained by Bishop Lowth, that
the personification of the Lord under the emblem of a maternal
bird interposing for the defence of her young, is to be traced
in Moses' words at Exod. xii. 23 : " As birds flying, (saith
Isaiah,) so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem, defending
also He will deliver it; passing over He will preserve it:"
where the original word for "passing over" directly refers to
the Divine interposition in Israel's behalf at the Passover in
Egypt. Comparing that passage in Isaiah with this of Moses, it ap
pears that the way in which the Lord would "pass over the
door," when "the Lord would pass through to smite the
Egyptians," would be by the Lord (as the maternal bird that
interposes herself between an assailant and her callow young
in the nest) placing Himself between the destroyer, that would
attempt to break into the houses of the Israelites to destroy their
first-born, by occasion of the Lord going through the land of Egypt
to destroy the first-born of the Egyptians.
Sufficient reference to incidents in desert-life and to the wonders
wrought by God and recorded by Moses have now been shewn to
be in this psalm ; so as to support by internal evidence the ancient
rabbinical opinion concerning its authorship.
It is now time to shew that the promised Christ is more
especially spoken of and addressed in this psalm. For the
promises herein recorded are in their whole extent applicable
to Him alone meritoriously, if to His people subordinately, in
Him. The original word in the first verse for "dwelling," denotes
settled continuance by choice ; and of course for life. The
"secret place" of the Most High, was not any chamber in the
tabernacle on earth, but the holy place of the great temple of
the universe ; referred to in various places of Holy Scripture.
(Ps. xxvii. 5 ; lxi. 4.) That temple has for its holiest of all
the highest heaven girt round about, but far beneath, with
innumerable angels and spirits of just men made perfect. (Heb.
xii. 22.) The holy place thereof, being thatcompany of believers
on earth in mortal bodies, who through faith in the promises con
cerning Christ have received of God, in answer to prayer, the new-

252 PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST.
birth, and are spiritual priests ; its court, as of the Israelites, being
comprised in that company on earth visibly enrolled as God'sjcon-
gregation, by the sacramental sign in their flesh ; and its court,
as of the Gentiles, being comprised in that outlying section of the
human family, brought within the sound of revealed truth by the
messengers of the New Covenant.
This " secret place," to be so explained, is in Ps. xxvii. 4 — 6,
that which David, as one born from above, desired always
throughout life to abide in. Of Messiah alone could it be
with truth said that He did so ; and for this worthiness it is
said of Him, in the latter clause of the first verse of this ninety-
first psalm, " He shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
The original word for "abide," means "lodge for the1 night," and
is that iised in Ps. xxv. 13, with reference to the same subject as
here ; namely, that of the body lodging in the grave, during a time
of night, until the resurrection, by re-union of soul and spirit with
the body in " the morning." (Ps. xlix. 14.)
If in this first verse of Ps. xci. Messiah is mainly spoken of, (as I
contend,) then is it here foretokened that He should die. Now if
it be asked what evidence is there that Moses anticipated Christ's
coming and work of redemption, I reply ; See his reference to the
primeval promise concerning the woman's seed, Who should bruise
the serpent's head, in Exod. iv. 13 : which, if allowed to be so in
terpreted, denotes that Moses, at the time of God calling him to
lead forth Israel from Egypt, had in his thoughts the promised re
demption of all mankind from under the dominion of Satan. (Gen.
iii. 15.) Again, look at Moses' entreaty in Exod. xxxiii., that the
Lord would shew him His glory : where it is recorded, that God
placed Moses in the clift of a rock, (ver. 21,) and covered him there
with His hand ; that he might not look upon the face of God, lest
he should die ; but might be allowed to see " the hinder part."
Like as the human nature of the coming Saviour was in the
primeval promise contrasted with the divine that was in Him,
by likening it to His heel, which Satan should bruise ; as con
trasted with the rest of His person, representing the divine;
so (as it seems to me) His human nature is here called " the
hinder part," to distinguish it from the divine in Christ, answering
to His " face." That sight of the human nature of Christ manifest
in the flesh may have revealed to Moses the leading particulars of
His life in the mortal body terminated with His ignominious death
by crucifixion, His resurrection, and subsequent manifestation in
the regeneration on the throne of His glory. (Matt. xix. 28.) Let
it be observed, in corroboration of this view, that when Peter, in
Acts iii. 17 — 23, is convicting his countrymen of sin in the
crucifixion of Christ, aud exhorting them to national repentance,
in hope of the restoration of all things by Messiah's return to bless
them, he enforces his teaching by the testimony of Moses in Deut.
xviii. 15 — 19, concerning the risen Christ. Who then shall say

PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST. 253
there is no evidence of Moses having been shewn beforehand that
Christ should die and rise again ?
Here, now, is my warrant for thinking it not improbable that
Moses should in the first verse of this psalm have spoken about the
Divine pare for Christ's body in the grave, until His resurrection ;
in requital of His undeviating continuance during the days of His
mortal flesh in the "secret-place" of the spiritual tabernacle —
that is, in requital of His perfect righteousness ! (Ps. xv. )
The next verse is to be regarded as an act of worship offered by
Moses to the God-maD, at the moment of describing Him as in the
dissolution of body, soul, and spirit (though within the divine
nature — the secret place) — according to the verse preceding.
Here Moses reverently saith : " I will say to Jehovah," thus
slain, " He is my refuge and my fortress ; my God, in Him
will I trust."
Now in what the next verses speak of " the snare of the fowler,"
and of " the noisome pestilence," (which I take to be the corruption
incident on death,) and of God's " covering " Messiah, while dead,
" with His feathers," and causing Him at that very time to be con
scious of safety under His extended " wings," is (when viewed in
the light of that explanation above given) an easy transition on
the psalmist's part to other particulars of the same mysterious
subject; by comparison of what should be done unto Messiah
in the grave, with what was done by the Lord — the Father —
for the protection of the Israelitish first-born from the malice
of the destroyer ; while the Lord — the Word — the performer
of His Father's counsel, should be going through the land of
Egypt, having in His train the destroyer, to destroy the first
born of Israel's enemies.
In reference hereto David was instructed at a subsequent period
more explicitly to foreshew that Christ's flesh while lodging under
' the shadow of the Almighty " should not see corruption." (Ps. xvi.
10; xlix. 8, 9.) The Father accomplished this for His Son by in
stantaneously, but secretly, upon the Lord Jesus committing li is
Spirit into His hands, rising up to change His soul into a quicken
ing Spirit, and His body into a spiritual instead of a natural one.
(John xix. 34; 1 John v. 6 — 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 44—47.) This was to
" prevent " — or meet Him by anticipation — " with the blessings of
goodness," (Ps. xxi. 3,) while He was " lodging in goodness." (Ps.
xxv. 13.) Now, supposing the psalmist to be here speaking of the
Lamb of God — the Christ — in His separate state, it would make
him employ an abrupt transition, if we were to look on what is
said concerning the Saviour from the third to the eighth verse, as
applied to His personal discharge of the High Priesthood on earth ,
standing like Aaron between the dead and the living for arrest of
the plague.
During His mortal life there was no occasion on which He mani
festly did this ; because He had not then entered on His office of

254 PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST.
High Priest ; being then the Prophet, and at His death the Priest
and the Victim ; but thenceforward the High Priest, when ascend
ing in His glorified spiritual body, with His offering of the blood
and water from His side in His hand, (Heb. viii. 3,) unto the throne
of God, where He now is.
To me, therefore, it is preferable to look on Moses, as (by an easy
transition) following with his mind's eye the God-man, Whom in
His sacrificed state he had hastened to worship, (after the manner of
a devout Israelite, on that night of deliverance from Egyptian bond
age, professing his reliance on the blood sprinkled by God's com
mand upon the door-posts of his house.) This the psalmist did in
the second verse ; and then from the third to the eighth, he pro
ceeds to put on record by the monition of the Spirit of Christ, (for
the comfort of Jesus when in mortal flesh sent on the work of
redemption,) the testimony, " Surely He — the Father — shall deliver
Thee from the snare of the fowler — the devil, and from the noisome
pestilence" — taken by me to mean, the corruption of the flesh in
death : nvin being, as Gesenius says, " destruction which any one
brings upon another." Also in Ps. ciii. 4, bsian implies that
Christ, as the avenger of blood upon the soul's murderer, exacts
satisfaction of Satan.
Why then should we not suppose the psalmist to pass by an easy
transition from contemplation of the Saviour's body, lodging under
the Almighty's shadow during the night of its continuance in the
grave, to what His Spirit should proceed to do? (See 1 Pet. iii.
19, 20.) Why should not we think that Satan, for a merciful pur
pose on God's part, was afforded a space for proving his repentance
at the death of Christ (that he had professedly entered on) by
" sight " of the Saviour's body in the grave of the rich man
according to Scripture, (Isa. liii. 9,) though His Spirit was
" seen " to " proceed " whither presently afterward was carried
down that of the impenitent thief to the spirits in prison ?
(1 Tim. iii. 16; 1 Pet. iii. 19. See also Ps. lxxxvi. 13;
lxxxviii. 6. See also Ps. lvii. 1 — 4.) Assuredly Christ would
then " see " with the eyes of His human spirit " the reward
of the wicked," (ver. 8,) surrounded by the desolating cala
mities of damned spirits; without being touched thereby.
(Luke xvi. 22, 23.)
It does not seem to me incongruous to suppose that the damned
spirits, though imperishable, should suffer torment in varied ways
from prevalent maladies in that separate state, corresponding to the
maladies producing by God's appointment affliction to men's bodies
on earth.
Bishop Horne, in commenting on Ps. ciii., at verse 3, has a similar
idea, saying, " Next to the pardon of sin, considered as a crime, we
are to commemorate the cure of it, considered as a disease ; or,
indeed, a complication of diseases. The body experiences the
melancholy consequences of Adam's offence, but the soul is sub-

PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST. 255
jected to as many. What is pride but lunacy ? what is anger but a
fever ? what is avarice but a dropsy ? what is lust but a leprosy ?
what is sloth, but a dead palsy ? Perhaps there are spiritual mala
dies similar to all corporeal ones." (See 2 Sam. xxiv. 17, and Luke
xiii. 16. See also Ps. Ixxviii. 49, and Wisdom xvii.) Assuredly
Job's "fire unblown," (chap. xx. 26,) and the burning "tongue"
of the rich man's spirit described in Luke xvi. 24, can be best
understood by presuming that there are diseases of the spirit ana
logous to those incident to us in the body.
The mention of the plagues in verse 5, as belonging to dif
ferent times of an earthly day and night, need not hinder this ap
plication of what they describe to spirits in the separate state of
hell ; for the succession of days and nights is similarly spoken of as
experienced by the spirits of the just in Paradise. (Deut. xi. 21 ;
Rev. iv. 8; vii. 15.) This application of the passage only makes
Moses take the condition of the Egyptians under the ten plagues
for a counterpart of that for lost spirits in hell. And indeed by the
language in Ps. Ixxviii. 49, it may be believed that never before
or since was hell, so to speak, let loose upon men as then.
It is further to be observed, that " the reward of the wicked "
cannot be conceived to have been seen by the Saviour elsewhere in
so exemplary a manner ; and certainly was not so seen by Him,
when in His mortal body on the earth.
Nor is it to be thought that exemption of the Lord from harm
by those plagues overtaking thousands on either side of Him de
notes His immunity in the mortal body from sickness or infection ;
since that may be considered to have been rather referred to by the
psalmist in verse 10.
My decided inclination therefore is to look on Christ's descent
into hell as here foretokened ; and that here was the source of those
legends, by which the heathen poets (whose countrymen or fore
fathers had intercourse with those in Israel who possessed these
Sacred Scriptures) feigned the descent of their heroes to the shades
below— as Ulysses by Homer and iEneas by Virgil ; as also in the
Elcusinian mysteries.
It may here be remembered, that Bishop Pearson on the Creed,
p. 412, shews how " the similitude of a sinner," in which our Lord
died, was not removed from off Him before men by the manifest
judgment of the Father in His behalf until His resurrection, on the
third day after death. What then if it pleased the Father to defer
till the same time manifestation of His judgment on Jesus in the
"sight" of angels too, good and bad? Who knows what good
opportunity was mercifully afforded the devil and others, who saw
the Spirit of Jesus, ere His judgment was pronounced by the Father,
if they had indeed repented, (as Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philip
pians, chap, iv., suggests that Satan alleged himself to have done,
when prompting Judas to dissuade the priests from delivery of
Jesus to Pilate, and Pilate's wife to dissuade her husband from

256 PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST.
condemnation of Him at their instance ?) For of angels the
Saviour was only to be "seen." (1 Tim. iii. 16.) God
never employed one of His creatures without giving him his
wages. But like many men professing penitence under terror,
who on recovery of ease repudiate the thought of it, so seems
Satan to have desisted from his compunction at the condem
nation of Christ contrary to the law, when circumstances in
regard to Christ in the separate state appeared to him to have
altered in his favour, owing to the Father's delay in manifestation
of His judgment. But where Satan and other angels with him
profited not by that "sight" of the Saviour's Spirit, "the spirits
in prison," referred to by St. Peter, owing to that very delay, exer
cised faith in Him to the salvation of them : whom He brought
away with Him to Paradise.
" So emptied was that court of hell,
And crush' d thy sting, despair! "—Reber.
Thisninety-first psalm very manifestly divides itself into two parts:
the former ending at verse 8, the latter reaching from verse 9 to
the end. In the former, the psalmist views the Christ (according
to the foregoing explanation) as dead and in hell. In the latter,
the psalmist and the Father (who from verse 14 to the end is the
speaker,) regard Him as living in the mortal body, and eventually
triumphant. Thus at verse 9 the psalmist may he supposed to
address Christ as, in mortal flesh, about to enter on His ministry ;
and to say, " Because Thou, Jehovah, hast made my refuge — the
Most High — Thy habitation, there shall no evil befall Thee, no
plague come nigh Thy dwelling, i.e., Thy tent — the temple of Thy
body ; in other words, Thou shalt have immunity from sickness in
Thy mortal flesh.
So persuaded was Satan of the next verses being intended for
Christ, (and he only learnt this by the voice of Christ in the con
gregation of Israel, Eph. iii. 10,) that he tempted our Saviour to
perform them by throwing Himself from the pinnacle of the temple,
to which he had gained permission to bear Him. (Matt. iv. 6.)
After the thirteenth verse the psalmist apparently was wrapt
into ecstasy, and there the Father within him oracularly said,
" Because He hath set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver
Him ; I will set Him on high, because He hath known My Name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him : I will- be with Him
in trouble ; I will deliver Him, and bring Him to honour. With
long life will I satisfy Him, and shew Him My salvation." With
which last verse compare Ps. xxi. 4, and Isa. liii. 9 — 12. The
two parts of this psalm so explained treat — the one of Christ in the
grave and descending into hell ; the other, of His ministry in the
days of His flesh, in great humility ; issuing in His triumphant
recovery of many sons unto participation in His glory. (Heb,
ii, 10.)

PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST. 257
It seems to me now unquestionable, that this psalm is composed
with reference literally to Messiah ; though, it may be, in parts
applicable spiritually to His mystical body. (Isa. xxvi. 13 — 21 ;
Col. i. 24.) Accordingly, it is a fitting complement in this respect
to the one preceding it ; which proceeded from the pen of Moses.
For in that psalm Moses speaks of the refuge which those who
are born again have abidingly in God ; so as to be inheritors of
His own eternal life and glory. He then speaks of the punishment
to which man is subjected for sin; and laments that man so little
heeds it.
So ends the former part of Ps. xc.
Then in the latter part the psalmist prays, as one born of God,
that he and other children of God may have grace to keep it in
mind. Hereupon he asks of Christ, by the Name of Jehovah,
"how long" it is to be, ere God in His Person, "will return" to
restore all things to Israel that had been pledged to Adam by
the first institution of the Sabbath, and forfeited by Adam's
sin? Surely the subject of this ninety-first psalm is an appropriate sequel
to that of the ninetieth. Here, then, is a further argument in favour
of one author for both. Also as regards use of words and phrases
in Psalm xci. peculiar to Moses, it may.be observed, that the
word in verse 10 for dwelling, or body, briS, is the earliest name
for the tabernacle. Also the "keeping of Thee in all Thy ways,"
(verse 10,) is an expression closely allied to that in Deut. viii. 2 and
4, as contrasted with verse 15. Also the word pt?H, for " set His
love," is one of peculiar force, (ver. 14,) not. elsewhere used in a
psalm ; but occurring in Gen. xxxiv. 8, and in Deut. x. 15, in which
last place it is affirmed of God.
It may then be pretty confidently concluded that Moses wrote this
ninety-first psalm as well as the ninetieth. It is also to be observed,
that whereas Moses in Ps. xc. makes mention of Jehovah the
Messiah as destined to return and restore on His Father's behalf
all things taken away from Adam at the fall, (of which things the
Sabbath was pledge, by the promise of rest with God symbolised
therein,) this circumstance makes the subject of Ps. xcii., which is
entitled, A psalm for the Sabbath day, peculiarly fitted to be a sequel
to the ninetieth and ninety-first, and such an one as Moses might
have provided.
After this, the next eight psalms (to which titles are appended
by the Septuagint doctors in their Greek Version) would be entirely
appropriate. De Burgh observes, that according to Kimchi the older rabbies
thought the ninety-first psalm referred to the deliverance of Israel
out of Egypt, but he and Aben Ezra refer " the salvation " of the
last verse to the days of Messiah — i.e., as we should say, to His
second coming.
In regard to what the ninety-first psalm may "prefigure concerning
s

258 PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST.
Israel's tribulation in the last days, ere the Lord's return to restore
all things to them, that they may labour for rest with God, in the
privileged condition Adam had at first in Paradise, (whereof their
Sabbath was pledge, Ezek. xx. 12,) it is to be remembered that
in Isa. xxvi. 14 — 20, there is an intimation of the remnant of Israel
in that day being required to go down to the grave, as did their
Messiah, in trust that God will call them therefrom, when the
tyranny shall have passed. St. Paul also, in Col. i. 24, speaks of
the remainder of the affliction to be borne by Christ in the persons
of His mystical members, more especially in that last struggle of
Satan for mastery.
Wherefore, on this account, too, the nine following psalms on the
Sabbath, and its accompaniments, must be seen to be closely allied
to the ninetieth and ninety-first psalms.
1.
He that with God in secret1
Abides, while He has breath,
Shall 'neath th' Almighty's shadow
Lodge2 through the night of death.
2.
Tho' gone from 'mongst the living
On earth, of Him I'll say,
He is my God, Jehovah !
In Him I'll trust alway !
3.
Thee surely from the fowler
Shall He, Who watches, keep ;
So shall not death's corruption
Thy flesh taint in its sleep ! 3
4.
His fost'ring wings spread o'er Thee,
Shall breed in Thee firm trust ;
His truth shall be Thy buckler,
And shield 'gainst every thrust.
1 Ver. I. inD3.
2 Ver. 1. pfift.
' Ver. 3. rim -am . Compare Ps. xii. 20, 21. The prayer " Save me from
the i lion s mouth," seems to me to refer to the same subject as here in verse 3,
in the noisome pestilence."

PSALM THE NINETY-FIRST. 259

No wasting in the twilight —
No shaft at break of day —
Nor at high noon nor midnight,
Shall wake in Thee dismay.
6.
Tho' right and left beside Thee
Fall thousands, naught shall hurt ;
Thine eyes shall only see it,
To mark sin's just desert.
7.
Because the Lord, my refuge,
Thou dost Thy dwelling make,
No evil shall befal Thee,
Thy frame* no sickness shake.
8.
Thee He shall charge His angels
To keep5 in all Thy ways ;
O'er stones therein to bear Thee,
Lest Thou a foot should'st graze.
9'.
Thou shalt o'ercome the lion
And on the adder tread —
Yea, tread down the young lion —
And wound the dragon's head !
[Here Moses, wrapt into an ecstacy, yields precedence to the
Divine afflatus within him, while the Father oracularly saith—]
10.
Because His love 's set6 on Me
I'll clear Him from all blame :
* Ver. 10. W«, here used, as it seems to me, in the sense given ff/cqi/ij, in
John i. 14, and ii. 19. InPs. ciii. 14, tne hody is so called.
" Ver. 11. Compare Deut. viii. 2, 4, as contrasted with verse 8.
5 Ver. 14. P*f» a word peculiar to Moses.
S 2

260 PSALM THE NINETY-SECOND.
Yea, I'll exalt Him highly,
' For He. has known My Name !
11.
His call on Me I'll answer,
With Him in straits I'll be !
With length of days I'll fit Him
In My life,7 life to see !
7 Ver. 16. wmi'3. See Isa. liii. 10, in "my salvation.'

PSALM XCII.
TITLE.
A psalm or song for the Sabbath-day.
ARGUMENT.
In this psalm express mention is made of the duty to sing God's
praises daily, morning and evening. How much more, then, on the
day set apart since man's creation for special worship by publicly
joining together for this purpose !
We ought always, as St. Augustine points out, to find themes for
praise of God in His works. Throughout the rest of the psalm it
is intimated, that the ordinary description of men can only see
reason for this exercise, while they are in the enjoyment of all things
needful for the body. Let them but be in straits, and they no longer
are inclined to attend at God's public worship on His day of rest for
praise of Him. (Matt. xiii. 20, 21.) But this public worship of God
is specially fitted for refreshment of those that know God's Name,
in worthy love of Him ; though they be in heaviness through
manifold temptations. By meeting together for the worship of God
they exercise a wholesome influence on each other, (Heb. x. 24, 25,)
so as to quicken each others' recollection of all they owe to God.
His loving-kindness and faithfulness are indeed displayed in the
bounties of nature — the gifts brought by succession of the seasons :
but if by a vicissitude, so likely to happen in this life, it becomes the
lot of some to lose these outward comforts, we are not without other
and more important obligations on us to stir up one another unto
praise of God in public worship. For His loving-kindness and
faithfulness are far more exhibited in what He hath done through
Christ for our souls ; which He never takes away from those that

PSALM THE NINETY-SECOND. 261
seek Him. Here more especially is it to be understood, "the Lord
hath so done His marvellous works that they ought to be had in
remembrance." The man that knoweth not this, saith the Psalmist
at ver. 6, is " brutish : " he who retains not the remembrance of this
is " a fool " — or unreflecting despifier of the choicest blessings
brought within his reach. The public worship of God on the
Sabbath-day is a Divine ordinance with which man cannot afford to
dispense : if he doth so, he forthwith declines in gratitude toward
God, not only for spiritual but for bodily mercies.
Eenewal is to be only gained of God by waiting on Him in the
way of His ordinances. But the psalmist intimates at ver. 7, that the
brutish man and the fool are often emboldened in neglect of God's
service on the Sabbath, because they spring as the grass, though
wicked ; and flourish, though they be workers of iniquity. But they
suddenly come to an end at the heighth of their prosperity ; and
meanwhile the worship of God, which they slighted, is at sight
of their desolation maintained on the Sabbath-day with redoubled
reverence by the consistent worshippers : and even the general public
are for a time altered in their minds for the better upon this subject.
Regular attendance on the public worship of God on the Sabbath-
day is particularly needed for refreshment of those, who in lack of
worldly prosperity desire to thank God for His loving-kindness and
faithfulness in regard to their souls' health in Christ. They ought
to render this service gladly, for God loveth a cheerful giver.
But when faithful souls are in adversity, and at the same time see
the ungodly not only in prosperity, but unfriendly to them, they are
apt to stumble at this hardship, and to think God does not answer
their prayer : until they come into the house of prayer on the
Sabbath-day, when their worldly business allows them the oppor
tunity of so coming, to hear God's word expounded. There they
learn, that God proveth His people by adversity ; to see whether they
will or will not put faith in His promises. There they perceive that
those, who make prosperity in worldly affairs an excuse for living
without observance of the Sabbath and public worship of God, are
simply overset by that temptation, and are in reality ripening for the
scythe. (Ps. xxxvii. 2.) The godly worshippers are by this reflection
admonished to cleave steadfastly unto God : so that they exclaim, If
it is good for me to give thanks unto the Lord in my prosperous
days, much more does it befit me to do this in my sorrowing ones ;
for in these I more clearly see by my constancy that I am walking
with God by faith and not by sight. (Phil. i. 28; 1 Pet. ii-. 19, 20,
and vi. 14.)
Thus it comes to pass, that they can, without any imputation of
pride, make their own those words of the psalmist in ver. 10, "My
horn shalt Thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn. I shall be anointed
with fresh oil ; " that is, they shall know that they receive further
unction from the Holy One, whereby to be " rooted and grounded in
love ; so as to be the better able to comprehend with all saints what

262 PSALM THE NINETY-SECOND.
or how infinitely great is its breadth, and length, and depth, and
heighth ; as also to know the love of Christ, how it too passeth know
ledge ! " (Eph. iii. 17 — 19.) And as regards the trouble bred them by
their ungodly opponents, they can, after the manner of the psalmist
in ver. 11 say, with confidence in God, for all these people's boasting,
"Mine eye shall look on the downfall of mine enemies; mine ear
shall hear tidings of the destruction of the wicked, that rise up
against me."
This patient believer's growth in stature as a member of Christ is
in ver. 12 — 15 compared by the psalmist to that of the palm-tree
for upright progress in usefulness ; and to that of the cedar for
strength and durableness and fragrance : but yet is confessed to
exceed the nature of a tree in respect of bearing more fruit and of
better quality in age — a conclusive token of that loving-kindness and
faithfulness in Jehovah, which he set out with praising ! (Ver. 2.)
1.
Good it is to thank Jehovah,
Good to praise Thee, 0 Most High !
When the day breaks — when it's over —
Telling how I find Thee nigh.

While I touch the trembling harp-strings,
Or breathe softly through the lute,
Worship due to Thee my heart brings —
Thine own Spirit's inwrought fruit.
3.
How surpassing, O Jehovah,
Are Thy works — Thy thoughts how deep !
This the brutish don't discover,
Nor the fools in memory keep.

When, as grass, the careless liver
Springs and prospers, lo ! he's nigh
Swift destruction : but for ever
Thou, Jehovah, arfr most high !

PSALM THE NINETY-THIRD. 263

O Jehovah, they that hate Thee —
They that hate Thee — slain shall be !
But afresh Thou'lt renovate me
With Thine unction inwardly.

While I see my foe's requital —
Hear my persecutor's doom —
I'll the palm in straitness rival,
And the cedar in perfume.

They that in Thy house, Jehovah,
Secretly, as plants, take root,
With our God's good help shall over
pass men's utmost thought in fruit-
8.
Pass it— as They pass in nature
Trees, by best fruit in old age ;
Proving what our kind Creator
Wills should be man's heritage.

PSALM XCIII.

ARGUMENT.
To us Christians there is a contrast in mention of Jehovah's
clothing Himself with majesty, which that revelation had not for
the Septuagint doctors, who gave this psalm the title of "A
psalm for the day before the Sabbath."
To us has been revealed Jehovah as man clothed with humility.
But at the time spoken of in this psalm, He will clothe Himself

264 PSALM THE NINETY-THIRD.
with majesty ! He will come to rescue the social fabric from
dissolution by reasserting the fundamental principles of order.
(Mai. v. 5, 6.) "
And after He shall have subjected under Him all opposition on
the part of rebellious nations, (Ps. xviii. 40; xxi. 8 — 13,) He
will in the regeneration (Matt. xix. 28) sit on the throne of
His glory amidst, His people Israel, then made righteous. (Isa.
lx. 21.) 1.
Not now, as once, a Man without attendant —
Way-worn and needy ; but in light transcendent —
Girded with strength, with majesty and splendour —
Jehovah comes ! earth's sole1 King and Defender.

Earth civilis'd2 in throes of dissolution
Is stablish'd, past all danger of confusion :
Thy throne, Jehovah, Thou from then3 receiving —
Thyself with God4 before all ages living!
. 3.
Kais'd have the rivers6 all the wide world over,
Bais'd have the rivers loud roars, O Jehovah !
Raise will the rivers surges, over-rolling
Their banks, revolted from the hand controlling."
4.
Anon their waters mingling, seem for ever
A mighty sea — a power for none to sever :
1 Ver. 1. See Ps. xlvii. 7.
2 Ver. 1. tan , The area of the four empires seen in Nebuchadnezzar's
vision. (Dan. ii. 31 — 44. See note to Ps. xxiv. 1.)
s Ver. 2. wp, "from then." (See Dan. ii. 44.)
4 Ver. 2. Prov. viii. 22 ; Ps. xxvi. 1 ; ex. 1 ; John i. 2.
5 Ver. 3. rfvn, "rivers," by which are symbolised nations. So Ho'r.,
Lib. Odes, ii. 21. ' " Medumque flumen gentibus additum
Victis, minores volvere vertices."
See Isa. viii, 7, 8, and xviii. 2.
0 Ver. 4. See Ps. xcv. 4. Compare herewith Ps. ii, ; Matt. xxiv. 7 ; Rev.
xi. 15—18.

PSALM THE NINETY-FOURTH. 265
Vain power — full soon to be asunder7 driven !
Jehovah too is mighty, from high heaven !

Lo ! of Messiah, conquering or smitten,
Now is accomplish'd all in Scripture written,8
Through time's extent9 to holiness, Jehovah,
Thy house — Thine Israel — dost Thou now recover.
7 Ver. 4. Hab. iii. 6, " He drove asunder the nations :" i.e., the Lord
will separate the nations again into distinct churches, according to their.
families ; for " a first-born " implies other sons. (Jer. ii. 14 ; Hos. xi. 1.)
8 Ver. 5. fni? , "Thy testimonies ;" prophecies concerning Christ are so
called in 2 Thess. i. 10.
» Ver, 5, D'p; "nto, " for extent of days,"

PSALM XCIV.

ARGUMENT.
The title given to this psalm by the Septuagint doctors was " for
the fourth day before the Sabbath," or rest promised to Israel
under Messiah. Its verses shew that His Israel shall about that
time be subjected to unprecedented sorrows ; (Jer. xxx. 5 — 7 ;
Matt. xxiv. 21 — 32,) but they, instead of rebelling against the
constituted authorities, by way of taking into their own hands the
remedying of their wrongs, will continue crying unto the Lord,
until He send Messiah the second time to redeem them fully and
finally. (See Luke ii. 74; xviii. 1 — 8; Isa. xxvi. 16.)
The verses after verse 8 contain arguments to strengthen the
suffering people of God in patient waiting on Him to deliver
them. (James v. 7.)
These arguments are : — Firstly, that God must be acknowledged
able to see men's doings, (howsoever inexplicably He allows them
to prosper,) when He Himself gave men their power to see : as
also, to know their thoughts ; since He finds ways of instilling into
them knowledge. (Ver. 9.)
Secondly, that if He can consistently with equity justly punish
the heathen ; much more, backsliders among His covenant people.
(Ver. 10.)

266 PSALM THE NINETY-FOURTH.
Thirdly, that the adversity permitted by the Lord to overtake
His faithful people is in reality a needful correction of errors, that
would otherwise unfit them for His rest in heaven ; so that it is a
blessing in disguise. (Ver. 13.)
Fourthly, that He will never cast off His people ; but on the
contrary support them, until in the final day of reckoning He vin
dicate His righteousness in which they trusted for justification.
(Ver. 15.)
After this enumeration of divinely revealed reasons for God's
children being patient in waiting on Him, (which makes this psalm
of peculiar value' to those who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake by the government under which they live,) the voice of
Christ by the psalmist's mouth or pen asks, Who upon these con
ditions will, in the strength of God's grace, rise up for Me against
the evil-doers? (Ver. 16.) And He Himself, as I take it, by the
psalmist's mouth replies : " Unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul had almost dwelt in silence." (Ver. 17.) Words which,
with reference to Himself, were fulfilled in what is written in Luke
xxii. 43, compared with Heb. v. 7, 8, and Ps. ex. 7.
The expression in verse 21, of " the innocent blood," seems to
justify this primary application of the verses from 16 to 23 to
Christ in the days of His humiliation. (See Matt, xxvii. 4.) But,
inasmuch as Christ's soul, when changed into a quickening spirit,
(1 Cor. xv. 45,) should be an DK?W, or trespass-offering for sin,
(Isa. liii. 10,) His people, who feed upon His body and blood,
become incorporated with Him therein : whence, as I think, it is
in this seventeenth verse by anticipation foretokened of them too,
that after the manner of their blessed Master, they in the day of
Antichrist shall, through the length of the persecution endured as
prescribed in this psalm, be all but reduced to silence ; in the
sense in which David was in Psalm xxx. 12, and Elijah, as
seen in Rom. xi. 8, which was a sullenness ; or else literally,
after their Master's example, into the silence of the grave; to
which certain mysterious language in Isa. xxvi. 12 — 20, seems
rather to point, with which compare Col. i. 24. The " throne of
iniquity," in verse 20, is that of the chief priests in our Lord's
time; and of Antichrist in that forthcoming — a throne antago
nistic to the Lord's in Ps. ix. 7, and ciii. 19.

God, Who alone just vengeance dost dispense —
Just vengeance dost dispense — O shine Thou forth,
Jehovah ! to the proud a recompence
O render, -Thou that judgest all the earth !

PSALM THE NINETY-FOURTH. 267

How long, Jehovah, shall the wicked vaunt —
The wicked vaunt — their triumphs over Thee %
How long shall they Thy suff'ring servants daunt
With fierce and unrelenting cruelty X

The widow and the stranger, lo ! they slay,
And fatherless a bloody death award ;
Yet, that Jehovah shall not heed, say they —
The God of Jacob pay it no regard.

Ye brutish people ! be this to you clear ;
Ye fools, take heed ! in this at least be wise ;
Himself can hear, Who made in us the ear —
And He can see, Who form'd in us our eyes !
5.
If He the heathen justly can chastise,
His cov'nant people, that transgress, He'll strike.
Shall He to teach man knowledge ways devise,
And not Himself be held to have the like ?
6.
The thoughts of man to be but vanity
Jehovah knows ; a blessing in disguise
It is, for Thee, O Jah, to edify
Out of Thy law, him whom Thou dost chastise ;
7.
That Thou from days of sore calamity
May give him rest ; where never can appear
Or moth or rust, or thief's rapacity,
Till for the wicked Thou the pit prepare.

268 PSALM THE NINETY-FOURTH. 8.
For never will Jehovah from Him cast
His people — never His inheritance
Forsake — but they shall all delays outlast,
Till He to righteousness grant maintenance.
[Here Christ Himself by the mouth of the psalmist saith to
His Father :]

Who then for Me 'gainst sinners will contend ?
Or 'gainst wrong-doers openly protest ]
Unless Jehovah did My cause defend,
My soul to silence had sunk down oppress'd !
10.
But when, " alas ! My footsteps slip ! " I said,
Thy mercy, O Jehovah, Me sustain'd ;
While with conflicting thoughts disquieted,
My soul refreshment thro' Thy comfort gain'd !
11.
That judgment-seat, by law which mischief frames,
Shall surely not have fellowship with Thee ;
Which of Thy righteous One the soul condemns,
And spills th' innocent blood by its decree !
12. '
The while Jehovah 's a defence to Me —
My God a refuge, which no pow'r can shake — ¦
Our God, Jehovah, their iniquity
Occasion of their overthrow will make.

PSALM THE NINETY-FIFTH. 269
PSALM XCV.

ARGUMENT.
This psalm in its first two verses calls worshippers to praise i of
Jehovah, as being a distinct, and by no means subordinate, part of
His public worship. From the third to the fifth verse, it supplies
worshippers with themes for meditation to that end : insisting on
the fact of Jehovah being He Who alone created all things. (Isa.
xliii. 10 — 13 ; xliv. 24 ; Jer. x. 11 ; Rev. xiv. 7.) At verse 6 the
psalmist passes from consideration of praise to prayer : first calling for
observance of that part of worship in this respect, which is to be
only rendered with the body; namely* in bowing down and kneeling:
agreeably with the example of all holy men of old, and of the Lord
Jesus Himself. (Exod. xx. 5 ; Dan. vi. 10.) But at verse 7 the
psalmist implies that this worship of God with the body should
proceed as it were out of the worshipper's heart, at the thought how
God hath brought us into covenant with Him; giving us His
Scripture for living pasture, and His Spirit for our Teacher:
. agreeably with Isa. lvii. 19, and 1 Cor. vi. 20.
So far the psalm is addressed to those worshippers who are
fitted to praise and pray by the very strength of God Himself in
Christ imparted unto them. But from the last clause of the seventh
verse to the end, the psalmist remonstrates with backsliding
members of God's covenant people ; entreating them not to behave
in this solemn service after the manner of the Israelites in the
wilderness ; who upon subjection to any strait, such as want of
water, (Exod. xvii.,) behaved as though they had no tokens of
God's presence among them, when the manna was miraculously
supplied daily ! A comparison of Exod. xvii. with Numb. xx. shews
that God bare with them, thus proving Him, during forty years ; and
consequently that when He sware " if they should enter My rest,"
it is plain the exclusion of that generation which came out of Egypt
from rest in Canaan, (which they provoked by a single act, Numb.
xiv. 26 — 33,) was not what is here meant by exclusion from " God's
rest:") but it is clearly exclusion from that proposed to our first
parents in Paradise, (Gen. ii. 2 :) as is explained by St. Paul in
Heb. iv. 1 — 10, where the Apostle saith, that " whoso is entered
into that rest, has ceased from his labours, as God did from His."
Now we know that the children of those who came out of Egypt
were required, when in the Lord's inheritance, to prove by works
the sincerity of their faith, (for faith without works is dead,) and
" the word preached did not profit them, if not mixed with faith,
in them that heard it." Even so, too, the chosen generation of Israel,
which is yet to enter the Lord's land in the regeneration, will for the
same reason not have entered into God's rest, " because not having
then ceased from their works."

270 PSALM THE NINETY-FIFTH.
This psalm, therefore, as St. Paul teaches, bids us fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into God's rest, any of us should
seem to come short of it by neglect of public worship, or lack of
reverence when there ; for praise and prayer are fruits of love ! Thus
this psalm supplies a compendium of the most moving arguments
for regular and reverential observance in public of Divine worship :
and as suoh, has probably the place assigned to it in our Church's
Morning Order of Common Prayer. .
The phrase " ceasing from our works in God's rest " implies, not
that we shall have no employment, (for His servants shall serve
Him, Rev. xxii. 3,) but that our state of probation shall have come
to an end ; we shall no more, as now, be the richer toward God or
the poorer for what we may do. (Luke xii. 21.)

1.
0 come, and to Jehovah let us sing !
The Kock of our salvation let us praise !
Into His presence our thank-offerings bring !
Our joyful hearts in psalms unto Him raise !
2.
Great is Jehovah ! God of gods is He !
Strong as the hills — earth spans He with His hand !
Yea, He alone at outset made the sea,
And from its waters drew forth the dry land.
3.
O come, in worship let us bow the knee
Unto Jehovah, Who our Maker is !
Our cov'nant-keeping God, Whose sheep are we,
Whose pastures sate our soul's necessities !
4.
You, whom these pleas avail not to persuade,
Oh, that His warning might constrain thro' fear !
For, lo ! His voice orac'lar in me said,
To day, lest your own hearts ye harden, hear !

psalm the NInety-sixth. 271
5.
E'en as while journeying in the wilderness
Your fathers, by the cloudy pillar led,
At Massah and at Meribah through stress
Of thirst ask'd, Can the Lord be at our head %
6.
For forty years in this unthankful strain,
Impatient of My ways, at heart they err'd,
Until, that they should ne'er My rest attain,
I, in My wrath, by sacred oath averr'd.

PSALM XCVI.

ARGUMENT.
In the Hebrew this psalm has no title ; but in the Greek Version
of the Septuagint doctors there is prefixed the following one :—
" When the house has been built, after the captivity."
A psalm of David.
It hence appears that the Septuagint doctors living in Egypt
270 b.c. reckoned their nation to be then suffering captivity,
although the temple built in Haggai's day was standing, and God
was by their nation worshipped therein, only not in complete
independence. It is to be presumed, therefore, that these doctors looked for the
final deliverance of their nation at Messiah's coming, when the
temple predicted in Ezek. xl. — xlviii. should be built. Those doctors
ascribe this psalm to David, but in 1 Chron. xvi. 7, it is found
combined with the first fifteen verses of Psalm cv. and the first
and last of Ps. evi.
To account for this, we may suppose David to have given this
psalm to Asaph and his company to use on the occasion there men
tioned. But that at the consecration of the second temple, Asaph's
descendents, who alone of the three choirs returned from captivity,
added, as David there empowered them to do, the further psalms
now found joined; which by Ezra were inserted in the text of
1 Chron. xvi. 7. When we bear in mind how the Septuagint doctors

272 PSALM THE NINETY-SIXTH.
looked on the ninety-second, ninety-third, ninety-fourth, and ninety-
fifth as fitted to be used in commemoration of the Sabbatical
rest promised to a chosen generation of Israel in their own land
under Messiah, (Ps. xxxii. 12 ; Ixxviii. 4 — 6,) we judge them to
have been only following up that expectation, when prefixing to
this ninety-sixth the above-mentioned title.
As the Mosaic covenant was addressed to Israelites alone, the
inspired writer of this psalm shewed himself influenced by the
love characterising the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, when exulting at
the admission of all nations to the knowledge of God's truth.
This was indeed " a new song" to an Israelite. (Habak. ii. 14;
Jer. xxxi. 34.)
Although this part of the psalm might suit our age in the kingdom
of heaven, yet what is said in the tenth verse about the civilised
world being " established, that it shall not be moved " does not ; but
only the age to come. (Heb. xii. 28. See too Ps. xciii. 1.) Here
upon arises good reason for discerning a special significance in the
mention of " Gentiles " and " peoples " at verse 3 — the latter being
those converted to Christ during the present age ; the former those
left by the Church of this age, to be recovered from their heathen
ism by the Deliverer coming forth out of Zion in the age to come.
(Rom. xi. 26.) Also the joy ascribed to the inanimate parts of
creation in ver. 11 — 13, shews the millennial age to be spoken of.
(See Isa. xxxv. and xi. 6 — 16.) This psalm is remarkable for calling
Israel to do the Lord's work among the nations, without seeking
self-exaltation thereby nationally or individually.
The glory of the Lord is here held up as the highest object to be
aimed at : even as the first Commandment, the Lord's Prayer, and
our Lord's intercessory prayer (John xvii. 4 — 26) hold up the same.
Although therefore this psalm refers not to our age, it teaches us
(by what shall be the hearty service of Israelites in the age to come)
how we, who now know the Lord, ought to serve Him in the
preaching of the Gospel during the present age !

Unto Jehovah sing
A new song ! all the earth
Unto Jehovah bring
Your carol ! with true mirth
Unto Jehovah1 sing ! bless ye His Name !
And His salvation day by day proclaim.
1 Ver. 2. The repetition of Jehovah's name thrice assuredly was siguifi-
cant here of the mystery of the Trinity in the Divine Unity : as previously in
Ps. vi. 8, 9, and xii. 1 — 3, agreeably with the appointed form of blessing
in Numb vi, 22—27.

PSALM THE NINETY-SIXTH. 273
2.
Among the heathen tell
His glory ! yea, among
Th' enlighten'd peoples2 dwell
Upon His wondrous song.
Great is Jehovah ! most to be rever'd !
Above all gods He 's to be greatly fear'd.
3.
Vain things all idols3 are
Of peoples Christianis'd.
The whole celestial sphere
Jehovah's skill devis'd.
Honour and majesty are 'fore His face —
Beauty and strength within His holy place.

Unto Jehovah pray,
Ye kindred families !
Unto Jehovah say,
Glory and strength are His :
Unto Jehovah give the glory due,
And in His courts your offerings renew.

In beauteous holiness
Unto Jehovah bend
Your knees ! before His face
Do homage, every land !
Among the heathen sing this strain-
Jehovah doth unrivall'd reign !
2 Ver. 3. The distinction between afa and a'nsn shews which of them have
the idols stigmatised in verse 5, with which compare Isa. xii.
3 Ver. 5. b¥m> " nothings." See 1 Cor. viii. 4 ; 1 Sam. xii. 21. As to God's
worship, see Jer.'x. 10—13 ; Eev. xiv. 7.
T

274 PSALM THE NINETY-SEVENTH. 6.
And this world civilis'd4
Shall be established —
The peoples Christianis'd
Shall righteously be led :
Ye heav'ns, be glad ! thou earth, rejoice !
And, ocean, add thy clam'rous voice !
7.
Thou field and all in thee,
Be joyful ! all ye trees,
Shew 'fore Jehovah glee,
Who comes His last decrees
To deal ! earth civilis'd He'll bless —
Lands Christianis'd— with righteousness !
4 Ver. 10. On the meaning of bri, see notes to Ps. xxiv. 2, and xciii. 1.

PSALM XCVII.

ARGUMENT.
This psalm bears no title in the Hebrew : but by the Septuagint
doctors is entitled, " For David, or (belonging) to David, when his
land hath been established." If the learned will admit what has
been advanced in these pages in explanation of the use of David's
name in the eighty-ninth psalm, it will remain to be concluded that
the Septuagint doctors used the name David in this title, as a name
of Messiah.
Under any circumstances, this title proves the Septuagint doctors
to have anxiously looked for the advent of Christ. Nor is this to
be wondered at, when we consider how the predictions in Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, concerning the happy state of Israel under
the triumphant Messiah, drew them off from due regard to those
concerning the suffering One.
We who live after the first advent of Christ, in great humility,
can perceive their error in this respect; but may ourselves be

PSALM THE NINETY-SEVENTH. 275
inadvertently sliding into a like one with less excuse for it, by
not heeding the predictions concerning punishment to be inflicted
on nations distinguished from the " heathen " by the name of
" peoples " for their idolatry, at the time of the Lord's return in
glory to restore all things to Israel. (Acts iji. 21.)
The psalm opens with announcement of the Lord's actual entrance
on His reign with these words : " The Lord reigneth ; let the earth
rejoice ; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof." All places
separated from Judaea by sea were by the Jews included under the
name of " the isles ; " more particularly the maritime parts bor
dering on the Mediterranean. In the next verse saith the psalmist,
" Clouds and darkness are round about Him : righteousness and
judgment are the establishment of His throne." We learn from
other places in the Old Testament, particularly from Dan. vii. 13,
and 1 Thess. iv. 17, that He will at this time have His throne in
the upper air, over this earth, whither His saints, that shall have
died before His coming, and those then alive on the earth, shall
have been caught up at the first resurrection to meet Him in the air.
Bearing in mind that there really is this throne to be set for Him at
that time in the upper air, whence the lightnings spoken of in the
fourth verse maybe supposed to proceed, we m.ay adopt Augustine's
explanation of what is meant by " clouds and darkness " being
" round about Him," and "judgment and righteousness the estab
lishment of His throne." " Clouds and darkness," says Augustine,
are for the wicked, who don't understand Him ; " righteousness and
judgment" for the faithful, who trust in Him. Augustine then
quotes in explanation hereof our Lord's words recorded in John ix.
39 : " For judgment am I come into this world, that they which
see not may see ; and that they which see be made blind." What
else means this latter, but that they which seem to themselves to
see, — they which think themselves wise, and not in need of His
indispensable medicine — should become blind — should not under
stand ; while that those which see not should see, means that
they which confess their blindness become fitted to be illuminated.
Let then clouds and darkness be for them that have not known
Him ; but justice and judgment the stablishing of His throne for
them that confess and humble themselves — His throne being here
within them that believe in Him. These last words shew that
Augustine was applying this psalm to our Lord's coming in the
persons of His Apostles during this present age, as in Ephes. ii.
17 : but it seems to me to throw light on the condition of men in
countries enlightened with the Gospel, or bearing the name of
Christian, at the time for His coming again in great glory ; when
there may be in a literal sense also clouds and darkness round
about Him, as of old on Sinai.
From the third to the sixth verse we read, " A fire goeth before
Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings
enlightened the world— (that is, the civilised world — the area of the
I 2

276 PSALM THE NINETY-SEVENTH.
four empires seen in Daniel's vision) — the earth saw, and
trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth." This fire first
spoken of may be that of anxiety, owing to great troubles and
distresses. In this sense our Lord said in Luke xii. 49, as
Augustine observes, " I am come to send fire on the earth, and
what will I, if it be already kindled ? " Hence He said in the same
strain, when going to His crucifixion, " Daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
For if they do these things unto Me — a green tree — what shall be
done unto the dry ? " — that is, if the fire by which I am now burnt
be applied to them — that of human wrath left by God's permission
to rage uncontrolled — how will they, that have no life in Me,
outlast it ?
Hence we would take that third verse to mean, that those who
about the time of the Lord's return in glory shall have pressed sore
upon Him in the persons of His mystical members, shall by
deluding spirits be turned, through the retributive justice of God,
against one another ; as were the Midianites in the days of Gideon.
What is written in Ps. xxi. 8 — 13, agrees herewith. (See also
Ps. Ixviii. 30.)
Nevertheless, as Ps. 1. 3, speaks of fire as an instrument of God's
vengeance at the Lord's second coming, that literal meaning of the
fire and lightnings is undoubtedly to be retained here. For these
latter are to be regarded as the special symbols of the Almighty's
power, now investing Him Who aforetime came in great humility.
(See 1 Sam. xii. 17, and 2 Thess. i. 8.) The b3£l is the scene of
their play, while the rest of the earth is panic-stricken thereat.
By " the hills " in verse 5, are prophetically meant " kingdoms."
(See Micah vi. 2.)
In verse 6, by " the heavens declaring His righteousness " is
meant, the Jerusalem that is above, on the sign of the Son of Man
being seen in heaven, testifying " Jehovah is our Righteousness,"
to the confusion of the false prophet and his multitude in the
valley of Jehoshaphat. (Joel iii. 12; Rev. xix. 11 — 21; Matt.
xxiv. 30.) The mention in the seventh and eighth verses of the
confusion thereupon ensuing to those that serve graven images
and boast themselves of idols, or vanities, significantly points to
those portions of Christendom under the name of " the isles,"
(compare verse 1 with Isa. xii. 1,) which at this day join obstinate
persistence in use of idols with justification of themselves by their
own merit, instead of taking the Lord alone for their righteousness.
(Isa. xiv. 22 — 25.) For by Isa. xii. we gather that for all their
troubles, those Christian nations will only be more obstinately bent
on worship of idols, as the time of the Lord's return draws near.
For there will be gross darkness in regard to Christ's true way of
peace then prevalent in Christendom. (Isa. lx. I.) But what is
said in verse 8 of the gladness with which Zion and the daughters

PSALM THE NINETY-SEVENTH. 277
of Judah will hear of this judgment on the worshippers of idols,
(while following their false prophet into the valley of Jehoshapbat
and afterwards,) proves that they will, at that time, have been
recalled to favour, and be true believers in Jesus. (Zech. xii. 7.)
The last three verses seem specially intended for encouragement
of that faithful band of the Lord's ancient people, who shall go
forth out of Zion, (Rom. xi. 26,) about the time spoken of in this
psalm, and after the first resurrection, (compare Zech. xiv. 5, with
Jer. xxx. and Matt. xix. 30,) " to turn away ungodliness from
Jacob." For the counsel in these closing verses is peculiarly suited to
servants of God suffering great adversity for a time without re
dress. They are as follows in the last verse, "Kejoice in the
Lord, ye righteous," that is, ye who take Jehovah for your
righteousness, in contradistinction to those who profess zeal for
good works by their own virtue ; (compare Jer. xxiii. 6 ; Philip.
iii. 1 — 3,) make your love of the Lord and hatred of evil your
proof of having effectually employed acceptance with God through
faith in Christ, in praying for a measure of His Spirit unto your
daily renewal, wherewith to bear good fruit — the fruit of patience
until the pit be digged for the ungodly — xciv. 13. For His
holiness which you love is the pledge of your deliverance from
His enemies.

Jehovah reigns ! let gladness fill
The earth ! ye many isles thereat
Eejoice ! dark clouds His face conceal !
Judgment and righteousness His seat
Establish ! from before Him blaze
Lightnings, consuming with sheer heat
His enemies, and filling by their rays —
The world that 's civilised with sore amaze,

The earth beyond too saw it and stood aw'd.
At presence of Jehovah melted were
The hills — at presence of the Lord
Of the whole earth ! the heav'ns o'erhead declare
His righteousness ! the peoples, who His word
Corrupted, see His glory ! Be all they

278 PSALM THE NINETY-SEVENTH.
Confounded, that dumb idols have preferr'd,
. O all ye gods,1 to worship Him be stirr'd !

Thy judgments, O Jehovah, Zion heard^
And welcom'd— Judah's daughters were o'erjoy'd
For Thou, Jehovah, o'er all earth art Lord,
And over all the gods art magnified.
O ye that love Jehovah evil hate !
Who safety doth for His saints' souls provide,
And those from wicked hands doth extricate,
Who in firm faith upon Him closely wait !

In mercy for the righteous light is sown,2
And joy for them that are of upright heart;
That those who on their duty forth have gone
In tears, should finally reap their desert.
O meek ones, on Jehovah who lay stress
For gift of righteousness, do ye exert
Your souls in steadfast service, and express
Thanks at remembrance of His holiness.

1 Ver. 7. Dr. Thrupp observes, it is usually assumed that the words in
Heb. i. 6, "Let all the angels of God worship Him," are taken from the Greek
version of the seventh verse of the psalm before us, though it appears here
that idols, poetically endued with life, or devils under the form of idols, are
here spoken of, (see 1 Cor. x. 20;) but in Deut. xxxii. 43, is a passage closely
agreeing with St. Paul's quotation, where we find the words, " And let all the
angels of God worship Him," and presently after, " Let all the sons of God
strengthen themselves in Him ; " shewing its harmony with St. Paul's
argument in Heb. i. 6. As to the designation of creatures as gods, see
Ps. lxxxii. 6.
» Ver. 11, Compare Ps. cxxvi. 5.

PSALM THE NINETY-EIGHTH. 279
PSALM XCVIII.
ARGUMENT.
In the Hebrew text the title of 3B3VP.> " a psalm," is emphatically
prefixed hereto. It purports to fie composed for special use at the
time of the Lord's establishment on the throne of His glory in His
own land.
Since by Deut. xxxi. 15 — 22, we learn that God commanded
' Moses to write a song for the use of the children of Israel through
out their generations, it seems to me probable that the " new song "
spoken of in this psalm will be one similarly appointed to be sung
for a similarly salutary influence on the Israelites during the Millen
nium. The purport of that new song will, as it seems to me, be a
recital of what God shall have in that day by Messiah specially
done for Israel : thus making it a sort of complement of the song
of Moses, in the spirit of the prediction by Jeremiah in xxiii. 7, 8.
In Isa. li. 9- — 16 is an appeal to the arm of the Lord for perform
ance of these "marvellous things" in Israel's behalf, at the time
of His triumphant advent. Also in Rev. xv. 3, 4, is mention of
the song to be sung in that day— the day described more at length
in Rev. xix. 11 — 21, in conjunction with the song of Moses.
The " righteousness of God," spoken of in the second verse,
is no other than that in Micah vi. 5, compared with Rom. iii. 25;
2 Cor. v. 21.
Under the Mosaic covenant, the acceptableness of Israel with
God in their national capacity was made to depend exclusively on
their high priest's ceremonial performance of his humiliation in
the temple of God on the annual Day of Atonement. Till this
was performed, the whole congregation, priests and laymen, stood
without the precincts of the temple. The high priest went into
the holy of holies on that day with the blood of the burnt offering,
and after due performance of the humiliation before God fdr his
own sins and those of the people, came forth in token of his success
and obtainment of the reprieve for another year, TPTpVTi "O^?, "in
the sight of the people," to bless them, and sprinkle the represen
tatives of the people with the same blood wherewith he himself and
the altar and the ark had been sprinkled. This done, the priests
might resume their office in the holy place, and the worshippers
bring their sacrifices. (Heb. x.)
Now, although the Lord Jesus — the true High Priest — after
sacrifice of Himself at His crucifixion was brought again from the
grave, and after the fortieth day ascended as High Priest with His
own blood for His offering into the Holy of Holies above, and hath
been proved righteous ; yet He hath not come forth in token hereof

280 PSALM THE NINETY-EIGHTH.
to bless His nation, D^rr '^S1?. Instead of this the Comforter
has been sent, as predicted by Him in John xvi. 10, to convince His
people of His righteousness. But though this testimony concern
ing Jesus was preached to His own people first, (Acts iii. 26,) with
the power of the Holy Ghost, they as a nation refused credence to
it, and provoked the Father to divorce them nationally for a pre
determined period. (1 Thess. ii. 14 — 16.)
But in the second verse of the psalm before us, it is intimated
that Jehovah will have openly shewed His righteousness, . "SH??
D^ian, " in the sight of the heathen," which I take to mean that
the return of Jesus in person to Israel to bless them, as their High
Priest, will be such a proof of His being " The Lord our Righte
ousness," that even the very heathen will so understand it without
the help of the Comforter to illuminate them, as is now needed by
every one for that purpose. (1 Cor. xii. 3.)
In the third verse it is testified, that it will not be the righteous
ness of the generation in Israel at that day that shall have moved
Almighty God to send Jesus Christ a second time, but His own
mercy and truth. (Ps. Ixxxix. 14.)
The rest of the psalm consists of invitations to creation, animated
and inanimate, to sympathise with the rational in joy at the return
of the Lord Jesus in glory. 1.
Sing to Jehovah, sing
A new song, chronicling
The marvels He for Israel hath wrought !
Bid all men understand
How 'tis His, own right hand
And holy arm salvation to Him1 brought !
2.
Salvation is made plain
By His return2 again
From highest heaven His Israel to bless !
By what they now behold,
E'en Gentiles learn to hold
Jehovah to be " Israel's righteousness ! "3
' frn»'s)in. So in Isa. lix. 16, " Therefore His arm brought; salvation unto
Him" — i.e., His mystical body is saved by Him.
» Acts iii. 19—26, also vii. 13. Heb, ix. 7—28.
J Jer. xxiii. 6,

PSALM THE NINETY-NINTH. 281
3.
Not for His people's worth
Did He come back to earth ;
But of God's mercy and His truth was sent !
Not in His land alone,
But everywhere is known
Our God's salvation, through earth's whole* extent.
4.
In earth's remotest bound
Jehovah's praise forth sound !
Lift the voice ! shout ye joyfully, and sing !
With the harp's sweetest note —
Through the hoarse trumpet's throat —
Pour glad strains before Jehovah, our King !

Roll, thou loud sounding sea,
Thy tides in harmony !
Ye rivers and ye hills, swell this applause !
Be in Jehovah's sight,
As conscious of His right,
Who's come to bless the whole world with His laws.
4 Habak. ii. 14.

PSALM XCIX.

ARGUMENT.

In this psalm is conceived to be foreshadowed what service shall
be rendered to the Lord Jesus in His temple at Jerusalem on His
re,-establishment of His Israel in their own land.
The commotion swaying the peoples that during this present age
have been Christianised is conceived to be one of impatience at
hearing Israel's announcement of the Lord's presence with thom;

282 PSALM THE NINETY-NINTH.
after the manner in which men are impatient, who see in a claim to
Divine favour advanced by one nation, only an excuse with it for
exalting itself over the rest.
It is to be observed how in Rev. xi. 18 it is significantly stated,
" The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come." Although, at
the time above assumed by us to be spoken of for fulfilment of this
psalm, the judgments predicted in Rev. xix. 11 — 21 will have been
inflicted on the great confederation of nations now Christian, which
will have gone up tumultuously under the false prophet into the
Lord's land, (Isa. xvii. 12 — 14; Joel iii. 14,) it need not seem
incredible that the bulk of the several nations, which shall have
remained at home, should after that overthrow retain their wrath
against the much-hated Israelites.
Such conduct will only be a rehearsal of what is recorded to have
been the inextinguishable animosity of the Philistines against Israel
in former times.
Moreover, it appears from several places in the psalms, (Ps. xviii.,
and Isa. xii.,) that the conversion of the nations to the one true
religion, after the return of the Lord Jesus to this earth, will be by
degrees ; not without sustainment on their part of many heavy re
verses in battle and siege inflicted by Israelites.

1.
Chafe, Christendom,1 at Israel's heralding,
Jehovah reigns !
Wax wrathful, Heathendom, the cherub- wing
His foot sustains !
Jehovah's far o'er Christendom — in Zion great
Confess'd to be !
His Name, ye Christian nations, celebrate !
Holy is He !

Strong is the King, yet not by strength strikes awe,
He judgment loves !
Gentiles with equity — Jacob with law2 —
He meetly proves ;
1 Ver. 1. E'B? is never applied to Gentiles, when not converted: it is
applied to peoples in covenant with Jehovah. (See i*W, Ps. c. 3. Hos. ii. 23.)
2 Ver. 4. Horn. iii. 19.

PSALM THE HUNDREDTH. 283
Join; all ye peoples, to exalt and praise
Him worthily ;
At our Jehovah's feet yourselves abase,
Holy is He! 3.
There 'mongst His priests Moses and Aaron stand,
(And Samuel,3)
Calling upon Him ; as when to His land
They Israel
Were leading through the desert ; to whom He,
From pillar' d cloud
(For that these serv'd Him faithfully)
Replied aloud —
Yea, Thou repliedst— heeding graciously
Each advocate;
Yet swift 'gainst sin Thy wrath inflexibly
To vindicate !
Praise ye our God ! and at His holy hill
Bow ye the knee !
Of God let this thought ev'ry bosom fill,
Holy is He !
8 Ver. 6. Samuel is here made a third with Moses and Aaron, as though
a second founder of the nation, (having " told the people the manner of the
kingdom," 1 Sam. x. 25, as Moses had the law,) though what follows is (with
the exception of the words, "calling upon Him,") applicable only to Moses
and Aaron. The refrain of " Holy is He," and the length of the last stanza,
twice that of the two others, is clearly traceable in the Hebrew.

PSALM C.
TITLE.
A psalm of thanksgiving.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm is considered to be an anticipatory announcement of
proclamation to be made in the Lord's house in Zion to all nations

284 PSALM THE HUNDREDTH.
to come up and worship, after the agencies set in operation,
subsequently to our Lord's coming again, shall have taken due
effect, and brought all nations to acknowledge, that there is one
Lord and His Name one. (Zech. xiv. 9.)
It is this summoning of all nations, and speaking of them as
minded to join with Israel in worshipping the Lord for their God
(see ver. 3,) which proves this psalm to point to the time of our
Lord's second Advent, instead of to the gathering of the Gentiles
unto Him in our age. For here, Gentiles are bid "Rejoice with
His people," (Rom. xv. 10 ;) but the Gospel is in the present age
only to be preached "for a witness unto all nations." (Matt.
xxiv. 14.)
In further proof of this psalm having been written in anticipation
of the Lord's return in glory to reign over Israel, it may be remarked
that at verse 4 a particular house is spoken of in which the nations
shall enter with contrite thanksgivings ; agreeably with Isaiah's
prophecy in chap. lvi. 6. 7; Mark. xi. l7. Now no edifice in the
present age is entitled to assume this pre-eminence of being " the
house of prayer," but the house spoken of in the last eight chapters
of Ezekiel will clearly answer the requirements of this prediction
in the psalm before us.
Nevertheless, this psalm is by accommodation well adapted for use
in our age of the kingdom of heaven, as is assumed in our Church's
Morning Service, where it is inserted after the second lesson. For
we keep the jubilee entered on after our Saviour's crucifixion, and
welcome Him into our hearts for our King, and confess Him One
with Almighty God the Creator ; and would preach the Gospel to
every creature, agreeably with our Lord's command. In which
spirit Bishop Heber wrote of our Saviour after the language con
cerning Him in this psalm : —
" Salvation ! oh, salvation !
The joyful sound proclaim !
Till each remotest nation
Has learnt Messiah's Name ;
Till o'er our ransom'd nature
The Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator,
In bliss return to reign."
1.
To Jehovah, our Eedeemer, O all nations,
Keep ye jubilee I1 with exultation sing !
1 Ver. 1. Win means to "sing exultingly," as in jubilee. Now the jubilee
began to be counted from Joshua's entrance into Canaan. (Lev. xxv.,
1620 b.o.) This date divided by 50 shews that there were thirty jubilees up to
the time of our Saviour's birth, but the correct date of His birth is reckoned
to have been four years before the vulgar era. He entered on His ministry,
consequently, in the twenty-sixth year of our era, at the age of thirty. His

PSALM THE HUNDREDTH. 285
In. His presence with devoutest supplications

Pay due service2 to the universal King

2.
O all nations, know ye Him for our Creator !3
Know that He is alone to be ador'd !
We are His,4 whom He heals with a new nature,
And He feeds with the pastures5 of His word.
3.
Where the portals of His temple, set wide open,
Stand inviting you to enter, O come in !
There let praises to His Name by you be spoken
With thanksgiving and contrition for your sin !
4.
With the goodness of Jehovah all are blessed,
He His mercy too from age to age keeps sure :
And His truth, in what He ever hath expressed,
To the latest generation doth endure.
ministry lasted two and a half years, so that He died in the year 29 of our
era ; and the 10th of the following September was the thirty-first jubilee after
Joshua's entrance into Canaan, and our year of redemption ! (Isa. lxiii. 4.)
But redemption, up to the sense attached to it in Luke. i. 74, and xxi. 28, as
also in Rom. viii. 23, and 1 Cor. i. 30, remains to be accomplished. Now the
forty years' wandering in the wilderness after the exodus is made in 1 Cor.
x. 1 — 13, a counterpart of our age.
What then if the Jews, for national rejection of the Gospel first preached
to them, (after the manner of their fathers, who refused to enter Canaan when
first invited,) have been nationally condemned to wandering in the wilderness
of the peoples (Ezek. xx. 35) for fifty times forty years ? (Compare Acts iii.
17 — 26 ; xiii. 45 — 48 ; 1 Thess. ii. 14 — 16.) This term, counted from the expi
ration of the thirty-first jubilee after Joshua's entrance into Canaan, (which
was that following our Lord's redemption of all mankind through His blood-
shedding,) will in the year a.d. 2030 bring mankind to the seventieth jubilee,
or Sabbatical jubilee, at an interval of- 160 years from the present year
1870. But this conjecture or expectation defines nothing about the first re
surrection, which uBhers in the Lord's return ; (1 Thess. iv. 16,) which requires
to be only preceded by two signs, specified in Matt. xxiv. 12—14, so that
it may be looked for at any time !
2 Ver. 2. vny implies that the peoples are required to receive Jehovah
Jesus for their King. See Ps. Ixxii. 11, like as wnp , that they should hail
Him, as their Eedeemer.
3 Ver. 3. "wto roif . These words require all peoples to confess Him their
Creator. * Ver. 3. *$Vj, "and not," is discarded for iVl , "and to Him" are we;
i.e., are His. See Rogers's note.
5 Ver. 3. Ps. xxiii. 2.

286 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIRST.
PSALM CI.
TITLE.
A psalm for David.
In regard to the signification of 7, if it be admitted that David'
was author of the seventy-second psalm (which the last verse seems
to me to put beyond doubt,) then we have David himself in the
title of that psalm setting the example of an use of >>, which has
been adopted by me in the title of this psalm.
The title of the seventy-second psalm is riribc^T?, meaning, "with
reference to Solomon," or "for Solomon," as the Septuagint shew
by translating it eh "2,a\w/j,wv. It surely therefore may be concluded,
that the sense above given to v is well authenticated. Another
observation militating against the likelihood of David having com
posed this 101st psalm is, that it consists entirely of couplets of the
long metre, of which there is no instance in the psalms of the
first book.
This makes it preferable in my estimation to reckon, that it was
written by some representative of the house of David; in the same
spirit that David himself is above supposed to have written the
seventy-second for Solomon : namely, to furnish Solomon in the first
instance with a model after which to govern his kingdom, but with
an ulterior reference to the great hope of David's line, the Messiah,
of Whom Solomon should be a type. Accordingly, my supposition
concerning the authorship of this psalm founded on the title is,
that it was intended proximately to furnish the representative of
David's line for the time being on the throne of David with a rule
of government : but ulteriorly that it was, under the Holy Ghost's
guidance, written for the use of the Lord Jesus.
We know that in 1 Kings xii. 16, Israelites sarcastically hailed
Rehoboam by the patronymic of "David ; " saying, " To your tents,
0 Israel : now look to thine own house, David ! " And we have
shewn how in the eighty- ninth psalm the name David was appa
rently applied to Messiah, in the sense of " the beloved One," long
before it was given to David ; may we not therefore conclude that
whensoever the title was prefixed to this psalm, the name was once
more applied primarily to Messiah : instances of which may possibly
be adduced as contemporaneously occurring in Jer. xxx. 9, and
Hos. iii. 5 ?
I adopt, then, Mr. Thrupp's conjecture that this 101st psalm
might be the work of Josiah, after entry on the reformation, sub
sequent to the discovery of that book of' the law in the house of
the Lord. (2 Kings xxii. 10.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIRST. 287
ARGUMENT.
This psalm admits of close application to Christ, Who being
our King, may be regarded as here notifying by His Spirit, what is
His mind towards His Father ; and what sort of conduct He
approves or condemns at this present in His covenant-people on
earth — the only remnant of the true Israelites.
The opening words of this psalm, " I will sing of mercy and of
judgment ; unto Thee, 0 Lord, will I sing," answer well to the
language of the lowly Jesus in Matt. xi. 25, Who there gave
thanks to His Father for His judgments as well as for His mercies.
So too, in Matt. iii. 12, John the Baptist spake of Him as "gather
ing His wheat into the garner," but "burning up the chaff with
unquenchable fire." Our Lord's parable of the barren fig-tree, in
Luke xiii. 6 — 9, is to the same effect. When in the second verse
we read that the King of Israel should say, " I will behave myself
in a perfect way ; O when wilt Thou come unto me ? " if we call
to mind the discreetness wherewith Jesus, under temptation by Satan
in the wilderness, waited on His Father's inward motion to notify
what He should do, we see how when on earth He exemplified this
particular. When it is added in that second verse, " I will walk
within my house with a perfect heart," we know, that though this
could be said by Hezekiah, as one having a good conscience through
faith^in the blood of sprinkling, (Isa. xxxviii. 3,) it could only in
strictness of truth be fulfilled by that Son of David, Who should
also be David's Lord.: Who in that house wherein Moses as a
servant was faithful, but He as a Son over His own house (Heb.
iii. 1 — 6.) walked while on earth, as a spiritual priest in the holy
place of the great temple of the universe. (Habak. ii. 20,) When
in the third verse we read, " I will set no wicked thing before mine
eyes," we remember, that our Saviour's refrainment from any, even
the slightest, backwardness in suffering what the Providence of His
Father brought upon Him, was not owing to physical incapability
of drawing back, but moral, through love : because it was His meat
and drink to do His Father's will, and to finish His work.
(John iv. 3.4.)
In the latter part of, this third verse it is written, " I hate the work
of them that turn aside, (or apostatize ;) there shall no such cleave
unto me," these words were emphatically exemplified in Jesus ;
of Whom it was predicted in Isa. 1. 5, " The Lord hath opened
mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward."
Accordingly, in Matt. xxvi. 53, where Peter had smitten one
with the sword, Jesus said, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray
to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve
legions of angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled,
that thus it must be ?" In the fourth verse we read, " A froward
heart shall depart from me : I will not know a wicked person." These
words could scarcely at any time have been applied to the repre-

288 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIRST.
sentative of David for the time being : but are strictly applicable
to Christ. For in Matt. vii. 22, the language of Jesus is, " Many
will say unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Thy Name ? and in Thy Name have cast out devils ? and in Thy
Name done many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you : depart from Me, ye that work inquity."
Our Saviour here uses the words " I never knew you " in the
sense in which the psalmist predicted of Him " I will not know a
wicked person ;" that is, admit him into confidential intercourse.
In the fifth verse it is written, " Whoso privily slandereth his
neighbour, him will I cut off;" agreeably wherewith in Luke vi. 42,
the Lord Jesus brands with the stigma of " hypocrite " one who,
through uncharitableness, would notice the mote in his brother's eye,
instead of considering the beam in his own. Also in Matt. xxiv.
51, He predicts concerning the unfaithful minister, " his Lord shall
cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites :
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." For we must have
laid aside all guile and all hypocrisies, if so be that we have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. (1 Pet. iii. 1.)
In the latter part of the fifth verse it is written, " him that hath
an high look and proud heart I will not suffer," or more literally,
" eat with;" which the Septuagint sanction by ts'tw a avvjadiov,
meaning, "admit to My table." (Exod. xxiv. 11 ; Matt. xxvi. 29.
See also one of the latest utterances of the Lord Jesus in Rev. iii. 20.)
For in Matt. xi. 28, His words are, " Come unto Me, all ye that are
weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But " God resisteth
the proud." (1 Pet. v. 5.) In the sixth verse is described the sort of
person whom He will accept : " Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful
of the land, that they may dwell with Me : he that walketh in a
perfect way, he shall serve Me," or minister unto Me. In Deut.
xi. 12, it is said, that the Lord's eyes are always upon the land of
Israel ; and here the same gracious testimony is recorded con
cerning " the faithful in the land." In Ps. xxxii. 8, He is said to
" guide His people with His eye. "
The Lord Jesus in a very tender way proved to Saul, that His
eye was upon the faithful in the land ; when He, as the wounded
Head of His mystical body, cried out from heaven, " Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou Me ?" Moreover, His language to His disciples,
in John xiv. 3, agrees with the latter clause of this sixth verse ; as
also doth Rev. xxii. 3, where it is written, " His servants shall serve
Him." In the seventh verse it is written, "He that worketh deceit shall
not dwell within my house : he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my
sight." The house here spoken of, when intended of the Son of God
and King of Israel, is that already referred to in verse 2. Into that
house we are admitted by a sacramental title ; but except we be
conformed to the will of our King, " being transformed by the
renewing of our mind," shall not be always iu it. (John viii. 31.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIRST. 289
Moreover, so beneficial is the truth of God to us, and so piteously
have we suffered by the father of lies, that we ought to shrink from
the latter with instinctive dread, and cleave to the former out of
profound and soul-absorbing gratitude. (Luke xvii. 18.)
In the last verse it is written, " I will early destroy all the wicked
of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from- the city of the
Lord." This refers to what Jesus will do in the morning of the first
resurrection, when the just shall alone inherit His favour, in the city
spoken of by David in Ps. xxxi. 21. It must now be acknowledged,
that this psalm, though expressly referring to the representative of
David's line for the time being upon the throne, is full of matter for
self-examination by us.
Our duty is to see, that we do not arbitrarily incline to sing
of God's mercy alone, lest we decline into latitudinarianism or
licentiousness ; but sing of mercy and of judgment too : after the
example of our King, that we may not be ashamed before Him at
His coming. (1 John ii. 28.) 1.
Of judgment and of mercy will I sing
To Thee, Jehovah, with the minstrel's art1 —
In strict attention crave Thine ordering —
And walk within My house with perfect heart.
2.
No wicked thing will I before Mine eyes
Through either fear or favour frailly set :
Their treach'rous conduct, who apostatise,
I hate — it shall with Me no harbour2 get.
3.
A froward heart shall from Me dwell apart —
A wicked formalist I will not know —
The slanderer I'll cut off, spite of his art —
The high look from My feast unfed shall go.
: Ver. 1. Mr. Thrupp observes, the two Hebrew verbs employed in this
verse are the respective correlatives of the names " song" and "psalm ;"
and should, have been distinguished from each other in our English Version,
as the corresponding Greek words are in Eph.v. 19. To " sing," T*S, g.Sa,
is a term having respect to the subject of the song. To " make melody,"
1Dl> ¥a\\w. to the manner in which it was sung with instrumental accom-
TT '
paniment. * Ver. 3. John xiv. 30. V

290 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND.
4.
The faithful of the land Mine eyes shall mark,
That where I am,3 they too with Me may be :
And he that in a perfect way doth walk
To Me shall minister eternally. 5.
He that to work deceit doth lie in wait,4
"Within My house shall not alway5 abide :
He that by lies6 doth error propagate,
The joys at My right7 hand shall be denied.
6
Full early8 all the wicked of the land,
With judgment long provok'd will I destroy :
So in Jehovah's city there shall stand,
No sinner more the righteous to decoy.9
; * Ver. 4. John xiv. 3.
4 Ver. 5. Eph. iv. 14—24.
5 Ver. 5. John viii. 35.
8 Ver. 7. Isa. xxxii. 6, 7 ; 2 Thess. ii. 12.
' Ver. 7. See Ps. xvi. 11, where " God's right hand " is synonymous with
"His presence."
e Ver. 8. Luke xviii. 8 ; Habak. ii. 3. The Word of God is the Divine
Person by Whom the Father workef h all things, whether of mercy or
of judgment.
• Ver. 8. Ps. cxxv. 3.

PSALM CIL

TITLE.
A prayer of, or for, the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and
poureth out his complaint before the Lord.
ARGUMENT.
The first eleven verses purport to have been written by an
Israelite in deep distress ; and in the twelfth the mourner lays hold
on the Name of God as his refuge, after the manner inculcated by

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND.

291

Moses in the opening verse of the ninetieth psalm ; and according to
the tenour of God's gracious promise in Exod. iii. 15 : where, after
having charged Moses to acquaint Israel in Egypt with His purpose
to deliver them, He made His Name the pledge of His so doing —
the oonsolation of which our Saviour explains to be, that God is not
a God of the dead but of the living — consequently, that if they
were even to die in Egypt, but trusted in God, they should live
unto Him for ever.
The psalmist in the twelfth verse, when like Israel in Egypt
utterly without any other ground of hope save in God, appears to
have laid hold on the Name of the Lord, exactly as He Himself
offered it to Israel in Egypt. It may be observed in the Old Tes
tament to have often happened, that an inspired writer was pre
pared to be the channel of mysterious utterances concerning Christ,
by being brought into extreme affliction, under which he passed
beyond himself into ecstasy — giving utterance therein to petitions
appointed for Christ at His coming in mortal flesh to pour out
unto His Father — followed sometimes by an oracular reply from
the Father.
In this way was instruction for the Lord Jesus Himself laid up
in Scripture ; by use of which " He had more understanding than all
His teachers." With such a response the ninety-first psalm is con
cluded at verse 14. Also at the fifteenth verse of the seventy-second
psalm there appears to me to have been a similar one, after it had
been predicted, "He shall redeem their souls from deceit and
violence; and dear shall their blood be in His sight:" the re
sponse, as I take it, being, " He shall live ! "—that is, notwith
standing (as we find by the result) His pouring out of His soul unto
death, for the redemption spoken of.
Thus we find, how all the afflictions of God's people being by
them made the occasion for dwelling on what God would do in
Christ for His Church, are plain intimations, that our hearts in all
our afflictions are to be lifted up by us in like manner to what God
will do by Christ for the restoration of all things in His own time :
as predicted by Moses in Ps. xc. 13.
It seems to me, that the verses from the thirteenth to the end of
the seventeenth indicate, that the temple at Jerusalem was in ruins,
when this psalm was written. If so, we may next enquire who
among the fugitives or exiles during the Babylonish captivity might
be thought likely to have written it. Here the mind inclines to
Jeremiah, who opens the third chapter of his Lamentations with
words not unlike those in the title of this psalm : " I am the man
that hath seen affliction by the word of His wrath." But Jeremiah
Would, as writer of this psalm, be in His affliction a type of
Christ—the pre-eminently afflicted One, of Whom David had
written in Ps, xxii. 24, "He hath not despised nor abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted ; neither hath He hid His fece from
Him ; but when He cried unto Him, He heard ! "
v 2

292 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND.
Let it then be supposed that Jeremiah wrote this psalm while
expatriated in Egypt ; and that it was inserted in Scripture by
Ezra along with the rest of this fourth book of psalms, upon the
rebuilding of the temple ; after the expiration of " the set time "
(ver. 13) of seventy years, of which Daniel shews, in chap. ix. 1, 2,
that he had been made aware, through Jeremiah's prophecy. Ezra
indeed might have hoped, that when the Lord granted the favour
of the Persian kings to Zion, and when Haggai (ii. 7) spake of
the glory of that house, then built, being destined to exceed the
glory of Solomon's, that Israel had entered on a course of gradually
increasing prosperity, to be consummated in the personal presence
of the Lord in that temple in His glorified human nature ; while
all nations of the then civilised world should assemble there from
time to time for worship. But we by the progress of events know,
that it was God's purpose to make the glory of that house greater
than that of Solomon's, because of Jesus — the afflicted One of God,
in Whom tabernacled His glory, (John i. 14,) coming into it in
great humility.
The psalmist, however, being prepared by extremity of affliction
for this exalted theme about to be entrusted to him, is not so trans
ported beyond himself by mention of the Lord building up Zion
and appearing in His glory, as to be in an ecstasy of happiness :
his extreme sorrow seems to have attuned his mind even in his
ecstasy : just as in Acts x. 10 — 16, Peter's habitual piety tinged his
current of thought even in his dream. For after the same manner
wherein we often elsewhere find the triumphs of Christ spoken of
at outset, to be followed forthwith by mysterious reference to His
sorrows ; even so here at verse 23 the psalmist, after having spoken
of Christ's glory, utters in ecstasy, as I am persuaded, a language
appointed by the Father to proceed from the mouth of Christ
in the day of His humiliation, to which the Father oracularly
makes answer in verses reaching from the latter clause of verse 24
to the close of this psalm. Thus at verse 23 Christ saith, "He
weakened My strength in the way ; He shortened My days ! I
said, O My God, take ME not away in the midst of My
days ! "
We know how in the eighty-ninth psalm, at ver. 45, it was written
of the beloved One, / The days of His youth hast Thou shortened ;
Thou hast covered Him with shame." We know too how David,
in Ps. xxii. 15, had been taught to say, as in the person of
Christ, "Thou wilt bring Me into the dust of death." Isaiah too
had in his fifty-third chapter written of Christ, long before the cap
tivity in Babylon, "He hath poured out His soul unto death."
But Daniel, some iittle time after this psalm is supposed by me to
have been written, employs in chap. ix. 27, the expression concern
ing Christ more particularly fitted for collation with this at verse
23 of the psalm before us : where he wrote, " In the midst of the
week, He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease " — that

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND. 293
is, as I understand it, God would cause the Mosaic sacrifices to lose
their force, by appointing His Son's sacrificial death, for the finish
ing of transgression," in the midst of the seven days usually ap
pointed to be observed by an Israelitish bridegroom preparatory to
the taking home of his bride. (Judges xiv. 17.) The things done
unto Jesus shew us, how in the middle of His week of marrillge
festivity He was cut off. His ministry was ended by His cruci
fixion in the middle of the third year, which was also the middle
of the week — there remaining still three days and a half (or lite
rally, years) to be yet kept with His people on earth, ere He take
them nationally as a Church to His favour in His own land, " as
long as the sun and moon endure." (Ps. lxxii. 7, 17.)
To that sacrificial death of Christ, there appears to me to be a
distinct reference in the twenty-fourth verse, where we read, " I
said, O My God, take Me not away in the midst of My days." The
word for "take Me not away" may be translated, "make Me not
a sacrifice in the midst of My days " — the days of My bridal
week ! which is, in fact, such a prayer, as our Lord actually offered
in His agony, when saying, " If it be possible, let this cup pass
from Me!" (Matt. xxvi. 39.)
Then follows the oracular reply of the Father, (as Stier and
Hengstenberg suggest,) " Thy years are throughout all generations ;
of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth :" implying, What
if I grant Thee not Thy petition, but make Thee a sacrifice?
" Thou hast life with ME," even as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
who trusted in My Name while in the body, " And in Thy Divine
nature Thou didst with Me create all things ! " What inclines me
to this view is, that St. Paul, in Heb. i. 10, plainly saith that these
words were addressed by God to the Son.
Although we be mercifully spared the affliction overtaking the
psalmist, yet if our lives be continued for the natural term, we
shall find in the eleventh and twelfth verses of this psalm
peculiarly suitable language under the sorrows of old age ele
gantly referred to by " the lengthening of the sun's shadow,"
ere its setting, and in that decay of strength likened to the
withering of grass !
Happy they who like the psalmist in the twelfth verse, and like
Moses in the first verse of Ps. xc, accustom themselves by pious
meditation to the refuge they have in the Lord Himself; unto
Whom they shall live, though they die : even as it was mys
teriously appointed in this psalm for the Saviour Himself to be
persuaded, that through trust in God He might by dying bring
out His elect along with Him from out of the natural man
hood of the first Adam into the spiritual of the last. (1 Cor.
xv. 46.)

294 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND.
1.
O hear my prayer, Jehovah, in my trouble,
O do not Thou from me Thy face avert !
Incline Thine ear in mercy ! I redouble
My cries ! with speed Thy power for me exert !

My weary days through weeping melt, like vapour-
Fierce fever, as a hearth, my bones doth burn —
As grass that's sun-scorch'd, so at heart I labour
Exhausted, and from food with loathing turn.

Worn out with long subjection to distresses,
My bones all but force thro' my skin a breach :
I seem like pelican1 in desert places,
Or lonely owl, that in the night doth screech.
4.
Thro' sleepless hours, like to one only sparrow
Upon the housetop, am I forc'd to watch ;
But daily me reproaches keen do harrow
By men, that with my woe their curses match.5
5.
For I, alas ! like bread, have ashes eaten —
And have my drink too mix'd with many a groan —
Because Thy wrath's stress did me sorely weaken ;
For Thou,Who once made glad,dost make me moan.
1 Ver. 6. In Smith's Dictionary we read, " There is not sufficient ground
for inferring any peculiar capability in the genus ' pelican ' to occupy remote
solitudes ; for they live on fish, and generally nestle in reedy abodes ; but wo
think the psalmist refers to one isolated by circumstances, where water begins
to fail, and consequently food ; as is commonly the case eastward of the Jord aM.
2 Ver. 8. Kennicot observes, that the ancient form of oath was, " God do
so to me (as He has to such an one) and more also, if I," &c. Horseley trans
lates here, " make me their standard of execration." (Compare Gen, xxviii.
1— i, and 1 Kings xix. 2.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND. 295
6.
My days decline like to the length'ning shadow —
Like grass in summer's drought my strengthis dried;
But Thou, Jehovah, ev'ry age shall hallow,
Nor any lapse of years Thy glory hide!
7.
Thou shalt recall to mind Thy love of Zion —
The time for her recovery draws near :
For now those prize her stones, that do rely on
Thy promise, and drop on them many a tear.

So shall the heathen fear Thy Name, Jehovah,
And all kings on the earth Thy glory see ;
For when 'tis time His Zion to recover,
Jehovah there shall manifested be.
9.
So He the prayer will heed of the dejected —
The oft-recorded hope He'll not deny !
To them forth-coming be this word directed —
The race3 Jehovah grants this destiny.
10.
For He from His high sanctu'ry regarded —
From heaven Jehovah did this earth survey —
To set free those in strait confinement guarded —
To rescue saints earth's rulers fain would slay.
11.
So of Jehovah Zion's sons shall have heard,
And in Jerusalem His praise have known,
What time to serve Jehovah there be gather'd
Peoples,4 by cov'nant pledg'd to be His own !
s Ver. 18. So Ps. xxxiii. 12, and Ixxviii. 4, 6,
4 Ver. 22. a'BS, not Pia, as in verse 15,

296 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SECOND.
12.
Behold ! My strength He weaken'd in the journey —
My days He shorten'd ! O My God, I cried,
In My days 'midst a sacrifice to burn5 ME
Appoint not — days6 vouchsaf 'd Me with My bride !
13.
Thy years, O mourner, through all generations
Endure ; no end shall Thine existence see !
Time past didst Thou of earth lay the foundations —
The very heav'ns themselves were built by Thee !
14.
Them all — decay shall overtake : Thee never !
Yea, like a garment, shall they wear away !
But Thou unfading shalt remain for ever,
Thy life in glory one unending day !
15.
So too, for Thy dear sake, shall be advanced
The children of Thy servants 'fore Thy face,
That e'en Thy happiness may be enhanced
By theirs, for whom Thou didst prepare7 that place.
6 Ver. 24. '^tfrr'jN, " make me not go up in smoke, " as a. whole burnt-
offering. 6 Ver. 24. This clause is introduced to explain what appears to me
the days referred to.
7 Ver. 24. John xiv. 1—3; xvii. 24. Isa. liii. 11. Ezek. xxiv. 16.
Prov. viii. 31.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRD. 297
PSALM CIII.
TITLE.
For David.
The remarks already made on this form of title, in that of
Ps. ci., appear to me fitting to be applied here also.
Remembering that in 1 Kings xii. 16 the name "David" was
used as a patronymic to designate the representative for the
time being of David's line, and that the progenitorship of Mes
siah was known to be vested therein, he who prefixed the above
title to this psalm, (whether looking back to the founder of this
royal line, or forward to the culmination of it in Messiah,) saw
an especial propriety, as it seems to me, in designating it a
psalm " for David ; " if it was written by the reigning head of
that family, or for his especial use. Mr. Thrupp thinks it pro
bable that Josiah was the author of it ; and for my part, I cannot
but think there is much ground for what he suggests on this
head. The words in verse 4, " Who redeemeth thy life from de
struction," seem to me to shew the appropriateness of this psalm,
as a sequel to that of the man of sorrows last preceding ; just
as Ps. lxx. was shewn to be a sequel to Ps. Ixix. Al
though the words in verse 4 would admit of being fulfilled in
the person of a man whom God would commission to be Israel's
redeemer, yet they suggest that He Himself should rather do
so. (Compare Ps. cxxx. 8.) At the same time, by verse 6 it is
plain that He should " execute righteousness and judgment for
all that are oppressed." But by 1 Sam. viii. 20, we learn that
it belonged to the kingly office, that " he judge his people, and
go out before them and fight their battles." And in Ps. Ixxxix.
20—49, we find that a beloved one — David — should uphold on
behalf of His people a covenant with God whereby His mercy
should never be wholly taken from Him, though He should be
discrowned and brought to the grave in the days of His youth —
in striking agreement with the twenty-fourth verse of the psalm
preceding ; hence the propriety of the title " for David," seems
to me apparent. (Compare Isa. xliv. 6, and Rev. ii. 8.)
ARGUMENT.
There is in my judgment such an advance in the order of
thought expressed in this psalm, beyond that of one written in
David's own style, as the devout Israelitish mind might be ex
pected to have been educated unto in the interval from David to

298 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRD.
Josiah : for there is a growth in the mind of a nation as surely as
of an individual. Forms of thought occurring to one in a late
stage of life are more elaborate than those enunciated by him in
an earlier day : and the case is the same with nations. David had
little or no poetical literature prior to his day, which he might turn
over in his mind ; he had little more than the ninetieth, ninety-
first, and ninety-second psalms, along with the eighty-eighth and
eighty-ninth, and the book of Job. Consequently his psalms consist
of utterances derived directly from the Spirit of Christ moving him
to speak of what happened to himself, without any abstract
reflections thereon. Whereas the writer of Ps. ciii. has so put on
record his thoughts, as we should expect one to have done, who had
for a long time previous made pre-existing records of God's will
the subject of his meditations, and had under the guidance of
Christ's Spirit gathered therefrom with much far-reaching thought
some emphatic maxims.
Mr. Thrupp thought that the psalmist's reference to Moses in
verse 7, agreed well with Josiah's pious reverence for the lost book
of the law found by Hilkiah in the temple in his day. (See
2 Kings xxii. 13.) What the psalmist thereupon proceeds to say
about the character of the Lord, seems to me gathered from the
Lord's revelation of Himself to Moses in Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, fol
lowed up as it was by the Lord's dealings with the Israelites in
accordance thereto.
At verse 9, and onward, there seem to me sundry references to
words of God by Isaiah, varied so far as a person long conversant
with them might be expected to do. Thus, where the psalmist
saith, " He will not always chide," I trace a reference to Isa. lvii. 1 6 ;
where he saith, " He hath not dealt with us after our sins," there
maybe a reference to Isa. lix. 18 ; and where we read, " For as the
heaven is higher than the earth," &c, there seems a clear reference
to Isa. lv. 9 ; and in verse 13, to Isa. lxiii. 16 ; as also in verses 15,
16, to Isa. xl. 6, 8.
Mr. Thrupp thought that the psalmist's particularity in dwelling
on the angels round about the throne prepared for the Lord, (by
which this reference thereto is distinguished from David's in
Ps. ix. 7,) shewed tbe effects of contact with Chaldaic habits of
thought, with which the Jews became conversant in the days of
Manasseh ; and which probably led an inspired writer to be more
explicit in specifying what position angelic beings, good and bad,
undoubtedly filled in subordination to the one only God.
Taking the verses 15 to 18 as the psalmist's thesis, we may
consider that in the former verses he supplies the reader with
reflections, whereby he himself had by experimental use of God's
revealed word exercised his soul in " keeping God's covenant, and
remembering His comandments to do them."
These reflections extend from the first verse to the end of the
fourteenth. Earnestness in use of God's promises and care lest they

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRD. 299
depart out of the heart, (Deut. iv. 9,) are indispensable for the
soul's " keeping of God's covenant."
From the third to the end of the fifth verse, is a specification of
" all His benefits," which may with great advantage be committed
to memory, and put to the same use whereto the psalmist applied it.
Then at verse 6, after having specified what the Lord hath done
for us and in us, the psalmist lifts our thoughts to contemplation of
what God Himself is to us, agreeably with His own revelation of
Himself by Moses.
And in conclusion, after verse 18, the psalmist points men's
thoughts to that throne of judgment, where the Lord, in the
midst of ten thousand times ten thousand that minister unto Him,
will "of His mercy " (verse 17) "reward every man according to
his works." (Ps. lxii. 12.)

My soul, Jehovah bless !
And on the holiness
Of His great Name be all Thy powers intent !
My soul, Jehovah bless !
Nor let forgetfulness
Leave thee, 'midst all His blessings, negligent.

He thine iniquities
Forgives thee : He supplies
For all thy sickness health's restoratives :
Of thy soul's blood is He
Th' Avenger1 — kin to thee —
Who with His kindness crowns the life He gives.

Thy mouth fills He each day,
"Who open'd it to pray :
He with His Spirit2 doth it satisfy !
That in youth's fervency
Thy soul may inwardly
Mount, as an eagle, Him to glorify.
1 Ver. 3. Man.
2 Ver. 5. Here compare Matt, viii. 11, with Luke xi, 13.

300 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRD.
4.
For all oppress'd by wrong,
"With retribution strong
Jehovah doth just judgment execute.
To Moses He His Name
On Sinai did proclaim —
In Israel His worship3 institute.

Jehovah mercy loves !
In measure He reproves
His people ; nor their sins will alway chide :
Nor ever, as He might,
Did He our sins requite,
When we our promis'd penitence belied.
6.
High as is heav'n o'erhead
Above the ground we tread,
His mercy too, t'wards them that fear Him, moves :
Far as is East apart
From West, doth He the heart
From guilty fear relieve, of each He loves.

The father pitying sees
His child's infirmities ;
So too Jehovah theirs, that Him revere :
For He Who made our frame,
Remembering whence we came,
Indulgently saith of us, " dust ye are."
3 Ver. 7. V3Ti, " His ways," the way of access unto Him j 90 Acts ix, 2.
vnWs;, " mighty deeds," as in Ps. ix. 11.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRD. 301
8.
Frail man's days swiftly pass !
Brittle, as summer's grass,
Or rather as its bloom4 is man's best state !
Soon has it bent its head,
When past the wind has sped,
And dying left no root its place to indicate !

9.
But those for evermore
Jehovah shall restore
In mercy5 from the dust, who know His fear :
He too in righteousness
Shall be perceiv'd to bless
Their children's6 children thro' their sojourn here.
10.
Jehovah, ages gone,
In heaven set His throne,
Appointed Ruler of the Universe !
Ye angels, then to gird
Jehovah, Who His word
Obey, your blessings unto Him rehearse.
11.
Bless ye Jehovah, ye
His hosts, who duteously
Perform His pleasure ; glad of His control !
Bless ye Jehovah, who
Are His all nature through !
Yea, thou too bless Jehovah, O my soul !
4 Ver. 15. Compare James i. 11.
6 Ver. 17. Compare Ps. lxii. 12. Owing to the mention in the preceding
verses of man's person being in the dust, "mercy for evermore" (verse 17)
to the person implies an extension of it to that part in the dust without
which he is not a person or a man, but only " the spirit of a just man."
(Heb. xii. 23.)
6 Ver. 17. Compare Ps. xxv. 12—14.

302 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTH.

PSALM CIV.

ARGUMENT.
This psalm and the two following appear to have been composed
by one author, for they are three parts of one suhject.
This Ps. civ. is a recital of God's goodness to mankind in general,
as revelation teaches us to discern it in His works of nature ; Ps. cv.
specifies His wonders of mercy towards Israel in redeeming them
from Egyptian bondage, and placing them in the promised land ;
while Ps. cvi. commemorates in pathetic strains Israel's backslidings
after establishment in the promised land, together with the Lord's
renewal of favour to them after temporary punishment; until
for persistence in backsliding He permitted them to be carried
away captive from it, in which condition they appear to have
been when the psalm was written.
Moreover, these three psalms alike end with the words Hallelujah!
which is a further token of their having proceeded from the same
author. Certain expressions in this hundred and fourth psalm, such as that
in verse 9 concerning the sea, resembling those in Jer. v. 22, as also
the reference in verse 25 to the great wide sea — as if rolling before
his eyes — incline me to think that these psalms, might have been
written by Jeremiah, while expatriated in the Delta of Egypt,
where he died.
In the thirty-third and thirty -fourth verse the psalmist records
his purpose of heart in writing the psalm before us. Now, since
meditation must be practised by those who would adopt the
becoming resolve of the psalmist, but that our corrupt hearts are
inapt for it by lack of topics whereon to exercise our minds, this
psalm with the two following may be regarded as valuable helps
to meditation on the goodness of God to mankind in general, and to
His Church in particular.
After an introductory ascription of praise or adoration unto God
from the first verse to the end of the fourth, the psalmist commences
mention of God's goodness to mankind with reference to what
Scripture records to have been ordained by Jehovah after the flood,
as recorded in Gen. ix. 11 — 13. He then at verse 10, and onward
to end of verse 18, touches upon various 'departments wherein God's
goodness is to be discerned in nature — in the fact of the ocean- waters
being raised in mists freed from salt to the clouds, and deposited on
the earth in showers and mists and dews, so as to feed brooks and
rivers. ,He then describes, from the thirteenth to the end of the
fifteenth verse, how all vegetable and animal life along with that of
man is sustained thereby.
Then from the sixteenth to end of the eighteenth verse, having pre-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTH. 303
viously dwelt on the propagation of the domestic animals and
birds for man's use, and on the variety of fruits and flowers for
palatable nourishment or enlivenment of him, he points out God's
care over the several orders of wild creatures, in providing fit
places of habitation for each, whither the defenceless may retire
into security. At verse 19, he lifts up his reader's thoughts to
God's goodness in appointment of the moon for regulation of
seasons, and the sun for bringing in of day. Living, too, as the
psalmist did, in a climate where the fierce beasts of the forest
prowled about by night, he bids his reader thankfully admire the
goodness of God in disposing them to prefer the night for going
abroad, thus leaving man freedom to pursue his labour by day. He
then at verse 25 turns attention to the wonderful works of God in
the great and wide sea ; adding in verses 27, 28, a pious notice of
the countless multitudes which must thus in earth and ocean wait
upon their Creator for daily food — poetically speaking of it as
owing to the opening of His hand — while their hunger is from
the hiding of His face — and their death from His withdrawal of
their breath.
But at the thirtieth verse he records his sure expectation of
Jehovah's return to restore all things— a hop'e expressed in the
ninetieth psalm, at verse 13, for man, but here apparently for the
other creatures also, at least in the Lord's land, agreeably with
Isa. xi. 4 — 9, lxv. 17 — 25, and Jer. xxxi. 11 — 14 ; whereupon he
predicts in verse 31 that at a time forthcoming man shall not be
a blot and an eyesore any more on th© earth by his rebelliousness
against God, for the Lord shall rejoice in His works.
In conclusion, at verse 35, the psalmist rapturously hails the
day when this happy consummation of God's work in creation
shall have been realised; according to the purpose in His contem
plation, when He rested from His labours, and. pronounced every
thing He had made to be very good, (Gen. i. 31,) saying, " Let
sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no
more !" as predicted in Ps. xxxvii. 10, 11, adding, as at commence
ment, " Bless thou the Lord, O my soul ! Hallelujah !"
On this last form of praise Ainsworth observes, " This is the
first time of these words occurring in the Old Testament; and they
are found at mention of removal from the earth of every thing
that offendeth its Maker. In the New Testament also the first
place in which this form of praise occurs is in Rev. xix. 1, where
the heavenly Jerusalem praise God for His judgments on the
great whore who had corrupted the earth."
1.
My soul, bless thou Jehovah ! Oh, how great
My God, Jehovah, Thou ! with majesty
And honour clad ! Who didst the light create
For Thine enrobement — like a canopy
(2)

304 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTH.
Extending forth the heavens — and didst lay
Thy chamber-beams in waters. On a cloud
Dost Thou, as in a chariot, take Thy way;
Or walk on air ; or hast a winged crowd
Cherub and Seraph — 'fore Thy face in rev'rence
bow'd. 2.
By Thee in firm-bas'd course was laid the earth
Unswerving ; not to know or let or stop,
When the wide-sweeping deep earth's entire girth
Enwrapt in waters, and each mountain top
Engulph'd ! nor when, by Thy rebuke chas'd back,
And bid in peals of thunder haste away !
Up steep, down slope, the surges hold that track
Op'd at Thy bidding, till their tide they lay
Within its destin'd chamber; there to stay,
Nor evermore o'er earth to re-assert its sway.
3.
Yet did He bring the waters back o'er hill,
Down vale, by gentle dews and rains that streams
Should give each thirsting beast of drink its fill —
Yea, e'en the wild ass — and each bird that screams
In torrid region, or in fertile soil
Of genial climate warbles — should give food
For cattle — grain for man — yea, wine and oil !
He too gives creatures where to rear their brood
Secure — birds 'mid the cedar's tangled mass —
The pious1 stork in firs — but wild goats pass
O'er dizzy crags — while clifts in rocks the coney has.

The changeful moon for seasons, and the sun
To know his going down, did He ordain :
1 Ver. 17. >nTp/"T, "avis pia." Teste Aristotele, parentes senio confectas
nutrit, in volando fcssos juvat, portatque.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTH. 305
Thou lead'st the wild beasts forth when day is done !
Then lions roaring seek along the plain
Their meat from God ! but let them spy the day —
Though in a starving troop— back to their den
Skulk they and lay them down ! so man his way
Safe takes to labour, till at eve again
His home he keeps. Oh, how doth this array
Thy care, Jehovah, over all display —
How lavishly on earth dost Thou Thy riches lay !
5.
So too in this wide sea, where fish resort,
'Tribes great and small — The nautilus2 and eke
Leviathan — huge beast — take here their sport !
Here all of Thee their meat in season seek,
And what Thou giv'st them gather ! Thou Thy hand
Now op'nest — they are fill'd; now dost Thy face
Avert — they sicken ; then by Thy command
Their breath stops — they are dead ! yet in the place
Of these Thy Spirit shall of ev'ry band
Create new forms re-peopling sea and land !
6.
For ever shall Jehovah's works shew forth
His glory — ever He therein rejoice !
His will's supreme ! doth He but look in wrath —
Earth quakes ! hills touch' d — ignite ! Of these my
voice
Through life, Jehovah, unto Thee shall sing !
While breath lasts, unto Thee, my God, I'll pray—
With meditation worship offering !
God speed the time when none shall Him gainsay,
When on this earth no sinner more shall stay.
Sing Hallelujah, thou, my soul, this day !
* Ver. 26, frl*3M. translated " ships ;" but Thrupp observes that French
and Skinner with much probability render it "nautilus ;'' because that shell
fish rises in the fine weather from the bottom of the Mediterranean, and
lifts a tiny membrane like the sail of a ship to scud before the breeze. Should
Leviathan at his approach raise a surge, he cannot harm the Nautilus; it draws
in its membrane, and sinks to the bottom.
x (2)

306 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTH.

PSALM CV.

ARGUMENT.
According to the opinion expressed in the argument of the pre
ceding psalm, we have here set forth, as the second division of
the psalmist's subject, what God wrought for His chosen people
Israel, on making them a nation by bringing them out from Egyp
tian bondage.
What then was it which caused them to be, instead of a horde of
families, as they had up to that time been, the nation that they
thenceforward became ? It was not any alteration in their numbers^
for they were the same as before. It was simply this — that they,
for the first time, agreed to act in unison, and thus to acquire in
social respects a corporate capacity, for maintenance of those duties
which they thus collectively undertook.
The effect of this incorporation of them into a nation was, that
thenceforward in these respects, in which they agreed to act in
unison, it was no longer open to private families or to individuals
among them to discard what had been collectively agreed on ; they
could not thenceforward escape the penalties ensuing upon offence
against the national will, manifested in corporal punishments -,
independent of what evils might ensue to backsliders in body or
soul from the wrath of God.
What now was the first subject on which this horde of families
was seen to act, as one man, in a corporate capacity ? It was in
following one of their nation — Moses — whom the God of their
fathers — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — sent to them with power to
work miracles, as His accredited messenger, having authority to
call them after him. (Heb. xi. 29 ; 1 Cor. x. 2.)
Here is the prominent subject for meditation in this psalm ;
namely, that the families of Israel became a nation by choosing
the leader whom God gave unto them. (Ps. lxxvii. 20.) In con
sequence hereof they in due time proceeded to do other acts in
their national capacity — such as to make war, conclude peace,
pass civil laws, grant civil privileges.
Thus were they prepared to receive in a national capacity that
code of law, moral and ceremonial, shortly afterward delivered unto
them by God through Moses on Mount Sinai. (Deut. iv. 5 — 8.)
Now Moses was herein a type of Christ Jesus the Lord, Whom
God hath raised up from the dead, to be the Leader and Com
mander, or Lawgiver of the peoples. (Isa. lv. 4; Acts iii. 22.)
Moreover, God made Israel a pattern to other riations, (Eom. iii.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTH. 30T
27,) of what He would do for them by Christ Jesus, if they would
"observe His statutes and keep His laws," which are alone to be
most surely found in Holy Scripture.
Assuredly then the moral to be herefrom gathered isj that on no
one thing can a nation more laudably come to agreement in their
corporate capacity, than on this of having an Established Church.
Since nations only exist in this world, their blessings and chastise
ments as such are to be received in this life. Hence is there at all
times much overtaking the nation in its corporate capacity, irrespec
tive of what its individual members may receive from God accord
ing to their works, either in this life or in that to come.
The governors of a nation are representatives of the one moral
Governor, Almighty God ; and so long as they carry out the spirit
of His laws in their public administration, the nation is regarded
as faithful, although there may be an increasing number of malcon
tents. Thus, it was not until the administrators of the law in Israel
declined into idolatry, that God looked on the nation as backslidden.
There was idolatry very generally practised by the Israelites even
while under Moses, (Amos v. 25 — 27 ; Ezek. xx. 7 — 23 ; Acts vii.
42, 3,) but as it did not prevent the continuance of the Divine
worship according to law, God did not impute it to the nation, as
Balaam hoped that He would. (Numb. xxii. 20, 21.) The indivi
dual wrong-doers were reckoned with, but not the nation.
This subject deserves to be carefully pondered on by them that
would be lovers of their nation, as well as true Christians. The
true patriot, so far from being incompatible with the character of
the true Christian, is most matured therewith. (Jer. xxix. 7 ; Dan.
vi. 28.)
It is, however, to be further remembered, that in the redemption
of Israel out of Egypt is to be seen a figure of God's redemption of
believers in Jesus from out of bondage under sin and Satan into the
liberty of the new people incorporated with Jesus Himself in His
mystical body, (Eph. ii. 14 — 20,) who are sacramentally enrolled
in His visible Church, that they may "keep His statutes and ob
serve His laws." As such the beloved disciple, in the third chapter
of his first Epistle, at the first and two following verses, shews us
how we ought to walk to please God.
1.
Unto Jfehovah render thanks !
Upon His Name call ye ! make known.
His wondrous deeds among all ranks I
With voice of chantey and with tone
Of instrument His praise proclaim !
And glory in His holy Name !
x 2

308 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTH.
2.
Seek ye Jehovah, seek His strength,
His presence seek ye evermore !
The heighth and depth, the breadth and length
Of His dread counsels ponder o'er !
O seed of Abraham — His friend !
O Jacob's race, to this attend !
3.
Jehovah only is our God !
Unswervingly He keeps in mind
The cov'nant ratified with blood
For age on age to come design'd —
The covenant with Abram made —
To Isaac and Jacob convey 'd.
4.
" The land of Canaan unto thee —
The lot of your inheritance —
I'll give," (so witness'd the decree,)
When few and weak, by sufferance
They sojourn'd in it, and transferr'd
To neighbour-kingdoms, flock, and herd.

Their past'ral band He did protect,
Yea, for their sake did kings reprove :
" To Mine anointed have respect !
Hurt not the prophets, whom I love ! "
Moreover, for their sakes He spread
Thro' ev'ry land a dearth of bread.

But ere their coming He prepar'd
A man sold into slavery,
At first in iron bonds ensnar'd,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTH. 309
And sport of cruel knavery ;
Until found true, with sore distress
The word of God did Joseph press.
7.
Then sent the king to set him free,
And more — it pleas'd him to advance
The former slave to high degree
At court, for Egypt's maintenance ;
So Israel into Egypt came,
To sojourn in the land of Ham. ,

Great was His people's increase here,
The stronger part by far seem'd they
Of Egypt, till the king in fear
Eesolv'd their new-born sons to slay ;
Then God by Moses did direct
Their host, with Aaron— His elect.

These did His signs in Egypt shew,
But counter-signs obscurity'
Produc'd ; so from this snare they drew
A plea for full security :
Then in their river's vaunted flood
He turn'd the water into blood.
10.
Frogs next their land in shoals brought forth,
And — failing this their pride to crush —
The smitten dust to lice gave birth—
1 Ver. 28. The darkness here spoken of is by me taken to be that of per
plexity ; and as the Septuagint doctors leave out the negative particle $,
I follow them, and suppose this clause to shew whence the Egyptians drew
their congdeppe,

310 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTH.
A bane to the magician s touch ;
Then flies throughout the land were sent
In grievous swarms for punishment,
11.
With hail and lightning intermix'd
Their herds of cattle did He smite ;
Their trees too by His bolts transfix'd,
The stubborn despot did affright :
But — gaining that he did implore-—
His heart was harder than before.

12.
Then spake Jehovah, and did bring
Unnumber'd locusts — band on band —
To closely browse on each green thing,
Or herb or fruit-tree through the land:
He also did their first-born slay,
And fill'd their kingdom with dismay.
13.
When Israel left th' Egyptian coast,
With wealth untold made to abound,
In all the thousands of their host
One feeble person was not found ;
At their departing Egypt had
No little reason to be glad.
14.
For Israel did Jehovah spread
A cloud t' abate by day the light,
Or with its fire overhead
To dissipate the gloom of night :
He brought them quails, and from the sky
Kain'd manna round them constantly.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH. 311
15.
With water from the rock their need
Supplied He — faithful in regard
For Abraham, and to his seed
Did Canaan's fertile plains award,
Then through the ages all along
Let Hallelujah be your song!

PSALM CVI.

ARGUMENT.
In this psalm is set forth, as has been above supposed, the
third division of the writer's material for meditation on the
goodness of God. This consists of the Lord's acts of mercy
exhibited in His long-suffering endurance of Israel's backslidings
in the promised land, ere He sent them into that captivity of
seventy years' duration, which appears to have been going for
ward when the psalm was written.
Seeing then that the psalmist speaks not here, as in the psalm
preceding, of His wondrous works for Israel's redemption, but
of " His mercy which endureth for ever," it seems to me that
the mighty acts specified in the second verse are strictly those
declaratory of mercy. On this supposition, when reading in the
next verse, "Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that
doeth righteousness at all times," followed by the prayer, " Remem
ber me, O Lord, with the favour that Thou bearest unto Thy
people," the psalmist, as it seems to me, would have us conclude,
that "the Lord's people," who do righteousness at all times, do
so through " the favour " or grace obtained by prayer, after the
manner in which the psalmist seeks it : so that the righteousness
spoken of is not supposed to be wrought in one's own strength,
(which would make the reward spoken of in the fifth verse to
be of debt, not of grace, Rom. iv. 4,) but in the strength of Him
" Who ordains peace for us ; Who also has wrought all our
works in us." (Isa. xxvi. 12.)
Thus His elect or " chosen " make their calling and election
sure — have proof that they are of " His nation," (Exod. xix. 6;
1 Pet. ii. 9,) and are of the number constituting " His inheritance."
(Deut. xxxii. 9.) Here is' to be perceived the agreement in
this matter between the psalmist and David, who in Ps. xiv. 5~7,

312 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH.
shews that the righteous in God's sight are not they who trust
in themselves to be so, (Luke xviii. 9,) but " make the Lord
their refuge," by taking "His counsel" in a meek spirit, as
at verse 13 of this hundred and sixth psalm the writer testifies
that their fathers in the wilderness would not do. Hence the
psalmist must (by collation of the context with verse 3) be
understood to testify, that he who " doeth righteousness at all
times," doth this of mercy, as a man of prayer, in hope of the
Lord working in and by him,»not for his own worthiness, but
for His Name's sake, as He did for Israel at the Red Sea,
(See ver. 8.)
" The righteousness of God " therefore held up to contemplation
in this psalm agrees with that set forth "by David in Ps. xxxii.,
explained by St. Paul in Rom. iv. 1 — 8 already referred to; and
is further exemplified by what is written in verse 7, to the re
proach of the Israelites, that " they understood not His wonders
in Egypt" — and inverse 12 to their credit, that " they believed
His words " — as also in what is written of Phinehas, whose zeal
for God, as one clothed with authority by God to judge and
execute sentences, in the absence of assistants, inflicted God's
judgment with his own hands — an act " counted to him for righ
teousness " — that is, not intrinsically righteous, but through the
mercy of God in Christ, Who is the salvation of His people,
(Luke ii. 30,) " imputed unto him for righteousness." At the
same time, the condemnation here pronounced upon the Israelites
for not " understanding God's wonders in Egypt" — for not " wait
ing for His counsel," (verse 13,) for " seeking of God flesh-meat,
rather than grace" for the soul, (verse 15,) for " forgetting God
their Saviour, and changing His glory into the similitude of an ox
that eateth grass," (verse 20,) for " despising the pleasant land,"
(verse 24,) and " not destroying the nations, as the Lord in mercy
to their susceptibility had commanded" — shews how, in the
psalmist's conviction, (under the guidance of Christ's Spirit,) sanc
tification, though distinguishable from justification, is in practice
never to be separated from it by them that would follow up their
prayer to " be of God's chosen" with acts suited to their words ;
seeing that God has extended unto the penitent believers in
His promise concerning the gift of salvation Christ's righteousness
to be imputed to them for faith only, that they may employ this
state of justification in asking (as doth the psalmist at verse 4)
for grace "in the name of the Lord" — that grace being most
mercifully exhibited in the free bestowal of His Spirit for their
renewal from day to day.
Thus it is that the psalmist, in verse 3, brings forward the man
" who doeth righteousness at all times," as he who " understands "
best from experience how to speak according to " the Lord's
counsel " of His mercy. Although the psalmist, in verse 4, doubt
less had regard to the promised settlement of a chosen generation

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH. 313.
of Israel in the Lord's land ; never more to gb out, while the sun
3i,nft moon should endure, (Ps. xxii. 25 — 31 ; xiv. 15 — 17,) yet
had he, we are persuaded, regard also to that hope which had
been held out to bur first parents even in paradise by the institution
of : the Sabbath, to which Abraham himself looked, (Heb. xi. 10,)
knowing that the inheritance on earth should be entered on by a
remote generation of his natural descendents, preparatory to that
into which he himself should gain admission in rest with God,
(Heb. iv. 10.)
The materials for meditation on this division of the psalmist's
subject are now before us ; and although expressly spoken of the
psalmist's own people, are transferable to God's people of every
age and nation. There is not an instance in which the psalmist
here called on his countrymen to own how wonderful had been
God's mercy to their forefathers or to them, but the child of God
can therein heartily acknowledge himself to have experienced at
the Lord's hand like oompassion.
The Israelites in general, at outset on their journey out of Egypt,
may be supposed to have taken up language similar to that of the
psalmist in verses 3 — 5. (See Deut. v. 27, 28, cotnpared with
Heb. xi. 29.) Let the reader then, after the psalmist's manner,
carry his thoughts back to that early morning of life when, if born
of Christian parents, and taught in the Church Catechism the
rudiments of the faith in which he had been baptized, he embraced
it fervently, and in simplicity of heart offered unto God such a
prayer as that in verses 3—5.
On looking back, how truly can he say, that like as the Israelites
in Egypt "understood not" God's wonders there, so neither did
he those of redemption by Christ crucified— how that he needed to
trust for justification in the merits of Christ into Whom he had at
baptism been buried, that so he might be incorporated by Christ
with Himself, to have Christ's riches for his. Nevertheless, at his
confirmation the Lord wrought in him according to his vow " for
His Name's sake." (Ver. 8.) And though he hath since " forgat
His works, and not waited for His counsel," (ver. 13,) but " lusted
exceedingly in the wilderness," (ver. 14,) and '' forgat God for
idols," (ver. 21,) and " thought scorn of the land that is very far
off," (ver. 24,) and "would not cast out the enemies of the Lord
within him, so that the Lord abhorred His own inheritance,"
(ver. 40,) for the Lord's portion is His people, yet may he not
glorify God for His Mercy in the psalmist's words at verse 43,
" Many times did He deliver them ; but they provoked Him with
their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity ; nevertheless
He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry : and He re
membered for them His covenant, and repented according to the
multitude of His mercies ? " Here then is abundant subject for
meditation on the mercy of God towards one in the use of His grace
under the covenant into which he was brought at his baptism. If

814 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH.
then there is hope for Israel in calling upon God under; the bond
of the covenant sealed in the Saviour's blood, (see Deut. iv. 30<=!-81,)
so too is there for each of us.
This is the reason of the sacraments being to the believer so full
of comforts ; which openly, in the way appointed of God, seal his
faith in Christ, and certify to him on God's part^in that of
baptism his admission into the covenant— and in that of the Lord's
Supper his continuance therein.
Thus the hundred and fourth psalm shews what God has done
for us all in nature ; the hundred and fifth what He has done in
Christ for them that by grace believe in Him ; while this hundred
and sixth shews what He must do in us for our renewal in the
image of Christ : the proof whereof is to be sought in what He
shall be found to do by us in answer to our prayers.
In this way may we hope for much help from these three psalms
in the exercise of meditations to which we are so inapt ; and make
the psalmist's words in Ps. civ. 33 — 84, our own, " I will sing
unto the Lord as long as I live : I will sing praise to my God
while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet ; I
will be glad in the Lord."

1.
Hallelujah ! to Jehovah
Give ye thanks, for good is He !
Lo, His mercy is for ever-!
Who can praise Him worthily ?

2.
Who His mighty acts can repkon^—
Acts whereby the fall'n to raise 1
Say ye, whose intent's direct on
Righteousness through all your days.

Of Thy grace in this Thy nation,
O Jehovah, let me be !
With Thy plenteous salvation,
Given freely, visit me !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH. 315
4.
Then the good lot of Thy chosen
Mine shall be ! yea, I shall share
With Thy saints ; and Thee repose on,
Whose inheritance they are.
5.
Sin, alas ! our race has tainted
Sire and son have perverse been ;
So our sires were unacquainted
With what Egypt's signs might mean.

Yet for His Name's sake, He wrought there !
Thro' the Red Sea's parted wave
He His Israel safely brought, where
Their pursuers found a grave.

Then our sires His words respected,
Glad His praises to proclaim :
But, impatient, soon neglected
By His word their ways to frame.
8. _.,
In the wilderness, when wanting
Flesh, they trust in God decried :
Then their wish, too facile,1 granting
He their souls His grace denied !
Ver. 15. . So Juv. " Sat." x. 7— ^ . .
" Bvertere domos totas, optantibus ipsis,
Dii faciles."

316 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH.
9.
In the camp they Moses envied;
Aaron too— Jehovah's priest ;
Only when that crew descended
'Neath the earth, their murmurs ceas'd.

10.
Yea, of God they chang'd the glory
To a calf of metal wrought ;
Saying, see the God before ye
Israel through the Red Sea brought.

11.

Then was God Himself disposed
To destroy them ; but with prayer
Moses timely interposed
That His Israel He would spare !

\2.

Spar 'd— they faithlessly despised
That good, land He bade them earn ;
And within their tents devised,
How to Egypt to return.

13.
In the wilderness then sware He
Our sires' bodies He'd lay low —
And their seed oppress'd, and barely
Clad, strange tribes and lands should know !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH. 317'
14.
But our sires a doom far heavier
For their souls by sin prepar'd,
When in rites of Baal-peor
And in dead men's feasts they shar'd.

15.
'Mongst them rag'd a plague— then up stood
Phinehas, whose avenging blade
Took two chief offenders' life-blood,
And the wrath provok'd allay'd..

16.

For Jehovah was he. jealous—
'Mongst a throng bold in excess-
And to him, the Scriptures tell us,
Counted 't was for righteousness.

17.
But when them, through thirst impeaching
God's care, Moses did repress ;
For their sakes God chid him — teaching,
Man's wrath works not righteousness.

18.

Neither did their seed, when sharing
Canaan, more obedience pay —
Heedlessly those nations sparing,
Which Jehovah bade them slay.

318 Psalm the hundred and sixth.
19,
Join'd in wedlock with the stranger,
They the idol-service learnt ;
But they most mov'd God to anger
With their babes to Moloch burnt !

20.
Now Jehovah sent disasters
His own people to perplex,
Making heathen kings their masters,
Who by wrongs their souls should vex.

21.
Oft as they with sorrow broken
In true faith on Him relied,
He restor'd their pow'r, in token
By His cov'nant He'd abide.

22.
Yea, when froni their land He drave them,
For their gross iniquity,
He with strangers favour gave them,
Contrite in Captivity.

Oh, Jehovah, of Thy mercies
Us from midst the heathen bring
So our tribes, for past reverses
Wiser, unto Thee shall sing I

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTH. 319
24.
Oh, Jehovah ! be Thou praised,
Israel's God ! and be this strain,
Hallelujah ! by us raised
Once more in our land ! Amen !

Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

%mi hum nf tlj? ^afor,
FIFTH BOOK.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK OF BSALMS-

This last book will, upon examination, be found as interesting
in its very structure as any of the preceding ones.
While it may be concluded from internal evidence that the
closing psalms of the fourth book were written and assigned
their present place among the psalms during the captivity in
Babylon ; so may it, that this one hundred and seventh, wherewith
the last book is commenced, was given its present place after
the return of the Jews from thence.
Moreover, like as it was observed that the first and second
psalms were made by David to be representative of the leading
subjects dwelt on in the rest of those arranged by him, namely,
Christ and the people of Christ — so we here perceive that the
contents of this one hundred and seventh psalm shew it to have
been intended to indicate the main subject treated of in the rest
of. this last book.
1 his psalm is divided as nearly as possible into six equal por
tions ; whereof the first four mysteriously prefigure, as it appears
fo me, the return from time to time of Israelites left yet in tbe
four quarters of the world, spoken of in verse 3, on hearing of
the happy return which, at the time of this psalm being written,
G-od had, according to His promise by Jeremiah, granted to the
Jews out of Babylon.
After these the last two portions, beginning with verse 31, (iu
significant accordance with the course of events befalling those
Jews that had returned to their own land, or should subse
quently do so,) notify that their continuance therein would be
contingent on their pious adherence to the law of their God : or,
otherwise, that they should experience national reverses, even as
before, and " wandering in the wilderness where there is no

2 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK.
way," verse 40, exactly as happened to them after their national
rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ : and shall yet again happen
to them if they be minded in any numbers to return and re-
occupy, with the permission of Gentile Powers, their own land,
verses 33, 34 ; but without belief in His word, verse 20, which
He sent to heal them. See Zech. xiv. and Isa. vi. 11 — 13.
It is further observable, that this psalm apparently prefigures
the order of the final return of the tribes, according to verse 3,
from every quarter, and foretokens the principle of faith in God'
wherewith they shall at length be prepared to do so nationally
and irreversibly.
If this sketch of the scope of this hundred and seventh psalm
can be sustained, it proves it to be one of far-reaching compre
hensiveness, adapted to the condition of the Jews, whether in
their own land or in exile, during the whole period destined to
intervene between their return from the captivity in Babylon,
and their final establishment in their own land under their trium
phant Messiah, "healed by His word, and sacrificing the sacrifices
of thanksgiving, and declaring His works with rejoicing," verse
22. After this sublime exordium follows in the hundred and eighth,
a psalm evidently compiled out of Ps. lvii. 7 — 11, and lx. 5 — 12 ;
which, as it seems to me, was intended by the constructor of this
fifth book to dove-tail, as it were, the hundred and seventh on
those that should follow. Accordingly we suppose the subse
quent ones to have been first collected together in their present
order, whereupon the compiler perceived his collection to be in
want of such a psalm as the hundred and seventh for an intro
duction thereto, and the hundred and eighth for the link between
them, The ohequered course of Christ on earth and of the people of
Christ apparently form the themes of this fifth book as of the
the first, and the intermediate ones. And like as elsewhere in
the prophetic parts of Scripture it is to be observed that the
blessings to descend on Israel are first mentioned, but the
reverses are set down afterwards ; as if the Seer was like a

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK. 6
person standing upon the brink of a precipice whence lay tho
vast plain outrolled before him bounded by mountains, and
that he first fixed his eyes on those lofty objects farthest off —
returning gradually to notice of the nearer objects ; even so
Seers, as it seems .to me, usually first looked in vision at the
glorious issue of Israel's trials in the far-off future — and then
contemplated the accumulated trials to be undergone pre
paratory thereto. In this manner the hundred and eighth psalm
treats of Israel's victories over neighbouring tribes and peoples
under God's David or beloved, of whom the literal David was
a type — Ps. Ixxxix; while the hundred and ninth provides a
psalm for contemplation from the pen of David, purely Messianic,
as it would seem to me ; being descriptive of what Christ alone
should undergo in His own person for His people's deliverance,
when, as their King, He should " go before them and fight their
battles."— 1 Sam. viii. 20.
Then follows in the hundred and tenth a psalm of David, also
purely Messianic, referred to by our Lord Himself in Matth. xxii.
43, 44 ; wherein are foreshadowed, the spiritual victories gained
by our Lord over the princes of this world through the purchase of
the Spirit of adoption for men's renewal by His sacrificial death ;
and His resurrection in order to plead it. before His Father in
heaven, as the High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
After ,this follow two psalms constructed on the same model;
being both acrostic ; and, as it seems to me, descriptive — the
former of what Christ should do for redemption of Israel in His
own Person alone (verse 9) ; the latter, in the persons of His
believing people, for their effectual establishment in what He
alone had earned, that they might be "joint heirs through Him."
Gal. iv. 7, and Ps. cxii. 7 — 10.
After this we have in the next six psalms the Minor Hallel, or
Song of Praise, which in all probability from the time of this
book being compiled used to be sung at the Paschal Supper ,
as it unquestionably was at the time of our Lord becoming our
Passover (1 Cor. v. 7) ; like as the twenty-second was subsequently
sung by Him when on the cross. Compare Matt. xxvi. 30 and
b 2

4 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK.
xxvii. 46. "We need but to think of these six psalms, as sung at
that eventful supper by our Saviour Himself, to own that we have
here as moving and tenderly pathetic words for contemplation as
any to be found in the whole compass of Scripture ! The mingled
strains of triumph in dwelling on God's glory, and of heart
rending anguish when deprecating the outrage done to the
Divine Majesty by our sins laid upon our Saviour, ending in
the hundred and eighteenth in anticipation of His resurrection
for our sakes, to make us partakers in His inheritance, to the
glory of His Father, is such an outpouring of Divine love as
must not only in this life, but through eternity, make tears of
joy and gratitude gush forth afresh from the hearts that contem
plate it.
The Minor Hallel or Song of Praise is succeeded by the
hundred and nineteenth psalm : — a marvellous composition —
which some (with whom I agree) incline to think was written
by Daniel in captivity in Babylon towards the end of his course ;
with the intention of depicting by a retrospect of bis own event
ful experience as " the man greatly beloved," how those of his
countrymen should aim at living before God, who on their return
to their own land at the time predicted by Jeremiah would wish
to abide in His love unto their life's end !
Then follow the psalms entitled " Songs of degrees," or as I
prefer calling them " Songs of ascension," meaning (as I think)
lifting up of the heart and mind to God in heaven. For it seems
to me that during the captivity in Babylon there was especial
need of authoritative warrant for such direct lifting up of the
heart unto God in heaven, as enjoined in Deut. iv. 29-31.
For it is to be remembered that the Jews from the time of
the Lord having given them a place in their own land where His
glory should appear (Deut. xii. 10, 11), had been authorised to
turn their faces thitherward to pray unto Him ; where the sacri
fices, designed to foreshadow the way of reconciliation through
the blood of Christ, were daily offered up. When therefore the
temple, in which these sacrifices could alone be offered according
to law, was destroyed and the Jews carried captive to Babylon,

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK. 5
lt might have appeared that they were individually shut out from
crying unto their God in prayer, even as they were nationally
shut out from doing so in their collective capacity.
Accordingly, these psalms of ascension (some of which were
composed by David and by Solomon, who occasionally testified
that they lifted up their hearts unto God in the heavens and
prayed— Ps. v. 3, and 1 Kings viii. 22, 23 -although ordinarily
turning the face towards the mercy-seat in the Temple on earth
— Ps. v. 7) being, as it seems to me, authoritatively set forth for
use of pious Jews in the places of worship by the river of
Babylon (Ps. cxxxvii), were, upon the compilation of this last
book, placed together in the order in which we now find them,
with the titles they now bear, in order to notify their distinctive
character. For it is to be remembered that, agreeably with the
above written exposition of the hundred and seventh psalm, it was
foreseen by its composer that the Jews for their transgressions
should subsequently to their happy return out of Babylon provoke
national reverses in their land, verses 33, 34 ; and expulsion from
it, verses 39, 40. So that the expatriated people of God, dwelling
many days, as Hosea foresaw (ch. iii. 4), " without a king and
without a prince and without a sacrifice," might yet want the
authoritative warrant furnished by these psalms with their signifi
cant titles, that the God of Abraham in cutting them off nationally
from worship of Him, (which might only be with sacrifice) had
not cut them off individually therefrom wherever they might be.
In support of this meaning assigned by me to the titles of these
psalms it is to be observed that they all contain direct addresses
to God in heaven.
They are fifteen in number, from the hundred and twentieth
to the hundred and thirty-fourth inclusive.
After this follow two psalms, the hundred and thirty-fifth and
sixth, which are evidently a pair : and may have been of very
ancient composition.
The hundred and thirty- seventh is seen from internal evidence
to have been composed by one like Ezekiel, while suffering the
privations of exile in Babylon.

b INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK.
The hundred and thirty- eighth, ninth, fortieth, forty-first,
forty-second, and forty-third, are psalms of David, to which a
place appears to have been at length assigned in the book of
Scripture, after having been previously used by the Temple choir,
as inspired hymns, since the time of their having been written by
the Koyal Psalmist, and delivered to them for use in the worship
of God.
The last seven may be regarded as intended to close the book
with predictions of Israel's final triumph under Messiah, and
praise of the Most High. God through Him — as well for the
wonders of Creation as of Redemption.
If this survey of the contents of the fifth book be found gene
rally correct, it must surely be acknowledged that for loftiness of
conception and sublimity in its strains it in no wise falls behind
those that precede it.

PSALM CVII.

ARGUMENT.
Commentators in general agree in thinking that this psalm
was written about the time of the return from the Captivity in
Babylon. From the 22nd verse, where it is written
" Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,"
it may be concluded, that at the time of its being written the
temple was not standing ; as also, from its words in the 7th verse,
" He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a
city of habitation ;"
and again at the 36th verse :
" And there He maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may
prepare a city for habitation "—
that Jerusalem was not then standing, but needed to be re
built. This psalm was written to shew, that " God ruleth in Jacob
unto the ends of the earth." — Ps. lix. 13. And it appears to
have been placed at the commencement of this fifth and last
book of psalms to notify the leading subject thereof: to wit, the
general return of the descendants of Jacob unto their own land,
after that they had repented of their unbelief and cried unto the
Lord from the land of their captivity ; according as God had pro
mised by Moses in Deut. iv. 25 — 31.
The repentance of those to whom should be granted by God
the restoration to their own land, here held up to their longing
expectation, is carefully insisted on in each of the four portions—
apparently corresponding to the four quarters of the earth
whence they should be redeemed — the verses to this effect being
the 6th, 13th, 19th, and 28th ; after which, in the remaining por
tion of this psalm, from verse 31 to 43, it is intimated, that even
when they shall have so returned out of Babylon, their con
tinuance in the land of their forefathers shall only depend upon
their faithful adherence to the Lord God of Israel.
Each of the portions into which the psalm is to be divided
commences with an exhortation to render thanks unt6 God.
The first portion is from the first verse to the end of the 7th ;
the second, from the 8th to the end of the 14th ; the third, from

8

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH.

the loth to the end of the 20th ; the fourth, from the 21st to the
end of the 30th.
These four portions appear to correspond to the four quarters
whence it was anticipated by the psalmist, at verse 3, that the de
scendants of Jacob should be moved to return. The psalmist's own
fellow-captives would have come only out of the north, (Jer. i. 14,
15,) that is from Babylon. But by legends still existing in places
where theJews are to this day found it appears, that long before
the captivity in Babylon, descendants of Jacob, whether Jews or
Israelites, had migrated to Affghanistan eastward ; and again that
other colonies had settled in Lesghistan and Dhagistan at the
base of the Caucasian range, as also in the Crimean peninsula,
and even in Spain and Bohemia, which would be westward. The
ten tribes had been carried by the Assyrians northward, and the
psalmist appears to have looked for the return of some among
these from time to time upon their repentance, for the sake of
being united again under the house of David. Ps. cxxxii. 17.
Lastly, the recent researches of missionaries in Abyssinia have
revealed to us the existence of Jews under the name of Falashas
or strangers in that country, from a period long prior to the cap
tivity in Babylon.
These would be they that should come from " the South ;" or,
as the psalmist has it, " from the sea," — meaning the Red Sea,
which is to the south of Palestine.
There can be little doubt that the psalmist in the 3rd verse had
before his mind the prediction in Isaiah xliii. 3— C ; and if so, he
has altered ] B Mi], which signifies 'south,' and is also a name
for Edom, as being south of Palestine, to 0», "the sea;" also
signifying ' south,' because of the Red Sea being south of the.
Holy Land. There would, as it appears to us, be a reason for
this ; owing to Nebuchadnezzar, in his way to Egypt, having deso
lated Edom some years after the captivity of the Jews was com
menced in Babylon, (see Ps. cxxxvii. 7), which had not recovered
therefrom; so that the return of the psalmist's countrymen from
the south must be looked for further off than Edom — namely,
from Abyssinia and from the interior of Africa. Now as Isaiah
had in ch. xi. 15, 16, predicted a miraculous passage of the re
turning Israelites from the South, it appears to me that the
psalmist's description in ver. 21 — 30 of those Israelites that were
to be looked for from the ' sea' or South, pointed to those who,
on hearing of God's mercy to the Jews iu Babylon, being moved
to repentance towards the Lord God of their fathers, should
in the ordinary way encounter the perils of the sea on their
return. This manner of the Israelites' return, in the ordinary way
rather than in that miraculous one in Is. xi. 15, makes me con
clude that the same manner of return by Israelites from the
other quarters was here contemplated by the psalmist.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH. V
Their own return out of Babylon, though in accordance with
the prediction of Jeremiah (2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, and Ezra i.)
was accomplished in the ordinary way ; as also was that by Ezra,
(ch. vii. 6) eighty years afterwards ; as may be seen by his words
in ch. viii. 18- — 23 and 32. Considering, then, that this psalm,
agreeably with the foregoing conjectures, was written to describe
how God's protection was to be looked for in the ordinary course
of His Providence by those Israelites that should repent towards
Him, rather than in the miraculous way indicated in Ps. lxvi. 5, 6,
it has a special interest for us of the Gentiles who believe in
Him through the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; although we
of the Gentiles do not share in those special promises concerning
the return of penitent Israelites to their own land.
For this hundred and seventh psalm, in this former part of
it, from verse 1 to 30, treats of the return of penitent Israelites
from the four quarters of the earth to their own land, whensoever
they may hear of God's favour being shewn to a great body of
the Jews in the course of His Providence by bringing about their
return thither, as He did in the days of Cyrus and the succeeding
Kings of Persia ; consequently it is a model for the self- regulation
of Israelites at this very day ; seeing that those, who returned
from Babylon, provoked Goa to inflict upon them a further dis
persion which continues even now.
Viewed in this light it is of interest to us of the Gentiles, who
believe in Jesus, to observe how the God of Abraham " ruleth in
Jacob unto the ends of the earth." Ps. lix. 13 ; also cvii. 42, 43.
We, who are of the only remnant of the true Israelites at this
present, may gather hence for our comfort, how faithful is our
covenant -keeping God; how in His ordinary providential rule
He bringeth His predictions concerning Israel to fulfilment : and
not solely by the suspension of the laws of nature in a miraculous
manner ; as He will do, at the close of this age in the kingdom
of heaven. Matt. xxiv. 31 ; Is. lx. lxvi. 19, 20; Mai. i. 11.
According to this view of the hundred and seventh psalm, it is
to be distinguished into two sections ; the former extending from
the 1st verse to end of the 30th ; the latter from verse 3 1 to verse 43.
Again the former is distinguishable into four portions, corre
sponding with the four quarters whence the psalmist in vision
contemplated, that penitent Israelites, on hearing of God's great
goodness in bringing the captive Jews out of Babylon, might be
moved from time to time to seek their own land either individually
or in companies.
These four portions apparently describe, in the order wherein
the quarters of the world are mentioned in the third verse, the
special perils and distresses characterising return from each
quarter. First, the distresses of those coming from the East, as from
Afghanistan, and entering the land of Palestine from the desert

10 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH.
on the eastern side of the Jordan, are described from the 4th verse
to the end of the 7th.
Secondly, those returning from the West are described in the
verses from 8 to 14, from Colchis, Pontus, Spain, and Bohemia.
Their characteristic affliction appears to have been the condemna
tion to serve those nations amongst whom they dwelt in the
extreme of comfortless oppression.
Thirdly, those returning from the North, are described from
the 15th to the end of the 20th verse ; and here the psalmist more
especially speaks of his fellow-captives that should come forth in
penitence from beyond Babylon. Acts vii. 43. We trace in the
16th verse a reference to Isaiah's prediction in ch. xiv. 1, 2 ; and
here is one of the coincidences on which the adaptation of the
former part of this psalm in four portions to the four quarters of
the world in verse 3 is presumed to rest. A further coincidence to
the same effect is to be detected in the 20th verse, where mention
is alone made of God " sending His word and healing " those that
returned out of the North, or " through the gates of brass :" For
this was what God actually did by Ezekiel and Daniel, (Ezek. xiii.
9) : so that there was at the end of the seventy years a sufficient
number of penitent Jews in Babylon for whom God had worked
the predicted deliverance by Cyrus.
Fourthly, that quarter of the world — the South — which the
psalmist designated in verse 3, a return from the Sea, is appro
priately made, as it seems to us, the occasion of describing what
the penitent Israelites, returning out of Abyssinia or farther,
should undergo from storms at sea.
The latter portion of this pathetic psalm, from verse 31 to the
end, describes, as it seems to us, what it would be indispensably
needful for the psalmist's fellow-countrymen on returning out of
Babylon to do, in order that their continuance in their own land
might be prolonged.
They were to reverently observe the Providential rule of the
Most High over the seasons ; and not to think that because God
had restored them to their own land, they might cultivate it in
security— regardless of His will, deeming their fine climate and
rich soil, and industry, all that was needed to make them pros
perous. Instead of that, they are prophetically warned by the psalmist,
that if they do not wisely observe God's goodness and wonderful
dealing with them in Providential ordering of their seasons —
dwelling upon these topics in the congregation of the people, and
in the assembly of the elders — they might provoke their God to
withhold the rain and dew, indispensable for sowing and growth
of their crops. They were also to know that it is He alone makes
the population increase ; or the beasts of the field, on which they
should in part subsist. For this strain of warning the psalmist
seems to have derived his warrant from the older books of Scrip-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH. 11
ture in that day, such as Deut. viii. 10— 20 ; and Judges ii.
iii. iv.
Also in what he saith in verse 41 about the Lord "setting the poor
on high from affliction and making him families like a flock of
sheep," he may be considered to have referred to what God did
for Gideon. (Judg. vi. 11, and viii. 32.) If it should seem un
likely that the psalmist should have here referred to God's dealing
with Israel so far back ; it will be of advantage to observe, that in
verse 40 he clearly refers to Job xii. 21 — 25, where occur the very
words; and where it becomes plain, that by God making the
rebellious inhabitants of His land to " wander in the wilderness,
where there is no way," is figuratively meant, the frustration of
the counsels of the powerful ones among them, so as not to know
what to do for the best ;— society being dissolved into its elements ;
and no one in sufficient authority. Ps. lxxv. 3 — 7.
We who live at this late stage of the Church's progress on
earth see to what an extent the Jews, by slighting these warning
words of the psalmist, provoked the infliction on them of wrath
from God to the full end of a term fore-ordained to be inflicted
if they should provoke it. 1 Thess. ii. 14 — 16.
Now this latter section of the hundred and seventh psalm is of
direct interest to us Christians. For we in our several lands where
God has settled us (Deut. xxxii. 8), being since the Apostles'
days blessed with the light of revealed truth, and having the same in
alliance with the Government, as God in His Providence appointed
should be the privilege of His own people, are clearly under the
like obligation to trace all the increase of our population or of
our cattle, or of the fruits of the earth, to the direct Providence
of God — and not to give place for an instant to those among us
who with a great deal of learning and science would persuade us
that for God to interfere with the course of the seasons, which
He once established, is an impossibility.
The only issue of such profane abuse of the reasoning powers,
through unbelief in revelation, is to provoke God to " pour
contempt upon our princes, and cause them to wander in the
wilderness where there is no way," — by condemning us to the
misery of drought and decline of population and civil dissension.
When we read in the last verse the question, ' ' W ho is wise and
will observe these things ?" let us be minded to say with fervour,
that we will — that we may receive by God's blessing grace to
understand herein the loving-kindness of the Lord For such
of us as are upright, may now see by what He hath done to the
Jews cause for joy herein ; because of all iniquity " being com
pelled, if looking at what He hath done in this respect to the
Jews, to stop her mouth."

Give thanks unto Jehovah ! good is He !
Unfailingly His mercy doth endure !

12 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH.
So let His ransom'd ones, in spirit poor,
Confess, by Him sav'd from the enemy,2
From divers lands brought to one company,
Or from the sun-rise or the shade obscure
Of night, or from the North, or Red Sea o'er.
They wander'd in their lone3 way wearily,
Nor found one city that would yield them rest ;
Hungry4 and thirsty, faintness seized their soul :
Then did Jehovah, when they thus distress'd
Call'd on Him, of His mercy make them whole ;
Into His upright way5 their hearts He press'd,6
That in His city they might find their goal.7
. 2.
Let men Jehovah for His goodness praise,
And for His wondrous dealings with their race.
From souls doth He all sense of need efface —
Yea hungry souls feeds in His bounteous ways.
Those that in gloom and wildering amaze
Sit, bound by judgment in that piteous case,
Because they made light of God's promises,
And did rebellion 'gainst the counsel raise
Of the Most High : So He their hearts brought
down
With toil ; nor would one help them in their fall.
Then they their guilt did to Jehovah own
And He releas'd them from their weary thrall.

1 Ver. 2. See verse 41, explained by Matt. v. 31 ; Is. lxi. 1.
2 Ver. 2. See Jer. xxxi. 1 6 ; Ps. viii. 2.
3 Ver. 4. There seems to me a marked antithesis between "P^T 'pIi',B?,,2
in this verse and mt&? "H"?.!? m verse 7 — this latter I take to be the way of
justification as set forth in Ps. Ixxxv. 13 — the former, that way of self-jnstifi-
cation before God charged on a school among the Israelites in Ps. xiv. 6, and
by our Lord in Luke xviii. 9, and adhered to generally by Jews to this day
wheresoever they are. Thus the prediction in Numb, xxiii. 9 is fulfilled, and
Ps. lix. 11—14.
* Ver. 5. Is. xlix. 10.
5 Ver. 7. Is. xxx. 18—26.
6 Ver. 7. Acts xviii. 5.
7 Ver. 7. There also seems a marked antithesis between the cities in verse 4,
which would not receive the Israelites, and " His city."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH. 13
Now were their galling bands asunder thrown,
And they brought out from under death's dark pall.
3.
Praise to Jehovah for His goodness give !
For all His wondrous dealings with our race.
For He did burst sheer8 through the gates of brass
And bars of iron did asunder rive.
Fools, for their wantonness,9 in trouble live —
For all their hardihood in wickedness.
Depriv'd of healthful vigour thro' excess,
No dish to tempt their soul can they contrive,
And to the very gates of death draw near.
Then to Jehovah in their strait they cry
And He delivers them from all their fear :
His prophets sent He, that should testify
How good His word, and heal'd those that would
hear,
Relieving them from their sore misery.
4.
Oh for His goodness give Jehovah praise,
For all His wondrous dealings with mankind.
Into His presence bring a thankful mind
For sacrifice, and laud Him in His ways.
They that in ships1 at sea employ their days
And trade, dread tokens of Jehovah find :
For at His word up springs the stormy wind,
To lift its waves and scatter high their sprays,
Or sink them to th' abyss ; while to and fro,
As drunken men, the stagg'ring sailors reel.
8 As it appears to me that Babylon shall be rebuilt, this is in anticipation of
what shall happen at a future day. Compare Ps. exxxvii. 8.
9 Ver. 17. Compare Jer. xxix. 4 — 7 with 19—32.
1 Ver. 23. The expression " do business in great waters'' points to more
than mere voyagers. So that it seems to me in this psalm, while the special
dangers characterising each quarter whence Israelites shall be gathered at the
Lord's coming again are primarily described, sundry ways are in each quarter
indicated wherein the elect among them of each generation shall in the interim
be turned unto God.

14 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH.
Then crave they of Jehovah in their woe
Compassion, Who their troubled hearts doth heal.
Snatch'd from the storm, in calm they onward go
Till in the wish'd-for port they moor their keel.

Jehovah's goodness praise, ye sons of men —
His works in our behalf of providence ;
Tell in the Church's midst His excellence ;
Let elders in th' assembly swell that strain.
He doth a land of all its water drain,
To drought consigning meads well water'd once.
The ground, erst fruitful, no more sustenance
Yields, for the sins of them that dwell therein.
Or He the barren turns to fruitful soil,
Causing springs in the desert forth to well ;
And makes the hungry there in plenty dwell,
That they a city, for pursuit of toil
In safety, may prepare ; and buy and sell
The increase of their lands — their rural spoil.
6.
Themselves too doth He cause to multiply,
And, after their increase, the herds t' increase ;
Or in reverse-wise, lo ! their good days cease,
Thro' feuds, misgovernment and misery.
Then on their princes' pomp and chivalry
He pours contempt ; and forces them thro' stress
Of hindrances to pause in helplessness
Bewilder'd ; yet from out those contraries
In will and principle, He sets on high
His poor one to control their destinies,
And makes, e'en like a flock, his family.
Who then will these His works weigh, as the wise ?
Jehovah's providence they'll magnify,
And rev'rently His loving-kindness prize !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH. 15
PSALM CVIII.

TITLE.
A song — a psalm — for the beloved.
AEGTJMENT.
This psalm was composed in all probability after the return
from Babylon.
It consists of extracts from two earlier psalms which are un
doubtedly David's.
The first five verses being taken from the close of the fifty-
seventh psalm, composed on David's escape from Saul, when
hidden in the sides of the cave where Saul, who was in pursuit
of him, lay down to sleep — a psalm which has by the Christian
Fathers been taken to depict allegorically the hiding of Christ in
the grave ; which issued in His breaking forth at His resurrec
tion-morn with the avowal of a purpose to proclaim the " mercy
and truth" of God among peoples and nations.
Again, the latter part of this hundred and eighth psalm, from
verse 6 to the end, is taken from the sixtieth ; in which David
commemorates his victories over the confederate forces of Syria
and Moab ; taking them for foretokens of absolute ascendency
over the whole of them on the part of His expected Son and
Lord. A psalm so composed out of two that were old in the days of
Zerubbabel is not without its significance, if interpreted accord
ing to the rule introduced by St. Paul in Eom. xv. 9 — 12 for the
purpose of combatting the prejudices of his fellow-converts from
among the Jews, concerning worship along with converts from
out of the Gentiles in the same city. From the quotations there
made by him out of the Scriptures he shews that the conversion
of the Gentiles by whole nations, as intimated in verse 3 of this
psalm, (before that of their own nation was hinted at) should
take place at the coming of the Messiah ; even as we at this late
stage of our age see to have happened.
St. Paul further gives in that passage a remarkable explanation
of the significance wherewith it is testified in the 4th verse of this
psalm — " Tby mercy is great above the heavens,
And Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds."
At the 8th and 9th verses of that fifteenth of Eomans, St. Paul
wrote : " Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the cir
cumcision for the ' truth' of God, and that the Gentiles should
glorify God for His ' mercy.' " This testimony prompts us to
think how " the truth" of God is magnified, by having sent His

1G PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH.
Son to be born of David's line, so soon as the fulness of the time
had come ; notwithstanding that He knew the Jews to be, through
the traditions of their Eabbis, bitterly opposed to His Gospel :
and further foreknew that they would nationally reject the
Gospel when preached to them first after His Son's resurrection.
By that " truth of God" in adhering to His promise, we
Gentiles became recipients of God's unlooked for " mercy."
(Eom. xi. 31.)
For the Lord Jesus bade His Apostles, after first preaching
His Gospel to the Jews, if they as a nation rejected it, forthwith
turn to the Gentiles. (Acts xiii. 46, 47.)
Thus the Apostle in that part of Eom. xv. authoritatively
teaches us how to interpret the fourth verse of this psalm.
Again, as to the 3rd verse, since it has been already observed
that the Apostolic Fathers reckoned David in the fifty-seventh
psalm to have described (though himself unconscious of that
mystical reference) Christ's mind towards His Father when
rising from the grave ; this is the best sense in which to take
these first five verses of the psalm before us.
They are therefore to be regarded by us as words which Christ
should use by means of His mystical members, when the time
should come for His resurrection from the dead, and His com
missioning of His Apostles to go forth from Jerusalem preaching
the good word of His grace to the Jew first and afterwards to the
Gentile. The Gospel is only preached with power where Christ's Spirit
animates the messengers : His Spirit makes them to be of one
mind as to fundamental doctrines in every country and genera
tion of this kingdom of heaven ; even as the Spirit of Christ
preserves this consistency with itself throughout the Scriptures
from Genesis to the Eevelation : whereto also there is borne
testimony in the Athanasian Creed, when it is said —
" For like as we are compelled by the Christian Verity to
acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord : So
are we forbidden by the Catholic Eeligion (that is the Eevelation
in Scripture from the beginning of Genesis) to say that there be
three Gods or three Lords."
Our Saviour's own method of inculcating the same truth is by
representing one servant alone (according to Luke's account of
the parable of the marriage supper, xiv. 16,) as going forth
throughout the whole of these times of the Gentiles to bring in
guests to the seats left vacant at God's sacrificial table by them
that were bidden.
That one servant is Jesus Himself, wrho by His Spirit has gone
forth, and continues to go forth in the persons of His faithful
ministers on that errand.
Agreeably herewith, St. Paul, in Ephes. ii. 17, wrote that
Christ "came and preached peace" to them at Ephesus — namely

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH. 17
tlie Gentiles, " which were far off," as well as to them — Paul's
fellow-countrymen, " who were nigh," because of being already
enrolled by sacramental title in the family of God.
Now precisely after the same manner in which St. Paul said
that Christ came and preached peace by bis mouth, and that of
other faithful messengers of His Gospel to the Ephesians, did the
compilers of this psalm, throughout its verses assume that Christ
would by means of their nation perform what He here foretells.
In this devout and enthusiastic spirit they, by means of the
first five verses of this psalm, professed readiness to yield them
selves unto Christ for the conversion of the nations.
But alas ! when the fulness of the time came for God to send
forth the rod of Christ's power out of Zion, only a small rem
nant of their nation (which God had by sovereign election
reserved for His Son) were found ready under the actual circum
stances to do, what in the abstract the religious Jews in general
had been in the habit of professing their readiness to enter on.
Here it behoves us to observe, how we at this present regard
this psalm as given us to use, because of being through faith in
Jesus the only remnant of the true Israelites.
How then are we behaving under the actual circumstances in
which we are placed as regards this solicitation of Gentiles to
praise God in Christ ? Are not very many of our nation for
getting their baptismal obligations on this subject altogether ?
Would so comparatively small a portion of the yearly increase
on our nation's substance find its way into the coffers of all our
missionary societies put together, if the nation at large was
animated with the spirit breathing through the first five verses
of this psalm ?
Again, are not others among us so led away by the traditions
of doctors in the Church, exactly after the manner of the Jewish
Eabbis in our Lord's time, that in their zeal for their Hierarchy
they are disregarding that indispensable requisite for all faithful
discharge of this errand ; namely, that they yield themselves to
Christ's Spirit to preach by their tongues and lives ? Except
they take His word and that alone He will not be with them :
in which case instead of singing the praises of God and of Christ
among the nations, they would only spread the traditional cus
toms of unscriptural Churches. The ministers of our reformed
Church, if faithful to their solemn engagements, would yield
themselves to Christ for the promulgation of His pure gospel,
not only among their own countrymen, but among their fellow-
subjects in the colonies, and fellow-men in other parts of the
earth. Are we then taking part in the work of missions by contri
buting to it out of our substance, as the Lord hath blessed us ?
Only in that case can we look upon ourselves as consistently
taking upon our lips the first five verses of this psalm.

18 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH.
Be this as it may, the Scriptures of the New Testament warn
us, that there shall be a decline from this pure preaching of the
Gospel by missionaries abroad, (Matt. xxiv. 12) because of love
for the truth declining at home. (2 Tim. iv. 3, 4.)
It therefore behoves us who know how the word of Christ is
alone able through God to build men up and give them an in
heritance among them that are sanctified (Acts xx. 32) to be the
more watchful over ourselves, lest we decline in love of the Holy
Scriptures, which contain the only means of extending the saving
knowledge of God's mercy and truth.
The latter part of this psalm, from verse 6 to the end, being
taken from the sixtieth psalm is predictive of what Christ will do
in the person of some chosen ruler over His ancient people for
the re-apportionment of the promised land, as set forth in Ezek.
xiv. 1 — 8, when " His beloved, ones shall have been delivered,"
according to verse 6. See also Isa. xxv. 10,
As the Church of Christ advances on her way to the final con
summation of all things, the counsel of God, in supplying her by
inspired penmen with divers portions of His foreknowledge con
cerning events that shall in due time come to pass, becomes
apparent. At first, when this psalm was compiled, (in the days, as it is
thought, of Zerubbabel) none of the Jews could have anticipated,
that they as a nation should for many generations fall into
abeyance as regards this evangelisation of the nations ; while
Gentiles, converted in the first instance by a small remnant of
Jews (whom God elected thereto out of regard for His truth),
should for the most part be the confessors of Christ's name on
earth, to the shutting out from notice the comparatively few
Jews who do the like.
Now again, the great bulk of us Christians from among the
Gentiles, (especially where the ministers of Christ implicitly
follow the traditions of their doctors to the neglect of God's
inspired word) may be wholly unaware of God's declared pur
pose to punish the Churches out of the Gentiles, that hold not
fast the word of Christ in its purity. But this it is written in
Eom. xi. 22 — 32, that He will do, by returning to a remnant of
His ancient people through whom to accomplish on this earth
all the good that He hath provided for the nations in Christ — a
subject also referred to in Ps. cxlix. 5 — 9. Nevertheless, we of
the Gentiles will then have only more cause than ever to glorify
God for His mercy, Eom. xi. 15.
Let us then, who are of this first election from out of the Gen
tiles, through His mercy (Eom. xi. 30, and Ephes. iii. 1 — 6) with
gratitude to God concern ourselves about dissemination of His
blessed Gospel among all people to the glory of His name and
the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ more and more in the
hearts of those whom He at so great a cost redeemed, agreeably
with verses 3 and 4 of the psalm before us.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH. 19

Thee with my heart, O God, I'll praise!
Yea, with the glory of man's race —
The tongue — Thy name I'll celebrate !
The nations to this theme I'll call,
Jehovah, and invite them all
Upon Thy works to meditate !
2.
As heav'n o'er earth is lifted high,
So soars Thy mercy ! o'er the sky
Itself too, doth Thy truth ascend !
Through heaven let angels tell Thy worth !
And men Thy glory o'er the earth,
0 God, be telling without end !

That Thy belov'd ones rescu'd be
With Thy right hand, 0 hear Thou me !
Lo ! in His Holy One1 God's voice
Has answer'd ! now to part the land
Of Shechem 'mongst our brethren, and
The vale of Succoth, I'll rejoice.

Manasseh's mine — mine Gilead —
And Ephraim's my kingdom's head.
From Judah I derive my laws.
Moab I'll as an outcast treat —
Edom I'll tread beneath my feet —
Philistia I'll control by force.
1 Ver. 17. iti?"Jp2 is by Bishop Horne so translated. C 2

20 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTH.

Who'll me into the city bring
Of Edom? Won't Thou, Who didst fling
Our hosts down into slavery?
Be Thou our Helper I for in vain
Doth man save ! — we'll, thro' Thee, again
Tread in the dust each enemy.

PSALM CIX.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm of David.
AEGTJMENT.
It seems to me, that when the place occupied by this psalm in
the book before us is duly weighed, there can be no doubt about
the compiler's application of it to Messiah. It is generally
agreed that the compiler took in hand the arrangement of this
book afto the Jews' return from captivity in Babylon.
But at that time the compiler was made aware by revelation
from God to Daniel (ix. 26), that in the 486th year counted
from the expiration of the seventy years to be spent in Babylon,
Messiah should be cut off in Jerusalem.
What people should perpetrate this atrocious sacrilege did
not appear ; but the prime care of the compiler of this book
seems to have been to warn his own nation of the guilt that
would be contracted by such a deed. The compiler accordingly
commenced this book at the hundred and seventh psalm
with a singularly pathetic entreaty of his nation to praise God
for his goodness. After which, in the hundred and eighth, he
set forth in a psalm framed out of two in a former book (Ps.
lvii. and lx) mention of that supremacy over the kingdoms of this
world, which it had been revealed to Daniel in chap. vii. 27
should, in the days of the triumphant Messiah, be granted unto
Israel. Then follows this hundred and ninth psalm, which seems to
me to be purely Messianic, and not to have referred to David
himself; for there never was a time in his life in which he could
describe himself before God in the terms used by him at ver. 32

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTH. 21
of this psalm, saying, "I am poor and needy," or in other words,
of a meek spirit, and altogether dependent on others for daily
maintenance. But we contend that in this psalm David was led by the Spirit
of Christ to speak in pathetic terms of the suffering Messiah.
Here then is to be seen the propriety of its place in this book,
immediately following upon a psalm treating of the triumphant
Messiah. After this, in the hundred and tenth, follows a psalm
emphatically setting forth the Divine nature of Messiah in union
with His human, and predicting the great spread of His power
in the hearts of men by the preaching of the gospel of peace
through His humiliation of Himself.
After this come two psalms, — the hundred and eleventh and
hundred and twelfth, remarkable counterparts to each other, as
well in regard to their structure as to their subjects ; the former,
as it seems to me, containing a descant on the Messiah in His
own person working out the redemption of Israel ; the latter, on
the Messiah working out in the persons of His believing people
their appropriation of His redemption. (Isa. xxvi. 12.)
Then follow the six psalms of the Minor Hallel, which from the
time of the return out of Babylon was sung at the Paschal supper.
Wherefore, in viewing this arrangement, all I can say is, that
if the compiler of this book did not discern how the cutting off
of Messiah (predicted, as we have already shewn, in Dan. ix. 26)
was mysteriously foretokened in the feast of the Passover, when
Israel was redeemed out of Egyptian bondage, according to
Ps. xc, then the Spirit of God guided the compiler without his
own consciousness unto so significant an appointment of the
Minor1 Hallel to be sung at that feast ; and likewise to make the
hundred and ninth introductory thereto.
Also the hundred and nineteenth (supposed to have been
written by Daniel, and to have been descriptive of the sufferings
of Christ, and of the people of Christ) was by the Holy Spirit's
prompting made to be the sequel of so high a theme. Contem
plation of the hundred and ninth psalm in this connection will
surely furnish evidence of the spirit in which the imprecations
herein from verses 6 to 19, inclusive, were understood by the com
piler. For we may safely conclude that the compiler placed this
psalm where it stands for the sake of its imprecations. Nor will
it be unwarrantable on our part to conclude further, that he
used the imprecations in this psalm for the purpose I am about
to mention, because of his persuasion that such was the normal
use of them — the purpose, of David himself, or rather the Holy
Spirit that guided David in penning the terms of these im
precations. Supposing, as we have a right to do, that the com
piler of this book, believing what had been revealed to Daniel
concerning the cutting off of Messiah in Jerusalem in the 486th
1 Minor is, as it seems to me, to be taken in the sense of " later," as con
trasted with the Major or earlier which consisted of Ps. cxxxv. arid cxxxvi.

22 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTH.
year after the expiration of the seventy years in Babylon, hoped
by appointment of this book of psalms for constant use in
the public service to pre-occupy the minds of his own nation
with dread of any participation in so impious an act; may
we not conclude, that he regarded these imprecations of Divine
wrath on such malefactor, or malefactors, as the most effectual
way under God of deterring his own people (especially the
priesthood in whose custody were the psalms,) from such
craft and guile towards any " poor and needy" fellow Israelite ;
or especially one who should know himself to be in the
capacity of an office-bearer or overseer, over a fellow-
Israelite." poor and needy ;" and above all one who, out of his
own mouth, might be proved to be at the very time taking that
poor and needy Israelite, over whom he was an office-bearer,
for his Messiah ?
I say it would be impossible to conceive means that would
before-hand appear better fitted, than were these imprecations,
to deter men from guilty participation in the cutting off of
Messiah, without knowing what they did, though well knowing
(which was bad enough) that they were by subornation of false
witnesses and guile and bribery cutting off a poor and needy
fellow-Israelite. What then becomes of the offence taken at
these imprecations ? Acts i. 16 — 20. It is evidently founded
on a misconception of the aim and effect of their normal use.
Offence at these imprecations would involve one in impatience
at all denunciations whatever before-hand of woe in men's ears
for any act they might have a mind to do. See Matth. xxiii.
What is woe, when explicitly opened out, but the particulars
detailed in these imprecations ?
Considering too that the original author of these imprecations
and the pious rehearsers of them, only asked God to give^them
effect, Who is the Fountain of Justice, there could be no possi
bility of mal-versation or mal-administration of them.
And it has been already shewn, that the intention of the
compiler who appointed them to be recited was in the highest
degree charitable towards his fellow-countrymen, whom he would
thereby deter from so great a sin.
Tbe certainty that Messiah was to be cut off in the midst of
Israel made it the more important, as the compiler of this book
of psalms would think, to bring prominently forward this solemn
warning of his countrymen against inadvertent entanglement in
such awful impiety. From the 27th verse it is plain that this
cutting off of Messiah was to be in one sense the will of God
(see Isa. liii. 10) ; which only made it the more important that
the hands which accomplished it should not be " wicked" (see
Acts ii. 23). For God does not need man's sin in order to
accomplish His will !
Well then might the psalmist fear, that like as Joseph
(Gen. xiv. 5 — 8) said, that God had sent him before his brethren

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTH. 23
to preserve life — ignoring their guilt by which that purpose of
God was brought about, not to please Him but themselves —
so might it be with his countrymen in the case of Messiah ;
unless they took care it should not so happen. God might
deliver Him by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge, yet
they that took Him, do so " with wicked hands."— Acts ii. 23.
If this exposition be correct, these imprecations were never
used for protection of any other person than one : and conse
quently the cause for them has passed away never to recur.
The enormity of the guilt that would be incurred by him or
them who would be in a likely condition to run into it, would
justify the recital beforehand of so awful and bitter a catalogue
of execrations — which it is to be observed were expressly directed,
in general terms, against certain modes of dealing, and deeds ;
so that no one need incur them, who did not by his deliberate
wickedness against the poor and. needy bring them on his own
head. These imprecations were not written for the gratification
of David's vengeance after actual injury had by a person known
to him been inflicted. Far otherwise. They were uttered with
the charitable intention of deterring any in Israel from deeds of
a stamp to provoke the infliction of these curses by the holy
God. 1.
God of my praise ! 0 hold not Thou Thy peace !
The wicked and deceitful 'gainst me speak
With lying tongues ; in hatred they increase,
And without cause their malice on me wreak.

In answer to my love they 'gainst me fight ;
But I the while betake myself to prayer.
My services with insults they requite,
And for my love against me hatred bear.
3.
A wicked one do Thou set him to flout,
Yea, too, at his right hand let Satan be;
At time of trial, doom'd let him go out
And let his prayer become iniquity.

24 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTH.

Few be his days — his charge another take —
His children orphans — wife a widow be —
Yea, let his children seek for bread to break —
Yagrant and suppliant in extremity.
5.
All he possesses let th' exactor seize;
Let strangers of his earnings make a prey ;
Let none in mercy seek to give him ease —
Or sorrow of his orphans to allay.
6.
Let none survive of his posterity r
But in one generation be forgot.
Let not Jehovah his sires' guilt pass by,
Nor mothers' sin from out His record blot.

Let them before Jehovah be alway,
To cut from off the earth their memory ;
Because the poor and needy one he 'd slay,
Whose heart was broken with his cruelty.
8.
As he lov'd cursing, to him let it come,
And blessing — spurn'd by him — be far away ;
Let cursing into him be driv'n home —
An inward-eating agent of decay.
9.
Let this be from Jehovah the reward
Of them that evil speak against my soul ;
But for Thy Name's sake be for me a guard:
0 God the Lord ! in mercy keep me whole !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTH. 25
10.
For I am poor and needy, and my heart
With scoffings cast at me is sore distress'd ;
As fades the shadow so do I depart —
Like vagrant locust — ever in unrest.
11.
Thro' fasting long-enforc'd my knees are weak,
Exhaustion preys upon my wasted frame ;
All they that look on me their heads do shake —
A stumbling-block to all men I became.
12.
According to Thy mercy save Thou me,
0 Lord my God ! Who art my sole resource.
In this my grief cause them Thy hand to see
How Thou, Jehovah, didst ordain its course.
13.
Tho' they curse, do Thou bless ! when they arise
Let them be baffled ! and let joy abound
Upon Thy servant, while mine enemies
Confusion, as a garment, doth surround.
14.
But with my mouth will I Jehovah praise —
Yea, 'mongst the multitude His Name extol;
For at the right hand of the poor His place
He'll take to save, from them that judge, his soul !

26 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TENTH.
PSALM CX.

TITLE. .
A psalm of David.
Our Lord, in Matth. xxii. 43, confirms the testimony of this
title ; and the silence to which the Pharisees were reduced by
our Lord's question out of this psalm, shews that in His time
its mention of " my Lord" was unanimously interpreted of
Messiah.
ARGUMENT.
Under the name of the " rod of Thy power " is predicted the
progress of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, when sent out
of Zion on that day of Pentecost next after His Ascension up to
the right hand of God the Father. Compare 1 Kings ii. 19.
His posture of sitting denoted His Personal refrainment from
direct efforts for the ascendancy of His Gospel (compare Luke
xxii. 35-7), which is to be changed for active intervention on
earth (which is implied in the word 'till',); so soon as His
Father shall have sent Him forth ; which will he, when the
iniquity of the nations among whom His Gospel shall have
been preached, shall have come to the full. (Matth. xxiv. 12 ;
Luke xxi. 24, compared with Gen. xv. 16 and Deut. ix. 5.)
By Eomans v. 6, may be seen wherein doth consist the strength
of His rod. (Compare Eev. iii. 8.)
The manner wherein the Gospel has won its way against the
mightiest opposition that could at any time be brought against
it by enemies, with " weapons that are not carnal, but mighty
through God " (2 Cor. x. 4), is a fact which cannot be denied,
howsoever the enmity of man's heart may chafe thereat ; and
is an incontestable pledge of the rest that is predicted in this
psalm concerning Messiah being in God's own times (1 Tim.
vi. 13—16) fulfilled likewise.
"Ha man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His,"
saith St. Paul in Eom. viii. 9 ; so that His mystical members are
a people of " willing devotedness, in the beauties of holiness."
" The dew of His youth" — or young offspring — being above
" that of the womb of the morning ;" agreeably wherewith Peter
compares young converts to " new born babes." (1 Pet. ii. 2.)
Bp. Horsley observes, that among Greek writers dew seems to
have been a figurative name for the young of an animal ; dpoaog
being used in iEsch. Agamem. 145, for. an unfledged bird, and
ipari in Horn. Od. i. 222. for a young lamb, or kid.
But here is an appropriateness in David's use of this term
which is unrivalled.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TENTH. 27
For as dew is from heaven and refreshes the earth, and is
countless, and comes of the morning, so are the people of Messiah
born of God for the healing of society — and innumerable — and
the offspring of that Hght which shall eventually drive darkness
away from before it.
The testimony in verse 4 is referred to in Heb. i. 6, where the
translation of the Septuagint is sanctioned, which varies from the
Hebrew original. Here are the words :
" Thofl art a priest for ever, according to
My wordj O Melchisedec!" or King of righteousness.
While there it is :
"According to the order of Melchisedec."
This latter will be compatible with the former, if we suppose
the Septuagint doctors to have received by tradition, that Mel
chisedec was so declared Priest and King by an audible voice
from heaven ; and further, that such designation of him to those
offices was intended to typify the manner of Messiah's ordination
thereto. It is obvious that by this free translation of " according
to My word" by " according to the order" the Septuagint doctors
applied this psalm to Messiah. St. Paul's inspired comment
hereon in Heb. v. 5 — 13 is to the same effect. Agreeably here
with it is recorded in Matth. iii. 17, that Jesus was ordained
to be a Prophet, like unto Moses, with the words from heaven :
" This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased ;" and in
Matth. xvii. 5 to be a Priest, by the words : " This is My beloved
Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear Him!" and in Heb. v. 5
to be a High priest, by Him that said unto Him : " Thou art
My Son ; this day have I begotten Thee !" (Acts xiii. 33.)
Between a priest and a high priest there appears to be no
other distinction than that of consecration ; not of ordination ; as
Bonar observes on Levit. iv. 3,, page 56, where he is designated
" the priest that is anointed" — for he alone was so.
Agreeably wherewith it is instructive to observe in our
Church's Prayer Book how we have an office for " ordering of
Deacons and Priests," but of " consecration of Bishops,"
In verse 5 the Psalmist, addressing Jehovah, speaks of his Lord ;
saying, " The Lord" — above called my Lord — "at Thy right hand
shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath ;" wherewith
compare Ps. ii. 8—12 ; Eev. ii. 26.
The last verse refers to the sorrows which should first overtake
Messiah in His mortal body.
" The brook in the way" would seem to be the help appointed
of God for Him, as a Man, which He would meekly receive,
thereby proving Himself to be no "proud worker" (Ps. xxxi. 23) ;
but One, that feared His Father (Heb. v. 7), as was exemplified

28 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TENTH.
in His last agony (Luke xxii. 44), when there appeared an angel
from heaven strengthening the human nature, which would else
have failed. (Ps. xxii. 19 ; Is. lvii. 16.) He did not decline this
help, as though acceptance of it would detract from His glory ;
and for this humbling of Himself under the mighty hand of God
(1 Pet. v. 6.) His Father hath highly exalted Him, as a Man.
(Phil. ii. 9.) 1-
Jehovah, to my Lord thus spake :
" Sit thou at My right hand,
" Until I those Thy footstool make
" That Thy just claims withstand.

" From out of Zion Thy strong rod
" Forth shall Jehovah send :
" Amid Thy foes do Thou for God
" Successfully contend!

" A host made willing in Thy pow'r —
" Adorn'd with holiness —
" Shall serve Thee ; like the dewy shower
" Of morning — numberless !

" Beyond all change, Jehovah's oath
"For ever Thee decrees
" To be His Priest by word of mouth,
" 0 King of Kighteousness!" 5.
The Lord at Thy right hand shall kill
Kings in His day of wrath —
Shall judge the heathen — and shall fill
With carcases His path !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH. 29

The head that o'er much earth bears sway
He '11 crush: but His bow'd head,
Which drinks of that brook in His way,
Shall He lift up instead.

PSALM CXI.

AEGUMENT.
No other word so fully serves as that of " redemption " in
verse 6, to sum up the benefits brought us by God's sending of
the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That this is what is treated of in verse 6, is plain, from its being
declared to be a redemption of God's people by a covenant which
He hath commanded for ever. Now, redemption means libera
tion from under some bondage by buying of persons out from
under it.
God, indeed, did this for Israel on divers occasions, in regard
to the nations which temporarily usurped sway over them : agree
ably wherewith we find Isaiah, in ch. xliii. 3, testifying in the
Name of God, " I gave Egypt for thy ransom, ^Ethiopia and Seba
for thee."
Tet the effects of that redemption of Israel did not prevent
them from being sold by God for their sins into slavery under the
nations of Canaan.
But in the 6th verse it is said that the redemption spoken of
is commanded by God to be in its effects everlasting ; which is
not true of any other redemption than that granted hy God in
Christ. Moreover, St. Paul, in Gal. iv. 4, expressly sums up in this
word " redemption " what Christ was sent to do for us.
" For when," saith he, " the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons." Compare herewith Luke i. 68, ii. 3^.
From a general survey of the Holy Scriptures we learn, that
before the creation of a single intelligent and moral being, there
had been concluded between the Father and the Son in heaven
" a covenant," that the Son should take the nature of the lower

30 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH.
of those intelligent creatures, namely, men ; and in that nature
furnish all of either section with an example of the extent to
which duty is due from the creature to the Creator ; namely, to
that of bearing evil in the sense of affliction, even to the laying
down of life at the desire of Him Who gave it, without question
of the Creator's goodness in demanding it.
There was great mercy on God's part in not requiring a mere
creature to shew this example ; and indeed it is not consistent
with what Scripture shews to be the perfection of the Divine
Nature, that He should have done so ; for it would have argued,
that the Creator looked for a suitable exemplification of the duty
due to Him in a creature — a being distinct from Himself.
This would have been derogatory to Him. For " of Him, and
through Him, and to Him are all things," as Scripture testifies.
Hence, by Christ being called, in the Book of Eevelation, " the
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world," itis meant,
He was destined so to be before any intelligent moral being was
created. (Eev. xiii. 8, 1 Pet. i. 20.)
It is plain, therefore, that even if there had never been sin in
heaven or earth, the Lamb of God would have died a sacrificial
death, whereby a " covenant " or agreement between two con
tracting parties is found in Scripture to be sealed.
But if happily there had been no sin in heaven or earth, there
would have been no need of " redemption ;" for nowhere would
there have been bondage. The sacrificial death of the Lamb of
God would in that case have only been an act to be " seen,"
(1 Tim. iii. 16) or contemplated ; just as Isaac's readiness to have
been made one at his father Abraham's instance and God's com
mand, might also have been, had it been permitted by God to be
carried into effect.
As an example of unreserved unmurmuring compliance with
the Creator's will at any cost soever of pain to the creature, with
the worthy thought, that it could only be for the ultimate good of
the creature to comply with the Creator's requirement, the sacri
ficial death of the Lamb of God in our nature on this earth,
would have moved unsinning men to enquire into the mystery of
it, as it now does the unsinning angels. (1 Pet. i. 12.)
And thus men would have been prepared in innocence for
translation to God's rest through incorporation with Christ— the
Archetypal man, when the time had come for entry on that Sab
batical state.
But alas ! sin insinuated itself into heaven, causing one of the
chief princes of the angels to decline from the truth and leave
his first estate. (John viii. 44.) What then, if evil in the sense
of affliction beheld by this Prince' of Angels in geological ages
among beasts on earth was the cause with him of doubt whether
those beiDgs could have been so made by God f
Thus evil, (in the sense of affliction as it comes from God,)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH. 31
would become evil in the sense of sin, by Satan's making it such
through unbelief.
Be this as it may, the rebellious prince of angels by-and-bye,
on God's placing Adam and Eve in paradise on earth, seduced
the woman into sin : whereupon the man through unwillingness
to be separated from her whom God had given him for his com
panion, knowingly shared in her disobedience, that he might at
least share with his wife the bondage from which he could not
redeem her. For, according to the principles of righteousness
implanted in Adam's conscience by nature, he knew that each
person must answer for his own acts, and those alone ; it bejng
quite out of the question, that good deeds could be rendered
by him beyond what might be required from himself to make
amends for his wife's rebellion : since the worthiness of God de
manded from him for himself alone all the devotedness which he
could render.
He must therefore lose her or cast in his lot with her. He
chose the latter, being in this a type of Christ — the Archetypal
man — so far as concerned love for his wife, to the extent of giving
himself for her ; but not in respect of incurring sin against God
by loving his wife more than God : for Christ — the Archetypal
man — in loving His wife and giving Himself for her, loved Hia
G-od more. Ephes. v. 25.
For God had out of foreknowledge provided in the primeval
" covenant" already referred to between the Father and the Son,
a scheme whereby, in case there should arise sin in heaven and
that it should extend to earth, by woman yielding to the tempter's
glozing speech, (which in fact happened) the sacrificial death,
which the Lamb of God had covenanted to render for upholding
the attributes of tbe Creator in the conception of the creature
in a sinless world, might equally suffice for " redemption" of
those whom it pleased God to save from out of a sinning one.
Here was to be seen the foreknowledge and wisdom of God in
making intelligent moral creatures of two orders — angels and
men — one higher, and with greater advantages than the other
for knowing His goodness.
The angels which fell not (which the Scripture indicates to
have been elect unto that constancy, for all things are of God,
1 Tim. v. 21) might profit by only "seeing" that example of
Christ's sacrificial death (1 Tim. iii. 16) ; but the non-elect ones,
when become devils, could not by only " seeing" that example of
Christ imitate Him in self-surrender to God, and recover them
selves unto righteousness. They needed a Eedeemer — a Divine
Redeemer — to bring, them strength to dp this, when they should
repent and ask for it.
But the delights of the Son of God were with the sons of men
from before the foundation of the world, Prov. viii. 31. It had
been in covenant agreed that He should take the nature of man,

32 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH.
to effectually recover (if necessary) from a lost state by nature
the elect, that God had among them, equally as among the angels
before the foundation of the world.
Thus election among angels and men was appointed by God
for vindication of this truth : to wit, that all things true aud good
are of Him ; with this only difference, that whereas it might not
have been declared beforehand among the angels that some were
elect and others not, until the non-elect had fallen : when they
had so, and the proclamation of election as vindicating God from
disappointment in creation of them was made known, it may be
supposed to have been met by the rebels with a sneer.
Then had come the fulness of the time for introduction of the
other half of this scheme of election, by bringing it into opera
tion on earth, where the elect from among men should be (with
the knowledge of Satan and his angels) permitted to fall equally
with the non-elect through his malice ; and yet, in spite of all he
and his should do to keep them, when fallen away, from recovery
to God in Christ, he should not succeed in a single instance : so
that this contest should be for the vindication at God's final judg
ment of His transcendent majesty.
Thus is apparent wherefore the Lamb of God took not on
Him the nature of angels, but took on Him the seed of Abra
ham. (Heb. ii. 16.) It is also hence apparent, that like as God
left the angels that sinned without redemption, it would have
been equally consistent with justice to have left men also.
But since angels had sinned against greater light, it pleased
God, as being more consistent with His goodness, to redeem
sinful men.
Now it is not unlikely, that had neither angel or man ever
sinned, the Lord Jesus, when sent by His Father to be the Lamb
of God, would have come on earth in our nature in full maturity
of manhood ; since He oftentimes so appeared on earth, as re
corded in Scripture, prior to His being sent in the fulness of
time to work out redemption.
But had He so come, He would not have given us the proof
He now has of being made like unto us in all things, sin only
excepted. (Heb. iv. 15.)
Who now can describe the condescension of God in stooping
on our account, for our better persuasion of His being made
like unto us, to come in our nature after the same manner in
which ordinary infants do ?
It is hence clear how sin caused the Lamb of God to un
dergo His sacrificial death in a body that was born of woman,
that He might thereby work out redemption for us.
When we think of the condescension implied in stooping, for
the Father's sake, to dwell in the dark and straitened cell of His
Virgin Mother's womb for nine months ere His birth, we may
see the propriety of those words in the Te Deum —the work of

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH. 33
Ambrose of Milan, " When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver
man, Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's Womb !"
This aggravation of the Saviour's undertaking to set an exam
ple of the duty due from the creature to the Creator, which the
primeval covenant admitted of, is indeed a stupendous evidence
of God's love for His creatures ; shewing the appropriateness of
the Psalmist's testimony on this head, from the second to the
end of the eighth verse. His Virgin Mother, through the faith
wherewith she received the message from God by Gabriel con
cerning the intention to make her the Mother of Messiah "re
ceived strength to conceive " Him in her womb (Heb. xi. 11);
wherefore, by the voice of Elisabeth, the Holy Ghost said,
" Blessed is she that believed" (Luke i. 45) ; and the Holy Ghost
by the Virgin Mother's own mouth said, " AH generations shall
call me blessed," verse 48.
Assuredly we, who value this redemption, which came in one
respect through her faith, will not fail to render her this due
honour, though abominating that idolatry which superstitious
Christians insist on as her due.
The amazing condescension to be seen in the Word of God
dwelling for nine months in His mother's womb, was followed by
the equally amazing endurance of the feebleness and discomforts
of infancy — the slow improvement of childhood in body and
mind — the eighteen years of humble employment as a wheel
wright or carpenter, until at thirty years of age, for two and a
half years, He discharged His errand as a Prophet under the
law ; and being found perfect, yielded up His life of His own
free will (John x. 17, 18) a sacrifice for the redemption of all
mankind, by occasion of wicked men, Jews and Gentiles, at
Satan's instigation in the first instance, but afterwards in spite of
his endeavours to prevent it (Matth. xxvii. 10), nailing Him
to the accursed tree of the cross.
The instant that He had commended His spirit into His
Father's hands, His Father secretly signified His acceptauce of
the sacrifice by changing Him from natural to spiritual man
hood, making His soul a quickening spirit (1 Cor. xv. 45). On
this account those that believe in Him by feeding on His
sacrificial flesh and blood are incorporated with Him ; so as to
be with Him brought out (as He Himself was by death) from
under the curse of the law ; and so long as they remain buried
by the Holy Ghost into His death, they are made partakers
in all that He hath — having Him for their wisdom, righteous
ness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. i. 30). For we
are complete in Him (Col. ii. 10).
Truly here is a covenant of redemption, for which, by the
light of the blessed Gospel, we of this first age in the king-.
dom of heaven are fitted to praise -God with the more intelli-

34 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH.
gehce in. the words of this psalm from the second to the end
of the eighth verse.
Happy they who intelligently respond to the Psalmist's
invitation in the first verse to sing the praise of God, not only
in the public congregation, but as of His elect in the secret
assembly of the upright : who, in Ps. lxxxiii. 3, are called
" His hidden ones," and by David in Ps. xxvii. 5, spoken of as
" hidden in the secret of His tabernacle." See too Ezek. xiii. 9.
Not only is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom, agree
ably with the Psalmist's testimony in the last verse of this psalm ;
but (placing it as he here does after mention of the Lord's good
ness, at the summing up,) he means that it is the perfection also
thereof, when rendered out of love. See Isa. xi. 1 — 3, and
1 Pet. i. 13—20.
Hallelujah. 1.
With my whole heart, in company
Of upright ones, and in the face
Of all men worshipping, will I
Jehovah praise.
2.
Jehovah's works must be confess'd,
Past all that may by man be reach'd—
Their glory not to be express'd
Nor worth impeach'd.
3.
His wondrous counsels hath He will'd
Mankind to hold in memory
Himself too is with mercy fill'd
Ineffably.
4.
Unto His saints He'll give a prey
Yea give them in the hidden age,1
By cov'nant, heathen at that day
For heritage.
' Ver. 5. EvIS y compare Ps. cxlix. 5-9.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH. 35
5.
Judgment and truth His ev'ry deed —
All His commandments sure —
In sooth and uprightness decreed
For aye t' endure.
6.
Unto His people hath He sent
Eedemption ;2 and hath made
For ever fast His covenant :
His Name is dread.
7.
In knowledge of Jehovah's fear
Begins true wisdom's path ;
And he who doth His word revere,
Good judgment hath.
2 Ver. 9. Redemption, as applied to the latter generation of God's ancient
people, appears to include, along with the spiritual redemption enjoyed by
believers duriDg this first age, a bodily redemption too. Compare Luke xxi. 28,
Rom. viii. 23, 1 Cor. i. 30, 2 Cor. v. 4. This hundred and eleventh psalm
hath a remarkable bearing on the hundred and twelfth, which follows it.
Each by beginning with Hallelujah as a prefix is thereby shewn to have the
glory of God for its aim ; in each is mention made of " the upright ones,"
and of " the hidden age " — the world to come. (Heb. xi. 5.) By careful con
templation of both, Christ is to be discerned in the former to be by His own
arm bringing salvation (Is. lix. 15, 16) ; in the latter to be bringing His mysti
cal members into enjoyment of it, by becoming their very life through faith.
As the first and second psalms have been shewn to have been intended for a
two-fold introduction to David's first book, so it might be thought that the
compiler of this fifth book had at one time designed to use these two in a similar
way, to denote that the subject of this book was Christ in His own Person and
in His people. These two psalms are however prefixed to the Hallel, and
therefore are in some sort used after the manner of the first and second.

PSALM CXII.

Hallelujah.
AEGUMENT.

This psalm, and the one preceding it, are each constructed on
the same principle : each begins with Hallelujah, which plainly
v 2

36 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH.
is not intended for beginning of a verse in either ; since each
fresh line in either is commenced with a fresh letter of the
Hebrew alphabet in succession, until the whole twenty-two have
been so used. This title of Hallelujah, prefixed to either, shews
that both are designed for praise of God.
Again, the use of successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet for
successive lines has been thought to have been in other instances
intended to prevent the unobserved omission of one or other
verse, there being no means in the verses themselves of detecting
such an oversight.
Another reason which occurs to me for commencement of
each line in these two psalms with a fresh letter of the Al
phabet in order, is this : — The unity of each is to be looked on
as preserved in Jehovah, to Whose glory it is plain from the
Hallelujah prefixed to either, that they are both dedicated.
Hence is to be seen a mystic significance here in the use of all
the letters of the Alphabet in the subject of either.
"What, then, in each case is that subject ?
The hundred and eleventh psalm is to the glory of Jehovah the
Eedeemer. This hundred and twelfth psalm to that of Jehovah
our Eewarder. St. Paul, in Heb. xi. 6, observes — without faith
it is impossible to please God : for he that cometh to God must
believe that He is ; and that He is the Eewarder of them that
diligently seek Him.
This testimony suffices to shew that the subject of this hundred
and twelfth psalm is of moment enough to be a counterpart (as
here represented) to that all-important one of God our Eedeemer.
Now in the book of Revelation, which is acknowledged to be
steeped iu the mystical learning of the Eabbis, the Lord Jesus,
at verse 8 of chajiter 1, uses a figure for description of Himself,
wh'ch throws new light upon this use of every letter of the
H ebrew Alphabet in order for the initial word of each line in
psalms setting forth the glory of God.
He there saith : I am Alpha and Omega ; that is, the first
letter and the last, but not to exclusion of the letters inter
mediate. For as Milton makes Adam in his morning hymn
praise " Him first, Him last, Him midst and without end,"
a like idea seems to me to be mystically denoted by the structure
of these two psalms, with every line beginning with a new letter
in alphabetical order.
Let God's scheme of redemption run through every letter of
the Alphabet — or, to drop the figure, experience every variety of
opposition that intellectual and moral scepticism impersonated
in Satan and his agents can resort to — He will wind it up !
He'll be its Z as He has been its A ! " Por of Him, and through
Him, and to Him are all things — to Whorri, says the Apostle (and

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH. 37
so say we) be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen !"
(Eom. xi. 36.)
Viewed in the light of this descant on Hebrew and, we will add
sacred, mysticism, the verses of this hundred and twelfth psalm
are not to be so much looked on as descriptive of the righteous
man's experience in the comparatively short span of his single
life, as rather in the aggregate from the beginning to the end of
God's probationary dealing with the race. For in this way
Scripture is found to speak frequently of one beloved of God
living in the persons of his remote descendants for the purpose
of entering on the inheritance God hath promised them.
In this sense Abraham, as one that, according to the first verse
¦of this p3alm, " feared God aud had great delight in His com
mandments," though not living to receive in his own person the
promise of the land of Canaan for an inheritance, confidently
looked to God for the bestowal of it in God's good time on a
generation of those that should in the course of nature descend
from him, and come out of his loins. In this sense Jeremiah
saith of Jacob — another righteous man according to the rule now
quoted — that in a day forthcoming a certain generation of his de
scendants shall be in so fierce a persecution that it shall be said
(verse 7), " it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be
delivered out of it."
Compare Isa. xxix. 22.
This is the only sense in which any man that looks to God for
the blessings spoken of in this psalm can be conceived to attain
the part appointed unto him. For each of the blessings pro
mised by God is not intended to be wholly bestowed on each one
in particular ; but distributively to each one, and wholly to the
aggregate of the righteous man's generation. For as St. Paul
reminds us in Gal. iii. 16, promises were made to Abraham of
two kinds ; some of an inheritance in the earth, which he became
aware that he might not enter upon in his own person ; as St.
Paul in Heb. xi. 8 — 19, points out : while there were others re
lating to the heavenly rest with God Himself (Heb. iv. 9), for
which alone he personally looked — setting his affections upon
God. Now the psalm before us being composed for the use of
Abraham's descendants after the flesh, while as yet the Father
was with their congregation under the Mosaic covenant, it bids
those of that righteous man's natural descendants, which were
" not of the circumcision only, but also walked in the steps of
that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncir-
cumcised," (Eom. iv. 12,) look to God for the promises on earth,
as well as those spiritual ones for which alone Abraham himself
looked. But when (as is the case, since their national rejection of
Jesus for Christ, in the Apostles' days,) those descendants of

38 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH.
Abraham, though circumcised, no longer walk in the steps of that
faith for which their fathers were counted righteous while yet
uncircumcised, and are nationally repudiated for an appointed
time ; and that we of the Gentiles, together with a certain rem
nant of the Jews that may be gathered unto Jesus through " our
mercy," (Eom. xi. 31,) are called under our circumstances
(Eom. xv. 1 — 13) to use this psalm, as being for the tiue present
the only remnant of the true Israelites, we cannot look to all the
promises here spoken of as belonging to us ; but to that spiritual
one alone which Abraham himself expected personally to inherit ;
as is to be gathered, from St. Paul's careful use of " promise "
in the singular number, in Gal. iv. 16, and "promises "in the
plural, in Gal. iv. 17, 18, 22, and 29.
Bearing in mind this rule of interpretation, we shall clearly see
how every word of the hundred and twelfth psalm can be used
by us, with the fullest conviction of its being appointed by God
to be fulfilled to the generation of the righteous ; as well in
regard to earthly promises as to that heavenly one, in God's own
times. Moreover, the glory of God may be seen in this way to be the
aim of the psalm, as its prefix Hallelujah indicates ; because the
generation of the righteous who inherit the promises are, from
Abel downwards, partakers of one Spirit ; so as to be one in
Christ; whence Christ, as God, is their Eewarder (Isa. xxvi. 12).
According to this system of interpretation, when reading in the
first verse — " Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that
delighteth greatly in His commandments" — if we suppose Adam
after his repentance to have become one of this character, then
what we read in the second verse, to this effect — " His seed shall
be mighty upon earth" — though not fulfilled to Abel in person,
who was his seed, was certainly not fulfilled in Cain, who was
also his seed ; for Cain was not " of the generation of the upright
ones" — a clause defining in what circumstances the preceding
one should be brought into operation— to wit, in those alone of
the righteous man's seed that should be righteous like their
father, through participation in the same renewing Spirit. The
original word for " generation" in this second verse, including
moral character ; as in Gen. vi. 9.
But to Abel, and Adam in him, was fulfilled what is testified
in the fourth verse : " Unto the upright there ariseth light in the
darkness." The third verse, which saith, " Wealth and riches
shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth for ever,"
was occasionally though not invariably experienced by Adam's
faithful descendants (according to the limitation already shewn
to be imposed by the latter clause of the preceding verse) ; as
may be seen in the history of Noah, Melchisedec, Job, Abraham.
The latter clause of the fourth verse being in the singular
number, appears to be more properly taken with the following

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH. 39
one, than referred to the former clause of the fourth, which is in
the plural.
Provided the principle of interpretation above laid down be
observed, we of this age in the kingdom of heaven can in a
general sense apply the testimonies to ourselves from the fifth
to the eighth verse.
Because God will in the ordinary course of His providence
cause "the generation of the upright ones" to see good days
even in this life, by following the things that make for peace ;
(1 Pet. iii. 8 — 12), though we have no pretence for looking to
attainment of the promises to Abraham respecting Palestine, nor
other tokens of God's special providence over them that were
under the Mosaic covenant — nor yet " to see our desire fulfilled "
upon any but our spiritual enemies and those of Christ's Church
— the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nevertheless, when the
times of us Gentiles shall, by our abuse of the grace especially
poured out on us during this first age in the kingdom of heaven,
have run out ; so that our iniquity shall have come to the full,
and God in mercy to mankind shall return to His ancient people
Israel, the time will have come for the earthly promises, made by
God to Abraham, to be once more looked for by " the generation
of the upright ones" among that people, as they are held forth
in this psalm, along with the heavenly ones, which are to be
subsequently entered on.
Moreover, we gather from Scripture that to that " generation
of the upright ones" shall in pre-eminent degree be fulfilled all
the varied experiences of " darkness" and " light" spoken of in
this psalm, until they shall on this earth " see their desire upon
their enemies ;" whom they hold to be such (though being their
brethren of Cain's unregenerate stock) because the enemies of
their Lord and Saviour. This unregenerate stock is spoken of
in the 10th verse, at first in the singular number to stigmatise
each individually ; and afterwards in the plural, to include them
all collectively.
The judgment upon a certain generation of these shall not
only be witnessed, but executed by a certain generation of the
righteous ones, as is similarly predicted in psalms cviii. 13 and
cxlix. 5 — 9 ; whereupon in this way, at close of the millennial
reign, when the mystery of God shall have been finished— when
wicked men's contrariety shall have run through every letter of
the alphabet, or, dropping the mystic metaphor, had recourse to
all the opposition to God's promises of rest to the seed of the
righteous ones, that the case admitted of — God will prove Himself
the Eewarder of them that diligently seek Him — the A and the
Z of the whole scheme or mysterious plan of redemption, with
its rewards and punishments— yea, will Himself be in the person
of Christ the Bringer of the reward, to each ; so that Christ shall
be glorified in them. (2 Thess. i. 10.)

40 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH.
As for ourselves, in this present age of the kingdom of heaven,
provided we fear the Lord so as to love His commandments and
count none of them grievous (1 John v. 3) how mortifying
soever, we give the required proof of having repented toward
God of our natural unbelief, and of having been, for our prayer
of faith, renewed with a measure of the Spirit of Christ ; so as
to be " of the generation of the upright ones" spoken of in the
second verse. Then wealth may or may not be our lot : but if
it is, we shall take it, as here described, to be a trust reposed in
us by God.
And when troubles come, (which sooner or later shall come
on all of this age that will live godly in Christ Jesus — 2 Tim.
iii. 12) "light will spring up" for us, because of trusting in the
Lord to be our heart's strength (Ps. Ixxiii. 26 ; Philip, iv. 13).
Hence we shall not be moved from our hope by the aspect of
worldly affairs threatening the Church of God.
The distinctive character, too, of the child of God as rather
" good. " than only " righteous " — a distinction insisted on in
Eomans v. 7, and exemplified in Matth. i. 19 — will be followed
by the " generation of the upright" in this age, according to the
rule laid down in this psalm.
Thus shall Christ not only " be proclaimed with our lips but
displayed in our lives," and He shall be in us the hope of glory
(Col. i. 27). To Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be
ascribed all honour, majesty, dominion, and power, now and for
ever ! Amen. 1.
He's blest, that doth Jehovah make
The chief aim of his mental sight,
And doth in His commandments take
Supreme delight.
2.
Renown'd for might shall be his seed.
The generation shall be blest
Of upright ones— so 'tis decreed —
In God's own rest.
3.
Wealth shall be theirs, with righteousness.
Yea, unto those that are upright
In darkest hour of their distress
Shall spring up light.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH. 41
4.1
Gracious, compassionate, yet just,
A good man favour shews, and lends —
Applying what's left in his trust
To worthy ends.

H&'ll for the hid age surely wait
Unmov'd — the righteous man shall be
To hold that hidden age's state
In memory !
6.
Upon Jehovah he relies,
Nor shall aught him with fear inspire,
Till he sees on his enemies
His heart's desire.

In righteousness rich, on the poor
His wealth with lib'ral hand is spent.
His horn in honour evermore
Is eminent. 8.
The wicked at that sight shall pine !
Yea, gnash his teeth, yet melt away.
All hopes of sinners shall decline
For aye that day.
1 Ver. 4. The latter clause of this verse is here taken with the first of the
fifth verse.
2 Ver. 5. The mention of ob'iyb occurs here in the midst of the psalm
which can hardly be without significance in so mystically constructed an One as
this. For we have seen the special significance of this word in Ps. xxviii. 9.
And in Ps. xxxvii. which, like this hundred and twelfth, is acrostic, it wasshewji
to be mystically hidden in the verse wherj the first letter for it, viz. 37, ought
to have otherwise been found commencing the first word thereof. In Eccles.
iii. 11, it is testified that God hath set it in man's heart. On this point Rom.
viii. 18 — 26 throws light confirmatory of the sense in which I here suppose the
hope hereof to be especially placed in " the upright ones," to whom Christ, the
hope of glory, brings it.

42 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH.
PSALM CXIII.

AEGUMENT.
This psalm is the first of six, comprising the Minor Hallel, or
Hymn of Praise, usually sung in parts during the drinking of
four cups at the Paschal feast. Consequently the hundred and
eighteenth was that hymn which St'. Matthew (xxvi. 30) records to
have been sung by our Lord and -His disciples after eating the
Paschal supper ; whereas this psalm before us was sung after aU
had drunk of the first cup thereat.
In the first three verses there is a triple repetition of praise
to the name of Jehovah, njysteriously. pointing to the Trinity in
the Unity of the Divine Nature, like as in Numb. vi. 23 — 27.
The words are : — • ¦¦>
Hallelujah !
Praise, 0 ye servants of Jehovah,
Praise the Name of Jehovah !
This is the first worship of it.
In the second verse we read : —
Blessed be the name of Jehovah, from this time forth
for evermore !
Here is the second worship of it.
In the third verse we read ; —
Prom the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same —
that is from East to furthest West —
Jehovah's name is to be praised.
Here is the third ascription of worship to it.
Then follows a testimony throughout the rest of this psalm
concerning God's condescension in sending His Son in human
nature to shew His highest creatures in heaven a pattern of the
obedience due to Jehovah, and to recover from among the fallen
race of men many sons unto glory, through new birth of His
Spirit. These words are : —
Jehovah is high above^ all nations,' and His glory above the
heavens ;
Who is like unto Jehovah, our God,
Exalted in dwelling —
Condescending in survey-
In heaven and in earth ?
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill,
That He may set him with the princes, or free-hearted ones —
Even with the free-hearted ones of His people !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH. 43
This language is taken from Hannah's song in verse 8 of
chap. xi. of 1 Samuel, where it refers to the change made in the
natural man, when through faith in the promised. Messiah he
becomes renewed by His Spirit, so as to be one with Him in
nature (John viii. 35, 36), and thus born of God. 1 Sam. x. 12.
The figurative force of the phrase " raising the poor out of the
dust," is to be proved by reference to 1 Kings xvi., where is to
be found, " The word of the Lord which came to Jehu, the son of
Hanani, against Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out
of the dust, and made thee prince over my people."
Also, that of " lifting the needy out of the dunghill," is exem
plified in the fourth of Lamentations, at verse 5, where we read,
" They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets : they
that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills."
Now, that these figurative terms, " poor and needy " had a
spiritual significance at the time of their being used by the
Spirit of Christ, in regard to the lost state of man, while unre
newed with the Spirit of Christ, is to be clearly gathered from
our Lord's words in more than one parable. Eor instance, in
that of the Marriage Supper, Luke xiv. 21, where, upon the
servant telling his master that the bidden guests excused them
selves from attendance at his supper, " he, being angry, said to
his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city,
and bring in hither the poor and the maimed, and the halt and
the blind."
In these terms it is certain that the Lord meant to describe
those nations of the Gentiles enjoying the highest civilization at
that day known on earth, and in the zenith of power.
By a similar figure, too, in Eev. iii. 17, He stigmatises nominal
Christians who had, through spiritual pride, failed to ask effec
tually in His Name for renewal from day to day with His Spirit.
His words being : " Thou sayest that thou art rich, and in
creased in goods, and in need of nothing, and knowest not that
thou art poor and miserable, and blind and naked."
Those, then, that, in the 7th verse of the psalm before us, are
designated " poor and needy," are those among .Jews and Gen
tiles, destitute of renewal with the Spirit of Christ, either by
having never heard of such a gift, or by having ceased from
asking for continuance of it.
This "unspeakable gift" (2 Cor. ix. 15) is to be gained of God
by them that hear the Gospel, for only asking it of God earnestly,
penitently, in the name of Jesus.
On receiving it they are " raised out of the dust and lifted up
from the dunghill," in the judgment of the Creator, to be placed
among them whom He, by his Spirit, maketh " free-hearted" as
princes— or "a willing people— beauteous in holiness." (Ps.
ex. 3.) {See 2 Sam. xxiv. 23.)
After this follows the last verse :

44 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH.
" He maketh the barren woman to keep house,
And to be a joyful mother of children. Hallelujah !"
Although those commentators may be acquiesced in, who sup
pose this verse to have been applied by Jews after their return
from Babylon to their own congregation, re-established in
Jerusalem ; yet there can be no serious question of the writer's
reference herein, in continuation of the subject dwelt on in
verses 7, 8, to the same counsel of God to which the Holy Ghost
had stirred up Isaiah in an earlier day, to write at the first verse
of chap. liv. :
" Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear ; break forth into
singing and cry aloud, thou that travailest not ; for more are the
children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,
saith the Lord :
" Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thy habitations. Spare not ; lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right
hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles."
By help of St. Paul's inspired comment hereon, in Gal. iv.
27 — 31, we gather that it was the purpose of God, in the first
place, to bring the children (previously begotten in freedom
from law by Him. through faith in His promise concerning Christ)
into bondage thereto, by revelation of the Mosaic covenant. (See
Eom. v. 13.)
For this covenant had to be received in Israel, as necessary to
salvation, by them that should thenceforward be begotten by
Him, through faith in the promise concerning Christ; so that
they were now no longer begotten free, as in Patriarchal times,
but in bondage under law.
And this was to continue until that, by the sacrificial death
and resurrection of Jesus in His spiritual body, the Mosaic
covenant should be abolished.
Hereupon, once more, those who were begotten of God through
faith in Jesus as the Christ, were, by the Holy Ghost's incor
poration of them with Him in His death on account of that faith
(John v. 24), brought out from condemnation under law into the
glorious liberty of the children of God.
All this, St. Paul saith, was symbolized in Abraham's remaining
so long without a son by Sarah, that she supposed a custom at
that time prevalent for procuring of an heir in a family needed
to be resorted to in her case ; to which, consequently, she betook
herself — namely, that Hagar should be given Abraham for a
second wife, in hope of a son by her.
In this she was not disappointed; for Hagar bore him Ishmael,
whom Sarah adopted for her own, until she found out in due
time God's purpose to bring Abraham the long-delayed son by
herself. (Gen. xvii. 16.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH. 45
This she accordingly had, and called him Isaac, and knew him
to be the child of promise, instead of Ishmael, whom she had for
a time reputed to be the one, though in reality he never was so.
And by and bye, when he mocked Isaac, she cast him out of
the inheritance. (Gen. xxi. 10.)
In accordance with this course of events in the Patriarchal
family, St. Paul teaches us that God is working out in the course
of events befalling the Church of His freeborn on earth a
parallel, after, the manner of an extended allegory. God the
Father was in this type represented by Abraham, and the Word
of God — the Divine Person so called — by Sarah. Now, like as
it was God's purpose that in Isaac, born of Sarah, should " the
Seed" be called (Gal. ix. 16), but that the fulfilment of this pur
pose should be so long delayed that Hagar should, in the mean
while, be taken to bear Ishmael, (under the supposition that he
were the son in whom the seed should be called) ; even so the
Father, Who had all along decreed that the Word of God, (in
Whom the seed had been called from the beginning) should be
begotten from the grave in spiritual manhood to be the Heir of
the world (Acts xiii. 33), deferred fulfilment of this mystery for
a long space (Gal. iv. 4) ; and in the meantime gave the Mosaic
Covenant to be received along with the promise concerning
Christ, by them that would through faith therein obtain victory
over the world ; in consequence whereof the children of promise
thus begotten under bondage (and on this account symbolised by
Hagar) were led to think that the Christ — the Seed in whom to
be free (John viii. 36) should, when He came, be under the
Mosaic law, and for ever abide under it. (John xii. 34.)
Nor was it until the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
(which resembled the birth of Isaac from parents as good as
dead) that they — the children of promise— were undeceived re
garding this purpose of God. (Heb. xi. 19.)
But on learning this true interpretation of the course of events
befalling Jesus (Luke xxiv. 26) they — the Apostles — (representing
Sarah or the Church of the freeborn for the time being) cast out
" them that served the tabernacle," Heb. xiii. 10, declaring the
risen Jesus to be the Heir ; even as Sarah had done to Ishmael
on the circumcision of Isaac.
So soon as the children of the Mosaic Covenant — the Jews —
represented by Hagar — had through exclusive reliance on it,
(instead of taking it " by the side of" the former covenant of
grace, Eom. v. 20) neglected that hope of being begotten of God
through faith in the free promise concerning Christ (Eom. iv. 11,
12), symbolised by Sarah, and in carnal self-righteousness con
demned to an ignominious death the Saviour whom God had
begotten of the Virgin Mary, under the bondage of the Mosaic
covenant, through her faith in the covenant of promise concern
ing Christ ; and when, added to this, these same children of

46 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH.
Hagar, after the resurrection of Jesus and preaching of the
Gospel first unto them by His express command, in spite of the
power of the Holy Ghost unanswerably confirming it, contra
dicted and blasphemed (Acts xiii. 45) after Ishmael's manner of
mocking Isaac — they filled up the measure of their iniquity, and
were, as a nation, east out of the inheritance for an appointed
time, Matth. xxi. 40 — 43, and 1 Thess. xi. 15, 16 (with the excep
tion of an elect remnant), and were shut out from that grace
which should draw them (John vi. 24) to seek through the cove
nant symbolised by Sarah grafting into their own olive-tree
(Eom. xi. 24) or incorporation with the true heir of Abraham's
house — the true Isaac — in whom the elect seed should be called.
(Eom. ix. 7.)
The Father withheld from them, as a nation, the grace which
should plead with them by the Gospel and draw them to Jesus;
while He gave it abundantly to us of the Gentiles. (Eom. xi. 28,
and Titus iii. 4 — 7.)
In this way the Church of the free promise — the Word of
God, answering to Sarah — since the resurrection of Christ, has
afforded the Father opportunity of begetting souls anew through
faith in Christ without bondage any more under law ; but chiefly
among us Gentiles ; though not without a small remnant in every
generation from among the Jews. (Eom. xi. 5.)
The Word of God — symbolised by Sarah — bare this Son, even
Jesus, from the grave, after the Father returned to her, without
pangs ; (for death travails not in labour.)
But we of the Gentiles are warned, that for the slackness
characterising the majority of us in coming to the birth, con
currently with boasting of a sacramental title to son-ship, (as
did the congregation of Jews under the Mosaic covenant in the
Saviour's day) the Churches among us Gentiles shall provoke
God the Father to leave them, and return in mercy to a chosen
generation of His ancient people descended from Abraham, from
whom He will then no longer " for our sakes" withhold grace
wherewith to be drawn to Jesus (Eom. xi. 28), whereupon that
generation, rather than we of the Gentiles, will believe in Him
to the saving of their souls by regeneration and renewal with
the Holy Ghost, according to the promise in Eom. xi. 30, 81,
where it is written —
" As ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now
obtained mercy, through their— the Jews' — unbelief."
" Even so, have these" — Jews — " also now not believed through
your mercy," the grace vouchsafed to you — " that they also may"
for the glory of Christ, and the furtherance of His Gospel
among mankind " be commiserated for themselves," or, " them
selves also obtain mercy," so as to be drawn by the Gospel to
put faith in Jesus and in this way be begotten again of the
Father in Him. (1 Pet. ii. 23—25.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH. 47
Then will their Church — the Hebrew Christian Church— in
the Lord's land, in the fullest sense be the joyful mother of
children as testified in Ps. xiv. 15—17 ; and God's ways will be
vindicated as represented in Eev. xv. 3, 4, by their combination
of the Song of Moses and of the Lamb : as is also predicted in
Ezek. xx. 39 — 44. In amazement whereat St. Paul exclaims in
Eom. xi. 32, " For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that
He might have mercy upon all.
" 0 the depth !"

Hallelujah ! raise, 0 raise,
Ye that serve Jehovah, praise
Unto Jehovah's Name !
To Jehovah's Name forth pour
Blessings henceforth evermore ;
From the Sun's rise in the East,
To his setting in the "West
Jehovah's praise proclaim!

O'er all nations lifted high,
Is Jehovah ! 'bove the sky,
Doth His great glory soar.
With our God, Jehovah, where
Shall we find one to compare?
Dwelling up so high above,
Stooping to survey, in love,
The earth and heaven o'er.

From the dust poor doth He raise —
Needy from the dunghill base —
'Mongst free-hearts to have a place —
His free-hearted ! Yea, makes He
Her that barren was, to be
Of a num'rous house possest,
Hallelujah ! mother blest,
Of a God-adoring race.

48 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH.

PSALM CXIV.

AEGUMENT.
That this psalm was not composed at an earlier date than the
time of Josiah, may be inferred from its mention of Judah as the
sanctuary chosen by God ; at the same time that honourable
mention is made of the house of Jacob or Israel : denoting that
the rivalry occasioned by revolt of the ten tribes from the house
of David had passed away. It may be considered due to the
prophecy of Jacob in Gen. xlix. 8 — 12, that the supremacy which
Judah only arrived at in the time of David, should here be dated
so far back as the exodus from Egypt.
Tliis hundred and fourteenth psalm seems to me to have been
framed on the basis of Asaph's older one — the eighty-first —
which contains no express mention of Judah ; for Asaph appa
rently worshipped before the Lord in Gibeon, where the tabernacle
continued until Solomon's time.
It seems to me that in this hundred and fourteenth psalm is
designedly rehearsed with vehement but reverently-ordered fer
vour, the plaintive remonstrance of Christ Himself by Asaph's
mouth in the eighty-first psalm.
In that psalm, as explained by me, it was shewn how the Lord,
after saying that He led the house of Jacob out of Egypt, com
plained of hearing among them " a language that He understood
not ;" that is, a strange language of murmuring. And it was
there explained, that this was indulged by them, because He led
them down the peninsula of Sinai over against the land of
Egypt, and away from the promised land ; though they had gone
forth in full expectation of entry on it.
But the Lord adds, that He answered their strange behaviour
at Sinai ; inasmuch as He there gave them sufficient reason (if
they would have reflected) to know why He had led them by a
circuitous route towards the promised inheritance.
For it was firstly needful that they should be furnished with
the Mosaic law (Deut. iv. 5), and secondly, that they should be
trained to obey discipline in mind and body. (Exod. xiii. 17.)
Now it seems to me, that the author of this hundred and
fourteenth psalm takes especial notice of this pathetic remon
strance on the Lord's part with His people Israel, for indulgence
in strange language, which He could not understand ; that is,
deign to know. (Matt. vii. 33.) On this supposition the entire
psalm will be found free- from difficulties, and highly hortatory
on the subject of reverence towards the Lord in their midst at
that time.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH. 49
The first verse is —
1. When Israel went out of Egypt
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language.
2. Judah was his sanctuary,
Israel His dominion.
Here I admit that the word " people" in the latter clause of the
first verse being placed in correspondence with "Egypt" in the
former, ought most naturally to be reckoned explanatory of it.
This will make the Egyptians to be " the people of a strange
language," as we know they were. For in Gen. xlii. 23 it is
said, Joseph spake to his brethren by an interpreter.
But the word here in the Hebrew for people, when used in the
singular number, is almost always spoken of Israel, and it has
been already shewn that God in Ps. Ixxxi. (which we assume to
have been referred to in this hundred and fourteenth) complains
of Israel about that time using towards Him a strange language
that He knew not : shewing, that " strange" was there used in a
spiritual sense, indicative of discontent and murmuring — a sense,
in which the Israelit es themselves might be denounced for
" strangers." (Compare Ps. liv. 3, and lix. 5.)
Nevertheless it seems preferable that in this 1st verse of Ps.
cxiv. by " the people of a strange language" should be understood
the heathen inhabitants of Egypt.
Here it seems to me the psalmist pointedly saith in this hundred
and fourteenth psalm, that Israel was called out from the people
of a strange language : consequently, he may be taken to hereby
imply, that they ought not themselves to have used strange lan
guage, or undutiful, toward God.
But in the eighty-first psalm — clearly here referred to — they
did; as Christ by Asaph's mouth testifies. Now it appears to
me that this hundred and fourteenth psalm is written with the
intention of pressing upon the Jews this complaint brought by
Christ against their fathers ; to the intent that they should not
fall into the like sin, by failing to acknowledge the presence of
the Lord in their midst.
The altered circumstances of Israel, in the time of this hundred
and fourteenth psalm being composed, from those in which the
eighty-first had been, called for this warning as to the danger in
Israel of using strange language remaining the same, owing to
the corruption of human nature ; although Judah, in which God
had placed His sanctuary from the outset in the Divine purpose,
had from the days of David's reign really become so ; whereas in
Asaph's time Ephraim was ceasing to be so, after having had the
ark in their midst for 328 years — from Joshua's days to Samuel's
— when for 70 more it was at Kirjathjearim.
The psalmist accordingly with highly animated and vivid
imagery draws Judah's attention foremost to this duty, now that
E

50 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH.
it was the foremost tribe, by mentioning how at going out of
Egypt — the sea in its parting asunder — as also, subsequently the
Jordan in doing the like — besides the heaving and sinking of
Sinai with its circumjacent hills — shewed their perception of
some unusual influence. He asks these objects in nature, in the
hearing of the tribe taken by God to be His sanctuary, what
that influence could be ?
And, taking it for granted, that his hearers readily gave the
right answer, he, in verse 7, follows it up with an application to
his hearers of what he had stirred them up to acknowledge.
If Sinai trembled, seems he to me to say, — If the Eed Sea
parted itself, and Jordan stood up on an heap at the will of
Jehovah, made known to these objects in nature in the way ap
pointed by Him, that they should receive it ; then tremble thou
land of Judah, said the psalmist, at the presence of the Lord !
at the presence of the God of Jacob ! Here, as it seems to me,
the substitution of ' earth' in our authorised version spoils the
force of the psalmist's appeal, which is supposed by me to be
similar in strain with Christ's own complaint against Israel for
strange language in Ps. lxxxi.
The ' land' of Judah was that in which the God of Jacob had'
placed His Name — it was " His sanctuary," wherein His glory
exclusively dwelt : surely then, that land ought to tremble at the
presence of the Lord !
But this was what it did not !
It hence appears that the word ' land,' then as now, had a
double signification ; standing as well for the people of that land,
as for its ground : just as " strange language" has been shewn to
have in early times admitted two senses ; now meaning, foreign
speech — now, that which was undutiful. It seems to me that the
psalmist with much emphasis reserved express mention of the
Divine Name until his announcement of the duty that he would
have the ' land' of His sanctuary cherish !
This is a rhetorical figure very conspicuously used in 2 "Kings
xxiii. with reference to Josiah. (See the reservation of his name
in that chapter till verse 16.) It is also significantly, as it seems
to me, added by the psalmist in verse 8, that the hard rock had
yielded to the God of Jacob the water He would have of it.
Should the hard rock yield, when appealed to in the way
appointed by Him; and should Judah— His sanctuary — when
appealed to in the way appointed by God for dealing with His
moral responsible creatures by the word of His grace, refuse to
yield compliance ?
Alas ! Jeremiah, who probably lived about the time of this
psalm being written, in chapter v. testified at verse 3 —
O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth ?
Thou hast stricken them ; but they have not grieved —

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH. 51
Thou hast consumed them; but they have refused to receive
correction.
They have made their faces harder than a rock— they have refused
to return !
If the Jews who used this psalm at the Passover supper so
understood it, as here explained, they would feel it to" be a solemn
call on them to revere the Lord Who had by His covenant of
grace laid on them the especial obligation to fear Him, as no
other land had at that time the opportunity to do.
At the passover before the crucifixion of our blessed Lord,
when this psalm was actually sung by Him and His disciples
(Matt. xxvi. 30), what a call for reverence of Him Whom John
the Baptist testified to be the Lord in mortal flesh, must its
language have been to them ! while He Himself, in the terms of
this psalm, devoutly offered His service of fear to His heavenly
Father ! 1.
On Israel's egress
From Egypt- — Jacob's house
From an idolatrous and strange-tongu'd race —
For Him in holiness
Judah a dwelling was,
All Israel also did His rule embrace.
2.
By His dread presence aw'd
The sea recoil' d and fled—
Swift flowing Jordan stood — a mantling heap !
Mountains their bases broad
Upheaving, bow'd the head —
And hills in sport unwonted skipp'd like sheep !
3.
What ail'd thee, O thou sea,
When thou didst shrink in fear ?
Thee, Jordan, with thy current backward roll'd ?'
Ye mountains, that to be
All sentient did appear,
Or you, ye hills, that frisk' d as lambkins of the fold?
e 2

52 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH.
4.
Before the Lord's dread face
Be thou too aw'd, 0 land !
Before the dreaded face of Jacob's God !
Who made for streams a place,
Where erst was thirsty sand,
And from the rock brought water with a rod.

PSALM CXV.

AEGUMENT.

Here is the third psalm of this Minor Hallel — the series of
hymns sung at the Paschal feast, or after it — subsequently to the
return out of Babylon, when Ezra is considered to have arranged
in order this fifth book of psalms. As such, it is to be remem
bered that it was in due course sung by our blessed Saviour Him
self on the night before His agony in the garden — His betrayal
and death.
Viewed in this light, how moving is its language ! what humi
lity towards God does it imply that the lowly Jesus bad, as a
Man ! not ascribing to His own merit, but to His Father's mercy
and truth, the extension of blessings to His own people and
mankind at large for which He looked, through yielding Himself
to His Father as a sacrifice at His approaching crucifixion. (Eom.
xv. 8, 9.)
With what stedfast setting of His face as a flint, in the per
suasion that He should not be eventually and finally ashamed,
though made temporarily to groan under much shame (Heb. xii.
2), may He be regarded as here cheering His disciples, by asking
according to the 2nd verse, " Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is now their God ?" when He knew that from His
Father continuing to hide His face from Him, not only would His
unbelieving fellow-countrymen exclaim, like heathens, " where
is thy God f" (Matt, xxvii. 40 — 46) ; but even His own disciples,
though at heart loving Him, through pressure of calamity would
forsake Him, because seeing no sign of God's interposition in
His behalf. (Luke xxiv. 21.)
With what subjugation of His own will as man under His
Father's in fear (Ephes. v. 21) did He say according to the 3rd

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH. 53
verse ; " But our God is in the heavens : He hath done whatsoever
it pleased Him ;"— He Himself being the instrument in His
Father's hand -the polished shaft (Isa. xlix. 2, 3)— for accom-'
pushing in the great work then in hand " whatsoever His hand
and His counsel determined before to be done." (Acts iv. 28.)
How did He exemplify in this behaviour His Father's power
from the highest heaven to make men willing through His fear
(Heb. v. 7, and Isa. xi. 2, 3) ; as contrasted with the idols of
silver and gold worshipped by the millions of heathen which
cannot move any one that waits on them ! since the priests, who
are the agents of the imposture, are they alone that speak for
the idols, and lead these deluded votaries of dumb idols after
their own pleasure. (1 Cor. xii 2.)
Here then we have an emphatic contrast between priests of
idols, who lead their fellow-men after their own pleasure, and
the Lord Jesus — the priest after the order of Melchisedec — Who,
at infinite bruising of Himself, yielded to His Father's pleasure !
For so must all true ministers of Christ, who would, not be
greater than their Master. (John xiii. 15 — 17.)
That the Father in heaven may " do whatsoever pleaseth Him,"
verse 3, through the agency of willing instruments, makes great
demands on their trust in Him : because He does not through-.
out their labour make it by their success manifest to the world,
that He is with them Who doeth what it pleaseth Him with the
inhabiters of the earth (Dan. iv. 35) ; far otherwise. He may
grant their opponents temporary success, " raising them up that
He might shew in them His power — enduring with much long
suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" (Eom. ix.
17 — 22) : even as the Lord Jesus well knew, that it might please
Him at that crisis then impending to do, notwithstanding that
He prayed to the contrary. (Matt. xxvi. 39.)
How moving then, under these circumstances, come the words
from verse 8 to 11 as uttered by the Lord Jesus to His disciples
at the Paschal table, plunged in grief for Him; while He exhorts
them that should be His future ministers to trust, as He Himself
then did, in His Father — making the language of the psalmist
His own ! Trust in God in heaven is here emphatically contrasted
with recourse to an idol before the eyes.
The congregation of Israel, the Priesthood of Aaron's line
(for by Ezra ii. 63, and Nehem. vii. 65, we see that at the Lord's
return that line is to be reinstated), together with all those out
of the Gentiles that fear the Lord, are solemnly charged by the
Saviour to trust in God as able, though in heaven, to " do what
soever it pleases Him" — an exhortation in entire accordance with
the Apostle Paul's exhortation to similarly trust in our Ascended
Lord, as we would in God His Father. (John xiv. 1, 2, and Col.
iii. 1, and Phil. iii. 20, 21.) Wherefore there is here the most
emphatic condemnation of those ministers of Christ — who on

54 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH.
the plea of God's manifestation of His presence iii heaven, and
similarly that of the Lord Jesus — recommend the use of pictures
and images of Him to help on earth- the mind of beholders, in
rendering that obedience to God which is required of them.
How exemplary was the trust put in God by the Lord Jesus
at that Paschal table when saying, according to the 12th verse,
" The Lord hath been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will
bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the Lord both small and great !"
The words of the 14th and 15th verses, when considered as
spoken by our Lord at that Paschal supper, assuredly received
the first instalment of fulfilment in the outpouring of the promise
of the Father upon His disciples, who at His bidding tarried for
it in Jerusalem.
The words of Peter in Acts ii. 39, coming so soon after the use
of this psalm by the Lord Jesus, seem to contain a reference to
these in verse 14. The word " children" is assuredly to be taken
literally in both these places, and not as in the 16th verse : and
the promise in Isa. xliv. 3 is confirmatory hereof.
If it be borne in mind that under the Mosaic covenant, only
male children were appointed to receive visible enrolment in the
congregation (it being left to charity to conclude that the God
of all the earth would do what was right towards the female
children), we can perceive a reason for children being mentioned
in this 14th verse, and in Acts ii. 39, when in the kingdom of
Messiah female children of believers should be appointed to
visible enrolment in the covenant— people of God equally with
male — that distinction between male and female being done away
in Christ (Gal. iii. 28), which had been asserted in the law of
Moses (Lev. xii. 5) because of Eve having been first in the trans
gression. (1 Tim. ii. 14, 15, and Gen. iii. 16.)
On this account Israel has, since that day of Pentecost, ex
perienced a fulfilment of the promise in verse 14 of this psalm :
and not only so, but because nations of Gentiles are, since that
Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Ghost on Christ's disciples,
called to participate with Israel in the knowledge of God, upon
the simple condition of fearing Him and working righteousness
(Acts x. 34, 35) ; the Lord " has increased Israel more and more,"
verse 14. Faith in Christ's word being that one thing which the
wicked man, if penitent, can do to save his soul alive. (Ezek. xviii.
21 ; John v. 24.)
In the same way the 15th verse may be regarded as having
received emphatic fulfilment in Christ's kingdom, after that
faithful rehearsal of it to His disciples at that last supper. For
although " blessing" is a word of large import in Scripture —
being used sometimes to denote the favour of God in various
ways for prosperity in this life (Matt. vi. 32) — yet that which in
the psalms and prophets is more especially called blessing from

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH. 55
the Lord, is the gift of righteousness, and bestowal of the Holy
Ghost ; both of which having been first purchased by the sacri
ficial death and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, were
granted by the Father unto His Apostles with signs such as the
world might confess to be from God — being an instalment of
what shall hereafter be plenarily poured out upon Israel at the
Lord's return to reign over them. For in the forty-fourth chap
ter of Isaiah already referred to, and the 3rd verse, what in the
last clause but one is called ' spirit,' is in the last called ' bless
ing.' And in psalm twenty-four, where it is asked, " Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord ?" after the reply, " He that
hath clean hands, and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his
soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" — it is added, " He shall
receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the
God of his salvation."
It may hence be concluded that the words " Te are the blessed
of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth," are fulfilled in the
bestowal of ' righteousness.'
Now in Eom. iv. 1 — 10, St. Paul shews by the cases of Abra
ham and David that this " blessedness" came in their day from
God upon them (in anticipation of what Jesus should do to earn
it) by God's accounting their faith to be righteousness, and thus
admitting them into a state of acceptance ; that they might, as
they were bid, forthwith ask for His Spirit for their renewal.
But inasmuch as St. Paul in 2 Cor. iii. 8, 9, shews that there
is further a ministration or delivery of righteousness to the
believer in Jesus — which is different from counting his faith to
him for righteousness, and is an actual infusion of Christ's righte
ousness into him through faith — this seems in a peculiar sense to
fulfil (at least in the way of instalment) the words of verse 15
of this hundred and fifteenth psalm, " Te are the blessed of the
Lord." For this ministration of righteousness is the infusion of the
Lord's sacrificial flesh and blood into the heart, to be in alliance
with the believer's soul, for the counteracting of " the motions
of sins" by the old man therein with the godly motions of the
new (Galat. v. 17) ; and since the sacrificial death of Christ has
been consummated, none can receive a measure of the Spirit of
Christ, who does not believe in Christ Jesus, and see his need of
deliverance from the death demanded of him for his sins, by the
meritorious death of Christ, wherewith, upon his believing in
Christ, he is joined ; so as to have Christ's deliverance from
under the law, to be his deliverance from under it according to
John v. 24.
The mention in this 15th verse of Him, Whose " blessing" is
commemorated, being the Maker of heaven and earth, is intended
to admonish the hearer, of its being a blessing which nothing can
reverse ! (Eom. viii. 31 — 39.)

56 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH.
In the 16th verse, if we consider the Lord at that last supper
to be saying, " The heaven of heavens is the Lord's" — there He
manifests more especially His presence — " but the earth hath He
given to the children of men," we are minded to gather here
His meaning to be, that if the earth be His gift to men, they
ought not ungratefully to exclude all honourable mention of His
Name from their assemblies. Let them therefore (as we would
suppose Him to imply) faithfully hearken unto God's word con
cerning Christ, and seek of Him in Christ's Name the promised
blessing of righteousness and renewal with Christ's Spirit, that
they may not continue, as they are by nature, " dead" in tres
passes and sins : for such can no more praise the Lord, (as all
alive on earth ought,) than they that go down into silence in the
grave. The last verse, viewed as spoken by the Lord Jesus on that
eventful night for the awakenment of His sorrowing disciples,
may be regarded as a prediction that the earth shall never be
wholly destitute of some among men to praise Him ; though the
crisis in which the Saviour spake these words at the last Paschal
supper eaten by Him, was one in which the congregation of them
that praised was reduced to the lowest dimensions.
There shall indeed, as we learn from Isa. xxvii. 20, yet come an
awful hour of tribulation for Jacob (Jer. xxx. 6), when His
nation shall be reduced to a similar strait ; namely, of accept
ing death, for deliverance. But doubtless the chosen remnant
of Israel, which shall have then believed in the Lord Jesus,
will take His example of trust in His Father, when for the
last time on earth using these words, as an encouragement of
themselves unto like patient continuance in well doing, until
the pit be digged up for the ungodly, and righteousness turn
again unto judgment, (xciv. 15.)
Let us then see that we be not among " the dead that praise
not the Lord" (although living within the sound of His Word)
but that we " trust in Him," and in our day, by obtaining His
blessing, intelligently ascribe " blessing" to Him.
1.
Not to us, 0 not to us
But to Thy Name all the praise
For Thy mercy and Thy truth
0 Jehovah we would raise !

Why should heathen scoffers ask
Where's their God ? our God's on high !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH*. 57
All it pleas'd Him to be done,
Men did, tho' unwittingly.

Silver idols and of gold
Work of men's hands only are.
Mouths have they not meant to speak,
Eyes, but with no vision there,
4.
Ears too, with no pow'r to hear,
Noses not designed to smell,
Hands and feet which may not move,
Throats which thence no sound expel.
5.
As the idols, such, that make,
Or that worship them, must be. -
In Jehovah, Israel,
Trust thou ! help and shield is He !

In Jehovah, Aaron's house,
Trust thou ! help and shield is He]
Ye that fear Jehovah, know
Shield and help in Him have ye !

For us hath Jehovah car'd,
And will bless us; He will bless *
Israel's house, and Aaron's, and
Great and small, that Him confess.

58 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH.

8.
You Jehovah shall increase
And your children, more and more.
Of Jehovah blest are ye,
Ruling earth and heaven o'er.

Lo ! Jehovah dwells on high
Far above the highest heav'n :
But the whole earth's wide extent
Unto man's race hath He giv'n.
10.
Dead in heart, as dead in graves,
Can Jehovah never praise.
But henceforward we'll for aye
Lauds unto Jehovah raise.
Hallelujah!

PSALM CXVI.

AEGUMENT.
The Chaldaisms in this psalm make it probable that it was
written during or subsequent to the captivity. Being the fourth
in the Minor Hallel, it was sung in due course at the paschal
supper. Consequently it was recited by our Lord at that last
passover before He suffered death.
It will therefore be highly impressive to view it as used by Him
at that solemn hour, before we consider its use by the private
worshipper. In the first two verses He would through love of His Father,
ueckon the prayers that He should offer during His approaching
agony on account of our sins already granted.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH. 59
In that spirit of duteous love would He take for His own the
words :
" I love the Lord, because he hath heard My voice, and My sup
plications.
Because Pie hath inclined His ear unto Me, therefore will I call
upon Him as long as I live."
That is, I will not be " a proud doer," self-reliant, Ps. xxxi. 23,
but, as man, ask God's help in the work given me to do — God's
covenanted help. (Isa. lxiv. 7.) In the next verse — the third —
our blessed Lord at that supper expressed what, it may be, had
even then begun to come upon Him in a special sense in our
behalf. For, may it not be concluded that by reason of His being made
in all points like unto us, sin only excepted (Heb. iv. 15), our
Saviour's special agony in Gethsemane under the burden of the
sins of the world, was owing to the Spirit of bondage then pricking
Him with compunction thereat, even as ordinary men are thus
specially convinced of sin ? A mysterious and awe-inspiring im
port is added to the pathetic language of this third verse when
considered as coming from the lips of the Master at that paschal
feast. " The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of Hell got
hold upon me :
I found trouble and sorrow !"
The words that followed were both suggestive of what He
should do under the burden of our sins ; and also of what He
should live to acknowledge that the Father had done for Him
under the load.
" Then called I upon the Name of the Lord : 0 Lord, I beseech
Thee, deliver my soul !
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ! yea, our God is merciful."
The Lord preserveth the simple, or single-eyed. Matth. vi. 22.
" I was brought low, and He helped me.
Eeturn unto thy rest, 0 my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bounti
fully with thee.
For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears,
and my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living."
The words of the eighth verse are illustrated by those of St.
Paul in Heb. v. 7, 8, and those of verse nine may be compared
with the like in Ps. xxvii. 13, where the " land of the living" in
which to " walk before the Lord" rather refer to life in the im
mediate presence of God in the holy of holies' above, than on
earth. As used by our Lord at that last paschal supper they doubtless
were by Him applied to His resurrection in the new and

60 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH.
spiritual manhood, agreeably with the testimony in Ps. xxi. 4,
touching what at that crisis He should ask and obtain. The next
two verses, the tenth and eleventh, were emphatically applicable
to Him of whom it was testified by His very enemies, while He
hanged on the Cross, " He trusted in God." (Matt, xxvii. 43.)
By reason of this His faith He spake of His Father's mercy to
wards Him, as it was here provided that He should ; not but what
He had previously walked in darkness, and should again ; " having
no light" (Isa. 1. 10) concerning His Father's acceptance of
His sacrifice for the redemption of mankind from under the curse
of God's broken commandment.
By the eleventh verse we read that He should confess,
"I said in my haste, all men are liars,"
or rather — all humanity — the very nature — is vanity, inadequate,
and disappointing.1 The meaning being, as it seems to me, (when
viewed as spoken by the Saviour) that the very soul being limited
was too frail to bear the infinite amount of outrage done to God
by human sin, and consequently must have "failed" before God,
Isa. lvii. 16, had not He shewn the Eedeemer mercy, by accepting
as adequate for compensation of His outraged majesty, His Holy
One's unutterable sorrow ; and also by sending Him an angel to
succour Him under the load. (Luke xxii. 43. Ps. ex. 7.)
In the Saviour's offering up of Himself in righteousness, a
ransom for men's souls, the very perfection of it consists in His
offering of it as one " that feared," Heb. v. 7, as though confess
ing the inadequacy of His suffering in a limited nature to exhibit
to the full the enormity of outrage done by sin against the Divine
Nature which is infinite. Compare herewith Isa. xlix. 4. At
recital of the 12th — 14th verses when the Saviour said :
" What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits
towards me ? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the
name of the Lord.
" I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all
His people."
We conceive in our minds the moving sight of our Saviour at
that paschal supper, though on the eve of His agony in Geth
semane, magnanimously lifting up for the third time, at that
feast, the cup of blessing in thankfulness to His Father for the
portion in this mortal life appointed unto Him, familiarly de
noted by " a cup " in the hands of the Lord. See Ps. lxxv. 8,
with which compare Matth. xxvi. 39. So did the blessed Saviour
there render thanks in the presence of His chosen twelve for
having been called to do God's will in that respect. Ps. xl. 8,
Ps. xci. 16, and John x. 17. How fervently after this would He
add in the words of the 15th verse :
1 Ver. ii. Lying is in Scripture applied to disappointment. See Prov. xix. 22.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH. 61
" Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints :"
whence He might gather, that like as in Ps. Ixxiii. 26, it had been
written of " His saints :"
" My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion for ever."
So would it be with Him, in performance of the work given
Him to do : at the failing of His flesh and heart God would be
His strength. Ps. xc. 1, 2, and xci. 1, Deut. xxxiii. 27.
Taking therefore as we are bound to do, the language of this
15th verse, as spoken by our Saviour at that paschal supper,
with what He shortly afterwards asked of His Father in His
agony, Matth. xxvi. 39, we are not to suppose that in saying, " O
my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me," He
prayed to be absolutely spared from death in the body, which it
behoved Him to be stedfastly purposed to undergo, (see John x.
17, 18,) but that He referred to some continued presentation
before His pure and loving heart, of the outrage done to His
Father's holiness by the sinfulness of sin ; which, while pressed by
the Spirit of judgment and of burning upon the Saviour's human
soul, made thick darkness there concerning the compatibility of
forgiveness, in consideration of one perfect sacrifice, with God's
unimpeachable justice.
The language of the 16th verse would in the Saviour's lips, at
that supper, be expressive of unreserved submission in the capa
city ascribed to Him in Isa. xlix. 3. " Thou art My servant, O
Israel, in whom I will be glorified !" With glad embrace of the
self-denying service, He said : " O Lord, truly, I am Thy servant.
I am Thy servant — the son of Thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed
my bonds ;" words which aptly find illustration in Peter's lan
guage on the following day of Pentecost :
" Him God hath raised up, having loosed the pains pf death ;
because it was not possible that He should be holden of it."
The verses which follow, when viewed as used by the Saviour,
express what He is now doing in His glorified Manhood in the
Holy of Holies of the great temple of the universe, in the midst
of the Jerusalem which is above. (Heb. xii. 22 — 24.)
After this adaptation of the psalm before us to the Lord Jesus
Himself; its accommodation to the experience of every sou! made
alive to God in Him by the Holy Ghost is readily perceivable.
The believer's first persuasion of his prayers having been
received by the unseen God, may be considered to be gained in
observing how the petitions known only to God and himself that
he put up in the name of Jesus for pardon, while under conviction
of sin by the Spirit of bondage, have been in his own experience
answered. Hence the language of the first two verses of this
psalm is that of his renewed heart : as also is that in the third
verse concerning the desolateness bordering on despair, endured
when under convictions of sin by the Spirit of bondage.

62 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH.
The language, from the fourth verse to the end of verse 9, is
both a guide unto him in regard of what it behoves him to do,
and what he also can take as a record of what he did and found.
In the language of the 10th verse he learns how, out of faith
alone in God's promises through Christ, could he be persuaded,
as he is, of cleansing and renewal.
On which head he may, with profit, study the use made by
St. Paul of these very words in 2 Cor. iv. 14.
It may also be gathered from St. Paul's use of the words, " I
have spoken," in 1 Cor. xii. 3- — oiJtig Sivarai enrtiv Kvpiov 'Itjaovv —
compared with Matth. xvi. 16, that " I have spoken" amounted
to " I have confessed," agreeably with Eom. x. 10.
The language of the 11th verse would, in a believing soul's
experience, be referred to its sense of manhood's inadequacy to
make answer unto God for sins — yea, even to use worthily the
grace brought unto one through the promises of God in Christ;
so as to be on the verge of despondency, until instructed in
God's pledged word and oath that He will not be strict to mark
the offences unavoidably fallen into by them who wash their robes
and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. (See Heb. vi.
13—30, and 1 John iii. 19—24.)
Again, use of the 12th, 13th, and 14th verses by the awakened
soul, tasting peace with God through Christ, will be obviously
simplified by remembrance of the Saviour's use of the same as
above explained.
For since the Lord Jesus, at that paschal supper, elevated the
cup of blessing thereat into the cup of salvation, through His
precious blood — the believer, bearing in his mind's eye that act
of His Saviour, can look upon the 13th verse as pledging him to
draw near to the Lord's table if spared to do so ; or, if unable
through extremity of sickness, then to be by faith most surely
feeding on the flesh and drinking of the blood of His Saviour
by the Holy Ghost's application unto his heart of the doctrine
thereon. The words in verse 15 — " Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His saints"— may be fervently uttered by one who
calls to mind what gracious promises the Lord spake to His
disciples for their comfort when He was about to depart from
them, as in John xiv. 1 — 6 and 27 ; and what is testified by St.
Paul on this head in Heb. ii. 14.
They, therefore, who have been renewed by the Spirit of Christ,
may fervently take up the language of the psalmist in the re
maining verses, as spiritual priests, whether male or female (Gal.
iii. 28), made meet to minister in the holy place on earth of that
great Temple of the Universe, whereof the holiest of all is the
company of spirits of just men made perfect, along with innu
merable companies of angels round the throne of Almighty God
in the heavenly Jerusalem. (1 Pet. ii, 5 — 9.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH. 63

I love Jehovah, Who my voice hath heard,
And to my accents vouchsaf d His regard.
Long as I live, upon Him will I call.
Me round about death's sorrows compassed,
Yea too the pains of hell bow'd down my head,
Trouble and anguish did my heart appal.

Then did I on Jehovah's Name rely :
Save Thou my soul, Jehovah, was my cry.
Gracious is He ! righteous ! yet merciful !
The single-hearted are Jehovah's care ;
Help in my low estate to me He bare ;
Now to thy rest return thou, 0 my soul !

Jehovah hath with thee dealt bount'ously —
From death,1 my soul, hath He deliver'd thee —
Thine eyes from tears— thy feet from falling
snatch'd.
I therefore with renew' d heart in the land
Will walk2 'mongst those that round Jehovah stand,
For Whose salvation I devoutly watch'd.

In firm persuasion of our God's good grace,
I humbly made confession to His praise —
Telling how sore had my affliction been.
How, that, throughout the whole' of Adam's race
No truth was to be found before His face,
I had, through haste,3 insisted in my spleen.
1 Ver. 8. Heb. v. 7.
2 Ver. 9. Ps.xl. 1. 2.
* Ver. 11. Compare Ps. Ixxiii. 1.

64 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH.
5.
Lo ! truth from out of mankind1 is to spring !
How can I then unto Jehovah bring
Meet off'ring for His benefits to me ?
Calling upon Jehovah's Name, the cup
Of His salvation blythely I'll lift up
And to Jehovah vows pay gratefully.
6.
Yea 'fore His people I'll pour out my prayer.
Unto Jehovah is the sight most dear
Of His saints failing 'neath the pangs of death.
Thy servant truly I, Jehovah, am —
Thy servant I — who of Thy handmaid came —
My bonds Thou 'st loos'd, when I yield up my
breath. 7.
The sacrifice of praise to Thee I'll pay ;
Calling too on Jehovah's Name I'll pray,
So will I render unto Him my vows.
Mingling among the company of them
That in the midst of thee, Jerusalem,
Frequent the precincts of Jehovah's house.
1 Ver. 12. There seems to me to be here reference to the mystery in
Ps. Ixxxv. 11, and lxxxvii. 5, for thus might the psalmist's grief about man's
lying be relieved.

PSALM CXVII.

AEGUMENT.

This psalm, being the last but one sung at the paschal supper,
emphatically pledged the Jews from the time of its use (which
was in all probability after return from the captivity in Babylon,)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH. 65
to the evangelization of the Gentiles so soon as Messiah should
have come and sent them forth on that errand.
Notwithstanding a certain readiness on their part in the abstract
to undertake this mission, neither they that enthusiastically re
cited this psalm, nor yet the inspired writer of it, could antici
pate the circumstances under which the Spirit of Christ foresaw
that they, as a nation, would at the coming of Messiah, draw
back from the invitation.
St. Peter in his second Epistle, at the end of the first chapter
testifies, that " no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private in
terpretation. " For prophecy came not of old time by the will of man ; but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
Agreeably wherewith St. Paul saith in 1 Cor. ii. 11, as "no
man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is
in him ; even so the things of God knoweth no one save the
Spirit of God."
Now, in the interpretation of this psalm, the Holy Ghost fur
nishes a conspicuous exemplification of the fact that He alone
can authoritatively tell with what intent He caused holy men of
old time to put in writing certain sayings.
St. Paul in Eomans xv. is engaged in deprecating the back
wardness of them that out of the Jews at Eome, believed in
Jesus, from union in public worship with the converts from out
of the Gentiles in the same city.
Hereupon, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, he gives an
authoritative exposition of this hundred and seventeenth psalm ;
first explaining the latter verse, and then quoting the former.
Of the latter he saith at the eighth verse of Eom. xv. " Now I say
that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the
truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers ;
and that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy."
Here it is shewn, that although God's " merciful kindness " or
mercy, was first extended to the Jews, yet the Holy Ghost had
secretly intended to intimate by this verse that in regard to the
blessings of Christ's Gospel the Gentiles should more especially
glorify God for " His mercy," and the .lews for " His truth."
The Apostle then quotes under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost, certain texts out of Scripture, announcing the intent
wherewith the Holy Ghost had originally moved holy men to
write them.
First, he quotes out of the eighteenth psalm, the verse, " For
this cause will I confess to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing
unto Thy Name," a passage denoting that there should be a
willing company of Israel in whose persons the Spirit of Christ
would fulfil this mission.
Then he quotes out of the Song of Moses the verse, " Eejoice
ye Gentiles with His people," which, when so placed, indicates

66 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH.
the progress made by the speaker of the preceding quotation in
the work entered on ; to wit, unto the acquisition of so many
converts from among the Gentiles as to be fairly coupled with
the corresponding company of their brethren in the faith from
among God's ancient people.
After this the third quotation, which is the former verse of
this hundred and seventeenth psalm, significantly speaks of all
the Gentiles being called by the Gospel to praise God, without
mention of His ancient people, implying that Gentile converts
occupied the attention of those Jews in whom was the Spirit of
Christ, to the exclusion from notice of what few might be
gathered from among the Jews. And this quotation is followed
up by one out of Isa. xi. 1 — 10, indicating that the Christ of
David's stock should be accepted by Gentiles at large for their
king, while as yet there was no appearance of His national ac
knowledgment by Jews to be theirs.
At the time that the Holy Ghost inspired Paul to arrange this
selection of passages for the purpose of denoting His secret intent
in moving holy men of old to write them, this avowal was of itself
a prophecy. How completely now have events in regard to spread of the
Gospel, among Gentiles rather than Jews, from that time to the
present, vindicated this pledge of what had all along been the
Holy Spirit's intent !
Consequently, what a proof have we here of the truth of this
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the progress whereof during
the last 1830 years has, under the direction of God's providence
turned out such as was predicted.
The exposition furnished by the Holy Ghost of His secret
intent in causing the utterance of the former verse in this psalm
having been stated, let us return to the latter verse hereof,
wherein His teaching is, that He hereby gave notice of God's
" mercy " being by the Gospel rather- exhibited to the Gentiles,
and His " truth" to the Jews.
Whether this has been so hitherto the following considerations
will suffice to shew. Owing to the ascendency of traditions by the
elders of the Jews over the national mind, when the fulness of the
time had come for sending Christ, the Jews were not in a frame of
mind to receive the truth of Christ, as preached by Jesus accord
ing to the holy Scriptures. Yet for all this God did not refrain
from sending His Son, nor even delay the sending of Him to be
born among them ; for He remembered the covenant that He
sware unto Abraham, " In thee and in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed."
Accordingly the Jews have preeminent occasion for beholding
herein " the truth " of God.
Also when the Lord Jesus, after His resurrection caused His

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH. G7
Gospel to be first preached to them, they have still greater occa
sion for beholding the same.
But upon their national rejection of that loving call to belief
in Jesus, there seemed to be, humanly speaking, no alternative
for mankind at large, (whom the Scriptures spake of as receiving
salvation from the Jews,) but that of waiting until the wrath
which the Jews had on that account provoked should have run
out. (1 Thes. ii. 15, 16.)
But lo ! it became apparent by the event, that the Holy
Ghost, foreseeing this frowardness of the Jews, had secretly
moved holy men of old to write utterances indicative of His in
tention to take an elect remnant of the Jews, that should believe in
Jesus, and make them channels of God's grace by the Gospel to
the Gentiles who would hear it, even as we see to have been the
case from the days referred to in Eom. xv. 8, 9, to this hour.
If we only take into consideration what must have been the
condition of the Gentiles during all these ages, in which Jewish
national obstinacy and prejudice have run counter to the mercy
and the truth of God in Christ for them, (had we Gentiles been
indeed left to await the expiration of that wrath drawn down by
the Jewish nation upon themselves,) we shall see lively cause,
as Gentiles, to glorify God for " His mercy" towards us by the
Gospel. It may be safely affirmed that our moral condition, as
heathens, could not in that case have been better at this day than
was that of the Greeks and Eomans — the most civilised of the
heathen — in the days of the Apostles. For the Chinese and
Hindoos, who have to this day nationally remained heathen, were
in those days as civilised as they now are ; and they have been
all this time at a stand-still in moral respects, if not indeed
retrograding. But others of the Gentiles have remained till this day un
civilised ; even as we of this nation were in the days of the
Apostles, and so might have remained.
"Who then can describe the difference in condition, which
God's mercy through that band of elect Jews has brought our
forefathers and us in the Gospel ! Jewish obstinacy, while forfeit
ing it for themselves would have similarly forfeited it for us, only
that the mercy of God would not allow man's unbelief thus to
frustrate His purposes of love toward mankind through Jesus
Christ. Accordingly, after regard had to His " truth " in causing
Jesus to be born in the family of David; and then again in
taking an elect remnant of Jews to be the messengers of His
Gospel to the Gentiles, "not by works of righteousness which we
had done, but of His mercy He saved us, by the washing of re
generation and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on
us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." — Titus iii. 4.
r 2

68 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH.
St. Paul tells the Philippians, iv. 8, that by the Gospel God
stirs up the nations to pursue things belonging to " virtue and
praise." St. Peter also in his second Epistle, iii. 2, saith that God
hath hereby called the nations " through the knowledge of Him,
to glory and virtue," it being clear from his use of "glory" in
1 Peter ii. 20, that by it he meant " praise."
The two Apostles therefore agree in testifying, that greater in
centives to the practice of virtue are offered nations under the
Gospel than ever before.
Nor is this all— that the incentives thereto are greater — we
learn by Eom. v. G, that in the Gospel is brought help from
above, through faith in Christ, for the practice of virtue, to be
had for asking it of God in the Name of Jesus, which man other
wise has not. John iii. 5 — 21.
Who then can describe the difference in moral respects, regard
ing this life as well as that to come, which the mercy of God has
extended to the Gentiles, by sending to them the Gospel !
We cannot but shudder at the thought of having been, by
Jewish national obstinacy, so near exclusion from the Gospel for
all these years, during which the wrath nationally provoked by
them is running out ! How nearly were we Gentiles shut up to
a condition at best resembling that of Chinese or Hindoos to this
day — or possibly much worse — had not "the mercy of God"
provided against such a contingency !
I do not say that heathen nations are any where utterly desti
tute of incentives to '' virtue and praise" or " glory and virtue."
Far otherwise.
The Apostles would not have written as they did to them that
were only emerging out of heathenism, had men not had even in
their heathen state a power of perceiving what was morally
worthier, when put before them.
There is a light by Christ lighting every one that eonieth into
the world. John i. 9.
Also the conscience in man's breast every where prompts him to
virtue and praise by the moral maxims current in his nation or
tribe. Eom ii. 14.
But there is no " strength of heart " to be obtained in the state of
nature for practice of such virtue and praise as they are called to.
Accordingly the instances of worthy performance among heathen
are rare and desultory, which caused St. Paul, in Eom. vi. 20, 21,
to ask the converts from out of heathenism,
" When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free to righteous
ness. " What fruit had ye then, in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed ? for the end of those things (that ye then did) is
death." Nevertheless, St. Paul, in Eom. ii. 14, saith, "When the Gen-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH. 69
tiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contaiued
in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves ;
which shew the work of the law written in their hearts ; their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean
while accusing or else excusing one another."
And we believe that, in the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men according to the Gospel, many among the heathen,
that shall have been found to have laudably acted up to the light
given them, shall be freely granted a part in the sacrificial death
of Christ, in order to fit them for admission to seats at His
marriage supper, left vacant by those who, having been in God's
providence appointed unto salvation (1 Thess. v. 9), have ungrate
fully disregarded all incentives of the highest order, hereby
brought them to practise things belonging to virtue and praise ;
so as to finally forfeit hope in Christ.
For God will assuredly not leave the places at His sacrificial
table empty, which the bidden guests (Luke xiv. 23) shall have
wantonly renounced : whereby will be exemplified how the
" souls are slain that," according to God's ostensible appointment,
" should not die, and those be saved alive that," according to the
same, " should not live." (Ezek. xiii. 19.)
Some, alas ! among us, of no small note intellectually, upon
this view of the case, are not ashamed to broach the conclusion,
that it is better to leave the heathen as they are, with the light
to performance of what belongs to glory and virtue that is in
them by nature ; more especially, add they, since if, when the
Gospel be preached to them, they reject it, the more will be
required of them. (Luke xii. 47, 48.)
But such Christians must justly be convicted of great ingrati
tude toward God, and insensibility to the moral welfare, not only
hereafter but here, of their fellow-men.
For it must be acknowledged that, by means of the Gospel,
an inconceivably greater number in every nation, having it, are
stirred up to pursue things that belong to praise and virtue, for
their laudable self-control in this life, and for the well-being of
society, than would otherwise be the case : putting out of view
for the moment what incalculable gain must further redound to
such followers after praise and virtue in the life to come.
But, added to this, the mercy of God in Christ lays an obliga
tion on those that ftey know it, to obey His command in regard
to preaching of it to every creature. For " He hath so clone
His marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance,"
and men everywhere ought to sing of His doings, as in this
psalm called to d'o. The condition borne by the most civilized
of heathen in our Lord's sight may be learnt from His descrip
tion of the Greeks and Eomans of His day in the parable of the
Marriage Supper, under the designation of '' poor, maimed, halt
and blind." (Luke xiv. 21.)

70 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH.
And again, when commissioning Paul to be His Apostle to the
Gentiles (Acts xxvi. 17, 18), the condition of the heathen in
His sight may be learnt by His words concerning them :
" To the Gentiles now I send thee, to open their eyes ; that
they may turn themselves from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God ; so that they may receive remission of
sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith
that is in Me."
Assuredly, if it be acknowledged that man is afforded the
means of happiness even in this life according as there are
brought to bear on him incentives to follow the things per
taining to virtue and praise, it must be owned that the poorest
of our cottagers could not deliberately change conditions with a
heathen noble.
If Lazarus, with all his poverty and bodily ailments, would
never have exchanged the hope he had in God, by the Gospel,
of being after death comforted, for the wealth of the rich man,
if he had to accept with it the rich man's heart (which up to that
time had been unrenewed), even in the land at that time blessed
with revealed truth, much less would he have exchanged it for
the like in a heathen land.
The conviction of the poorest among our cottagers ought to be
the same, if he would worthily glorify God, for His mercy in
blessing us with His Gospel.
There is a further circumstance, as we learn from Scripture,
connected with this intercalary or exceptional mercy of God
to us Gentiles during this first age in the kingdom of heaven,
which ought to make God's mercy in provision of it to be more
conspicuous. It appears from Scripture that God has no more made the
propagation of the blessings for mankind in Christ to depend
absolutely on the fidelity of us out of the Gentiles, after our
conversion through His elect remnant of Jews, than He had in
the first instance made it to depend absolutely upon the fidelity
of Jews.
It is to be gathered from Scripture that we of the Gentiles
shall in process of time, through inclination for traditions of
men, prove no less obstructive of His Gospel, than were the Jews
iu the days of the Lord Jesus.
In this contingency He has not left the world to indefinitely
wait for the fulness of the Spirit until we of the Gentiles shall
become tractable. On the contrary, when our abuse of the
Gospel shall have filled up the measure of our iniquity, He has
provided by sovereign election the call of a remnant out of His
ancient people, to be the final messengers of His Gospel, who
shall be " children that will not disappoint Him." (Isa. lxiii. 8.)
Thus, after the manner in which Abraham was called, without
the employment of any messenger out of God's congregation then

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEENTH. 71
on earth ; and the wise men from the East in like manner ; so
will this chosen remnant of Israel, as indicated in Zech. xiv.
2—9.
The conversion of the penitent thief on the cross, and of St.
Paul on the road to Damascus — both of them Jews — are acknow
ledged types hereof.
If this be taken into account, the mercy of God in specially
appointing an elect remnant of Jews to open the eyes of us
Gentiles, when their own nation had provoked His wrath, is the
more wonderful.
For it will not be eventually through us, but immediately
from Himself, as above shewn, that the Jews, as a nation, will
be recovered to his obedience.
Out of regard for His " truth" God will freely bestow on a
chosen generation of Israel in the latter day that former and
latter rain of the Spirit, whereof He gave the Jews an instal
ment on that day of Pentecost next after our Lord's Ascension
" to confirm the promises made unto the fathers," Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Accordingly, at whatsoever time, yet future,
our abuse of the Gospel as Gentiles shall have come to the full,
in consequence whereof God shall have, for His truth's sake,
returned to His ancient people, with a special mercy for them
(Eom. xi. 31, 32) ; even then, their mercy shall but redound
more abundantly than ever to us of the Gentiles ; agreeably with
the spirit of the invitation breathed throughout this psalm.
For, as St. Paul asks in Eom. xi. 15, " If the casting away of
the Jews be the reconciling of the world, what shall be the
receiving of thenr hack, but life from the dead ?"
Here let us exelaim with the Apostle : " 0 the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !" (Eom. xi.
33.) Great cause as we Gentiles now have to praise God for this
His mercy specially granted us (Kom. xi. 30), as a provision
against the untractableness of the Jews, we shall have still more
for praise on account of His mercy ; when, finding that like as
God would not permit Jewish unbelief to debar us of the Gen
tiles, who (if we had the opportunity), during all this continuance
of their exclusion, would believe and be saved ; so will He not
permit that unbelief demoralizing us among the Gentiles unto
the filling up of our iniquity, to debar the rest of the Gentiles
therefrom that shall have been on earth after His return to His
ancient nation.
In this way Christ, Who is found to be a light to lighten the
Gentiles, yet remains to be found the glory of His people Israel,
until the fulfilment of this hundred and seventeenth psalm in its
spirit. (Luke ii. 32.)
Here, then, is to be seen abundant proof that we must not
trust in the sense of duty characterizing Jew or Gentile when

72 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH.
converted to Christ, for the full dissemination of Gospel blessings
among mankind, but in God; because of His regard for His truth
and His mercy. Wherefore with St. Paul let us say : " Now unto
Him, Who is able to do exceeding mni abundantly for us, above
all that we ask or think, according to His mighty power that
worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end." (Ephes. iii. 20.)
1.
Oh, all ye Gentiles, give Jehovah praise —
Ye kindred tribes to Him due homage pay;
For great the mercy t'wards us He displays,
And without change keeps He His truth for aye.

PSALM CXVIII.

AEGUMENT.
This psalm is with great probability concluded to have been
composed for use at consecration of the second temple. The
description given in Ezra iii. 10, 11, of what took place at
laying of the foundation of that second temple, may be taken to
favour this assumption.
For we read : " They sang together by course, in praising and;
giving thanks unto the Lord, because He is good, for His mercy
endureth for ever towards Israel" — words which stand at the
commencement and close of the hundred and eighteenth psalm.
Another internal mark which is favourable to the above-
mentioned idea respecting the composition of this psalm, is that
at verse 3 — " The house of Aaron," rather than the King, is
called on to say, " That God's mercy endureth for ever."
Another, that in the eighth and ninth verses there is what may
be regarded as a reference to the hindrances in the matter of
rebuilding the temple, owing to the counter-orders issued by the
successors of Cyrus down to Ezra's time.
Compare Ezra i. 1, with iv. 5 and 24.
Also by vi. 7 and vii. 1 observe, that an interval of seventy-nine
years had taken place.
Accordingly, this psalm may be supposed to have been written
sometime between Ezra vii. and Neh. xiii. 6, or during an interval
of twelve years from 457 to 415 B.C.
Again, the revelation to Daniel, in ix. 26, that Messiah should

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH. 73
he cut off in Jerusalem, became the occasion with inspired writers
at this time of being wrapt into mysterious foreshadowings of
Messiah's death and its consequences.
Hence at verse 10 — 12 reference is made " to the people of
the prince who should come to destroy the city and the sanctuary"
(Dan. ix. 20), followed by reference to the cutting off of Messiah,
with His resurrection and the building up on Him of a spiritual
house — in the first instance by " sending the rod of His power
out of Zion" (Ps. ex. 2 ; John v. 25 — 27) (which has been in
course of fulfilment from the day of Pentecost next following our
Lord's Ascension to this present time), and afterwards in verse 25
by the " return of the Lord in person from heaven" (as asked in
Ps. xc. 13 — 17), where the Prayer-Book version by the words
" Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us" serves to explain
what is really meant in verse 25 of this hundred and eighteenth
psalm by the petition.
" 0 Lord, send us now prosperity !"
Touching the return of the Lord from heaven, the psalmist is
moved in vision to exclaim at verse 26, " Blessed be He that
cometh in the Name of the Lord" — words which in verse 39 of
Matth. xxiii. our Saviour significantly shews will denote the
conversion of those in Israel, that use them, to faith in Him ; at
which time the " nations" Bpoken of in verses 10 — 13 of Ps.
cxviii. will be antagonistic to Israel, instead of in alliance with
them, as they were at the cutting off of Messiah.
Moreover, concerning this forthcoming time the psalmist, in
verse 27, is moved to foreshew that sacrifices of beasts will again,
he appointed (apparently in commemoration of the sacrificial
death of Christ) to be offered up in the new temple spoken of in
Ezek. xl. — xlviii., which is to stand during the Millennium.
Having now stated in a general manner what appear to me to>
be the contents of this psalm, I shall desist from closer attention'
to the prophetic parts which are necessarily veiled until the time
shall have come for their fulfilment, and shall confine my obser
vations to that part which is cleared up by having become matter
of history.
Here let it be recollected that this hundred and eighteenth!
psalm being the sixth and last of the Minor Hallel was accord
ing to the custom of the Jewish ritual for the ordering of
Divine service in the second templey sung by the Lord Jesus and
His disciples at the paschal supper, before He led them forth
to Gethsemane on the night of His agony. (Matth. xxvi. 30.)
With what significance must the words from verses 10 — 24
have at that hour proceeded from His sacred lips !
The words in verse 17—" I shall not die, but live" — are to be
understood as those in John xi. 4 by Jesus Himself, concerning
Lazarus' sickness : viz.. " This sickness is not unto death, but for
the glory of God" — the " not" being here comparative, and

74 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH.
Equivalent to " not so much" for death as "rather for the glory,"
etc. In this way we understand the Lord Jesus to have employed
the words :
" I shall not die, but live : and declare the works of the Lord ;"
meaning, " My death shall be for the very purpose of opening
* the gate of life' by opening of ' the gates of righteousness.' "
The setting up of the gate beiDg in Scripture, the most signi
ficant token of the establishment of one's power (Gen. xxiv. 60;
1 Kings xvi. 34) ; all legal and political business being transacted
in the gate. (Euth iv. 1 ; 1 Kings xxii. 10 ; Matth. xvi. 18.)
That the Lord Jesus had, about the time of His betrayal,
¦called especial attention to the 22nd verse of this psalm, is plain
from the record in Matth. xxi. 42 — 44, noticed by Mark at
¦chap. xii. 10, and Luke at chap. xx. 17.
Our Lord's example in this instance, no doubt subsequently
led to the emphatic use of the same verse by His Apostles. (See
Acts iv. 10—12; Eom. ix. 33 ; and Ephes. ii. 20.)
There had already been, in Isa. xxviii. 16, a designation of the
Messiah as " a foundation stone to be laid in Zion."
But in this hundred and eighteenth psalm the Holy Ghost, on
resuming the subject after an interval of three hundred years or
so, added that " by the builders it should be refused." All this
makes it the more probable that the psalm before us was written,
as has been above assumed, upon the consecration of the second
temple. Our Lord's citation of these words in verse 22 with such
pointed application to Himself, as is recorded by Matth. xxi. 42,
could not fail to be intelligible to the rulers of the congregation
who heard it, and knew themselves to be in their capacity of
God's ministers, called in the language of Scripture "builders."
(See Numb. xii. 7, as explained by St. Paul in Heb. iii. 1 — 6 ;
and indeed at verse 45 of Matth. xxi. this is shewn to have been
the case.)
In this way I trust the metaphorical use of the word " stone"
to designate the Christ will be perceived to have been by no
means forced, but rather in entire keeping with the likening of
the Lord's temple to a house. (Jer. vii. 4.) For the house of
the Lord, at a veiy early time came to be of stone. (See 1 Sam,
vii. and 1 Chron. xxviii. and xxix. 2.)
Hence came the need of a foundation stone, which is charac
teristic of every building. (See Heb. iii. 1 — 6; Ephes. ii. 20;
and 1 Cor. iii. 10—11.)
And hence the propriety of Isaiah's likening the Christ, when
cut off and laid in His grave in Zion, to a " foundation stone."
But although like the foundation stone of a literal house, laid
in the ground at His burial, this stone should be a living one, all
the while, as St. Peter points out in his first Epistle, ii. 4 — 10.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH. 75
This should happen because of the Lord not " giving His Christ
over unto death," according to verse 18 ; whence Messiah's sacri
ficial death and miraculous change by the right hand of the Lord,
while on the cross, from natural to spiritual, as evidenced by the
water flowing with the blood from His pierced side, before He
was taken down from the cross, followed by His resurrection on
the third day according to His own prediction (Matth. xxvii.
62 — 66 and xxviii. 11 — 15) has become the way or "gate" to
God for us who believe in Him, and are for that faith buried by
the Holy Ghost into His spiritual sacrifice, (John v. 24—29 ;
Heb, x. 19— 25.)
See also the Collect for Easter Eve.
Moreover, the same will be the " gate" for that latter genera
tion of Israel to enter on the inheritance of the Lord, mentioned
in Ps. Ixxviii. 4 — 6, which shall, according to Isa. xxvi. 2 — 4, be
fitted to offer up the sacrifices appointed to be brought into the
new temple referred to in verse 27 of this hundred and eighteenth
psalm. In regard of the " corner-stone " to which the Lord is here
likened after His resurrection, it is to be observed that no building
is ever commenced in the middle of a wall, but always at a corner.
With this corner-stone the rest of the building is squared, which,
from that circumstance, becomes the " head corner-stone."
Hence the propriety of calling the Lord Jesus, because of His
death and resurrection, the head corner-stone of the spiritual
temple. For so surely as a corner-stone is the pledge of the stones that
are to be added to it in the future building by a man that knows
his own mind; even so is the glorified body of the Lord Jesus in
heaven pledge of His people's bodies being in due time joined
there unto His. " Because He lives, we shall live also." Mean
while, we are as spiritual stones founded on Him and built up in
Him as our foundation-stone ; according to 1 Pet. ii. 5 — 10.
It remains to shew how " this is the day which the Lord hath
made " (verse 24). Let it, then, be considered what unutterable
sorrow must have been weighing down the disciples at sight of
the betrayal and death of their Master ; and we shall understand
how the transition from that sorrow to rapture at seeing Him on
the third day subsequent thereto, standing before them in His
spiritual and uncorruptible body, was as the passage from night
into day — a day in which we share who abide in the Apostles'
doctrine and fellowship.
Again, the Lord Jesus Himself, in Acts xxvii. 18, describes
the change produced in the hearts which heed His Gospel as a
" turning of them from darkness to light an"d from the power of
Satan unto God."
For a state of sin is, in Scripture, styled one of darkness, and
the state of sanctification one of light. (Eom. xiii. 16 ; 1 John
i. 5 ; 1 Pet. ii. 9.)

76 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH.
In both of these senses the Lord hath, by the resurrection of
His Son from the dead, made day out of night for His people.
Let ours, then, be the self-denying and sanctifying resolve of
the psalmist :
" We will rejoice and be glad in it."
So shall we hold faith with a good conscience ; and, when, upon
drawing near to death, we are appalled at the solemnity of the
momentous change that is impending, recollection of the resur
rection of Jesus and of His words, " I am the resurrection and
the Life," shall have power through the Spirit of Christ (1 Cor.
iv. 20) to make us light in the Lord (Ephes. v. 8) ; so as to
exclaim, O Death, where is thy sting ? O Grave, where is thy
victory ? (1 Cor. xv. 55.)
Thanks be to God, " Which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ."

To Jehovah ascribe ye your thanks,
For His mercy for ever endures.
0 Israel ! by you be it said,
That His mercy for ever endures.

And thou, house of Aaron, confess
That His mercy for ever endures-
Ye, too, that Jehovah revere,
Say His mercy for ever endures.

On Jehovah I call'd in distress,
And Jehovah made gracious reply !
Jehovah's with me ! so, what man
Might do, I shall boldly defy.
4.
Jehovah my helpers assists,
So my foes' disappointment I '11 see !
In Jehovah 'tis better to trust,
Than on man's aid reliant to be.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH. 77
5.
In Jehovah 'tis better to trust
Than on princes dependence to place.
Were all nations on me to press,
Their multitudes from me I'd chase

In the Name of Jehovah! yea, though
As bees they should throng me about,
In the Name of Jehovah their wrath,
As the fierce blaze in thorns, I'd put out.

Sore at me, for my fall didst thou thrust,
But Jehovah His help to me gave.
Jehovah's my strength and my song —
At my side is He, ready to save.
8.
The voice of salvation and joy
In the house of the righteous is heard.
Jehovah's right hand doth prevail —
Jehovah's hand high is preferr'd.
9.
Jehovah's right hand doth prevail !
I shall die, but to live, and declare
His works ! tho' He chasten'd me sore,
Yet from conquest by death did He spare.
10.
Gates of righteousness, ope for me wide !
To go in and Jehovah extol.
Lo ! here's of Jehovah the gate
For the righteous to use, and be whole.

78 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH.
11.
I'll extol Thee, for me hast Thou heard.
My very salvation Thou art !
The stone which the builders refus'd,
For the head corner-stone's set apart.
12.
From Jehovah this act doth proceed,
And marvellous 'tis in our eyes.
'Tis the daj^ which Jehovah hath made,
To be landed and lov'd by the wise.
13.
Thee, Jehovah, we ask us to save —
Yea, to prosper us Thee we beseech.
In the Name of Jehovah there comes
One to Whom we shall utter this speech
14.
From the house of Jehovah ! Lo ! God's
The Jehovah this light on us shed !
Let the sacrifice, held safe with cords,1
To the horns of the altar be led !
15.
Thou, Thou, art my God ! Thee I'll praise-
My God, Whom I'll praise evermore!
To Jehovah— the Good One2 — give thanks,
For His mercy doth ever endure !

1 Ver. 27. Hos. xi. 4; John x. 17—18.
2 Ver. 29. Matth. xix. 17.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 79
PSALM CXIX.

AEGUMENT.
This hundred and nineteenth psalm is constructed with peculiar
care. It is divided into as many sections or stanzas of eight
verses as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet; namely,
twenty-two. Also every verse of the eight in each section begins with the
letter proper to that section.
Thus the eight verses of this first section begin with Aleph.
It is supposed that this artifice was resorted to for the purpose
of helping the learner to keep the several verses in memory.
Where each verse contains, as is the case here, its meaning
within itself, the omission of one here or there would escape
notice, were it not for some such contrivance as this.
Great pains must have been taken by the author, whoever he
was, to make a psalm of twenty-two stanzas of eight lines each
with these restrictions. Still, these very pains shew that he
himself valued highly what he aimed at communicating in this
form ; and we, on seeing this, may well allow ourselves to be
influenced by a similar feeling to that of Moses, who, upon
observing how the bush burned with fire, and was not consumed,
said, I will now turn to see this great sight, why the bush is not
burned. Since this carefully constructed psalm is handed down to us
under the solemn sanction of inspiration, it cannot be irreverent
to apply the purpose to which God put the burning bush to that
which the psalmist here put his elaborate use of the Hebrew
alphabet. Since this psalm was written under the guidance of Divine
inspiration, God is in the midst of it, as surely as in the burning
bush. There is a legitimate use of curiosity as well as a per
version of it. Various means are shewn in Scripture to be allow
able to be resorted to, and indeed needful to be resorted to, for
promotion of a spirit of inquiry. Since we are so constituted by
God, that out of regard for our freedom of will and moral respon
sibility He will not put such a constraint on us as would compel
our assent to His teaching, but rather attract us to the pursuit of
virtue, by awakenment within us of a willingness to inquire after
what is for our truest and everlasting interests to decide on.
Sometimes we see our curiosity benevolently appealed to for this
purpose in the pages of holy writ by use of' contraries in an
apparently irreconcileable statement, such as that in Isa. lv. 1 ,
where that prophet, by the impulse of the power of the Spirit,
exclaims, " Ho ! ... let him that hath no money come buy and
eat, without money and without price,"

80 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
If the hearer of this call cares to learn how he can buy with
out money, he will assuredly hear of something to his advantage,
fitted to be of unspeakable profit to him ; whereas, if he be apa
thetic, and allow it to fall on his ear in listlessness, the more the
pity, when God has made a gracious endeavour to render the
learning of a needful lesson attractive.
In men's manner of receiving these gracious endeavours on
the part of God to stir their curiosity for their good, they shew
their moral responsibility.
After these prefatory remarks, let us pass to contemplation of
the contents of this first section.
It may be regarded as an introductory statement of the subject
treated of in the sections that follow ; namely, the pursuit of
godliness ; the way to set about which is to walk by the rule of
God's law, whence comes blessedness, which, in Eom. iv. 6, St.
Paul testifies to be more than justification, being that and sancti
fication too, which is meetness for that rest with God to be
entered on after death.
The " law of the Lord," as used in the first verse, is a com
prehensive term, including all the revelation of God in holy
Scripture. Thus, in John xii. 34, when the Jews said to Jesus,
" We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth alway," they
referred to the prophetic part of the Scripture.
So, too, in 1 Cor. xiv. 21, we read, "In the law it is written,
with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this
people, yet for all that will they not hear Me, saith the Lord."
But this is written in Isa. xxviii. 11, 12. By the word 'law,' so
understood, it can be shewn that those who put it in practice to
the best of their ability, in reliance on the covenant of promise
are " undefiled in the way."
It would be impossible for fallen man to be undefiled in the
way, were that way to consist in the law alone, moral and cere
monial. Accordingly, 'law' must be here taken in its more compre
hensive sense, or otherwise Scripture would be made, to contra
dict itself, which none are permitted to do.
The next verse contains a term for one subordinate part of
law in this comprehensive sense. This word is " testimonies,"
or sentences which bear witness to what God threatens against
sin, or promises in reward of faith. There are five other terms
for different parts of the law of God found in this first section ;
these are, God's " way, precepts, statutes, commandments, judg
ments " — seven in number — a number according to Scripture
usage expressive of perfection.
Precepts are rules for a believer's individual guidance.
Statutes are rules of a positive character for a people collec
tively.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 81
Commandments are properly the moral — of the two tables of
duty to God and to our neighbour.
Judgments may have a distinctive meaning by being supposed
to warn one of the Divine sanction, wherewith all that God
appoints, shall be enforced.
The term " way " denotes the manner in which the several
parts of the law are to be reduced to practice, in order that we
may be saved. In this sense we find the word used in sundry
places of Scripture, as, for instance, in Acts ix. 2, where we read,
" Saul desired of the high priest letters to Damascus to the
synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were
men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem."
If we bear in mind these meanings of the several parts of the
law, what a conception of a believer's service does this first
section hold up to view !
What care in seeking cleanness of heart by renewal with the
Holy Ghost, as by the washing of water through the word (Eph.
v. 26, 27), is implied in their description, " undefiled in the way."
It reminds one of those words in Isa. xxxv. 8, concerning the way
of holiness, on which the unclean cannot walk, but on which the
wayfaring man, though in the estimation of the world a fool,
shall not err !
What decision of character in this profession of religion is im
plied in the description at the second verse that " they seek God
with their whole heart."
With less resolution than this they are not to be reckoned to
keep God's testimonies, which have been explained as bearing
witness to the terrors hanging over the heads of those that slight
His law, and the blessedness of those that make much of the
least of His commandments. (Matt. v. 19.)
What a practical character is ascribed in verse 3 to the pro
fession of religion by these undefiled in the way ; to wit, that
" they do righteousness :" just as the beloved disciple, in 1 John
iii. 7, saith, " Little children, let no man deceive you, he that doeth
righteousness is righteous, even as He — Jesus — is righteous."
Then, in verse 4, what a seasonable incentive to diligence in
this duty is supplied us in the words, " Thou hast commanded us
to keep Thy precepts diligently."
With dutiful children even their earthly parents' word is law
(Prov. i. 8), how much more then ought God's to be with His
children ! How opportunely hereupon follows that commenda
tion of a social position exempted from all stress upon one's
willingness to live honestly, implied in the words, " 0 that my
ways were directed to keep Thy statutes ! "
Again, in the sixth verse, what seasonable diversification of
incentive to diligence herein is contained in' the suggestion,
" Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy
commandments." Agreeably wherewith the beloved disciple

82 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
said in 1 John ii. 28, " Little children abide in Christ, that when
He shall appear, we may have confidence ; and not be ashamed
before Him at His coming."
Then again, what a lowly ascription of the soul's health to
God is contained in the seventh verse, where the teaching of
God's Spirit is declared to be that which fits one to praise Him.
And this rehearsal of filial dutifulness concludes with a becoming
confession of unworthiness if God should be strict to mark
defects in service, where it is said at verse 8, "I will keep Thy
statutes, 0 forsake me not utterly ; " implying that all one's
strength to please God in the way of His law is owing to Christ
being with one ; and that we have no claim to Christ's continu
ance with us but that of His own mercy.
1.
Ye undefil'd ones in the way how blest
Are ye, that do Jehovah's law obey !
They that His testimonies keep, in quest
Of Him with their whole heart, blest too are they !
Iniquity they shun, and in His way
Walk onward. But Thou hast commandment laid
On us to heed Thy precepts day by day,
Oh1 that my ways were so straightforward made
That I might keep Thy statutes ! then my head
I'd lift unblushing, when with like respect
All Thy commandments I had honoured.
With uprightness of heart will I direct
Praise unto Thee, once that (as I expect)
I've learn't Thy righteous judgments ! Steadfastly
Will I Thy2 statutes keep. Leave me not utterly.
1 Ver. 5. vH^? a word, as Dr. Burgh observes, only here and in 2 Kings
v. 3. Etymology uncertain.
1 Ver. 8. As distinctions in meaning are ascribed to seven of these words
at least, included under " law," it must be desirable to retain them in this para
phrase exactly as the psalmist has used them.
It has been observed that in the sixteenth ode of the 3rd Book, Horace has
employed eleven different synonyms for money. But it appears by this hundred
and nineteenth psalm that this device for extolling the preciousness of one's
theme was known at a much earlier date.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 83
Second Section of Psalm C XIX.— Beth.
AEGUMENT.
As the foregoing portion was supposed to contain a prelimi
nary statement of the subject of the psalm ; to wit, the way to
lead a religious life, that subject is here practically entered on
by inquiring what one should do to this end in the morning of
life. It has been observed that none are so stable and tranquil
withal in their religious attainments as those who, like Timothy,
that from a child knew the holy Scriptures, have walked with
God from their youth onward. Dr. Watts expressed this idea in
the well-known lines : —
'Twill save us from a thousand snares
To mind religion young ;
Grace will improve our following years,
And make our virtue strong.
Such a youth was Daniel, as we know from the book bearing
his name ; and some have deemed this psalm to be his composi
tion. Be that as it may, much vividness will be imparted to our
conceptions of the successive portions of this psalm by thinking
that they set forth his bosom-feelings.
That enquiry, " Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his
way ? " has its answer in the latter clause, " By taking heed
thereto according to Thy word." If it be thought that because
the writer lived under the Mosaic dispensation he understood
hy " cleansing " that alone which was outward in the flesh, they
would be convicted of doing him wrong by his fervent protesta
tion in the next verse—
" With my whole heart have J sought Thee !
O let me not wander from Thy commandments ! "
In making this protestation unto Him that seeth in secret, the
writer shews how well he knew that " man looketh at the out
ward appearance, but the Lord looketh at the heart" (1 Sam.
xvi. 7), and that the wise man had said in Prov. iv. 23, " Keep
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."
It shews also how deeply he was persuaded that God would
have the whole heart or none ; for that we " cannot serve God
and Mammon." (Matth. vi. 24.) " The double-minded man is
unstable in all his ways." (James i. 8.)
" If the eye be single the whole body — the natural man (Eom.
vii. 18— shall be full of light."
At the same time, by the latter clause it is clear that the psalmist
did not assume to himself the ordering of his heart aright, but
g2

84 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
understood that it was to be yielded to God in Christ for his
guidance of it unto that end, as Jeremiah testified in chap. x. 23.
" O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself : it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Therefore the
psalmist makes this youth say —
" O let me not wander from Thy commandments."
His next petition is —
" Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against
Thee ! "
Here is given an instance of the contrariety to be experienced
in his heart, which made it needful for him to invoke the help
of God. The hiding or laying up of God's word in the heart
denotes the young man's desire, on his awakenment, to conceal
from others its agitation on the subject of religion, while pur
suing the cleansing of his ways by the word in secrecy. (Eph.
v. 26.) It shews also that the psalmist regarded the word of
Scripture, as used by his spirit, " the caudle of the Lord searching
all the inward parts of the belly." (Prov. xx. 27.) Por that
word brought the will of God to mind, and prevented the heart
from inclining one to its own way through ignorance.
The next verse shews the great encouragement such a youth will
derive from that recourse to God's word as in His sight. In the
gladness of his heart at help received in answer to his single-eyed
petition he exclaims, " Blessed art Thou, O Lord ! Teach me
Thy statutes !" make me more and more to understand wisdom
secretly. The Apostle Paul tells us (1 Cor. xii. 4) that no man can in
telligently call Jesus the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. And
the Lord Jesus says, " No man can come to Me except the
Pather, Who hath sent Me, draw him." (John vi. 44.) And in Isa.
liii. 1, it is testified that what he had to report needed to be
revealed to one that should believe it.
As also St. Paul testified in Gal. i. 16, saying, " When it pleased
God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal His
Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
The Eather " hides His truth from the wise and prudent — that is,
withholds from them the grace wherewith to open their under
standings, but He reveals it unto babes." (Matt. xi. 25.)
Thus, " except we be converted, and become as little children"
— teachable— dependent on God for what we need to learn con
cerning His salvation — " we shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven." (Matt, xviii. 3.)
The next verse shews the growth of this youth in grace, where
he saith, " With my lips have I declared all the judgments of
Thy mouth." Agreeably wherewith St. Paul saith, (Eom. x. 10)
" With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Thus what the psalmist at first " hid" is in due time avowed,
" waxing bold," like Paul and Barnabas in Acts xiii. 46,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 85
In the next verse, evidence is given of the practical nature of
this youth's religious profession. Por him to have said, "I have
rejoiced in Thy commandments," might only have implied that
he felt much pleasure in the intellectual exercise of discourse
upon them : whereas to say, " I have rejoiced in the way of Thy
commandments," indicated happiness in the practice of them.
For this is the force of way in the first verse, in the question,
" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ?"
How genuine too that happiness which could be compared
with what he might have in all riches. (Ps. iv. 6, 7.) We are
sure that one, speaking by the Spirit of God would not permit
his profession to exceed what at the "time present he actually
felt, or could with truth assert concerning his habit of mind.
How happy then must this young man have been, who could
thus take God for his shield and exceeding great reward (Gen.
xv. 1), relinquishing the gifts he was in this life fitted to enjoy,
for enjoyment of communion with the Giver !
In the 15th and 16th verses, the psalmist shews how this is to
be sustained.
Eirst saying, "I will meditate on Thy precepts, and have
respect unto Thy ways."
Precepts have already been explained to be maxims on morality
and virtue for observance by individuals in private. One means
then of sustaining a youth's soul in lively communion with God,
the writer of this psalm found to be, habitual meditation on His
precepts ; whereby to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest
them, so as to extract refreshment in spirit from them.
" Eespect unto God's ways" herein, denotes the same as in the
two preceding instances ; namely, heed to the practice of His
precepts. Secondly, on the words, "I will delight myself in Thy statutes,
I will not forget Thy word," it is to be remembered that
" statutes" vrere explained in the former portion to mean
" Divine rules to be observed by the congregation in their cor
porate capacity, whether civil or religious."
Observance of this part of religion must be combined with
that of the preceding, in order to maintain in youth that happi
ness in religion described in verse 14.
To distinguish between the private maxims which may be
meditated in one's closet, and content oneself with observance
of these, to the neglect of those rules for attendance on public
worship and participation of the Lord's Supper, which have an
usefulness of their own, is sure to produce in youth declension
from God,
In Isa. lvii. 13, it was said on this point, " If thou turn away
thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy
day, and call the sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, honour
able, and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor

86 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words,
then shalt thou delight thyself greatly in the Lord." Now
what a youth wants in order to make the practice of true heart
felt religion pleasant, is to have delight in it. Then will God's
commandments, how arduous soever to flesh and blood, be on no
account deemed " grievous." (1 John v. 3.)
Behold then the means whereby this " delight'-' is to be at
tained — observance of the Lord's statutes — "not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is ; but
exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching." (Heb. x. 25.)
The youth who confines* his religion to meditation in private
on the Divine precepts will stand alone : and the wise man saith,
(Eccles. iv. 10), "Woe to him that standeth alone, when he
falleth ; for he hath not another to help him up."
But in Prov. xxvi. 17 — 19, we read: " Iron sharpeneth iron;
so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." " Whoso
keepeth the fig-tree shall eat of the fruit thereof; so he that
waiteth on his master shall be honoured." " As in water face
answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." And again :
" A brother is born for adversity." (Prov. xvii. 17.)
There is occasionally an advantage in stating a proposition
and its converse — what one shall do and what one shall not — to
the same end. It is by no means mere redundancy ; but some
times serves to point out the quarter whence danger is more
particularly to be apprehended. Hence in this instance, the
clause " I will not forget Thy word," has great significance as a
supplement to the former clause. Por much of the evil ensuing
upon neglect of public worship — neglect of the Lord's table, and
other duties enjoined in the congregation collectively by statute
—is owing to the religious young man's allowing himself to
forget that these ordinances have their warrant in God's word ;
and therefore ought on no account to be slighted in comparison
with meditation on the Divine precepts in private, which are
observed because of being grounded on the like warrant. Very
distinct caution against forgetfulness on this point, as the door
by which the enemy to the religious youth's soul may enter in,
where that enemy could not obtain the young man's deliberate
consent to neglect of God's statutes, is to be seen in Deut. iv. 9,
and viii. 11.
Only when Christ's word abides in us, does He abide in us ;
and if He depart, we can bear no fruit to perfection. (John xv. 4.)
The several verses of this portion (though each one comprises
its meaning within itself) are hereby shewn to have a bearing
upon one subject — the right entrance of an awakened youth,
such as was Daniel, upon the profession of true religion.
And although the arduousness of this performance of duty
toward God is hereby apparent, yet the happiness to ensue
thereon is abundantly shewn.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 87
2.
His way how shall a young man surely cleanse ?
Steadfast respect to Thy word let him pay.
My whole heart doth for Thee yearn with intense
Devotion : Oh incline me not to stray
From Thy commandments. Carefully I lay
Thy word1 up in my heart, lest I 'gainst Thee
Should sin, Jehovah ! Be Thou blest alway !
Teach me Thy statutes ! I have faithfully
Declared all Thy judgments. In the way
Of Thy pure testimonies, daily I,
As in all riches, find unfeigned joy ;
My thoughts upon Thy precepts I'll employ,
And to Thy ways attention strict apply !
At all times with Thy statutes pleas'd I'll be,
Nor leave Thy word to slip from me unheedingly.
1 Ver. 11. *?TnTpM " The word of promise." See this full expression at
verse 123, " The word of Tby righteousness." See too Ainsworth's note on this
word in Ps. cxxxviii. 2.

Third Section of Psalm CXIX.— Gimel.

AEGUMENT.
In this third portion the psalmist enters on a new stage of
his subject; which we have supposed to be, how he himself in
the morning of life, should enter aright, or had so entered, on
the profession of religion.
This he is considered to set forth in the second portion.
And now, in the third, he first prays for the Lord's liberal
dealing with him ; not that he may employ himself in pursuit
of worldly prosperity, but in consistent maintenance of that
religious profession on which he had entered.
The words to this effect are : " Deal bountifully with Thy
servant, that I may live, and keep Thy word."
He then appears to specify six hindrances to his endeavour
after performance of his undertaking.
Of these hindrances, and their discouraging effects on his
natural temperament, he had already, young as he was, had
painful experience.

88 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
The hindrance first mentioned is that in the 18th verse, arising
from those providential dealings with one, wherewith (as appears
from " law" taken in its most comprehensive sense) God won-
drously chastens those whom He loves. These dealings on God's
part with His servants are apt to make them repine and be weary
of their service. (Ps. lxxxiii.)
David was tempted thereto when TJzzah was slain for stretch
ing forth his hand to keep the Ark of God steady on the cart.
(2 Sam. vi. 8.)
So too was Elijah when the son of the woman of Sarepta, with
whom he sojourned, died : for he thereupon exclaimed in a com
plaining tone, " 0 Lord my God, hast Thou also brought evil
upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son ?"
(1 Kings xvii. 20.)
Now this impatience at God's providential dealings with one,
while obediently following His service, may be seen in His
" law'' (when by it is meant the Scripture) to have been a tem
porary snare to some of God's most eminent servants. The
providential dealing, of which they complain, appears in their
eyes to be " wondrous ;" as was the case with the disciples of the
Lord Jesus, of whom it is recorded in Luke xviii. 34, that when
their beloved Master, Whom they fully believed, in saying that
He was the Christ, told them of His approaching death at the
Passover in Jerusalem to which they were following Him: "They
understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from
them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." These
words emphatically express their impatience : yea, so offensive to
them was this thought of their Master's ignominious death, that
they would not, even when learning it from His own lips, ask
Him to explain Himself more fully— they would not pray, as
doth the psalmist here in verse 18, " Open Thou mine eyes, that
I may see wondrous things out of Thy law ; " to wit, the won
drous thing, that " Christ ought to suffer these things, and to
enter into His glory." (Luke xxiv. 26.)
Such an affliction of their Master, in which they instinctively
perceived that they would be involved, seemed to them to be a
dealing with them not in correspondence with their duteous ser
vice, and they shrank from attainment of His own proof of that
" wondrous thing out of God's law."
Now that which temporarily so hindered Christ's disciples
from hearty conformity with God's word was " the veil" spoken
of by St. Paul in 2 Cor. iv. 3, where he saith, " But if our Gospel
too be veiled, it is veiled to them that are lost — that is, astray
from the Good Shepherd — in whom (seeing that they believe not)
the God of this world (taking advantage of that unbelief) hath
blinded their eyes — that is, has enticed their carnal nature to
usurp the sway within them — that the light of the glorious gos-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 89
pel of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine into
them." That communication which the Lord Jesus confidentially
granted the disciples concerning His then approaching death
was indeed "the light of the glorious gospel of God" — "a won
drous thing out of God's law !"
Nevertheless, without illumination by the Spirit of Christ, the
disciples of Jesus, in the face of so much tribulation, could not
see that glory in it ; and the illumination would not be granted,
except they asked for it in their difficulty ; but owing to their
unbelief they would not ask for it ; consequently, by with
drawal of God's help, corrupt nature, actuated by " the spirit
which ruleth in the children of disobedience," (Ephes. ii. 2),
spread a veil, as it were, over the eyes of their understanding —
that veil which the psalmist here in verse 18 asks God to remove
off his eyes ; and which in Isa. xxv. 7, we read of as " spread
over the face of all nations," — which Isaiah there announces that
Christ should at His Father's bidding die to take away from off
all nations. Por according to Scriptural phraseology, God is
said to remove that veil which He dissipates by its corrective, as
morning mists are dispersed by the risen sun. And Christ's
meritorious sacrifice opens the way for full free bestowal of God's
Spirit on him who believes in Christ Jesus, whereby that veil
above spoken of is dissipated.
The second hindrance against which the psalmist prays is
found in the 19th verse, where his words are : " I am a stranger
upon earth, hide not Thy commandments from me."
The psalmist seems here to pray for help against the unsettling
effect of expatriation on the pious mind of a youth like Daniel,
which cut him off from access to public worship. What brief
acquaintance we may have had with the hindrance in religious
profession occasioned, even in our own land, by such compara
tively small trials, as unsettling of our means of livelihood, or
place of abode, will help us to understand the arduousness of
captivity in a heathen land, in addition to the foregoing.
Against these accumulated consequences in a worldly sense, of
being " a stranger," a youth like Daniel could only bear up by
God's bestowal of grace in accordance with His word.
Help against the third hindrance is sought of God in verse 20
as follows : " My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath to
Thy judgments at all times."
This " breaking" of the soul is its failing in fortitude when
" crushed,"1 as it were, by interruptions of a mortifying nature,
demanding one's instant attention-, so as to exclude one from the
much desired leisure to study or meditate on God's judgments.
The fourth hindrance is prayed against in these words at verse
1 Ver. 20. In Lam. iii. 16, this word for " break" is used to denote crushing
as with stones.

90 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
21 : " Thou hast rebuked the proud, that are cursed : which do
err from Thy Commandments."
Here, as it seems to me, the tendency of a young believer to
meet the ill-nature of jeerers with a defiant spirit of antagonism
is dreaded. Por to indulge this fierceness would be to contend
in the Lord's service with carnal weapons : whereas, as St. Paul
saith, in 2 Cor. x. 4, " The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God." Also in Ps. xxxi. 23, we read, " God
plentifully rewardeth the proud doer" — that is, gives him of the
fruit of his doings.
Por in the clause going before it is said, " He preserveth the
faithful," so that the proud worker is here cited in opposition to
the faithful one.
Por " with the lowly is wisdom."
It must, however, be acknowledged that galling opposition has
a dangerous tendency to hurry one into proud resistance. Por
in Eccles. vii. 7, it is written, " Surely oppression maketh a wise
man mad."
The fifth hindrance is that produced by reproach and con
tempt ; which usually falls the heavier on one, who is perceived
to be averse from repelling it in the like spirit.
In Prov. xvi. 7, is to be found one of those "testimonies" to
which the psalmist may be supposed to have referred, when
pleading while under reproach and contempt, " I have kept Thy
testimonies." In the passage out of Proverbs above referred to, it is written,
" When a man's ways please the Lord He maketh even His
enemies to be at peace with him."
The sixth hindrance against which the psalmist, as a young
man, seeks help in profession of religion, is that discouragement
produced by constant subjection to disdainful treatment and
taunting by princes ; which was exactly the case with Daniel,
but as an antidote to that discouragement he pleads his medita
tion on the Lord's statutes.
In St. Paul's description of the Christian soldier's whole
armour, faith so exercised is likened to a shield wherewith to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
Thus would Daniel, by God's help, in regard to irritation at
the jeers of princes sitting over against him, " quench it in the
stillness of his deeper thought."
In conclusion the psalmist adds, "Thy testimonies are my
delight and my counsellors."
These verses so explained are evidently linked together, and
that too in harmony with what has been assumed to be the sub
ject of the entire psalm, namely, the way how to lead a religious
life, from youth.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 91
3.
0 with Thy servant bountifully deal !
I '11 five and keep Thy word ! Ope Thou mine eyes,
And wondrous things out of Thy law1 reveal !
On earth I am a stranger ; in nowise
Hide Thy commandments from me ! Sympathies
At all times with Thy judgments move my soul !
The proud, that are accurs'd, dost Thou chastise,
Who Thy commandments break ; then from me roll
Beproach and withering contempt away,
For I 've Thy testimonies kept ! yea too
Princes did sit and charges 'gainst me lay,
While I Thy servant, with devotion true,
Did in Thy statutes meditate that day.
Thy testimonies too are my delight,
With these hold I converse to counsel me aright.

Fourth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Daleth.

AEGUMENT.
The bearing of the eight verses in this portion on one another,
and the harmony thereof with the preceding portions, will be
apparent after examination of the verses in their order.
In the first of these verses, where the psalmist saith, " My soul
cleaveth unto the dust ; quicken Thou me according to Thy
word," we are reminded, that in the soul is seated the reasoning
faculty and conscience, whereby man exercises free-will and
incurs moral responsibility.
The soul when first coming from the Creator is pure ; but
being by Him joined in the mother's womb to a body of flesh
and blood in which, according to the course of nature, descends
the taint of original sin, is, as St. Paul testifies in Eom. vii. 14,
" sold under sin." In other words, by reason of " the motions
of sin" in the body with which it is in union (Eom. vii. 5) the
soul is enticed from its own pure impulses.
This St. Paul describes in Eom. vii. 21, saying, " I find in me
a law, that when I would do good" — in my soul — " evil is present
with me" — in my body — " for I delight in the law of God after
1 If it be correctly assumed that the different synonyms for "law" were used
by the psalmist in their distinctive senses, it is important that they should be
carefully retained in the paraphrase.

92 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
the inward man" — the soul — " but I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind (that which in the
inward man I delight to do), and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin" — in my members — law here meaning any syste
matic course of operation.
Now, St. Paul explicitly tells us (Eom. iii. 21 — 26 and v. 1 — 11)
how God, foreseeing man's fall from original righteousness, pro
vided for him a way of recovery through the sacrificial death of
His Lamb, through which cometh universal redemption.
It hence follows, that the Pather, notwithstanding His hatred
of sin, can without disparagement of His justice help by light in
the soul those, wheresoever they may be, who by their obedience
to the dictates of conscience please Him. Por " Christ is the
true light that lighteth every man who cometh .into the world."
(John i. 9.)
This help then is received from God through Christ in heathen
lands by the same rale that light in their consciences was given
them at their birth, though they knew not how. But those whose
birth is providentially ordered where the Scriptures are within
their reach and faithfully expounded, are to be authoritatively
certified by Christ's ministers of this help in Christ being pro
curable by them from the Father for only asking it of Him in
the Name of the Lamb His Son.
The outward and visible signs hereof in our privileged age of
the Church are baptism and the Lord's supper ; which are to be
administered to females as well as males that believe in Jesus,
and to their children (Acts ii. 39) ; whereas in the earlier dispen
sation by Moses the like grace was appointed to be certified to
the male children alone in the congregation by circumcision.
What the psalmist then means (who had this seal in his flesh)
by saying, " My soul cleaveth unto the dust," is this : " I am
distressed by the sway which the motions of sins in my flesh are
on the point of gaining over my soul ; and I claim, according to
the covenant sealed by circumcision, that quickening of my soul
with the Spirit of Christ according to promise, which shall enable
my soul on yielding to Christ to rise superior to this proclivity
to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life."
(1 John ii. 15—17.)
In this way the psalmist clearly sought of God power, where
with to will that which is good and acceptable to Him : at the
same time, by reason of being sold under sin, he had by nature
freedom of will for that which was of the earth, earthy.
Thus freedom to do evil remains with us since Adam's fall, but
freedom to do good is, through the universal redemption of man
kind by Christ, recovered by the believer's yielding of himself
up to Christ — thus taking His yoke upon him, that he may gain
" perfect freedom." (Matt. xi. 28—30 ; also Second Collect for
Peace, Evening Prayer.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 93
In the next verse he says, " I have declared my ways, 0 teach
me Thy statutes :" by which words he may be considered to
intimate, that to the prayer in the former verse he had added
confessions of sin because of that inward strife, of which some
divines encourage their disciples to take no account : but for
which St. Paul, in Eom. vii. 24, exclaimed, " 0 wretched man, that
I am !" St. Paul, by writing this confession, made it public to
his own humiliation and the glory of God, as also doth the
psalmist here. (See Dan. ix. 3 — 20.) Although the strife, he
confessed, was within his own breast, and had not broken out
into overt act, he calls its motions " his ways ;" shewing that he
did not confine himself alone to confession of ceremonial sins,
but heart-sins ; as we are taught to do in Matt. xv. 19.
The psalmist's conclusion, that God had heard him, was not
gathered from any audible voice, but from reflection on the fact,
that the thing he asked for, being known only to God and him
self, his gaining of the refreshment in soul that he desired was
evidence to him of his prayer having reached the ear of the
unseen God and been accepted.
In adding thereupon " Teach me Thy statutes," he would seem
to imply, that this duty of confession to the extent here inti
mated is only taught of God ; for it is very humiliating to men
eminent for holiness, as were Daniel and Paul, to be seen by
their brethren admitting the plague of their own hearts (1 Kings
viii. 38), and "calling upon God," like other sinners, to wash
them lest they die. (Isa. lxiv. 5 — 7, and Ps. xiv. 4 — 6.)
The psalmist seems by implication to call this manner of
confession to one's own self-abasement, even when eminent for
holiness, "a statute" of His sanctuary — in the sense already
explained, as meaning an ordinance to be observed by men col
lectively in the congregation.
Por as is written in Prov. xxviii. 13, " he that covereth his
transgression shall not prosper ; but he that confesseth and for-
saketh it, shall find mercy." (Job xxxi. 33 ; James v. 16.)
The psalmist being, as he intimates, comforted by thus stirring
up himself to " call upon God" in his confession before his
brethren, gratefully records his persuasion, that there are sundry
other " statutes" of God's true tabernacle, which He alone can
teach, to fit one for His service.
After this he adds, in the 27th verse, —
" Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts ; so shall I
talk of Thy wondrous works."
The " precepts" have already been shewn to be distinguished
from the " statutes," as being Divine rules of life for persons
taken singly. Also, " the way" of the precepts has been shewn
to be the practice of them as contra-distinguished from the pro
fession of them.

94 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
God alone knows how to " make a soul understand," or "per
ceive and know " what it ought to do. Por He " speaks to the
heart by the light of His holy Spirit."
Also by dreams God wakens up the soul to a sense of " what
He would have done by us," (see ColL for the 20th Sun. after
Trin.) as He did with Jacob in Gen. xxxviii. 16, and with
Solomon, in 1 Kings iii. 15, and Job xxxiii. 14.
While therefore the former petition for instruction in the
" statutes," referred to the building up one's soul in union with
the brethren by confession of one's frailty in their hearing, this
in verse 27 refers to Divine help in the secrecy of inward sancti
fication. The closing words, " So shall I talk of Thy wondrous works,''
imply that the psalmist was carefulnot to speak of progress in
holiness beyond what he felt.
As an honest man he would not do this ; and as one inspired
to write for the Church of God, he would not seek the praise of
men when constrained to speak of his advance in " the way " of
God's precepts ; but would so speak as to give the glory to God,
calling what advance he really made one of God's " wondrous
works." (Isa. xxvii. 12, John v. 44.)
Again he takes up the language of confession in the 28th verse,
saying :—
"My soul melteth for heaviness ; strengthen Thou me accord
ing to Thy word."
Here is another infirmity of the soul different from that of
" cleaving to the dust."
Heaviness soon degenerates into displeasure unless it be con
tended against, as does the psalmist here. See 1 Kings xx. 43,
xxi. 4. God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Cor. ix. 7. The joy of
the Lord is our strength Neh. viii. 10. In Christ ye greatly
rejoice, saith St. Peter, 1 Epist. i. 6, " though now, for a season, if
need be, in heaviness through manifold temptations."
The psalmist in praying " strengthen Thou me according to
Thy word," virtually prayed for help in his soul against this
frailness likewise, according to the covenant sealed by circum
cision, as was explained in verse 25.
St. Paul in Eom. v. 6, shews what far greater help have we
Christians to receive " strength " of soul through faith, because
of the mystery of God concerning the sacrificial death of Christ
for the redemption of all mankind having been accomplished at
His crucifixion ; but in the psalmist's day the congregation of the
Lord had abundant encouragement to ask for this strengthening
of soul according to His word, because knowing that God will
not disappoint, or lie unto " them that come unto Him in His
appointed way." (Heb. vi. 13—20.)
The next verse may denote what the psalmist regarded as a

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 95
consequence of this "heaviness," when not cast off; namely,
that it kept his soul back from lively faith wherewith "to serve
the living God," Heb. ix. 14 — its words being " Eemove from me
the way of lying, and grant me Thy le¥e graciously." laitf
In so ancient a language as the Hebrew, a comparatively few
words are made to serve many, collateral uses besides the direct
one. A lie is primarily an intentional departure from truth ; but
subordinately it in Scripture includes what one does to disappoint
another's lawful expectation. In Prov. xix. 22, the desire of a
poor man is contrasted with that of a rich man, and in conse
quence thereof the poor man who could not help an applicant,
" is better " than the rich man who can, and wont : hence he is
called " a liar," though he only disappoint the applicant. Com
pare Jer. xv. 18.
The psalmist therefore prays that he may be kept from disap
pointing God, after the manner in which the Lord Jesus declares
the fig-tree to have disappointed its owner, in Luke xiii. 7.
The psalmist prays that the poverty of his heart-service may
not give the lie to the " much love with his mouth," (Ezek. xxxiii.
31,) he calls it "the way of lying;" denoting that it "lies"
because of the practice falling so far behind the profession.
" The law granted of grace," cannot be the law of the ten com
mandments " holy, just, and good," by which cometh the know
ledge of sin and of condemnation with the Spirit of bondage •; but
rather it is a variation in description of what had already been
asked for in verse 25, as " quickening according to God's word,"
and in verse 28, as " strengthening according to the same." It is
therefore to be considered the same with what St. Paul in
Eom. viii. 2, calls "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
which makes one free from the law of sin and death," to wit,
from the motions of sins in one's members. In the next verse
the psalmist further seeks strengthening of soul by calling to
mind his good resolution on this head ; saying, " I have chosen
the way of Thy truth, Thy judgments have I laid before me."
Truth must be here regarded as a special antidote to the
" lying" that should be removed.
As that was disappointment of God, this must be acceptable,
though not perfect, service.
Just as an arrow launched at a target hitting the bull's eye, is
said to be "true" to the mark, and the bolt of a lock when
smoothly delivered into the place for receiving it, is said to be
true ; so "truth " here means, work in the spirit of one's profes
sion : " the way of truth " being specially expressive hereof.
While to " lay the judgments of God before one," denotes
honesty in acquainting oneself with the best means of knowing
what G-od would have one do " in truth."
Por many are seen to act up to their conscience, who are shy

96 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
of having their conscience instructed in the judgment of God's
word, (Luke xviii. 31—34,) whereas we ought not only to act up
to our conscience, but to take every proper step for the instruc
tion of our conscience in the word of God. (John vi. 67 — 09.)
Now, although the works of the believer in God are accept
able through faith alone, while those of the moralist that honestly
strives to reform himself, are done in reliance on his own strength
of mind, such a true believer, as was the psalmist, does not
labour less in the work given him to do than does the moralist :
in fact the labour of the believer includes that of the moralist, or
rather presupposes it ; but differs in the motive for which he
undertakes it, and the ground whereon he relies for victory.
When a moralist desires to reform himself in regard to some
vices — say that of drunkenness — he knows that the world will
not admit that he has reformed himself so long as in one instance
he relapses.
When, therefore, having made a secret resolve, either to
abstain altogether from fermented drinks, or to be careful against
taking more on any occasion than a certain specified quantity, he
finds himself solicited by companions to take more, it is of great
use to him to remember inwardly, what he has chosen to do.
In like manner the believer must be as firmly bent on his own
reformation as is the moralist ; only he has been taught, that re
formation is not renewal ; but he is sure that after having at
baptism his regeneration in Christ certified to him, it will be in
vain for him to ask for renewal, unless he be quite as resolved on
reformation, as the moralist can be.
Hence it is useful for him to recal to mind, as doth the psalmist
here, " I have chosen the way of truth."
In the same spirit the psalmist proceeded further on to say in
verse 31.
" I have stuck unto Thy testimonies," meaning, since I chose
the way of honest behaviour towards Thee in the spirit of what I
profess, and not merely outward conformity to the letter thereof,
I have had in former seasons of faintness sharp conflict within
my soul, during which through grace " I have stuck to Thy testi
monies ;" which are so called because bearing witness to what
comes of relapsing into sin. Gal. v. 19 — 21, Ephes. v. 3 — 6. Be
not therefore, O Lord, weary of my soul's faintness ; so as to de
part from me, often as I leave Thee ; for then, would'st Thou in
effect "put me to shame."
In the 32nd verse the psalmist concludes this section with
saying in a cheerful frame indicative of being heard (verse 26,)
" I will run — or proceed cheerfully onward — in the way of Thy
commandments (without thinking them grievous, (1 John v. 3,)
when Thou hast enlarged my heart :" that is, made love of Thee
bear sway within me.
These verses so explained are clearly bearing on the same

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 97
subject, which also bears on that of the preceding section.
There the hindrances prayed against were from without, here
from within. Furthermore tliese two portions so explained
harmonize with what has been assumed to be the subject of the
entire psalm.
Now many enquirers among us after the way to serve God in
the gospel of His Son, seem to behave as if reception of the single
doctrine " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved," was enough ; whereas by these two portions they may
see, that when we are awakened to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we enter on an arduous struggle in the soul against in
bred sin, by daily prayer for renewal, according to God's word —
the perils contended against being partly excited in ourselves by
assaults from without, and partly by lust assailing us from
within. Now though in this Christian country we may not ordinarily
have to contend against the hindrances from without mentioned
in the third portion, as had Daniel and his fellow captives in
Babylon, we all must own to need of contending against these
from within ; wherefore the example of the psalmist, and the, so
to speak, unbosoming of himself in his communion with God in
this fourth portion, must be of great importance to us. all.

My soul cleaves to the dust, 0 quicken me
According to Thy word : my ways have I
Declar'd, and Thou hast heard me ! graciously
Teach me Thy statutes ! In the way of Thy
Precepts instruct me ; so I'll openly
Talk of Thy wondrous works ! my soul alas
Melteth for heaviness ! Do Thou supply
Strength, as Thou 'st promis'd. From me make to
pass
The way of lying; and Thy law, of grace,
Grant Thou to me ! time past the way I took
Of truth, and did Thy judgments 'fore me place.
Lo ! -to Thy testimonies have I stuck,
Jehovah ! put me not unto rebuke !
Once that t'enlarge my heart Thou hast begun,
The way of Thy commandments will I gladly run !

98 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Fifth Section op Psalm CXIX. — He.
AEGUMENT.
The two portions, next before this, contained petitions for the
averting of evil, but this direct supplications for good.
With the psalmist the Scriptures answered all the purposes
that he needed in the matter of his enquiry, provided only the
Spirit of Christ were vouchsafed to teach him their voice.
H such was their value in the psalmist's day, how much more
ought we to think the like of them in ours, when the books of
some of the later prophets, and all the New Testament, have
been added to them.
In this matter of direct service unto God, equally with that of
contending against hindrances thereto from without and within,
the psalmist makes it plain that he depended not on his own
ability to learn God's will set forth in His statutes, but craved
that he might be taught of God, Who alone teaches so effectually
as to enable a believer by faith in that word to overcome the
world. For as John saith (1 Epist. v. 4), " whatsoever is born of
God, overcometh the world."
Except, therefore, the faith we have within be begotten of
God, it cannot outlast the trials to be encountered.
In the same sense St. Peter, in 1 Epist. i. 21, saith that " by
the power of Christ we believe in God, Who raised Him up from
the dead and gave Him glory."
For a distinction is to be observed between that natural faith
wherewith, when drawn by the Father's grace, we believe in the
Gospel, and that faith which is the gift of Christ's spirit — a
power wherein consists the Kingdom of God. (1 Cor. iv. 20.)
This is the sense in which the youthful psalmist prays :
" Teach me, 0 Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep
it unto the end."
He asked to be partaker in the power of God, accompanying
the words of God's statutes. IS there be this power attainable
through them, how intimate is God's union with His word in
Scripture ! what a choice instrument is it in His hand for accom
plishing His highest work— the recovery of backslidden man
unto holiness ! For this is a greater work than His creation of
men — displaying more fully than heretofore the mercy and good
ness of God.
The next petition is conceived in the same strain, where he
prays —
" Give me understanding and I shall keep Thy law ; yea, I
shall observe it with my whole heart."
Understanding of God's law is in Scripture placed not in the

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 99
head, but the heart : in other words, the will and temper have a
great deal more to do with conformity thereto, than hath the
intellectual faculty. (Prov. xiv. 33.)
One may know well enough what God would have Him do,
yet for all that be indisposed to do it, owing to one's either being
averse from it, or but half inclined to it : whereas God will not
accept obedience done otherwise than with the whole heart.
The psalmist being aware of the Divine requirement in this
respect, prays that there may be given him understanding,
adding, " and I shall observe Thy law with my whole heart."
There is a clear distinction in the book of Proverbs between
knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, which, so far as my
observation goes, holds good throughout the rest of the Scripture.
Knowledge denotes the intellectual apprehension of what is to
be received from God. Wisdom, the choice of it with the heart.
Understanding is cumulative upon the other two, being an
insight into the weight of that word, which is to be obeyed ; in
respect of the blessedness to ensue on one keeping it to the end,
and the unspeakable misery of persistent and final opposition
to it.
In this sense Job testifies, xxviii. 28 — " Unto man God said,
Behold the fear of the Lord — that is wisdom ; and to depart
from evil — that is understanding."
Men in general are seen under certain circumstances to keep
the law of God by knowledge alone of it ; that is to say, when
there is no difficulty in so doing ; or, it may be, direct worldly
advantage. A more select number do the like out of knowledge and wisdom
conjoined ; but none will do it under all circumstances and with
the whole heart, save those who act from the three principles
combined — knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. (Prov. xi.
10, 11 ; Col. i. 9.)
In the next petition, verse 35, the psalmist saith, " Make me
to go in the path of Thy commandments ; for therein is my
delight." In the 33rd verse he had spoken of " the way" — the high road
of God's statutes or ordinances for the congregation in general ;
but here he speaks of the "path" of God's commandments— a
" strait and narrow way"— not trod by the generality, but like
the way of holiness mentioned by Isaiah xxxv. 8, on which the
unclean cannot walk.
Nevertheless, at verse 96 of this psalm he saith, " Thy com
mandment is exceeding broad." But, inasmuch as it is broad in
respect of bringing within its scope all the thoughts of men's
hearts, a comparatively small portion of the professed worshippers
of God could, be said to be walking in the path of God's com
mandments consistently with the requirements of such compre
hensive commandments. If, indeed, the letter alone of the ten
H 2

100 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
commandments had been given to be observed by Israel, the
extent of their meaning would have been limited, and the keeping
of them would have been comparatively attainable by the greater
number ; that is to say, if all that was needed to keep the com
mandments of either table, was to say —
" I have no God but one — the God of Israel.
" No image of Him, made by man, do I worship.
" I never invoke His Name falsely, when making oath ;" and
so forth —
the keeping of His commandments might well have been called,
like that of His statutes at verse 43, " a way ;" but when the
commandments of the moral law can only be kept acceptably by
him who loves God with all his heart, and his neighbour as
himself (Matt. xxii. 36 — 40) ; then, indeed, the observance of
His commandments is a " path," on which none can walk but
they that have* received of God a new heart and a right spirit.
(Ps. li. 10.)
Thus, the broader the comprehension of the commandment,
its extension is the narrower. The youthful psalmist here
rendered unto God the protestation of one already endued with
a new heart and a right spirit, when saying, " In the path of
Thy commandments I delight." Only to one begotten of God
are His commandments not grievous at any time, as John testi
fies in chapter v. verse 3 of Epistle 1.
The next petition in verse 36 is —
" Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetous-
ness." The testimonies have been already explained to be those parts
of God's revealed word which bear witness to the blessedness of
serving Him in faithfulness ; and the eventual misery of them
that disobey Him.
The psalmist intimates that these testimonies every one, who
knows the truth, ought to keep before the mind by the help of
Divine grace ; so seductive is the influence, which the good things
of this life have upon the lusts of one's flesh " which war against
the soul," in drawing one's heart, which is the soul's foot,
" after its covetousness" or fleshly craving ; instead of serving the
choice of the inner man — the soul — which " delights in the law
of God." (Eom. vii. 22 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 31.)
In the 37th verse the psalmist prays —
" Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity ; and quicken
Thou me in Thy way !"
Here he follows up his former petitions by asking help through
grace to withstand the occasions of evil.
The eyes are doors of the soul by which incentives to lust may
gain admission,if that be contemplated too long, which is in itself
vanity : for this is a word including all that, through gratification
of the flesh, would lure the heart away from heavenly things.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.- 101
The wise man says even " childhood and youth are vanity"
(Eccles. xi. 10), by which I understand that the charm where
with they justly seem in the eyes of older persons to be invested,
would, if incontinently dwelt on, lead the believer to regret that
those stages of life had irrevocably passed from him, (through the
regret at not having spent his own better,) whereas He ought to
be looking forward whither God calls him ; that is, to the rest
with God Himself in the heavenly inheritance for which he
has to prepare.
God alone can keep the believer from dwelling too long for
his own peace of mind on what justly appear to him scenes on
earth of happiness enjoyed by others. He must rather ask God
to turn away his eyes from beholding — that is, giving undue heed
to happiness; which, though a gift of God, and to be thankfully
received by the few that have it, is transient, and in that sense
vanity : so that the believer ought not to repine who has it not :
for it is as nothing compared with what God hath prepared for
all without exception, that love Him and keep His command
ments. In the next petition at verse 38, the psalmist prays : " Stab-
lish Thy word unto Thy servant, who is devoted to Thy fear !"
This petition may clearly be looked upon as intended to follow
up the former, and reminds one of that list of the sevenfold gifts
of the Spirit mentioned in Isa. xi. 2, which differs only from the
one next before it by being intensive.
It being there said that the sixth gift of the Holy Ghost should
endow the then expected Saviour of David's line with " the fear
of the Lord ;" but the seventh should make Him of quick " un
derstanding in that fear."
So here, when the psalmist has prayed for grace to turn away
his eyes from beholding vanity, there is room for his asking to be
stablished in the fear of the Lord according to His word — the
one being what he shall not do, the other what he shall.
In the 39th verse his prayer is : " Turn away my reproach
which I fear : for Thy judgments are good."
If Daniel were the writer of this psalm, the fact of his having
been made an eunuch by the King of Babylon, would be a re
proach to him in the eyes of his worldly countrymen.
Por according to Deut. xxiii. 1, mutilated persons might not
enter into the congregation of the Lord.
But Daniel might see in Isa. lvi. at verse 3, a promise from
God on that head, which nevertheless would not exempt him
from reproach in the estimation of such among his countrymen
as were not taught of God.
In the 40th verse his closing petition is : " Behold I have
longed after Thy precepts ; quicken me in Thy righteousness."
This petition, while expressive of the psalmist's own upright
ness in the intent of the heart, denotes that he relied not on that

102 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
service for acceptance, but on the righteousness that should be
granted by God to him that believeth in His promise ; after the
manner in which Abraham did this. Gen. xv. 6.
The petitions of this portion have now been gone through,
and are evidently all on one subject ; to wit, the ordering of the
heart aright in the young man's cleansing of his way.
They are, therefore, in accordance with what has been assumed
to be the subject of the entire psalm.
Viewed in this light, these petitions are of equal value to any
one of us who would from his youth upward, or at any later
period of life, begin to walk with G-od, as did Enoch, and Daniel.

Lo ! of Thy statutes teach Thou me the way,
Jehovah ! and I'll keep it to the end.
Yea, give me understanding, that I may
In heart and conscience for Thy law contend.1
The path whereto my soul I firmly bend —
Yea, that of Thy commandments — make me choose.
Unto Thy testimonies guide my heart —
Its covetousness making it refuse !
Bid Thou me call mine eyes back with a start
From thought of vanity ; and in Thy way
To walk on girt with truth !3 Thy word impart
Unto Thy servant, whom Thy fear doth sway !
The censure, that I dread, avert ! for good
Thy judgments are. Thy precepts how I've woo'd !
And in Thy righteousness would stand, as erst I've
stood 1

Sixth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Vau.

AEGUMENT.
The psalmist is to be regarded at the commencement of this
sixth section as standing before God clothed with the graces for
which he had in the previous portion made supplication.
1 Ver. 34. Jude v. 3. * Ver. 3?. Ephes. vi. 14.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 103
His language in the first verse therefore implies that he does
not rely on his own use of this grace to earn for him " salvation"
in the way of wages. (Eom. iv. 4.) He is of another spirit —
he looks for salvation of God's " mercy" in his use of the grace
given him. (Eom. xii. 6.)
He joins God's " mercies" and " salvation" as cause and effect
are joined : which St. Paul also doth in Eom. xii. 1, whose words
will justify this interpretation of the psalmist's language.
For St. Paul there says : " I beseech you therefore by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,"
that (as he says in the next verse) " ye may prove what is that
good, acceptable, and perfect will of God," by which is to be
understood " salvation."
Now what St. Paul in that place calls " mercies," are the doc
trines unfolded in the preceding chapters : namely, justification
by faith alone, and sanctification by the Spirit, for only asking
it of God in the name of Jesus.
Assuredly then, the psalmist in his early day by God's " mer
cies," in verse 41, meant the same doctrines to be understood ;
with the exception only of the name of Jesus, which in his day
had not been revealed.
What he may have most probably meant by the clause " ac
cording to Thy word," will be easier to decide after weighing the
next verse ; where we read
" So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth
me, for I trust in Thy word,"
If the psalmist was Daniel, as we have assumed, it may be
readily gathered from the commencement of his book what re
proach he might refer to even in early youth.
For if we suppose it to have been cast at him by the princes
and courtiers of Nebuchadnezzar, (verse 23) it would probably
have arisen out of his resolve on serving at all risk the Lord God
of his fathers, rather than eat the meat appointed for him.
Dan. i.
These heathen censors might tauntingly ask him, why he should
yet expect to be favoured by the God of his nation, \V ho had wholly
cast it off ?
Or if the reproach were heaped on him by* certain of his
countrymen then in captivity with him, as already conjectured
at verse 39 ;
in either case there was a promise in Isa. lvi. 1 — 5, which
might well be reckoned to have been specially referred to
by the psalmist under the name of " Thy word," in verse 42.
In that place, it is to be observed, the Lord, by Isaiah's pen,
speaks of "His salvation" as near, and joins "righteousness"
therewith, in a way tantamount to what has been above shewn
by the psalmist in verse 41 about " salvation" being of " mercy."
There is in the next place in that " word" by Isaiah's pen, a

104 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
special blessing promised to one who would keep the seventh day
of the week as a Sabbath ; which a captive might well do : and
there is a further promise to the heathen that should seek of the
Lord " salvation" by the righteousness which is of faith : and to
one who had sustained such a mutilation in body, as had Daniel ;
which, according to Deut. xxiii. 1, would have precluded him
entering into the congregation for public worship, had the temple
in Jerusalem been then standing.
If the psalmist were Daniel he would surely with this passage
in Isaiah have wherewith to answer him that reproached him,
whether out of heathen princes1 or prejudiced fellow- captives.
In the 43rd verse is another petition :
"And take not the word of Thy 'truth utterly out of my mouth:
for I have hoped in Thy judgments."
After which he added :
" So shall I keep Thy law continually, for ever and ever."
The language of the 43rd verse, following on that going
before, in which it appears to be assumed that he had wherewith
effectually to answer his calumniator, denotes how the psalmist
reckoned not on renewal of grace, because of having rightly
used that already given him. Assuredly he would not have
reckoned himself more worthy thereof, because of not having
done his best in the use of that grace already given him (Luke
xii. 48, and viii. 18) ; but he meant that he would not make his
use of the grace given, to the best of his ability, his ground of
confidence in looking for renewal — he would be of the mind
which the Lord Jesus Himself inculcated, when in Luke xvii.
10 saying, " when ye shall have done all those things that are
commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants ; we have
done that which it was our duty to do." In this lowly spirit,
standing as a believer " fully furnished by God's grace unto
every good work," (2 Tim. iii. 17) the psalmist was minded to
say in verse 43 : " And take not the word of Thy truth utterly
out of my mouth, for I have hoped in Thy judgments."
Which is as though he had said, " Thou mightest justly, for my
chastening, leave me without that freedom in use of it which I
now enjoy, but O take it not utterly away, for I have looked
unto Thee" to* "give me a mouth and wisdom which all my
adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." Luke xxi.
14, 15.
" So shall I keep Thy law continually " or undeviatingly — and
that, " for ever and ever " — which is another form of words for
expressing the salvation spoken of in verse 41.
Here is concluded the former half of this portion ; and the
latter is devoted to recital of such ways for shewing thankfulness
1 Ver. 42. In " Zain," at verses 51—53, these two classes of censors are
referred to under the names of " the proud" and " the wicked."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 105
to God, for His " mercies " as become one who, like the psalmist,
has been " fully furnished unto every good work."
Firstly, in verse 45, he says : — ¦ .
" And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts," that is, I
will contend for the true doctrine of justification by faith only,
(Gal. v. 1,) and other doctrines; which are " mercies," seeing that
they come from God to His servants, not through the intrinsic
worthiness of their service— a supposition that would make
"salvation" to be of works, and so gender unto bondage — but
of " God's good pleasure." (Matt. xi. 25, Luke ii. 14, xviii. 14.)
Man's soiil by reason of union with the flesh of the old Adam
has freedom of will to do evil, but it only recovers the will to do
good by union through faith, with the spirit of the last Adam,
(John viii. 36,) which in the psalmist's timewas by renewal alone ;
but since the proclamation of the Gospel by the Apostles of the
Lord and Saviour, through regeneration, which is burial into
Christ's sacrificial death, and renewal, which is participation in
the Spirit of Christ. (Titus iii. 4—7.)
That man's soul hath only in this way freedom to do good —
called in the second collect of our Church's morning service,
" perfect freedom " — is plainly set forth by our Saviour in
Matt. xi. 28, saying, " Come unto Me all ye that are weary and
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest;" that is, I will give you in
Me, by " the godly motions," proper to My spiritual flesh help,
wherewith your soul may mortify " the motions of sins " in your
mortal body, (Gal. v. 16, 18,) provided you yield yourselves to
" the yoke " of My precepts. So shall your soul receive strength
to keep the will of God to the crucifying of the flesh. (Eom. v.
6, Philip, iv. 13.)
This appears to be the psalmist's doctrine also in this 45th
verse, because speaking by the same Spirit, 2 Cor. iv. 13, where
he saith " For I seek Thy precepts," which is in other words, " I
take Thy yoke upon me !"
Then he added in verse 46 : —
" I will speak of Thy testimonies even before kings, and will
not be ashamed !"
Here we are led by the psalmist to remember that one might
" walk at liberty " with secret watchfulness in maintaining the
freedom gained by the soul to will and do that which is good
through yielding of oneself to Christ (Ephes. v. 9) ; but the ser
vant of God is required by Him to be at proper times open in
confession of His Name, even at the risk of life. (Matt. xvi.
24—26.) Daniel's history shews at what risk he did so. St. Paul also
in 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17, shews the like. Also in Eom. i. 16, he ex
plains why he should not be " ashamed " in doing this ; whence
we may gather what was the psalmist's reason for the same.

106 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
It may seem hard to conceive that a true believer would feel
shame at what he himself in secret knew to be so good ; merely
because of hearing it spoken against by them that are in
authority, or in the majority. But it is not in the power of
human nature to withstand the feeling of shame under influential
reproach. Wherefore all that can be done under this trial, is to
counteract it by devotion of oneself afresh to burial into Christ's
sacrificial death, for fellowship with Him. (Philip, ii. 1 — 4.)
" The offence of the Cross " shall not cease in this age.
Gal. v. 11. When St. Paul adds in Eom. i. 16, why he " would
not be ashamed of the Gospel ;" namely, " because it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," he assuredly
shews us how the psalmist meant that he would correct the feel
ing of shame within him, at running counter to public opinion
in the king's presence ; by reflecting on the intrinsic goodness of
these testimonies which brought him "the reproach that he
feared," verse 39.
In the 47th verse the psalmist specifies another act of service
becoming the man " fully furnished unto every good work ;"
namely, that he shall himself habitually rejoice in these com
mandments which he commends to the esteem of others. A
fourth act of devotion becoming such a believer is reverence for
the Word of God, denoted by lifting of the hands in admiration
of it, accompanied by thoughtful appreciation of its purport.
Here are four acts of service towards God highly becoming the
psalmist to render.
Firstly. Jealousy for the liberty that is in Christ, yea Christ
alone — whereby the. soul may will that which is good, and carry
it out in defiance of the motions of sins in the flesh — perfect
freedom. Secondly. Open avowal of the truth of God, even before kings,
despising the shame. (Heb. xii. 2.)
Thirdly. Care about one's own inward appreciation of it, the
while we commend it to others.
Fourthly. Eeverence for it, (Heb. iv. 12, 13,) as a word worthy
to be used, with fear by him, who wields it in controversy,
Jer. xxiii. 23, 28, only not superstitiously, .but with intelligent
reflection. We seem here to have the rules whereby Daniel in his youth
gained strength in the inner man for his admirable behaviour
under circumstances exactly answering those here described,
whether or not the psalmist were he.
And as no circumstances can be conceived more arduous than
those in which he was plunged, we Christians have here a rule
for discipline of our souls in God's service, through Christ,
which is of the utmost importance to us in walking worthy of
the vocation wherewith we are called. (Ephes. iv. 1.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 107

0 let Thy mercies also come to me —
Yea Thy salvation, after Thine own word,
Jehovah ! here shall be mine armoury
Against the censors whose reproach I've heard.
My trust therein I've steadfastly averr'd :
Then take not Thy word from me utterly,
Who 've in Thy judgments hop'd ! So I my vow
To keep Thy law unswerving shall embrace
For ever ! Lo ; in liberty I'll walk,
For I Thy precepts seek ! yea 'fore the face
Of kings I'll of Thy testimonies talk,
Nor be asham' d! delight too, secretly,
In Thy commandments will I multiply;
Yea I will Thy commandments venerate
With lifted hands ; and in Thy statutes meditate.

Seventh Section op Psalm CXIX. — Zain.

AEGUMENT.
In this seventh section of the hundred and nineteenth psalm,
the writer, as Dr. Thrupp assumes, shews that the believer's
course must be one of patient continuance in well-doing under
discouragements, with remembrance of God's promises.
Bishop Horne here saith, " God promiseth salvation before He
giveth it, to excite our desire for it, to exercise our faith, to
prove our sincerity, to perfect our patience. For these pur
poses, He seems to have sometimes forgotten His word, and to
have deserted those whom He had engaged to succour and re
lieve ; in which case He would have us, as it were, to remind
Him of His promise, and solicit His performance of it."
On the supposition that Daniel was the author of this psalm,
and that he while yet a youth is herein recording his heart's in
most thoughts, it may be assumed, that " the word " to which he
more particularly in this 49th verse, referred, was that in
Jerem. xxix. 10, where we read "Thus saith the Lord, that after
seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and
perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to
this place ;" namely, Jerusalem. These words having been sent
to Babylon by Jeremiah in the reign of Zedekiah, as the 1st

108 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
verse of that chapter sets forth, might strictly be described by
the psalmist as " The word unto Thy servant upon which Thou
hast caused me to hope."
Pull and appropriate significance is thus found for the next
verse, where the psalmist said,
" This is my comfort in my affliction, for Thy word hath
quickened me."
Daniel in Babylon, while yet a youth, could truly say, that the
Divine promise concerning the deliverance of his nation out of
captivity there, after seventy years, had been and was at that time
present " his comfort in affliction."
What that affliction was may be seen in the Book of Daniel.
Well might he say that so gracious a message " had quickened
him ;" that is, kindled within him life and joy toward God, not
withstanding the pressure of outward adversity.
That adversity the psalmist here asserts to proceed from two
distinct quarters ; as has already been surmised in treating of
" the reproach which he dreaded." See verses 22, 39, 42.
One source of affliction was that produced by "the proud,"
described in verse 51.
The other of " the wicked," in verse 53.
Of the former he saith in verse 51.
" The proud had me greatly in derision ; yet have I not de
clined from Thy law."
The Chaldean princes puffed up with success, called by Habak-
kuk, chapter i. verse 6, " that bitter and hasty nation," "terrible
and dreadful," may well be regarded as they that the-psalmist
meant by " the proud."
And this is confirmed, by observing that their derision would
be intended to drive the psalmist from hope in the God of Israel,
owing to the success they had gained over that God's chosen
people. But the " proud" were disappointed by the psalmist ; for he
adds " yet have I not declined from Thy law." Consequently,
the aim of these " proud " ones in heaping on him derision was
that he should " decline from the law" of his God — a design, which
by the book of Daniel we see to have been persistently aimed at
by the princes of Babylon in his case.
In the 52nd verse the psalmist states how he disposed of the
" derision " of these proud ones : saying,
" I remembered Thy judgments of old, 0 Lord, and have com
forted myself."
This, be it observed, is a mode of speaking characteristic of one
at the time then present continuing under the derision specified.
By " the judgments of old " might be well understood the over
throw of Egypt, when the time had come with God for bringing

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 109
up Israel into the land promised to Abram, upon " the iniquity of
the Amorites being come to the full." Gen. xv. 16.
Well might the psalmist think how the arm that had inflicted
judgments of old on the arrogant Egyptian, would with like
ease at the appointed time, bring down to the dust "proud
Babylon." Thus assuredly could Daniel have comforted himself, were he
here the speaker.
At the 53rd verse the psalmist adverted to the affliction
heaped upon him by the latter class of his adversaries, whom he
stigmatises as " the wicked :" saying,
" Horror hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked, that
forsake Thy law."
Now it has been already observed by me more than once in
discoursing on the psalms, and is fully borne out in this verse,
that whereas by the " ungodly " are usually meant those among
God's people who were from youth upward living as yet without
the knowledge of God; by the "wicked" are meant they that,
after awakenment unto profession of faith in the God of Israel,
backslide. This definition is here confirmed, for the psalmist in this
53rd verse describes them as "forsaking God's law," which they
could not have been said to do, unless they had at one time con
sciously taken upon them the observance of it.
Mark then in what a different way the psalmist speaks in this
53rd verse of these false brethren — companions in tribulation —
who by the force of affliction had renounced the law of the God
of their fathers, from what he had of the " proud " heathen.
" Horror," said the psalmist "'hath taken hold of me, because
of these wicked, that forsake Thy law."
In other words, the psalmist was horrified at thought of what
should eventually overtake them.
This state of the psalmist's mind leads us to observe, that in
proportion as we learn to dread the thought of provoking God's
wrath in our own case, and by this wholesome dread are
quickened in cheerfully taking up what reproach for His sake
He permits to be laid upon us in the way of our duty, we must
shudder at what awaits those whom we see overcome thereby.
Although these " wicked " ones bred the psalmist additional
affliction by their malignant aspersions of him, pity for their
doom, not wrath at their hatred, was paramount within his breast
at thought of them.
That there were such " wicked " Jews among the captives in
Babylon is proved by the xxixth of Jeremiah, already referred to
in this section.
For by the 15th verse of this chapter we find that certain
among the captives persuaded the bulk of their countrymen that

110 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
they, as prophets, had warrant from God to repudiate the word
that Jeremiah had by God's command sent to Babylon touching
the release of the Israelites therefrom after seventy years.
At verse 20 of Jer. xxix. we find him writing,
" Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity,
whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.
" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab
* the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which
prophecy a lie unto you in My Name :
" Behold I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes.
" And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of
Judah which are in Babylon ; saying, The Lord make thee like
Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in
the fire.
" Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have
committed adultery with their neighbour's wives, and have spoken
lying words in My Name, which I have not commanded them.
Even I know, and am a Witness, saith the Lord !"
Whether or not this " horror " at the wicked spoken of in this
53rd verse, was that of Daniel, it expresses what unquestionably
was Daniel's frame of mind at beholding among the Jewish cap
tives, some, under the pretence of being prophets, calling in
question the Divine Message by Jeremiah concerning the termi
nation of the captivity in Babylon by return to Jerusalem at the
expiration of seventy years.
The three remaining verses of this section describe the almost
seraphic peace vouchsafed to the psalmist amid this opposition
from " proud " heathen on the one side and " wicked" fellow-
captives on the other, in words which would well express what joy
in Christ under like trials were granted to Daniel.
The words of the 54th and two following verses are,
" Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pil
grimage. " I have remembered Thy Name in the night, and have kept
Thy law.
" This I had because I kept Thy precepts."
Thus it appears that the more " proud " princes or " wicked "
fellow-captives endeavoured to wean the psalmist from trust in
God, the closer would he cleave to God's written word, and take
it for his inheritance.
It is a beautiful conception on the psalmist's part, that God
Who had made him " a living soul," (Gen. ii. 7,) shutting it up
in a body, which was to be the house of his pilgrimage during
mortal life, would receive him into His own rest, when the
allotted term of conflict on earth should have been passed through.
.And the psalmist testifies, that because of his thus placing his

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. Ill
happiness in God, notwithstanding outward trials, there was in
return granted to him by God the privilege of inward joy.
For it is most true and profitable to remember, that to the ser
vant who uses faithfully the grace wherewith he hath been put
in trust, it will be God's pleasure to grant increase of grace, not
in the way of debt, but of mercy ; that he may know how good is
our God, and that there is no unrighteousness in Him.

That word unto Thy servant, wherein Thou
Hast caused me to hope, 0 gall to mind !
Great comfort, 'spite of grief 'neath which I bow,
In Thy word which hath quicken' d me, I find.
Nor from Thy law have 1 in aught declin'd,
Though proud ones me in great derision hold.
For I, Jehovah, sweet refreshment draAV
From thinking of Thy judgments wrought of old.
As to the wicked, which forsake Thy law,
A horror of their doom upon me came !
Thy statutes have the meanwhile been my song
In this house of my pilgrimage. Thy Name
Hath been by me, Jehovah, all night long
Remember'd, and Thy law observ'd. This grace
I gain'd since in my heart Thy precepts held their
place.

Eighth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Cheth.

AEGUMENT.
In treating of the preceding section it was shewn that the
psalmist apparently described therein the patient continuance in
well-doing that would be required by God of one that was "fully
furnished unto every good work."
This eighth section may also be regarded as bearing on the
same subject ; only that the seventh speaks of such a believer's
constancy in withstanding assaults from without; — this from
within his own breast.
To strengthen himself then in withstanding the frailty of his
own nature, the psalmist solemnly called God to witness his
resolve on contented acceptance of whatsoever God should ap-

112 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
point for him in this life, provided only that he might be with
Him in the life to come.
Our Saviour commends such a resolve when saying (Matt.
vi. 22), " If thine eye be single, thy whole body— or natural
manhood— shall be full of light."
This is the significance of the declaration, " Thou art my por
tion, 0 Lord, I have said that I would keep Thy words."
Every Jew was required to learn the Song of Moses, and in
that song (Deut. xxxii. 9) he found the Lord graciously saying,
" The Lord's portion is His people, Jacob the lot of His inherit
ance." What else then should a devout Jew render unto the Lord
for this condescension, but the return of seeking his portion in
the Lord ? This the psalmist doth ; and if we are correct in
assuming that this psalm was composed while in captivity in
Babylon, his choosing of the Lord for his portion, notwithstand
ing the loss of home, country, and liberty, would betoken on the
psalmist's part such faith in God as Abram was required to
exercise when God said to him, in Gen. xv. 1, " Fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward." Or like
Paul's, when he testified in Philip, iii. 7, " What things were
gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ ; " that is, loss had I
retained them, and relinquished Christ.
The next step taken by the psalmist in this endeavour to
strengthen himself in God was by prayer, where he said, at verse
58, "I entreated thy favour with my whole heart, be merciful
unto me, according to Thy word."
The psalmist in so saying shews that his reverence kept pace
with his love ; he could ask God, Who searches the heart, to
see that he was not double-minded, nor halting between two
opinions. The original term for " word"1 in this verse is different from
that in the verse preceding, and may, as it seems to me, be taken
to mean " saying." By this term it would seem to me preferable
to understand the traditional teaching in the psalmist's day con
cerning the voice of Christ in the Scriptures, according to the
covenant of promise, handed down from Patriarchal times, which
throughout the continuance of the Mosaic covenant was the
recognized way opened by God for justification before Him by
faith ; which was to be thereupon followed by that justified
believer's prayer for renewal with the Spirit of Christ. (Ps. xl.
10). Since St. Paul explicitly states in Eom. v. 20 that the law
was brought in privily alongside the antecedent covenant of
promise— called here God's "saying" — in the same way that
Jesus Himself, speaking of the same voice of Christ handed
down by tradition, called it, in John viii. 51, " His saying."
1 v«r.-58, rnaM.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 113
It was according to that primeval covenant of promise, revealed
to man from the time of his fall, that man was justified by faith
therein, and, on penitently asking for it, sanctified with the
Spirit of Christ, whether before the delivery of the law to Moses
or under it. And to this day the way of justification is substan
tially the same. The next step of the man fully furnished unto
every good work in strengthening himself against the effects
of inward frailty is, in the 59th verse, shewn to be self-examina
tion, conducted in the way laid down by the psalmist, when
saying— " I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies.
I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments."
Self-examination, to be thorough, must be carried on by appli
cation to oneself of the straight rule of God's commandments.
As a carpenter by his plane sees the inequalities of the wood
he has in hand ; so the believer, by the rule of God's word, detects
the irregularities of his heart and mind.
Some persons' self-examination consists merely in comparing
themselves with others (see 2 Cor. x. 12) ; but the psalmist
"turned his feet unto the Lord's testimonies." Here again,
however, some find means of starting aside, and falling short of
what ought to be the issue of self-examination. For St. James
saith, i. 22, " But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face
in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and
straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso
looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein —
he .being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word — that
man shall be blessed in his deed."
The original word here used by the psalmist, to denote his
promptitude in acting on what he learnt that God's word
required of him, is very graphic.
St. Paul said on this point, " immediately I conferred not with
flesh and "blood." (Gal. i. 16/)
The psalmist's expression is, " 1 had no what-what-ing,"1 or
as we should say, shilly-shally -ing.
To use St. James's language already quoted, so soon as he saw
where the Lord's commandment reproved, him, he sought God's
blessing in entry on performance of it.
The salutary effect of this promptitude will be made apparent
in dwelling on the next verse, where the psalmist saith, " The
bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten
Thy law."
It is pointed out by critics that the original word rendered in
1 Ver. 60. l|£l'75?r!BJpn De Burgh says, only in Hith palpel as here, pro
bably from the interrogative ffi what ?— to stand questioning. I

114 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
our authorised version by "robbed me"1 might more correctly
be translated " pressed upon me round about." This statement
may, as it seems to me, be compared with that in Ps. xxvii. 2,
" when the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me
to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell."
In that plaee by " the wicked " are to be understood spiritual
enemies, agents of Satan.
Agreeably herewith, in this 61st verse, too, of the psalm before
us, by " the bands of the wicked " I would understand agents of
Satan using the psalmist's lusts to draw his soul away from its
constancy in communion with God. For St. Peter (1 Epist. ii. 21)
speaks of these as " warring against the soul."
Now it seems to me highly probable that by " the bands of
the wicked " are to be understood these inbred foes ; because
the psalmist is treating of matters within his own breast in the
verses next before and after this 61st. For the 59th and 60th
treat of self-examination, and the 62nd is assuredly better under
stood of an act of gratitude to God for mastery by grace over an
inward enemy ; since he saith there, " At midnight I will rise to
give thanks unto Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments."
Surely this rising up at midnight is rather the act of one grateful
for mastery in a struggle with inward foes — vain desires — which
he has at length cast out and effectually refused to hold com
munion with, by calling to mind some judgment of the Lord's
mouth which was blessed to him at the moment ; so that he " built
himself up therewith in his most holy faith." (Jude ver. 20 ; Gal.
xi. 18.)
Unquestionably the man of God, thoroughly furnished unto
every good work, is required by God to shew his inward faithful
ness by persisting in remembrance of the judgments of God's
mouth, until the troublesome thoughts have been cast out.
What the psalmist saith in the next verse may be regarded as
a complement to this aversion from solicitations by evil thoughts ;
his words being " I am a companion of all them that keep Thy
precepts :" in this latter verse shewing with whom he would have
communion, as in the former with whom he would not.
It may be observed, too, that " precepts " are Divine rules for
individual observance ; such as that of the Lord Jesus, in Matt. xv.
18, " Out of the heart cometh that which defileth a man." (See
Prov. iv. 23, and 2 Cor. vi. 12.)
The subject is closed with the psalmist's saying in verse 64 —
" The earth, 0 Lord, is full of Thy mercy,
Teach me Thy statutes."
To wit, the laws for collective observance by them that as spiritual
1 Ver. 61. ^IW, rather 'have Burrounded;' — Sept. vepieirXaKritrav— gene
rally taken for the Pihel of "R??.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINTEENTH. 115
priests worship Thee in the holy place of the true temple — of
which the temple in Jerusalem (at the time now spoken of sup
posed to have been destroyed) was a pattern— the temple' of the
universe — referred to in Habak. ii. 19, 20, and by David in Ps.
xxvii. 4 — 6 ; in which, consequently, the psalmist, though in cap
tivity in Babylon, might worship, as well as any where else on
the earth — " for the earth is" in that sense, " full of Thy mercy."
" For Thou within no walls confin'd,
Inhabitest the humble mind.
These ever bring Thee where they come,
And goingtake Thee to their home."
The rules for withstanding inward frailty, which the psalmist
here laid down, are equally useful for one in this age of the
church, who is " fully furnished unto every good work." (2 Tim.
iii. 17.)
The child of Christian parents has been enrolled in the family
of God by baptism, as was the psalmist by circumcision, and at
the age of fourteen has had the opportunity of saying at con
firmation solemnly and in presence of the elders of the congrega
tion, that he would keep God's words — as did the psalmist at
twelve years of age before the doctors of his nation in the
Temple ; but if such a believer would patiently continue in well
doing, he needs daily to use, as did the psalmist, prayer, self-
examination, and praise for help gotten from God through
fidelity in withstanding inbred sin. 8.
Jehovah ! Thou my portion art ! I've said
That Thy words I would keep ! I heartily
Implor'd Thy favour ! mercies on my head
• According to Thy saying multiply !
Upon my ways I dwelt, and did apply
My feet unto thy testimonies ; yea,
I dallied not, but Thy commandments chose
Forthwith ! Around me in hostile array
Press'd bands of wicked ones, but I kept close
In mind Thy law : and I'll at midnight rise
To give Thee thanks for what help, while I lay,
Thy righteous judgments brought me ! Lo, I prize
Their company that fear Thee and obey
Thy precepts ! Thou dost earth with mercy fill,
Thy statutes then, Jehovah, into me instil ! i 2

116 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Ninth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Teth.

AEGUMENT.
The psalmist having in former sections shewn to what discipline
God subjects that man who is thoroughly furnished unto every
good work, passes in the section before us to thanksgiving to
wards God for the tokens of His love therein discernible. All
that the psalmist sets forth upon this subject is apparently founded
on his testimony in the 68th verse —
" Thou art good, and doest good !"
This doctrine concerning Almighty God is one which, as it
seems to me, all creation was intended to exemplify.
The very suffering, which the Second Person in the Divine
Unity consented by covenant before the foundation of the world
to undergo as the Lamb of God, was because of its being needful
to shew that even where God might lay upon his creatures evil in
the sense of affliction to the extent of a requirement to render
back life to Him at His call for it, that Second Divine Person
should furnish the example of cheerful obedience unto God in
this respect ; as though saying in the words of this 68th verse.
" Thou art good, and doest good."
The fact of the sinless Saviour being required by His Father
to bear affliction to the extent of ignominious and painful death
(as the slaying of the lamb at the feast of the Passover fore-
shewed) proves that it is consistent with the goodness of God
to lay affliction on one to any amount.
The doctrine that " God is good, and doeth good," requires us
to glorify God under such affliction, with the worthy persuasion
that God has a good purpose connected with His own glory in so
afflicting His creature ; and that, if the discipline be worthily
borne, God in His goodness will not allow that creature to be
eventually a loser ; nay, will provide that he shall be gainer of
an ample recompence.
For, as it is written in Ezek. xxix. 18, how God said of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that for the service done by
him against Tyre without wages he should be reimbursed by a
commission against Egypt, which would be remunerative, we may
look upon God as here laying down universally, that He takes no
one's service without wages ; which is a sort of corollary to the
doctrine we are now considering ; namely, of His being good,
and doing good.
But to bear evil in the sense of affliction, as did the Lamb of
God, solely for the glory of God, without sin on His own part

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.. 117
as the procuring cause, is the very highest sort of service, and
therefore in accordance with the goodness of God is to be re
warded in the highest manner.
This, as St. Paul testifies in Philip, ii. 9, God hath done, seeing
that God hath highly exalted His Son — the holy One and the
just — by raising up Him that as man died in His service, to be
in the spiritual manhood His fellow on the throne of glory !
We of this advanced stage in the Church's progress to the
consummation of all things, have in the record of Christ crucified
an exemplification of the doctrine, that " God is good, and doeth
good," which the psalmist had not.
To the psalmist was only made known by the testimonies
extant in his day (as in Ps. xxii. and Isa. liii.) that the Christ
should be as a Lamb slain in sacrifice : yet he believed, that when
God could consistently with His goodness afflict His Christ, much
more could He one, like the psalmist's own self, that had sinned,
and thereby procured to himself affliction. (Jer. ii. 17.)
In a similar strain too Jeremiah asked in Lam. iii. 39, " Where
fore doth a living man complain — a man for the punishment of
his sins ?"
In this frame of mind the psalmist spake in this portion of the
hundred and nineteenth psalm, whom we believe to have been
the contemporary of Jeremiah, and to have been suffering in
Babylon the same national chastisement that Jeremiah was under
going in Egypt.
Under all the trials thus pressing upon the psalmist, owing to
" the proud" on the one hand, or " the wicked" on the other, he
could, inasmuch as he abode under it with God, solemnly say —
" Thou hast dealt with Thy servant, 0 Lord, according to Thy
word." That is, Thou hast to his clear conviction inflicted less on him
than his iniquities deserved, and hast made him an incalculable
gainer in the inner man, for all that Thou hast laid upon him in
the outer.
This outpouring of a thankful heart, which like the scented
herb when bruised, sheddeth forth fragrance, is followed by the
petition in verse 66 —
" Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed
Thy commandments."
Here it seems to me that the psalmist virtually prays for con
tinuance of the chastening, if it pleases God only in that way to
give him enlightenment concerning " good judgment1 and know
ledge," or experimental communion with God.
1 Ver. 66. D3JI2 upon the signification of this word, see the remarks on
its use in Ps. xxxiv. 9.

118 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
This petition, so explained, is akin to that in Ps. ix. 9, 10, where
David said —
" The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed — a refuge in
times of trouble. A nd they that know Thy Name will put their
trust in Thee ; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek
Thee." So explained, the conneetion between the 66th and 67th verses
is obvious, where the psalmist added — ¦
" Before I was afflicted I went astray : but now have I kept
Thy word."
After this follows his testimony already explained .-
" Thou art good, and doest good !
Teach me Thy statutes."
The psalmist here records his persuasion, that if he could have
been left in ease and comfort, consistently with his soul's health,
God, Who delighteth in the prosperity of His servants, and doth
not willingly afflict them, would have granted him an untroubled
life in the mortal body.
But the psalmist confessed prosperity to have made him, like a
spoilt child, averse from conformity in all respects with what he
knew to be the word of God concerning him.
Nevertheless he testifies in verse 69 that he is not in the least
disposed to fret about what " the proud" delight in telling him is
the reason of his afflictions.
His conscience acquits him of having provoked punishment by
his own misconduct in the way they would insinuate.
Though aware that God was chastening him for his sins, yet it
was not for such sins as " the proud" would charge on him.
Howbeit, in dealing with them, he would not recriminate, by
shewing them to be guilty of that which they charged on him.
He would rather be patient, and commit his cause to Him Who
judgeth righteously ; and in this way keep the precepts of the
Lord touching one in his condition " with his whole heart."
In the next verse he shews how well aware he was that the
prosperity which had operated injuriously on himself, accounted
for their arrogance. For their heart was as " gross .as grease."
The very thought of this made him afresh render God honour
for His discipline : so that he, by implication, said,— Eather than
be so gross, as I might have been if left at ease, I hail the afflic
tion that has led to my gaining from Thee, by grace, the faculty
of delighting in Thy law. Hence of a truth " it is good for me
that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes."
" The law of Thy mouth8 is better to me than thousands of
gold and silver."
3 Ver. 72. The force of this expression is to be seen in Isa. i. 20 and lviii.
14. To notice this is of importance in a psalm 'wherein the distinctive naoes
for God's revealed will are carefully commemorated.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH- H9
Hard as it may seem to us, while in ease, to believe that any
one can so thank God for affliction, it may "any day be proved by
visiting those who have been a long time sick and afflicted.
They may be heard testifying with fervour that they had re
ceived from God in their affliction what they would not part with
for all that might be offered to them ; to wit, " Good judgment
and knowledge." So that they say with far more emphasis than
equally pious persons can in prosperity, " Thou, Lord, art good,
and doest good !" 9
Well hast Thou, 0 Jehovah, with me dealt
According to Thy word ! To me impart
Knowledge and good discernment, for I've felt
The truth of Thy commandments ! Ere my smart,
I stray'd ; but now Thy saying3 have at heart.
Good art Thou, and good do'st ! cause me to learn
Thy statutes ! Proud assailants have a lie
Against me forg'd. I my whole heart do turn
Unto Thy statutes — theirs' in apathy
Is gross as grease ! meanwhile I in Thy law
Find my delight ! Good has it been for me
That I have known aflliction, which did draw
My heed unto Thy statutes : verily
The law of Thy mouth good for me I hold
Past untold thousands far of silver or of gold.
5 Ver. 67. (T1BM I prefer, with Dr. Thrupp, to distinguish this word by
the meaning of " saying," meaning thereby an utterance of the Lord's mouth —
as in the preceding note, and in the comment on this word at verse 41, part 6 ;
see also the 123rd verse.

Tenth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Yod.

AEGUMENT.
Hitherto it has been, as I trust, successfully shewn that the
eight precepts in one section are linked together by a thread of
thought bearing on one point more particularly therein enforced :
at the same time that the point so dwelt on is in keeping with
the general subject of the entire psalm.
In the endeavour, then, to trace the same system of structure
through this section, let it be observed that in the 79th verse

120 psalm the hundred and nineteenth.
is to be seen the leading wish of the psalmist in this section ;
and that what he says in the other verses subserves his attain
ment of this wish.
The 79th verse is, " Let those, that fear Thee, be turned unto
me ; and those that have known Thy testimonies."
From this petition it is to be gathered that, at the time of the
psalmist penning this line, those in his vicinity that feared God
were from some cause or other turned away from him, so that
he was deserted and lonely ; else he would not have prayed that
they might be " turned unto him."
He appears, then, to deprecate this condition as one of danger
to his soul.
For he might remember how the wise man had said, " Woe to
him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help
him up." (Eccles. iv. 10.)
He might also remember how God had said of man, even in
his state of innocence, " It is not good for man to be alone."
The psalmist therefore appears to me to be, throughout this
section, seeking relief (as one thoroughly furnished unto every
good work) from the perilous and exposed condition of loneliness,
if it should please God after his subjugation thus far under it,
to relieve him therefrom. It is to be observed that God's afflictive
dealings with His children very often have this effect, and that it
is uniformly deplored by the sufferer.
This may be seen in Ps. xxxi. 11 — 14, where we read: "I was
a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my
neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance : they that did see
me without, fled from me."
Also the innocent Saviour was appointed to lament in like
manner in Ps. lxxxviii. 18 : " Lover and friend hast Thou put
away from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness."
; It appears to me, then, that the psalmist shews in this section
how he sought of God relief from this lonely condition, which left
him without the help of friendly interchange of thought with a
kindred mind : and that, in what he thus did for himself, he has
left a model for them to follow, who should be similarly isolated
in the service of God.
Firstly, he saith at verse 73 : —
" Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me : Give me under
standing, that I may learn Thy commandments."
II ere he prefaces his intended petition for relief by profession
of that dependence on God as his Creator, which a child has on
his parent for all his need.
As a child is persuaded that his parents, because of that
relationship, will give him, for only asking, what they know to be
needful for his relief; so thinks the psalmist here of God.
Because God hath made him, l-J e will carry on the good work
which He hath begun, if His working be only waited for by His
creature.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 121
Before all things, saith the psalmist, give me understanding,
or perception of the weight and authority wherewith Thy com
mandments are issued ; which will overrule within me, all that
makes it hard to say, " Thy will be done."
This petition therefore is, as it seems to me, framed in the
precautionary strain used by Jeremiah in xii. 1, where he saith,
" Eighteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee : yet let
me talk with Thee of Thy judgments."
The spirit of self-surrender unto God, in which this petition is
framed, entirely accords with Jeremiah's protestation (ch. x. 23),
" I know, 0 Lord, that the way of man is not in himself; it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps."
The Lord Jesus also subsequently made the same implicit
dependence on God indispensable for a believer's admission into
His Kingdom ; where He said, as recorded by Matth. xviii. 3,
" Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
As the child looks to his parents to supply all his need, so
must the believer look to God ; persuaded that God does what
is best for him, whether his prayer be granted or denied.
(1 John v. 14.)
After this preliminary profession of dependence on God to
carry on the work lie hath begun (Philip, i. 6), like as in the
Litany we are taught to pray Christ to do because of His having
done so much already — where we say " By Thine agony and
bloody sweat" and Thy other like sufferings for us, grant us now
deliverance — the psalmist's next step in seeking relief from his
lonely condition, is to plead before God, how glory would re
dound to God from the hearts of them that fear Him (to their
great profit), could they but see him and observe how, under all
his trial, he hoped in God's word. This very impression implies
that, at the time then present, they could not see the psalmist,
owing apparently to their having withdrawn themselves from
him, though in his neighbourhood.
" If," saith the psalmist, " they could by Thy grace be moved
to fraternise with me afresh, and should see how I have been
supported under the affliction bowing me down, from which they
shrank, because of my hoping in Thy word, how would they
rejoice before Thee !"
Here the psalmist appears to make the glory that is to re
dound to God by the bestowal on him of his desire, his first
consideration in urging it ; just as in 2 Cor. ix. 12 St. Paul
made " the thanksgivings from many" that should redound to
the glory of God — a fruit of the Corinthian liberality, in one
respect, more to be rejoiced over than their liberality itself,
(regarded as a fruit of the Spirit), because of its propagation of
itself in the hearts of others.
This is the sense in which I take the psalmist to say in verse 74:

122 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
" They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me; because I
have hoped in Thy word !"
The psalmist's next step in pursuit of his desire denotes, as it
seems to me, a rising apprehension lest it should merge within
him into an arraignment of God's having so dealt with him as to
" put lover and acquaintance temporarily far from him :" it
being, however, permitted him to hope that the loneliness to
which he was reduced had by the time then present answered
God's own purpose in bringing him under it.
Such I take to be the meaning of His petition in verse 75 : —
" I know, 0 Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou
in faithfulness hast afflicted me."
He then proceeds in verse 76 to ask for " the comfort" that
such a restoration to Communion with kindred minds would give
him ; saying in verse 76 : —
" Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort,
according to Thy word unto Thy servant."
Adding in the next verse, in enhancement of the preceding
petition, that it would be " life " to him — using the word in the
sense given it by the Saviour in John iv. 51, where he meant
that the nobleman's son did not barely exist, but enjoy life— or
as St. Paul used the like expression when asking in Eom. xi. 15,
" What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead ?"
Such I take to be the force of the petition in verse 77, following
up that for " comfort " in the verse preceding ; and both alike
bearing on the petition at length, explicitly supplicating in
verse 79 that the Lord would incline those that were fearing
Him in that place to " turn" unto the psalmist. In this strain
the psalmist seems to me to say : —
" Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live ; for
Thy law is my delight."
The three verses that remain appear to me to be linked
together by that reference to " shame" expressed in the first and
third, and, as it seems to me, delicately implied in the second.
In the 78th I understand the psalmist to crave that "the
proud" princes (verse 23) might be put to shame (through some
reproof of them in God's good providence by their own sovereign),
so that room might be afforded those that were in the psalmist's
neighbourhood, fearing God, to pluck up courage and seek an
interview with him.
The psalmist seems to me, in saying at verse 78 on this head — .
" Let the proud be ashamed ; for they dealt perversely with
me without a cause ; but I will meditate in Thy precepts" —
to plead, that he asks not for shame to be heaped upon these
proud ones out of a vindictive spirit, but for his needful comfort
and refreshment in soul ; since he would remember God's " pre
cepts"— such as that in Prov. xxv. 21, 22.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 123
When the psalmist eaith in verse 79 —
" Let those that fear Thee be turned unto me, and those that
have known Thy testimonies" —
the supposition here hazarded by me, that they had been led by
shame to withdraw from the psalmist, and that it would be for
their soul's good to be recovered from that state, while their
communion would be .a solace to himself which he dearly needed
— has ample warrant for it in St. Paul's explicit record of his
experience under very similar circumstances to those of Daniel
in Babylon— whom we have supposed the psalmist to be. Por
in 2 Tim. iv. 16 he recorded —
" At my first answer (on arraignment before the Eoman Em
peror) no man stood with me ; but all men forsook me. I pray
God that it may not be laid to their charge."
Also in chap. 1 of the same Epistle, at verse 8, he had said:
" Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord
nor of me His prisoner : but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God."
And again at verse 15 : " All they which were in Asia he turned
away from me."
What St. Paul here saith happened to him, fully bears out
what it seems to me the psalmist deprecated ; and ample war
rant, as it seems to me, is here found for my supposition, that
they which feared God in the psalmist's vicinity were " turned
away " from him through shame. Tea, those " that had known
God's testimonies" had shrank from fellowship in suffering with
the psalmist who was valiant for them. The portion is then
concluded with the petition' —
" Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes, that I be not
ashamed " — ¦
as though he would watch against any tendency within him to
lean by preference upon man rather than God. For he might
remember how Jeremiah had said, " Cursed be the man, that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm ; and departeth from
the living God" (xvii. 5) ; he, therefore, pleads his lively con
viction that in no other way can his heart be sound in God's
statutes than by primarily relying on God for solace, and on
human sympathy secondarily, according to God's permission.
For, in regard to this matter of soundness in the heart, the
Lord Jesus has these remarkable words in John v. 44: "How
can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek
not the honour that cometh of God only ?"
The psalmist doubtless remembered how it had been written,
" The fear of man bringeth a snare" (Prov. xxix. 25) ; an evidence
of which is furnished us by no less a person than Peter, when
Paul withstood him to the face in Gal. ii. 11.
We are therefore to understand that the psalmist, in asking

124 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
for renewed intercourse with those in his neighbourhood that
feared God, pleaded here that in so doing he nevertheless looked
to God to save him from being hampered by their prejudices, in
testifying to what God had shewn him to be the truth of His
testimonies. In that testimony (which had indeed brought upon him his
affliction) he would abide with God at all cost.
Just as the beloved disciple subsequently said in 1 John ii. 28,
" And now, little children, abide in Him ; that when He shall
appear we may have confidence; and not be ashamed before Him,
at His coming."
This portion has now been gone through ; and I trust it has
been shewn, as I proposed, that its verses bear on one subject ;
which is further in keeping with that of the entire psalm.
Assuredly this section, so understood, proves that the children
of God were under earlier and less enlightened dispensations than
ours required, for maintenance in life toward God, to keep watch
over their hearts — as the wise man counsels in Prov. iv. 23.
How much more then ought we to do this, if fully furnished unto
every good work, when our Lord saith in Matt. xv. 18, " Out of
the heart cometh that which defileth a man ;" and in John xiii. 8,
" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me ;" and St. Paul
saith in 2 Cor. vii. 1, " Having therefore these promises, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (See, too, Heb. ix.
14, and. Eev. ii. 23.) This portion, therefore, is a valuable guide
to one of us who, for like cause, is left alone and desolate.
10.
Thy hands have made and fashion'd me, 0 then
Give Thou me understanding, so shall I
Learn Thy Commandments ! They that fear Thee,
when
They see me, will be glad that I rely
Upon Thy word. Well do I know that Thy
Judgments are right, Jehovah, and that Thou
In faithfulness dost chide me ! let, I pray,
Thy gracious kindness bring me comfort now
According to Thy saying. Grant, I may_
Through mercy live, who in Thy law rejoice !
0 bring the proud to shame, that causelessly
Molest me— of Thy precepts making choice.
Let them that fear Thee, and them, turn to me,
That know Thy testimonies ! but lest shame
O'ertake me, let me ray heart by Thy statutes frame !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 125
Eleventh Section oe Psalm CXIX. — Caph.
ARGUMENT.
Having already gathered from divers expressions in this psalm
that its author was in captivity in Babylon, and that he probably
was Daniel, it now seems to me further to be gathered from some
expressions in this and the following portion, that Daniel com
posed this psalm towards the close of his life, after he had been
delivered out of the den of lions. (Dan. vi.)
At this stage in his eventful life, as we learn by verse one of
Dan. ix., he had already been enlightened with the vision of the
seventy sevens (of years), which after the expiration of the
seventy years then (ix. 2) running out, would leave his fellow-
captives at liberty to return to their own land to rebuild their
city and temple.
In that vision of the seventy sevens (of years), Daniel was
darkly taught that Messiah should be cut off (verse 26) in the
483rd year from the expiration of the 70 then running out :
whereupon should intervene an indefinite period, during which
Daniel's people should endure the Divine wrath provoked by the
rejection of Messiah.
The expression in this section which suggests to me these con
jectures is that in verse 87, where occurs the word ^?P? in con
nection with the psalmist's being " all but," or " for a small
moment put an end to upon earth."
This word is found in Isa. xxvi. 20, in connection with a perse
cution of the psalmist's people, under which God should require
them to resign themselves " for a small moment" to death itself,
" until the indignation be overpast," which should precede Mes
siah's coming to bless His Israel in their own land, with
the predicted ascendancy over all kingdoms, according to Dan.
vii. 27.
It seems to me then, that Daniel having received the vision of
the seventy sevens (of years), and afterward undergone an actual
self-surrender unto death in reliance on God; on being delivered,
regarded himself as therein made a type of Messiah's own sur
render unto death in dependence on God to bring Him out
therefrom ; according to the predictions in Ps. lvii., lxxxviii., and
xci., as also in Isa. liii : and further, as a type of that latter
generation of his nation (referred to in Isa. xxvi. 20,) who should
yield themselves to death prior to their final redemption by
Messiah from captivity in the fullest sense, wherein the psalmist's
nation was taught by God to look for it ; to whom was promised
an inheritance in the earth. See Zechariah's language on this

126 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
point in Luke i. 68 — 75. It hence seems to me, that this, psalm
was written with the design of furnishing instruction under afflic
tion appointed by God to the Messiah Himself in the days of
His flesh, and also to His faithful followers, one in spirit with
Him : (2 Pet. i. 4, and John viii. 34—36, and Heb. ii. 1—6.)
even to the time of that latest and severest tribulation appointed
to overtake the psalmist's own people (Jer. xxx. 5 — 9) ; whereof
the psalmist (as we think) reckoned his own condemnation to the
den of lions, and rescue therefrom, to be a type.
With this view, as it seems to me, the psalmist prolonged his
description of the affliction from youth upward of one thoroughly
furnished unto every good work, (which remarkably tallied with
his own experience in Babylon,) until he had reached the closing
•section of the former half of the psalm ; after which (as will be
seen when contemplating the next section), he brake out into
fervent anticipation of deliverance in the day appointed by the
Lord. The psalmist's subjection to afflictive discipline may be justly
reckoned a pattern of God's ordinary dealing with those He loves.
The afilictions with which He visits His faithful people are con
tinued until they have a fear within them of their soul's fainting
and failing under the protracted and exhausting trial.
Tet God had said by Isaiah lvii. 16, " I will not contend for
•ever, neither will I be always wroth ; lest the spirit should fail
hefore Me and the souls that I have made."
That " faintness of the soul" which the psalmist speaks of in
verse 81, is often referred to by the children of God in the Old
Testament. In the thirteenth chapter of the Proverbs, and 12th verse, the
wise king treats of it in general terms, when saying, "Hope
deferred maketh the heart sick." Also in the third chapter, at
verse 11, he had written, " My son, despise not thou the chasten
ing of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction ; for whom
the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom
he delighteth." Nevertheless, it is very hard for the human soul
to bear such long protracted tribulation.
But this burden is required to be borne, that the support
needed under it may be sought of God.
That afflictive discipline is for this purpose so protracted, is
to be gathered from the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself, in answer
to St. Paul's earnest petition recorded in 2 Cor. xii. 7, that " the
thorn in the flesh sent to buffet him, might be taken away." The
answer received hereto was, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for
My strength is made perfect in weakness;" that is to say, the
weaker a believer feels himself to be, the more sensible he is of
his need to wait on God in Christ for sustainment under the
trial. Let him then, according to the exhortation of our blessed

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 127
Saviour in Luke xviii. 1, " always be ready to pray and not to
faint." Thus will he, like the psalmist in this section, give glory
to God by the worthy persuasion (to use the psalmist's language
in an earlier portion of this psalm), "that God is good and doeth
good ;" and likewise that He knoweth, better than we do, what is
needful for us. " And will not suffer us to be tempted above
that we are able ; but will with the temptation make the way
to escape that we may be able to bear it." (1 Cor. x. 13.)
There are some virtues, such as that of patience, which are
only to be learnt under affliction; yet patience appears, from
St. James' testimony, to be the perfectness of the spiritual
growth of man.
The Apostle's words are, " My brethren, count it all joy
when ye fall into divers temptations ; knowing this, that the
trial of your faith worketh patience.
" But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be per
fect and entire," or fully matured, " lacking nothing" of the
measure of stature to which you are called.
It hence is plain why " all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution," (2 Tim. iii. 12) ; and why " that through
much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts
xiv. 22.)
For, like as an infant would not be a fully formed one, unless
he had all the limbs of the human body in proportion, though in
miniature ; so a child of God would not be fully like to Christ,
unless there was wrought in him some counterpart, though in
miniature, to each of the graces in Christ — his Covenant-Head —
" grace for grace," or answering to a correspondent grace in
Him. (John i. 16.)
For attainment unto this perfection, or thorough equipment
unto every good work, the psalmist in this eleventh section pro
tests his steadfast purpose of abiding with God under the trial,
(Luke xxii. 28) saying —
" I hope in Thy word !"
" When wilt Thou comfort me ?"
" I do not forget Thy statutes !"
" When wilt Thou execute judgment on them that persecute
me?" " The pits digged for me are not after Thy law !"
" They persecute me wrongfully, help Thou me !"
" I forsook not Thy precepts."
" Quicken me ! and I shall keep the testimonies of Thy mouth."
The great length to which we in our day see the affliction of
bed-ridden invalids protracted, and others for whom there is no
human hope of recovery, exemplifies before our eyes what the
psalmist shews to have been his experience.
Consequently the verses of this section are eminently suited
for meditation, not only by those persons who are being so tried

128 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
with affliction, but by those whose duty it is to attend upon them,
whether for the body or the soul.
The remark has been heard by me, that ordinarily every person
in attendance is tired out before it pleases God that the sufferer
shall be released from further endurance of weary days and nights,
by translation to His own heavenly rest.
Without doubt, one purpose of God in so protracting the trials
of sufferers, either as was the case with the psalmist by captivity,
or as it is among us by sickness or loss of reason, is to afford us
occasions for training in the grace of patience, by " bearing one
another's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ." (Gal. vi. 2.)
Those who attend the sick or infirm ones as nurse or sympathising
companion are doubtless fulfilling, or afforded the opportunity of
fulfilling, a service in the mystical body of Christ, very highly to
be esteemed, when judged of in the light of God's word ; although
not often recognised as worthy of special estimation by the outer
world. It was no little aggravation of the psalmist's protracted
affliction, that in his captivity, he was cut off from the solace of
sympathising attendants.
Let then those among us who feel, as we readily conceive they
may, their months, nay years of sickness or infirmity hard to
bear, find occasion for thankfulness in thinking how much better
God appoints that they should be situate in their affliction, seeing
that He leaves some to wait upon them therein with soothing
counsel and treatment, than was the psalmist in his captivity, or
the blessed Lord in His agony.
Also let any of us who are called for a comparatively short
time to attendance on the afflicted, check the disposition to be
weary, by considering how manifestly it is God's appointment
that the sufferer should be held for a protracted space of time in
that state of dependence on the sympathy of others.
Like as the psalmist said, " I was dumb and opened not my
mouth, because Thou didst it." (Ps. xxxix. 9.) May we seek
grace to say so too ! This submission of one's self under God's
mighty hand, appears to be imperatively required by God in all
His saints, (1 Pet. v. 6) ; so that the psalmist, if, as we suppose,
describing in this psalm the spiritual trials to which God sub
jects those whom He hath fully furnished unto every good work,
could not with propriety have omitted this view of God's chasten
ing, at the turning point in his account, (at this eleventh section)
of the life, walk, and triumph of faith.
11.
My soul is faint with the intense desire
For Thy salvation — my hope's in Thy word —
Mine eyes fail for Thy promise ! I enquire

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 129
When wilt Thou comfort me ? my skin is blurr'd
Like bottle in the smoke, while I've preferr'd
Thy statutes. 0 bethink Thee how brief are
Thy servant's days, and judgment execute
On them that hate me ! proud ones pits prepare
In mock'ry of Thy law ! they persecute
Me wrongfully, then do Thou grant relief !
All Thy commandments faithful are ! a brief
Moment on earth they me o'ermastered, who
Remained unto Thy precepts always true.
Now of Thy loving-kindness energise
Me ! so the testimony of Thy mouth I'll prize !

Twelfth Section oe Psalm CXIX. — Lamed.

AEGUMENT.
As the eight verses in each preceding section have been shewn
to mainly refer to one point, which like a thread running through
the whole, connects them together, giving unity to a section ;
such I hope to shew is the case in this twelfth one.
And further, that this leading subject, to which the eight verses
are here assumed to refer, is in this case, as in the preceding^
agreeable to the general subject of the psalm.
Firstly, then, in regard to the subject mainly treated in this
twelfth section, the word in the original Hebrew here translated
" for ever" may also be rendered " concerning time hidden ;"
that is, the age in which hath been promised to Abraham a gene
ration among his natural descendants which shall be fitted to
receive the paradisiacal happiness promised to Israelin the Lord's
land. The position in which E vhJJv here stands, inclines me to think
it was intended in this place to bear that latter signification.
For it is the central word in the entire psalm — being the first of
the twelfth section — there being twenty-two in all.
Now in the thirty-seventh psalm which, like this hundred and
nineteenth is acrostic, there occurs at the 16th letter 5? a mystical
use of this word ^7137 7 in the heart of the verse ; where it is
written, " The Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His
saints ; they are preserved for ever" or for time hidden — to wit,
" the hidden age" — emphasized with the Article in Ps. xxviii. 9
in the word OVl37n K

130 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Supposing then this word to have been employed in a mystical
sense in verse 89 of this hundred and nineteenth psalm, its mean
ing will be " Thy word, O Lord, concerning time hidden — the
hidden age — is settled in heaven :" in other words, it is decreed
in " the counsel of peace that is between them both" — to wit,
The Father and the Son. (Zech. vi. 13.) Eecord of such decree
seems to me to be borne witness to in Ps. Ixxxix. 1 — 3 and 29 —
37, aud in Ixxviii. 4 and 6, where mention is made of " that latter
generation" in which God will fufill the promises made to Abraham
from Gen. xii. 7 to xxii. 18.
In the next verse — the 90th — it is implied that, though the
time for giving this latter generation to Abraham be long de
layed, God's faithfulness is pledge that He will eventually send
it, preparatory to the return of the Messiah to His ancient people
(as we now see) " a second time." (Acts vii. 13, compared with
Gen. xiv. 4 — 16 and Dan. ix. 26 — 27.) The very earth is sus
tained in its course for fulfilment of this promise to Abraham.
If this explanation of verse 90 be admitted, its agreement in
subject with what was assumed to be that of the 89th will be
apparent. The 91st verse, too, seems to me to admit of an explanation in
harmony herewith. The words of this verse as they stand in the
Hebrew have manifestly fallen into confusion.
For, as they now stand, it is not clear what is the antecedent
of " they ;" and " this day" is not the strictly correct translation
of Disn but " the day" — meaning, as it seems to me, " the day
of the Lord" — which is that of the Lord's return to bless Israel,
referred to, as I conceive, in the two verses preceding. (See Isa.
ii. 12.)
If then it might be permitted me to attempt a restoration of
order in the first three words of the 91st verse, they would stand
thus — , ,
tips TE)3t»» D"i»rr? or cvrr?
meaning "Thine ordinances," to wit, concerning the sun and
moon, " continue for the day," to wit, the great day, " for all are
Thy servants."
Now in other parts of Scripture, treating of this millennial
glory promised to Israel, it is usual to meet with this reference
to the stability of the Divine ordinances concerning the heavens
and the earth as pledge, that no matter how many generations in
Israel may intervene before the coming of that " latter one,"
come it shall. (See Ps. Ixxxix. 36, 37 ; also Ps. lxxii. 17.)
Also in Jer. xxxi. which expressly treats of the blessedness on
earth in reserve for a chosen generation in Israel (which was
known to Daniel in Babylon ; as may be seen by Jer. xxix. 1,
and Dan. ix. 4) there occurs at verse 35 words which might well
be thought to have been in the psalmist's mind when penning
the verses of this twelfth section. The words are—

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 131
" Thus saith the Lord Which giveth the sun for a light by day,
and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night,
which divideth the sea, when the waves thereof roar — the Lord
of hosts is His Name. —If those ordinances 'depart from before
Me, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation
before Me for ever."
Thus there seems to me one leading idea or topic referred to
in the first three verses of this twelfth section.
And now, before proceeding further with my exposition of
reference hereto in the remaining ones, let me pass to the other
point which I undertook at the outset to establish ; namely, that
for the psalmist to break out thus abruptly in the centre of this
psalm, with reference to the return of the Lord to bless Israel,
was in keeping with the general tenour of the psalm.
In treating of the preceding section we saw that the psalmist
had continued to describe himself as suffering the trial imposed
on him. What then could have been more appropriate, than that
the psalmist, when not himself permitted to obtain relief from
affliction in answer to his prayers, should rejoice in what God
would eventually do for his nation ? Thus the subject of Israel's
paradisiacal glory (whereof Ezek. xx. 12 testifies that the Sab
baths given Israel in the wilderness were pledge) is in accordance
with that of the psalm as a whole.
It was the obvious duty of the psalmist, in the absence of any
special answer to his prayers for abatement of his personal trials,
to seek consolation in commemoration of God's promises of final
favour on earth to his nation.
In the ninetieth psalm, from verse 12 to the end, he might
have seen that Moses did this. Jeremiah also — his contemporary
—might have been seen in chapter xxxi. 26 to have done so.
It seems to me then that in the four verses next following
the 91st, the psalmist testifies, that he found solace in thinking
of God's promise to Israel, because of having in his own expe
rience proved the quickening virtue vouchsafed by God to himself
in meditation on His law — His precepts — and His testimonies.
After which he closes this section with saying at verse 96 —
" I have seen an end of all perfection : but Thy commandment
is exceeding broad."
These words admit of various modifications in their sense,
according as they are thought to have been applied by the
psalmist. It being then my endeavour to trace an unity of thought
throughout these eight verses, I suppose the psalmist to have
applied this 96th verse to the subject of the Lord's final favour
to Israel.
By " perfection" I take to be here meant " thorough equip
ment unto every good work," according to 2 Tim. iii. 17.
K 2

132 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
And by the psalmist saying " that he had seen an end of all of
it," I take him to have meant, that he noticed how God had
afforded one generation after another in Israel the opportunity
of preparing the way for the coming of their Messiah to bless
them, after the manner referred to in Isa. v. 1 — 7, where is to
be seen, how the Lord charged on Israel for a fault, that when
He had thoroughly furnished them on going forth from Egypt
against Canaan, with the means of preparing the way for the
millennial reign of the Lord among them, the nation had dis
appointed Him.
By Jeremiah also, in chap. ii. 1 — 8, the Lord shewed the same
ground of complaint. But the psalmist might truly say that
" he had seen an end of all perfection," if we suppose him to
have been Daniel, and that he wrote this psalm towards the end
of his life — at the time referred to in Dan. v. 11, 12.
He may, in that case, have referred here to the vision men
tioned in chapter ix, in which at verse 24 Daniel speaks of a
vision concerning the " end" of " perfection" or fitness in Israel
for the faithful ones — such as David and Solomon— or again
Hezekiah followed by Manasseh — or Josiah by his backsliding
sons and brother — to serve God and prepare for the Lord's
eoming to reign over them; as in Isa. xl. 1 — 11 they were
exhorted to do.
On that supposition the words which follow, " But Thy com
mandment is exceeding broad," might mean "but it by no
means remains for me to conclude from ' the end' so foreshewn
me, that the coming of the Lord to finally bring to Israel the
ascendancy over all the kingdoms of the world' (Dan. vii. 27)
will come into operation immediately on expiration of these
seventy years appointed for the duration of this present cap
tivity ; since," saith the psalmist, " Thy commandment," to wit —
that, according to my theory in verse 89 — " is exceeding broad"
— in other words, is so framed as to afford ample " room" <"I3IT)
(with which compare Gen. xxvi. 22) for God's making trial of
men whom He should again thoroughly furnish unto every good
work, whether they would " prepare the way of the Lord" under
other conditions of service ; to prove the more amply how need
ful it was for God to have antecedently by decree before the
foundation of the world made the bringing in of everlasting
righteousness to solely depend on the covenant between the
Father and the Son : and so too the coming of that generation
Which should prepare the way of the Lord. (See Isa. lxiii. 7, 8.)
Since if the bringing in of " the restitution of all things to
Israel" had in the least wise been made dependent or contingent
on due discharge of duty in preparing the way of the Lord by
those whom He should in any age thoroughly furnish unto every
good work, the return of the Lord to bring in the millennial
happiness of Israel on earth would have been indefinitely put

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 1.33
off ; for by their misuse of the grace given them they Would
rather provoke God to appoint unto them a longer or shorter
space of time during which they should nationally suffer
punishment : as we of this latter age see to have been the case
with that generation of Israel in our Lord's day which rejected
the gospel when preached to them first by the Apostles after
His resurrection ; and now see to be hanging over our heads,
who are of the succession descending from the Apostles, because
of the signs being rife amongst us of " the love of many waxing
cold" through the prevalence of iniquity, and of " the preaching
of the gospel for a witness among all nations" (without effectual
conversion of them), according to the Lord's forewarning in
Matt. xxiv. 12—14.
If the psalmist were Daniel, what he said in vision, chapter ix.
25 — 27 (how that in the midst of the 483rd year, after the
expiration of the 70 years then running out, Messiah should be
cut off amongst his own people) would suffice to prompt the
words "Thy commandment is exceeding broad ;" for he might see
that his people would then subject themselves to a season of
divorcement the length of which could not be judged of — but
which we now see was to be measured by that decline from the
duty of preparing the way of the Lord for which the labourers
called to the vineyard upon the ejection of the psalmist's own
nation, in that capacity (Matt. xxi. 43) therefrom, should have
similarly provoked God to cast them out also (Luke xxi. 24) ;
whereupon He would of His undeserved mercy— not Israel's
worthiness— return with favour to His ancient people and grant
them unasked '| that latter generation which would not lie" —
that is, disappoint Him— in this matter of preparing the way of
the Lord. (Isa. lxiii. 8.)
Thus may we see to be confirmed in our age the correctness of
the psalmist's testimony— as to his having " seen" in his day
" an end to all perfection," or worthiness on man's part to pro
cure for Israel the fulfilment of their predicted ascendancy over
all nations in the day of the triumphant Messiah. (Deut.
vi. 25.)
And throughout the Epistles of St. Paul this hope of the
coming of the Lord is held forth to us for our solace, even
though it should please God to leave us in His service to die a
painful and ignominious death ; after the. same manner in which
the psalmist here used it. (Phil. iii. 20, 21.)

12.
For that age hidden doth Thy word stand fast
In heav'n, Jehovah ! and Thy faithfulness
To generation upon generation last.

134 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
What course Thou didst upon this earth impress
It keepeth. To that day in changelessness
Thine ordinances stand — they serve Thee all !
Had not Thy law been my delight, my soul
Had perish' d in my anguish, hence I'll call
Thy precepts to remembrance and extol
The grace wherewith in them Thou 'st quicken'd me !
Thine am I ; 0 ! preserve me, for I've sought
Thy precepts ! some my murderers would be,
But to Thy testimonies I my thought
Apply ! of all perfection I an end
Have seen, but widely Thy commandment doth ex
tend !

Thirteenth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Mem.

AEGUMENT.
The subject which connects together the eight verses of this
thirteenth section is clearly the right use of God's revealed word.
Seven departments of it are here specified — law, commandments,
testimonies, precepts, word (written), judgments, saying or word
uttered, the distinct meaning of each of which has been already
given. This subject of the right use of God's revealed word comes in
the course of this psalm very appropriately after that of the
twelfth section ; which was the consolation invariably found by
the afflicted believer in God through hope of beholding or sharing
in the happy state of Israel on earth during the millennial age
under the rule of the triumphant Messiah. Although God should
not grant His afflicted servant relief in regard to the troubles of
which he himself might be complaining, there still would be, as
the psalmist seems to say, abundant encouragement afforded the
believer to wait upon God in expectation of what God would
eventually do for Israel in the earth.
Meanwhile heed to God's revealed word would teach the
suffering believer what spiritual benefits the Lord was conferring
on him while leaving him under affliction. Proceeding on the
supposition that Daniel was the author of this hundred and
nineteenth psalm, we may see by his book with what truth he
could say, according to the first verse of this thirteenth section,
" Oh how love I thy law ! it is my meditation all the day."
The next verse would also have a manifest adaptation to
Daniel's eventful career in Babylon, supposing that he wrote

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 135
this psalm towards the close of his days, after deliverance from
the lions' den in the reign of Darius. His words in that ninety-
eighth verse being : " Thou through Thy commandments hast
made me wiser than mine enemies ; for they (that is Thy com
mandments) are ever with me."
Thus in the second chapter of his book, at verse 13, when the
decree had gone forth for the execution of the wise men of
Babylon, owing to their inability to recover for Nebuchadnezzar
the particulars of his dream, Daniel, by waiting upon God in
prayer, obtained the desired information, by which he saved
their lives,,though they had been, and still continued, his enemies.
Also in the 99th verse, where it is written, " I have more
understanding than all my teachers ; for Thy testimonies are my
meditation," it is to be observed, that whatever teachers Daniel
might have had in childhood, before his carrying away in early
youth to Babylon, he by meditation and communion with God
obtained enlightenment in Scripture above all his contemporaries
— an instance of which is given by him in the ninth chapter of his
book at the second verse, where he wrote : " In the first year of
the reign of Darius, I, Daniel, understood by books the number
of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the
prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desola
tion of Jerusalem." For the same reason he could emphatically
add in the 100th verse : " I understand more than the ancients,
because I keep Thy precepts."
Now, " the precepts " are those parts of the revealed word
which concern the believer's inner life toward God in personal
holiness ; and there cannot be a doubt that the psalmist here
touehes upon a most important point in the profitable use of
God's revealed word. For it is elsewhere written upon this
subject, " No good thing will God withhold from them that walk
uprightly " (Ps. lxxxiv. 11) ; and in Ps. 1. 27, "To him that ordereth
his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God."
The psalmist is undoubtedly referring to this subject when
saying in the next verse, " I have refrained my feet from every
evil way, that I might keep Thy word." The " feet " have already
in treating of this psalm been explained to mean, when applied
to the soul, its affections.
Now, to " refrain," or hold back these from every way which
conscience, enlightened by the Divine precepts, shewed him to
be evil, was a truly wonderful instance of upright walking with
God. We Christians have far greater help than had Daniel to
do this, yet how arduous do we find it to bear on our hearts
before God this plea in the 101st verse : "I have refrained my
feet from every evil way, that I might keep Thy word ! "
St. Paul, speaking on this subject to the Galatians, at chapter
v. 24, said, " And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh,
with its affections and lusts," or, in other words, its passive sus
ceptibilities and active appetites.

136 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
The "flesh," or old man, has by nature a hold on the believer's
heart : and the soul is required to redeem, by grace, that same
heart's affections from being carried away after the promptings
of the flesh, in order to be employed, as God's precepts inculcate,
for the keeping of His word! (Eph. v. 14 — 16.) Such of us
Christians as are engaged in this soul-service toward God with
the heart, by grace, will own with confusion of face before Him
how arduous this duty is, and how lamely performed at best.
Who of us knows not what the Apostle Paul calls " the sin
that doth easily beset us " (Heb. xii. 1) — that to which our dis
position hath a tendency ?
What constant watchfulness is called for in the soul to prevent
one's flesh or old man from carrying away the heart after its
covetousness !
Tet we — Christians — have for the soul's help in this warfare
the sight by faith of Christ crucified for such sinful inclinations
as we are tempted to indulge in the heart : which made one of
our sacred poets say : —
" O ye that love the Lord,
If at this thought ye burn ;
See that in heart, in deed, in word,
Ye hate what made Him mourn."
Moreover, awakened souls among us Christians, being regene
rated in Christ, as baptism and the Lord's Supper certify to them,
are incorporated with the Lord J esus in His spiritual manhood,
and also have it in their hearts ; and this, with the godly motions
proper thereto, is set over against " the motions of sins " in their
old manhood. (Gal. v. 16, 17.) It must therefore be thankfully
acknowledged that we who live in this advanced stage of the
Church's pilgrimage on earth have, in the sight of Christ crucified
for our sins, and in the bestowal of His Spiritual manhood for
our regeneration, help for our souls in refraining our feet from
heart-sin, " that we might keep His word," more than had any
child of God who lived before Christ had accomplished his sacri
ficial death.
Until that time believers in the promise concerning Christ,
from Abel downwards, on being justified by faith, might obtain a
measure of the Spirit of Christ for their renewal, upon their
daily asking for it (called in the psalm before us ' quickening'),
but they had not regeneration (which I take to be participation
in Christ's spiritual manhood, through burial by the Holy Ghost
in His sncrificial death). (Titus iii. 4— 7.) The psalmist, speaking
by the Spirit of Christ in the 101st verse, would, we are sure,
not take credit for more than he could call God to witness to be
in his case the fact ; he therefore could conscientiously say, " I
have refrained my feet — the feet of my soul— from every evil
way, that I might keep Thy word."
Not but what he had in his soul experienced many struggles
against corrupt nature ; but those adverse desires were not im-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 137
puted to him by God, seeing that he had not harboured them,
and so made them his own.
The psalmist could on this account say, in verse 102, " I have
not departed from Thy judgments, for Thou hast taught me."
Oh how happy are they who in this arduous service to God
with their souls can thus " hold faith with a good conscience "
(1 Tim. i. 19), bearing in mind too that "they are in Christ and
Christ in them ; " as also that, by reason of the fruits of the
Spirit abounding in them, they know that " He abideth in them."
(1 John iii. 19—24 ; Eom. viii. 9 ; Matt. vii. 20.)
Then can we say, with all the fervour of the psalmist in the
last two verses of this section : —
" How sweet are Thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than
honey to my mouth !
" Through Thy precepts I get understanding : therefore I hate
every false way." 13.
Oh how love I Thy law ! on it all day
I ponder ! Thou thro' Thy commandments hast
Instructed me (for in my mind are they)
Till I've my wisest enemies surpass'd
In wisdom — yea, my teachers distanc'd fast
In learning ; for Thy testimonies were
My meditation ; more than they of old
I understand, who for Thy precepts care.
From ev'ry evil way, so as to hold
Thy word in strictness, I've refrain'd my feet.
Nor have I from Thy judgments swerv'd; for Thou
Hast taught me ! to my palate, oh ! how sweet
Thy words are, more than honey ! here is how
I thro' Thy precepts understanding get,
And every false way most devoutly hate.

Fourteenth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Nun.

AEGUMENT.

The psalmist in this fourteenth section continues to set forth
the help which an afflicted servant of God derives from use of the
holy Scripture's.

138 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
His testimony in the first of these verses implies, that occasions
for error of judgment beset him, as though he was attempting to
walk in darkness ; and that only on having recourse to God's
word had he a certain guide.
St. Paul's language concerning the Christian's position in the
world, and need of Scripture for his guide is similar ; where he
saith (Eom. xiii. 13,) " The night is far Spent — the day is at
hand. Let'us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let
iis put on the armour of light."
Also in Philip, ii. 14, he wrote, " Do all things without mur-
murings or disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless —
the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,
holding forth the word of life."
¦ The psalmist then saith,
" I have sworn, and will perform it, that I will keep Thy
righteous judgments."
Here be it observed, that the essence of an oath consists in
the silent lifting up of the heart to God ; and if one who doth
this avows it to his neighbour, who is seeking his testimony, he
virtually speaks upon oath, whatever be the form of words used
by him.
As Jewish boys after circumcision at the eighth day on reaching
the twelfth year were subjected by their doctors, at the feast of the
Passover, to an examination into their acquaintance with the Com
mandments, and, if approved, were blessed with the laying on of
hands ; the psalmist when saying, " I have sworn," may only
mean that on occasion of his examination by the doctors he ac
knowledged to them that he inwardly appealed to God to witness
his resolve on keeping God's commandments.
The psalmist by adding, " and I will perform it," shewed his
purpose of abiding by that engagement ; and in this is an ex
ample to every Christian, who after baptism in infancy has at
confirmation pledged himself to abide by the baptismal vow.
In the next verse the psalmist said,
" I am afflicted very much : quicken Thou me according to
Thy word"—
thereby reminding us of the weariness and dejection produced
by protracted affliction.
Now weariness is a great hindrance to godly service ; so that
the more affliction a servant of God has, the more incumbent it
is on him to ask of God the grace of renewal with His holy
Spirit. When we offer up unto God a prayer wherein His promise
forms the ground of our petition, we are sure of not failing here
in attainment of our desire ; provided we rightly urge it in reliance
on Christ's propitiation and advocacy. This certainty of success

PSALM the hundred and nineteenth. 139
in so vital a matter is implied in the next verse by the psalmist
saying, " Accept, I beseech Thee, the f*, ,.,-will offerings of my mouth,
O Lord, and teach me Thy judgments."
All the weariness produced by affliction had vanished, when the
psalmist could ask God to accept the freewill offerings of his
mouth. This thanksgiving was fruit rising to the lips out of a
heart quickened according to the psalmist's desire.
But the closing petition, " Teach me Thy judgments," indi
cates, that though God had " created within him the fruit of
the lips," (Isa. lvii. 19,) his consequent cheerfulness did not
make him less mindful of the reverence due to God : he wished
to " rejoice with trembling."
" Judgment " has been already explained to be a name for
God's word, more particularly admonishing one of the awful
sanction wherewith God, as Supreme Judge, waits to enforce it :
so that the petition " Teach me Thy judgments," did in reality
imply a desire on the psalmist's part to be made " of quick un
derstanding in the fear of the Lord," (Isa. xi. 2,) concurrently
with joy in the Lord through infusion of Christ's spirit into the
heart. Situate as the psalmist is supposed to have been in Babylon^to
other offering could he bring to God than the free-will offering
of his mouth : we Christians, however, have Christ's sacrifice
freely provided for us, so that we need only plead it, when
bringing the free-will offering of our lips. Nevertheless we shall
do well to heed the lesson given us by the psalmist in verse 109,
for he there made it evident, what need he had to walk warily,
although gladdened at heart before God: by saying,
" My soul is continually in my hand : yet do I not forget Thy
law." The soul is the moral responsible part of man. Wherefore, to
have the soul " in one's hand," is to have one's bodily or spiritual
life dependent on what one may be required to do at a passing
moment. In 1 Sam. xix. 5, we have an instance of David putting his soul
in his hand as to bodily life ; and in the conduct of Peter, who
entered the high priest's house to witness the trial of his Master,
we have an instance of one putting his soul in his hand in regard
to spiritual life. (Matt. xxvi. 69.)
The hurry of the crisis ordinarily excludes from a Christian's
mind notice of any thing but what is on the instant externally
pressing upon him.
But the psalmist saith, that in such a crisis, he was not un
mindful of God's law, and was careful about behaving con
sistently with "obedience of the truth through the Spirit."
(1 Pet. i. 21.)

140 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
He then indicated from whom the peril to his soul arose :
saying inverse 110,
" The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I erred not from
Thy precepts."
By " the wicked " are to be understood either evil spirits, or
among men such as are fallen from grace — backslidden Israelites
— like those mentioned in Jer. xxix. 21, 22. And when the
psalmist saith, that in dealing with these he " erred not from
God's precepts," we are to suppose he refers to such a word of
Scripture, as that in Prov. xxv. 21, where we read,
" If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat ; and if he
be thirsty, give him water to drink :
" For thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head ; and the Lord
shall reward thee."
In following the psalmist's advice we Christians may similarly
apply that other precept of St. Paul's in Eom. xii. 21.
*' Be not overcome of evil ; but overcome evil with good."
By the psalmist's words in the next verse he makes it plain,
that though this discipline should by God's appointment be life
long, he would not repine : for he would have respect unto the re-
compence of reward, at the time of the Lord's return, even as St.
Paul affirmed of Moses. (Heb. xi. 26.)
In this strain he said at verse 111,
" Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage for ever : for they
are the rejoicing of my heart."
God's testimonies are those portions of His written word in
which He bears witness concerning His counsels.
The testimonies to which the psalmist more particularly re
ferred, may probably have been those of the primeval Sabbath,
as also of that specially given the Israelites in the wilderness,
(Ezek. xx. 12,) the former of which was a pledge from God of
what rest He will eventually give faithful servants with Himself
in heaven — the latter, in the Lord's land during the Millennium
to a chosen generation in Israel.
The psalmist, (whom we suppose to have been Daniel,) might
hope alone for attainment of that final rest with God in the
glorified body, whereof the primeval Sabbath was pledge to man,
as we may gather from Dan. xii. 13 ; even as did Abraham. (See
Heb. xi. 16.)
The same may also be said of us Christians whether out of
Jews or Gentiles, who look, at the Lord's return, to be caught up
to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess. iv. 14—18.)
But that " latter generation " of Israel spoken of in Ps. Ixxviii.
4  6, will be afforded an opportunity of taking for an heritage
on this earth, that foreshadowing of the rest in heaven, whereof
the Sabbath given the Israelites in the wilderness was pledge.
The psalmist concludes this section with saying,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 141
" I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes alway, even
unto the end."
Or, to perform Thy statutes ; for eternity — or in eternity — the
hidden age — is the end or reward ! (1 Pet. i. 9.)
By " the statutes " it has already been shewn are to be under
stood those portions of God's written word, whose force consists
in their positive enactment; and which concern God's people
collectively, in their congregational capacity.
Such an one, in the psalmist's day I suppose to have been that
of praying with the face toward Jerusalem at stated times of the
day, which in Daniel's case afforded his enemies the means of de
nouncing him to Darius as a breaker of the king's commandment.
(Dan. vi.)
Similar statutes in our time are those of baptism and the
Lord's supper — the observance of which makes believers in
Christ avow their faith and become a visible congregation of
faithful men at all risk. The psalmist therefore saith in effect
that no matter what the public acknowledgment of faith in God
might cost him, he would incline his heart to perform God's
statutes, out of respect for the recompense of reward according
as God had testified.
He would incline his heart unto performance of God's statutes,
though the " end " to be gained— or the reward— should be " for
eternity," or " for the hidden age," that is, only to be entered on
with a glorified body, at the arrival of that hour appointed of
God for bringing in His first-begotten into the world, as Moses
in Ps. xc. verse 13 — 17, was moved to pray. (See also Ps. cxlix.
5—9.)

14.
Thy word's a lamp my wayward feet to guide,
Unto my path a light ! I have averr'd
That by Thy righteous judgments I'd abide,
And I'll perform this. Much have I incurr'd
Of grief herein ! according to Thy word
0 quicken me, Jehovah ! Thee I pray,
The free-will oif'rings of my mouth receive !
My soul, Thou know'st, is in my hand alway,
Yet I Thy law forget not ! for me weave
The wicked snares, yet from Thy precepts I
Ne'er err'd, as an eternal heritage
Thy testimonies chose I joyfully,

142 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
For they my whole heart in Thy praise engage.
To do Thy statutes I've my heart inclin'd,
The mead1 for that age hid content to find.

1 Verse 112. Literally " end."

FlETEENTH SECTION OF PSALM CXIX. — SAMECH.

AEGUMENT.
The leading idea in this section, connecting its eight verses,
appears to be a protestation of unwavering faith in God.
In the first of these the psalmist's words are, " I hate vain or
divided thoughts ;" the word here used being the same which in
1 Kings xviii. 21, is used by Elijah when asking the people of
Israel, " How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord
be God, follow Him : but if Baal, then follow him."
St. James, in the first chapter of his Epistle, saith on this
point : " Let a man ask in faith nothing wavering ; for he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven of -the wind and
tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything
from the Lord. The double minded man is unstable in all his
ways." This meaning of the original word for " vain thoughts " brings
out by contrast the decisive character of the psalmist's mind
towards God, here implied in his use of the words " hate" and
" love." "I hate halting between two opinions, but Thy law do
I love." The word in the next verse for " hiding-place" is that used in
the first verse of the ninety-first psalm, where it is translated
" the secret-place" of the Most High, meaning the Divine Nature
itself. Also in the fifth verse of the twenty-seventh psalm it has the
same meaning, where the words are :
"In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me."
This doctrine is even more emphatically inculcated on us, now
that the sacrificial death of Christ is pleaded by Himself before
God in our behalf; and we, for our faith, are buried by the Holy
Ghost therein ; and are required to daily devote ourselves
thereto by a fresh act of faith, for the exclusion of all heretical
and other disturbing thoughts, which would confuse single-
hearted reliance upon God.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 143
Such agents of double dealing and doubtful suspense, though
only in thought, are rightly stigmatised by the psalmist in the
following verse— the 115th — as " evil-doers ;" for acts of the
mind are in the sight of God " deeds," quite as much as acts of
the hand.
Loose notions in regard to true doctrine arrogantly insisted
on ; or disingenuous and hollow-hearted profession of the true, is
at the bottom of all " evil-doing :" whilst love of that which
God commands in His word and hatred of what He there forbids,
is the very life of faith.
For " faith worketh by love."
This solemn profession of decided zeal for God's service is very
fitly followed in the 116th verse with a petition, that God would
uphold the psalmist in that pious resolve according to His word,
" that,' ' saith he,
" I may live, and not be ashamed of my hope."
For the wise man saith : " The hypocrite's hope shall perish,
when God taketh away his soul." (Prov. x. 28, xi. 7.)
In the same strain he adds in the 117th verse :
" Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect
unto Thy statutes continually."
All which emphatically shews what need a believer has of
habitual recourse to God in prayer for renewal with His Spirit :
it may also be hence seen of what importance is continuance in
a right frame of mind — that is, one characterised by respect for
God's statutes.
The two following verses of this section are to the same
effect ; because mentioning what God doth by way of punish
ment to them that have not respect unto His statutes.
" Thou hast trodden down all them that err from Thy statutes ;
for their deceit" — or specious excuse for halting between two
opinions touching God's word — " is falsehood.
" Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross ;
therefore I love Thy testimonies."
In these two verses there appear to be included those, who in
the first three had been stigmatised as sceptical in habit of mind,
and " evil-doers."
Here in the 118th verse, the speculative portion of them —
whose error has been that of the mind and of the tongue alone,
are to be punished by being " trodden down," or, as the same
word is translated in Job xxviii. 15 and 19, " weighed," and
found light and worthless ; for their deceit — their specious show
of wisdom — " is falsehood." (Ephes. iv. 14 and 22.)
But those that break out into deeds legitimately springing out
of such deceit, are to be by the refining effect of God's judg-

144 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
ments "made dross ;" that is, brushed off from the molten metal
in the crucible. (Malachi iii. 3.)
The effect of all this upon the psalmist is stated in the last
verse of these eight— the 120th — to be " fear " conjoined with
"love," as set forth in the first of them, where he sai'thj
" My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee, and I am afraid of Thy
judgment's." Agreeably wherewith St. Paul in 2 Cor. v. 11, saith for him
self, " knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men"— an effect the very opposite to that which they, who halt
between two opinions touching God's word, have upon their
hearers. For these embolden men to make light of God's word, which
contains " the judgments of His mouth."
If the judgments of God's mouth, or in other words, the dis
tinct declarations concerning the Divine sanctions in due time
destined to enforce His truth, availed to restrain men generally
from transgression, we may be persuaded that there would be
little if any judgments of a more summary kind sent upon a
nation. So St. Paul saith in 1 Cor. xi. 31, where he wrote, " if we
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."
Wherefore those casuistical minds which are prone to circulate
sceptical thoughts concerning God's word ; as for instance, in the
matter of the duration of eternal punishment, thereby abating
in their countrymen's minds that fear of sin which mention of
eternal punishment was intended to produce, in reality only
make judgments of a summary kind certain to come upon a
nation. (Ezek. xiv.)
Those teachers are the truest friends of their nation, who
exalt the majesty of God's word ; so that they can say with the
psalmist :
" My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee, and I am afraid of Thy
judgments." Assuredly whosoever trembles at the thought of being involved
in such national judgments as that of war, which last year deso
lated Prance (1871) ; or of famine, which is now desolating
Persia ; ought with the psalmist to pray that the word alone of
Q.0Q — the judgments of His mouth— might have so salutary an
effect upon them, that they might not need more summary judg
ments—the judgments of His finger or of His hand !
The unity of thought running through this fifteenth section
is, I trust, manifest ; and the conclusion we gather from it is,
that in whatever other matters "lukewarmness" may be advisable
and prudential, it is not in the service of God. The more en
lightened men become by spiritual privileges, the more prone
they are to subside into this cold calculating regulation of their

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 145
service to God by their intellect : the effect of which is forcibly
described in our Lord's epistle to the Church of Laodicea.
(Eev. iii. 14—19.)
This, as it seems to me, is the reason of the psalmist taking
such pains here to testify on his own behalf, as a man thoroughly
furnished unto every good work, that while he increased in light
concerning God's will, he did not decline from love, nor gratitude,
nor even dread.

15.
A sceptic's mood I execrate, but love
Thy law ! I hide me in the secrecy
Of Thy dread Being ! Thy good word doth prove
My ground of hope. Haste ye ! begone from me,
Ye evil-doers! I'll keep jealously
My God's commandments ! Do Thou me uphold
According to Thy word ; that I may live,
And not be by false hope deluded — sold.1
Hold Thou me up ; for then my soul shall thrive j
And I'll unto Thy statutes stedfastly
Give heed ! All they who from Thy statutes stray
Thou'st weigh'd and cast down ; for their sophistry
Is falsehood : like to dross Thou sweep' st away
The wicked : hence Thy testimonies I
Revere ; and scan Thy judgments tremblingly.
1 Isa. 1. 1 ; Hi, 3 ; Rom. vii. 14.

Sixteenth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Ain.

AEGUMENT.
The subject which connects together the eight verses of this
fourteenth section is the godly man's entreaty that God would
not forsake him, nor leave him a prey to his enemies inward or
outward. On the supposition that Daniel was the author of this psalm,
and that he wrote it towards the end of his life, after release
from the den of lions, how appropriately were the words of the
121st verse used by him :

146 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
" I have done judgment and justice."
By the book of Daniel we learn how, from early youth, he had
been advanced to the highest offices, but had experienced as
frequent removals therefrom, until brought into the reduced
condition in which he wrote this psalm.
In the discharge of his high offices he must have habitually
administered justice ; so that, if he had been guilty of oppression,
those that persecuted him in his adversity would have had some
fair excuse to plead ; but he could say, that he had " done judg
ment and justice." Nevertheless, he did not on this ground
claim protection from God, as a right ; for by the next verse we
see that he placed his hope of safety in the worthiness of that
Divine Person given by God to be the Advocate of His' faithful
servants. For he said in the 122nd verse —
" Be surety for Thy servant for good ; let not the proud oppress
me!" The responsibility assumed by a Surety or Bail is well under
stood by us, who have in our courts of law frequent use for the
office. But it is highly interesting to see how early in the history
of mankind this office came into use. In fact so early, that we
are led to conclude our first parents received the idea of it from
God Himself, by what they were taught, that the promised Seed
of the woman should do for deliverance of those, who relied on
His finished work, from all the consequences of the devil's fraud
and malice.
The first mention of the name for this service is in Gen. xliii. 9,
where Judah pledges himself to his father, that he will do all in
his power to bring back Benjamin safe from Egypt, if only his
father will allow him to take the lad down there.
" I will be surety for him," said Judah ; " of my hand shalt thou
require him ; if I bring him not unto thee and set him before
thee, then let me bear the blame for ever."
The book of Job is among the very earliest extant ; and in
chap, xxxiii. 14 — 30, are recorded three different methods taken
by God for awakenment of man out of deadness in trespasses
unrepented of to lively faith in God through Christ : and in the
second of these it is testified that when God has, by sickness,
brought an ungodly man to the brink of the grave — " If there be
a messenger with Him — an interpreter — one among a thousand
— to shew unto man His uprightness" — in other words, if con
currently with the infliction of sickness God hath in His provi
dence sent a minister of His way of reconciliation of sinners
unto Himself, to shew unto the sufferer God's uprightness in
chastising him — " Then He is gracious unto him, and saith (in
effect) Deliver him from going down to the pit ; that is, to ever
lasting death. I have found a ransom."
Now, ransom is that which the Surety should pay to God's

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 147
outraged justice, on behalf of the pardoned sinner whom the law
would require to make the amends.
Accordingly, in that passage Job implies that God Himself is
the provider of the Surety.
After the same manner the psalmist here asks God to be
" surety for His servant for good."
In the thirty-eighth of Isaiah is an instance of prayer in deep
distress, similar in all respects to this of the psalmist.
For Hezekiah, on being brought to the brink of the grave by
a sore disease, pleaded, as we read at verse 3 : " I have walked
before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart ; and have done
that which is good in Thy sight;" yet he did not rely on the
worthiness of this service for reprieve from the grave ; but, as we
see at verse 14, added —
" Mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed,
undertake for me" — the word being the same with that here
translated " be surety" — Hezekiah's meaning being, that for the
worthiness of the service which the sinner's Surety should in the
sinner's nature render unto God, God would grant His penitent
servant's petition for recovery.
If Daniel was, as we suppose, the author of this hundred and
nineteenth psalm, he had Hezekiah's example before him ; and
in imitation of him prayed that God would be surety for him ;
so that for his Surety's worthiness, though not for his own, he
might hope to obtain his desire. But in the next verse the
psalmist makes it plain that he did not unconditionally ask for
this bodily relief; for he said in verse 123 — ¦
" Mine eyes fail for Thy salvation, and for the word of Thy
righteousness." The psalmist hereby shewed himself aware of " salvation" and
" righteousness" being that for which the Surety was expressly
to be sent by God ; so that, consequently, this spiritual blessing
through Him might alone be asked for in an unqualified manner.
That this was the psalmist's meaning in using the words of
verse 123 will be evident when we observe how in Isa. li., at
verse 4, the God of Israel had promised by the mouth of that
prophet : —
" Hearken unto Me, My people, . . . for a law shall pro
ceed from Me ... . My righteousness is near . . . My
salvation is gone forth" . . . and again at verse 6 : " Mv
salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be
abolished ;" and again at verse 8 : " My righteousness shall be
for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation."
Observe how these words "salvation" and "righteousness" are
there repeated in this announcement of what the Suretv for
Israel, Whom God would send, should bring them.
There can be no doubt that the psalmist, in coupling together
these words." salvation" and " the word of God's righteousness "
L 2

148 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
after mention of God being " Surety for him," referred to
this Divine message by Isaiah, whose book was in Daniel's
hands. The psalmist in thus making acquaintance with salvation and
with the word of God's righteousness, (Micah vi. 5,) the prime
object of his prayer implied, that he left the other matter of his
bodily relief through the merits of his Divine Surety conditional,
according as God might know it to be best for him. (1 John v.
14, 15.)
In this respect therefore the psalmist furnishes us with a rule
for prayer against God's withdrawal of His help from us, in close
accordance with our Saviour's in His sermon on the Mount, when
He said, (Matt. vi. 33,) " Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness ; and all other things needful and profit
able for you, shall be added unto you."
In the next verse — the 124th — the psalmist humbly placed
himself at the disposal of his Divine Surety, saying,
" Deal with Thy servant according unto Thy mercy, and teach
me Thy statutes" —
. Such, for instance, as that mentioned in Isa. lxii. 5 — 7, declared
to be incumbent on all the congregation, but complied with by
"none," so to speak — that is, by hardly any— namely, "To call
upon Thy Name, and stir up oneself to lay hold on Thee."
" For Thou meetest him that gladly " doth this : and in this
way of Thine grantest him continuance in grace unto the end of
his pilgrimage.
In the next verse the psalmist reiterated this act of self-devo
tion: saying,
" I am Thy servant, give me understanding that I may know
Thy testimonies."
Since "understanding" implies perception of the authority
and majesty energising the Divine counsels, this petition is to
the effect that the "teaching" asked for in the preceding verse
should be followed up by bestowal of increase of God's holy fear ;
(See Isa. xi. 2, 3.)
since it is that lively faith, awakened by quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord, which disposes the soul to heed, while in
the psalmist's situation, such " testimonies " as that in Joshua i. 5,
which in Heb. xiii. 5, 6, is shewn to be available for all that
tremble, lest God should judicially leave them to their oppressors
inward or outward.
So far from doing that, "He will deliver them, if they call
upon Him in the day of trouble, and they shall glorify Him."
(Ps. iv. 15.)
In the words of St. Paul, therefore, in Heb. xm. 6, "we may
boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man or
any other creature can do unto me." (Eom. viii. 39.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 14&
One further plea for relief urged by the psalmist in that section
is as follows, at verse 126 —
"It is time for Thee Lord to work, for they have made void
Thy law."
Here, as it seems to me, the psalmist refers to the desolation
of his native land, where the service of God established by law
had been made void by overthrow of the city and temple.
Hence it was a time for the Lord to interpose by a direct
rescue of His servant, for the purpose of shewing that He
watched over the faithful remnant — (see Ezek. xiii. 9) — a
petition which in our time would rightly come into use under
such painful circumstances as those mentioned by St. Paul in
1 Thess. iv. 8.
But the mention of this dishonour done to God's law by its
enemies is with the psalmist an occasion for redoubling his pro
testations of reverence for it : saying in the last two verses of
this section,
" Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above
fine gold :
" Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts to be right, and I hate
every false way."
It is hoped that the unity of thought running through this
section has been made apparent ; and that though specially
applied to the psalmist, it is seen to be equally suited for us in
ordering our prayer under like circumstances unto God by Him
Whom we now know to be our Surety for good — even Jesus —
Whose name is a testimony unto us that He will save His people
from their sins — " sin shall not have dominion over them, for
they are not under law, but under grace." (Eom. vi. 14. Gal..
v. 18.) 16.
Judgment and justice have I done ; oppose1
Thyself to my oppressors ! For what's sued
Be surety to Thy servant, that my foes
May'nt crush me. Lo ! with failing eyes I've stood
And watch' d for Thy salvation and the good
Word of Thy righteousness ! 0 ! deal with me
According to Thy- mercy and instil
Thy statutes : I — Thy servant —crave of Thee
Quick understanding to discern with skill
1 Ver. 121. Compare Ps. xxxv. L

150 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Thy testimonies. Now is it a time
For Thee to work, Jehovah; for Thy law
They've banish'd ; I above gold, yea above
Gold Thy commandments love, and hunger for
Thy precepts : and all false ways I abhor.

¦ a
Seventeenth Section oe Psalm CXIX. — Pe.

AEGUMENT.
The leading idea in this seventeenth section appears to me
to be, that whereas the psalmist was mourning for the hiding of
God's face, he would patiently seek re-enlightenment therewith in
His written word.
The " testimonies" are those portions of Holy Scripture
wherein God bears witness concerning heavenly things. (I John
v. 7.)
Since neither the word " prophecy" nor that of " promise"
occurs in this psalm, wherein the sundry departments of God's
word are carefully distinguished and reckoned up, it seems to me
probable that the writer of this hundred and nineteenth psalm
included them both in the word " testimonies."
Unquestionably, whenever in Scripture God hath made known
things done by Him or to be done, which could not otherwise
have been known by man, such statements are His testimony.
The account of the Creation in the commencement of Genesis
is to be so called ; so too is His revealed purpose of recovering
fallen man through the promised Seed of the Woman to that rest
with Himself after this- life originally intended for man, as typi
fied in the gift of the Sabbath.
Well may the psalmist say, these testimonies are wonderful ;
that is, worthy of being contemplated with admiration —
'• Therefore doth my soul keep them,"
that i«, lay them up in memory : as in Luke ii. 51, it is written
that the Virgin Mary " kept all the sayings of the holy Child,
. and pondered them in her heart."
Again, another class of testimonies equally wonderful is of
those which might be called " promises." As where it is written
in Ps. xxxii. verse 8 —
" I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou
shalt go : I will guide thee with Mine eye."
Or again in the fiftieth psalm, verse 15 —

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 151
' " Call upon Me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify Me."
These testimonies or promises are " wonderful " for the con
descension they betoken on God's part towards us ; and conse
quently deserve to be before all things kept by the soul in re
membrance, that they may be meditated on.
By the next verse — the 130th — the psalmist shews how the
hearer, whose soul thus keeps God's testimonies is benefited.
" The entrance of God's word giveth light, it giveth under
standing unto the simple."
We have assumed* that the psalmist is in this 17th section de
scribing what he did, as a godly man, while he mourned for the
hiding of God's face.
We say then that a certain measure of light was to be hoped
for by him under his depression in the devout reception of God's
testimonies. He was not one that could be called " simple," for
he was a veteran ; but what he means is that there was no one so
simple but would get light by reading them.
In the Book of Proverbs, the " simple " are contrasted with
" the subtle ;" as in the 4th verse of the first chapter, where we
read, that the Book of Proverbs was written under the guidance
of the Holy Ghost —
" To 'give subtlety to the simple ; to the young man knowledge
and discretion."
Again, at the 15th verse of the 14th chapter, " the simple" are
contrasted with " the prudent," where we read, " The simple be
lieveth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going."
Now in-regard to the testimonies of God in Scripture, the be
ginner may safely " believe every word," and so too may he that
by long acquaintance with it has been made in the good sense
"subtle." He too may well be " simple " in regard to believing
every word thereof in a child-like and dependent frame of mind,
when he is mourning at the hiding of God's countenance.
For there is no better way than this of waiting for light and
understanding in the fear of the Lord ; although he may yet miss
" the lifting up of the Lord's countenance upon him, to put joy
and gladness into his heart, more than they have whose corn and
wine and oil are increased." (Ps. iv. 6, 7.)
In the next verse — the 131st — the psalmist, as it seems to me,
exemplifies for us in his own person the mental state of such
a simple enquirer into the wonders of God's testimonies, while
mourning in the way described ; whereby he shewed, (may we not
say ?) that notwithstanding his long experience he retained the
simplicity and ingenuousness of life's morning. " I onened my
mouth," said he, " and panted," or drew in my breath from the
quicker beating of the heart through emotion, " for I longed for
Thy commandments," that is, I wished to have "the power"
thereof infused into me.

152 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
For St. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. iv. 20, "The kingdom of God
is not in word but in power," — that is, comparatively, not so
much in the one as rather in the other — for this " power " denotes
to the waiting believer God's giving of it effect in his heart ;
whereby the desired evidence of the light of God's countenance
being lifted up on him is in a measure regained. After this pro
testation of the psalmist's endeavour by use of God's testimonies
to come out from under the gloom produced in him by the hiding
of God's countenance, he in the next four verses betakes himself
to prayer to the same end.
" Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as Thou usest
to do unto those that love Thy Name.
" Order my steps in Thy word, and let not any iniquity have
dominion in me.
" Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep Thy
precepts. " Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant, and teach me Thy
statutes." These four petitions have direct reference to what has been
assumed to be the leading idea in this section, connecting together
its eight verses.
This subject is concluded by the psalmist's protestation of his
grief at hearing and seeing the dishonour done to God's law :
saying, " Eivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not
Thy law."
As the psalmist is supposed by us to have been Daniel, and
that he was in the midst of the idolatries of Babylon, we may
well imagine, that look where he would, he saw and heard things
that grieved him, because contrary to the only true worship. But
even these would not so much move him as the declensions from
true doctrine, nay even excesses in blasphemy, that his back
sliding countrymen ran into, as testified in the books of Jeremiah
and Ezekiel. These latter may be readily conceived to have
drawn copious tears from his eyes ; for if we ourselves in this
favoured land, when only reading utterances by infidel lecturers
find tears starting to our eyes, how much more would they be
wrung from us were we actually hearing such blasphemies— such
for instance as the requisitionists of political meetings on Sundays
in the parks of the metropolis are guilty of, who hire two or three
companies to be in attendance, singing mock litanies ? It is the
lot of pious people at times to mourn the hiding of God's face
from them, and under such circumstances there is danger of their
drifting like inanimate logs on a stream ; whereas they ought to
stem the current setting in against them, with grace gained
through prayer in the name of Jesus,
For those, who will so do, there is made ready to hand, in this

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 153
section, a form of words which they should take and plead before
the Lord with other such out of their own heart, until He shall
have mercy on them.
It is the emphatic testimony of our Lord, as is to be seen in
Luke xviii. 1, that " men ought always to pray, and not to
faint." God's hiding of His face is seen in Scripture to have been often
intended to increase His believing people's earnestness, and to
quicken them in fervent prayer. (Matt. xv. 28.) _ .
Those that so wait on Him, and make His testimonies the
ground of their petitions, cannot fail of obtaining in His good
time all their desire.

17.
How wonderful Thy testimonies are !
My soul doth keep and ponder them ! What light
Thy words do by their very entrance bear !
Making the simple understand aright !
With lips apart through sheer emotion white —
The blood all mantling at the heart — I yearn'd
For Thy commandments ! With benign aspect
Look on me, as Thou did'st on Him that burn'd
Of old with love of Thy great Name ! Direct
My footsteps in Thy word. Arrest the sway
Of sin within me. From man's pow'r set free
Thy servant who Thy precepts will obey.
Oh shine on me propitious, and teach me
Thy statutes ! Tears gush freely from mine eyes
For grief at all them who Thy law despise.

Eighteenth Section oe Psalm CXIX. — Tzaddi.

AEGUMENT.
The leading idea in this section appears to me to be the
psalmist's resolve to cleave to the righteousness of God.
In the former section we supposed, that while mourning the
hiding of God's countenance, he set himself to recover re-illumi
nation therewith in medication on God's written word.

154 psalm the hundred and nineteenth.
And although he was refreshed in that study by perception
within him of the power accompanying that word, being not yet
fully re-established in the light of God's countenance, he in this
portion sets himself on seeking further refreshment by con
sciously cleaving unto the righteousness of God.
To shew how this idea is kept by the psalmist in view through
the eight verses of this section shall now be my endeavour ; after
which shall be added a few observations upon the righteousness
of God, what it is, and how it is to be received and used by us
according to the clear light touching it vouchsafed to the Chris
tian Church in the New Testament.
The psalmist's words in verse 137 —
" Eighteous art Thou, 0 Lord, and upright are Thy judgments,"
may be taken to be a pious indication on his part of God's deal
ing with him ; while delaying to lift up on him, as before, the light
of His countenance.
He utters it in the persuasion of God having some good pur
pose towards him in prolonging his affliction : he then approaches
the subject which has been assumed to have been held before his
mind throughout this section, namely, the righteousness of God.
His words in the 138th verse are —
" Thy testimonies which Thou, hast commanded are righteous
and very faithful."
" Testimonies" are those portions of God's word wherein He
bears witness to things that He has done or will do, or "has
commanded," which could not otherwise have been known.
That God will count a man's faith in His promise unto him for
righteousness is unquestionably one of these testimonies, that
He hath commanded ; and is, according to our assumption, that
one here specially referred to.
The psalmist then proceeds to say in verse 139 —
" My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have for
gotten Thy words."
Now that the psalmist's enemies should have " forgotten" His
words implies that they once knew and held them : consequently
these " enemies" could not be heathens, but renegades — of the
psalmist's own nation. On the assumption that the psalmist was
Daniel, whom we know to have experienced great vicissitudes
during his eventful life, we suppose, that while he was in high
office his enemies were " princes," verse 23 : but, that at the
time of his writing this psalm, or here in this part of his psalm
describing his state when thrust down in his old age into poverty,
his backsliding — nay blaspheming — fellow-captives taunted him
and exalted themselves above him.
Their tenets aud ways of living may be gathered from Jere-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 155
miah's notices of them in chap. xxix. 20 — 32, and Ezekiel's in
chap. iii. 5 — 9 and xiii. 3—23.
In vain did the psalmist spend his strength with an energy too
exhausting for one of his years, in combatting their errors — their
will was depraved, and they would not receive correction.
It is possible that the psalmist more especially remonstrated
with the more decorous portion of his fellow-captives, whom
Ezekiel in chap. xiv. 3 describes as making a profession of desire
to be instructed by God's true prophet, but without any intention
of doing what he told them — which would literally be " forgetting
God's words."
That mention of the good words forgotten the psalmist makes
the. occasion of pursuing the thread of his reasoning in this sec
tion ; saying at verse 140 —
" Thy word is very pure ; therefore Thy servant loveth it."
The original word here used by the psalmist differs from that
in the preceding verse similarly translated.
For this word here used is the same which in verse 123 had
been expressed in full, as " The word of God's righteousness,"
which, it has been contended throughout this comment, is the
sense which ought to be put on it wherever it occurs in this
psalm. What the psalmist here saith of it is apparently quoted from
Ps. xii. 6, where it is clear that to be " pure" means to be puri
fied, as "silver tried seven times in the fire:" that is to say;
whether it be "forgotten" (as was the case with the psalmist's
enemies) or slighted and scouted, as in Ps. xiv. 6, by self-righte
ous zealots seeking to justify themselves before God by their
performance of His law in its letter, ceremonial and moral ;
the psalmist could say from experience that the word of God's
righteousness could stand every trial, and be as free from flaw,
as that silver purified seven times from dross.
In this expressive way the psalmist sets forth the comfort
brought to a penitent believer in God's promise on this head, by
having for a free gift such a dress of honour — such a wedding
garment — given one by God, wherein to appear before Him as
an accepted guest. (2 Kings x. 22.) There is no flaw in it.
Whoso is seeking of God the lifting up of His countenance
upon him (Numb. vi. 26), as we suppose the psalmist to have
been, gratefully records the happiness he feels on this account,
because of its purity • whereas his own righteousness by com.
parison is as filthy rags — (Isa. lxiv. 6) — •" therefore it is he loves
it." The psalmist then proceeds in the next verse — the 141st — to
shew, that he did not, like those " enemies" of his, " forget" or
ignore the obligation — that gift of righteousness laid upon the
wearer, to use it in doing God's bidding.

156 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
" I am small," said he, '' and despised" — being fallen from my
worldly eminence into a low estate in which even my fellow-
captives set me at naught — " yet do I not forget Thy precepts."
The psalmist here refers to a well-known fact in society ;
namely, that those who take up religion in order " to be seen of
men," make much of what falls under men's observation ; and
if by reason of official dignity in a prominent position hold
themselves bound to rigid observance of its rules in regard to
public worship, fasting, almsgiving, and so forth ; but if fallen
into so low a condition as to be unable to gain men's notice and
praise ; then letting it drop, as "without its reward." (Matt. vi.
1-7.) In emphatic contrast herewith the psalmist saith, that " small"
as he is and " despised," yet being a believer in the word of
God's righteousness, and pressing the honoured raiment to his
bosom, he would use it, (and the acceptance with God which it
conferred, while imputed to one in return for one's faith,) in
" doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God."
(Micah vi. 8.)^
The " precepts" are those portions of God's word which con
cern men's private conversation and inner life ; in most of which
it is impossible for one man to know whether or not another
observes them : wherein, consequently, one with the direct intent
of his mind serves the All-seeing God, and seeks to be guided by
His eye. (Ps. xxxii. 8.)
This is the worthy use of "The righteousness of God," whereto
the psalmist's enemies " forgot" to put it. (Ezek. xxxiii. 30 — 33.)
The psalmist then fully describes what in verse 140 he had in
brief, when quoting from Ps. xii. 6, called " God's word :" saying,
" Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law
—truth." We suppose the psalmist to have here had before his mind Isa.
li. 4, where God by that prophet testifies that " a law shall pro
ceed from Him" — consequently different, as Justin Martyr
argues, from that which God had given ages before by Moses.
That law is, as Justin observes, the one sent down from heaven
from God by the Lord Jesus after His Ascension upon His
apostles : of which St. Paul speaks in Eom. viii. 2, saying, " The
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from
the law of sin and of death."
Now the law of the Spirit of life is the infusion of Christ's
Spirit— the Spirit of adoption— given by the Father, for only
asking, to him who wears the righteousness of Christ by faith, as
his wedding garment.
This renewal by the Holy Ghost is a "law" or system of
operation by God in Christ, different from that given by God to
Moses ; which was of letter, however " pure and just and good ;"
so that it condemned more surely the man that being unrenewed

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 157
remained subject to original sin in his members derived from his
fallen first parents : and this original sin because of its systematic
operation, by means of sinful lusts in warring against the soul
(1 Pet. ii. 11) is called by St. Paul in Eom. viii. 2 "the law of
sin and of death," as St. Chrysostom shews in loco.
Hence the psalmist in saying " Thy law is truth" means that
it is so in contrast with that of Moses.
This law, to be obtained for only asking, by him who through
faith wears the righteousness of God, is " a power" — an energis
ing " operation of God" (Col. ii. 12) — in the same sense wherein
Jesus calls Himself " the truth" or reality of the promise or
profession. (John xiv. 6.)
The psalmist then reverts to the lack of comfort in regard to
the lifting up of God's countenance upon him, for which he still
mourned ; but added that " God's commandments," such as that
in Isa. 1. 10, 11, " were his delights." Subjoining in verse 144 —
" The righteousness of Thy testimonies — that is, whereto Thou
testifiest in Thy word — is not merely for our use by faith in this
life, but shall be our clothing for ever." (Isa. xiv. 23—25 ; li. 6.
Jer. xxiii. 5—8. Dan. xi. 7. 2 Thess. i. 10.)
The latter clause of this verse —
" Give me understanding and I shall live,"
is a prayer for the fulness of the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit,
according to Isa. xi. 2, 3. With this, the psalmist saith, he should
endure as long as the righteousness wherein he was glorvinar.
(John xiv. 19.) s j s
We who live at this advanced stage of the Church's progress
know that the righteousness of God, which St. Paul in Eom. iii.
and iv. and Gal. iii. shews to have been from the time of man's
fall the appointed way of a believer's justification before God, is
that fulfilment of the law moral and ceremonial wrought by
Jesus in the days of His mortal flesh, made ours for pur faith,
when the Holy Ghost buries us forthwith into His sacrificial
death (John v. 24) ; whereupon, as grafts knit to their stocks, we
are joined unto Christ, and have all that He is, and has suffered
and earned, made ours in God's sight— in very deed ; as testified
in 2 Cor. v. 21 : so that the justice of God finds no flaw in us as
Christ's members — forbearing to charge our defects upon us ;
beeause of Jesus, as a Man, having while on earth upheld it to
perfection — loving God with all His heart every moment of
His natural life as required by the first table, and His neighbour
as Himself, according to the second ; and then yielded Himself
up to be in the providence of God liberator of us from the law's
demand of our lives, by the surrender of His own.
But whereas Satan hurried men to great excess, as Chrysostom
shews, in thus procuring death under the law for Him Who had
done no sin, God retributively gave His Son for a recompence in

158 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
the new and spiritual life, the souls and bodies of His elect which
in strictness of the letter had for their sin been according to law
Satan's lawful captives ; that His Son might see of the travail of
His soul till He should be satisfied! (Isa. liii. 11.)
18.
Righteous art Thou, Jehovah, and upright
Thy judgments ; so the testimonies too
Thou hast commanded are in good men's sight
Righteous and faithful ; but when from their view
Mine en'mies let them slip, zeal warm and true
Consum'd me ! fully is Thy saying tried,
Wherefore Thy servant loveth it ! Though small
I am and slighted, ne'er set I aside
Thy precepts. Lo ! a righteousness for all
Forth-coming ages is Thy righteousness !
And Thy law, truth ! On me tho' trouble seize
And anguish, Thy commandments I possess
In recollection, and by them find ease.
For ever lives Thy righteousness ! 0 give
Me understanding and I too shall live.

Nineteenth Section of Psalm CXIX. — Koph.

AEGUMENT.
It was- shewn in the two sections last preceding how the
psalmist would have a faithful man, situated as he was, seek to
recover the light of God's countenance by devout meditation on
Holy Scripture, and steadfast choice of God's righteousness.
Now, therefore, in this nineteenth section he resumes prayer,
which may be reckoned the leading idea of this section. Three
things he in express terms asked for : —
in the 145th verse, to be heard ;
in the 146th, to be saved ;
in the 149th, to be quickened.
These mercies he entreated God to vouchsafe, not that he
might live after his own pleasure, but that he might the better
keep God's statutes and God's testimonies.
He pleads in the 147th and 148th how his earnestness was
testified by rising up to prayer before break of day, and by
securing a season for meditation before the night watches ; which

psalm the hundred and nineteenth. 159
with the Jews were/t4»ee in number, of fotti?" hours each, from
sunset to sunrise. (Mark xiii. 35.)
In the 149th he makes God's loving-kindness a ground of
encouragement in prayer, adding, in verse 150, mention of danger
being near ; which he balanced in his mind by glorifying God in
the 151st verse for being likewise near ; whereof God's command
ments and testimonies gave him warrant for being persuaded.
Such are the contents of this nineteenth section, and they
seem to me descriptive of the condition which a ripe Christian
abides in while on earth. He can never get beyond the need of
fervent prayer to be " heard ;" " saved," or kept in the state of
salvation as a member of " Christ's mystical body ;" and " quick
ened," or renewed, day by day with a measure of Christ's Spirit.
Earnestness in prayer, as evidenced by employing therein the
first thoughts on waking, and by meditation to that end at even,
will be found, I doubt not, by the pious Christian to mark his
habit of mind more and more as he draws toward the end of his
earthly course.
Mention also of the loving-kindness of God will, it is to be
expected, be recorded more and more tenderly as he becomes
the more keenly aware of his dependence on it ; and the promise
of God to be near them that call upon Him will be prized the
more, while he grieves at seeing how his inward foes are no more
to be driven utterly out of him than are his flesh and bone.
To effectual fervent prayer it is indispensable that a worshipper
should be able to say, as doth the psalmist in this 145th verse—
" I cried with my whole heart" : —
asking God, Who seeth in secret, to bear witness that one doth so.
The difficulty found by a faithful man in doing this explains to
him the reason of his being left with various trials, which threaten
to overpower him. Were it not for the sense of frailness which
is salutarily produced in him by these trials, he would forget his
need of God's sustaining grace.
Of this St. Paul received explicit assurance, as is written in
2 Cor. xii. 7, where we read, " Lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet
me ; lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I
besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And
He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee : for My strength
is made perfect in weakness ; most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me "
At verses 145, 146, 147, 148, we see extolled,
the keeping of God's statutes —
the keeping of His testimonies — >
the practice of prayer at first awaking —
the practice of meditation on God's word before close of the
eyes at night in sleep —

160 psalm the hundred and nineteenth.
as being the habits of a ripe servant of God, such as the psalmist
was. But for all that our reason and conscience consent hereto, and
endorse this counsel, nothing but the dread of mischief from
inward foes will ordinarily drive one to make the course of con
duct, so commended, his own.
If what the testimonies of God say on this point could by His
grace avail to make us prayerful,.after the manner here enjoined,
then might we expect to be ordinarily spared more summary
chastisements. If our flesh trembles at thought of God in faithfulness laying
on us summary judgments, we ought to admonish ourselves about
attention to such testimonies concerning His service, as that in
this nineteenth section of the psalm before us. We ought to
dutifully plead before Him, that His words alone shall suffice to
make us seek Him in the use of His statutes and testimonies.
Mere bodily acts in compliance with these counsels have a
constantly decreasing effect, till they are hardly noticed, and
forgotten the minute they are over. I mean the mere formal
recital of prayers at first awaking or reading of a portion of
Scripture before going to bed, though seemingly pious, loses its
effect on the user ; as is proved by our forgetting whether we
have wound up our watch a few minutes after having done so ;
but acts of the mind the oftener they are repeated gain the
greater power over one, till they control the whole man. Only
that prayer, therefore, at waking (James i. 24, 25), and that
reading before going to bed, which is done with faith, and with
the whole heart, and with appeal to God, Who seeth in secret —
such as the psalmist uses in the first verse of this section — has
an influence for good upon the user of the counsel herein.
Where, however, these services to God are done with the mind
and heart, it is a comfort to know that they become the easier
the longer they are continued in ; and they bring the soul a
sweet consolation of their own in the performance of them, which,
when once arrived at, abundantly rewards the worshipper for ali
his weary controversy with himself; and is to be regarded by
him as work wrought in Christ, which shall not disappoint the
doer. For in Christ God has laid the foundation, on which whoso
ever buildeth, shall without fail ree'eive the fruit of his labour, in
the day when God judgeth the secrets of men according to
Christ's Gospel. (1 Cor. iii. 11—15, and iv. 3—5 ; Eom. ii. 16.)
For the psalmist unquestionably referred to God's promise
concerning Christ (Isa. xxviii. 16 ; Ps. lxxxvii. 5), when saying
in the last verse of this section —
" Concerning Thy testimonies I have known of old, that Thou
hast founded them for ever."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 161
19.
With my whole heart I cried to Thee,
Jehovah ! I'll Thy statutes choose !
To Thee I cried, 0 save Thou me,
And I'll Thy testimonies use.
Before there 'd melted the morn's dews
I'd ris'n to pray, and in Thy word
I hop'd; and ere night's watches to dilate
In thought upon Thy saying I preferr'd.
After thy loving-kindness hear
My voice, Jehovah ! quicken me,
According to Thy judgment ! they draw near
That follow after mischief — far they be
From Thy law ! but the while Thou'st near me staid.
Lo ! Thy commandment's truth ! Of old, I said,
Thy testimonies Thou'st established.

Twentieth Section op Psalm CXIX. — Resh.

ARGUMENT.
In sundry places of the Old Testament God is spoken of as
daily exercising the office of a judge : as, for instance, where it
is said in Ps. lxxxii. 1, " God standeth in the congregation of
princes. He is a Judge among gods."
Also in Ps. xliv. 20 we read : " If we have forgotten the name
of our God, or stretched out our hands to any strange god, shall
not God search this out ? for he knoweth the secrets of the
heart." _
Also in Jer. xvii. 10 we read : " I the Lord search the heart,
I try the reins ; even to give every man according, to his ways,
and according to the fruit of his doings."
In this sense, then, it seems to me that the judgment of God
is appealed to throughout this section.
Hence the psalmist's supplication in this section unto his
Judge may be taken for an intentional exemplification of what
the devout servant of God needs to do ; and consequently is the
leading doctrine linking together and giving unity to the eight
verses of this section.
In the 153rd verse the psalmist saith unto God, as Judge of
the use whereto he is putting the means of grace within his
M

162. PSALM the hundred and nineteenth.
reach, " Consider mine affliction, and deliver me ; for I do not
forget Thy law."
Now, in the 142nd verse, where this word " law" occurs, it has,
as we trust, been conclusively shewn that by it is meant not that
code delivered to Moses, but that promised in Isa. li. 4 ; and
what strengthens me in coming to this conclusion is the petition
in the 154th verse :
" Plead my cause and deliver — or rather ' redeem' — me ; quicken
me, according to Thy word, or saying."
For here is a direct reference to that doctrine of God acting
as Judge in the congregation of His people day by day ; whence
it follows that man is required to be, day by day, justified before
Him, in His court of law as it were : to which end it was under
stood, at least as far back as the delivery of the Levitical law,
that God would give the penitent worshipper, One to plead his
cause. Furthermore, by Deut. xix. 1 — 12, the institution of the cities
of refuge, and the right given the nearest male relative of one
slain to be avenger of his blood, were intended to foreshow to
what extent the promised Seed of the woman, Who should be
God as well as man, should as man's nearest of kin be Avenger
of his blood upon Satan his murderer ; (John viii. 44.) even to
the extent of laying down His own life, as man, for the ransom
of man.
Similar mention of services to be fulfilled by the Divine
Advocate given man by God to plead their cause in the Court of
Heaven, occur in sundry places of the Psalms (e.g. in Ps, lxix. 18,
and lxxii. 14, 15.)
But more ancient parts of Scripture, as Job xix. 25, xxiii. 6, 7,
xxxiii. 24, shew that in patriarchal times God's children had the
comfort of knowing that He had given them One in union with
Himself to plead their cause before Him daily, and redeem them.
And they were left to conclude, that through the merits of
His intercession on their behalf, when laying before God then-
prayer, they should obtain, on asking for it, a measure of the
Spirit of God for their renewal from day to day (Gen. vi. 3 ;
Ps. li. 10 ; 2 Peter i. 4), after the same manner in which the
psalmist here doth this.
For the quickening, which he solicits, is that by renewal with
the Spirit of God (Isa. xliv. 3), which the psalmist significantly
entreats God to grant " according to His word"— the original
term denoting, that he hereby meant God's " saymg " by His
prophet— called in full at verse 123 "the word of His righteous
ness." (John viii. 51.)
Then in verse 155 he significantly added, " Salvation is far
from the wicked, for they seek not Thy statutes."
The occurrence here of the word 'salvation' in connection
with what, in the preceding verse, is spoken on the subject of

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENFH. 163
man's justification in the court of God's judgment, confirms me
in the persuasion, that ' law ' in verse 153 is to be taken for
" the system of operation carried on in one that is renewed by
the Spirit of life." (Eom. viii. 2.)
For in Isa. li. 4, 5, the terms 'law,' 'judgment,' 'righteous
ness,' and ' salvation,' stand in juxtaposition, as being parts of
God's mode of procedure in His court of judgment.
The " wicked man," who for the time present is judged by God
to be such, is one who has relinquished use of the means of grace
through impenitence.
Such an one is far from the ' salvation ' of God, which the
psalmist was then seeking in the use of God's statutes ; as is to
be gathered from the 153rd and 154th verses ; and it is sufficient
for his condemnation at that present by his Judge, to say that
" he doth not seek God's statutes." For " to leave undone the
things we ought to have done" of itself procures condemnation
(James iv. 17), which may become more and more aggravated, by
" doing those things which we ought not to have done."
_ For where a man is " far from salvation" there is no health in
him. Health and cure (Jer. xxxiii. 6) are God's gift by bestowal of
His Spirit, which His statute requires us to seek of Him with the
help of that God-man given us to be our Advocate.
In the 156th verse the psalmist, in continuation of his suppli
cation unto his Judge, thankfully records how great are God's
tender mercies felt by him to be ; and he seems to me to pray,
that God out of these merciful considerations, in viewing his
affliction, would " quicken him according to His judgments " or
awards, from day to day, as Supreme Judge of the worshipper in
whose behalf the appointed Advocate is pleading. (Ps. cxliii 2 •
Heb. vi. 17, 18.)
He then urges his need of speedy help ; saying—
" Many are my persecutors and mine enemies, yet I do not
decline from Thy testimonies."
By which we may understand him to mean, that conscious sins
of infirmity (Ps. lxv. 3) would strike him dumb, were it not that
he remembered how God had testified to this effect : " Call upon
Me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify Me." (Ps. 1. 15.)
In the 158th verse the psalmist said —
" I beheld the transgressors, or covenant-breakers ; and was
grieved" — or turned away from the sight with emotion —
" because they kept not Thy word" or saying— the word of Thy
righteousness. These I take to be the same class as were above called
" wicked ;" who, being fellow-countrymen of the psalmist, had all
been brought by circumcision within the bond of the covenant of
M 2

164 PSALM the hundred and nineteenth.
their God : many of them also, after approval by their doctors,
having been pronounced " sons of the Commandment."
Nevertheless, they kept not the saying of God by His pro
phets — kept it not in their heart to ponder on it — such a saying,
to wit, as that in Isa. li. 4.
Here again it is to be observed that to " leave undone what
one ought to have done," suffices to make him who is in covenant
with God, a breaker thereof — one to be grieved for, and turned
away from with emotion (2 Tim. iii. 5 ; Titus iii. 10, 11), if
persistently impenitent.
In contrast herewith the psalmist protests before his Judge,
how different is his own mind, as a seeker of His statutes.
" Consider," are his words at verse 159, " how I love Thy
precepts. " Quicken me, O Lord, according to Thy loving kindness."
" The precepts" being those parts of God's written word which
concern each individual, and regulate his inner life : love of
these (which is to be only seen of God) attests the psalmist's
faithful keeping of God's covenant.
In verse 160 the psalmist glorifies God as His Supreme Judge,
by saying, " Thy word at outset was truth ; and every one of Thy
judgments to eternity" (is so likewise).
The occasional reference to God's judgments throughout these
eight verses of the 20th section will, I trust, be held by the
reader to warrant my assumption in the first instance that the
thought of God being the believer's Judge, Who scrutinises what
use he makes of the means of grace at his disposal, is the leading
doctrine dwelt on herein.
According to this view prominence is here given to a doctrine
which, when grasped by the mind, exercises a salutary discipline
over us, who are in covenant with God by baptism.
Very distinct are the notifications furnished by our Saviour, of
God being from day to day the Judge, before Whom we " stand"
by faith. (1 Cor. x. 12, 13.)
One important passage to this effect is in Matt. v. 25, where the
Judge must be God ; for none but He has such " a prison as none
shall come out from, till he shall have paid the uttermost farthing."
Also in John viii. 50, where Jesus saith, " I seek not Mine
own glory ; there is ONE that seeketh and judgeth."
His Father is shewn to be, day by day, Observer of the use
whereto the members of Christ's mystical body put the means of
grace within their reach.
But in John xv. 1. 2, is a very precise testimony on this point,
where He saith, " I am the true Tine, and My Pather is the
Husbandman. " Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit. He taketh away :
and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth, that it may
bring forth more fruit."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 165
St. Peter too, in 1st Ep. ch. i. 17th verse, very clearly speaks
of the Father as day by day exercising the office which the
psalmist, in this twentieth section, ascribes to Him, when he
wrote —
" If ye call upon the Father, Who without respect of persons
judgeth according to every man's work ;
" Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, knowing that
ye have not been redeemed with corruptible things as silver and
gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb
without blemish and without spot."
Here is fully revealed that doctrine concerning what John
calls our Propitiation and our Advocate (1 Ep. ii. 2), which the
psalmist referred to when saying —
" Plead Thou my cause, and redeem me."
Let us then, all, daily " study to shew ourselves approved unto
God," solemnly considering that " not to seek God's statutes" and
" not to keep His saying" is to leave undone that which we
ought to have done ; and this is to be " wicked " and to be a
" transgressor" or breaker of the baptismal covenant.
Like the psalmist, let us seek to be at the time present clean
through Christ's word (John xv. 3) ; that so we may acceptably
ask through Him, as our Propitiation and Advocate after the
manner of the psalmist, that the Supreme Judge would " quicken
us" with a measure of the Spirit of Christ,
According to His " saying,"
According to His "judgments,"
According to His " loving kindness."
20.
See mine affliction, and deliv'rance give !
Ne'er would I of Thy law forgetful be.
Plead Thou my cause and me from death retrieve,
According to Thy saying quicken me !
Salvation's from the wicked known to be
Far off, for they Thy statutes do not prize.
Vast are Thy tender mercies ! quicken me
According to Thy judgments ! Enemies
Be many, but Thy testimonies lo !
I cherish ! Cov'nant-breakers in mine eyes
Are to be shudder' d at, Thy saying who
Keep not. My love unto Thy precepts see!
And of Thy loving-kindness quicken me,
Jehovah ! As at first Thy word was truth,
So shall be every judgment of Thy mouth.

166 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Twenty-first Section of Psalm CXIX. — Schin.
AEGUMENT.
As the last four portions have been shewn to describe what
service the devout believer, thoroughly furnished unto every good
work, is while in this life called to render in worship of God ; so,
as it seems to me, do these two remaining ones.
Throughout this twenty-first section is shewn, as it seems to
me, what it is to walk with God, as did Enoch.
Whoso doth this, must hearken unto God's word ; and in every
one of the eight verses composing this twenty-first section, the
psalmist protests that he doth this.
Here then, as it seems to me, is to be discerned the leading
doctrine in this section — what it is to walk with God.
First of all, where the psalmist saith at verse 161 —
" Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart
standeth in awe of Thy word."
I suppose Daniel to speak retrospectively, being then at the
close of life, and to assert that so salutary an influence had the
word of God over him from early days, so authoritatively did
it weigh upon his mind, that when the mighty princes of an
absolute sovereign, as that in Babylon, threatened him with the
monarch's sorest displeasure, unless Daniel complied with their
will, " He feared not the wrath of the king ; for he endured, as
seeing Him Who is invisible." (Heb. xi. 27.)
Agreeably herewith it is written in Prov. xxix. 25, " The fear
of man bringeth a snare : but whoso putteth his trust in the
Lord shall be safe."
Many exemplifications of this testimony occur in the history
of the Israelites. As for instance in Exod. xxxiv. 12, where God
said, " Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land whither thou goest ; lest it be for a snare
in the midst of thee.
" But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut
down their groves.
" For thou shalt worship no other god : For the Lord, whose
name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
The subsequent history of the Israelites shews that through
fear of the Canaanites they did what God had here forbidden,
and were ensnared into worship of idols to their own ruin by loss
of God's favour. A precisely similar trial was in the providence
of God brought upon Daniel, but under what different circum
stances ! Instead of being of a victorious nation and one domi
nant in the land, (as was the case with the Israelites in Joshua's

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 167
day, and subsequently,) Daniel was of the same people when
driven from their own land into captivity, and subject to the sway
of princes bent on exacting from him homage to their idols.
Daniel could look back through a long life passed under this
ordeal, and say that even when princes were in wrath standing
over him with menacing looks, their words had not the power
over him which God's written word had : awe of which was in
his heart.
These instances wherein Daniel had so often driven out the
fear of princes by the superior fear for God according to His
word, deserved to be remembered by him as long as he lived and
to be commemorated before God.
In the same spirit the psalmist went on to say in verse 162 —
" I rejoice at Thy word," — Thy saying—" the word of Thy
righteousness," verse 123— "as one that findeth great spoil."
Here, as it seems to me, he testified that increased insight
granted him into God's word, in, recompense for his continuance
in it, bred in his heart a joy, because of communion thereby with
God, which might be compared to that which soldiers on the battle
field feel, when winning great spoil.
In the next verse — the 163rd — in continuation of the same
subject, he saith —
" I hate and abhor lying ; but Thy law do I love " —
where I take 'lying' to mean disappointing of God by
double-dealing through fear of man, as in Isa. lxiii. 8, and Jer.
xv. 18.
In the next verse — the 164th — he adds on the same subject —
" Seven times a day" — a definite number for an indefinite —
" do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments."
Here ' judgments' are, as it seems to me, to be understood,
according to the explanation in the preceding section, to mean
God's awards upon scrutiny into His people's faithfulness, or
otherwise, in use of the means of grace within their reach ; all of
which are to be learnt by means of His word.
Then in the 165th verse he adds —
" Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall
offend them," or literally — "there is in them no stumbling-
block." This I am inclined to understand in the same way in which
John, in the 2nd chapter of his 1st Epistle, at verse 10, saith,
"He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is
none occasion of stumbling in him." _
That is, by reason of his love for his brother, so far as he is
concerned, his brother is without occasion to take offence at him
or be uncharitable.

168 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
This meaning of the phrase, " there is no stumbling-block in
him," appears to me borne out by the words of St. Paul in Heb.
xii. 12, 13 : " Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the
feeble knees. And make straight paths with your feet, lest that
which is crooked be turned out of the way, but let it rather be
healed." In Luther's German Bible occurs this translation, " make
straight paths with your feet," instead of "for your feet."
The Apostle apparently refers to the custom which is still to
be seen in Eastern countries observed by travellers on foot, where
the habits are so unvarying.
At this day Hindoos, if having to walk over a field, will, as I
am informed, be seen to walk in a long line, one after another —
the following ones scrupulously planting their steps in the foot
prints of him who precedes — a custom described by us as ' Indian
file.' In this sense then it seems to me the Apostle Paul supposed
that the more eminent Christian should be careful to set a good
example before his weaker brethren.
A vacillating example on the part of those in honour for
knowledge of God's word will be a source of vacillation and
stumbling to feeble souls, who at a distance far behind are toiling
after them, and trying to keep God's word. (Gal. ii. 11.)
Hence our Lord, as it seems to me, said in Matt, xviii. 6, 7 —
" Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in
Me, it were better for him, that a mill-stone were hanged about
his neck ; and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
" Woe unto the world because of offences ! for it must needs
be that offences come : but woe unto him by whom the offence
cometh." Those leaders who, like the psalmist, under trying circum
stances abide in the fear of God's word, out of love for Him,
have great peace themselves; and by their decided course
strengthen the hearts of sincere but feeble followers, who nar
rowly observe their behaviour, and appreciate in them that fear
of God by obedience to His word, which casteth out the fear of
man. In the 166th ver.se, the psalmist continues, with reference to
the same line of conduct —
" Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation, and done Thy com
mandments." By " salvation'' the psalmist here meant final rest with God
after this painful life should be ended; wherefore he implies,
that he would rather not " accept deliverance" in regard of sal
vation for the body (Heb. xi. 35), in the hope of a "better resur
rection ;" than risk '' the destruction of soul and body in hell."
(Matt. x. 28.) But his protestation that he had done God's com-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH, , 169
mandments is, as Bishop Horne observes, not pleaded as the
ground of his hope, but as evidence of the sincerity wherewith
he trusted in God's saying concerning righteousness. For
that sort of belief therein, which is unaccompanied by obedience
to God's word is a dead faith : whereas faith, to be pleasing to
God, must work by love ; as the psalmist in the 167th verse
testifies that his did ; saying —
" My soul hath kept Thy testimonies, and loved them exceed
ingly." Adding, in verse 168 —
" I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies, for all my
ways are before Thee."
That is, I walk before Thee as Thou badest Abraham to do
and to be perfect (Gen. xvii. 1) ; as David too in Ps. xvi. 8,
testified ; saying, " I have set the Lord alway before me : He is
on my right hand ; I shall not be moved."
Such seems to me to be the manner of life to be maintained
by everyone who is " perfect or thoroughly furnished unto every
good work :" and the enunciation of this part of a perfect man's
walk and conversation forms, as it seems to me, the main subject
for consideration in this section. 21.
Me princes' wrath has causelessly assail'd,
But of Thy word hath my heart greater awe ;
While I, as one that finds great spoil, have hail'd
With joy Thy saying ! Lying, I abhor
And execrate ; but truly love Thy law.
Seven times a day do I to Thee address
My praise for all Thy righteous judgments. Great
The peace which them, that love Thy law, doth bless.
No stumbling-block for others they create !
For Thy salvation, 0 Jehovah, I
Have hop'd, and Thy commandments done ! My soul
Thy testimonies, which exceedingly
I love, hath kept. Thy precepts did control
My heart, as did Thy testimonies too :
For all my ways are chosen in Thy view.

170 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Twenty-second Section of Psalm CXIX. — Thau.

AEGUMENT.
An examination of the eight verses composing this twenty-
second section in their order will, I trust, prove that the same
method is to be traced in its structure as in that of those
preceding. In the 169th verse, where we read —
" Let my cry come near before Thee, 0 Lord :
Give me understanding according to Thy word,"
it is to be observed, that the meaning of the word " understand
ing," explained " according to God's word," is to be determined
by viewing it in connection with " knowledge " and " wisdom,"
as in Prov. ii. 6, and Col. i. 9.
" Knowledge " consists in the mental acquisition of God's re
vealed truth.
"Wisdom," in the employment of it for regulation of the
inner man.
" Understanding," in a perception of the weight and authority
belonging to that revealed word.
God alone can impress upon the soul this reverential sense
of the claim He hath upon man's profoundest submission.
This gift, when obtained, would manifestly intensify the
earnestness of the psalmist's cry.
In the 170th verse the psalmist saith —
" Let my supplication come before Thee ; deliver me according
to Thy word."
Here " supplication " is to be distinguished from the " cry " in
the preceding verse, by observing, that this latter is the lifting up
of the voice for the purpose of gaining attention ; but the former
is entreaty of a special kind ; that is, for good things, whether
for body or soul. The original term, here translated " word,"
is different from that so rendered in the preceding verse ; and is
that which in former instances throughout this psalm has been,
for distinction-sake, uniformly rendered by " saying."
Already in this psalm has occurred ample evidence of this
" saying " being the message which the prophets of God were
commissioned to bear concerning justification of a penitent
worshipper, by faith in God's promise concerning Christ ; called
in verse 123 "the word of Thy righteousness." Deliverance,
according to this " word," would mean deliverance through God
Himself, as stated in verse 154, " pleading " the psalmist's " cause
and redeeming him."
In the 171st verse the psalmist continues —

psalm the hundred and nineteenth. 171
" My lips shall utter praise, when Thou hast taught me Thy
statutes." It might surprise some to find one so experienced as the
psalmist in the worship of God saying this : but in truth God's
people are in this school learners to the end of their pilgrimage.
The " statutes " have been throughout this psalm explained to
mean those parts of God's written word in which rules are given
for observance by His people in their collective capacity, as a
congregation. That statute more particularly referred to in this place may
be taken to be, the way for penitent worshippers unto God, that
should be opened through Christ at His coming. (John xiv. 6.)
This, in the psalmist's time, and long after, continued a hidden
thing — a mystery — as Peter testifies in 1 Epist. i. 10 — 12 ; until
the counsel of God on this head was made manifest by. Christ's
gospel. (Heb. ix. 8—28.)
The psalmist therefore might well pray to be taught of God
more and more therein, although "thoroughly furnished unto
every good work."
In Isa. lvii. 19 it had been written, " I create the fruit of the
lips ; " and in Ps. li. 15, " 0 Lord, open Thou my lips, and my
mouth shall shew forth Thy praise."
The psalmist doubtless bore these testimonies in mind when
inditing verses 171, 172, knowing that God infuses into a believer,
for Christ's sake, upon his asking for it, a measure of the Spirit
of Christ (Ps. li. 10), which rises to the lips in thanksgivings,
E raises, supplications, intercessions — thereby becoming " the
•uit of the lips."
In the 172nd verse he adds —
" My tongue " (which is man's " glory," Ps. cviii. 1,) " shall
speak of Thy word ; for all Thy commandments are righteous
ness." The term for " word " in this verse is the same with that in
verse 170, meaning " saying ;" and since " the commandments "
are to be taken to mean here those of the two tables of duty to
God and to our neighbour (Matt. xxii. 36), by which comes the
knowledge of sin (Eom. iii. 20 ; vii. 7), the psalmist's asseveration
that they are " righteousness " implies that he was here thank
fully commemorating how, by God's " saying," or " the word
of His righteousness " (verse 123), He could be just, according
to the standard set forth in the Mosaic law ; and yet the Justifier
of Him who believeth in His promise concerning Christ. (Eom.
iii. 26, and Micah vi. 5—8.)
In the next verse — the 173rd— the psalmist saith —
" Let Thine hand help me ; for I have chosen Thy precepts."
Here it is to be observed that " the finger," " hand," and " arm "
of God denote different degrees of His Spirit's operation.

172 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
Also in Ezekiel's book, who was the contemporary, as we
assume, of the psalmist, " the hand of God " is more frequently
than elsewhere in Scripture used to denote the operation of the
Spirit. (See iii. 14.)
" The precepts " have again and again during exposition of this
psalm been explained to mean, those portions of His written word
which contain maximB for regulation of individuals in their inner
life, known only to God and oneself. The psalmist with great
ingenuousness pleads his habit of choosing God's precepts, when
asking for a measure of His Spirit. For assuredly a believer
ought not to expect such renewal, if not doing all in his power at
that time "to order his conversation aright." (Ps. 1. 23.)
It is instructive to observe the psalmist's protestation unto the
Searcher of hearts, that he had a good conscience in this respect.
(1 Tim. i. 19 ; 1 John iii. 19—24.)
In the 174th verse the psalmist saith —
" I have longed for Thy salvation, 0 Lord ; and Thy law is my
delight." The joining of " law " in this verse with " salvation " (as ex
plained in verse 155) warrants one in thinking that the psalmist
here refers to the new law (Isa. li. 4) — the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ — more especially as he had in the preceding verse
asked for a measure of the Spirit. Undoubtedly " law " is to be
so understood in Ps. xl., where it is predicted that the Christ
should say at His coming to redeem Israel —
" I delight to do Thy will, O God ;
Tea, Thy law is within my heart."
The " will " in this instance being the special requirement of
Christ to yield Himself a sacrifice ; which He rendered by the
" law" of the Spirit of love within His heart. (Heb. ix. 14.)
There is a close resemblance between those words of David
and these in verse 174 —
" Thy law is my delight."
Hence the psalmist's " longing for salvation " was that pro
duced in him by the operation of Christ's Spirit, as described more
fully by St. Paul in Eom. viii. 19—28.
In the 175th verse the psalmist adds —
" Let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee ; and let Thy
judgments help me."
The soul, as we have seen in commenting on Ps. lxvi. 8, 9, is
that part of man in which is laid up his moral responsibility.
Here is the seat of the will, which by being yielded to the Spirit
of Christ, granted in answer to prayer for it, brings the soul
health and strength in Christ. (Bom. vi. 13.)
" Judgments " are in this place to be understood as explained
in verse 156 ; where it was shewn that God daily awards us

PSALM* THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH. 173
growth, or otherwise, according to our use or abuse of the means
of grace within our reach.
Por " He searches the heart and tries the reins, to give every
one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his
doings." (Jer. xvii. 10, and John viii. 50.)
We therefore understand the psalmist to say in verse 175, that
if the Lord would adjudge him increase of grace (Luke xvii. 5)
his soul would gain " help."
He then adds, in verse 176 —
" I have gone astray like a lost (or perishing) sheep ; seek Thy
servant ; for I do not forget Thy commandments."
Here again it mfght seem to us a matter of surprise that one so
eminent for grace1 as the psalmist should speak of himself as gone
astray, like a perishing sheep.
Let it then be observed, that as children of God grow in
grace, and gain increase of understanding (Isa. xi. 3), they mourn
the more over the strayings of the heart, which at an earlier time,
when less transformed by the renewing of their mind, they left
unregarded. (Matt. v. 4 ; Eom. xii. 2.) It is to be remembered,
as Asaph, in Ps. Ixxiii. 27, testifies : " Lo ! they that are far from
Thee shall perish" — a testimony bearing considerable resem
blance to this of verse 176.
It is also to be borne in mind how the Lord Jesus, in John
xiii. 8, told Peter, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with
Me ;" shewing that any sin soever, unrepented of, damns. For
into heaven nothing can enter that " defileth or maketh a lie."
(Eev. xxi. 27.) We are to be "holy, and without blemish."
(Eph. v. 27.)
The psalmist, however, while confessing that he is astray, adds
that he forgets not his Shepherd's commandments (Ps. xxiii.) ;
wherefore he with a good conscience prays that God would seek
him. He must therefore mean that his straying was such as he
could not help falling into through " the plague of his own heart ;"
(1 Kings viii. 38,) notwithstanding his honest endeavours to keep
God's commandments : after which manner St. Paul also saith
the like in Eom. vii. 22—25.
How, now, is this confession of the psalmist in his last verse
to be reconciled with that at the outset, in the 1st verse ? —
" Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of
the Lord."
We are not so to explain this last verse as to prove the psalmist
destitute of that "blessedness" spoken of in the first. (Eom.
iv. 6—9.)
We are to harmonise the language of either verse in the
psalmist's mouth, that from this fountain there may only be
shewn to proceed sweet water. (James iii. 11.) This, therefore,

174 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH.
is done by shewing that the psalmist's continuance undefiled in
the way, consisted in his daily faithful application unto God with
prayer out of an honest and good heart (Luke viii. 15), for
cleansing and renewal with the Spirit of Christ. (Ps. li. 7 — 12 ;
Job ix. 30.)
These eight verses, so explained, clearly relate to one subject,
and consequently have that unity of thought, characterizing each
of the other sections separately, and as a whole.
What, then, appears to be the aim of the psalmist in this
section ? It is, I would say, to shew forth the need which the
ripest and most matured believer has to call upon God with con
fession, " Behold Thou art wroth, for we have sinned," as in Isa.
lxiv. 5—8 ; Dan. ix. 7—9.
In no other way than this would God have us Christians to
hope for justification before Him, by taking the imputed righte
ousness of Christ for our wedding garment, and using the infused
righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. iii. 9, and v. 21 ; and Isa. xxvi.
12) in regard of His quickening Spirit (as also now, of His sacri
ficial flesh and blood by way of being the fitting vessel for His
Spirit) for our continuance " undefiled in the way, walking in the
law of the Lord." (Eom. viii. 1 ; 1 John iii. 19 — 24.)
22.
'Fore Thee, Jehovah, let my cry come near !
According to Thy word cause me to have
Quick understanding. Oh ! let there appear
'Fore Thee my supplication ! me reprieve
According to Thy saying ! me vouchsafe
To teach Thy statutes ; so '11 my lips express
Thy praise — my tongue shall of Thy saying tell,
For Thy commandments all are righteousness.
Let Thine hand help me ; for I love to dwell
Upon Thy precepts; I've, Jehovah, yearn'd
For Thy salvation! Thy law's my delight.
Let my soul live, which shall Thy praise have learn'd.
And let Thy judgments help me ! In Thy sight
I'm a stray sheep : unto Thee bring back me,
Wlio Thy commandments keep in memory.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH. 175

PSALM CXX.

TITLE.
A Song of Ascents.
In the absence of any agreement among Commentators upon
the meaning of riYPV.Bn — rendered by the Septuagint tbSat t&v
ava(3ad^wv — may it be permitted me to suggest an explanation
of my own ?
Eogers observes that " the frequent occurrence of V? for "TE?M
and of Chaldee words and terminations in these fifteen psalms
entitled " Songs of Ascent," tends to confirm the opinion, that
they were either composed, or at least altered and adapted to
the circumstances of the times, at a period long subsequent to
the reign of David. The particle ^ does not once occur in the
first 121 psalms, whereas in the fifteen songs of degrees it is used
ten times."
Though the title TIT? of Ps. cxxiv., and that of rrribttf?
Ps. cxxvii. testify to their having been written by David, or by
David and Solomon, will it be allowed me here to assume, that
they who used them during the captivity in Babylon, had a
special reason for designating the psalms at that time " Songs of
Ascension ?"
We know that it was the custom with David and others in
Israel to occasionally pray, looking upward, (see Ps. v. 3) as well
as towards God's holy temple. Indeed our first parents upon
their expulsion from Paradise appear to have turned toward the
visible token of the Divine presence, where were the Cherubim.
(Por in Gen. ii. 8 it appears that the four quarters of the
heavens derive their names in Hebrew from the fact of the
worshipper's face having been at that day turned to the East ;
whereupon the south would be on his right hand, the west at
his back, and the north on his left — these being the names in
Hebrew for the four quarters.)
But, when God caused the visible tokens of His presence on
earth in the days of Moses to be manifested on the extended
wings of the cherubim over the mercy-seat or lid of the ark in
the holy of holies, recollection of the former custom inclined
Israelites to turn thitherward for the worship of God.
It is clear from the psalm already cited, as also from 1 Kings
viii. 38, that this custom received the Divine sanction ; and from
Daniel vi. 10 it is clear, that he observed this practice when
neither Jerusalem nor the temple were any longer standing.

176 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH.
Now, let me ask, may it not have been of importance, seeing
that the temple and city were destroyed, to shew the Jewish
captives in Babylon that though God had, by permitting this
desolation, cast them out from His visible presence on earth cere
monially, He did not thereby intend it to be concluded that He
had utterly cast them away ? Would there not here be a sufficient
reason for the inspired authors or users of these fifteen psalms
entitling them " Songs of Ascension," in order to furnish their
fellow-captives with authoritative encouragement in calling upon
God in heaven ? Would it not also serve for a distinction between
them — the worshippers of the only true God — and the idolaters
round about them, to look upward and worship ; as though saying
in the language of Ps. cxv. 3, " Our God is in heaven, He hath
done whatsoever pleased Him.
" Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands ?"
May not also the ancient versicles in the Apostolic Church —
"Lift up your hearts;
We lift them up unto the Lord" —
throw light upon this disputed title n'lbSJHil TCP?
Are not these versicles our " song of ascensions" ? Not only
do spiritually-minded worshippers need to stir up the gift that
is in them by repeating to themselves the words " Lift up your
hearts" by way of a irpayfiartov tXey^os ov pXeirofiividy (Heb. xi. 1) ;
but because, so surely as the true worshipper is to be distin
guished from the Pantheist (whose plausible plea is that God is
in everything) by worshipping a Personal God, in heaven ; so
also is the scriptural worshipper of the Lord Jesus in this age
to be distinguished from the superstitious one (who upon the
plausible plea of Christ's spiritual manhood being in the believer,
or in the sacramental elements, would worship His substance
therein) by lifting up the heart to Him in heaven at God's right
hand, and worshipping Him Personally there.
For so taught the Apostle Paul in Col. iii. 1.
¦*' If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are
•above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."
Christ as a Man is only personally present in one place at a
time ; that is, at the right hand of God : thither scriptural wor
shippers are to lift up their hearts to worship Him : thus are
they to " hold the Head." (Ephes. iv. 15.)
By His Almighty power He — the glorified Head — is as able
to communicate His succour to us on earth — His mystical
members — as though He were personally hovering unseen beside
¦the consecrated elements on His Table.
In the same way, then, that the versicles —
" Lift up your hearts ;
We lift them up unto the Lord" —

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH. 177
may be termed a n'lbsan I^V) for us Christians, it is here asked
you to assume that the inspired authors of these fifteen psalms,
in captivity, authoritatively encouraged their countrymen, not
withstanding the destruction of their city and temple, to be
persuaded that the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob would
hear them from whatever place on the earth, in their captivity
because of their national sins, they might truly penitently ,(
charitably, turn unto Him in heaven. (Deut. iv. 25 — 31 j Isa. xxx.
19 ; agreeahly wherewith see 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16.)
It was observed, in commenting on the first and second psalms,
that David made the two a title to his book, to indicate its two
fold subject— Christ and the people of Christ. What, then, if
the first psalm of this last book — the hundred and seventh —
should have been intended to set forth or suitably introduce its
chief contents or leading subject ?
We know that the hundred and seventh, by occasion of the
return of the Jews out of Babylon, describes as well the manner
of their eventual return from the four quarters of the earth at
the time appointed ; as also their condition meanwhile in their
places of sojourn, or, it may be, at their temporary returns to
their own land, until that day of redemption.
May not then these fifteen psalms, entitled " songs of ascen
sion," have been specially intended for the use of Israelites under
these circumstances, whether in captivity or in their own land,
until that promised rest therein shall have been attained in their
Messiah's own time and way ? (1 Tim. vi. 15.)

AEGUMENT.
In the first verse of this psalm the devout souls of the Is-
raelitish people are plainly supposed to speak as one man unto
the Lord God of their fathers, when in a state of distress, such
as lay heavily on the Jewish portion of their nation during the
captivity in Babylon ; and again has so done ever since their
Divinely-appointed dispersion, consequent on their national
rejection of the Gospel which the Lord Jesus commanded His
Apostles to preach to them first after His Ascension. (Luke xxiv.
37 ; Acts i. 8 ; with 1 Thess. ii. 14—16.)
What occasioned the distress complained of in the first verse
is not intimated ; nor is it of importance that it should be : for
the important point is, that whatever it be, we ought to cry
unto the Lord under it, and not have recourse unto vain things
which cannot profit. (1 Sam. xii. 21; Jer. ii. 8.)
For the Lord Jesus is recorded in Matt, xi 28 to have said,
" Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will
give you rest ;" where it is to be observed that, no matter whence
the burden may have arisen, possibly from your own misconduct,

178 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH.
yet if you penitently and charitably turn unto Jesus under it,
He will fulfil to you His promise.
Applying then this rule to the Israelites, for whose use this
psalm was written, we are to observe that they are represented
as knowing that He heard them, so soon as they cried to Him.
But those alone in Israel under their protracted captivity
would have the consoling persuasion of being heard, while their
outward affliction was unremoved, who being meek and poor in
spirit, would value the grace of God poured into their souls — of
the effects of which they would be conscious — so as to speak that
which they knew, in saying, " I cried unto the Lord, and He
heard me."
When we come to the second verse, the cause of distress to
these mourning Israelites may with much probability be con
jectured. " Lying lips and a deceitful tongue" employed against
one would be distressing to those Israelites in any matter, and
especially in regard of their religion : but that would be the very
reason for their enemies rather resorting to it.
This is to be seen in the case of Daniel, where the princes of
Media and Persia, when plotting against him (Dan. vi. 5), said,
" We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we
find it against him concerning the law of his God."
Just as Daniel's difference in religion from the heathen round
about, and from the unconverted among his own countrymen,
was the readiest way of attacking him, and bringing him to
worldly ruin (because he, in that respect more than any other,
stood alone, with but a few poor and despised ones like himself) ;
so have the enemies of the true Israelites at all times found to be
the case, and shaped their attacks accordingly. We may there
fore here conjecture, that the main cause of distress mentioned
in the first verse was through " lying lips and a deceitful tongue"
employed against one in the matter of worshipping, and calling
upon God.
We know wherein consisted the lying and deceitful character
of the attack made by the princes of Media and Persia on Daniel
before Darius ; and the like has characterised the attacks made
ever since by enemies to them that call upon God in sincerity.
We have an instance of this in Acts xiii. 10, where Elymas,
the sorcerer, having withstood Paul in Cyprus, had his behaviour,
we may be sure deservedly, stigmatised in the following terms :
" Oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil,
thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt not thou cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord ?"
Also in Eph. iv. 14 the same Apostle, writing to a church
dwelling among citizens renowned for their proficiency in witch
craft (Acts xix. 19), speaks of believers in Jesus being "tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait
to deceive."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH. 179
It is plain, therefore, that in this sense the language of these
two verses would admit of being used by devout Israelites, from
that day of the captivity in Babylon when it was probably
written, to this present one.
In the 3rd verse it is asked —
" What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto
thee, thou false tongue S"'
And the answer is —
" Sharp arrows of the Mighty" — that is, of the Mighty One of
Israel — " with coals of juniper" — that is, with the hottest bolts ;
because of juniper and kindred woods having a special capability
of retaining an intense degree of heat.
Tbis verse so explained, as referring to the arrows of the
Almighty, to Whom this suffering Israelite leaves the avenging
of him, agrees with what is said on the same subject in the song.
of Moses (Deut. xxxii. 42) , where God saith, " I will make My
arrows drunk with blood ;" and with the seventh psalm, where
we read at verse 13, " He ordaineth His arrows against the per
secutors ;" also in Ps. xviii. 14.
The next verse — the fifth — is one which has occasioned most
perplexity ; its words are —
"Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the
tents of Kedar!"
Mesech is, with general consent, taken to mean the Muscovites
or Eussians : Kedar, the Arabians.
Now, though Israelites have had, and still have, much to do
with Arabians, they never yet have with Eussians or Muscovites.
It has been therefore supposed by commentators that, like as
we English have popularly used the na,me Turk and Tartar for
the man who would do what was ferocious ; so in the psalmist's
day, Mesech or Scythian, was used among the Persians ; (by whom
indeed Cyrus, the liberator of the Jews out of Babylon, was.
slain in battle.)
But there is an incongruity'in taking the name Mesech in the
former clause of this verse figuratively (by supposing it spokea
of one's own countrymen or others, that, as we would say, behave
like Turks or Tartars), while taking Kedar — the Arabian — in the
latter clause, literally.
Wherefore, it seems to me more consistent to suppose, agree
ably with De Burgh, that the psalmist prophetically refers to a
time yet future — at the close of the long captivity of Israel —
when their last enemies, that are to be destroyed by thunderbolts
from the presence of the returning Lord, will be— on the one
hand, the nations now called Christian, though then in reality
Anti-Christian, under the headship of Eussia ; and, on the other,.
the Mahommedan powers, characterised by Kedar or Arabia.
So interpreted, the psalm receives throughout a consistent
application, and is adapted for the use of a devout Israelite from
N 2

180 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH.
the day in which it was written to the time of the Lord's return
from heaven.
For in this mode of interpretation the application of the last
two verses is obvious : where it is said —
" My soul hath long dwelt with him" — one being here put for
a class (Isa. xxxiii. 24) — " that hateth peace.
" I am for peace ; but when I speak, they are for war — "
it being the uniform practice of " those that pervert the right
ways of the Lord" to carry their aims by violence ; crushing, if
possible, in the outset every attempt at expostulation.
In this sense we, that hold the truth of Christ according to His
written word, can, as being now of the only remnant of the true
Israelites, take up every word of this psalm, in our distress pro
duced by lying lips and a deceitful tongue of an Antichristian
Confederacy — whether by superstitious use of traditions of men
on the one side, or by infidelity on the other — in other words —
Mesech or Kedar.
It is not permitted the meek followers of the Lamb to resort
to war in defence of their most holy faith ; which makes those
that pervert the right way of the Lord so ready to threaten
war, as the bar to that peace for which they that love the Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity earnestly contend — peace with God
through His blood-shedding once for all, and pleaded by Himself
in heaven above, without man's works or deservings being in
any wise mixed up therewith for justification before God. So
long as the powers given us in the course of God's providence
by the constitutional government under which we live remain to
us, we may use them in defence of " peace" as we seek it, and
" speak" of it ; but if those powers be wrested from us, or over
borne, it only remains for us to await our Lord's return ; as St.
James intimates in verse 6, when saying, " Te have condemned
and killed the just, and he doth not resist you."

Lo ! to Jehovah in my sore distress
I cried, Who unto me inclin'd His ear !
From fraud and lies my soul, Jehovah, snatch !
What scourge, what death can meet thy wickedness,
False tongue ? Against thee coals of juniper
And keen shafts shall the Mighty One dispatch.
2.
Woe, woe is me, that I in Mesech dwell —
That in the tents of Kedar I abide !
Long hath my soul with enemies to peace

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST. 181
Convers'd — that peace, whereof I love to tell !
Speak I of peace ? straight on the contr'ry side
Are they ; and threaten fiercely, till I cease.

PSALM CXXI.

TITLE.
A Song for Ascents.

Je>

Here is a slight variation from the titles of the other songs of
a similar character— those being songs " of ascents " — this " for
ascents." The variation affects not the sense in which it was, in
treating of the former psalm, proposed that this ascension should
be understood.

AEGUMENT.
This psalm apparently admits of being most advantageously
distinguished into three parts. In the first two verses the wor
shipper gives utterance to his service of faith.
In the next two occurs an oracular voice from the breast, as it
seems to me, of the prophet to whom the worshipper had repaired
to enquire of the Lord, (Ezek. xiv. 1 — 7,) denoting God's accept
ance of this worshipper.
In the remaining verses the prophet expatiates in the wor
shipper's hearing on the impressive purport of that oracular
response. Sundry expressions in this short psalm may be advantageously
treated of by themselves, with a view to the elucidation of its
import. When the worshipper saith —
" I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my
help,"
it is to be observed, that the circumstance of Sion (whither the
faithful should turn to worship God after removal of the ark
there,) being seated on a hill and surrounded by hills, soon came
to furnish a metaphorical designation of the holy place of God's
special manifestation of Himself in heaven ; where are the
realities of which the temple on Mount Moriah furnished a
pattern. (Heb. viii. 5 ; 1 Chron. xxii.)

182 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST.
By comparison of the 3rd with the 5th verse of Psalm v. it
may be gathered that enlightened worshippers, while turning
their faces towards the mercy-seat (which was the hd of the ark,)
looked up thence to the Most High in heaven itself, as might
Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 13,) from the foot to the top of the ladder
shewn him in his dream.
There is no mention in this psalm of any local association ; so
that, for anything we know to the contrary, it might have been
composed during the captivity in Babylon, and probably was so.
On this supposition it might describe the acceptableness of
a worshipper coming to the prophet there to inquire of the Lord,
in the enlightened frame of mind expressed in the first two
verses. In the latter of these, where the worshipper saith —
" My help cometh of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth."
It may be observed, that regard to God's works in nature is
the readiest way a worshipper can find of contending against the
dulness of his natural understanding and proneness of his affec
tions earthward.
This use of God's works in nature is repeatedly met with in
holy Scripture. (See Isa. lv. 10, 11.)
Thus, in the Lord's prayer, we are taught to think, how greatly
God is exalted as our Father above our earthly parents, by say
ing that He is in heaven.
For in Isa. lv. 9, that prophet was inspired to write on God's
behalf, " As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My
ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts." But God's works in creation are unable to furnish
evidence of those attributes of God, which it most concerns fallen
man to be persuaded of.
There is no intimation given in the realm of nature that God
will forgive : rather the contrary, for if one in youth racks out
his constitution, he never receives a new one ; if a limb be ampu
tated, no new one grows in its place.
Although, therefore, a worshipper, by looking for help to Him
that made heaven and earth, may say with the leper in Matt.
viii. 2, nothing that is worthy to be done by Thee is impossible
with Thee — if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean — the works
in nature in vain may be consulted for indications of His willing
ness to do this.
Here it is then, that God's revealed word (the need whereof
arose from man's fall,) supplies the desired testimony concerning
God's willingness to heal them that diligently see'k Him in the
prescribed way ; even as Jesus shewed to that leper, by stretching
forth his hand and saying, " I will, be thou clean ! and immedi
ately his leprosy was cleansed."
Here, therefore, is to be seen the inestimable preciousnoss of
that timely oracular response to the pious worshipper, found in

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST. 183
the 2nd and 3rd verses, the latter of which is cumulative in its
bearing upon the former ; for whereas in the former it is testified
by the Spirit through the prophet's mouth —
" He will not suffer thy foot to be moved ; He that keepeth
thee will not slumber :" —
In the latter, which addeth —
"Behold He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor
sleep." The reason is given for that gracious assurance in the former
verse, of God's care for the worshipper ; namely, because of his
being of the Israel of God.
For the use here made of the name " Israel " shews that it
denotes the Lord's " hidden ones." (Ezek. xiii. 9, Ps. lxxxviii. 3,
cviii. 6, cxi. 1, and cxii. 2.)
Whereon St. Paul in Eom. ix. 6, saith, "They are not all
Israel, that are of Israel, neither, because they are the seed of
Abraham are they all children ;" that is, they may be of Israel,
as being descended from Abraham in the course of nature, and
enrolled in the family of Israel by sacramental title of circum
cision in the flesh, yet not be " of Israel" by the effect or power
of the word of God's promise (verse 6 of Eom. ix. compared with
1 Cor. iv. 20,) which cometh from the Holy Ghost into one's
heart through faith, such as had Abraham. (Eom. iv. 12.)
For the worshippers spoken of in this psalm needed to have
been begotten of God in order to be " of Israel " in this emphatic
sense. (See John viii. 34 — 44, compared with 1 Sam. x. 12.)
The introduction of this verse with the exclamation Behold !
is intended to arrest attention, and doubtless fixed the pious wor
shipper's, in the instance before us, on the true ground of the
gracious acceptance accorded to him in the former verse.
So understood, " the foot " that the Lord would not suffer to
be moved, is not that of the body alone but of the soul too ; con
cerning which we find it written in Ps. xxvi. 12, " My foot
standeth in an even place," but more clearly in Ps. lxvi. 8, 9,
" 0 bless our God ye people, and make the voice of His praise
to be heard :
" Who holdeth our soul in life ; and suffereth not our feet to
be moved."
That this meaning is included here in mention of " the foot "
is to be further concluded from consideration of what is said
about the Lord never slumbering in His watchful care over
one of His Israel.
One of the earliest revelations in Scripture concerning God's
watchfulness for the comfort of fallen man, and for help of him
through life as well as in death, is the reference to the Lord's
eye.

184 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST.
Laban, who was not over-scrupulous about what he himself
did, if having the opportunity ; yet when afraid of what Jacob,
whom he found to have the favour of God, might do against him
in requital for his misdeeds, being desirous of binding him and
his descendants to observance of the treaty he had concluded,
(Gen. xxxi. 49,) erected a mound, and told Jacob its name should
he Mizpah, to denote his dependence on the Lord's eye to restrain
Jacob and his descendants from crossing that boundary hostilely
against him or his descendants.
Again in Ps. xxxi. David was instructed by God Himself to
record the promise, " I will guide thee with Mine eye ;"
shewing of what use to the believer is this remembrance of the
Lord's unslumbering observance of him, to restrain him from a
willing sin even in thought, when every other restraint were in
operative. And again in 2 Chron. xvi. 9, Hanani rebuked Asa for failing
to be persuaded that " the eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in behalf of
them whose heart is perfect toward Him ;" that is, undivided in
aim. (James iv.'8, and Matt. vi. 22 — 24.)
It is hence clear, that mention of the Lord's unslumbering eye
not suffering the foot to be moved, means much more His up
holding of the accepted worshipper's perfect heart towards Him,
than of such a worshipper's procedure alone on any lawful enter
prise with the foot of his body.
In the verses which follow, the prophet (as it has been above
assumed,) admonishes the worshipper of the Divine Majesty ap
pertaining to the Utterer of that oracular response. Jehovah,
Whom thou faithfully holdest to be one with Elohim — maker of
heaven and earth — Israel's covenant God — (Exod. iii. 14, and
vi. 3,) is thy Keeper ; as He Himself testifies in what He hath
spoken by me !
How much is implied in this condescension on the Lord's part
to call Himself His Israel's Keeper!
The first use of this word occurs as early as in Gen. iv. 2, where
it appears to have come into use because of Abel having called
himself, or been called by Adam, "a keeper of sheep." Cain's
disdainful use of this word indicates how he repudiated the idea,
for his own part, of being tied to the care of a flock of sheep.
Eather than be this, he would be the terror of the wild beast.
Now Jehovah does not disdain as irksome the office of keeper of
Israel collectively and individually.
Tet how far more wayward and perverse is that flock of which
the Lord thus assumes the care, than Abel's.
Tet He is not such a Keeper as shall make Him rather a
terror to the straying ones ; (Luke xvi. 1 — 7,) far otherwise : He

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST. 185
is such an One, as affords refuge for the frail and feeble-minded ;
which is implied in the prophet's exposition on this point; by
saying, Jehovah is a shadow too (as '' of a great rock in a weary
land !" Isa. xxxii. 2,) at thy right hand ; that is, for thy prompt
and effectual help. Compare herewith Ps. cix. 6.
The beneficent nature of this shadow is denoted by the shelter
it is declared to give ; since in that hot country the stroke of the
sun or of the moon is much more systematically to be provided
against, than in our more temperate climate. But this refers
only to protection of bodily or physical life. A ccordingly, in
the 7th verse the prophet testifies, that the oracular response
above uttered pledges the Lord to protection of the single-
hearted believer from all evil, whether in the sense of affliction or
of sin ; so that it shall not be too much for one, and move one's
foot from its steadfastness ; yea, it implies, that He shall preserve
thy soul — a testimony amply vindicating the comments above
made on the oracular words,
" He will not suffer thy foot to be moved."
For the life of the soul is of a higher order than that of the
body, and is only to be upheld through faith in the sole-suffi
ciency of the Lord, to be the Keeper of Israel, even to the extent
of defending that life by His sacrificial death and resurrection.
(John x. 11, and Heb. xii. 24, and Ps. xci.)
When in the 8th verse the inspired prophet speaks of the
oracular voice conveying to that pious worshipper a pledge of
Jehovah's " preservation of him in going out and coming in, (a
phrase for every use of his foot, 2 Chron. i. 10,) from this time
forth for evermore ;" such a testimony imported, that the Lord's
care would continue long after the dissolution of our soul and
body; yea, would be as lasting as the existence of Jehovah Him
self, after the worshipper's admission into His own sabbatical
rest. (Heb. iv. 9.)
Now when a worshipper among us draws near with such words
as those in the first two verses of this psalm — or, as St. Paul
more explicitly directs us on this head to do in Col. iii. 1 — 3 — it
is not to be assumed, as many believers do, that this includes the
whole of their duty in any direction of the foot, which the Lord
shall not suffer to be moved. It is always in these instances to
be understood, that the worshipper subordinately uses those
faculties for procurement of the desired benefit, wherewith the
Lord hath endued him.
They are to be used by one, who seeks help from the Maker
of heaven and earth ; just as much as, they are by the ungodly,
who depend on their own right hand and wit for what they
aim at.
Except pious worshippers observe this preliminary requisite,
they may not expect to obtain their desire, how lawful soever in
itself.

186 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST.
Hence the popular saying, " God helps those who help them
selves ;" or, the fable of Hercules and the Carter in iEsop.
Seethe example of Jacob in Gen. xxxii. who', when doubting
whether his brother Esau's advance toward him might not be
hostile, made every arrangement that prudence could suggest
for the safety of part at least of his possessions, as also of his
family ; and then confronted the danger of the personal rencontre
in the spirit of this worshipper, who said, " My help cometh from
the Lord Who made heaven and earth." In this way pious
parents, who ask the Lord to turn their children's hearts toward
Him, must not be slack in the training of them through child
hood and youth by enforcement of prudential restraints of their
feet, as well as instruction of their minds ; whereupon they may
then hope, that their children, when old, will not depart from it.
(Prov. xxii. 6.)
Again, when every precaution may have been taken for pro
curement of a lawful object, and we trust in the Lord as above
directed for the issue, we are not to think there is reason for our
foot being moved, if we gain not in this life what we might law
fully desire.
When Peter, in Acts xii. was put in prison by Herod, and
prayer was made by the Church for him, and he was delivered,
this issue enabled those worshippers in a sense intelligible to the
ungodly, as well as the godly, to see the Lord would not suffer
their foot to be moved.
But afterwards, when the Lord's prediction, in John xxiii. 18,
concerning the manner of Peter's death came true, had the
Church any cause to think that, because of his crucifixion, God
had suffered their foot to be moved ? No ! the Lord then de
livered him fully, finally " from all evil," yea, " preserved his
soul" — translating him from a scene of tribulation and trial to
the haven of incorruptible, undefiled, unfading bliss !
This psalm so explained seems to fit it in an especial manner
for solace of a believer in his going down to the grave.
How consolatory at such a crisis is it for him to look up with
an undivided heart unto Jesus, at God's right hand, and see in
Him his Helper— his Keeper — through an eventful life, (Gen.
xlviii. 14 — 16, Isa. xl. 11, Jude ver. 24,) Who changes not, though
the believer must, (Job xiv. 14, 1 Cor. xv. 51,) — Who therefore
will never leave one nor forsake one, (Josh. i. 5,) so that " we
may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man
can do unto me," Heb. xiii. 6, with which compare Eom. ix.
31—39. With what comfort may* such a believer persuade himself, that
he is not about to take a step in the dark, " at going out" of the
body by dissolution, without knowing whither he is going, or
who shall receive him (Luke xvi. 9) ; but say, " I know Whom I
have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have com-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST. 187
mitted unto Him against that day of His return." (2 Tim. i. 12,
with which compare 1 Pet. iv. 19. )
In this hope may we regard the Lord at our very death as
" preserving the soul's foot at going out " of the body " and
coming into" the Divine presence, "from that time forth forever-
more !"

Unto the hills, whence forth
Issues my help, I'll lift mine eyes !
Jehovah, Who made heav'n and earth,
My help alone supplies !
2.
Thy foot from being mov'd
He'll guard, and, ever wakeful, keep !
Lo ! He, Who Israel hath lov'd,
Nor slumber knows nor sleep !
3.
Jehovah doth thee keep —
Jehovah on thy right hand shade !
Lest sun or moon with inj'ry deep
Strike thy unshelter'd head!

Jehovah '11 off thee ward
All evil ! He'll thy soul restore !
Thy going out and in He'll guard
Now and for evermore !

188 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND.

PSALM CXXII.

TITLE.
A Song of ascension for David.
Although the use of the prefix Cp in verse 3 for "T^N and to
the first words of verse 4 does not of itself prove that this psalm
was composed after the captivity in Babylon, inasmuch as this
prefix is to be found in Judg. chap. v. 7, vi. 17, vii. 12, viii. 26 ;
yet when viewed in connection with the expression in verse 5,
" There are the thrones of the house of David," it seems to me
preferable to reckon it of that date : since David himself could
hardly be supposed to have referred in the terms of verse 5 to
his own thrones. Accordingly to me it would be preferable to
take the words in the title ~\)"J7 as intended for Messiah under
that name ; denoting that regard is especially to be had to
Messiah in meditating on it, or using it. It is to be observed
that the Septuagint doctors sometimes translate y in the title of
a psalm by rw, as in Ps. cxxxviii, at others by rod, as in Ps. cxiv.
agreeably with what has been already said in commenting on the
title of Ps. lxxii.

AEGUMENT.
The psalmist appears to me to have in this psalm held up to
his reader's view reverence for the Jerusalem that is above, after
the manner it had been appointed to be cherished by each indi
vidual in Israel towards the place where the Lord had put His
Name, and bade Israelites gather there three times a year from
every part of the land of Israel to worship Him ; as also had
appointed that His worship should be daily offered up. (Deut.
xii. 10, 11.)
As the time comes yearly round for keeping the Passover or
the Feast of Weeks, or that of Tabernacles, every Israelite
ought to make the language of this psalm his own ; saying with
fervour —
" I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house
of the Lord.
" Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem."
In the next three verses is added notifications of things in
Jerusalem to be reverently thought of :—
" Jerusalem is builded^s a city that is compact together.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND. 189
" Whither the tribes go up — the tribes of the Lord, unto the
testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord.
" For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the
house of David."
The Jerusalem here spoken of is not that of stone and timber,
but of the citizens whom the Lord makes to be of one mind in
His house (Heb. xii. 22, and xi. 10), whereto the tribes are re
presented as moved by the same Spirit to come up from all parts
of the Lord's land with like mind unto the ark of the testimony
(Numb. i. 50, Eev. xv. 5) ; whither Israelites were wont to turn
their face in prayer, in acknowledgment of the visible token of
"the Lord's presence above its mercy-seat. (Ps. v. 7.)
But in order to discourage any conception of a similitude of
God in the mind the worshippers are here said to give thanks
unto the Name of the Lord. See Exod. xx. 24 ; Deut. iv. 15.
By " the thrones of judgment there set," the throne of Him,
by Whom kings reign and princes decree justice, is undoubtedly
to be primarily understood. (Prov. viii. 15.) For the ministers
of the Lord were by law appointed to be the judges (Deut. xvii.
8 — 10) ; though it might be the prerogative of the king to select
priests for that office. (2 Sam. xv. 3, 4.) This office of judging
was by covenant sealed to David (see Ps. ix. 4 — 7, Isa. lv. 3) ;
to certify that the Divine Judge should be of David's line. (Ps.
1. 1—6.) In the next four verses all devout Israelites are taught that
they should remember Jerusalem in their prayers, and be per
suaded of the Divine favour towards them on that account : that
they ought to cherish every good wish for the city of God on
earth, as well for their brethren's sake, as for that of God's
house in its midst.
It is mournful to think how few comparatively of the Israelites
appear to have at any one time cordially embraced this strain of
thought and standard of devotedness to the glory of the God of
Israel. Had they done as required, the history of that city, and of
their condition nationally in connection with it, would have been
far different from what the Scripture shews it to have been.
When the Son of David in fulness of time came to His city — ¦
its King and Judge — (Micah v. 1, 2) He with tears deplored His
nation's inacquaintance with the things that belong to the peace
of Jerusalem (Luke xix.. 41, 42) ; which was clearly owing to the
priests — the ministers of the Lord— having neglected to teach
their countrymen the right ways of the Lord concerning a sinner's
attainment of justification before Him (see Ps. xiv.) : so that the
nation in general despised the hope of righteousness that is by
faith in the merits of the Messiah ; and went about to establish
their own righteousness, (Eom. x. 3 ; Micah vi. 5—8 ; Isa. xiv.
22—25.)

190 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND.
Tet God's covenant with Abraham and David is without pos
sibility of change : consequently the standard of devout aspira
tions for Jerusalem's prosperity, here inculcated, is not destined
to be stultified. According"to Ps. xii. 18, " God will do good in His
good pleasure unto Zion — He will build the walls of Jerusalem."
As also He testified by Isaiah, chap. i. 26 —
" He will restore her judges as at the first, and her counsellors
as at the beginning : afterward she shall be called ' the city of
righteousness, the faithful city ;' Zion shall be redeemed with
judgment, and her converts with righteousness."
Hence, although the citizens of the Jerusalem in our Lord's
time, and their nation generally, by rejection of the things be
longing to her peace brought upon themselves that captivity in
which they yet remain, still it is the duty of the remnant of the
true Israehtes to take this psalm as cordially as ever for a stan
dard of devout aspirations concerning the Lord's city, Jerusalem;
even as in Isa. lxii. 6, we read how God said by that prophet—
" I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall
never hold their peace* day or night : Te that make mention of
the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He estab
lish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."
Now " the only remnant of the true Israelites" are they, who
by believing in Jesus (Whom the Apostles taken by Him from
among the Jews, proclaimed to be the Christ,) are taught " the
things that belong to the peace of Jerusalem." They are in
structed to see how to " hold the Head, from which the whole
body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure
of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of
itself in love." (Ephes. iv. 15, 16.)
In this way they see how they are '' come unto Mount Zion
and unto the city of the living God — the heavenly Jerusalem,"
because of their covenant Head — God manifest in the flesh —
having ascended up thither, where is " the testimony of Israel,"
to whom we should turn to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
Where also are the thrones of judgment, the thrones of G°d's
beloved. Hence, to use the language of St. Paul, as citizens of the
heavenly Jerusalem, all the remnant of the true Israelites, at
any one time alive on the earth, " have their municipal directory,"
during this age of the Church, " in heaven : from whence also we
look for the Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour." (Philip, iii. 20 ;
2 Thess. i. 3— 10.)
The psalm before us therefore shews what devout reverence we
ought to cherish for the Church that is founded on the Apostles
and Prophets — " Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner
stone." (Ephes. ii. 20.) How glad we ought to be to gather

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND. 191
together on the Lord's day in the congregation to which we
belong, " unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the
name of the Lord" — how careful we ought to be of her Liturgy
— Creeds — and Articles of Faith — how fervently we ought to
pray for her peace, out of regard for the children that are to
come after us, to whom we would fain transmit unimpaired the
forms of sound words and privileges of public worship with the
direct support of the State, if God shall permit.
With such habitual aspirations for God's blessing on that
reformed branch of the Apostolic Church in which we of the
Church of England worship God — the indications of God's pur
pose to call us hence, will, by God's help, be but the fulfilment of
our desires, like Abraham's for that better country (Heb. xi. 16)
where our Saviour is, in Whose presence is the fulness of joy —
and at Whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
1.
How gladly heard I some unto me saying,
Before Jehovah's altar let us wait.
Our eager feet shall bear us lowly praying,
Jerusalem, within thy hallow'd gate.

Like to a city in itself compacted
Jerusalem is builded ; whither throng
The tribes — the tribes of Jah— with eyes directed
Towards the ark, when they their praise prolong.
3.
For to the glory there of God's Anointed,1
The thrones of judgment are set up on high —
Thrones by a covenant Divine appointed
To be in David's house eternally.2

For peace unto Jerusalem entreat ye !
Prosperity, to them that love her, be !
In peace, 0 citizens, within her meet ye,
Share in her palaces prosperity !
1 Ver. 5. Matth. xix. 28. 2 Zech. xii. 7 ; Jer. xxxiii. 15—26.

192 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD.
5.
Because of my companions and my brethren,
Will I now say, within thee be there peace !
Because of our Jehovah's house for ever in
Thy weal shall my heart's interest increase.

PSALM CXXIII.

TITLE.
A Song of ascension.

AEGUMENT.
The lifting up of the eyes by a worshipper unto God, as
dwelling in heaven, serves to limit the worship of Him to His
Person. He is in every created thing, for its maintenance ;
yet the worship of Him in any such thing, as some speculative
heathens have insisted on doing, directly leads to Pantheism.
Although therefore God be everywhere, yet by His authorita
tive appropriation of Heaven for the special manifestation of
His Presence, He has laid on His people the obligation of
lifting up the eye of their souls to worship Him Personally
there. The only foundation for acceptable worship of God is
a Divine Command — for that only which is in obedience to a
Divine Command is " of faith." All else is " will worship."
(Col. ii. 18.) By faith therefore, (without which it is impossible
to please God, Heb. xi. 6), true worshippers, as distinguished
from Pantheists, say in the language of the first verse of this
psalm :
" Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, 0 Thou that dwellest in the
heavens !"
When we find the constancy, wherewith we ought to look up,
compared in the next verse with that wherewith servants in the
psalmist's day " looked to the hand of the master or mistress,"
it is needful, in order to appreciate the force of this similitude,
to consider the very different condition of the servants in a great

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD. 193
household in Eastern lands at that day, from what their class are
seen to fill in this land at the present time.
The servants of a great household among us are placed in apart
ments of their own, and summoned to their master's or mistress's
presence by the ringing of a bell : but in the East, in the psalmist's
day, the attendants usually remained in the presence of their master
or mistress at the further end of the same chamber or apartment.
And as there were no bells, and owing to the heat of the weather
it might be fatiguing to call them, they were expected to notice
the waving of the master's or mistress's hand.
If the servants of a household were attentive they would at
once notice when the master's hand beckoned them to come ; or
by being waved away from them denoted their wish for parties
to be removed. It has also in modern times been related by
travellers that while the trial of some among their companions,
that had been captured by the followers of a chief, was going on
before him, he by a mere motion of his hand has indicated to his
servants his will that they be carried forth and executed.
In the days of Ahasuerus, when Esther hoped to save her
countrymen from massacre by appearing before the king unsum-
moned, we are told that her preservation from death depended
on the king's extending towards her his hand bearing the golden
sceptre. Had he not done this, his attendants, who were ob
servant of his hand, for lack of that sign, would have presently
led her forth to prison.
Here is an instance of the custom among servants in the
East, of learning their master's will by close attention to his
hand. See also 2 Sam. xii. 19 — 21.
An undoubted relic of the same custom is to be recognised in
that cruel practice of the Eomans for five centuries of our era
in their gladiatorial contests : where couples of natives from our
island, or from Germany or Gaul, armed in a particular way,
were made to engage in the Amphitheatre in deadly combat for
the entertainment of their Eoman masters. Whereupon, so
soon as one combatant being wounded gave up the contest, both
looked to the hand of the spectators to see whether they kept
the thumb depressed in token that the worsted one should be
spared, or raised the thumb erect in token that he should be
despatched. What attention on the part of slaves to the hand of an impe
rious master was there here !
It was in this manner the psalmist meant that he and. his
fellow-worshippers would for life or death of the body wait with
the eyes of their soul lifted up to God in heaven, looking for
His hand.
This would mean token of His Personal interposition by His
Spirit in their behalf. 0

194 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD.
That interposition was very anciently in Scripture figuratively
described under the name of " the hand of the Lord."
In Exod. xvii. 16, occurs the first use of it ; (possibly shewing
how the Israelites, as slaves, had been compelled when in Egypt
to watch the hand of their heathen masters.) " The hand that is
upon the throne," we read according to the margin, "will have
war with Amalek from generation to generation."
In Ezekiel, the contemporary of Daniel, and fellow-captive in
Babylon, at the time, as it is supposed, of this psalm having
been written, mention is frequently made of the Spirit of the
Lord under the name of " the Hand." (See Ezek. viii. 3. See
too Dan. v. 5.)
To wait then with the eye of the soul on Him that dwelleth
in the heavens for manifestations of His hand implied very con
stant heed to Him, and dependence on Him as the Personal
Director of all things in heaven and earth ; " Whose hand none
can stay, nor say unto Him, What doest Thou ?" (Dan. ix. 35.)
To wait upon Him implied, on the psalmist's part, refrainment
from avenging of himself : and waiting upon Him for His mercy
implied, that the sufferer arraigned not the justice of God in
permitting him to be afflicted ; but rather committed himself to
Him that judgeth righteously : saying with Jeremiah in Lamenta
tions iii. 39 — " Wherefore doth a living man complain ? a man,
for the punishment of his sins ?"
Seeing that our lives are forfeited, we receive less than our
iniquities deserve, while they are spared to us. The psalmist
further intimated that he looked to God to rescue him by His
over-ruling hand from those, that in the injuriousness of ease in
their sins, or pride on account of fancied merit, filled him with a
painful sense of their contempt.
Now there are three ways more especially mentioned in the
psalmist's day wherein God's hand was seen to the unspeakable
joy of His servants that waited on Him, interposing for their
relief. Sometimes, as it is written, " when a man's ways please the
Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him,"
the sufferer recognised- in the altered demeanour of his over
bearing neighbours, God's answer to His prayer — God's out
stretched hand on his behalf.
At another time the sufferer would see .that God abated the
fury of the oppressor by diverting his attention to repulse of an
attack on himself: as is to be seen in 1 Sam. xxiii. 25, where
Saul was on one side of a mountain in pursuit of David, and he
on the other ; when a messenger brought Saul tidings of his king
dom being ravaged by the Philistines whom he was compelled to
confront as soon as possible. -
David, who would not avenge himself by rebellion against his

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD. 195
king, but waited on God, here perceived His hand ; and thank
fully exclaimed, this hath God done !
Another way in which the Lord interposes on behalf of those
who wait for Him — is by leaving them under their bodily afflic
tion, but giving them more grace wherewith to become experi
mentally acquainted with His goodness under it. (Ps. ix. 9, 10.)
In this manner, it is predicted in Isa. xxx. 18, that a chosen
generation in Israel shall, at the time appointed, look for His
hand in their behalf, when doubtless, this psalm will be reverently
used by them in worship.
" And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious
unto you— and therefore will He be exalted that He may have
mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed
are all they that wait for Him."
When our Lord Himself was in His natural body — He in His
ministry, as may be seen in His Gospels, was the model of a
servant looking to the hand of his master. One instance shall
suffice ; where it is written in John xvi. 32 — " Behold the hour
cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man
to his own, and shall leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with me !"
After this manner through Him— -Who is our Propitiation and
Advocate — Whom we personally worship, as we do the Father,
by lifting up our eyes unto Him in the heavens, (John xiv. 1 ;
Col. iii. 1, 2) — are we to wait upon God for His mercy ; .not
avenging ourselves (Eom. xii. 20) ; nor repaying hate with hate ;
lest we should be overcome of evil — but committing ourselves to
Him, Who judgeth righteously (1 Pet. ii. 23) — Who reckoneth
that patient endurance of affliction, for well-doing, as thank
worthy. We are also to be assured that He will not suffer us
to be tempted above that we are able (I Cor. x. 13) ; and that
His grace is sufficient for us, where it pleases Him not to remove
the thorn in the flesh. (2 Cor. xii. 9.) " For all things work
together for good to them that love God." (Eom. viii. 28.)
So that we can reverently say—" The Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job i. 21) ;
or, " It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth to Him good."
(1 Sam. iii. 18.)

1.
To Thee, to Thee mine eyes I lift,
Who dwell' st above the sky.
As servant on his master's hand
Sets an attentive eye —
o 2

196 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY^FOURTH.
2.
Or on her mistress's the maid —
So wait I upon Thine ;
Till Thou in mercy to my need
Thy gracious ear incline !
3.
Oh Jah, our God, do Thou on me
Thy tender mercy shew !
For 'neath the scorn of men at ease
Do I dejected bow.
4.
My soul with agitating thoughts
Beneath their scorn is toss'd —
Beneath their rancorous despite,
Who of their works make boast.

PSALM CXXIV.
TITLE.
A Song of ascents for David.
By the first verse it is plain that this psalm was written for the
use of Israel upon occasion of some unparalleled deliverance of
them as a nation, by the direct interposition of Messiah.
Owing to the use of ^ in verse 1, and "W in 3, 4, 5, which
nearly resembles the Chaldee TIN, and is found nowhere else,
it is, as Eogers observes, to be concluded that this psalm was
written during the captivity in Babylon, or subsequent thereto.
Consequently the 7 in the title must be translated "for," as in
Ps. lxxii. and by TIT be understood " the beloved," or Messiah.
(See Ps. Ixxxix.)
AEGUMENT.
It is certain that no such deliverance as that here described has
been granted to Israel since that captivity; consequently the
occasion on which this psalm is specially intended to be sung
has yet to arise. Such an event appears to be foretold in Ps.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EOURTH. 197
xxi. 8—13, and in Ps. lxxxiii. 1 — 5, and by reason of a certain
similarity in the imagery employed, it seems to me that this
psalm is composed for the use of Israel on that occasion treated
of in Isa. viii. 7 — 10.
For the kingdom of Assyria is there symbolised hy a river
which overflows its banks, exactly as in this hundred and twenty-
fourth psalm the invaders are likened to waters — proud waters :
and like as in Isaiah the " counsel " spoken of is destined to
" come to naught, for God is with us " — in token whereof at
verse 3 is givenHim the name Immanuel — so in this hundred and
twenty-fourth psalm, Israel on finding the attack made on them
come to naught, shall say, we had been swallowed up if the Lord
had not been on our side ; our help is in the name of the Lord —
more particularly because of being "with us," as His name
Immanuel was to denote.
For " the stream" to be all but " going over the soul" is more
expressive than to " reach even to the neck," as in Isa. viii. 8.
The rapidity wherewith a river that overflows its banks and
fills a valley cuts off all escape for man or beast, vividly exem
plifies the swiftness wherewith the invaders spoken of shall be
ready to swallow up Israel alive.
It is easy for such waters to reach men's necks, but for them
to all but shut out men's souls from rising, through hope in
God, above them, is something far more. Now, supposing that
the representatives of Israel as a nation on this occasion are to
be " His hidden ones " mentioned in Ps. lxxxiii. 2 ; for the proud
waters to have all but " gone over their soul," denotes their
approach to despair. (1 Cor. i. 8.)
This might arise from " the hidden ones," though knowing that
God could save them if He would, thinking that because of their
unworthiness He would give them over, as He in strict justice
might. This is a line of thought under those circumstances which may
easily be carried too far, so as to drive the soul into despair, if
not helped. (See Isa. lvii. 16 ; Luke xxii. 43 ; Heb. v. 7.) But
God " will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able "
(1 Cor. x. 13) ; hence when by His direct intervention on the
occasion foretold, the soul pressed beyond measure shall be
relieved — the " snare" in which the hidden ones were indeed
enthralled, by what advantage the tempter will take *f their
peril to make them think God ready to give them over, " shall
be broken."
The combination of force and fraud in this last attack to be
resisted by " the hidden ones" (which is here likened to " the
teeth of a lion," or " the net of a fowler ") is similarly depicted
in Ps. x. 9, which apparently treats of the same assault ; and
Ps. xci. 3, compared with 13.
The words of the sixth verse denote with what self-abasement
in.the transport of joy at their deliverance this chosen, genera-

198 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOURTH.
tion in Israel will ascribe to the Lord Jehovah the glory of their
escape. Not deeming Him to have saved them because weighing
their merits, but because pardoning their offences ; so shall they
in the very hour of triumph prove themselves to be His meek
Ones — poor in spirit.
The last verse may be taken as expressing a sentiment to be
adopted by Israel through all intermediate time individually
and collectively, because of what God will assuredly do for their
deliverance on the day spoken of.
In 1 Sam. vii. 12 is to be seen how Israel of old confessed
their help to be in the Lord. Also, in 1 Sam. xii. 22 is to be
seen what lowliness of mind, combined with trust in God, is im
plied in saying, " Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who
made heaven and earth." Truly His name of God of Abraham,
of Isaac, and of Jacob, and of " strength of Israel," and of Im
manuel, are full of special comfort to Israel ; and we of the
Christian Church, as being of the only remnant at this present
of the true Israelites, claim to use them in respect of their
spiritual significance. But we have yet a dearer and more
precious name of God, specially vouchsafed to Israel in our age
— the name of Jesus — wherein to rejoice, because it denotes that
" He shall save His people from their sins."
It is very obvious that the entire psalm admits of being applied
by us Christians to commemoration of our deliverances in soul
from Satan's assaults as the roaring lion prowling about, seeking
whom he may devour ; or as the fowler that has entangled us in
his snare ; where, except that the Lord interposed and broke it,
he would presently have come like a fowler to use us as it pleased
him, only that through Jesus we can say, " The snare is broken,
and we are escaped."
The name of Jesus sums up in one short word the thought of
help in God which the dying behever so needs for his support.
Tor His " Name's" sake, not our merit, He will restore our
souls, and renew our part in Him by washing our feet ; so that
we can individually apply to ourselves the words spoken to Israel
in Isa. xliii. 2.
" When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee,
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ! "
" They that know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee ;
because Thou Lord never failest them that seek Thee." (Ps.
ix. 10.) 1.
Had not Jehovah, now may Israel say,
Had not Jehovah stood upon our side,
When men against us rose in dense array — •
When blaz'd their wrath forth 'gainst us far and wide —

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH. 199

Then had they us, while yet alive, devour'd —
As waters, had they drown' d us in their tide —
Yea, had themselves, as waters, o'er us pour'd —
And had our souls submerg'd beneath their pride.

Now be Jehovah bless'd, Who did forbear
From yielding us to our foes' teeth a prey.
E'en as a bird 'scap'd from the fowler's snare,
Our soul now goes rejoicing on its way.

Broke is the snare that held us in its thrall,
And we escap'd ! Be ours then to proclaim,
He who made heav'n and earth is over all !
Our help is alway in Jehovah's Name !

PSALM CXXV.

TITLE.
A Song of ascents.
AEGUMENT.
The Lord hath declared His purpose of manifesting by dealings
with Israel in the earth during this mortal life, visible instances
of His providential government. (Isa. xliii. 10; Eom. ix. 17.)
To this end He gave them, after their exodus from Egypt and
journey through the wilderness, the inheritance in Canaan by
miraculous victories under Joshua.
Then again, for the same reason, He protected the Israelites in
their land from invasion by their neighbours, during the time of
their males having annually gone up to keep the three great
festivals before the Tabernacle. (Exod. xxxiv. 24.) And again,
since their captivity, by singularly causing the ten tribes, which

200 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH.
are the larger portion, to be outcasts ; but the two tribes of
Judah and Benjamin, to be conspicuously dwelling alone, and
not reckoned among the nations. (Compare Numb, xxiii. 9 with
Isa. xi. 12.)
In like manner, it is to be gathered from Scripture that God
will yet make plain before men's eyes by His dealings with Israel
at a day fast approaching, the judgment to come.
On this point the testimony gathered by me from Scripture is,
that after a commencement of the judgment day shall have been
made at the approach of our Lord towards this earth (1 Thess.
iv. 16) when the sainted dead together with the sanctified among
the living shall have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air,
judgment shall begin at the house of God. (1 Pet. iv. 17 — 19.)
After this shall follow the coming of the Lord with all His
saints to the Mount of Olives for the rescue of a remnant of tho
citizens of Jerusalem, subsequent to its capture ; as described in
Zech. xiv. 4, 5 — a coming which shall be seen by those alone
whose eyes are opened for that purpose; as were theirs who
witnessed the Lord's return from the grave after His resurrec
tion, and were present at His Ascension from the Mount of
Olives. (Acts x. 40, 41, and i. 9.)
After this shall follow the preaching of the gospel by this
remnant, when duly prepared for that errand, among the ten
tribes of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, with incidental
benefit to the Gentiles among whom they shall discharge this
ministry. (Eom. xi. 26.)
But upon the nations at present called to be Christian, for the
most part cruelly persecuting these faithful Israelitish mission
aries, and in their folly conceiving, that it remains for them to
rebuild on the desolate site of Jerusalem the capital of the
world's empire under Christ ; these powers (entitled in Eev. xix.
20 the beast and the false prophet) shall be confounded by mani
festation of the Sign of the Son of Man unto them in the clouds
of heaven at the valley of Jehoshaphat. (Joel iii. 9 — 16 ; Isa.
xvii. 12—14).
And then shall take place, as is gathered by me" from Scrip
ture, commencement of judgment upon earth before the eyes of
mortal men.
For the beast and the false prophet with their confederates
shall be there cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim
stone. (Eev. xix. 20.)
And according to Isa. xxvi. 14 it is said of these, " They are
dead, they shall not live — they are deceased, they shall not rise :
therefore hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and made all
their memory to perish"— so that they will have no further
judgment. (Compare Eev. xx. 10.)
Whereas, of the persecuted Israelites, whom those nations,
composing the beast ruled by the false prophet, had slain, it is

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH. 201
(as gathered by me from Scripture) testified at .the 19th verse of
of the same chapter of Isaiah : —
" Thy dead men shall live ; together with my dead body shall
they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust ! for thy dew
is as the dew of herbs ; and the earth shall east out the dead.
" Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers— that is, thy
graves — and shut thy doors about thee : hide thyself as it were
for a little moment,- until the indignation be overpast.
" For behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
" The earth also shall disclose her blood ; and Bhall no more
cover her slain."
Moreover, upon this resurrection of the martyred Israelites
and their converts shall follow (as is gathered by me from Scrip
ture) the going forth of these risen saints, along with other
Israelitish survivors of that last tribulation, in mortal bodies, to
fulfil the prediction in Ps. cxlix. from verse 5 to the end (though
not perhaps immediately) where it is written —
" Let the saints be joyful in glory : let them sing aloud upon
their beds.
" Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-
edged sword in their hands.
" To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishment
upon the peoples.
" To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters
of iron.
" To execute upon them the judgment written.
" This honour have all His saints. Hallelujah !"
A prediction entirely borne out by our Lord's words in Eev.
ii. 26 :
" He that overcometh and keepeth My words unto the end,"
(that is, of this present age) " to him will I give power over the
nations. Aud he shall rule them with a rod of iron : as the
vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers : even as I
received of My Father !"
These passages set forth on the one hand the judgments to
overtake the wicked doers.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, another class of passages ex
plicitly set forth the recompense in that day appointed for the
just, that shall then be in mortal bodies on the earth.
For instance, in Matt. xiii. 41 — 43, the Saviour saith in His
interpretation of the parable of the tares among the wheat :
" The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall
gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which
do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
" Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the king
dom of their Father.

202 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH.
" Who hath ears to hear, let him hear !"
Agreeably herewith our Lord, in His Epistle to the Angel of
the Church of Sardis, saith (Eev. iii. 5) :
" He that overcometh, the same shall walk with Me in white
(that is, lustrous) raiment ; and 1 will not blot out His Name out
of the book of life, but I will confess His Name before My
Father, and before His Angels."
Here is specific mention of an emanation of light from the
mortal bodies of certain faithful ones in Israel at that day to be
so honoured ; who (as is by me gathered out of Isa. xxvi. 19),
are, after martyrdom, to come forth from their graves in mortal
bodies : and (as is gathered by me from Eev. iii. 5) shall be
exempted from liability to fall therefrom, or otherwise their
return to earth would hardly be a gain to them. (Eev. iii. 12.)
Furthermore, in Isa. lxv. 22, the blessing of greatly extended
life is promised to the sanctified ones in Israel of that age —
" For as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people,"
and " they shall long enjoy the work of their hands"— a testimony
illustrated by words of our Lord in His Epistle to the bishop of
the Church of Ephesus, " that to him who overcometh will I
give to eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of
God." Let so much suffice for scriptural testimony concerning God's
purpose of displaying His reward of the righteous on earth in
the case of His Israel, exemplifying the Lord's language in
Matt. xxv. 14, in the parable of the talents, where he states, that
after absence for a long time, on His return to inquire into the
fidelity of His servants in use of the talents committed to them,
He shall say to the faithful (verse 21), " Well done ! good and
faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, rule
thou now over many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord!" or as St Luke expresses it (xix. 17), "rule thou over
ten cities ; " — shewing that the Lord is not here speaking of judg
ment universally upon all the righteous, but only in special, of
those that shall have passed through the last persecution, already
spoken of.
At the same time, these words express the spirit in which
judgment shall be universally administered to the righteous.
Let it, however, be observed how the Lord's words above
mentioned in the parable of the tares concerning " the gathering
out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them that do
iniquity," throw light upon the 3rd verse of the psalm before us,
namely, " The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of
the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto
iniquity" — here being an explanation of the reason why the
Lord shall by the ministry of angels gather out of His kingdom
" all things that offend."
That which was so strictly commanded to Moses and Joshua,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FTFTH. 203
as we read in Deut. vii. 2 — 5, but which the Israelites thwarted
their rulers in carrying out, shall be rigorously enforced through
out the nations at present Christian, which are to be ruled by
the sanctified ones of that latter generation in Israel.
The above remarks it is trusted suffice to shew that the 3rd
verse refers to that time when God will make bare on earth His
last judgment in regard to Israel.
That manifestation shall be executed at the commencement of
the great day of judgment. So shall the Lord fulfil that testi
mony in Prov. xi. 31, " Behold the righteous shall be recom
pensed in the earth ; much more the ungodly and the sinner."
That is, it shall be so done, not for all, but in respect of a certain
generation — for vindication of God's dealings.
Here St. Paul, in 1 Cor. x. 11, speaks of that time as one at
which the ends of the several ages that have preceded this — the
Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, and the Mosaic, — shall have a con
current termination : concurrent, I say ; for it has been shewn
already that the righteous dead from Abel's day, together with
the saints worthy of translation, upon occasion of the Lord's
approach toward this earth, shall be caught up to meet Him in
the air, and there undergo judgment; while the survivors on
earth in Christian nations will till up their measure of iniquity
by persecution of a remnant whom the Lord Jesus shall as
miraculously call to be believers in Him, by appearance to them
on the Mount of Olives, as was Paul when arrested by Him on
his road to Damascus to be thereupon made His minister.
And since these wrong-doers shall be cast down into the
bottomless pit, red-handed, as were the inhabitants of Sodom, or
Korah and his company, whom the earth opened her mouth to
swallow up ; on this account the Apostle warns all of this age in
the kingdom of heaven to beware of indulging those errors of
doctrine and of conduct which may even prepare them for such
an instantaneous destruction without a moment for repentance.
For God ordinarily gives us time before He strikes to flee the
threatened punishment. (Gen! xviii. 17, and xix. 12, 13.)
And there are in every such instance of space to repent many,
we may believe, who at the last moment profit by it. (1 Pet.
iii. 19-21.)
But the Apostle points out that such shall not be the case at
the end of our age !
For it shall come suddenly, in an instant ! And we know not
how soon the world of this age may be put an end to. by the
coming of the first resurrection. (Heb. x. 26, 27.)
How carefully then ought we to aim at being of the number, in
these Christian countries, for whom the psalmist, in the 4th and
5th verses, so significantly prays " as them that are upright in
their hearts " (see Chron. xxix. 17), whom he designates by the
name of " Israel," shewing that he here had regard to that dis-

204 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH.
tinction between Israel in a carnal sense by ceremonial title, and
Israel in regard of " the only remnant of the true Israelites "
born from above, as set forth in John iii. 5, viii. 35, and Eom.
ix. 60.

All in Jehovah who believe,
Like Zion's Mount shall be,
Which off its base no pow'r shall heave-
At rest immoveably.

Jehovah near His saints doth stand,
Securely shielding them :
Like as the mountains of His land
Enclose Jerusalem.

Within His saints' inheritance
The wicked shall not dwell ;
Lest they fall by incontinence,
As their forefathers fell.

With all upright in heart and true,
Jehovah, deal Thou well ;
Make knaves their crooked practice rue.
Peace be on Israel !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIXTH; 20.5
PSALM CXXVI.
TITLE.
A Song of ascents.
AEGUMENT.
It appears to me that the redemption of Zion from captivity,
spoken of in the first verse of this psalm, is the same with that
predicted by our Lord in Luke xxi. 27, 28, and consequently
synchronising with manifestation of the sign of the Son of Man
in heaven.
It is true that sundry commentators incline to the idea that
this psalm was composed in celebration of the return from
Babylon. But when we look at the testimonies in Ezra and Nehemiah
to the actual condition of the Jews about the time of their return
and long afterwards, we find no place for such a supposition.
In Ezra iii. 12, 13, though there was joy at rebuilding of the
temple, it was drowned in loud lamentations of the fathers that
recollected the former house.
And again in Ezra viii., where that noble Jew led a second
time a band of his countrymen to the land of their forefathers,
we see by verses 21 — 23 how dejected they were.
Also in Nehem. iv. 1 — 3 is to be seen how contemptuously
the heathen at that time spake of the Jewish efforts to rebuild
their city and temple ; instead of saying, as predicted in the
second verse of this psalm — " Jehovah hath done great things for
them." Again, at a later period, when the Septuagint doctors trans
lated their Scriptures into Greek, it has been shewn, in treating
of foregoing psalms, that they looked to the coming of Messiah
as the only time of the nation's liberation ; and spoke of their
captivity as even then continuing, though they had returned to
their own land.
The redemption spoken of in the first verse is treated as
accomplished ; because the prophets were accustomed to speak
of what God had promised, as already obtained ; owing to the
firm persuasion of "attainment thereto.
In this way we have seen that the eighty-fifth psalm is to be
understood, which undoubtedly referred to the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, through His birth of the Virgin, and again
from the grave. (Acts xiii. 32 — 35.)
In a like sense we therefore reckon the psalmist to have here
said —
" In Jehovah's turning again the returning of Zion, we were
like them that dream !"
— meaning, that when He has done this, we shall be so.

206 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND- TWENTY-SIXTH.
This interpretation of the first verse is borne out by observing
that the verbs of the second verse are in the future tense ; as
follows : —
" Then shall our mouth be filled with laughter, and our tongue
with singing ;
" Then shall they say among the heathen, Jehovah hath done
great things for them !"
(And Israel shall reply) —
" Jehovah hath done great things for us, whereof we are
glad!" Now, in regard to the dove-tailing of this psalm with other
testimonies in Scripture touching the redemption of Israel, re
ference has already been made to our Lord's words in Luke xxi.
28, as synchronising therewith. On that supposition, it is to be
observed, that the Scriptures speak of a great tribulation (Jer.
xxx. 5 — 7 and Matt. xxiv. 21, 22) to overtake the Jews imme
diately prior to their final redemption.
This, it is with great probability thought, will overtake them
through the bitter persecution of them by the nations nominally
Christian, after that the Lord shall have returned to the small
remnant of them surviving that capture of Jerusalem foretold in
Zech. xiv. ; and fitted them to teach His pure Gospel (Eom. xi.
26), and sent them forth to convert the outcasts of Israel and
the dispersed of Judah. (Isa. xi. 12.)
The nominally Christian nations being, as the Scripture seems
to intimate (2 Tim. iii. 1 — 5), at that time indulging notions of
ceremonial righteousness before God, after the manner of the
Pharisees in the days of Jesus, will be (as is expected) no less
fierce and bloodthirsty toward those Jewish missionaries for
preaching justification by faith only in the merits of Christ, than,
were the Pharisees at Jesus for the same. (Luke xviii. 14.)
And it is to be gathered from sundry places in Scripture, taken
in connection with Isaiah xxvi. 17 — 21, that the authorities
throughout most nominally Christian countries of the isles, will
so bitterly persecute those Jewish missionaries, that they will be
compelled to accept death as their only escape.
When therefore they shall have been to a great extent slain
(Matt. xxiv. 22) for their testimony to Jesus (Eev. vi. 11 and
xiii. 10, 11), these nations — constituting "the beast and the
false prophet" — havfc^ been rebuked in the Valley of Jehosha-
phat by the Lord Himself (Joel iii. 12 and Eev. xix. 20) there
will simultaneously take place in all countries, where the recent
martyrdoms of Jewish missionaries shall have taken place, an
emergence of them from their graves in lustrous raiment, so
astounding to the residue of the Christian nations that had not
gone up to Jerusalem, as to make them exclaim —
'' Jehovah hath done great things for them !"

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIXTH. 207
and also to dispose the authorities among those nations to tender
every public help for their honourable conveyance to the Lord's
land by way of an offering—" a peace offering" — see Isa. lx. 9, 10,
and lxvi. 19, 20, and Mai. i. 11.
If this is a scriptural anticipation of the redemption here
spoken of, no wonder that the happy recipients of it shall be
" like them that dream ;" like Peter in Acts xii. 9, when the
angel liberated him from the prison. The misery under which
these Jewish missionaries shall have succumbed, will have been
so oppressive, as to make the change to glory in mortal flesh, on
liberation from their tombs, to be like a dream !
But the Gentiles who behold it will exclaim — " Jehovah hath
done great things for them !"
Compare Ps. Ixviii. 12 — 14. Oh ! what a march will that be
for Israel through the wilderness of the peoples ! (Ezek. xx.
33-44.) At the fourth verse occurs the following petition —
" Turn again our captivity, 0 Jehovah, as the streams in the
South."
The word in the original for streams, D^QH, is properly
"hollows" that are receptacles for water, as are lakes at base of
higher lands adjacent, sometimes called " basins."
Now " the South" is with as strict propriety affirmed of " the
land beyond Ethiopia" in Africa, as " the North" is of Eussia in
Europe and in Asia.
And recent travellers — Speke, Baker, Livingstone — have
shewn, that the flowing of the Nile is fed and regulated by the
filling, and then emptying of, the overflow of a vast system or
chain of lakes or basins in the interior of Africa, 2000"miles and
upwards from the Nile's mouth. First, the rains in Abyssinia
swell the Atbara or Blue Nile, which emptying itself into the
White Nile feeds afresh that exhausted river, which in the first
instance speeds away to the interior to the chain of basins for
the purpose of raising them to the needful level for the wonted
overflow. By-and-bye, in June, the sun melts the snow on the
Mountains of the Moon under the Equator, and these waters
reaching the Nile, which has by this time filled up the lakes,
causes the overflow to roll for a thousand miles with an unex
hausted flood through the burning deserts of Upper and Lower
Egypt, fertilising the land and gladdening the population wher
ever they reach, for the four months of June, July, August and
September. Thus the lake system of Africa supplies a land of
drought with a mysterious flood from a hidden source, to a
people that would otherwise be destroyed for want of water.
Owing to the overflowing waters of the basins they are made
rich, though themselves having no rain ! (Eom. xi. 31.)
Now, it seems to me, that this wonderful event annually

208 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIXTH.
recurring in Nature, of which the psalmist's countrymen may be
supposed to have been easily aware, was here employed to sym
bolise the mysterious return of that portion of the outcasts of
Israel that is in Africa.
For the xviiith of Isaiah, verse 1, beginning —
" Ho ! to the land of the winged, tsil-tsal — or tze-tze fly" — is
a call to some remnant of that people " beyond the rivers of
^Ethiopia" or Abyssinia. The psalmist apparently provides, in
this fourth verse, the " dispersed" Jews among nations nominally
Christian, a prayer for the recovery of " the outcasts ;" that they
too should return to bless the nations on their route to the
Lord's land, after the same mysterious manner wherein the Nile
waters, from no humanly discerned source, enrich the desert of
Egypt. This prayer reminds us of St. Paul's vehement asseveration in
Eom. xi. 12 — 15. In the next verse the psalmist reverts to the
sorrow in which the Jewish missionaries sent forth out of Zion
shall accomplish their errand. (Eom. xi. 26.) For it is not
invariably true, that those " who sow in tears, shall reap in joy ;"
for some sorrow is not after a godly sort : and even if it be, there
is no pledge from God that it shall redound to the sufferer's
greater joy on earth in the mortal body ; but it is intended to be
here testified that the Jewish missionaries specially referred to
shall find this to be the case. -(Isa. xxv. 10.)
The last verse treats of the same sorrowful discharge of the
Gospel mission by individual Jews : its literal words are —
" Going to go one shall weep, bearing his seed-basket.
Coming to come he shall laugh, bearing his sheaves ! "
the meaning being, that though the ministry among the nations
discharged by those Jews shall have been embittered with unpre
cedented tribulation, ending in their glad acceptance of death
for the sake of the Lord Jesus : on the morn of their resurrec
tion, when they shall see many clad in white lustrous raiment
like their own — out of their own countrymen and the Gentiles
made one in Jesus (Ephes. xi. 19 ; Eev. iii. 5)— this sight of " the
fruit of their labour" will produce ecstatic praise of God. (Isa.
xlix. 4 and 18—21.) Surely here is a psalm well fitted to be
studied when contemplating, as we are invited to do on the third
Sunday in Advent, that part of the judgment on behalf of the
righteous, which at the beginning of the Millennium the Lord at
His return shall execute on earth ; after that the judgment
upon them caught up to meet Him in the air shall have been
concluded !
For it is written in the fifty-eighth psalm, verse 11, " a man
shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous. Verily
there is a God that judgeth in the earth !"
Here is an exemplification to the full of that praise which the

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTH-SIXTH. 209
Lord Jesus pronounced on John Baptist (Matt. xi. 2 — 15), which
is by the Apostolic Church from the earliest age cited as a
sample of what He will pronounce on His faithful ones that
serve Him, in that generation prior to His return.
It surely is of the utmost importance to join consideration of
what God will do for the chosen generation of Israel on earth
with what He will do for us of this age, whether out of Jews or
Gentiles, who about the time of his return shall be caught up to
meet Him in the air. (1 Thess. iv. 16.) For it is by dealings
with Israel in the flesh, that God hath pledged Himself to make
incontestably known upon earth His Providential rule, and only
way of justification !
The Bishops of Eome called the members of their supreme
council Cardinals, in the expectation that all Christendom would
look to them as the rulers, on whose decrees, as on hinges, the
world's affairs would take a new direction. Whereas the Scrip
tures shew that God hath appointed His decrees immediately
from heaven respecting His people Israel, to be as it were the
Cardinals or hinges, which He will publicly move, when about to
turn the current of renewal with the Holy Spirit, by means of
the Gospel in a new direction ! (Matt. xxi. 43, and Eom. xi.
25.) Hence the importance of studying in Scripture God's
promises to Israel, and the progress of events on earth toward
their fulfilment.

Jehovah's turning Zion back
From her captivity,
Made us, as them that dream, and lack
Proof of reality !
2.
Drown'd in our laughter and our song,
Shall heathen voices say,
Jehovah doth avenge their wrong —
Jehovah hath, this day !
3.
Turn us, as in the South is turn'd
The lake-chain's overflow,
Jehovah ! so shall they have earn'd
Joy, who in tears did sow.

210 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENTH.
4.
Tho' he that, as he goeth, grieves,
What time he bears good seed —
Come harvest, to come fill'd with sheaves
In transports, is his mead.

PSALM CXXVII.
TITLE.
A Song of ascents for Solomon.
In reliance on the title, explained as that of Ps. Ixxii, it may be
concluded to have been composed by David, for Solomon's use.
One observation in support of this conclusion is gathered from
that expression at the end. of verse 2, " He giveth His beloved
sleep." The word for " His beloved " being in Hebrew the very
name " Jedidiah," which Nathan was commissioned by the Lord
to give to Solomon. (2 Sam. xii. 25.)
AEGUMENT.
Viewing the psalm before us as the work of David in his old
age, it expresses his solemn conviction that by God alone could
his house or kingdom be established.
The aged king appears to have referred in this psalm to the
words of God brought unto him by Nathan, in reply to David's
desire to build a house or temple to the Lord.
In 2 Sam. vii. verse 11, we read that Nathan added, "Also
the Lord telleth thee, that He will build thee'a house." " And
when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
1 will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy
bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house
for My Name ; and I will stablish the throne of His kingdom for
ever." These words, though in a proximate sense referring to Solomon,
did indeed reach forward to the coming of Christ — that Son of
David, which should proceed forth from his bowels, (Acts ii. 30,)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENTH. 211
from Whom, (as was predicted in the 89th psalm, quoted by
Nathan, in 2 Sam. vii. 14.) God had, before David's birth, pro
mised never to take away His mercy; but that it should be
" sure." (Isa. lv. 3.)
Here let it be observed, how the word " house" is in 2 Sam. vii.
11 and 13, used in two senses — being by David employed to mean
a temple ; but by the Lord applied to the family which should
spring out of the loins of David.
Here is the requisite authority for taking " house " in this
psalm to mean a family ; for in that way the mention of " children,"
iii verse 3, will exhibit a connected train of thought throughout
the psalm.
We are to consider that David, bearing in mind what great
promises God had made to him concerning the line of descendants
which should lead up to the birth of Messiah, shews how so great
promises were to be no ground with Solomon for an assumption
that the truth of God would compel Him to make good His word
on this head, no matter how David's intermediate descendants
might misbehave. The eighty-ninth psalm, from which Nathan
had been instructed to quote, warned David that his descendants
would provoke God to inflict heavy calamities on his family ; Who
nevertheless would be faithful to His promise concerning the
birth of the Messiah in David's line.
Accordingly, David when writing this psalm, for Solomon's
guidance in the matter of seeking a goodly family of sons and
daughters, (compare 1 Chron. xvii. 16 — 27.) charges him (as we
see in the first verse of this psalm), to trust not so much in his
youth and health and wealth, as in the Lord, for the procure
ment of a goodly family ; and of course meant, that if Solomon
would take the Lord for the ground of his hope in this matter,
he must make the Lord's precepts the rule of his public and pri
vate conduct. It is lamentable to think, that notwithstanding
Solomon's pre-eminent endowment with genius, and his aptitude
for scientific acquirements — not to mention the promises of
Divine favour, confirmed by the Lord's appearance to him twice,
( I Kings xi. 9.) he neither heeded the precepts of the Lord in
his choice of a wife, nor yet in regard to the government of his
state, called in this first verse " the city." The progress of
Israel as a nation from the time that they left Egypt with its
bondage, may be said to have been advancing onward to its
culmination, when Solomon ascended the throne of his father
David. Wherefore for him, in the face of God's law expressed in
Deut. xvii. 16 — 20, to incline to Egypt's king of all monarchs
for a wife— to negociate procurement of horses from thence,
(2 Chron. ix. 21 — 28.) to multiply his store of gold and of
wives — was to walk contrary to the Lord in every particular
specified. Added to this, he, as testified in 2 Chron. viii. 11,
p 2

212 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENTH.
provided, without compunction, for his heathen queen, a place
for her idolatrous worship ; which was in the teeth of the Lord's
law, m Deut. vii. 2 — 26 ; and " because punishment on his evil
work was not executed speedily, therefore his heart obeying the
motions of sins in his flesh " (Rom. vii. 5.) " was fully set in him
to do evil " in this direction more and more— by loving many
strange women, (1 Kings xi. 1—43.) and building idolatrous
places for their country's custom. The consequence was, that
he not only manned his numerous forts with watchmen in vain,
1 Kings ix. 22 ; 2 Chron. ix. 25 ; (for long before he died, ten of
the tribes were ready to revolt from him, and actually did rebel
on his son's accession to the throne) ; but beside this, in the
matter of building his house, notwithstanding his multitude of
wives, history mentions but one child as borne him — his son
Eehoboam — so that the line through which the Messiah was to
come was all but cut off in the very first stage of the descent.
As Solomon was so extensive a builder of fortresses, and so
diligent a pursuer of wisdom, he doubtless rose up early in that
beautiful climate, and grudged himself the hours for sleep ; pre
senting in fact the appearance sketched in the second verse of
this psalm, of one who found the day too short for all the
schemes he had the vigour to originate, and the wish to carry
out. But in his eagerness after results, as though he had no time
for the worship of God, and saw not any need of God's blessing,
when strong enough to do things of himself, he emphatically
" ate the bread of sorrows," as he testified in his book entitled,
Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher ; saying at the last verse of the
first chapter, " In much wisdom is much grief; and he that in-
creaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." Although this was
true in Solomon's experience, the reason was to be found in the
warning words of his father in the first two verses of this psalm.
It may be truly said, that where the pursuit of wisdom is
made, as it ought to go second to that of God's service, accord
ing to His inspired word, so far from increase of wisdom or
knowledge being an increase of sorrow, it, on the contrary,
greatly increases our means of joy in the Lord, by ministering
fresh themes of inexhaustible richness for the soul's employment
in praise of Him. (Philip, i. 9.) Thus it appears that Solomon's
testimony, even when guided by inspiration, was like his inner
life before God, a conflict of utterances, true indeed, like
Balaam's, but needing to be interpreted for or against himself,
by careful comparison of them with the inspired utterances of
more consistent men in other parts of holy Scripture. For
Scripture must not be made to contradict itself. Had Solomon
but employed his unrivalled genius, and the vast resources of his
state in the tender fear of the Lord God of his father, the
results would have been very different, (Deut. vii.) ; his own life

Psalm the hundred and twenty-seventh. 213
would have been prolonged, (1 Kings iii. 14.) ; he might have
left a numerous posterity ; and have kept Israel undivided.
In vain did David fondly anticipate that Solomon's name
Jedidiah, or loved of God, would be a foretoken of his numerous
progeny, which David justly considered so desirable for the
establishment of a royal house. Had Solomon, who was free to
marry in his youth, sought the guidance of the Lord in the
choice of his queen, he might have had children of youth, which
David, in verse 4, compares to arrows in the hand of a mighty
man, wherewith to effectually repel all attacks from enemies
in the gate of council (Psalm ix. 13), or of war, (Judges v. 8.)
The expression " He," namely God, " giveth His beloved
sleep," is very emphatic.
Luther appears to have best comprehended the meaning of
this clause, who in his German version has it thus, " Surely God
giveth it in sleep ;" as being a reference to the fact in nature,
that children grow in stature while asleep.
So sweetly, so gently likewise, does the blessing of God in
answer to a believer's labour in dependence on Him, work out
the accomplishment of his desires he knows not how! This
dependence on God conduces to longevity. For whereas ex
cessive care wears one away, legitimate diligence with subse
quent reliance on God, makes the strait tolerable. (See
Gen. xxxii.)
In this sense our Saviour saith, " Take therefore no thought
for the morrow," that is for the issue, after you have done all that
prudence and your own resources leave in your power for to
day, and have committed your labour to the Lord in prayer.
To-morrow belongs to the Lord, and " He will provide." (Gen.
xxii. 14.) "Let the morrow therefore take thought for the
things of itself." (1 Pet. v. 7.) " Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof" — evil being here in the sense . of affliction.
(Matt. vi. 34.) St. Paul gives similar counsel in Phil. iv. 6.
Here then is a rule of life for every one living under the light of
revealed religion, whether in regard to private or public mat
ters, in the state or the church of God. Parents need not be
overtasked with anxiety in regard to their children, because of
seeing no signs of their conversion ; nor yet ministers, in regard
of their flocks. (See Eceles. xi. 6.) Let them make the charge in
the first two verses of this psalm, the system on which they pro
ceed, trusting in the Lord, Who giveth the increase in His
beloved's sleep. So trusts the great Son of David in His
Father, after having Himself finished the work given Him to do,
" to see His seed, and prolong His days." (Isa. liii. 10.)

214 psalmthe hundred and twenty-seventh.

Vainly the house were built
Without Jehovah's care,
Vainly the city watch'd
Without Jehovah there.

To rise before the dawn ,
And late to take one's rest,
To eat the bread of care
One vainly is distrest.
3.
He surely His belov'd
With growth in sleep endows-
So from Jehovah drops
His grace too on one's vows.
4.
Lo ! from Jehovah comes
The offspring of the womb.
Like darts in mighty hands
Are children of youth's bloom.

Happy the man whose house
Doth with such darts abound;
Foes hardly in the gate
'Gainst him will hold their ground.

PSALM the hundred and TWENTY-EIGHTH. 215

PSALM C XXVIII.

TITLE.
A Song of ascents.
In regard to the time when it is probable that this psalm was
composed, the expression in the first line, " Blessed is every one
that feareth the Lord," instead of the more usual form, " Blessed
is the man," inclines one to assign this psalm a late origin, that
is to say after the Captivity.
The phrase in verse 5, " The Lord shall bless Thee out of Zion,"
is apparently a reference to the prediction in Ps. ex. 2, touching
the sending forth of the rod of the Lord's power out of Zion at
the coming of Messiah to Israel.
That coming was expected to bring peace to Jerusalem, with
plenty, and length of days, and a numerous progeny to every one
in Israel that should be living under Messiah's rule.
The Scriptures also spake of Gentiles being through faith
partakers in these blessings. (See Isa. ii. 1 — 4.)
I£ it be granted that the blessings characterising Messiah's
reign over Israel are referred to in the last two verses of this
psalm ; then the expression in the first verse, " Blessed is every
one that feareth the Lord," may have been designedly intended
to include the Gentile along with the believing Israelite herein
at the time spoken of. (See 2 Chron. vi. 32, and Isa. lvi. 7.)
The Jews on their return from Babylon appear to have been
more thoroughly persuaded than before of the part which Gen
tiles should have in the blessings which should through them
flow from Messiah.
Hence the expression, " Blessed is every one that feareth the
Lord," may be regarded as akin to that of Peter, when, as related
in Acts x. 34, after witnessing the work of the Holy Ghost on
Gentile hearts in the house of Cornelius, he said, " Of a truth I
perceive, that God is no respecter of persons. But in every
nation, he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted
with Him."
The translation of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek for
Ptolemy Philadelphus shews that Jewish Eabbis had in that day
enlightened and liberal views upon this subject. And it seems
to me that they may have not been the first of their countrymen
after their return from Babylon to entertain such evangelical
desires — but that the possible effect of Daniel's holy example,
and that of other pious 'Jews, upon Gentiles in Babylon and
among the Persians during the Captivity, may have enlarged their

216 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH^
hearts on this subject, after the manner in which Peter's is shewn
to have been enlarged, at sight of what God wrought by means
of the word of His grace to the conversion of souls unto Him.

AEGUMENT.
This psalm begins with the words —
" Blessed is every one. that feareth the Lord, that walketh in
His ways."
On this, let it suffice to observe, that the fear here inculcated,
is not that which superstitious people manifest when afraid to be
in the dark, or to pass through a church-yard by night — a super
stition which is compatible with an utterly ill-conditioned temper
morally — but a fear which disposes one to heed what God bids us
do ; which is, to walk in His ways.
There is no excuse for not walking in His ways, where the
holy Scriptures are freely circulated. But where their circula
tion is authoritatively checked, the more blame rests on those
who stand in the way of everyone's enlightenment by them, in
the fear of God.
For the holy Scriptures contain beyond question the only
authoritative exposition of those ways wherein God would have
every one walk who fears Him.
The following verses may be regarded as exponents of these
ways. Firstly, man shall not eat the bread of idleness, but be dili
gent. The words of this verse are —
" For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands. Happy shalt
thou be, and it shall be well with thee."
Although God appoints some in the course of His providence
to be born in so wealthy a condition as not to need work for
bare subsistence, He does not thereby mean that they should
grow up in idleness. The evils of idleness are emphatically set
forth in holy Scripture ; in no place more so than in Ezek. xvi.
49, where we read, " Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister
Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness."
Diligence is also solemnly inculcated, as in Prov. xii. 27, xiii. 4.
But there are various departments of labour, mental as well as
manual, in the social fabric, wherein God requires men to en
gage themselves in His fear, according as He shall have ordered
their birth, of poor or wealthy parents.
Hence St. Paul saith, in 1 Cor. vii. 20, " Let every man abide
in the same calling wherein he was called ;" and again at verse
24, " Let him therein abide with God,''
Also in 2 Tim. ii. 20 we read —

.PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH. 217
¦ " In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of
silver, but also of wood and of earth ; and some to honour and
some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from
these" — namely, the profane and vain babblings (verse 16), and
youthful lusts (verse 22), but follow after graces, " he shall be a
vessel of honour " in the house of God, that shall be made new.
(See Isa. lxv. 17 ; Eev. xxi. 1 — 5.)
Also in 2 Thess. iii. 10, St. Paul saith, "If any would not
work, neither should he eat."
Again, where one labours, it is God's way that he should
eat thereof; that is, should spend so much of his earnings
as is needful for procurement of food that shall sustain his
strength. On this point, the wise man saith in Eccles. ii. 24, " There is
nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour."
It therefore is not according to the way of God, that the man
who fears Him should stint himself in regard of needful food
and clothing, lest he should not earn enough ; he ought to trust
in God to give him means of employment ; and he is to use his
resources intelligently, that he may be ready for what oppor
tunities of further employment may offer themselves. When
this is done, not lavishly, but in dependence on God, worthy
reliance is thereby shewn upon Him, and happiness shall ensue
to such an one, as also a flourishing state of affairs. By the
third verse, it appears to be the way of God, that this man
should marry when able to support a wife : for it is not good for
man to be alone. (Gen. ii. 18.) And woman is sent into the
world to be man's helpmeet ; her provision too is by the labour
of man's hands ; so that it is part of God's ways, that one who
feareth Him, should think of providing for some one woman, as
his wife ; and that too in the prime of life, so soon as a man finds
wherewithal to eat by the labour of his hands.
For the children of youth are the strong and healthy children.
(Ps. cxxvii. 4.) Nor shall he, whom God has enabled to eat by
the labour of his hands, find himself no longer able to do so, in
case his wife shall bear him a numerous family ; on the contrary,
he shall still eat of the labour of his hands, as also his wife and
his young children.
The Lord will no more permit the wayfaring man, who has
contracted marriage in His fear, to fail in something to eat,
something to drink, something to put on (Matt. vi. 31, 32) — than
did the Lord Jesus permit that pious couple, to whose marriage
" He was called," to sustain an abrupt hindrance of their tem
perate festivity, through lack of wine for the guests.
The fourth verse, being prefaced with the exclamation, Be
hold! emphatically challenges God's people to make proof of
His truth herein.

218 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH.
That man, who eats of the fruit of his labour, and marries
early shall be happy, and it shall be well with him !
The next two verses pass to specification of what this indus
trious man, who walks in God's ways, is to do with his family,
that they may be reared for God. By the words in verse five,
" The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion," reference was appa
rently made by the psalmist to the coming of Messiah ; of whom
it had been prophesied in Ps. ex. 2, "The Lord shall send the
rod of Thy power out of Zion:" as was the case when the
Apostles preached it there, proclaiming the things that our
Saviour testified (Luke xix. 42.) belong to the peace of Jeru
salem. Although for this present age in the kingdom of heaven,
literal Jerusalem has not received Christ's peace ; yet the chil
dren of Zion born there, (Ps. lxxxvii. 6, 7,) by faith in the rod
of His power, Who there rose from the dead, and is the Besur-
rection and the Life — those children of Zion, whether Jews or
Gentiles — being the only remnant at this present, of the true
Israelites, by fearing the Lord, and walking in His ways, see
even now spiritually the things belonging to the peace of Jeru
salem. And it is implied in the fifth and sixth verses, that these
Israelites indeed, who walk in the ways of the Lord, shall see
their children Christianly and virtuously brought up ; because
they remember the Divine precept, " Train up a child in the way
he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Marriage was instituted for this important purpose of bringing
up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
(Mai. ii. 15.)
Marriage was instituted by God for the purpose of bringing
into the world successive generations of elect souls, which God
had before all eternity covenanted with His Son to save, and
give to Him as by a covenant of marriage.
He might have ordered otherwise the entrance of these souls
upon a course of probation during life on earth. But none can
be conceived so fitted, as this, of their descent from a human
pair, to bind the whole in one community. Owing to this man
ner of entrance on bodily life, all are for their early years sub
jected to the absolute rule of their parents. Now, had man
never fallen, this method of providing for training of souls newly
come into the world, would have been admirably fitted to have
prepared them for eminence in God's own rest ; to which, after
this life of probation had been passed through, they should have
been translated.
The success of Satan in seducing man into transgression only
made this way for the entrance of elect souls into the fallen
world more to their advantage, than if they had entered it as
adults ; if only parents would know how to give their own

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH. 219
children the best instruction in their power. Thus education
and training were given a vast advantage, by being confided to
parents, who might begin to work on God's behalf, for promotion
of their child's acquaintance with Him from infancy.
Here is the best method we can conceive for preparing souls,
as they should come into the world, for willing enrolment, when
of full age, by confirmation, in the congregation of God ; and for
union by faith with Christ in spirit. But as the state in which
man is placed here is one of probation, whatever God gives for
his good is through his misuse capable of perversion.
Hence, wherever parents have been debarred from oppor
tunity of knowing God's truth, or have been indifferent to it,
though within their reach, their very influence over their chil
dren has been ignorantly employed for their hardening in ways
of error antagonistic to G-od's truth.
This makes it only more important that those living in the light
of revealed truth (as were the psalmist's own people) should
solemnise marriage according to the Divine institution ; and
should remember, that their children are intrusted to them by
God for nurture in His fear ; that they may, when old enough to>
act for themselves, intelligently choose the same, and thereby
make their calling and election sure unto admission into the
rest that remaineth after this life for the people of God.
Ought we not then to regard the mention in the third verse of
the " wife,"- as one of the "ways of God," that he who eats by
the labour of his hands in the fear of God (and a fortiori every
One born to a competence) is to follow ? If the middle state of
society — equally removed from destitution and ' capital ' wealth,
is the most favourable for a virtuous life, (Prov. xxx. 7, 9.) is not
that man in this station, who eats by the labour of his hands ?
Is not he then in the class to which God more especially looks in
the course of His providence to bring up a family for Him ?
Polygamy, which (to begin with) is not one of the ways of God,
has never, even in countries where it has ¦ prevailed, been an
efflorescence of the man eating by the labour of his hands ; but
only of the overgrown rich man ; and it is a fertile occasion of
strife between the children by different mothers ; so that it is
utterly unfavourable for the building up of the Church of God.
Again, fornication is still more so : for it instigates the male
parent in the selfishness of lust, to tempt the female parent to
destroy the fruit of her womb ; and is a condition of life in which
the offspring are ordinarily left in utter neglect. It is there
fore a manifestly devilish perversion of God's holy institution of
marriage, as depicted in Malachi, in 2nd chapter, verses 14 — 16,
which is authoritatively enforced by our Lord, in Matt. xix.
3 — 9. It is true that when the- psalmist held out_the hope of
plenty and of a numerous progeny to be born-by a wife of youth
— as also the comfort of seemg them choosing the fear of the Lord,

220 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH.
when of age to act for themselves — and the peace of the congre
gation of the Lord, and the longevity of the parents — he spake of
Israel as being under a special providence ; inasmuch as these
blessings were promised to those within the bond of the Mosaic
covenant, provided they kept it. (Deut. iv. 40, and iv. 25.) The
like whereto shall be restored in Messiah's millennial reign.
Nevertheless this psalm may be regarded as setting forth what
God will ordinarily ensure to " everyone that fears God and
walks in his ways." Agreeably herewith, St. Peter adapts the
34th Psalm to our condition in the Christian covenant, under
God's ordinary providence. (Luke xxii. 35 — 37:) For, as that
Apostle there shews us at verse 14 of chapter three of his
first Epistle, if we fear God and walk in His ways, and have
not enough to eat by labour of our hands — or have not a
family of children — God will make plain to us wherefore He calls
us to wait on Him patiently in the lack of these things. St.
Paul's language is to the like effect in Philip, iv. 10 — 13.
By the tenour of this psalm it is to be gathered, that to have
the fear of God, and walk in His ways, is ordinarily the way to
see good days even on earth, and to be happy in one's mind,
and persuaded of its being well with one.
The psalmist would also hereby have us conclude, that the
fear of the Lord is an invigorating principle — the nurse of vir
tues and graces, to be gained by asking for them — making a man
useful to the State and to the congregation of the Lopd.
This psalm, so contemplated, reminds one of St. Paul's testi
mony to Timothy, (1 Ep. vi. 5, 6.) where he rebukes those who
reckon godliness to be gain ; but, adds he, " godliness with con
tentment is great gain, having promise of the life that now is, as
well as of that which is to come."

1.

How blest is every one,
That doth Jehovah fear ;
In His most holy ways
Resolv'd to persevere.

Thine own hands, righteous one,
Gain store enough for thee —
Thy heart shall be at ease —
With thee it well shall be.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH. 221
3.
As at thy home thy vine —
So clothes1 thy house thy wife —
And children round thy board,
Like olive sucklings thrive.
4.
Lo ! thus Jehovah shall
Thy happiness increase !
Jehovah thee shall bring
From out of Zion peace.

Through life Jerusalem
In honour shalt thou see
Four2 generations long !
Peace upon Israel be !
Ver. 3. Prov. xxxi. 21. 2 Ver. 6. Job xlii. 16.

PSALM CXXIX.

TITLE.
A Song of ascents.
AEGUMENT.
By the mention of Israel in the first verse it is evident that
this psalm was written for use of the nation, collectively, in a time
of affliction.
By mention of Israel's youth the reader's thoughts are carried
back to the time when the nation first arose. This was after the
cruel bondage under the Egyptians, when the Lord interposed
from heaven for their deliverance.
Since that time, not only the smaller nations adjacent to the

222 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH.
Holy Land, but Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Grecians,
Eomans, have in turn been employed by God as instruments in
His hands (Isa. x. 5) for chastisement of His people's back-
sli dings.
But these successive enslavements of Israel in due time came
to an end, and the nations which inflicted them, though at the
time of their ascendancy mightiest, have dwindled into insignifi
cance. Whereas Israel, as represented by its smaller remnant of the
two tribes — Judah and Benjamin — lives in presence of the
mightiest nations at this present.
Even though at this very day suffering national divorcement
by God (Isa. 1. 1) for their rejection of the Gospel when preached
to them first, by the command of Jesus after His resurrection,
(1 Thess. ii. 14), these two tribes live in presence of the mightiest
nations among the Gentiles.
Hence, even that part of them which believe not in Jesus can,
by means of this psalm, find consolation in warrant for hope in
God ; but how much more so the small remnant of them who
believe in Jesus !
This preservation of the small remnant of a nation through
successive enslavements by one conqueror after another, is other
wise unparalleled, excepting only in the history of the Church
of Christ Jesus the Lord, with which there will be opportunity
in this exposition of shewing it to be in combination — the Israel
spoken of in the first verse being that elder section of sheep
mentioned by our Lord Jesus, in John x. 15 — 18, as destined by
Him to form, in combination with that other section of us
Gentiles, one flock having one Shepherd.
The bush shewn to Moses in the wilderness burning with fire,
yet not consumed (Exod. iii. 2), was the appointed emblem of
God's Israel, afflicted from youth up, because of backslidings,
yet not utterly prevailed over ; and for the same reason — namely,
because of God being in the midst, as testified in Ps. xlvi. 5. Nor
is this present affliction, bowing down the visible remnant of
Israel 'in their national capacity, the last that they may expect.
There is mentioned in Zech xiv. a siege of Jerusalem, the leading
features of which agree not with the recorded events marking any
capture of that city hitherto ; so that it only remains to be con
cluded that there shall yet be sustained by Jerusalem, after it
shall have been rebuilt and ruled by Jews, another siege and
capture, against which this psalm is provided for the support of
a faithful remnant in the God of Abraham. Judging from Ps.
xxix., compared with other passages of the prophets, the Jews
constituting the visible remnant of Israel (so far as they shall
have been persuaded to return unto their own land) will be all
but' cut off by that invader, who will capture Jerusalem; but at
that crisis the Lord Jesus will manifest Himself with all His

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH. 223
saints on the Mount of Olives to a small remnant of the sur
vivors of that siege, and destroy the invader with his host, after
the manner in which Sennacherib was overwhelmed ; as has been
supposed to be sung of in Ps. lxxvi.
With what gratitude then, after such a rescue, will the surviving
remnant take up the words of this psalm in their desire to bear
testimony to God's righteousness !
The similitude in verse 3 is by different commentators differ
ently explained. Some think that the plough spoken of implies
that the people are to be likened to the very ground which the
share rends ; as God likens them thereto in Isa. li. 23.
Others suppose that the cords, mentioned in verse 4, imply
that the conquerors fastened the enslaved Jews as beasts of
burden to the ploughs, which should plough the soil of their
land. But those commentators seem to me to be preferable who
see here a reference to the use of the lash upon the backs of
afflicted Jews by those who had brought them into bondage — a
bondage lasting in sundry instances for many generations — and
in that sense " making long furrows."
The righteousness of the Lord, as testified at verse 4, in
" cutting asunder the cords of the wicked," is to be explained by
reference to the Lord's promises in regard to the punishment of
Israel, whereby it plainly behoves Him, for His own Name's
sake, to save them from being wholly destroyed.
The rule of righteousness in His dealing with Israel is to be
gathered from two passages in the prophets — one in Amos iii. 2,
where we find God saying :
" Tou only have I known of all the families of the earth, there
fore I will punish you for your iniquities."
And that other in Jer. xxx. 11 :
" I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee : though I make
a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, I will not
make a full end of thee ; but I will correct thee in measure, and
will not leave thee altogether unpunished."
This is the ground of confidence in the Lord's righteousness,
in " cutting asunder the cords of the wicked," for " His own
Name's sake." (1 Sam. xii. 22.)
In verse 5 it is said, " Let them all be confounded and turned
back that hate Zion."
This is obviously fitted to be a source of comfort under all
affliction to those who indeed belong to Zion ; analogous to that
in Ephes. vi. 24, " Grace be with all them that love our Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity ;" or that in Eom. ix. 28 — " All things
work together for good to them that love God."
But from a very early day in Israel arose a misconception
(Ps. xiv. 5, 6) as to the true warrant for being persuaded that
one was of the citizens of Zion in truth.

224 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY -NINTH.
For under the Mosaic covenant all males enrolled in the con-
gregation of the Lord by circumcision had a sacramental title in
their flesh to be called children of God, and citizens of Zion (so
soon as Zion had been chosen by God for His unchanging seat).
(Ps. Ixxviii. 67—70.)
In Ps. xiv. is shewn how rulers and doctors of the congregation
of Israel, contenting themselves with that sacramental title in
their flesh to the Lord's favour, cared not for further endeavour
after the same, by renewal with the Spirit of Christ, in answer
to prayer for it (Ps. li. 10), as had been the way for obtaining
renewal from the time of man's fall (Gen. vi. 3) ; and so far from
having been superseded by the Mosaic covenant, had only been
brought into alliance with the ceremonial righteousness required
therein. (Eom. v. 20 ; Gal. iii. 19.)
Through this misconception the rulers of the congregation of
Israel, in the lifetime of the Lord Jesus, reckoned that He was
assuredly to be confounded and turned back as a hater of Zion,
because He in His teaching bore witness against their corrup
tions of the truth of God, and disregard of His holy Scriptures.
(John v. 45— 47.)
It hence came to pass that these rulers and doctors of Israel
were " the plowers " who plowed upon the back of the Lord
Jesus — literally procuring the scourging of Him as a slave : and
on this account Matthew, in chap. ii. 15, in anticipation of what
they would so do, applied to the bringing up of Jesus when a
babe out of Egypt, those words of Hosea, xi. 1, " Out of Egypt
have I called My Son ! "
On looking at that quotation, thus authoritatively applied to
the Lord Jesus, we find that the whole passage contains mention
of Israel. This therefore proves that St. Matthew regarded
Jesus as emphatically worthy of that name — being the Boot. of
the people of God so called, as of David and of Abraham. (Eev.
xi. 8; xxii. 16.)
It hence is clear how the word " Israel," in the first verse of
this psalm, is to be interpreted ; to wit, as referring to those who
are the children of the promise, as was Isaac. (Gal. iv. 28.) For
Paul, in Eom. ix. 6, saith on this head, " They are not all Israel
that are of Israel ; neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children ; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called."
(Compare John viii. 31—44.) By the same rule of interpreta
tion Zion is to be understood as the city in which, according to
Ps. lxxxvii., the rising Saviour should be born from the grave
(Acts xiii. 32, 33), in Whom whosoever believeth is buried by the
Holy Ghost through faith, as baptism certifies. (John v. 24;
Eom. vi. 4.)
So that, to use the language of one of our hymns, we should
say:—

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH. 225
" Saviour, if of Zion's city
I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy Name !"
This is the only sense in which a Jew can at this time rightly
take up the words of this 5th verse — " all they shall be con
founded and turned back that hate Zion ;" instead of misapplying
it, as did the rulers and doctors of Israel in our Lord's life-time,
who would fain have made out Jesus to be a hater of Zion, and
one to be confounded and turned backward, because a hater of
their unscriptural traditions. Under this delusion they, — the
very rulers of Israel for the time being — became the ploughers
that ploughed upon the back of Him who was in very deed the
Judge of Israel (Micah v. 1) — the root of Israel according to the
promise — until at His resurrection God Himself in righteousness
cut in sunder the cords of that lash wherewith the unworthy
representatives of Zion in the flesh, scourged Him in the flesh as
a slave — sold Him for the price of a slave — and procured Him a
slave's execution.
In the 6th verse, where it is said —
" Let them be as the grass upon the house-top, which withereth
afore the flower bursts its sheath, wherewith the mower filleth
not his hand, nor he (makes a band) that bindeth the sheaves
(to fill) his arm."
It is to be observed, that Scripture frequently compares man
to the grass of the field, which " to-day is, and to-morrow is cast
into the oven " — which " in the morning is green and groweth up,
in the evening is cut down and withereth." (Ps. xc. 6.) But the
use to which this familiar similitude is here put is special, de
noting some oppressor of Israel even not worthy to be compared
with the grass of the field for transitoriness, but with the grass
on the house-top.
Now, on the supposition that this psalm has been written for
the use of " the Israel of God " (Gal. vi. 16) in all their afflic
tions, even to the consummation, it is to be observed, that there
may be in this last similitude a foreshadowing of the last con
spiracy against Israel that is dwelt on in the psalms.
In commenting on the eighty-third psalm it was shewn that
this conspiracy will apparently be directed against the little
remnant surviving the last capture of Jerusalem, foretold in
Zech. xiv., which for a few years will be under preparation in
the desolate ruins, for their mission as " the deliverer that shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Eom. xi. 26.)
At that time, when known to be utterly defenceless and few
in number, the surrounding tribes shall suddenly conceive a
design "which they are not able to perform:" (Ps. xxi. 11.)
namely, that of " taking crafty counsel against God's people,
and consulting against His hidden ones ;

226 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH.
" Saying, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation ;
that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." (Ps.
lxxxiii. 3, 4.)
Now seeing that this remnant of Israel will be " that latter
generation" promised Abraham (Ps. Ixxviii. 4 — 6) ; Israel, in that
sense above explained, will never be nearer extinction than at
the time of that conspiracy : but so shortlived will be its fierce
ness — so total its discomfiture (after the manner of Midian, in
Judges vi. 21 — 25) — that it will rather resemble the grass on the
house-tops, than that in the fields, for transitoriness : it shall also
be a work far from having any one to bless it ; on the contrary,
all that love Zion will devoutly desire of the righteous Lord, to
Whom vengeance belongeth, that He would destroy such a con
spiracy, which would shut out mankind from the promised happi
ness to be derived from Him in Christ through Abraham ; as in
Ps. cxxxvii. 7 — 9, and Eom xii. 18 — 21.
After this deliverance, how rapturously will that chosen gene
ration of Israel take up this ps.alm as mowers, whom the Gentiles
that behold them going forth to bind their sheaves, shall bless in
their work ; while they yield themselves to their teaching, and
to the Lord Jesus through them. (Zech. viii. 23 ; Isa. xliv. 3 — 5.)
The believer, whether out of Jews or Gentiles, who, because of
incorporation with Christ, is of the only remnant of the true
Israelites at this present, can in affliction seek comfort by use of
this psalm; seeing that it will persuade him by the uniform
tendency of God's chastening of Israel, that " He scourgeth
every son whom He receiveth " (Heb. xii. 6) : wherefore the
affliction is a pledge to us that He deals with us as His children ;
and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able
(1 Cor. x. 13), but make us more than conquerors through Him
that hath loved us (Eom. ix. is7) ; so that all things work to
gether for good to them that love God, and love Zion, the city of
God. (Phil. iii. 20 ; Gal. iv. 21—31.)

1.
Oft from my youth on me they've laid affliction,1
Oft from my youth on me affliction laid ;
But never to my utter dereliction2
By God, may it by Israel be said !

1 Ver. 1. The afflictions of Israel in Canaan were provoked by Israel's sins.
(See Deut, xxxii. 30.)
2 Ver. 2. Because of the Lord's promise to Abraham (Gen. xxii. 17) the.
child! en of Israel shall never be utterly east off. (Sec Jer. xxx. 10, 11.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH. 227

Upon my back persistent plough' d the plougher,
Long time inflicting deep welts with the lash ;
But in His righteousness it pleas' d Jehovah
The cords from out their ruthless3 hands to dash.

All shall be turn'd back, with confusion smarting,
Who against Zion settled hatred bear.
As grass shall they be on house-tops upstarting,
Which ere its bud bursts into bloom, is sere :
4.
Wherewith is never fill'd the hand of mower,
Nor arm of one that bindeth up a sheaf.
For whom none wish the blessing of Jehovah—
None in Jehovah's name good will conceive.
1 Ver. 4. Zech i. 15.

PSALM CXXX.
TITLE.
A Song of ascents.
AEGTJMENT.

In this short psalm are to be found sundry fundamental
doctrines of God's way of salvation through Christ, and an
exemplification of the way in which to bring them into use.
It will therefore be found upon enquiry to be in proportion to
its brevity unusually full of matter for reflection. The writer
at outset 'intimates, that he is in the extremity of distress from
bodily or mental affliction, or both— prayer being what he has
recourse to for relief. By the third verse he intimates, that his
distress did not arise from any special burthen on his conscience. Q 2

228 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH.
It is rather intimated that like St. Paul in 1 Cor. iv. 4, " he
knew nothing by himself, yet was he not hereby justified."
Por the psalmist saith, "If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who shall stand ?"
One doctrine here, by implication, set forth is, that there is
none righteous, no not one. (Eom. iii. 10.) H ence, by impli
cation, follows the statement of this other doctrine, that justifi
cation before God is by faith alone in God's promise concerning
Christ, and not in any wise by man's works or deservings.
(Compare Eom. iv. 2 — 12, and v. 1.)
Por when the psalmist asks, " Who shall stand ?" this phrase
means, according to Scriptural usage, " stand in the judgment
with God." _
See Ps. i. 5 and 1 Cor. x. 12, where it is shewn that the
believer stands by grace. Now the psalmist here prays, as
one that stands ; wherefore he in his own person maintains the
doctrine that one who could not justify himself, if God were
strict to mark offences,, nevertheless doth stand justified ; which
he consequently must do by grace or favour, because of God for
bearing from scrutiny of everything that is amiss in him. (Heb.
vi. 13—20.)
Here now, by implication, is brought into use a third funda
mental doctrine of God's plan of salvation ; namely, that a
penitent believer, who seeks grace from God, hath access unto
Him — but how ?
Let it now be observed, that the Book of Job is rightly held
to have been composed before delivery of the Mosaic Law.
And it contains evidence of God having revealed to His prophets
that He had given fallen men One uniting in Himself the
natures of either party at variance — God's and man's — to be " a
days-man" (Job. ix. 33) between both — " a Eedeemer " (xix. 25 ',
" an Interpreter" along with God, " one among a thousand (as
man) to shew unto man (under chastisement) God's uprightness"
in so dealing with him. (xxxiii. 23.)
We hence see how early was revealed to man after what
manner that " Seed of the woman which should bruise the
serpent's head," was to be relied on for all that was needful for
a penitent believer's acceptableness with God in prayer.
A fourth fundamental doctrine of God's plan of salvation is
found in the fourth verse ; where the psalmist added —
" But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be
feared."
The heathen satirist Horace truly observes —
" Oderunt peecare boni virtutis amore,
Oderunt peecare mali formidine pcenae.''
It is important therefore to note that the fear here spoken of
by the psalmist is not that through dread of punishment ; for it

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH. 229
is expressly said to be produced in the wrong-doer's mind by
God's promise of forgiveness.
This therefore is the fear that springeth up in the trembling
heart toward God out of love, with such strength as there might
be in a bruised reed.
Our Saviour exemplifies God's manner of holding forth this
forgiveness to a backslider's view, in His parable of the prodigal.
(Luke xv. 11.)
The Father (from Whom comes every holy desire — without
Whom no man can come to Christ, John vi. 44,) stirred in that
backslider's heart, by occasion of his being at his wit's end for
sustenance, the thought of relationship unto God as a Father
(which he made his own by entertaining it, and acting on it),
saying— " How many hired servants of my Fathee have bread enough
and to spare, while I perish with hunger.
" I will arise and go to my Father."
Thus the hope of forgiveness with God led this prodigal to
resolve on return, with becoming humility, in the frame of mind
here displayed by the psalmist, to his Father, with the fear that
comes of love — a fear that disposes one to use any means soever
provided by revelation for one's use — that not only one may not
grieve God afresh by,carelessly sinning as before, but rather
obtain, for asking, strength of heart wherewith to choose God's
holy ways ; so as to please Him thenceforward acceptably though
not perfectly.
But prayer through the Advocate for " a new heart and right
spirit," was by revelation shewn to be the way for attainment to
this state of reconciliation and newness of life. (Ps. li. 10.)
The psalmist here exemplifies the earnestness wherewith one
waits on God in prayer who hath this fear, that comes through
the persuasion of there being with God forgiveness. But the
psalmist in shewing us the only way wherein God recovers any
of us, with our. own consent, out of a state of alienation from
Him unto dutiful reverential love ; at the same time shews how
every one in authority over his fellow man, whether parent,
master, or ruler, may alone hope to reclaim a transgressor. The
exercise of punishment unrelieved by any hope of mercy, can
only produce in our nature hatred or despair. Though punish
ment cannot be dispensed with, yet since it should ever be admi
nistered by us with a view to recovery of the chastened one to
well-doing, the way of forgiveness should unceasingly be held
forth, that there may be awakened in that wrongdoer, if God
will, the fear that 'springeth up because of there being with one
in. authority the readiness to forgive. This is to deal with
our fellow-sinners after the manner wherein God deals with us
all. Surely here is an important doctrine of the Gospel-plan of

230 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH.
salvation, wherewith every penitent believer is, like the repent
ant prodigal, experimentally conversant.
In the strength and light of the fundamental doctrines thus,
by implication, shewn to be here used by the psalmist, he at the
fifth verse redoubles his petitions, though not having at that time
received the required answer ; saying —
" I wait for the Lord — my soul doth wait — and in His word do
I hope."
Here is an important testimony to the ground whereon we
rest for persuasion of these fundamental doctrines being really
available for us.
We have the warrant of God's word for them— His written
word — as has been already shewn — that word which, when
heaven and earth pass away, shall abide unchanged.
The earnestness of the psalmist is further testified in verse 6,
by his adding — " My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they
that watch for the morning — that watch for the morning" — a
reduplication shewing the stress laid by the speaker upon the
thing contemplated : as in Gen. xxvii. 44, where Bebecca lulled
her maternal apprehensions " for her son," by fondly persuading
herself that Jacob might withdraw to her family, in Padan-aram,
" until his brother's anger turn away — until his brother's anger
turn away." •
The psalmist is. thought to compare himself here with the
watchers employed by the officiating priests in the Temple at
Jerusalem to give them notice of the first streaks of dawn, that
they might prepare the morning sacrifice.
As these watchmen would naturally wish to be relieved of
their task, they would long for tokens of dawn ; and on this
account seemed they fit to express the psalmist's yearning for
tokens of God's favour in his deep distress — tokens which should
be to his soul like morning after the darkness of night.
This mention of the watchmen appointed to give notice of the
time for the morning sacrifice leads him to introduce (by impli
cation) a fifth fundamental doctrine of God's plan of salvation —
to wit, the redemption through sacrifice ; whereby indeed is
opened the way for forgiveness of man consistently with Divine
justice. (Eom. iii. 26.)
The psalmist also passes from solicitude for himself alone, to
solicitude for all Israel ; saying —
'' Let Israel hope in Jehovah, for with Jehovah is mercy, yea
with Him is plenteous redemption" —
how plenteous, we thankfully own who live after the fulfil
ment of what, the sacrifices of beasts in patriarchal times and
under the Mosaic covenant prefigured on this head, in the sacri
ficial death of Christ at His crucifixion.
For as St. Paul testifies in Heb. ix. 13, " If the blood of bulls

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH. 231
and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much more shall
the blood of Christ, Who through His Eternal Spirit offered
Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God ?"
That the psalmist had hope of being himself purged to this
extent, through God's plan of redemption, and not merely from
ceremonial defilement, is plain from his testimony in verse 8 —
" He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."
The psalmist assuredly pointed at other than ceremonial defile
ments in the flesh, when asking in verse 3 —
" If thou, "Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand ?"
he unquestionably had in his mind's eye heart-sins as well as
outward ones in the flesh. (See Gen. vi. 5 ; 1 Kings viii. 38 ;
Ps. li. 10.)
Consequently, to redeem Israel from all their iniquities, in
cludes the " purging of the conscience from dead works to serve
the living God."
Assuredly there is here brought within a small compass a
cluster of fundamental doctrines concerning God's plan of salva
tion most valuable to be reflected on, and to be taken for a guide
in the practical use of them.
This psalm may- therefore be justly reckoned one of special
importance, aud eminently fitted to instruct us in enlightened
use of prayer unto God out of a penitent heart — though knowing
nothing against ourselves — without self-righteousness — through
the only Advocate and propitiation for the children of God,
according to 1 John ii. 1 , 2.

From depths of woe to Thee I cried,
Jehovah ! do Thou hear
My voice, and to my prayer, 0 Lord,
Yield an attentive ear.
2.
If Thou iniquities should'st mark,
Jehovah! who, Lord, who
Shall stand? but that Thou may'st be fear'd,
With Thee's forgiveness too.

232 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIRST.

I for Jehovah wait— my soul
Waits — hoping in His word.
As watchman waits for morn — for morn-
Wait I for Thee, OLord!

Let Israel in Jehovah hope :
A full redemption's His !
Yea He shall Israel redeem
From all iniquities !

PSALM CXXXI.

TITLE.
A Song of ascents of David.
AEGTJMENT.
Short as is this psalm, there is in it much to engage attention.
It contains an account of what constitutes evangelical humility.
The parts hereof so given are : —
Firstly, a modest estimation of oneself in regard to capacity,
mental and physical :
Secondly, a reverential fear of God :
Thirdly, a steadfast resolve to mind one's own business, and
not to abandon one's proper calling, for the sake of meddling in
matters devolving on others :
Fourthly, to despise no one, to envy no one :
Fifthly, to refrain from complaints against God when under
chastisement (Gen. xxv. 22), and patiently to abide with Him
under the affliction. (Luke xxii. 28, 29.)
This description of humility was eminently exemplified in
David's early history.
Though in the prime of life made aware that God would ad
vance him to the throne, we never find him elated by that
favour, or bearing himself haughtily in consequence thereof.
From the anointing by Samuel (1 Sam. xvi. 13) he returned
again to care of the flock, which was his calling.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIRST. 233
Again, he is summoned from the sheepfold to the camp to
prove himself the champion of his nation against Goliath, and
after this triumph loyally became an attendant on the King.
Afterward, when undeservedly suspected and ill-used by Saul,
he declined all idea of avenging himself in open rebellion — "merely
evading Saul's pursuit, and waiting patiently on God to fulfil
His promise in His own time and way. But Jesus, the great
Son of David, is the perfect exemplar of the humility here
described. Though born King of the Jews, and sent to bear
witness to the truth of God on this head (John xviii. 37), He
nevertheless took not this honour unto Himself, but committed
Himself unto His Father's hands, Who, He said, would judge
righteously. In this spirit He paid tribute to the temple and to
Cajsar (Matt. xvii. 25—27 ; xxii. 18—21.), lest He should give
those who could not be expected to know the true grounds of
His exemption from all taxes, an apparent warrant for thinking
Him deficient either in piety towards God, or loyalty toward
Csesar. In this spirit He also at the marriage feast in the rich
Pharisee's house (Luke xiv. 1 — 14) took the lowest vacant seat,
with the modest remark, that there He would wait until the
Giver of the marriage feast (here rising to the height of His own
mystic marriage with His Church) should come to seek Him,
and say, Friend, go up higher ! whereupon would come in due
course honour to Him " in the presence of them that should sit at
meat with him !"
There is also to be perceived in this psalm, as De Burgh
thinks, a prophetic notification of what shall be the mind and
temper of the Israelitish remnant at the time of the Lord Jesus
coming a second time to bless them (Heb. ix. 19, 20, compared
with Acts vii. 13), as contrasted with that wherewith they
rejected Him on His first coming. At that time pride, founded
on self-righteousness, was the Jews' predominant characteristic.
The Pharisee who went up with the publican unto the Temple
to pray (Luke xviii. 9), and the elder son in the parable of the
returning prodigal (Luke xv. 11 — 32.) were faithful pictures of
the self-sufficiency of that people in general. But in the Israel
that shall be chosen to receive the Lord's favour at His return
a second time in the regeneration (Ps. Ixxviii. 4), all will be
changed. Eenouncing their boastful self-righteousness, their only hope
will be that " with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is
plenteous redemption" (verse 7 of Ps. cxxx.), while the nation's
emblem at that time will be a child — a weaned child — not one
newly weaned, but, as the word denotes, effectually weaned—
weaned from the flesh, and in utter renunciation of it brought
into a state of simple child-like and unconditional dependence
upon the Lord, and a quiet waiting for His salvation. This
psalm so explained cannot he said to enjoin on us a profession

234 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIRST.
of humility in too arduous a degree for frail human nature, pro
vided we seek the help of God's grace.
It rather enjoins on us a rule of life which, while shutting us
out from the rewards that lure the adventurous, keeps us in the
quiet discharge of duty.
On this point our great dramatic poet makes the fallen Wolsey
say of himself — "I have ventur'd
Like little wanton boys, that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory —
But far beyond my depth ! my high-blown pride
At length broke under me, and now hath left me
Weary and old with service to the mercy
Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me !
* * * 0 Cromwell, Cromwell,
Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal
I serv'd my king, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."
God's method of calling us in His word to self-denial and
virtue is fairly exhibited in this similitude of the weaned child.
Merely human teachers, in their desire to obtain conformity
in their pupils with the morality inculcated by them, are
generally inflexible, and indifferent to the pain to which their
disciples are put. But the inspired lessons on the pursuit of
virtue soothe the learner by intimating an appreciation of the
cost to himself wherewith his obedience is to be rendered.
The disciple of Christ, who is looking for sympathy under his
inward mortification and self-restraint in the practice by grace
of the humility here inculcated, does not yearn in vain for it.
When finding himself compared to a weaned child, he may
perceive that just as a mother would never deny that she put
her child to discomfort when subjecting him to the change of
nutriment consequent on her weaning of him ; so God in Christ
does not for a moment ignore the internal strife with flesh and
blood to which one must be put in complying with His rule of
humility. (Isa. lxiii. 9; Heb. iv. 14 — 16.)
But His grace, if diligently asked for in the name of Jesus,
shall be sufficient for us. (2 Cor. xii. 7—9.)
" For," according to our prayer, " He giveth grace " superior
to the trial produced in each one by the contrariety of his dis
position (James iv. 5 — 8) ; wherein, what one man has to contend
with in order to be humble, is different from what another has.
An effectually weaned child is wholly dependent on its mother
for the food wherewith it will please her to nourish it.
And the psalmist implies that so is the truly humble soul, by
choice, dependent upon God in Christ for that renewal in
strength of heart (Eom. v. 6) wherewith cheerfully to deny
oneself day by day — take up one's cross — and follow Christ.
(Matt. xvi. 24.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND. 235
Nor lofty, 0 Jehovah, is my heart,
Nor lifted up mine eyes, nor matters great
Have I essayed — matters far apart
From me. Yea, count me worthy all men's hate,
If I've not sternly striven to abate
My spirit ! Like unto a child distrest,
When from its mother wean'd, am I —
My soul is like a wean'd child in unrest,
Not doubting who shall all its need supply !
0 Israel on Jehovah so rely
Now and henceforward everlastingly !

PSALM CXXXII.

TITLE.
A Song of ascents.

AEGUMENT.
Sundry internal marks combine to indicate the late composi
tion of this psalm : that is to say, in the interval between the
carrying away of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser (2 Kings xvii)
and the two by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiv.) Firstly, the
opening words, " Lord, remember David and all his afflictions,"
sound as if the speaker referred in them to a long time previous.
Secondly, the undoubted purpose of this psalm, was to set before
the hearers reasons for coming up to worship the Lord before
the ark in Zion ; because of God having said that " He had
chosen Zion for His habitation," verse 13. The psalm would
therefore be well adapted to move that remnant of Israel, left in
the inheritance of the ten tribes, to come up to worship the
Lord in Jerusalem on the three great festivals.
For the Law said, that where God placed His name, there
were they to assemble before Him in public worship. (Deut.
xii. 5.)
Again, the author was clearly one who could speak as repre
sentative of the nation, and of David's line.
This is implied in the emphatic use of " we " in verse 6, as
contrasted with " I " in the three verses next preceding, which

23t> PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND.
are affirmed of David. Also, tfea* what he says in verse 10
favours this conclusion, that he was for the time then present,
the anointed representative of David's line upon the throne of
Judah; since the words, "Turn not away the face of thine
anointed," are tantamount to " disappoint not Thine anointed
king of David's line."
These considerations would warrant the conclusion that
Josiah was the author of it ; for he was a great reformer and
zealous promoter of the worship of God by all Israel in Jeru
salem. (2 Kings xxiii.) The question that he raises is, "where
should be a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God
of Jacob ?" (verse 5.)
This he decides at verse 13, by mentioning the Lord's favour
toward Zion, where the ark then was.
But he argues this question with careful reference to what
might be found in Scripture touching it, before coming to the
conclusion specified. He begins with mentioning David's com
mendable earnestness about this subject.
We find it recorded in 2 Sam. vii. 1 ; but no mention occurs
there of the earnestness wherewith David, after building his own
house, set himself to find where might be a place for the Lord.
This trait in David's character was handed down by tradition,
and found a record in Scripture in this late stage of his descen
dant's continuance on the throne in Jerusalem. Assuming then
that the transition from the first person singular in verses 3 — 5,
to the first person plural in verses 6—^7, marks a change in
the speakers ; and that " we " implies the language of the author,
whom we have assumed to be Josiah ; it seems to me that the
psalmist, having testified to the importance of the inquiry, by
citing David's example, proceeds in verse 6 to state what
evidence there was in Scripture touching " a place for the Lord,
a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob."
Here then he cites, first, as it seems to me, the more recently
delivered testimony thereon; saying, with a perplexity implied in
the word " heard," " Lo !• we heard of it at Ephratah ! "
That is, authoritative testimony has reached us on this head ;
but hard to be reconciled with the facts of the case.
In Gen. xxxv. 19, we see that Ephrath was Bethlehem ; and in
Micah v. 2, long after David's day, was a prophecy, that the
expected Saviour should come in David's line out of Bethlehem.
It is plain that this prophecy gained at an early period such
signal attention as is in keeping with that interpretation of
Ephratah here adopted.
For by Matt. ii. we learn, that on the wise men from the East
coming into Jerusalem, asking, " Where is He that is born King
of the Jews ?" Herod peremptorily demanded of the rulers of
the congregation, where Christ should be born ? that is, in the
words of verse 5, should have " a place and habitation ?"

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND. 237
To this they replied, " In Bethlehem Ephratah," in reliance
on that prophecy by Micah. Then indeed it became clear by the
event, how the habitation of the God of Jacob might be in Beth
lehem, although the ark (which was the visible symbol of. God's
presence in Israel, and as such, a type of that body born of the
Virgin, in which "the Word tabernacled when made flesh,")
never had been at Bethlehem ; nor was likely to be, as Josiah
proceeded to argue, putting an emphatic contrast to " we heard "
in "we found " : in the former " we " testifying, as representative
of David's line, to what the Scripture taught from Micah's day ;
and in the latter to what it taught in David's own day.
Por when David had learnt from God the favour intended for
him, of making him progenitor of Messiah, and placing the
throne of Messiah in Zion (2 Sam. vii.), David then wished that
the ark of God, which he had recently brought up " from the
fields of Jear," — verse 6, identical with Kirjath-jearim (1 Sam.
vii. 1, compared with 2 Sam. vi. 1.) — should not continue " under
curtains," but have " a place and a habitation."
Josiah here sets David's location of the ark in Zion over
against the perplexing testimony heard from Micah about His
habitation at Bethlehem Ephratah. Here is to be seen the com
mendable dealing of the royal psalmist in this matter.
He would not keep back the testimony concerning the habita
tion of God at Ephratah, though it was his desire to bring all
Israel to concur in worship before the ark in Zion. But he
proposes to carry the perplexing question before the Lord, and
on bended knees to inquire of Him concerning it before the ark.
The ark was in Israel the visible token of God's habitation
among them. He was said to dwell between the cherubim
(Ps. Ixxx. 1.) and His feet rested on the lid of the ark, which
was His footstool, and the mercy-seat. (Exod. xxxvii. 9.)
Thither were all Israelites to turn the face, when desiring to
worship God. (Ps. v. 7 ; Dan. vi. 10.)
The psalmist then quotes for the purpose of worship, the very
words used by his royal progenitor Solomon, at consecration of
the temple. (2 Chron. vi. 41, 42, compared with verses 8 — 10.)
Having done this he quotes words out of Ps. Ixxviii. 67 — 9,
in proof of God's unalterable purpose to make Zion his habita
tion, coupled with words to the same effect from the more
ancient testimony of Ps. Ixxxix. 18 — 36, with which compare
Isa. xxx. 18—26.
Thus this psalm appears to be strictly speaking a compilation
from pre-existent materials, for the purpose of alluring the rem
nant of the ten tribes to join with the two that remained faithful
to the house of David, in worship before the ark in Jerusalem.
Now what the psalmist was perplexed about, we in this
advanced stage of the Church's progress, perceive to have been
fully verified by God in the event.

238 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND.
By Matt. ii. we see, that though the ark was never taken to
Bethlehem, that body of the Lord, which was His habitation, was
born there ; hence for a time He had His habitation at Ephra
tah — indeed, at first.
Also, by Acts xiii. 33, we learn, that when God raised Him
from the dead in Zion, the words taught David in the second
psalm, concerning God's favour for Zion as His habitation, were
fulfilled by the birth of the Saviour there, from the grave ; and
not by His birth in Bethlehem, which would have made a dis
crepancy between the second psalm and Ps. Ixxxv. 11, and
lxxxvii. 5.
Thus far events have thrown light on what perplexed the royal
author of this psalm. But Josiah, in keeping the apparently
contradictory prophecies before his mind, and calling his hearers
to join him in carrying them before the Lord in prayer, took the
right way to be himself patient, as also to persuade his people to
be patient in waiting for the only authoritative solution of this
mystery ; and at the same time to be by this inquiry lifted up in
heart and. mind to devout communion with God.
There still remain other prophecies relating to the habitation
of God in Zion, no less perplexing than those which we have
seen to be solved ; and our duty is to imitate Josiah in carrying
them in prayer before the Lord.
Wherefore, seeing that the body born of the Virgin, whereof
the ark was type, was after crucifixion in Zion and resurrection
there, carried up by Him glorified and spiritual into heaven unto
the right hand of God, on the holy hill of Zion above (though He
also placed His undivided flesh and blood, ere His departure, in
the hearts of His disciples in the Zion on earth) it follows that
we (whether out of Jews or Gentiles), who are of the only rem
nant of the true Israelites, by incorporation with Him in His
mystical body, being of the sacrifice that He pleads above (Heb.
x. 10.) should lift up our hearts to Him in heaven as our true
mercy-seat. Now whereas there is great difference of opinion among godly
persons concerning the way in which the promise at close of this
psalm, " upon Himself shall His crown flourish," in Zion, is to be
understood, our duty is to wait upon the Lord for insight here-
into, on our knees before His footstool. In this way shall we
neither be discouraged at the apparent irreconcileableness of
promises by God on this head ; nor shall we let them drop out
of view : but like the royal psalmist at verse 7, fairly bring them
forward, making them the subject of prayerful study.
The Lord Jesus Himself calls us to this occupation of our
selves with God's promises concerning Him, in Matt. xxii. 42 ;
and we cannot have David's nor Josiah's godly desire for remem
brance of God's presence among us, unless we take these ap
pointed means of freshening our minds upon this subject.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND. 239
By prayer we shall doubtless gain help to expect with unhesi
tating firmness, that He who was "born King of the Jews"
(Matt. ii. 1.) and Who " was raised up from the dead to sit on
David's throne," (Acts ii. 30.) assuredly will do so, for a shorter
or longer time ; seeing that since His resurrection He has never
yet done so. (2 Tim. ii. 7 — 12.)
It is evident from this psalm, that to have an earnest desire
for clear evidence to the presence of God with us on earth is one
to which God calls us, by assigning promises on this head of an
apparently contradictory nature for us to heed in patient expec
tation of His faithfulness.

1.
Thy servant David, 0 Jehovah, bear
In mind — beneath what sorrows he was bow'd !
How he in sooth unto Jehovah sware —
Yea to the mighty God of Jacob vow'd —
Full surely shall my feet not be allow'd
My house1 to enter, nor to mount upon2
Its roof, that slumber should my vision cloud,
Until Jehovah's place of rest be known —
The dwelling-place of Jacob's mighty One.

Of this a testimony reach' d our ear,
Assigning' Ephratah! but we can trace
The ark with David from the fields of Jear.
'Fore it let us, as they of old, upraise
The song — " Jehovah, to Thy resting place
Ascend Thou and Thine ark. Clothe Thy priests there
With righteousness, fill too Thy saints with grace ;
And for Thy servant David's sake the prayer
Of Thine anointed, 0 vouchsafe to hear !"

1 Verse 3. By 2 Sam. vi. we learn that David had just finished his house,
when he concerned himself, as here described, about an acceptable place for a
house to the Lord, as recorded in the next ehapter.
2 David spake of "going up " to his bed, because it was on the roof of the
house, as in 2 Sam. xi. 2.

240 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD.
3.
In truth to David hath Jehovah sworn,
Nor from it will He turn, upon the throne
Fruit will I set, that's of Thy body3 born :
And if Thy children will my cov'nant own,
Their children too shall alway sit thereon.
For Zion hath Jehovah chose t'adorn
With His blest presence : there will He sit down
For all time then forthcoming : while return
The years of generations to be born.
4.
Her stores will I abundantly increase —
With wheaten bread her poor I'll satisfy —
Her priests too with salvation will I bless —
And all her saints make sing aloud for joy.
There shall the horn of David fructify,
Nor shall the lamp of Mine anointed cease
To shine there : thence His enemies shall fly,
But on Himself His crown grow lustily.
3 Verse 11. See 2 Sam. vii. 12 ; Acts ii. 30. It hence follows that the blessed
Virgin ought to have been of David's line, (as it is to be presumed she was) and
not Joseph alone. So that the genealogies in Matthew and Luke are not both
of them Joseph's; and Mary was not of the house of Aaron, though Elizabeth,
her cousin, was.

FSALM CXXXIII.
TITLE.
A Song of ascents of David.

ARGUMENT.
That good and pleasant unity among brethren, referred to in
this psalm, is that of brethren dwelling together in that house
wherein Moses was a faithful servant, but Christ as the Son,
(Numb. xii. 7 ; Heb. iii. 1 — 6.)
These all being begotten of one Bather and daily renewed with
the Spirit of Christ, in answer to their prayer for the same, are

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD. 241
new creatures in Him. (1 Sam. x. 12 ; Deut. xxix. 3, 4 ; Isa.
xiv. 24, 25 ; xxvi. 12.)
The unction of this Spirit was typified by the precious oint
ment referred to in verse 2, appointed to anoint the High Priest
in Israel.
In Exod. xxx. 22 — 30 is recorded how Moses received from
God express directions touching the manufacture of this oil.
And in the thirty-third verse it is added, " whosoever com
pounded any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a
Stranger, shall even be cut off from his people."
The very perfume of it therefore was intended to denote to
the senses the holiness that is in the unity of Christ's mystical
house or brotherhood. (John viii. 34 — 36.)
The diffusiveness of this and other fragrant oils is evidenced
by their odour, which seems to me to be one particular at least
wherein this holy ointment aptly represents the goodness and
pleasantness of the unity among brethren in Christ. (2 Peter
i. 4.) For just as oil poured out on the waves of the sea, while
extending itself over a surprisingly large surface, is seen to main
tain its continuity ; so is it to be held to maintain its continuity,
though unseen, wherever it diffuses its odour.
In this way it happily exemplifies the healing influence which
unity among brethren hath on beholders. This, as it appears to
me, is the sense in which the psalmist affirms that unity among
Christ's brethren is like the precious ointment on the head that
ran down upon the beard— even Aaron the High Priest's beard
—and went down to the band on " the mouth" or orifice for the
neck, that was in his ephod or priestly garment. (Exod. xxxix.
23.) The psalmist next likens the goodness and pleasantness of this
unity of brethren in Christ to the dew of Hermon ; saying that
it was —
" Like as the dew of Hermon that descended on Zion : for
there the Lord commanded His blessing, even life for evermore."
Hermon is a mountain on the northern boundary of the Holy
Land, 10,000 feet in height — the dews of which are by modern
travellers found to be pre-eminently copious.
Mr. Maundrell says, that " with this dew even in dry weather,
their tents were as wet as if it had rained the whole night."
Now dew is in the dry climate of Palestine the great agent in
nature for production of vegetation.
Hence we have Isaac, in Gen. xxvii. 28, when blessing Jacob,
mentioning it.
Indeed, he combines the two similitudes of odour from holy
.ointment, and fertility through dew, that are here employed by
the psalmist, to depict the blessedness of the unity of brethren
in Christ.

242 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD.
Firstly at verse 27, " he smelled the smell of Jacob's raiment"
(who, it is to be remembered, had been clothed by Eebecca in
the priestly robe which was supposed by Isaac, in the absence of
any special command from God to the contrary, to be Esau's
birthright). These priestly garments were doubtless perfumed with an oil
that was not applied to anything else of a common nature, and
so was holy, like that above mentioned wherewith Moses
anointed to the High-priesthood his brother Aaron.
" Isaac smelled his son's raiment and blessed him ; and said ;
See the smell, of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord
hath blessed.
" Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven and the fat-'
ness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine."
Dew, as I am inclined to think, is at Mount Hermon ordinarily
produced by the exhalation of heated air from the earth at sun
down, which is condensed into dew-drops on coming in contact
with the rarefied air of the adjacent desert ; which from evapo
ration has become colder than the earth.
I£ this be so, I can imagine that the lofty Hermon, with snow
on its summits during a great portion of the year, so rapidly
chills the air after sundown, that the heated vapour given out by
the lower lands at the mountain's base is so much the more
copiously condensed into dew — thus making the dew of Hermon
proverbial. But how is it that the psalmist should speak of the dew of
Hermon descending on Zion, seventy miles off?
This greatly disconcerts commentators.
H the copiousness of dew at Mount Hermon has been above
attributed to the right cause, then the dew on Zion would pro-
portionably be much scantier ; which is the case.
It is supposed in our authorised Version that the words " and
as the dew" require to be inserted before speaking of what des
cended on Zion ; in which case the extended outpouring of dew
on the lofty Hermon and the lowly Zion might be taken to
exemplify the extensively-spread influence which the unity of
brethren in Christ has upon beholders, agreeably with our
Saviour's prayer that all who should hear the word of His
diseiples and believe on Him through it, might be one in Him ;
that the world might believe, said He to His Father, " that
Thou hast sent Me." So pleasing in the sight of the unconverted
world would be the visible unity of all true Christians, that it
would move the world to say, as it is recorded to have said in
the time of the early persecutions, " Behold, how these Chris
tians love one another !" But the conjecture strikes me of
there being here a prophecy, that the dew of Zion shall one day
be like that of Hermon, for the same reason.
The Jordan flows from the springs fed by the snows and

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD. 243
copious dews of Hermon : and we are told in Ezek. xl. 7, that
on Mount Zion there will be a copious spring, like that of
the Jordan, flowing from under the threshold of the New
Temple, eastward, to heal the waters of the Dead Sea.
What, then, if this was to be brought about by natural
causes similar to those which have been above supposed to
produce the copious dews of Hermon, and the springs of
Jordan ? What if in the great disturbance of a volcanic
nature, spoken of in Zech. xiv. 4, 5, about to take place at the
appearance of the Lord with all His saints on the Mount of
Olives to the remnant of the citizens of Jerusalem, Zion should
be raised to a height corresponding to that of Hermon ?
In that case the dews of Zion would obviously, because of
proximity to the same desert, be as those of Hermon, without
doing any violence to the psalmist's language.
The copious dew would also bring to that part of Palestine
the fertility destined to characterise that country on the Lord's
coming to reign over His people therein.
In Ps. Ixviii. 15, the hill of God is sung of as " a high hill,
even as the hill of Bashan," whieh was this very Hermon.
What, then, if this should be intended to be taken literally ?
In that case all earthly blessings would combine with spiritual
ones in Zion, " where the Lord commanded His blessing, even
life for evermore."
Sundry commentators think that in this psalm attention is
mainly pointed to the time when, as predicted in Isa. xi. 13, " the
envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall
be cut off : Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not
vex Ephraim." The world will then see brethren in one
national Church dwelling together in unity, that they may be
lieve the Lord Jesus hath indeed come from the only Lord God,
and that beside Him there is no Saviour.
This blessed effect of the unity among the Lord's people upon
the outer world ought surely to be constantly aimed at by them
that believe and know the truth.
To promote this end they ought to have always in mind such
forms of words as that of the Apostle to the Ephesians, vi. 24 ; —
" Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity :"
and as this in Heb. xii. 14 ; —
" Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord :"
and that in Bom. xii. 18'; —
" If it be possible, as much, as lieth iu you, live peaceably with
all men."

b 2

244 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EOURTH.
1.
Behold, how good a thing
And pleasant 'tis to see
Brethren together dwell
In heartfelt unity.
2.
. 'Tis like the oil that down
From Aaron's sacred head
To beard and neck-band of
His priestly garments spread.

Or as when Hermon's dew
Hath Zion settled o'er ;
Where gifts1 Jehovah bade-
Yea life — be evermore !

1 The union of all earthly with spiritual blessings, as here contemplated, for
exemplification of the blessedness produced even pow by unity, is entirely in
accordance with the notifications in the Old Testament concerning Millennial
happiness. James i. 17.

PSALM CXXXIV.

TITLE.
A Song of ascents.
There seems to me perceivable in this short psalm a clue to
the meaning of the title.
Consisting, as it does, of salutations interchanged by two com
panies of watchmen in the temple at Jerusalem, there appears
to me a loftier and more soaring style put in the mouth of the
respondent. Assuredly for the Lord to bless us, according to the third verse,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EOURTH. 245
is afar more weighty thought than that in the second verse, of our
blessing the Lord.
And again the Lord's blessing out of Zion in verse 3 trans-
tends that wherewith He had even then endued (according to
the 1st and 2nd verses) those that under the Mosaic Covenant
stood in the temple at Jerusalem lifting up hands in holiness.
Again, a third instance, as I am inclined to think, of a loftier
expression in verse 3 than in verses 1 and 2 is in the use of the
personal pronoun thee in the singular number instead of the
plural, as in the verses preceding — although the interchange of
salutations is supposed to be made by two companies of watch
men : so that, at first sight, it might have been expected that the
plural pronoun would have been as appropriate in the response
as in the address. But blessings from the Lord are of many
kinds, as well for this life, as for that to come — as well for the
congregation in its corporate capacity, as for each member thereof
individually. Now it seems to me that these blessings are in the 1st and 2nd
verses spoken of and ascribed to God as their Author by the
worshippers in their corporate capacity ; but in the 3rd verse as
to be looked for from God by each in his individual capacity ; the
former imply that the congregation to which you belong is a
living branch of Christ's Spirit— the latter that each worshipper,
who with living faith makes the Spirit of Christ his own by
reverent use of it when at his disposal, is a lively member of that
. congregation. This sort of Amoebeum carmen perhaps had its origin among
Hebrew poets : for undoubtedly the earliest specimens of it are
to be found in the book before us : and a poem of this structure
manifestly suits the intellectual character of the Hebrew poetry.
For it seems to me that all its measures are those of the
thoughts — and not of the words in which the thoughts were
clothed ; but instances of the amoebeum carmen are met with in
Virgil and Horace. And it seems to me there is in our Church's
morning service an instance of it, unquestionably of great anti
quity. It oceurs immediately after recital of the Apostles'
Creed, and preceding what is entitled the shorter Litany.
The minister addresses to the congregation " The Lord be with
you," whereto they shall reply, "And with thy spirit:" the
meaning being, that, whereas (according to Ephes. iv. 15, 16)
Christ the Head supplies through the bishop and his presbyters,
as joints and bands, measures of His Spirit unto their congrega
tions in public worship ; while the minister, for his part, exhorts
the congregation so to pray, as that God the Father may be pleased
with their service ; they intelligently make reply to their minis
ter, that with the Spirit of Christ in them derived through him
as a band, they recollect how he and they are to make that Spirit
their own : so that when it shall come up from them unto the

246 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH.
presence of God to be presented by the High Priest (Ps. cxix.
169, and cl. 6), it may bear many articulate expressions whereby
each has severally made it his own !
These psalms, so explained, justify their title of " Songs of
ascents."
AEGUMENT.
From internal evidence it may be gathered that this psalm was
composed for use of the Levitical companies relieving each other
as guards of the temple during the night.
The Hebrews divided their night into four watches of three
hours each, counting from sun- down at six o'clock to sun-rise at
six o'clock. (Mark xiii. 35.)
We suppose then the company leaving off guard at six o'clock
at even, to have been required by this psalm to greet the detach
ment taking their place with the words of the first two verses.
Whereupon that company cordially should reply, in the terms
of verse 3.
The first two verses are —
" Behold ! or beware ! bless ye the Lord — all ye servants of
the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift
up your hands of holiness, and- bless the Lord!"
W hereto the guards then entering on duty should reply ac
cording to the 3rd verse —
" The Lord that made heaven and earth, bless thee out of
Zion !"
The words of the first and second verse uttered from the heart
by the Levites leaving off guard would imply, that far from being
tired of their office, and looking for dismissal, they were at com
pletion of their allotted hours jealous of God's honour, and
provocative of zeal on the part of their comrades, who should
succeed them in that good work.
To " lift up hands of holiness" is so close a resemblance of St.
Paul's words in 1 Tim. ii. 8, that he may be thought to have
there quoted the words of this second verse. The exhortation in
these first two verses directly tended to admonish the Levitical
guard, that the duty en which they were about to enter, being in
the temple of the Lord, was not. to be discharged like that of
ordinary sentinels in a merely perfunctory manner — by bodily
service alone— but as became a hely God with the lifting up of
holy hands, and with the mind's thoughts.
The reply provided in the 3rd verse, for the detachment then
commencing duty, calls on them to meet this appeal with warmer
terms of pious devotedness ; inasmuch as they let their departing
comrades know how great they hold the Lord of that temple to
De — eyen the Maker of heaven and earth — Who also hath

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH. 247
promised blessings to Israel in Zion, which shall sum up all that
man can desire. See the 3rd verse of the preceding psalm, and
the last six verses of the psalm before that, and the language of
the eighty-seventh psalm at verses 5 — 7: where it is promised,
that Messiah should be born there ; which happened when He
was raised up there from the grave. Compare Isa. xxviii. 16,
Acts xiii. 33 : whence it is plain that to bless one out of Zion
was an expression in that day betokening all the blessings
hitherto granted mankind in Jesus through the Jews or yet to be
granted. (John iv. 22.)
Such blessings we know can only be made by each one to be
his own through lively faith : wherewith, in answer to prayer in
the name of Jesus, he may obtain of the Father renewal with
the Holy Ghost from day to day.
These are pre-eminently the blessings, wherewith the Lord
maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow therewith (Prov. x. 22):
whence may be seen how the terms of this 3rd verse on the sub
ject of blessing transcend those of the first and second. Man's
blessing, at most, can but consist in his speaking good of God's
Name : whereas God's blessing of the believers is not so much
an enduing of him " with word, as with power and with the
Holy Ghost, and with much assurance." (1 Thess. i. 5.)
This psalm, so explained, shews it to be an incentive to the
worship of God in His temple at Jerusalem by night as well as
by day. (1 Chron. ix. 33.)
The worship in heaven is unquestionably in that manner, by
turns or relays, without ceasing. (Bev. iv. 8.)
Moreover the tabernacle built by Moses for the Levitical wor
ship was intended for a pattern of that in heaven (Heb. viii. 5),
as was also the temple of Solomon.
Nor need we doubt but that when " Our God hath come out
of Zion perfect in beauty" (Ps. 1. 2, Heb. xii. 23), a service, day
and night, according to the tenour of the hundred and thirty-
fourth psalm, will be offered up in the Temple then to be erected.
An attempt has however been made by the Church of Borne
to inaugurate such an unceasing public worship of God in this
age of the Christian Church, by institution of courses of regular
priests and nuns in monasteries.
But there is a wide difference to be observed between the cir
cumstances in which the Israelitish nation was placed when
required to render this service after the pattern of that in heaven
(and shall as we believe be again required to do in the forthcom
ing age), and- the circumstances in which, we of this age in the
kingdom of heaven out of various nations that believe in God,
are situate.
In Israel an entire tribe, numbering 38,000 males in David's
day (1 Chron. xxiii. 3—5), was set apart for this national service
in one house, by courses.

248 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH.
Whereas now, during the present age in the kingdom of
heaven, the hour is come when the true worshippers, blessed out
of Zion by the Lord that made heaven and earth, no more are
gathered unto one place (John iv. 21), nor yet have any adequate
portion of their nation authoritatively set apart for such service
by courses.
Is it then to be concluded that no way is left us of this age in
which to act up to the spirit of the exhortation in this psalm to
bless God?
We read in John iv. 24 that they who worship God must
worship Him in spirit and in truth:
In Acts x. 35 also we read, "that He is no respecter of per
sons; but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness is accepted with Him :"
And St. Paul, in 1 Tim. ii. 8, will have "men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting — i.e. in faith
and charity :" he would also have us (according to 1 Thess. v.
17) " Pray without ceasing :" also in 1 Cor. vi. 19 he asks,,
" What ? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, whieh is in you, which ye have of God ?"
It is therefore to be hence gathered, that, as spiritual priests;
having access unto the holy place of the great temple of the
universe, (whieh Peter shews to be " the blessing of the Lord
out of Zion" in our day, 1 Peter ii. 1 — 9) we are habitually to
bless our God clay and night in whatsoever we do. (Col. hi. 17.)
To serve God in such a spirit, " considering one another to
provoke unto love and unto good works," (Heb. x. 24), is practi
cable according to the grace given us in our age of the kingdom
of heaven, and a personal though not a corporate exemplification1
of the service rendered day and night in heaven. How eminently
happy would that congregation among us be wherein the older
members that had reached the evening of life and the end of
their pilgrimage might say to the younger ones, according to the
first two verses of this psalm, Take heed and see that in this
'lark world ye be as lights to the glory of the Lord — while they
with cordiality bid their departing elders, in the words of the last
verse, look for the fulness of blessing from the Lord that mad©
heaven and earth in the Zion above.

The Warders' Challenge.
Ho ! ye, Jehovah's servants all, beware !
Jehovah bless !
Standing by night within the house of prayer,
Jehovah bless !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH. 249
Unto Jehovah lift up hands devout
In holiness!
The Warders' Reply on Relieving Guard.
Jehovah, heav'n' s and earth's Lord, thee from out
Of Zion bless !

PSALM CXXXV.

ABGUMENT.
Israel's praise of God may be described as being a vocal and
intelligent utterance of that commendation which all God's works
by their very appearance yield Him.
Holy Scripture teaches us that God inhabiteth the praises of
Israel. (Ps. xxii. 3.) This is so, because He Himself first must
open our lips, before our mouths can intelligently shew forth His
praise. (Ps. li. 15 ; 1 Cor. xii. 3.)
This He doth by first, in answer to His people's prayers for a
measure of the Spirit of Christ, infusing the same into their
hearts. Hereupon it rises to their lips in praises. Nevertheless
there is great difference-between one and another in use of this
Spirit when infused into them.
Few comparatively enrich their minds with study of God's
works and word, in order that they may stir up the gift that is
in them, and abound in the fruit of the lips.
A large proportion of those that receive of Christ's Spirit are
desultory and vacillating in employment of it for the purpose
of praise ; and not a few, it is to be feared, omit altogether the
duty of rendering praise according to that measure of the Spirit
received by them (2 Chron. xxxii. 25) ; whereupon it departs
out of their heart, along with the words of Christ (Deut. iv. 9),
and they relapse into their unrenewed state of miud. (Matt.
xii. 43—45 ; Gal. v. 4.) The gift of a measure of the Spirit of
Christ in answer to one's prayer for it, lays one under the
obligation to use it to God's glory : but this worthy use of it is
only rendered by help of God's grace; as St. Paul admonishes ua
when writing in Eom. xii. 6 —
" Having then gifts differing, or excelling, according to the
grace given unto us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according
to the proportion of the. faith," and so forth.

250 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH.
Those of God's children who examine themselves, whether
they be in the faith, are constrained to lament their inaptitude
for topics whereon to praise God.
Notwithstanding that the Spirit of Christ is in their hearts, if
they begin God's praise, they soon find themselves coming to
the end of what they have to say in that strain, being in this
respect the very opposite to Elihu, who stood up on God's behalf
to reprove both Job's friends and Job ; whom we find saying at
chap, xxxii. 18 — ¦
" I am full of matter, the Spirit within me constraineth me.
" Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent ; it is ready
to burst, like new (skin) bottles."
Elihu could not have been full of matter, though having the
Spirit of Christ within him, unless he had been in the habit of
storing his mind with the countless tokens of God's worthiness
to be seen in the works of His hands. This it was which made
him, though the younger, so able to speak on God's behalf in
that grave assembly of elders.
It is therefore lack of this diligent study, which causes those
among us, who have a measure of the Spirit of Christ, to be soon
at a loss and emptied out in our attempts at rendering praise to'
God, according to that we have received.
We ought to bear more in mind than we do, that " gifts excel
according to grace," and that grace is gained by diligence in
waiting on God for it. Granting then, that we own this view
of duties and defects to be sound, psalms like this hundred and
thirty-fifth become valuable as examples of the' way how to set
about the exercise of praise.
On seeing how the psalmist guided by the Spirit of Christ
found themes for praise of God in that early1 stage of the pro
gress of Israel, we may soon see that in addition to those themes,
we Christians have many more to recite, in which, upon oppor
tunity, we ought to be fitted to praise God aloud and long.
In the first two verses it is shewn how all servants of the
Lord are under an obligation to do this, but especially His
ministers. For, as man by being endowed with reason and speech is
fitted by God to lead with intelligent language the chorus of
praise rendered to Him by all creation at its very sight ; so, the
ministers of His sanctuary are appointed to be their fellowmen's
prompters and helpers herein.
In the 3rd verse the psalmist alleges the goodness of the
Lord to be an inexhaustible incentive to praise. He also adds,
that the ascription of praise unto God is pleasant to the minds
so employing themselves.
1 This and the following psalm form the Major Hallel: so called in regard of
being the earlier.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH. 251
Of this there cannot be a doubt.
For, whereas it is impossible to look at a beautiful object, and
to discourse of its beauty, without becoming enlivened, which is
pleasant ; so they that have the Spirit of Christ in them need
only begin to dwell on the goodness of God, discernible in
His works of creation — or, again, in those of redemption — to be
recovered from despondency, like Hagar's in the wilderness
(Gen. xxi. 16, 17) ; or sullenness, like David's, when the Lord
smote Ozzah. (2 Sam. vi. 8.)
In the 4th verse the psalmist specifies a prime reason with all
Israelites for readiness to praise God ; namely, " For the Lord
hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for his peculiar
treasure." Here is an apparent reference to the nineteenth chapter of
Exodus, a circumstance greatly in favour of the assumed early
composition of this psalm — where at verse 5 it was written —
" If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people ;
for all the earth is Mine ; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom
of priests, and a holy nation."
Now "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
He will not allow His calling to become utterly inoperative,
though the time may be long deferred in which He has fore-
determined to delay no longer, on account of His servant's per
verseness in abuse of His gifts, the establishment of that destined
favour in full operation. Such seems to be the ground taken in
this psalm for praising God, notwithstanding the slender circum
stances in whieh the psalmist's countrymen, as a nation, were
situate. First of all it is intimated that God had the power to
bring that good purpose of His toward Israel into operation.
If He would, He could, " make them a peculiar treasure unto
Him, and a holy nation." (Matt. viii. 2.)
This the psalmist proves by shewing, from the 5th verse to the
end of the 12th, that "the Lord doth whatsoever it pleaseth
Him," (which the false gods of the nations cannot) as well in
heaven by giving rain (which no gods of the nations can, Jer. x:)
as on earth by what he did for destruction of the mightiest
empire thereon, at the time He would bring Israel out of
Egypt. Again in the 13th and 14th verses, where the psalmist saith —
" Thy Name, O Lord, endureth for ever, and Thy memorial, 0
Lord, throughout all generations.
" For the Lord will judge His people, and He will repent
Himself concerning His servants,"
he reminds his fellow-worshippers that the Lord is as willing as
He is able to fulfil His promise to make Israel a kingdom of
priests, and a holy nation ; although, because of the unprofitable-

252 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH.
ness of one generation after another among them, He may leave
them, as they often were, in great straits. The time will come,
though the promise seems long delayed, when it shall be with
the Lord an occasion, as it were, of regret that it has been so
long withheld: and He will "by judgment" (Isa. i. 27) make
Israel His peculiar treasure.
Surely the psalmist hereby gave his fellow worshippers good
ground for praise of God ; so as to kindle in them sparks of
grateful thought about what they ought to do for God's glory,
above what heathens did for their false gods.
The heathen, as the psalmist points out, gave the best they
had — silver and gold — to their false gods for manufacture of idols ;
how then ought Israelites to give their gold and silver to the
service of the true God, Who had opened their eyes, as idols could
not, to see the folly of worshipping senseless lumps of matter,
or the devils such lumps were meant to represent. (L Cor. x. 20.)
Oh that these words of the psalmist might kindle in us warm
resolves not to grudge our silver and gold to the service of the
true God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, that His way may be
known upon earth, His saving health among all nations.

Hallelujah.
Praise ye Jehovah's name,
His excellence proclaim,
~Ye servants of Jehovah ! ye that wait '
Within His dread abode —
The chambers of our God —
Your voices in His worship elevate.
Good is Jehovah ! praise be to His name !
And truly pleasant 'tis, to think upon the same.

Jehovah, ages gone,
Chose Jacob for His own —
For His especial treasure Israel.
Jehovah, well know I,
Doth all the gods on high
Or on the earth beyond compare excel.
All hath Jehovah wrought, it did Him please,
In -heaven, earth;and all deep places, and the seas.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH. 253

From earth's apparent end
Makes He mists to ascend,
Or after lightnings brings down floods of rain :
Or bids the winds to fly
Forth from His treasury.
The eldest-born of man and beast lay slain,
When He in wrath sent tokens to thy cost,
0 Egypt, upon Pharaoh and on all his host.
4.
Great nations He o'erthrew,
And mighty despots slew —
The valiant Sihon, King of Amorites,
And huge Og— Bashan's head —
Famed for his iron bed,
And all the kingdoms of the Canaanites,
And gave their lands as He did first engage,
To Israel — His people — for a heritage.
5.
Jehovah, Thy great name,
Abides always the same ;
And Thy memorial through every age 1
Jehovah unto Him
With judgment shall redeem
His people, granting all He e'er did pledge;
As idols made of silver or of gold
Cannot, whereon the heathen lavish wealth untold;
6.
Whose mouths devoid of speech,
And sightless eyeballs, teach
Mankind to deem, who trust in them, as they.
0 house of Israel,
Jehovah's praises tell!
0 house of Aaron, how ye love Him, say !
Levites, and all that fear Him, swell this theme !
0 Zion, Him bless, dwelling in Jerusalem !
Hallelujah !

254 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH.

PSALM CXXXVI.

ARGUMENT.
The subject of this psalm is closely akin to that of the psalm
preceding : there God's people are stirred up to praise of Him —
here to giving of Him thanks ; which may be regarded as marking
off a special part of the more general topics for praise of God.
Praise may have for its subject what God is in Himself; whereas
thanksgiving treats in eulogistic terms of what He is to us
fallen men. In Rom. v. 7, St. Paul shews how much more
loveable it is to be good than to be righteous : saying, " For
scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure
for a good man (one doing kindnesses as well as righteous
ness) some would even endure to die ;
" But God commendeth His love (or goodness) towards us,
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
There was doubtless in the psalm before us a mysterious
reference to this crowning instance of God's goodness ; as will
appear more plainly when we come to consider what is here
said of His mercy — to wit, that it endureth for ever.
From St. Paul's words above quoted may be seen how the
goodness of Jesus in dying for us sinners is God's own good
ness to us : which enables us to reconcile two testimonies in
holy Scripture apparently contradictory^ one in Mark x. 18,
where it is written that Jesus said, " Why callest thou me
good ? There is none good, but One ; that is, God." The
other in Micah vi. 8, where it is written, " He, namely God,
hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good, or that good One,
Who is worthy to make peace with God on man's behalf : so
that God doth not require of thee, 0 man, to make thy peace
with Him — it is already made ; but God doth require of thee to
do justly (by faith in the sufficiency of that good One to make
peace for thee) and to love mercy," out of which God gave
thee that good One, " and to walk humbly with thy God."
There is no contradiction between that saying of Jesus,
" There is none good but One ; that is, God," and Micah's —
" God hath shewed thee, O man, Him Who is good" — the
man not only righteous, but out of love " giving His life a ransom
for us sinners" — " Jesus and His Father are one." (John x. 30 ;
xiv. 9—13.)
The words "for His mercy is, or endureth, for ever," expli-
citlv testify that whereinsoever God had, prior to the time
for composition of this psalm, manifested His goodness to Israel,
it was of His merey alone that He did this : as also was the case

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH. 255
whereinsoever He was at the time then present shewing it, and
would be, whenever hereafter He should shew it.
Now in 1 Chron. xvi. 41, it is written that King David spe
cially charged the choir " to give thanks to the Lord, before the
ark in Zion, because His mercy endureth for ever."
Also in 2 Chron. v. 13, it is recorded how at the consecra
tion of Solomon's temple upon the choir singing with music in
praise of the Lord ;
" For He is good ; for His mercy endureth for ever," that
then the house was filled with a cloud — even the house of the
Lord ;
" So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of
the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of
God." Also in the twentieth of 2 Chron. where is recorded how
Jehoshaphat gathered an army to repel an invader, at verse 21
it is written, he marched to the combat with the singers singing
before the army, " Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth for
ever;" and the invaders were smitten before them — none
escaped. Such singling out of one attribute of God for especial praise
with His manifest approval, may surely be considered to have
had for its warrant some oracular word from Himself.
Now in the eighty-ninth psalm, which is justly held to be as
old as any part of our present Scriptures, being the work of
Ethan the Ezrahite in the journeying through the wilderness, we
have in the second verse a solemn asseveration by Christ in the
person of the psalmist, to this effect — " I have said, Mercy shall
be built up for ever, Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the
very heavens." After which follows the Father's testimony con
cerning His covenant with His chosen — His David or beloved —
His servant.
Assuredly this ancient Scripture may be regarded as the pre
cedent to which David — himself a type of the promised Mes
siah, both by name and office — had respect ; when singling out
of all God's glorious attributes, that of His mercy, for the
especial theme of praise ; because of His purpose to send the
beloved One — His King and Servant— of His mercy to accom
plish all His will concerning us fallen men— all His goodness.
Owing to the fact of this ancient Scripture in the eighty-
ninth psalm containing God's own pledge concerning His pur
pose of exalting mercy above all His attributes in His dealings
with man, is, as it seems to me, to be attributed the coupling of
mercy and truth so emphatically in sundry places of the psalms
and in the book of Proverbs ; as, for instance, in Prov. iii. 3,
where we read, " Let not mercy and truth forsake thee ;" and
in xvi. 6, where we read, " By mercy and truth iniquity is
purged ;" where it ought to be plain that poor fallen man doe

256 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH.
not purge himself of his own iniquity by subsequent acts of
mercy and truth, so far as he can offer them ; but that the same
" mercy and truth" which in the third chapter, verse 3, we are
charged to beware of provoking to forsake us, are the Divine
attributes by exercise whereof God purges man from iniquity ',
because of His having placed mercy in the ascendant, even in
heaven itself; according to the _ second verse of Ps. Ixxxix : so
that " mercy shall rejoice against judgment," James ii. 13. Hence
in Ps. Ixxxv. we find it testified "mercy and truth are met
together ; " because of truth flourishing out of the earth in the
Person of the risen Saviour, after He had been laid as a founda
tion stone in Zion.
Also in Matt. ix. 13 we find the Lord Jesus, when on earth,
pursuing the same line of thought which we have shewn Him in
His Divine nature to have spoken by the mouths of His prophets
— when saying, " Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice." (Hosea vi. 6.)
This tracing back of the exaltation of Divine mercy above all
the other attributes to God Himself, when speaking concerning
His David — or beloved^in Ethan's psalm, at verse 3, shews that
what Isaiah was taught by inspiration to call " the sure mercies
of David," reached backward beyond the covenant confirmed with
David, as recorded in 2 Sam. vii. 11 — 16, to that mentioned in
Ps. Ixxxix. 3.
If the foregoing remarks convey but a fair and unexaggerated
exposition of the words —
" O give thanks unto Jehovah, for He is good ; for His mercy
endureth for ever."
How enchanting appears the conception of making every verse
in this psalm end with the same words — as a slaking of the wor
shipper's thirst for praise of God by frequent exaltation of that
attribute which God Himself would, out of goodness towards
fallen man, exalt in the very heavens !
In the second verse where we read —
" 0 give thanks unto the God of gods, for His mercy endureth
for ever," —
we are to understand by gods -- not only those on earth
among men most worthy by their office to be revered, to whom
God in Scripture conceded in a subordinate sense some of the
honour belonging to His own name (Exod. vii. 1) ; but the highest
of His creatures, the archangels that excel in strength ; (Ps. lxxxii.
6, 7.) so that, as Nebuchadnezzar becomingly confessed in Dan.
iv. 37, "those that walk in pride He is able to abase."
"The God, that made thesej} gods, can make His sword to
approach unto them." (Job xl. 19.)
This is what is meant by our being asked to praise the Lord as

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH. 257
God of gods because His mercy endureth for ever : it being in
effect a solemn record of His people's persuasion that " neither
heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to sepa
rate us who, though fallen beings, are the objects of His mercy,'
from His love toward us in Christ Jesus the Lord." (Rom. viii.
39.) To the like effect is the significance of the third verse —
" 0 give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endureth
for ever."
In the fourth verse, where the psalmist saith —
" To Him (give thanks) Who alone doeth great wonders, for
His mercy endureth for ever."
All power is ascribed to God alone, which from the fifth to the
end of the ninth verse is exemplified on the one hand, in such
works of creation as His making of the heavens— and stretching
out the earth against1 the waters — and making the luminaries of
heaven to give light upon the earth by day and by night :
And on the other, from the sixth to the twenty-second, in His
personal interposition by extraordinary agencies for liberation of
His chosen people Israel out of Egypt — dividing the Red Sea
into parts2 for their sakes — and bringing His people through the
1 Ver. 6. D?J2iT"v3J " against" is a sense of ' at,' as it seems to me, in
Ps. cix. 6, and Ps. Ixxxi. 5, see margin ; where I understand by it ' over
against.' (Job xxxviii. 10, 11.)
2 Ver. 13. D^nb " into parts." On this expression the rabbis have a tradi
tion, that it denotes" the division of the waters of tbe Red Sea, so as to afford
twelve distinct ways, whereby the twelve tribes should pass through its depths.
So far from discrediting this tradition, it seems to me very unlikely to have
arisen in the mind, had there not been in reality an origin for it. The disci
pline observed in the vast host of 600,000 men, beside women and children and
cattle, seems to me to be here disclosed ; as also the order in which they were
drawn up on the sea-shore ; so as to be ready to pass through at a given
breadth. Moreover, if the water was turned into ice between each of the tribes (Exod.
xv. 8), it becomes apparent how distinctness of each was maintained during the
passage through the bottom of the sea ; as also how the ice on being melted
caused the Egyptians to be simultaneously in the midst of the sea.
This and certain other particulars in this psalm incline me to think, that we
have here one composed at an early date.
The references to Pslxxxix., which I have already endeavoured to identify in
commencement of my observations, corroborate this conjecture.
The occurrence of "faaS bM"lb';b in verse 22, seems to me a reference to
^22 in verse 3 of Ps. Ixxxix/: 'looking on Israel collectively as mystically
one with " the beloved." (Compare Isa. lxix. 3.)
Again the prefix of b to the object of verbs active in verses 16, 17, 19 and
20 as three times in verse 11 of Ps. cxxxv. is to be met with in 2 Sam. iii. 30 ;
°Also the prefix E7 for "1tt?S in verse 23 is to be met with in Judges v. 7 ; vii.
12 ; viii. 26.

258 PSALM THE. HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH.
wilderness into Canaan ; and again, by mercifully remembering
them in their low estate, when in the times of the Judges they
had provoked Him to sell them into the hands of one enemy
after another : and to sum up all, by His giving of food to all
flesh, whereby their life is sustained from day to day : since, as
Elihu saith in Job xxxiv. 14 —
"If He set His heart upon Him," that is, retire within Him
self — if He gather unto Himself His Spirit and His breath —
" all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again into
dust." Whence it is clear, that " of His mercy we are not consumed."
(Lam. iii. 22.)
Such is the help to render thanksgivings unto our God pro-
vided_for us in this noble hymn, and we need much to study
it and take it for a model of thanksgiving ; notwithstanding that
we — who at this day — are of the only remnant of the true
Israelites, have many more acts of mercy towards us to record at
this late stage in the progress of His Church, which have been
wrought for Israel by Him Who alone doeth great wonders.
For there is risen up among us a school of enquirers into the
works of God in the material universe which ignores all that holy
Scripture teaches us concerning the fall of man ; and conse
quently neither supposes man to be an object of God's, mercy,
nor to need it. The more conspicuous these free-thinkers are
for their perverted ability, the more diligent ought those that
know His Name to be in rendering Him thanks for His mercy.
We owe this to God as well on behalf of our Church collec
tively (which includes us all in our national capacity,) as on our
own behalf individually ; for is not the Lord He " Who hath
fed us all our life long, the Angel, that hath redeemed us from
all evil ?" (Gen. xlviii. 15.)
Is not His Personal interposition in answer to our prayers
manifested to us in ways known only to ourselves, and Him ;
wherein we have asked Him to hold our souls in life, and not to
suffer our feet to be moved ? (Ps. lxvi. 9.) How, then, can we
do otherwise than take shame to ourselves, if backward in ren
dering Him thanks for all His mercies unto us as well indi
vidually, as also in our corporate capacity, being congregations
of worshippers united with Him, Who is our Covenant Head, in
His mystical body ! (Ephes. iv. 15, 16.)
This thankfulness unto God is comely and pleasant, and with
out doubt as acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, as it was in
David's day or Solomon's or Jehoshaphat's ; because it is for our
good and great profit to concern ourselves about God's honour,
that we may be partakers of His Holiness. (John xv. 8 ; 1 Sam.
xi. 30.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH. 259
To Jehovah, alone good, give thanks,
For His mercy endures evermore —
The God over gods of all ranks —
For His mercy endures evermore.
Unto Him Who of lords is the Lord,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
Who's alone for His works to b'ador'd,
For His mercy endures evermore.
By His wisdom the heavens Who made,
For His mercy endures evermore.
The land 'gainst the waters Who laid,
For His mercy endures evermore !
To Him that great lights did display,
For His mercy endures evermore —
The Sun to preside over day,
For His mercy endures evermore ; [sway ;
While o'er night moon and stars should bear
For His mercy endures evermore.
The first-born of Egypt Who smote,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
And Israel out from thence brought,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
With a strong hand and arm stretched out,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
And clave through the Red Sea a route ;
For His mercy endures evermore ;
And Israel made to pass through,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
But Pharaoh's host in it o'erthrew,
For His mercy endures evermore.
Through the desert His people Who brought,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
And for them against mighty kings fought,
For His mercy endures evermore ;
Yea famous kings 'neath them did fling,
For His mercy endures evermore —
Great Sihon, of Amorites king,
For His mercy endures evermore— -
s 2

260 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH.
With Bashan's king — Og — huge and brave-
For His mercy endures evermore.
And their land as a heritage gave,
For His mercy endures evermore — ¦
When Israel th' heathen thence drave ;
For His mercy endures evermore.
Who lifted us up when brought low,
For His mercy endures evermore j
And rescu'd us from every foe,
For His mercy endures evermore.
It is He that to all flesh gives food,
For His mercy endures evermore.
Heav'n' s God thank, Who only is good,
For His mercy endures evermore.

PSALM CXXXVII.

ARGUMENT.
Irom the tenour of the third verse it is plain that " the songs
•of Zion" were in a lively and cheerful strain.
The themes of such songs we may suppose to have been,
either the beauty of the situation of Zion (Ps. xlviii.), or the
gladness of those who lived in that one place on earth, where
God had manifested the visible tokens of His presence, and
worshipped Him there with a good conscience.
When we think of the discordant sounds which to this day
characterise what heathen nations call music, we may well in
cline to the persuasion that the praise of God with music,
vocal and instrumental, in the service of the Tabernacle, being
originally derived from heaven, was unique on earth.
We may also be well persuaded that this heaven-descended
music was so in accordance with the principles of harmony
in man's constitution, that the majority of the heathen who
heard it were delighted with it.
Now from this third verse we learn that the Babylonians,
who had carried away the Jews from Jerusalem, after destruc
tion of their city and temple, used to ask their captives to
sing those songs. It is expressly stated, that it was for the

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH. 261
Bake of the mirthful measure of those songs that the Babylonians
wished to hear them ; and it was on this very account that the
captives could not bring themselves in their distress to comply
with that request.
Surely here is an affecting token of the gladness which God
would have associated with His service.
It has been truly remarked that none have so good a right
to be cheerful as those who know the joyful sound of the
Gospel of God, and live in conscientious observance of it.
Their cheerfulness recommends their religion to the notice
of strangers. For all men are in search of happiness ; and
when they see devout worshippers of the God of Israel taking
heartfelt pleasure in His service, they rightly reckon the source
of that happiness to he in their religion.
But in the case of the Babylonians described in this psalm,
more is not said than that they asked their captives to sing
for them, with accompaniment on the harp, those mirthful
songs of Zion. The captives to whom this request was made
being, as we may suppose, Levites that once had conducted the
service of God in His temple, felt that in their altered cir
cumstances the mirthfulness of those songs cut them to the
heart; so that, however much they might. wish, in the hope of
their better treatment, to please their conquerors, they could
not in this matter indulge them.
These Levites apparently felt it to be only the fault of their
own nation that they were not then in their own land, entering
into the spirit of that mirth to the utmost of their capacity.
The service of their God called for such gladness on the part
of His faithful servants ; but alas ! they and their fellow-country
men had not been faithful : they had together sinned (Dan. ix. 8)
to the degree which had provoked their God to appoint the over
throw of His city and temple, with the captivity of His people
in Babylon for seventy years.
Hence the very mirthfulness of the Songs of Zion smote them
with poignant compunction.
Commentators are at a loss to account for the- mention in the
first verse of the captive mourners being by the rivers of
Babylon. But it is to be observed in Acts xvi. 13, that descendants of
this same people, when under Roman masters, " went out of the
city of Philippi on the Sabbath, by a river side, where prayer
was wont to be made."
In that instance the situation was evidently a self-chosen one,
having probably privacy for its recommendation. May it not
then seem reasonable to conjecture, that those Jews at Philippi
derived their custom from their forefathers under like circum
stances— knowing, as we do, how unchanging are Asiatic habits ?
Viewing then this psalm as representing the more pious cap-

262 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH.
tives to have retired for worship on the Sabbath to a secluded
space on the swampy banks of the Euphrates, where willows
plentifully grew, may we not suppose the author of this psalm
to describe their hearts' thoughts when withdrawn thither for
worship, from the throng and clamour of the neighbouring city ?
(See too Dan. viii. 2 and 16 ; also x. 4). Accordingly we sup
pose them to have been in unmolested privacy when saying —
" By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept ;
when we remembered thee, O Zion.
"We hanged, our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof." Assuredly the psalmist here makes these Jews speak as though
well persuaded of their God being in their midst (Exod. xxxiii.
14 ; Ezek. xiii. 9), and that by worship of Him Who inhabits
the praises of Israel, though unable there to bring Him any
sacrifice of beasts, they were in the holy place of the great
temple of the universe, spoken of by Habakkuk in ii. 20.
According to this view, the willows might be regarded as posts
whereon to hang their harps in token of having relinquished the
use of them, because of the sounds to be elicited therefrom being
too lively for harmony with their sad state.1
" Eor there," continued the psalmist, " they that carried us
away captive required of us a song ; yea, they that wasted us
required of us mirth ; saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
Such were the circumstances under which was asked the affect
ing question in the 4th verse —
" How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ?"
The verses that follow are to be supposed to have been sung
at the same time — the scene being laid, as we have observed, on
the banks of the river Euphrates.
It is also to be remembered that the mourners were in privacy ;
for they went on to pour forth elegiac words in mournful dirge
like strains ; which, if Babylonians had been present, would have
given unnecessary provocation.
We must, therefore, suppose the psalmist in these concluding
verses to explain, how those that suspended their harps on the
willows, did not intend by that act to renounce the worship of
God, or despair of His favour ; on the contrary, they had only
laid aside for the time of their captivity the instruments em
ployed in mirthful strains ; confining themselves to such mournful
dirges with the voice, as that in the close of this psalm ; when
saying with intense repression of feeling —
1 See Horace:— " Nunc arma defunctumqne bello
Bai'biton hie paries habebit."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH. 263
' " If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning. " If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
"Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of
Jerusalem ; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation
thereof. " 0 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, happy shall
he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
" Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones
against the stones."
From the foregoing observations, I trust it will appear clear to
you, as it does to me, that this psalm was written by one like
Ezekiel among the captives, in their lowest state of dejection ;
and at an early stage too thereof.
Eor in regard to the retributive dealing with Edom, as pre
dicted in the 7th verse, (which Obadiah more fully dwelt on,) we
gather from history that the overthrow of Edom began in the
days of the same Nebuchadnezzar who had overthrown Jeru
salem. When Nebuchadnezzar marched against Egypt, Edom lay in
his way, and was at that time ravaged and desolated by him.
But the prediction in the 8th verse against Babylon herself
did not begin to be fulfilled till the taking of that city by Cyrus
the Persian, B.C. 538. But Babylon suffered much more under
a siege by Darius, twenty- two years afterwards, who took it in
B.C. 516. At that time the citizens of Babylon, who had revolted
against the King of Persia, of themselves put to death the greater
part of their own wives and children by strangling them for the
sake of saving their provisions in the siege.
But a Persian nobleman named Zopyras, mutilated himself hj
cutting off his nose and ears ; and then, having explained to Darius
his design in so doing, he pretended to desert to the Babylonians,
who crediting his statement that Darius had so mutilated him,
entrusted to him the command of an important post on their
walls; whereupon he, after having at first procured a seeming
victory by slaughter of some of Darius' troops, (which, it had been
agreed should be left exposed to him,) by and bye opened the gate
in his charge to Darius, who took the city. It appears to me,
however, that the massacre inflicted by the Babylonians them
selves on their wives and children, though in part fulfilment of
the prediction in this last verse of the psalm, did not exhaust its
significance. Eor the word translated "happy" is ordinarily rendered
" blessed," as in verse 1 of Ps. i. implying blessing from God.
Now blessing from God could only come through compliance
with a command from God, which certainly the Babylonians
themselves had not.

264 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH.
It seems to me, therefore, that like as Jerusalem is called the
metropolis or mother city of the children of Israel, so Babylon>
is here denominated the mother city of Israel's enemies.
As Jerusalem too has sustained many sieges in fulfilment of
predictions touching her overthrow, but that the final overthrow
to be sustained by that city will include all that had ever been
predicted concerning her sufferings— that persecution being des
tined to be such as to exceed all previous — that "except those
days were shortened, no flesh (of that nation) should be saved ;"
(Matt. xxiv. 22.) even so, the predictions on Babylon will not
be exhausted, until the city has been cast down into desolation
from which it is never more to rise : according to Isa. xiii.
and xiv. as also Jer. 1. and li.
To me it seems requisite for the truth of Scripture, that Babylon
should be yet rebuilt.
For the fourth monarchy predicted by Daniel, corresponding
with the legs and feet of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in
his dream, has not yet been brought into actual union with the
head. But union of all the limbs with the head, was a charac
teristic feature of that image, implying that the supreme head of
each of the four empires for the time being, should be king of
Babylon. So far as the Spirit of God by Daniel interpreted the dream,
we are shewn that the monarchs of the three successive empires
were kings of Babylon; that is, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and
Alexander. Now if the Roman be the fourth, it, though represented by
the legs and feet, has never yet been joined to the head. For
Rome never possessed Babylon. Accordingly I conclude that
the king of the fourth monarchy has yet to arise and reign, so
that Babylon must be rebuilt for him to be its head. See on
this point Zech. v. 5 — 11. Now if this king of the fourth
monarchy be the same as "the little horn " in Dan. viii. 9, that
should arise out of one of the four parts of Alexander's empire ;
that is, from the country whence he issued, namely Macedonia,
where was Byzantium, afterwards called Constantinople, and
that a Mahommedan prince should recover by the resuscitated
fanaticism of that sect, an empire identical with that of the kings
of the other three empires, there we should plainly recognise
the fourth monarchy.
lt may be that this king will from out' of Babylon afflict
Jerusalem, at that time re-established, to such a degree, as to
provoke from God a retributive commission to the chosen rem
nant of Israel, similar to that given their first fathers when
invading Canaan ; (Deut. vii. 2 ; Joshua vi. 21 ; 1 Sam. xv. 3) ;
which, if they had executed, would have caused them to be blessed.
What God could once give in command, He can with equal
justice do again, lt seems therefore to me that the last verse

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH. 265
of this psalm points to His doing so, for the same reasons as
formerly, to a generation of Israelites which will not be dis
obedient, and so will be " blessed." (Isa. lxiii. 8 ; xxvi. 5, 6.)
It is worthy of remark that ever since the captivity in Baby
lon the Jews, who previously were so prone to idolatry, have
been cured of it ; amidst all their national faults they have re
frained from idols.
What then, if after the destruction of Babylon by the hand of
Israelites in the manner here predicted, idolatry (which first
began in Babylon) should thenceforward be renounced by all
mankind ? (Jer. 1. 23 and 46.)
The sight presented to the mind's eye in this psalm of Jews
so cut to the heart by the gladness of the songs of Zion as to
be unable to sing them in the captivity whieh they had brought
upon themselves by their sins, forcibly pictures to us what grief
children of God amongst us endure, if for scandalous sins, ex
cluded from the congregation of the Lord : the very gladness
wherewith they had once served God in public worship, and
might then be doing so, but for their sin, smites them with the
most poignant compunction ; weeping and mourning alone har-
inonises with their mind, in this state of probation, until they be
restored to God's public worship : and for the same reason, on the
exclusion from worship of God in the congregation being that by
God Himself, when our time of probation is ended ; that
weeping at remembrance of mercies wilfully forsaken, is to be.
accompauied by "gnashing of teeth" — the mute gesture of re
morse ! (Matt. xxii. 13.)

By Babel's river sat we down and wept
At thought of Zion : down our harps we laid,
As not for us, upon the willows there.
For they, that us in cruel bondage kept,
A song solicited — our captors said,
Of Zion's city sing some cheerful air.

How in a land of strangers shall we sing
Jehovah's song ? if, 0 Jerusalem,
I thee forget, be my hand's use forgot !
If Thee I do not to remembrance bring;
My tongue to loss of speech let God condemn,
If in Jerusalem my joy be not !

266 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH.
3.
Of Edom, 0 Jehovah, mindful be,
Who at Jerusalem's day cried in spite —
Base her foundations and in fragments smash.
Thou also, Babel, doomed to misery,
Blest he, who smites thee, as thou us didst smite —
Blest he, who 'gainst the stones thy babes doth dash.

PSALM CXXXVIII.

TITLE.
For David.
In Pole's " Synopsis Criticorum" it is stated that in one version
of the Septuagint there is added to the above title, " of Haggai
and Zechariah."
This ancient explanatory notification concerning the author
ship of this psalm inclines me to think that subsequently to the
rebuilding of the Temple in Haggai's day, this psalm was com
posed by the joint labours of him and Zechariah, concerning
David's Son and Lord — the Messiah — Who is the true David or
Beloved.
ARGUMENT.
This psalm rehearses after David's manner and, as it were, in
his person, as if he were' alive in his lineal descendant, Zerub-
babel, hopes which, while he lived, he had so addressed to God,
and left on record in his psalms.
The words of the first verse are in the former clause identical
with those of the ninth psalm ; but instead of the rest of that
verse, " I will shew forth all Thy marvellous works," we have
here, " Before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee," an expres
sion not met with in the first forty-one psalms compiled by David
himself, nor likely to have been entertained by him ; for, being
king, he would not look upon it as a great proof of boldness in ,
confessing the name of the God of Israel, that he should do this
in the presence of the judges, who were his subjects, who are
sometimes in Scripture called gods. (Exod. xxii. 28.)
Or again, as regards heathen kings, who seem to be here meant
by "gods" (see verse 4), David himself, after he had become

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH. 267
king, had, during his subsequent life, no opportunity of proving
his boldness in the worship of God by confessing Him before
them. But when Zerubbabel, the lineal representative of David, was
rehearsing these hopes concerning God's promise to his fore
father, it would be on his part an undoubted mark of boldness in
the faith to record these hopes of the family of David in the God
of Israel before the kings of the surrounding tribes or nations.
To say in the 2nd verse—
" I will worship toward Thy holy temple and praise Thy Name
for Thy lovingkindness — or mercy — and truth,"
is entirely after David's manner of speech in Ps. v. 7.
In the words which follow —
" For Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy Name ;"
a term is in the original used for " word" which means " the
word of promise ;" to wit, that concerning the birth of David's
expected Son, the Messiah.
Now we see by the second of Haggai, at verse 7, that there
was granted to that prophet an express word concerning the
coming of Messiah, where we read : —
" I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall
come : and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of
hosts. " The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of
hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of
the former, saith the Lord of hosts : and in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts."
Assuredly so gracious a promise as this delivered to Haggai
might well call forth the grateful acknowledgment, " Thou hast
magnified Thy word" — that is, concerning David's Son, the
promised Saviour — " above all Thy Name." The Name of God
is a word appointed to be a sign of all that God makes known to
us concerning ' Himself,' or concerning ' His ' purposes towards
us ; wherefore the meaning here is, " Thy Name is more magnified
in what Thou hast now said by Haggai concerning my house
(supposing Zerubbabel to be the speaker) than in all Thou hast
heretofore made known that Thou wouldst do for man's hap
piness ; which was embodied, as it were, in our memories by
means of Thy Name." The words of the 3rd verse may then be
regarded as expressing what comfort Zerubbabel had when in
answer to his prayer Haggai had, on his behalf, received " the
word" above recited.
Well might Zerubbabel say : —
" In the day when I cried, Thou answered' st me, and strengtli-
ened'st me with strength in my soul."
After this renewed promise concerning the coming of Christ,
the language of the 4th verse may be supposed to have provided

268 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH.
suitable words for Zerubbabel in faithful commemoration of what
David had written in such places as that in Ps. xxii. 27 —
" All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the
Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before
Thee." And still more closely in that of Ps. lxxii., where David was
instructed to predict concerning his promised Son, under the
name of Solomon, or peace — wherewith the promise to Haggai
closes —
" All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve
Him." Agreeafely wherewith, in this 4th verse it is written : —
" All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O Lord, when
they hear the words of Thy mouth.
" Tea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord : for great is
the glory of the Lord."
Wherewith compare Numb. xiv. 21.
Now we know that " the words of the Lord's mouth" are to
be found in the Gospels of the New Testament.
Also these words of the Lord's mouth are called " the ways of
the Lord," for in Acts xiii. 8, when Elymas the Sorcerer was
rebuked for seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith,
Paul asked, " Wilt not thou cease to pervert the right ways of
the Lord ?" — thoSe ways in which it is here predicted that the
kings of the earth shall sing, because of " the Lord's great glory "
(verse 5), and because of " His mercy and truth" (verse 2).
What is said in the 6th verse, where we read, " Though the
Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly, but the proud
He knoweth afar off," may be taken for a reference to the lan
guage of David in Ps. xiv. 3, concerning the progress of the
Gospel of peace in this first age of the kingdom of heaven among
the meek and poor in spirit (to the rejection of them that are
wise in their own eyes), through the ministry of them that are as
babes (Ps. viii. 2) — and " earthen vessels" (2 Cor. iv. 7) — " that
the excellency of the power should be of God and not of them ;"
where it is written, " In Thy majesty ride prosperously, because
of Truth, of Meekness, and of Righteousness ;"
after which, " Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things." •
(Ps. lxvi. 5 ; Heb. x. 29, 30.)
In the 7th verse, where we read —
" Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me.
Thou shalt stretch forth Thine hand against the wrath of mine
enemies, and Thy right hand shall save me," — the representative
of David s house is, as it were, made in David's person to repeat
what David himself had put on record in Ps. xviii. 37 — 42, and
lxxi. 20, where he said : " Thou Which hast shewed me great
and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again from the depths of the
earth."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH. 269
And when, in the 8th verse, we read —
" The Lord, will perfect that which concerneth me ; Thy mercy,
O Lord, endureth for ever. Forsake not the works of Thine own
hands," David's representative may be regarded as here instructed
to refer to David's own words in 2 Sam. viii. 25, where it is
written : " And now, O Lord God, the word that Thou hast
spoken concerning Thy servant, and concerning his house, es
tablish it for ever, and do as Thou hast said."
The time of this psalm's probable composition and earliest use
having now been stated, we may observe, that on us, as being of
the only remnant of the true Israelites in this day, rests the
obligation of " praising God with the whole heart before the
gods," or highest earthly authorities over or around us ; lifting up
our hearts to the Son of David in His holy temple above, and
¦confessing how in His Gospel his Name is more magnified than
ever before. For the Cross of Christ, which is our peace, is " the
power of God, and the wisdom of God."
Because of this, that He hath done, shall kings honour Him,
when they hear the words of His mouth.
Our duty, moreover, is to give the kings of the earth and their
subjects opportunity of hearing those words ; which we may do
by contributing our alms to those Societies in our Church which
¦carry on Missions in our Colonies, or beyond them.
1.
With my whole heart Thee will I praise,
Before the gods with song in sooth —
And worship t'ward Thy holy place,
Lauding Thy mercy and Thy truth.

'Bove all Thy Name did e'er import,
Hast Thou Thy promise magnified.
To Thee did I in prayer resort,
And Thou hast inward strength supplied.
3.
All kings, Jehovah, o'er the earth
Their vows to Thee shall dedicate ;
Yea in Jehovah's ways find mirth,
Because His glory is so great.

270 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH.

Jehovah is exalted high,
Yet to the lowly hath respect;
But scanneth coldly, distantly,
All that in pride the head erect.
5.
Though 'midst sore trouble lies my path,
Me Thou 'It revive, and off me stave
With outstretch'd hand my haters' wrath ;
Yea with Thy right hand me shalt save.
6.
What thing soe'er concerneth me,
That will Jehovah perfect make.
Thy mercy shall unceasing be —
Thine own hands' work Thou 'It not forsake.

PSALM CXXXIX.
TITLE.
To the chief Musician ; a psalm of David.

ARGUMENT.
This psalm, consisting of twenty-four verses, may, as it sqems
to me, be advantageously divided into four equal portions of six
verses each. In the first portion the psalmist describes his awe
at God's close and constant scrutiny of him. The conscientious
and faithful worshipper finds comfort herein, because persuaded
that his service, done in singleness of heart, will not escape the
Divine notice. The Lord Jesus, in Matt. vi. 1 — 6, charges His
disciples to practise self-denial, give alms, and pray to their
heavenly Father in secret, that their Father, Who seeth in secret,
may reward them openly. Also in John v. 44, He significantly
asked some in His day, " How can ye believe, which receive
honour one of another ; and seek not the honour which cometh

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH. 271
of God only ?" Were such conscientious persons able always to
¦remember God's presence, their word would be as good as their
oath. But they do not always bear God in mind. When,
however, such persons say they so do, they afford a neighbour
all the assurance he can require, that they are careful about
what they are called on to speak of. On this account it is that
an honest man's oath is more satisfactory than his word ; his
avowal that he speaks as in the presence of God is virtually to
make oath, whether or not he clothes his testimony in the usual
form of one. The avowal of one's appeal to God, as witness of
what one is about to say, is the very essence of an oath. For
the Lord is He Who alone " searcheth the heart and trieth the
reins, to give every one according to his ways ; and according to
the fruit of his doings." (Jer. xvii. 10.) Consequently an appeal
-to any other than Him to witness the thought of one's heart is
vain. For the same reason, remembrance of God's eye being upon
one is the most effectual restraint from crime. The most hard
ened offenders will rarely indulge their lust while they think
their fellow-man's eye is upon them ; if, therefore, they could
but be habitually admonished of God's eye being upon them,
they never could be at peace in commission of sin, or crime.
Hence that boy who, upon being asked, how could you dare to
do such a thing in so public a place, replied, I looked this way
and that, and was sure no one saw me — was rightly reproved by
his father, who asked him, Why did you not look upward ?
Through God's restraining grace the remembrance of His eye
upon one, often so troubles the conscience of a wrong-doer in
the beginning of his career, that he endeavours by casting God
out of his thoughts to persuade himself that he can escape the
Divine notice.
The futility of this attempt at ease in sin is treated of by the
psalmist in the second portion — where he shews that the entire
universe would be but the prison wherein to confine those whom
the Almighty would punish. (See Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.) Hence
he, that turns away from God merciful, runs upon God the
Avenger. In the third portion the psalmist passes on to describe how
closely God concerns Himself with the fashioning of man's body
in his mother's womb (called in verse 15 " the lower parts — to
wit, those of the earth"), just as Milton, in his morning hymn
in Paradise Lost, makes Adam say of God —
" To ns invisible or dimly seen
In these Thy lowest works ; yet these declare
Thy goodness, beyond thought and power, divine."
Compare Isa. xliv. 3 ; hence,, as it seems to me, the psalmist
would deduce that it ought not to be wondered at that God

272 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH.
should, after such care over us in the formation of our bodies at
entrance of life, continue His regard to us as described in the
first portion; or, as Job asks, "open His eyes upon such an one"
(ch. xiv. 3) ; whence also the psalmist asks, " Lord, what is man,
that Thou art mindful of him ?" (Ps. viii. 4.)
But I am persuaded that the psalmist only refers here to
God's fashioning of his body in his mother's womb, for the sake
of awakening the hearer's attention to the like care on God's
part in fashioning Mm anew within his own breast, by a length
ened operation of the Holy Ghost upon him, whereof the process
of generation in the mother's womb was an acknowledged type
in Scripture — an earthly thing, as the Lord Jesus reminded
Nicodemus (John iii. 12) ; — or, in other words, an operation of
the Holy Ghost through the word of promise, which God's
ministers had been commissioned to teach on earth ages pre
vious ; as contra- distinguished from the new Articles of faith the
Lord Jesus had only then brought from heaven.
Other such passages in the Old Testament, besides this of
verses 13 — 18, are that in Ps. lviii. 3, Isa. xxxvii. 3, Hosea xiii. 13.
By comparison of St. Paul's words in Ephes. iv. 7 — 16 with those
in this psalm from 13 to 18, it seems that the Apostle, in his
view of the psalmist's words, in this place, connected God's
fashioning of the psalmist's body in his mother's womb with the
fashioning of that for the promised Son of David — the Christ —
in His mother's womb ; and subsequently in the grave ; which
meaning is undoubtedly included in the expression "lowest parts"
of the earth. (See Psalm lxiii. 9, and Acts xiii. 33.)
After a like manner in the eighth psalm, though commencing
with surprise at what God would condescend to do for man (verse
3), the psalmist presently carries the reader's thoughts forward to
God's purpose concerning Christ as Man ; thereby leading one
to ask in admiring wonder, What will He not do for man ?
We suppose then that the psalmist in this third portion of the
psalm before us passes on from contemplation of his own body,
when under the creative hand of God in his mother's womb, to
that of the expected Son of David in his Virgin Mother's womb ;
and again in the grave ; according to Ps. ii. 7 and lxxxvii. 5 ; or
rather, Christ Himself may be here perceived to shine forth
through the words of this psalm as speaking to God for Himself,
and saying emphatically at close of this portion, " When I awake
— to wit, from the grave — I am still with Thee" — a train of
thought linking this portion of the psalm with St. Paul's descant
thereon in Ephes. iv. 7 — 16, already quoted.
This expression, too, finds its counterpart in Ps. lxxxviii. 13,
and John xvi. 32.
But in Christ's own regeneration (compare Matt. xix. 28)
that of our souls by conversion in this life, and of our very bodies
at the resurrection of the dead, is included. (See John v. 24—

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY- NINTH. 273
29.) Hence it seems to me clear that the psalmist, in closing
this third portion with the words " when I awake I am still with
Thee," did not, for his own part, so much refer to waking out of
sleep and rising from off his bed, as rather waking up from the
sleep in the grave, spoken of by Job xiv. 12—15 ; when, because
of God being with him, Who through all his continuance in the
lowest parts of the earth— the grave— shall have watched over
him, he shall have no less care bestowed by God upon his new
body, than heretofore on the former one in 'his mother's womb
(Matt. vi. 30.)
Now we, who hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, are
warned that except we suffer with Christ we shall never -reign
with Him (2 Tim. ii. 12); hence it follows, that except we heed
His voice saying unto us, " Awake, thou that sleepest" (Ephes.
v. 14), we cannot be saved.
But to_ be thus awakened to effectually ask for light, is to be
born again of the Spirit, as the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus was
known to the congregation of Israel in the psalmist's day— that
doctrine being an earthly thing— consequently the psalmist, by
faithfully anticipating his resurrection with a glorified body in
saying, " When I awake, I am still with Thee," included therein
the preparatory work of awakenment by conversion unto God
with faith in His promise concerning Christ ; that so he might
acceptably ask of God a measure of the Spirit of Christ for
renewal day by day— wherewith to '' do justly, love mercy, and
walk humbly with God." (Micah vi. 8.)
After the same manner, then, that the psalmist in these words,
" When I awake, I am still with Thee" (following on an elaborate
description of God's fashioning of a body for him in his mother's
womb), implied that God would do the like for his risen body ;
so, too, we assume that there is to be included therein, that God
will create and build up the new man in the breast of each
believer ; when, after having been awakened, he shall have ob
tained from God through Christ renewal of the Holy Ghost.
Then there are in him two natures — the flesh and the Spirit
(Gal. v. 16 — 18) : the flesh, or old man, with its " motions of
sins" (Rom. vii. 5) must not be given way to, but " resisted"
and " purged out" (Ephes. iv. 27, James iv. 7, 1 Cor. v. 7) ; if
we would not have those sinful motions charged upon us by the
Father, Whose eye is upon us (Jer. xvii. 10, John xv. 1 — 3).
For " not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but
that which cometh out of the mouth. For from within, out of
the heart, proceed evil thoughts." (Matt. xv. 11 — 19.)
God hath called us in holiness, and provided that in Christ
(Rom. vi. 13) " we should not yield our members as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin ; but yield ourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instru
ments of righteousness unto God."

274 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH.
Hereupon the Father, for Christ's sake, will not charge on us
the motions of sin against which we honestly combat ; for He
can, consistently with His holiness and hatred of sin, do this ;
seeing that by the Holy Ghost's burial of us into Christ, and
incorporation with Him in His mystical body, we are passed
from death unto life, and are not under law, but under grace.
(John v. 24.)
Nevertheless God, " Who is about our path and about our
bed and spieth out all our ways," is holy, and wills that we
should be holy. (1 Pet. i. 13 — 19.) For "without holiness no
man shall see the Lord." (Heb. xii. 14.)
Of what unspeakable importance, then, is it to the renewed
man, who, being awakened, " hath God with him," to watch
against " the motions of sins in the flesh," and not to in
dulge them, but crucify them for Christ's sake. (See Jude
vv. 20, 21.)
There is no doubt in my mind that the psalmist had in view
this solemn obligation laid on him as a renewed man, by reason
of God being with him in his awakenment unto hope of a happy
resurrection ; and thus I trace a connection in thought between
this third portion and the fourth ; wherein he expressly speaks
of hating those that live in open sin ; concluding with a prayer
that God would make him more vigilant still in self-examination;
that so, being in the right way, he might not decline from it.
(Eom. vi. 22, 23.)
This sanctifying use of the remembrance that God is with us
is of unspeakable importance, and causes this psalm to be one
very needful to be called to mind again and again. Thus shall
we, by grace, thankfully receive the promise in Ps. xxxii. 8 —
" I will instruct thee and teach thee, in the way which thou
shalt go. I will guide thee with Mine eye."

Me, 0 Jehovah, Thou hast search'd and known,
My sitting down and rising up hast mark'd !
Thou compassest my path and lying down,
And hast recorded howsoe'er I've walk'd;
Nor is there one of all the words I've talk d,
But lo ! Jehovah, Thou dost know it well;
All that befel me in the past, and all
That shall in time forthcoming, Thou canst tell !
Thy hand is on me ! too sublime I call
Such knowledge ; yea, it doth my heart appal.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH. 275

Where from before Thy Spirit shall I go?
From 'fore Thy presence whither shall I flee ?
Could I ascend up into heaven, lo !
There Thou art ! or resolve my bed shall be
In hell; lo ! Thou art there too ! If to me
Were giv'n wings, as of the morn, to hie
Unto the furthest confines of the sea ;
Thy hand — Thy right hand — shall I soon find nigh ;
Or, should I seek in darkness secrecy ;
Darkness is all one, as the light, to Thee !
3.
Within my mother's womb hast Thou possess' d
My reins, and clothed me ! Thee will I praise,
My Maker ! Thy dread works shall be confess'd
By me ; Who didst in secret interlace
Nerves, veins,1 and sinews — limiting the days
When in Thy book my members should be writ,
While yet were none ! 0 God, Thy thoughts for me,
How wonderful ! The sum of them how great !
As sand, past counting inconceivably !
When I awake up, I am still with Thee !
4.
Thou surely wilt, 0 God, the wicked slay.
Away from me, ye men of blood, depart !
For 'gainst Thy Name ungratefully speak they.
And unto me my All in all Thou art !
Hate I not them, Jehovah, who at heart
Hate Thee? and am I not an enemy
Unto Thine enemies ? with perfect hate
I hate them ! Search my heart and try
My reins, 0 God ! Sin make me execrate,
And in the way eternal on Thee wait !
1 Ver. 15. ""flap"! embroidered, wrought as with a needle, referring to the
outer covering of the'human body (the muscles, veins, etc.), as the word sub
stance ^p^V does to the bony skeleton.
T 2

276 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH.

PSALM CXL.

TITLE.
To the chief Musician. A psalm of David.
From the ninth and tenth psalms we may gather that to
David was vouchsafed by the Spirit of Christ a revelation of the
opposition that should be raised, not only among Gentiles, but
also in his own nation against the person and rightful ascend
ency of his expected Son and Lord— the promised Messiah.
Hence, by these two psalms we have proof, that a revelation on
this subject was not for the first time communicated to Nebu
chadnezzar, a Gentile, in that dream interpreted by Daniel ;
since in a general way a revelation on the same subject had been
long before vouchsafed to David.
There is, however, this characteristic difference between the
earlier and later of these revelations touching the setting up
of Messiah's kingdom upon earth ; that, whereas the earlier
revelation to David is of a general character, as regards the opposi
tion of Gentiles, but explicit in reference to that which shall be
offered by the psalmist's own nation ; the later revelation .is more
explicit in detailing how within four monarchies shall be com
prised the opposition presented by the Gentiles to the setting up
of Christ's kingdom, while making brief reference to the cutting
off of Messiah by His own people. This actual state of the
revelations on the subject commends itself to our judgment upon
reflection, as being in harmony with God's general method, of
procedure ; for in Amos iii. 7 is laid down what appears to be a
canon or universal rule on the subject in hand.
" Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His
secret unto His servants the prophets."
Now He would seem to me to have contravened this rule,
had he made to Nebuchadnezzar — a Gentile — the earliest reve
lation concerning what opposition Gentiles should be permitted
to offer against the setting up of His Son's kingdom ; whereas it
is in accordance with that canon cited out of Amos, that David
should have the earlier communications by revelation on that
subject. Furthermore it seems to me warranted by the tenour of the
eleventh and twelfth psalms, to assume that there is no need of
inquiring what probable event in David's life could have been
the occasion of his descanting in dark speeches upon what on a
far greater scale to the like effect should befal his greater Son.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH. 277
To me it seems more agreeable with probability to look on the
ninth and tenth psalms as purely Messianic, that is to say, solely
treating of the Messiah, like the eleventh, the twenty-second, the
forty-fourth, and others.
Moreover, in these ninth and tenth psalms, David identifies
himself with the followers of his expected Son, the Christ ; as
though he in their person sustained the protracted conflict, even
unto the final triumph.
Nor is this to be deemed altogether a mere rhetorical figure ;
for the Scripture, from the time of man's creation, intimates that
those who by faith in God's promise concerning Christ obtain,
in answer to their prayers, a measure of the Spirit of Christ for
their renewal, are mystically one with Him.
See Gen. ii. 24 (where the covenant of marriage notified this,
Eph. v. 25—32) ; Gen. vi. 1—8 ; Heb. iii. 1—6. And not only
this, but the Scripture also speaks of a more special union
between those in Christ, on whom shall have been placed by God
what measure of the Spirit may have been given for a special
purpose ; as, for instance, in the case of that given to Elijah,
(Mai. ii. 15) ; a double measure whereof was put upon Elisha:
and ages afterwards, a measure upon John Baptist — making him
in scriptural language one with Elijah before God — as we sup
pose David in this 131st psalm reckoned that he should- be,
through time forthcoming, with Messiah.
We may furthermore consider David to have hereby restricted
his identification of himself with his descendants to those who
by like faith with his in Christ, should suffer in meekness of
spirit, making God their avenger. H these observations on the
ninth and tenth psalms are well founded, being derivable from
examination of their contents, then this 140th, may be seen to
entirely accord with them herein.
And by way of accounting for its late insertion in the book of
psalms, we may suppose, that after David had arranged his own
book, consisting of the first forty-one, he composed many others,
more especially concerning the sufferings and triumphs of his
Son, the Messiah ; which being sung in the temple service, as are
our hymns, were subsequently inserted in the succeeding books
of psalms, according as their compilers found psalms of David
answering the plan upon which they might be framing their
book. Now we have concluded, that the recovery of the descendants
of the ten tribes to worship at Jerusalem was the leading object
with the compiler of the second book in Hezekiah's day— and of
the third book too ; but the fourth was compiled during the
captivity in Babylon : on which account, those of David's com
position yet extant, which did not answer the compiler's plan
were left out.
Whereas in this fifth book (which is supposed to have been

278 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH.
arranged after the return of the Jews from Babylon,) seeing
that the trials to be undergone by such of the Israelites as
should believe in David's Son — the Christ — until the establish
ment of His kingdom in Israel in great glory, formed the leading
theme of this book (as is to be gathered from its first psalm, the
107th), it is plain that the psalms of David now found in this
book entirely accorded with the compiler's plan.
Thus, as it seems to me, may the late insertion of certain
psalms of David's in the Psalter be plausibly accounted for.
It seems to me also, viewing this 140th psalm in this light,
as in reality treating of the same subject with those of the
ninth and tenth, that it bears in its tone of expression marks of
ripeness and maturity of reflection upon the sufferings of
David's or of Messiah's seed in Israel — the afflicted and poor,
but righteous ones, of successive generations therein — whom God
should in due time avenge. (Luke xviii. 7, 8.)
It is such a ripeness as might be expected to characterise the
later compositions of the royal psalmist, in contradistinction from
his earlier ones.
Bishop Horsley describes this psalm as " A prayer of a
believer for protection from the Atheistical Conspiracy," — that
is, of Antichrist and his adherents, forming the subject of pro
phecy in psalms ix. and x.

ARGUMENT.
The evil and violent man, mentioned as an individual in the
first verse, is in the second shewn, by use of the plural personal
pronoun, meant to be the type of a class, although destined to
culminate in one head. The last clause of the third verse, —
" Adder's poison is under their lips,"
is quoted by St. Paul in the third chapter of his epistle to the
Romans, as descriptive of opposition to David's Son, offered by
ungodly Jews. For the Apostle's comment upon it is, " What
things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law."
The fourth and four following verses express David's antici
pation of such success on the part of his Son's enemies against
His people, as to hold out no other hope, eventually, of safety,
than by direct interference from heaven.
The mention in the ninth verse of the injury to be done the
people of his Son by " lying lips," remarkably agrees with what
we read in Daniel vii. 8 — 25, about " a little horn with a mouth
speaking great things — even great words against the Most
High ;" and the parallel vision in Rev. xiii. 5, 6, of him unto

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH. 279
whom was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,
and who " opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blas
pheme His Name and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in
heaven." While in the tenth verse, where it is written, " Let burning
coals fall upon them, let them be cast into the fire — into deep
pits that they rise not up again " —
we have a clear reference to the same judgment as is treated
of in the fifth and sixth verses of the eleventh psalm, as also in
Isa. xxvi. 14, where we read, —
" They are dead — they shall not live — they are deceased —
they shall not rise. Therefore hast Thou visited and destroyed
them, and made all their memory to perish." Upon which
judgment further light is thrown in Rev. xix. 20, where we read
that " the beast and the false prophet were cast alive into a lake
of fire, burning with brimstone."
And this judgment, though executed upon them in their
mortal bodies on the earth, is to be their final judgment ; because
in the following chapter, the twentieth, at verse 10, the devil is
at the close of the millennium to be finally " cast into the lake of
fire, where the beast and the false prophet are ;" which is the
second death, verse 14. (Jude v. 12.)
After this recital by the psalmist of the conflict to be sustained
by him in the persons of such among his people, as are incorpo
rated with his Son, so as to be one Spirit (John viii. 35, 36) with
Him, his concluding words in verses twelve and thirteen are to
this effect : —
" I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted
and of the righteous. Surely the righteous shall give thanks
unto Thy Name, the upright shall dwell in Thy presence."
These words seem to have been written by David in a frame
of mind similar to that wherein his son Solomon wrote, as one
tired out with the perverseness of his fellow countrymen, in
Eccles. viii. 11 ; " Because sentence against an evil work is not
executed speedily ; therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully
set in them to do evil.
" Though a sinner do evil a hundred times and his days be pro
longed, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that
fear God, whieh fear before Him.
" But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he pro
long his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not
before God."

280 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH.
1.
Free me, Jehovah, from the wicked crowd1 —
From the ferocious ruler1 save Thou me,
With crafty hearts 'gainst me confederate —
Unceasingly conspiring, threatening loud,
Their tongues dart they, as serpents wont to be ;
As adders' poison, 'neath their lips is hate.

From wicked hands, Jehovah, free Thou me,
And from the man of violence protect,
Whose purpose is my goings to o'erthrow !
In laying snares for them that faithful be
Unto my Son, 'gainst me they them direct ;
Who harass this my Seed, do bring me low.

Unto Jehovah, Thou'rt my God, I said !
My supplications, 0 Jehovah, hear!
0 God, Jehovah,2 my salvation's source !
Thou in the battle covered' st my head !
Let not the wicked, lest himself he bear
Too proudly, vict'ry wrest by fraud or force.

Upon the head of them, that me surround,
The fraud of their own lips cause to recoil.
Let light'ning bolts3 from heaven on them fall !
Into the abyss of fire cast them bound
Never to rise !4 And of its prey despoil
The wicked tongue, till whelm' d in evil's thrall.

1 Verse 1. J?") DTSH with which is contrasted tt^SQ — The common man
T T T .. " " ,
versus the chief— as in verse 4, J?tt5~l \TQ with DDDIl WME
2 Verses 6, 7, 8. The triple repetition of the Name Jehovah, is surely here
significant as in Ps. vi. 8, 9, and xii. 1, 2, 3.
3 Verse 10. Ps. iv. 3; 2 Thess. i. 7—9; Heb. x. 29—31.
4 Verse 10. 2 Peter ii. 4; Isa. xxvi. 4; Rev. xix. 19, 20, compared with
xx. 10.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIRST. 281

The cause of the afflicted, well I know,
Jehovah will in righteousness maintain —
The right much-question'd of the meek and poor.
Time shall be, when Thy righteous ones, altho'
Long mourning, shall Thy blissful presence gain.
And "Davids mercies"5 prove, to Thy great
Name's praise, " sure."
5 Verse 13. Ps. Ixxxix. 28; Isa. lv. 3.

PSALM CXLI.

TITLE.
A Psalm of David.
In accordance with the above title commentators in general
think that the slaughter of the priests and destruction of their
city by Doeg (1 Sam. xxii.) was the occasion on which David
wrote this psalm.
Rather than suppose that David in the straits and exigencies
to which he was reduced in his early days, when driven by Saul
out of Judea, composed sundry psalms on the same event, I
would indulge the conjecture, that after he had arranged those
in the book composed by him, he in later life reverted to the
contemplation of these and others not included in that first batch
of forty-one.
The seventy-first and seventy-second psalms shew that David
composed new ones almost to the end of his life. Is it not then
highly probable that when, ripe in years and experience, he con
templated what the Spirit of Christ had prompted him to write
upon adverse events befalling him in his early days, he dwelt
chiefly on the secondary and mysterious application that the
Spirit of Christ made of them, to foreshadow calamities destined
to overtake the remnant of the true Israelites — one with David
himself through faith in his expected Son, the Messiah — until
that Divine Son should overcome all opposition and establish His
Israel in great glory in Jerusalem ?

282 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIRST.
In this way, as it seems to me, David wrote fresh psalms upon
the old subjects, with more special regard than before to the
calamities destined to overtake the remnant of true Israelities in
the generations that should succeed each other, until their final
triumph with the triumphant Messiah.
It has been already observed in commenting on the fifty-second
psalm that the slaughter of the priests by Doeg was the first
instance in Scripture of such a.massacre having been appointed
by the government under which the ministers of God lived : on
which account it was made by the Holy Ghost in that psalm a
type of the terrible persecution appointed to overtake the rem
nant of the true Israehtes in the last days immediately preceding
Messiah's triumph. (See Jer. xxx. 5—9 ; Matt. xxiv. 21, 22.)
It seems to me therefore that David in his later psalms, on the
subjects of his former ones, aimed more especially at putting on
record words of counsel and comfort for the use of his faithful
descendants, under their aggravated and protracted trials in their
service to his Son and Lord.
On this supposition therefore, like as there seemed to me in
the composition of the hundred and fortieth psalm special regard
to the ninth and tenth, and in the hundred and forty-fourth to
the eighteenth, so in this hundred and forty-first to the fifty-
second, and in the hundred and forty- second to the fifty- seventh,
and in the hundred and forty-third to the sixty-third.

ARGUMENT.
When David contemplated the terrible massacre, which the
faithful adherents of his Son should from time to time undergo,
after the manner in which the priests of the Lord had at the
hand of Doeg, which should culminate in one final and all but
universal one, may we not consider him to have been desirous of
supplying them with words of counsel and comfort during their
pilgrimage ?
In this frame of mind we suppose him with unfeigned distress
to have lifted up his prayer to God for help.
In the second verse, where he saith —
" Let my prayer be set forth as incense, and the lifting up of
my hands as the evening sacrifice" —
it has been observed that there is in these words an indication of
David's being at that time debarred from access to the ark of
God ; as was the caBe when a fugitive in the forest of Hareth.
(1 Sam. xxii. 5.)
In accordance with my theory concerning the composition of
this psalm, I observe that an equally effectual impediment in the
way of access to the ark of God might have arisen from feeble
ness or ill-health in David's declining years.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIRST. 283
Under these circumstances excluding him from public worship
of God (which may indeed be part of the affliction destined to
overtake the remnant of the true Israelites in the last days of
Antichrist — Malachi iii. 15—18), the words of this second verse
forcibly express the obligation to solemnity in worship in private
as in public.
Like as the vapour of burning incense rises at a rate proper to
itself and cannot be hurried, so should the worshipper's prayer
in secret— solemnly — reverently : and like as the lamb laid on
the altar was opened by the sacrificer's knife before God, so
should the private worshipper look on his inmost heart as laid
open by the sword of Christ's word (Heb. iv. 12), while his
hands shall be lifted up over his opened heart as were those of
the priest over the sacrificed lamb.
The third verse, in which David wrote —
" Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my mouth ; keep the door of my
lips" —
denotes how apprehensive he was lest his faithful descendants
should be made offenders for a word. (Isa. xxix. 21.) His grand
son Rehoboam (1 Kings xii. 1 —19) was culpably regardless of
this advice, and in consequence thereof alienated ten of the tribes
from under the house of David, which have not yet returned to
their allegiance ; nor shall, until the day of the triumphant
Messiah. (Ezek. xx. 40.)
When David, in the fourth verse, goes on to pray —
" Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked
works with men that work iniquity ; and let me not eat of their
dainties" —
the conduct of Adonijah, in 1 Kings i. 18 — 26, though happening
after David had written this psalm, will serve to shew how
plotters and conspirators seek to enlist their simple adherents in
their dark designs under the colour of a feast. The old prophet
at Bethel (1 Kings xiii.) apparently fell the more readily into
the deluding spirit's suggestion that he should draw the man
from Judah into breach of the express word of God by eating
with him ; because to partake of food with one was considered a
token of brotherhood or fraternisation in policy.
David here, after having in verse 3 warned the remnant of the
true Israelites on the one hand against use of grievous words
which work not the righteousness of God, but stir up anger ;
and in verse 4 warned them, on the other hand, against such
civility in compliance with invitations to the feasts of false
brethren as would entangle the righteous in inconsistencies —
adds in the fifth verse an injunction about readiness to receive
reproof from those that are in reputation for fidelity, and are
jealous for God at a time of double-dealing, and halting between
two opinions : for the salutary reproofs of them that are jealous

284 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIRST.
of God will be an excellent oil (carrying on the figure of a
banquet, Ps. xxiii. 5, Luke vii. 46), which shall not cause the
guest to hang his head in shame, as did the courtesy of the old
prophet with the man of God from Judah; "for," continues
David in the last clause of this fifth verse, " yet my prayer also
shall be in their calamities :" whereby David intimates, that by
having been seen to have refrained from grievous words which
stir up anger — and declined in the day of the rival doctors' pros
perity their offers of hospitality — if, when calamities shall over
take them, the remnant of the true Israelites are seen to be far
from glorying over them, and even praying for them (Ps. xxxv.
13, 14), fresh converts may by God's blessing be gained out of
their company to the remnant of the true Israelites.
That opportunity of doing an enemy good will abundantly
recompense the true Israelite for his long- sustained endurance of
provocation without reviling again. For " he that turneth a
sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death,
and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James v. 20.)
To the same effect in the sixth verse David continues —
" When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall
hear my words, for they are sweet."
Then follow in the seventh verse the words which lead commen
tators to think this psalm to have been written with reference
to the slaughter of the priests by Doeg.
And the psalm concludes with consolatory rehearsal of God's
promise not to " leave the soul of the righteous destitute," let
what may happen to their bodies (Luke xii. 4, 5) ; followed by
the oft-repeated asseveration that the plots of the antichristian
conspirators shall at the culmination of their machinations con
spicuously recoil on their own heads. (Ps. vii. 11 — 16; ix. 16;
lviii. 10, 11 ; -lxix. 22 ; lxxxiii. ; and xciv. 23.)
This hundred and forty-first psalm, thus interpreted, is admira
bly adapted for guidance of the remnant of the true Israelites,
with whom David so heartily sympathised, even iu the present
days of peace in much favoured England.
The exhortation to reverence in prayer, public and private, is
greatly needed by so many of us as believe and know Christ's
truth. There is a lack of solemnity and of reverence, alas !
characterising our worship of God ; Who nevertheless looketh to
be honoured by them that come nigh Him, as well as to be glori
fied before all the people. (Levit. x. 3.)
The petition in the third verse for grace to rule one's tongue
is also eminently needful to be borne in mind ; for James, chap.
iii. 2 — 6, warns us of the mischief occasioned by a tongue not so
guarded. St. Peter too, in his 1 Ep. iii. 10, saith —
" He that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his
tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIRST. 285
This government of the tongue is, as the psalmist intimates in
verses 5 and 6, to be the more stedfastly pursued, with the chari
table view of being on that account the better fitted to gain a
hearing for the sweet and softly-flowing words of the gospel of
peace, in case the proud opponents of Christ's way of justifica
tion and sanctification should be overtaken by adversity. For
in adversity the heart is usually softened and impressible.
The psalmist is very desirous of stirring up the remnant of the
true Israelites to watch for such opportunities for overcoming
evil with good (Rom. xii. 21) — not avenging themselves ; in the
persuasion that God will avenge them in the way most redounding
to His glory and the happiness of the greater number of mankind.
1.
On Thee, Jehovah, call I ; let assistance
Accordant with my cry to me be given.
Before Thee let my prayer mount up as incense ;
My rais'd hands, as the sacrifice at even.

Before my mouth, Jehovah, set a warder !
Control my utterance ! to aught that's evil
Let not my heart cleave — a supine regarder
Of wicked ones — lest I sink to their level.

Make me beware how I eat of their dainties ;
Far better 'twere for righteous ones to smite me
With censure ; as an oil, it's excellences
Would deck, not shame, my head; like theirs, who'd
spite me.

For I'll, in these men's grief, lift my petition :
So, when their judges1 fall in stony places,
1 Ver. 6. Qil^taSCi? not here judges by office in civil courts ; but doctors
who, whether or not holding a sacred office, used to deliver to their disciples
judgments or decisions on such doctrines, as justification before God, to serve
their own lusts. (Ps. xiv. 6 compared with verse 4 of this psalm.)

286 PSALM THE, HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND.
To those, whose hearts are melted in contrition,
Sweet will my words be — fraught with healing
graces.

Our bones full thick at the grave's mouth are scat
ter'd ;
As one wood on the earth cutteth and cleaveth.
My hopes were, but for God Jehovah, shatter' d ;
Who ne'er His people's souls forsaken leaveth.
6.
From snares, which they've for me laid, do Thou keep
me —
The pit-falls of iniquity's proud workers !
How wicked feet into their own nets slip, see !
While the escape of mine Jehovah furthers.

. PSALM CXLII.
TITLE.
A Psalm of David giving instruction ; a prayer when he was
in the cave.
The cave here referred to I take to be that mentioned in 1 Sam.
xxiv., and, rather than think David composed the fifty-seventh
psalm, and this, on the same subject in a time of such unsettled
shifts, it seems to me preferable to assume that he wrote this in
the latter part of his life, when pondering on the opportunity
taken by the Spirit of Christ to foreshadow things that should be
done to Christ, and to the people of Christ, after the similitude of
his own hiding himself and his men in the sides of the cave, when
Saul lay asleep therein.
On referring to that psalm it will be found that by Saul
reduced to inactivity in sleep the Holy Spirit is considered to
have foreshadowed what should be the prostration of Satan in
remorse at the part he had taken in procuring, contrary to law,
the crucifixion of the Son of David : and that by David's hiding of

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND. 287
himself and men in the cave's sides, Christ's hiding of Himself in
the grave, and subsequently His people's hiding of themselves
therein, were foretokened, until God's wrath should be past.
(Isa. xxvi. 20.)
It is also to be gathered from the tenour of this psalm, that
David in writing it had special regard to this mystical application
of his former psalm ; in the hope of providing a prayer for his
Son's use at that time, as also for the use of those that in every
generation should through faith in his Son be one with Him.
Owing to David being the progenitor of Messiah, he could by
anticipation speak of what should be done unto his Son, as done
unto himself. In proof hereof witness his words in the last verse,
where we assume that he, in saying " my soul," speaks primarily
of Christ's ; as St. Peter shews in Acts ii. 25 — 31, that he cer
tainly did in Ps. xvi. 9 — 11 : whereas other prophets, such as
Isaiah, speaking of Christ, would say (xxvi. 19) " Thy dead men
shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise."
Again, secondarily, David aimed at supplying in this prayer,
help for such of his descendants or fellow-countrymen as should
be of one spirit with himself concerning his Son, through all time
forthcoming, until his Son's triumphal gathering of Israel into
the Lord's land. ,
Viewed in these two ways the psalm before us follows up what
the Holy Ghost had taught in psalm lvii. concerning Christ in the
grave until His resurrection ; and the people of Christ therein
until theirs.

ARGUMENT.
The sufferings of the Lord Jesus during the passion week, as
recorded in the four Gospels, shew us how the Son of David
might have made every verse in this 142nd psalm His own.
For the language of the third verse might then be fitly taken
up by Him ; as may be seen by comparing therewith Matt. xxvi.
For truly " His Spirit was overwhelmed within Him" under the
burden of our sins. And " God alone knew His path," " Who
would not suffer Him to be tempted above that He was able."
(1 Cor. x. 13 ; Isa. lvii. 16 ; Luke xxii. 43.)
Moreover, He of His own accord descended into the grave,
until His Father's wrath. should be past (John x. 17, 18), as
David with his men went into the cave's sides ; while Satan, of his
own accord, in horror at what might ensue to himself for the
part he had taken in prompting men to bring Christ thereto, cast
himself into a state of remorse producing suspension of hostility ;
being in search of soul-rest ; as Saul went into the same cave
with David for bodily rest.
Also the language of the fourth verse (by comparing there
with Ps. Ixxxviii., and John xvi. 32) is seen to admit of adaptation

288 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND.
to Christ. For at His agony in the garden, and crucifixion, not
only was there " none of the people" (Isa. lxiii. 3) with Him
(also Isa. lix. 12 — 18); but among the beings of a higher order,
" who desire to search into the sufferings of Christ and the glory
that should follow" (1 Pet. i. 11, 12) — who were appointed to
learn their lesson concerning the amount of duty due from a holy
creature to the Creator by " seeing" Christ's obedience to His
Father ( Heb. v. 7, 8, and 1 Tim, iii. 16) — all stood aloof from Him
in consternation at the awful accumulation of sins laid upon the
Sufferer in the course of His Father's providence ; from which
He would not be separated in the judgment that should be pro
nounced on His people as well as on Himself, because of His
Father having at outset given them to Him by a covenant of
marriage, whereof that between Adam and Eve was a type !
(Ephes. v. 23—33 ; Gen. ii. 21—25 ; Mark x. 6—9.)
Agreeably with this view, of the extent whereto this psalm
admits of adaptation by Christ to what things should be done
unto Him, it is to be observed that there is no word in the
original corresponding to ' man,' which occurs twice in our
authorised version of this fourth verse, but simply ' none,' by
which I claim to be understood nor man nor angel.
In verse 5, " the land of the living," as applied to Christ, must
bear the same signification as in Ps. xxvii. 4 and 13 ; where " the
goodness of the Lord " is to be understood to denote what the
Father would do for them that went down to their graves with
faith in His promise concerning Christ (see Ps. xxv. 13 : accord
ing to the marginal correction of our authorised version) :
hence the meaning of " goodness" as applied to Christ in Ps.
xxi. 3, 4, is clearly seen to refer to what the Father should do
for Him after death. Also the prayer in verse 9, when looked
on as offered by Christ, may be considered to have been sig
nally answered in the Father's instantaneously rising up to
change His Son's manhood from natural to spiritual, upon His
Son's committal of His Spirit into His hands. (1 Cor. xv. 44 —
46 ; 1 John v. 6 — 9 ; compare Ps. xxii. 16 — 21.)
By reason of this liberation of Christ's soul (according to the
prayer in the seventh verse as applied to Him) by the Father's
change of it into " a quickening spirit," a way, which no man
nor angel dared to conceive, was found by the Father for up
holding His own law, touching the death of the soul that sinneth ;
while simultaneously vindicating the perfection of " His own good
ness" in not allowing any creature who should in obedience to
Him suffer adversity, as His Son had, to be eventually a loser.
Although the souls of the elect were in strictness of justice
forfeited through sin original and actual ; yet by way of reprisal
upon Satan for the excess into which men had at his instigation
run against Christ — the holy One and the just — by putting
Him to death (against Whom, as being sinless, the law gave

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND. 289
them no authority to do so), it pleased the Father to grant
Him the elect souls, that had been made His by a covenant
of marriage, by way of a recompense.
To this purpose of the Father in bringing Christ's soul into
the prison of the grave, reference seems to be made in the subse
quent clauses of this seventh verse, when looked on as used
by David's Son. For Christ desired to be raised up again in
our nature, that He might therein accomplish the will of His
Father concerning us, as testified in Ps. xl. 7—10. (See also
Ps. xxii. 22.)
In this sense are we to understand, that He should look
for " the righteous to compass Him about ;" when, to use the
language of Isaiah, liii. 2, "By His knowledge should He —
the righteous Servant— justify many ; for He should bear their
iniquities." (See also Isa. xiv. 24, 25, and Jer. xxiii. 1 — 8.)
Therefore should the Lord — His Father — " divide Him a pro-
tion with the great, aud He should divide the spoil with tho
strong" (Luke xi. 21) ; and in this way should the last clause
of this 142nd psalm find its fulfilment in the Son of David, "for
Thou shalt deal bountifully with me," or, requite me bounteously,
by granting Me to " see of the travail of My soul, till I shall be
satisfied." (Isa. liii. 11.)
Again, iu the secondary sense, this psalm was intended by
David, as we think, to furnish such of his descendants and fellow-
countrymen as should, like himself, hope in his Son, with lan
guage of pious supplication in the hour of death ; on which
account this psalm seems to us peculiarly fitted for the dying
Christian's use; as we have already observed that the 121st
appears to be.
Its strain of pathetic entreaty, viewed in this light, seems a
fitting counterpart to Ps. xxvii.
It is our belief that while angels transport the believer's spirit
instantaneously upon death to paradise (Luke xvi. 22), his soul,
though separate from the body, is laid asleep along with the
small seed thereof in the grave, there to be "in prison," as it were,
in the womb of the earth, (whence Job's language, " Naked came
I forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither,"
ch. i. 21) — the patriarch viewing his mother as but one remove
above the earth, whence (as God said) Adam was originally
taken. (Gen. iii. 19.)
From this likening of the grave to a womb — we meet, in Isa.
liv. 1, with the expression that the birth of Christ in Zion from
the grave, should be without birth-pangs ; or as St. Peter said iu
Acts ii. 24, compared with Ps. xviii. 5, the birth-pangs were
loosed. When David in Ps. xvi. 10, said, " Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, or the grave" — he implied that it should for a certain
space be there. Hence the like is believed to be the case with
u

290 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND.
all other souls of righteous men. . . (See Ps. xlix. 15, and Job xiv.
12 — 17.) In this sense, therefore, the dying Christian can, as we
conceive, find unspeakable comfort in the making the language
of the 7th verse of Ps. cxlii. his own : saying —
"Bring my soul out of prison" — the prison of the grave —
" when Thy wrath be past," (Isa. xxvi. 20) — " that I may praise
Thy Name."
Assuredly it is for the Lord's Name's sake, that He is to be
relied on to do this for us : as indeed it has already been shewn
that He did the like for His Son. (Ps. xxiii. 3.)
In that glad day each that shall have gone down to the grave
alone, shall find himself compassed about with a company count
less as the spangles of dew in early morning. (Ps. ex. 3 ; and
xc. 13—17.)

1.
Thee, 0 Jehovah, I aloud
Implor'd! to Thee pour'd out my prayer;
Jehovah ! 'neath what ills I bow'd,
My voice did plaintively declare !

When in my spirit all was dark,1
My secret path2 was known to Thee.
For in my journey Thou didst mark,
What snares therein they'd laid for me.

1 Ver. 3. Compare Isa. 1. 9—11. The Father made this darkness, (Jer. xiii.
15— 17) by forbearing publicly to declare His judgment concerning Christ's
committal of His Spirit into His hands until the third day ; although He in
stantaneously arose to judgment in the secrecy of the Divine nature, by changing
His Son's Soul into a quickening Spirit, as the water conjoined with the blood
flowing forth from the Saviour's side while yet on the cross betokened. (John
xix. 33 — 37.)
2 Ver. 3. There is a distinction to be observed between, ''rD^na " my path,"
and rp'N " the way :" by this latter I take to be meant man's course in the
mortal body, according to nature, as in Job xxii. 1 5, upon which in Ps. exxxix.
24, Horsley says ("P^ is the way, right or wrong, in which a man actually
goes by habit. The former word, for " my path," I take to refer darkly to the
purpose of the Father to deliver His Son's soul, forfeited for our souls, by
creating it a quickening spirit— a mystery, shadowed forth, as I conceive, by

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND. 291

Upbn the right hand I beheld
No helper on my side to be.
No one would know me — refuge fail'd —
None for my soul a way could see !3

To Thee, Jehovah, I applied,
Thou, Thou, I said, my refuge art!
No other can for me decide,
'Mongst them that live,4 my destin'd part.

Steep'd as I am in misery —
Indulgently observe my cry !
From mine accusers5 rescue me —
Accusers bolder far than I !
the two goats in Levit. xvi. 7— one for a sin-offering and one for a scape-goat,
verse 10, whose way was into yriv aparov, verse 21. See Isa. liii. 10, second
clause. " The way wherein the Saviour walked," was one whereto the enemy
could have access to lay snares ; but the path known to God, was one not so to
be reached—" hidden"— as in Ps. xxvii. 5 ; xci. 1 ; Col. iii. 3 j " The way of
escape" (1 Cor. x. 13).
3 Ver. 4. tPnTT None was " enquiring" for my soul, that is, of God : owing
to the awful nature of the work laid on the Son of David to conclude with His
Father, no created being, even among angels, could presume to speak with God,
upon that subject.
4 Ver. 5. Compare Ps. xci. IS, 16.
5 Ver. 6. The strength of Satan and his agents — the accusers of Christ and
Christ's people— is explained by St. Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 56, where he saith the
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. From Heb. ii. 14, we
learn that Satan hath or had the power of death according to law — which saith,
the soul that sinneth it shall die : and though Christ had not sinned, yet the
souls of the elect had ; from which, as His betrothed bride, Christ would not
be separated in the judgment. But wicked men by involving Satan in punish
ment of Christ with death, exceeded the power that he had by law against
sinners. Again, by Heb. v. 7, 8, St. Paul shews us that the very perfection of Christ's
sacrificial death as a man for us — consisted in His not reckoning His perfect
service in mortal flesh to be a full, perfect, and sufficient oblation and satisfac
tion unto His Father for the outrage done to His Divine Majesty by the sins of
mankind. But our Advocate committed Himself unto Him that judgeth righteously,
Who will not make the righteous as the wicked, (Gen. xviii. 23) and " He was
heard in that He feared !"
u 2

292 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD.

Bring forth my soul from out this stress,
That I Thy Name may praise aright.6
So righteous ones shall round me press,
For to my fill7 Thou'lt me requite.
6 Ver. 7. Ps. xl. 9, 10.
7 Ps. liii. 11, the word for "deal bountifully" means to " requite." (Ps. cxvi.
7; Ps. exxxvii. 8.)

PSALM CXL1II.

TITLE.
A Psalm for the beloved.

AEGUMElNrT.
A careful consideration of the several verses of this psalm in
their order will enable one the better to judge for what purpose
it was written, after which may be seen how it is to be worthily
used by us.
In the first words, " Hear my prayer," it is worthy of remark,
that the word in this place for prayer is one denoting prayer
through an Advocate T^lp ; thus supplying vihat had been
looked for in Ps. exxx. 2, when a precisely similar confession was
to follow, and had not been found.
The next clauses should be translated, " Give ear unto my
supplications in Thy faithfulness, answer me in Thy righteous
ness." By 1 Cor. x. 13, we find that since " God is faithful, in not
suffering us to be tempted above that we are able," to " hear our
supplications in faithfulness" is to protect us from being inordi
nately punished : while, in regard to " answering us in His
righteousness," the testimony iirPs. exxix. 4, to the effect that
" The Lord is righteous, and hath cut asunder the cords of the
wicked," denotes, that His righteousness will move Him to put it
out of an oppressor's power to do us further hurt. (Isa. li.
12—10.) The prayer in the next verse, like that in Ps. exxx. 3, sets forth
the utter impossibility of mortal man being just with God. (Job

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD. 293
ix. 2.) Only in Ps. exxx. 3, the psalmist did, not explain how he
nevertheless did stand justified ; whereas here by use of ,n^EJ?l,
verse 1, he doth this.
Hence the psalmist prays as one that stands or "lives" by
faith in the power with God possessed by his Advocate— the
Days-man, that can lay His hand upon us both (Job ix. 33 ; the
Eedeemer, xix. 25 ; the Interpreter, xxxiii. 23) ; for Whose
sake God can consistently with His inflexible justice aud unalter
able hatred of sin, forbear from charging our sins on us, if it so
please Him, to the utmost extent that He might. (Heb. vi.
16—20.) Hence, as St. Paul saith in Eom. viii. 10, " if Christ be in you,
the body — the mortal man — is dead because of sin (Bom. vii.
18), but the Spirit, to writ — the quickening spirit of Christ for
our renewal day by day unto life is granted us in answer to our
prayer in this body of death (Eom. vii. 24), because of righteous
ness" — Christ our Advocate's righteousness — now made ours
through incorporation with Him in His sacrificial death (John v.
21 ; 1 Cor. xii. 13) ; but in the psalmist's time, under the Mosaic
covenant, communicated by the Holy Ghost to the believer in
Christ through participation in His Spirit. (2 Pet. i. 4.) Thus
the man that in himself must say, " Enter not into judgment
with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be jus
tified," can say, " In the Lord have I righteousness and strength."
(Isa. xiv. 24, 25.)
Por renewal with Christ's Spirit incorporates or identifies us
with Him therein. (See John viii. 34 — 36.)
In the third .and fourth verses, where the psalmist describes
. the sorrow weighing down his spirit, it is to be observed, that no
expression leads us to think it proceeded from one groaning
under conscious sin; but rather from assaults of outward ene
mies—say spiritual enemies — destroyers of his peace, because
involving him in constant strife against their suggestions. This
is the class of enemies referred to throughout this psalm ; and
this observation leads us to conclude, that this psalm was com
posed for the use of one who, like Paul in 1 Cor. iv. 4, could say,
"Though I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby
justified." Exactly as was observed in Ps. exxx. 3.
Now that such an one may in God's faithfulness be afflicted
after the manner described in verses 3 and 4, is to be seen in
Paul's case, in 2 Cor. xii. 7 — 9. The way in which such affliction
is to be borne is set forth in verses 5 and 6 ; which wonderfully
illustrate our Lord's words in Luke xviii. 1, and exemplify
Isaiah's in 1. 10. .
Whether or not there be ascertainable by us any profitable
distinction between the three branches of meditation specified in
verse 5 it is useful to observe that, under all circumstances, the
following threefold division of meditation is of fundamental

294 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD.
importance ; namely, to remember what God hath in times past,
from man's creation and fall, done in our behalf:
Secondly, to meditate on what He hath wrought in us, if. we be
created anew in Christ unto good works :
Thirdly, to muse on what. God will have done by us in His
strength, when so renewed : which also is " His work," as Isaiah
testifies in chapter xxvii. 12.
For on this point St Paul saith, in Philip, iv. 12, 13, " I can do
all things through Christ Who strengtheneth me."
The resemblance between this fifth verse of the psalm before
us and the eleventh and twelfth of Ps. lxxvii. suggests the idea,
that the author of this psalm had that in his eye ; also in writing
the next verse, the similarity thereof to the first of the sixty-
third, leads one to suppose he had that in mind ; where it is to
be observed that a ruggedness produced in verse 1 of Ps. lxiii.
by *T.S in the masculine (which severs it from V^t? is here
obviated by this word being in the feminine ^"V'
The stretching forth of the hands is an act expressive of
intense earnestness (Exod. ix. 33), while the likening of the soul
to thirsty ground denotes that the worshipper would fain, drink
in God's grace, as that soil the rain. (Isa. xiv. 8.)
To this is appended Selah, after the manner of the Davidic
psalms. The psalm is also hereby divided into two equal portions.
A further plea for a petitioner to urge, when situate as the
psalmist, is lest his spirit should otherwise fail : as God Himself
indicates by the mouth of Isa. in lvii. 15, 16, and as the Lord
Jesus Himself experienced in His agony, when but for the help
of an angel (Luke xxii. 43) His spirit would have failed. (Heb.
v. 7.)
Por in death there is no remembrance of Thee, saith the
psalmist in vi. 5, meaning in regard to the believer's body, where
with is his person.
"The morning" referred to in the eighth verse, in which the
psalmist desires to hear God's voice (Job xiv. 15,, is that of the
resurrection. (Ps. xlix. 14.)
But it is at the time of the resurrection actually to take place
on earth, as foretold in Isa. xxvi. 19, and sung of in Psalm cxlix.
5—9.
The petition in verse 5, " Deliver me, O Lord, from mine ene
mies," is a very different one from that in Ps. xxxix. 8, " Deliver
me from all mine offences :" shewing that the- enemies here
spoken of were foreign from oneself — e.g., agents of Satan, whom
he in heart was withstanding, though sore bestead and weary.
The petition, " I hide me with Thee," verse 9, is a reference to
the shelter there is for the believer in the holy place of the true
tabernacle, where he may abide in peace (Ps. xxvii. 5, 6), betak
ing himself to the hope set before him. (Heb. vi. 18 — 20.)

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD. 295
, The words in verse 10, " Thou art my God," are a second
reference to Ps. lxiii. 1, where may be seen the significance of
the psalmist's protestation, " Thou art my God."
" The land of uprightness," verse 10, is that millennial state of
the Lord's inheritance (Isa. xxxv.) into which that chosen gene
ration of Abraham's descendants shall, after due preparation and
much sorrow patiently endured, be brought by the good hand of
God, in the morning above referred to — the occasion being more
fully treated in Isa. xxvi. 10.
In verses 11, 12, prayers for renewal with the Spirit of God, not
for the worthiness of one's works done in holiness of heart, but
for God's name's sake (1 Sam. xii. 22), is in keeping with this
petitioner's prayer in the first verse through his Advocate, and
confession in the second verse of inability to justify himself
before God ; though the tenour of the psalm implies, that as far
as man might plead his perfectness of heart (Isa. xxxviii. 3, and
James iv. 8), this worshipper was in a position to urge it.
Now in regard to the purpose for which this psalm was pri
marily written, on looking at the eminent holiness implied to be
in the worshipper amidst all his tribulations, it might be thought
(as some commentators have contended) that it was designed for
the use of the Lord Jesus Himself in the days of His flesh.
And there are sundry expressions which have had their ful
filment in Him more closely than in anyone else ; but that use
in the first verse of the word, implying prayer through an
Advocate, precludes the idea of its having been intended for the
use of Christ Himself.
It seems to me rather to be primarily intended for that
chosen generation of Israel which shall in the latter day be
called in an especial manner to fellowship with Christ in His
sufferings (Col. i. 24), preparatory to their " hearing His voice
in the morning," and being " led into the land of uprightness."
(Isa. lx. 21.)
Thus explained, this psalm appears to me to be one of many
which, at the close of this last book of the psalms, seems to be
prepared for the use of that latter generation in Israel. (Ps.
Ixxviii. 4, 6.)
In this sense, as intended for the members of Christ's mys
tical body, in whom the promises concerning the inheritance shall
be realised by Him (Isa. liii. 11 ; 2 Thess. i. 10) this psalm may
be, without wresting the meaning of the title, taken to be
"for the Beloved," as already often explained; though not for
the Beloved's own Personal use.
This then being assumed to be the primary purpose for which
the psalm hath been provided, it is in a secondary sense a truly
precious directory in prayer to eminently holy persons of our age
under heavy affliction, through no sins of their own (that their
conscience specially accuses them with) ; but through the tribu-

296 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD.
lation that all must endure that will live godly in Christ Jesus ;
and particularly towards the close of our times. (See 2 Tim. iv. 1.)
Like to that in John xvi. 20, wherewith may be compared Jer.
xxx. 5—22.
lt remains therefore for such eminently holy sufferers to be
especially careful about making prayer through their Advocate,
as implied in the first words of this psalm :
And in accordance with the second verse, to be watchful
against self-righteousness ; as the labourers in the vineyard from
the first hours were not (Matt. xx. 1 — 16.) :
And to abide with Christ under the tribulation, according to
verse 9, appointed for one " in faithfulness" (1 Pet. v. 6 — 8) :
And to ask every blessing of God for His Name's sake, accord
ing to His promise in Ps. xxiii. 3.

The prayer that through my Advocate I plead,
0 hear, Jehovah ! in thy faithfulness ;
To mine entreaties grant attentive heed ;
Vouchsafe an answer in Thy righteousness ;
Nor into judgment bring my soul with Thee,
For none that live, in Thy sight just shall be !
2.
Sore hath the enemy my sOul oppress 'd,
Down in the dust my life, of faith, to tread.
Appalling darkness hath my soul possess'd,
As those that long since went down to the dead ;
For this my spirit mourns its lonesome state —
My heart within me is disconsolate.
3.
The days of old I to remembrance call,
On all Thy works I pensive meditate ;
Devoutly muse I on what work I shall
Through Thy help finish : then I elevate
To Thee my hands, and like a thirsty land
I in my soul for thee expectant stand. Selah !

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THIRD. 297
4.
0 speedily, Jehovah, hear my cry,
My spirit faileth ! from me do not hide
Thy face, lest reft of sense and reason, I
Be as unfit to pray, as tho' I'd died !
0 cause me in Thy morning's dawn to hear
Thy loving-kindness, Thou that art my Fear!1

5.
Cause me the way, that I should keep, to know,
For I my soul do lift up unto Thee !
Deliver me, Jehovah, from the foe :
I hide me in Thy temple's secrecy.2
Unto Thy will do Thou my heart incline,
For Thee I'll early seek, Thou God of mine !

Good is Thy Spirit ! to my longing view
Let it Unfold the land of uprightness !
For Thy Name's sake, Jehovah, me renew !
Snatch me from trouble through Thy righteous
ness:
And do Thou all mine enemies destroy,
For in Thy service I myself employ.
1 Verse 8. Gen. xxxi. 42.
3 Verse 9. Ps. xxi. 5, and xxvi. 20.

298 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOURTH.
PSALM CXLIV.
TITLE.
A Psalm of David.
There are manifestly many extracts in this psalm from earlier
ones. Thus verses 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, and 11 are substantially taken from
Ps. xviii. 34, 2, 14, 16, 43, 49. The expression " the people," in
verse 42, being in this 144th psalm at verse 2, changed to " my
people." Again, the third verse is taken from Ps. viii. 4 ; the
fourth from Ps. xxxix. 5.
In verse 10 Archbishop Seeker suggests that 13?^ ? should be
read for 13^37^7, which would bring this verse into close agree
ment with Ps. xviii. 50.
On the supposition, then, that David, agreeably with the title,
wrote this psalm, we assume, as already stated in commenting on
the title of the hundred and forty-first, that the royal psalmist in
his later years dwelt on the references to Christ which he had in
process of time learnt by the Holy Ghost to have been imported
in what he, in the first instance, wrote upon occasion of some
personal trouble of his own.
AEGUMENT.
The burden of the contents is to be found in the midst of it,
which consists of seven verses — from the 5th to the end of the
11th — having four verses to precede and four to follow.
Christ is to be regarded as here pleading before His Father
in the persons of His mystical members (as appears from the
expression " My people," in verse 2), after the manner in which
David makes Him do the like in Ps. xl.
The psalmist's own people, indeed, expected but one coming
of Messiah, when " He would abide alway" (John xii. 34) ; and
that consequently His coming should be marked with the light
ning darted forth from His throne, as in Ps. 1.
But we, who live at this late stage in the Church's progress,
have learnt that the first coming of the Lord in great humility,
in the days of His mortal flesh, to His own people, was to be
followed by their rejection of Him, preached, at His desire, to
them first after His resurrection ; and that they should for this
draw down on them, for a predetermined period, national re
jection. Accordingly, we find this psalm to be emphatically fitted for
use of Christ's mystical members, gathered out of Jews and
Gentiles by election in this first age of the kingdom of heaven ;

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOURTH. 299
after the same manner in which the fortieth psalm is proved
to be.
Hence it is to be understood, in the first four verses, that
Christ, in the persons of the elect of this age, records before His
Father dependence on Him to draw souls unto Him, (John vi. 44)
by the rod of His strength (Ps. ex. 2), without reliance on earthly
powers for advancement thereof: for that the gospel shall even
tually be so declined from and overlaid with traditional usages
subversive of it, as to finally fill up the measure of the iniquity
of the Gentiles so abusing that privilege (Luke xxi. 24, Gen.
xv. 16 1; causing the elect of this age to cry earnestly for the
coming of the Lord a second time. (Luke xviii. 1 —8.)
That coming again we have reason to believe, from examination
of 2 Thess. i. 6 — 10, to be the same with this referred to in
verses 5, 6 of the psalm before us : when the beast and the false
prophet shall be cast into the abyss of hell from before the
presence of the Lord, at the manifestation of His sign in heaven
at Jerusalem ; according to Matt. xxiv. 30, and Kev. xix. 1 1 —24.
On this supposition "great waters," in verse 7, will mean much
people ; for which " strange children " are a synonym — being
those of this age, who by sacramental title claim to be " children
of God " (as did the Jews before our Saviour, in John viii. 37) ;
but "strange" because not "of His Spirit." (Rom. viii. 9;
Ephes. ii. 12.)
The description of them by " a mouth speaking vanity, and a
right hand which is a right hand of falsehood," refers to their
teachers " speaking lies in hypocrisy " (1 Tim. iv. 1—6, and
2 Thess. ii. 8 — 12), which they scruple not to commend with
solemn appeals to God to witness their truth — oaths being made
among the Jews in the psalmist's time with lifting up of " the
right hand" when repeating the substance of the oath. (Deut.
xxxii. 40.)
" The new song," mentioned in verse 9, may be taken for that
which Christ's Spirit shall teach His redeemed to sing at the
ushering in of the new age in the kingdom of heaven (see Eev.
xv. 1—4), when the salvation promised David — the Beloved —
shall of " the zeal of the Lord of hosts" be fully granted (Luke i.
74, 75) ; after which shall follow great plenty in the Lord's land,
according to Joel ii. 21 — 26 and Hosea ii. 21 — 23, agreeably with
the prayer in the last four verses of the psalm before us.
1.
Be Thou, my Strength,1 Jehovah, blest !.
Who mak'st my hands the sword to wield,
And fingers poise the lance in war.
» Ver. 2. Isa, viii. 13, 14.

300 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOURTH.
My Sanctu'ry, wherein to rest !
My Tow'r ! Deliverer ! and Shield !
Who dost my people to me draw.3
2.
That Thou of man should'st knowledge take,
What, 0 Jehovah, what is he?
Or what the son of man, that Thou
Of him so great account should'st make?
Man's life is like to vanity —
His pomp — an evanescent show.
3..
Oh, be Thy heav'ns, Jehovah, bow'd !
Come in celestial glory bright,
And let the mountain of each realm
Mount, at Thy touch, a smoky cloud !
Let lightnings scathe them in their flight,
And bolts in fiery sleet o'erwhelm !
4.
From Thy high dwelling do Thou stretch
Thy hand down, out of waters great —
Strange children's hand— to rescue me !
Who, often as their breath their fetch
For speech, but only folly prate,
And brag of falsehood lustily.
5.
Then a new song, 0 God, to Thee
I'll sing, and with the ten-string'd chords
Of psaltery3 Thy praise forth send;
How that to God the victory
For Kings belongs, Who from men's swords
His servant David will defend.
2 Ver. 2. John vi. 44.
3 Ver. 9. By 2 Sam. vi, 5, "the psaltery" is proved to have been an
instrument; and here, by its being called "VltPV, one of ten strings.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIFTH. 301
6.
Oh, snatch me from strange children's pow'r,
Who boast in vain, presumptuous tones,
And lift the hand in perjury.
Then shall our youth spring as the flow'r —
Our daughters, as the corner-stones
Of palaces, in symmetry. 7.
Then shall our garners overflow
With varied stores ; and sheep, possess'd
In thousands, breed ; while many a share
Stout oxen draw ; and peoples know
Good government. Oh, race thrice blest,
Whose boast is, ye Jehovah's are !

PSALM CXLV.

David's (Psalm of) praise.
He to whom was vouchsafed in the earlier period of his life,
as we gather from the ninth and tenth psalms, a prophetic anti
cipation of the opposition to his Son's kingdom ; at the close of
his life, as we gather from the seventy-second psalm, had glorious
anticipations vouchsafed him of Messiah's reign. Under the
gladdening influence of such anticipations, it is to be concluded
that he likewise composed this psalm, which eventually found its
suitable place in the inspired roll of psalms. For it is prefixed
to the last five, which are all songs of praise to God ; some of
which, such as the hundred and forty sixth and ninth, can only
be sung with full realization of the promised triumph under
Messiah, at His return to reign over Israel in His own land; while
others, such as the hundred and forty-seventh and eighth, which
speak of God's bounty to Israel in bestowal of the fruits of the
earth, can then only in their fullest sense be enjoyed ; as may
be seen in Hosea ii. 20—22 ; Joel ii. 21—27.
Thus this last book closes, like the preceding ones, with refer
ence to the coming of Christ, and this hundred and forty-fifth is
a suitable exordium for them. _
This mystically constructed psalm is acrostic, having every

302 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIFTH.
fresh verse beginning with a fresh letter of the Hebrew alphabet
in their order, omitting the Nun.
AEGUMENT. ,'
In the very first line the psalmist seems to address Christ,
"Who is God, as the King then present in glorified humanity.
This King, who is called Elohi in the first verse, is in the 3rd,
and thenceforward through the rest of the psalm, called Jehovah.
It may be easily conceived with what rapture the service
described in the first two verses will be rendered by devout
Israelites to their manifest King and God. The language of the
sixth verse would, on the above supposition, describe what shall
be the general impression on mankind after the " terrible " acts
spoken of in Ps. lxvi. 5 shall have become matters of history.
(See Eom. ix. 17, and 22—23.)
In the 7th verse those "terrible" acts are spoken of as des
tined to be subjects of retrospective reverence to the latest
posterity. At the 6th verse the psalmist speaks of the King's acts, as
to be extolled for their "terribleness:" and at the 7th for their
" great goodness" withal, and " their righteousness."
Then, from the 8th verse to the 14th inclusive, the goodness
of the Lord's acts seems to be dw elt on ; and from the 15th to
the end, their righteousness.
Thus, this psalm of twenty-one verses, being distinguished into
three portions of seven verses, treats in succession of the ter
ribleness of God's acts,, their goodness, and their righteousness.
In regard to what is said in verse 10, it may be observed, that
while irrational and inanimate works of God may, by the very
sight of their intrinsic perfection, praise Him (as the deeds of
the virtuous woman are, in Prov. xxxi. 31, said to praise her in
the gate) the rational ones alone can " bless" Him : for to
" bless," as we see in Ps. c. 4, is to " speak good of His Name."
His works must be of the intelligent order, gifted with speech,
to admit of this service. Of those among men so endowed, but
few comparatively are at present born in the course of provi
dence where they have opportunity, by means of revealed truth,
to learn this duty. And again, of those born within the sound
of the Gospel, how comparatively small a portion are at any one
time in this present age of the kingdom of heaven disposed so
to do !
At the time anticipated in this psalm it is asserted, that there
shall be a manifest improvement in this respect ; though (as we
gather from verse 6) there will still be a distinction between the
unconverted and the saints, or sanctified.
The sanctified are they who, through faith in the gospel, con
fessing their lost state by nature, penitently ask for, in the

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIFTH. 303
Name of the Lord the King, and obtain of God, renewal with
His Spirit.
These, and these alone, are fitted to render heartily and intel
ligently the service of blessing spoken of in verse 10.
It behoves us who in the course of God's providence have had
our birth appointed in a land where revealed truth is fully pro
claimed, to forestall, as God shall enable us, the worship in that
age of the kingdom of heaven whieh is here described. Though
we of this age be awakened by God's grace to wait on God, in
the name of our Divine King, for pardon and renewal with the
Spirit of adoption from day to day ; yet great stedfastness is
required in order to hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering. For our times are obstructive hereto by distraction of the
mind. It may, however, be gathered out of Scripture, that from the
beginning of time this trial of stedfastness had to be encountered
by them that would live godly.
Hence, in Gen. xviii. 1 8, wre have God's commendation of
Abraham for his singular consistency in this matter.
In Josh. xxv. 14, 15, we have an exemplification of the like by
that great Captain of Israel.
But in 2 Chron. xxiv. 17, we have an instance of Joash's
weakness in this respect, owing to the pressure brought to bear
on him by the princes of his kingdom. The act of blessing God,
as described in verse 10, may be taken to include all direct acts
of worship that shall be rendered to the Lord at His return ;
while what is mentioned in verses 11, 12, 13, about the saints, at
that good time coming, stirring up the sons of men to seek
acquaintance with Him, by talking of His power, His might,
and the majesty of His kingdom, refers to labours of an evange
listic and missionary character to be then undertaken, out of
gratitude, on His account. If saints will at this time iaudably
concern themselves in the same occupation, their first dirty will
be to heed the Lord's statute in Deut. vi. 6—9, which charges
them to speak with one another concerning the words of God's
holy Scripture, so as to acquire a facility in expressing .their
thoughts thereon, for improvement of themselves in fitness to
persuade their fellow.men.
The tongue is indeed reclaimed to its worthiest use when
employed on so exalted a theme, with so benevolent an aim.
To such the record of Missionary labours will commend itself, as
exemplifying the power wherewith the Gospel is now, as in the
days of the apostles, made " mighty through God, to the pulling
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
(2 Cor. x. 4, 5.)

304 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIFTH.

Thee I'll extol in song, my God, the King !
Thy Name for ever and for ever bless!
Within me day by day considering
What praise in worship I'll to Thee address.
Great is Jehovah ! who'll aright express
What is His worth? His sov'reign majesty
Transcends conception ! tongues from age to age
Thy dreaded acts shall gladly certify ;
Yea, with what deeds of terror history's page
Thou marked'st, when Thou quelled' st rebels' rage,1
And to redeem Thy saints didst righteously engage.
2.
Jehovah gracious is, compassionate,
To anger slow, for mercy eminent;
Jehovah's good, and doth commiserate,
All He hath made, wherein they're indigent.
To Thee shall all Thy works be ministrant
Of praise, Jehovah ! Thee Thy saints shall bless !
Their talk shall be about Thy kingdom's pow'r,
To make the sons of men their fear confess
Of His dread kingdom, and His Name adore.
His kingdom reacheth all creation o'er,
And through all generations lasteth evermore !
3.
Jehovah doth, all those that fall, upraise.
To Him all eyes are turn'd ; in season due
Their meat Thou giv'st them ; and Thine hand displays
Wide-open'd what shall each one's strength renew !
In all His works Jehovah doth pursue
The course of righteousness and holiness.
Jehovah, unto all that on Him call —
That call on Him in truth — doth grant access.3
Jehovah, them that love Him, saves ; but shall
The wicked slay. Jehovah I'll extol,
And be His holy Name for ever blessed by all !
1 Ver. C. Compare David's words to the same effect in Ps. ii.
¦ Ver. 18. Sec Ephes. iii. 12.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH. 305

PSALM CXLVI.

AEGTTMENT.
Before stating what commentators think to have been the most
probable occasion of this psalm being written, certain words
therein may with advantage be previously considered.
Firstly, in the 3rd verse, where we read — ¦
" Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in
whom there is no help."
Here "the son of man," is literally in Hebrew " in a son of
Adam," and the original word here translated " help" is " salva
tion ;" as the margin testifies.
It would appear that this word is in our authorised version
translated " help" to point a contrast between " a son of Adam"
in whom is no help (verse 3), and the God of Jacob in "Whom
there is help (verse 5). Compare Ps. cviii. 12.
It would however have been much better to let the inspired
psalmist speak for himself. To say that there is no help in
princes or in a son of Adam, is at first sight not likely to
receive an unqualified assent from any one. But to say, as did
the psalmist, that the valid reason for not putting trust in princes
nor in any son of Adam is, because there is no salvation in him —
that is, he hath it not to give — is what agrees with the voice of
Christ elsewhere in Scripture, and commends itself to the child
of God. For one of the earliest enquiries of the awakened
sinner is, "What shall I do to be saved?" (Acts xvi. 30); and
Christ Himself saith on this point, " Seek first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness." (Matt. vi. 33.) And again : _" What
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul ?
or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
This rendering of the word for " help" makes the psalmist
here teach that no consideration of the worldly advantages to be
gained by the favour of princes or of any son of Adam is_ to
make us lose sight of that enquiry which is of paramount im
portance—How am I to serve God, of Whom alone in Christ
cometh salvation?
We are to be ready to let go any prospects of advancement in
this world how flattering soever, which would be inconsistent with
our prime pursuit of salvation. _
By "a son of Adam," is here meant one, who remains till
death in the fallen state wherein he was born ; though placed
(as was the psalmist) within the sound of God's revealed truth,
and within the bond of the covenant of grace. X

306 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH.
Eeference seems here tacitly made to God's sentence on our
first parent Adam, when for his sin declared to be characterised
by the lower part of him — that taken from the ground — Adamah ;
on which account he was worthily called Adam.
Hence God said in Gen iii. 19, " In the sweat of thy face
shalt -thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out
of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art ; and unto dust shalt
thou return."
The body of Adam was taken from the ground, and by yielding
to temptation he gave that lower part the ascendancy over his
soul and his spirit, which he also had ; which were breathed into
him by God. (Gen. ii. 7 ; 1 Thess. v. 23.)
We hence see that from the earliest stage in our history God
characterizes us by that part of us which we in the soul permit
by our own consent to be dominant. (Gen. ii. 7 ; Jer. xxxviii. 16.)
At the time of the sentence being pronounced on Adam, he
had so recently heard the gospel concerning the Christ to be
born of woman, that he could hardly be called a believer in it :
but the condemnation pronounced upon him in his fallen state
" shut him up" to faith therein, as the only hope of the " salva
tion" spoken of in this third verse. (Gal. iii. 23.)
We firmly believe that Adam put faith in that promise con
cerning Christ ; so as to be made by the Holy Ghost a child of
God through faith therein (Gen. iii. 20, vi. 1 — 3), and thus an
enjoyer of "hope in the Lord his God." (Verse 5 of this psalm.)
But as progenitor of the race descending from him in the course
of nature, he could only leave his name for a token of what
remained to him to bequeath to them ; to wit, his condemnation
under the broken law. See the emphatic contrast between verse
1 and 3 of Gen. v.
What it seems to me then that the psalmist states in this third
verse is, that he who in spite of the opportunities afforded him
by God's providence of hearing and choosing in his soul the fear
of the Lord, according to revealed truth, abides to his death in
his unconverted, unrenewed, natural, state of mind; be he a
prince, he is but " a son of Adam" — a child of a fallen pro
genitor, receiving his denomination before God from the lower
part of him taken from the ground.
In the next verse (verse 4) is stated what comes of this obsti
nate, self-complacent, impenitence : —
" His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that
very day his thoughts perish !"
Here the word for " breath" ordinarily means spirit, when
spoken in reference to man. See Eceles. xii. 7, where we read
" Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the
spirit shall return unto God Who gave it."
A ccepting then the amended translation, " His spirit goeth

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH. 307
forth," let it be observed how this admonishes us of this son of
Adam, notwithstanding the denomination received from the lower
part of him, nevertheless having, equally with the brother who
through faith becomes the child of God, a soul and a spirit ;
which respectively go to the state and place appointed by God
for each of either sort.
On this point let there be compared herewith, what the Lord
Jesus testifies concerning the spirit of the rich man and that of
Lazarus, in Luke xvi. 22, 23 — a doctrine which may be proved
by sundry places in the psalms to have been revealed in David's
time and Moses'.
From what has been already stated it is clear, that when it is
said " he returneth to his earth," the psalmist meant not, that
more of him was included in that " he" than his body and soul :
but this, though at death separated from the body, we gather
from sundry places in the psalms and elsewhere to be laid in
sleep in the grave along with the body ; beside whose small in
destructible seed it is kept by God. (See Ps. xvi. 8 — 11, and
xxv. 13, 14, and xlix. 15 ; 1 Cor. xv. 42.) For the spirit is to be
understood to have " returned to God Who gave it."
When therefore it is said " he returneth to his earth" — " spirit"
being feminine and the verb " returneth" in the third person
masculine— it is implied that his "person" continues with his
soul and body, though the spirit be withdrawn.
And if we understand by " person" (n-poaiinrov) that which
enables a soul or spirit to consciously present itself to the view
of a fellow-man, it will be allowed that the soul's or the man's
person is in the grave, and not enjoyed by the disembodied
spirit. This view of the meaning of "he" in the fourth verse is borne
out by comparison with sundry places of Scripture treating of
the same subject.
For instance, in Isa. xxxviii. where Hezekiah says, at verse 18,
" The grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee,
they that go down to the pit cannot hope for Thy truth" —
we are not to suppose, that Hezekiah — a child of God by faith
in the promise concerning the Lord to be born of David's line —
had no hope that on his spirit going forth, he should still be
praising God in the separate state —
but he meant, that were he by dissolution to be personally in
the grave, he could not in that public way destined for him at
the Lord's coming (Isa. xxxviii. 11), to the view of others, shew
forth God's praise : he personally could not do this with his whole
manhood: and his wish was, that all within him should do so.
(1 Cor. vi. 20.) Compare herewith St. Paul's similar wish, when
treating of the same coming of the Lord. (2 Cor. v. 4.)
That this doctrine was held by the psalmist in the words before
us, is to be gathered from the remarkable word used by him in
x 2

308 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTYrSIXTII.
the second verse immediately before ; when saying for himself
" while I have my being."
The word in Hebrew ST^? meaning " in my continuance" —
" my existence-yet," or, my after-state— evidently including the
separate state, until the resurrection. (Job xiv. 10 — 15.)
" His earth" — the Adamah for Adam — contains, as it seems to
me, emphatic reference to Gen. iii. 19. See a similar emphatic
use of "thy" in Luke xvi. 25.
To say, " in that very day his thoughts perish," means, that
where a man willingly remains in the fallen state (morallv ) in which
he was born (Luke xix. 10, Eph. ii. 2 — 10), by refusing to put
faith in the promise of God concerning Christ for " salvation,"
he plainly relies on his personal power, during his soul's con
tinuance in the body, to carry into effect his plans.
But well-conceived as these may be, aud mighty as may be his
genius, and princely as may be his social status ; notwithstanding
all these advantages for carrying them into effect, so soon as he
is laid aside by death to sleep in the grave till he shall be raised
up for judgment, " his thoughts perish," he cannot ensure the
performance of them. (Eceles ii. 18, 19.)
The way to have our thoughts and hopes endure after dissolu
tion of soul and body is, to become alive unto God in Christ by
faith in the promise of God concerning the seed of the woman
that should bruise the head of the serpent ; and accomplish for
man all that God had originally intended— bringing hiin " resti
tution of all things. ' (Acts iii. 21.)
Such an one, although in natural respects continuing to be a
sou of Adam, is also in a far higher sense, through faith in God's
promise (Gal. iv. 28), a Son of God in Christ - the last Adam —
yea an heir of God through Christ ! (Gal. iv. 7.)
This man " hath the God of Jacob for his help, his hope
is in tho Lord his God" — his hope standeth fast. (Prov. x. 28 ;
xiv. 32.)
Again, in verse 6, let it be observed, how the claim to be the
Creator of heaven and earth is kept in combination with that to
be "the keeper of truth for ever," exactly as in Isa. lv. 10, 11.
The consequence of this testimony is, that the first chapters
of Genesis, with their account of the Creation of the world, must'
ou no account be surrendered to the sceptical geologist, in the
hope of thereby rescuing " the truth" of the promises in Christ,
from his profane clutch.
Both are by the Spirit of Christ combined in the inspired
writer's mind ; and both must be equally combined in that of the
pious believer. (See Jer. x. 11, and Eev. xiv. 7.)
" Truth," in verse 6, means realisation of the Divine Archi-
typal idea at the time of Creation.
In this exhaustive sense it is a synonym for reality as con
trasted with vain show. Shakespeare so applies the word to the

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND •FORTY-S'IXTII. 309
reality of nature when saying of Time, that it " feeds on the
rarities of nature's truth" — that is, on all therein which is most
beauteous. The fullest realisation of the Divine counsels concerning " sal
vation" is to be attained in God's sabbatical rest. (Gen. ii. 3, and
Heb. iv. 19, 20.)
But there is held out in Scripture to a chosen generation in
Israel a hope of " truth," in regard to " salvation," on earth ;
(See Luke i. 68 — 75) for a type whereof, as Ezekiel teaches iu
xx. 12, God specially gave Israel their Sabbath ; while the Sab
bath originally instituted iu Eden was a pledge of G od's purpose
to bring Adam, even if unfallen, into His own higher state, for
Adam's cessation from further probation.
And it appears to me probable that the psalmist, as an Israelite,
having this special promise to a latter generation of his own
people in mind, when saying in verse 6, " Which keepeth truth
for ever"- — Dv'lBy had prime respect to that to Israel in " the
hidden age." (See Ps. xxviii. 9.)
In Eceles. iii. 11 is a use of this word tjVlSTI meaning, as it
seems to me, to be there taken in the same seuse — it being evi
dently there used to designate an aspiration after God's purpose
in creation of man. (Eom. viii. 19.)
All men have this desire, but he who is brought within the
sound of God's revealed word and meekly receives it, is alone
able to set this thirst at rest by hope in Christ. Hence, in
Haggai ii. 7, Christ is called the desire of all nations — as being
He for Whom, without distinctly knowing it, they are yearning.
Jesus emphatically claims to be the " truth" of God, in John
xiv. 6, so that no son of Adam can have the God of Jacob for
his help, and have hope in the Lord his God, otherwise than by
faith in Jesus, now that He is shewn by God to be the promised
Christ. On this account, when Pilate asked Him, " Art Thou a King
then ?" He replied, " to this end was I born, and for this purpose
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the
truth." " Every one that is of the truth heareth My words;" (John
xviii. 37.)
The rest of the psalm may be regarded as a prediction of
Christ's work during His ministry on earth, agreeing with Isa.
xxxv., which was abruptly broken off in the midst of His week,
(Dan ix. 27) after two days and a half. (Luke xiii. 32.) Con
sequently, during this first age in the kingdom of heaven, while
His Father's Providential Government has resumed its sway,
(Luke xxii. 35—37) these latter verses of the psalm before us,
from verse 7 to the end, obtain only a spiritual fulfilment. (Eom.
xv. 1—6.)
But in the three and a half clays of the Lord's bridal week yet

310 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH.
remaining to be fulfilled, at His second Advent, the pledges
given in these last four verses shall be redeemed with literal
" truth" in respect of the Lord's people (Ezek. xxxvi. 15) ; and
afterwards at the consummation of the mystery of God in regard
to all the elect people of God. (Eev. xxi.)
After these preliminary remarks on particular words in this
psalm ; it remains to be observed that it contains in substance,
though more obscurely, a promulgation of the doctrine explicitly
taught by the Lord Jesus to Nicodemus, in John iii. 6, " That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit : marvel not that I said unto thee, Te must be
born again." (See Ps. li. 10.)
It is generally concluded by commentators that this psalm
entirely suits the condition of the Jews in the time spoken of in
Ezra viii. 21 — 23 : so that Ezra, who is supposed to have com
piled this last book of the psalms, may be reckoned to have been
the author hereof.
The delays in rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem after the
decree of Cyrus, B.C. 536, till Ezra's journey with the royal order
of Artaxerxes, B.C. 457 (79 years), and his own difficulties therein,
though bearing the mandate of the then greatest monarch on
earth, forcibly exemplify the precept " Put not your trust in
princes ;" while his words, in the passage referred to, shew how
he looked to God first for salvation and keeping of truth.
Ezra was glad of the help of princes and of any son of Adam,
so far as they acted in subordination to the truth of God : and
his heart's desire in grateful return for their help was, that they
might be " of the truth ;" even as was he himself. (Acts xxvi.
29.) But Israelites must hope in God for fulfilment of His promises
concerning Zion. (Ps. cxxxii. 11—18.)
In regard to the prospects of the Church of Christ, in this first
age of the kingdom of heaven — spiritual Israel — it is now plain
to be seen, that if in the days of the Apostles the favour of the
Eoman Emperor — the then great earthly prince — had been
relied on for keeping of God's truth, how Christianity would
have by this time become, like that empire, a shadow of the
past. So too, when that empire was broken down by the irruption
of Goths and Vandals, the clergy of the Latin nations by ele
vating the Bishop of Eome to be Prince of the Kings of the
earth, in the hope of securing a system of peace for attainment
of the expected truth, were doing what the psalmist in verse 3
eirfphatically forbids.
The consequence was that these Princes of theirs — the Popes
— instead of being, like Ezra, "of the truth" by hearing
Christ's words, (which are only to be beyond all dispute found
in the inspired Scriptures,) by means of men's traditions made

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH. 311
void the commandments of God, as had the Eabbis of Judah
before them. (Matt. xv. 1— 9.)
If then Christianity had depended on the Pope and his Car
dinals, as the great bulk of the clergy of Western Christendom
would have pretended, where would it now be, when all that
remains to the Popedom of princely grandeur, so as to reign
over kings, is the shadowy splendour of the Vatican palace ?
Whereas Christianity, as proclaimed by them on earth that
desire to " know that they are of the truth, and to assure their
hearts daily before Him — the Head of the body — the Church,"
(1 John iii. 19—24, Eph. iv. 15, 16) never heretofore was receiv
ing such extensive fulfilment as now. (Matt. xxiv. 14.)
They who are " of the truth" say with St. Paul (Philip, iii.
21), "our governing body — municipal directory — is in heaven,
whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christ."
And again in Col. iii. 1, " If ye then be risen with Christ seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God. Mind things above, not things on the earth. For
ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God — when Christ
Who is our life shall manifest Himself, then shall we also be
manifested with Him in glory." (See Ps. xxxiii. 11, and cxlix.
5—9.)
Hallelujah.

Do thou, my soul, Jehovah praise !
I'll praise Him while I live.
Yea to my God I'll anthems raise,
In what part I survive. 2.
Nor prince nor son of Adam trust ;
Salvation 's not in him :
His spirit gone, he turns to dust :
Then ends his ev'ry scheme.

Blest man who for his help doth take
The God of Jacob ! blest
He truly, who his hope doth make
In God, his Lord, to rest ;

312 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH.

4.
Which made the heav'n, the earth, the sea,
And all that therein is —
Which keeps the truth unfailingly
Of all His promises.

Judgment for the opprest deals He,
And for the hungry bread.
Jehovah sets the pris'ners free ;
Blind eyes He 's opened.

Jehovah them bow'd down uprears ;
Jehovah loves the just ;
Dries strangers', orphans', widows' tears ;
But rebels down doth thrust.

Jehovah, Who Himself doth call,
0 Zion, God of thee ;
For that age hidden, throughout all
Time future King1 shall be !
Hallelujah.
1 Ver. 10. 1 Cor. xv. 24—28.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH. 313

PSALM CXLVII.

AEGUMENT.
It is highly probable that this psalm, as commentators in
general think, was written in Nehemiah's day, after the return
of the Jews from captivity in Babylon.
But certain expressions in it assuredly lead to the conclusion,
that the final settlement of the whole of Israel in their own land
was the subject of this psalm; as it is of the others in the series,
which begins at the hundred and forty-fifth, and reaches to the
end of the book, making six in all.
In proof hereof it may first of all be observed, that when it is
said in the 2nd verse —
" The Lord doth build Jerusalem,"
this phrase is elsewhere employed to denote the direct interposi
tion of the Lord from heaven, for the rescue of the remnant of
His people from an overwhelming host of assailants, when about
to accomplish the final rebuilding of it.
Thus, so early as the fourteenth psalm, in the last verse the
question is asked —
fi Who will give salvation to Israel out of Zion ?"
to which the answer is —
" When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people,
then shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel shall be glad :" —
which is as much as to say, until the Lord Himself do it, no
return of any portion of that people will be finally successful.
To the same effect at the end of Ps. li. we read —
" Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion : build Thou the
walls of Jerusalem.
" Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteous
ness, with burnt-offering and the whole burnt-offering ; then
shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar."
Now this was a psalm of David, written when Jerusalem,
which he had been the first to make the capital of his kingdom,
had its walls entire.
Isf asking therefore that God would build the walls of Jeru
salem, when they were standing in massive strength, assuredly
implied that David anticipated the overthrow of those walls, as
also of every re-construction of them, until the Lord Himself,
by a direct interposition from heaven, should finally erect them.
The latter part of this 2nd verse of the psalm before us is in
keeping with this view of its former clause, for it saith —

314 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH.
" He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel"
Here is an allusion to the prediction in Isa. xi. 12, that " He
shall gather the outcasts of Israel," which it is plain happened
not on the Jews' return from Babylon, but remains to be accom
plished when the Lord will interpose from heaven for rescue of
the remnant that shall finally rebuild Jerusalem.
To the same effect are the words of the 3rd verse — •
" He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their
wounds." For in the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah, after mention of the peni
tent condition to which Israel shall have been brought in the day
of the Lord's return, there occur, at verse 26, words similar to
those in the 3rd verse of this psalm, namely —
" The Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth
the stroke of their wound."
Also the reference to the number of the stars in the 4th verse
of this hundred and forty-seventh psalm, is in keeping with the
subject of the Lord's rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem at the
re-assembling of all Israel, to which we have supposed it to refer.
For in Isa. xl. 26, where that consummation of God's dealing with
Israel on earth is treated of, the natural backwardness of unre
newed men amongst them to believe that such a thing might be,
is rebuked by the enquiry —
" To whom will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal ? saith the
Holy One.
" Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these
things, (viz., the sun, moon, and stars) thatbringeth out their host
by number : He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of
His might : for that He is strong in power ;, not one faileth.
" Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way
is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my
God ?" _
Here is the very same line of thought which we recognise in
the 4th and 5th verses of this hundred and forty-seventh psalm—
" The Lord that setteth a number to the stars — giving names
to each — has none that sets Him a number, or gives Him a name."
That is, He is unrivalled. (Isa. xlvi. 8—10.)
How then can it be impossible for Him to bring about the
triumphant return of Israel to their own land, and the final
rebuilding of Jerusalem ?
It is also worthy of observation that in Gen. xv. the Lord had
at outset, when Abram at 100 years old was childless, bidden
him look up to heaven, and tell the stars, "if thou be able to
number them."
" And He said unto him, So shall thy seed be ! And Abram
believed in the Lord : and He counted it to him for righteous
ness."

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH. 315
If this original reference by God to the stars, when speaking
to Abram of his future descendants, be borne in mind, the recur
rence to the same figure in Isa. xl. 26, as also in this psalm, when
treating (as is assumed) of the same subject, is highly impressive.
Moreover, the emphatic distinction made in verses 4 and 5,
between Him Who gave a number to the stars and has none to
give Him a number, is a manifest repudiation of the favourite
theory among ancient philosophers, (which some of late have
not been ashamed in this country to adopt,) namely, that the
Divine Nature is but the soul or living principle of the universe.
If this were the case, it would be contained within the material
universe, and not exist beyond it.
Whereas, to say that God giveth the stars their number ; that
is, appoints how many there shall be, but has none other to give
Him a number, is a claim to be a Personal Being, external to the
universe which He made and rules.
The conclusion intended by the psalmist to be gathered from
this testimony is, that He can do whatever He hath promised —
whatever it pleaseth Him — and consequently, that He will gather
together the outcasts of Israel by His own immediate inter
position, when (humanly speaking) they are without the means
of escaping annihilation.
Agreeably herewith we read at verse 16 of Ps. cii. —
" When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in
His glory."
At that time the 6th verse of this hundred and forty-seventh
psalm will receive its conspicuous fulfilment, where it is written —
" The Lord lifteth up the meek : He casteth the wicked down
to the ground" —
words which have their most appropriate fulfilment in the
events referred to by Isaiah in chapter xxvi. 5 —
" He bringeth down them that dwell on high ; the lofty city,
He bringeth it low ; He layeth it low, even to the ground ; He
bringeth it even to the dust.
" The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and
the steps of the needy."
Again, at the 7th verse, the psalmist reverts to the strain in
which he broke silence in the 1st verse, saying —
" Sing in alternate strains, unto the Lord, with thanksgiving -T
sing praises with the harp unto our God."
After this, the psalmist afresh proves what the Lord can do,.
if it please Him, to restore Jerusalem and _ re-establish Israel.
For like as the psalmist had before done this by shewing God's
control of the stars, he now proves the like by pointing to His
management of the clouds, (Job xxxvii. 16) saying at verse 8—
" Who covereth the heaven with clouds, Who prepareth rain

316 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH.
for the earth, Who maketh the grass to grow upon the moun
tains." Then in the 9th verse — passing from tokens of the Lord's
power to those of his care over the inferior creatures, the
reader is left to conclude how surely He will care for man —
the chief of His creatures on earth — yea Israel — that He hath
chosen to be His witnesses. (Isa. xliii. 10.)
To this effect the psalmist saith at verse 9 —
" He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens1
which cry."
After which, in the next verse — the 10th— is another mys
terious reference to the events attending the Lord's personal
appearance for the rescue of the citizens of Jerusalem from
their besieger (Zech. xiv.)— it being written in the 10th verse —
" He delighteth not in the strength of the horse : He taketh
not pleasure in the legs of a man.
" The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him (as Israel
will at that time be brought to do), in those that hope in His
mercy." It would be difficult to shew the harmonious coherence of this
testimony concerning the Lord, with the preceding ones of His
numbering the stars and ordering the clouds, except we suppose
the psalmist to be in this 10th verse darkly referring to the fact
elsewhere predicted, that the besieger of Jerusalem, from whom
the Lord shall personally rescue the remnant of His people, will
for his part delight in his, it may be, unrivalled cavalry — which
is, to delight in the strength of the horse and the legs of the
rider. Whereas this boast of the greatest man of that day will be
indeed a vain thing when brought against the defenceless people
for whom He fights, Who numbers the stars and orders the
clouds. Compare Isa. xxxi. 3.
As regards the reliance of the great head of a confederation
against Israel at a future day, on his cavalry, we read in Zech.
x. 5—
" The riders on horses shall be confounded;"
also at chapter xii. 4 —
" In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with
astonishment, and his rider with madness, and I will open
' Ver. 9. Bythner ait, " Arist. Plini. Oleari. et alii referunt corvos sive
innata truculentia, sive potius oblivione, (compare hereon Job xxxix. 13 — 17,)
ncgligere pullos suos etiam cum adhuc in nidis degunt ; qui, a parentibus
destituti ; querulos in aere clamores praj inedia edunt." De Burgh thinks them
to be here mentioned, and in Job xxxviii. 41, and Luke xii. 24, because not
dependent on fruits of the earth, but on uncertain subsistence. The raven's nest
has a border on which she lays the carrion, and the maggots therein bred are
the food of her young.

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH. 317
Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every
horse of the people's with blindness."
Also in the thirty-third psalm, which treats of the same
Divine interposition in Israel's behalf, it is written at verse
16— " The King shall not be saved by the multitude of a host :
the mighty shall not be delivered by much strength.
" A horse is a vain thing for safety ; neither shall he deliver
any by his great strength."
At the 12th verse, the psalmist for tho second time resumes
the straiu of praise with which he commenced, saying —
" Praise the Lord, 0 Jerusalem ; Praise thy God, O Zion !"
After which, in verses 13 and 14, he praises God for sending
peace and plenty ; which, as we read in Hosea ii. 21, and Joel ii.
23, 21, will characterise the time, above shewn to be referred to,
in this psalm.
But at verses 15 to 17, he speaks of snow coming at a word
from God, and hail, and cold, whieh presently afterwards inverse
18 is spoken of as at a word withdrawn — the congealed waters
being unbound beneath the relaxing wind and made to flow.
Now by Ezek. xiii. 11 — 13, we learn that hailstones shall be an
instrument employed by God in that day of the Lord's return to
Israel, for destruction of the besieger of Jerusalem.
Also a consultation of Eev. xvi. 21, will shew that the latest
Divine rebuke of misguided enemies of Israel may be by hail —
where it is written, on speaking of Great Babylon's punishment —
"And every island fled away, and the mountains were not
found. " And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every
stone about the weight of a talent ; and men blasphemed God,
because. of the plague of hail : for the plague thereof was ex
ceeding great."
After this is mentioned, in verses 19, 20, of the psalm before
us —
" lie sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His
ordinances unto Israel.
" He hath not dealt so with any nation ; and as for His
judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord !"
These words — brought in immediately after mention of the
Lord's at a word sending forth hail — and again, at a word melting
the snow and causing the waters to flow— suggest the thought
that in like manner, He Who, by withholding His grace from
rebellious Israel, hath frozen, as it were, their affections and
" hardened their heart from His fear," (Isa, lxiii. 17.) will, when
it pleaseth Him, at a word effect the desired change in their
conduct ; (see Ezek. xx. 36—14) when He shall have a second
time called them (Acts vii. 13) to the evangelisation of the

318 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH.
nations, by being themselves nationally put in trust with His
gospel for that end. For it is to be remembered that the present
hardening of the Jews from God's fear is owing to their refusal
to receive the gospel, when preached to them first after the
descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles of the Lord and
Saviour. (1 Thess. ii. 14 — 17.) In consequence thereof, they,
nationally, became enemies to the blessed gospel for our sakes,
that is, for us who are a new people in Christ's mystical body,
gathered by faith in that" gospel out of Jews and Gentiles.
(Eom. xi. 28 ; Ephes. ii. 14, 15.)
In that day of the Lord's calling Israel a second time to the
preaching of the gospel, it is predicted that "they will not
lie," that is, disappoint Him in this matter. (See Isa. lxiii. 8.)
Thus ends this sublime psalm, which foreshadows God's final
establishment of all Israel in the Divine favour, for the general
advancement of mankind in happiness. Compare the testimony
in Eom. ix. 4, touching the statutes and ordinances then to be
given Israel. (Matt. xix. 28 ; with which compare Ps. li. 18, 19 ;
Ezek. xl. — xlviii.)
This psalm so explained, is shewn to be throughout coherent
and possessing strict unity of subject, although the Septuagint
writers who join the ninth and tenth in one — here divide the
hundred and forty -seventh into two — so that they reckon one
hundred and fifty psalms — agreeably with the Hebrew MSS.
It remains for us to observe, that whereas we, who by faith in
the gospel, whether gathered out of Jews or Gentiles, are in the
present age the only remnant of the true Israelites, we ought,
individually and nationally, to consider God's mercy in putting
us in trust with the gospel as by far the greatest of the many
blessings vouchsafed unto us, which we hold, the lease of upon
the same terms whereon Israel will receive it at the Lord's
return — namely, that so " His way may be known upon earth,
His saving health among all nations." (Ps. lxvii. 2.)

Oh praise ye Jah ! for good it is
Unto our God due praise to sing.
Within one it doth gender peace ;
In others' sight too credit bring.
2.
Jehovah builds Jerusalem ;
And gathers Israel's outcasts home.
The broken heart He heals in them,
Lest grief should more their days conusme. *?{£

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH. 31Q

He sets a number to the stars,
And each by name distinguishes.
Great is our Lord : naught His might bars :
No sum His understanding has.
4.
Jehovah lifteth up the meek,
Who of Him crave, what He deems meet :
But wicked men, the earth that seek
To sway, He casts 'neath meek ones' feet.

Thanksgivings with alternate tongue
Unto Jehovah lowly bring ;
Unto our God be praise forth sung
Upon the harp's melodious string :

Who heav'n doth cover with His cloud ;
And rain, to quicken grass, prepare :
Who by His gifts to beasts for food,
And to young ravens, proves His care.

Not He in horses takes delight,
Nor in man's well-knit legs hath pride ;
With meek ones, small in their own sight,
Jehovah's favour doth abide.
8.
Jerusalem ! Jehovah praise.
Praise to thy God, 0 Zion, give ;
Who doth strong gates around thee raise,
And in thee makes thy children thrive.

320 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH.

Within thy borders peace He breeds,
And with the fat of wheat thee fills :
His fiat o'er earth quickly speeds,
His word performs whate'er He wills.
10.
Like wool doth He send forth His snows —
In frost, as ashes, nature fold —
By hail deals, as with stones, His blows —
Who could endure to brave His cold ?
11.
Again cloth He His Avord send forth
To thaw the rigours of His snow ;
His warm wind shed out o'er the earth,
Makes buds to burst — makes streams to flow.
12.
To Jacob were His words display'd—
To Israel His statutes shewn.
No nation else He visited —
To none else made His judgments known.
Hallelujah !

PSALM CXLVIII.
Hallelujah.

AEGUMENT.
This psalm is taken by competent persons to be so adapted
to its object, that the most eminent of our sacred poets, when
desirous of praising God on account of His works in creation,
has made it the basis of his composition.
Milton, in the fifth book of his Paradise Lost, being desirous

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH. 321
of describing what might have been a morning hymn of our great
Sire in paradise, evidently took this psalm as his guide in the
embodiment of his conception.
But there is a marked difference between the structure of this
psalm and Milton's morning hymn.
This latter is probably most admired for the harmonious and
majestic descriptions of each object in creation, as it is called into
notice: whereas in the former there is a rigid exclusion of any such
descant on the beauty of the works themselves ; as though the
writer's object was to reserve his express praise for the Creator
alone. Now, where compositions differing in such important parti
culars are alike deemed to be eminently successful instances of
sublimity of conception, it is well worthy of enquiry whereon
the claim of cither thereto may rest.
That of Milton is evidently aseribable to his felicitous descrip
tions of the works in creation, as they come under review : for
this is the part in which is to be seen his claim to originality.
But how is the sublimity of this psalm to be explained, wherein
all for which Milton's hymn is extolled, is studiously excluded ?
Longinus, in his treatise on sublimity,1 observes that one ele
ment of it is the use of words, at mention whereof a long train of
thought is instantaneously started in the hearer's mind.
, Now, it seems to me that the ground wrhereon rests the sub
limity of this psalm may be explained by that rule.
Prom the first verse to the end of the sixth it brings before the
hearer's mental sight one object or other in the heavens.
Again, from the seventh to the end of the twelfth it does the like
with one or other object in the earth. The mere mention of any
one of these objects made by God — the heavens — the angels — the
sun — the moon — is enough to wake up recollection of the attrac
tiveness wherewith God has endued them. The emotions of
admiration and pleasure awakened within one at thought of these
objects is that, wherein consists the sublimity of the composition.
Now, Milton's claim to sublimity consists in the refined skill
wherewith he supplies these for the reader : whereas the psalmist
leaves the reader to do this himself: and safely, — because the
works of God in heaven and earth are so transcendent, that there
cannot be two opinions about them.
Though no two persons, perhaps, have exactly the same
measure of acquaintance with them ; yet each so far as he knows
them is delighted therewith, and is in harmony with his fellow-
men thereon.
Now, it has been observed that listeners are gratified by finding
something left to their imagination to fill up in understanding
1 Sect. vii. "For this is really grand, the re consideration whereof runs far
backward, and whereat suppression of upbringing thought is difficult or rather
impossible." Y

322 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH.
the speaker ; only that he must not be abstruse, or he will be
obscure to the generality ; and so become dull and wearisome.
But the psalmist does not err in this respect, by drawing on
his hearer's imagination or memory for all that the mention of
God's works in heaven and earth is to call up in the mind :
every one of his hearers, even the most illiterate, has sufficient
agreement with his fellow-men on this head, to be pleased and
filled with admiration at each object called before his mind's
eye ; yet in so quiet a way, as not for a moment to withdraw his
attention from their glorious Author, "Whom the psalmist would
have them all the while praise : whereas the very elaborateness
of Milton's allusions to the angels — the sun — the moon — the
stars, so far withdraws the hearer's mind from the one Supreme
object of praise — the Divine Author of them all.
The psalmist, knowing how apt the mind is to linger on beau
tiful objects, carries up the hearer's recollection to Him for
Whose sake the works are mentioned ; saying at the fifth and
sixth verses, concerning the things in the heavens —
" Let them praise the Name of the Lord : for He commanded
and they were created. He hath also established them for ever
and ever.
" He hath made a decree which shall not pass."
Again, at verse 9, he adds, concerning the things in nature on
earth, that " they fulfil His word."
"While, of the human inhabitants of all ranks and ages who
ought to do so, whether or not intelligent enough to be disposed
thereto, he saith at verse 13 —
" Let them praise the Name of the Lord, for His Name only
is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heaven."
Now, I doubt not that the psalmist's rigid exclusion of any
laudatory description of God's works themselves, in a psalm
expressly designed for lifting up hearers' hearts in praise of Him,
is framed according to the truest conception of what is fit and
becoming. Eor, to compare great things with small, it may be
observed that, were we to be in the presence of some head of a
great family, to whom we owed reverence, we should not, while
under his very eye, divert our attention from him to certain of
his retinue there present ; though they might be friends of ours,
and in themselves highly distinguished.
The more distinguished they might be justly reckoned, the
more would it be to the honour of that head of the house
to have such persons in his suite ; particularly if, like a great
Emperor, he himself had in his own campaigns trained all those
great personages up to the eminence which they then enjoyed.
Our acknowledgment of his superiority over them would be
decorously shewn by refrainment from special remark on their

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH. 323
merits in his presence, though far from being unmindful thereof.
This is precisely what it seems to me the psalmist here doth : he
so frames this psalm, as to shew the reflecting hearer that he
considers the Lord, Whom He is praising, to be present.
Speaking as under His eye, he merely gives the name of this
or that work of the Great Creator, as though he would have the
hearer along with himself bear in mind, that the Author is there
to receive, fresh from the hearer's heart, what acknowledgment
of gratitude he is minded to make upon contemplation of such
admirable creatures.
Assuredly, to lay the hearer under an obligation to think that
he is in the presence of that Being Whose works are mentioned,
for the sake of shewing forth His glory, is an important element
in sublimity of composition.
Here then it is, that the psalmist's austere rigour in recital of
the bare names of God's works is better fitted than Milton's
more elaborate expansion thereof to keep the hearer's mind in
undivided attention to the Lord ; just as we have supposed that,
if one of US' might on some public occasion have been in presence
of the first Napoleon, surrounded by his marshals, we Bhould not
at that moment lose sight of the Emperor's achievements in
admiration of theirs, especially if engaged in converse with the
Emperor himself.
But what was he when surrounded by all the celebrities of his
training, whether in the civil or military department, that he
should be compared with that exalted Being Whom the psalmist
was endeavouring to set before his readers' minds, surrounded
in imagination by the glories of His creation, Whose Name is
exalted, he devoutly suggests, " above earth and heaven" ?
After this climax it might have been thought by some that
nothing more was left to be said.
But the psalmist finds a fresh topic for exhortation of his
hearers to praise of the Most High God by mention of " what
He hath done for Israel," which is His work of redemption.
After having brought the hearer in verse 13 to acknowledg
ment of God's exaltation above every creature on earth and in
heaven, the psalmist intimates that, exalted as God is, He calls
them that during this life believe in His word, and become His
saints, to be eventually partakers with Him in His own glorious
rest. In Christ— the horn of David and of Israel— He exalteth them
to the privilege of sitting down on His throne or abiding state. _
How then ought these that are sanctified by His Spirit— His
Israel— brought nigh in Christ— to wait on Him with lowly
gratitude !
His works of redemption are thus made to rivet on our hearts
that obligation to praise Him alone, which had been wakened up
by His works in creation.
Y 2

324 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH.
It seems to me therefore that this psalm, in the rigorous
severity wherewith it is constructed, and the powerful appeal it
makes to our gratitude for His opening to us a way of participa
tion in His own happiness through holiness, possesses in a very
eminent degree the element of sublimity, and. is highly incentive
to praise of our God and Father in heaven.

From heav'n's high summit peal Jehovah's praise
Ye angels, anthems in His praise forth pour.
Sun too and moon, and you, ye stars, that blaze
By night the dome-like empyrean o'er.
2.
Ye heav'ns surmounting heav'ns swell this song;
And you, ye waters, stor'd above the sky;
The praise that to Jehovah doth belong,
Your very aspect shall at once supply.

At His command they into being rose,
Lo ! at His word burst they forth, as they are
In changeless order did He each dispose
To stand by His decree firm everywhere.

From earth, too, let there sound Jehovah's praise.
Ye monsters peopling the unfathom'd deeps,
Fire, hail, snow, vapours spreading a dense haze,
And stormy blast, that His commandment keeps.
5.
Ye tow'ring mountains, and ye lowly hills ;
Trees of the garden or the forest growth ;
Wild beasts, or cattle that the homestead fills ;
Insects, and fowl 'mid heav'n flying forth ;

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH. 325
6.
Kings and their subjects— people great and small—
Ye princes and all judges of the earth ;
Ye youth of either sex — the boy and girl ;
Old men, and babes but now come to the birth.

Let these the great Name of Jehovah praise :
For His Name only is pre-eminent.
The glory, that He in Himself displays,
Is far 'bove earth and 'bove the firmament.
8.
Yet doth He for His people's sake exalt
Then horn, Who is of all His saints the praise :*
That in His Israel should be found no fault,
The people He doth nigh unto Him place !
Hallelujah.
1 Ver. 14. In 2 Thess. i. 10 we read that Christ is to be "admired in all
them that believe."

PSALM CXLIX.

AEGUMENT.
The new song here spoken of is one in newness of spirit, not in
oldness of letter. (Eom. vii. C.)
Saints are sanctified ones : those who after hearing the gospel
and putting faith in it, are by the Holy Ghost joined to Christ,
so as to have " passed from death unto life." (John v. 24.)
Provided these believers, so joined to Christ in His sacrificial
death, lift up thence prayer to the Father for a measure of the
Spirit of Christ for their renewal (Gal. iv. 6.) they are surely
accepted of the Father and sanctified with the Spirit of adoption.
These, and not the ungodly or wicked among nominal pro-

326 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH.
fessors, are here called to meet and form a congregation wherein
to praise Jehovah. " These ever bring Thee, (Jesus) where they come,
And going, take Thee to their home."
In the second verse we find a mysterious reference to the
Trinity in the words, —
" Let Israel rejoice in his Makers."
Those who believe in Jesus, whether from among Jews or Gen
tiles, are at present " the only remnant of the true Israelites :"
and by our Church's Catechism is shewn in questions on the
Apostles' Creed, how, although God be One, there is a plurality
in Him.
The Father made us, and all the world.
The Son redeemed us, and all mankind.
The Holy Ghost sanctifieth us, and all the elect people of God.
Those then that have been at their own earnest desire fitted to
praise Jehovah, are here called to meet together and make a
congregation for that purpose, that they may stir up one
another's zeal and love therein. (Heb. x. 19 — 25.)
The latter part of the second verse is, —
" Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king."
We of the true Israelites are also the only " children of Zion " at
this present, being made so by conformity to " the rod of Christ's
power," which the Father " sent forth ont of Zion," " on that Pen
tecost next after the ascension of the Lord Jesus. (Ps. ex. 2. )
May the Holy Ghost touch our hearts, and dispose us to cry,
as did that band following our Lord into Jerusalem, Hosanna !
In Matt, xxiii. 39, the Lord significantly told His own people, that
they should not see His face, after He had once left them deso
late, until they should say, —
" Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord ;" that
is, bearing the honoured Name of the Lord ! Oh that we by
grace may now ascribe to Him this praise ! Blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed !
In the third verse is written,—
" Let them praise His Name with the pipe, let them sing praises
with timbrel and barp."
Here are three kinds of instruments — those pierced with holes —
those covered with skin, as the drum or tambour— those emitting
sound by vibration of strings.
With these aids to the voice, we are often in Scripture
charged to exalt the Lord's Name, and are taught that the same
shall be done in heaven.
But nowhere are we in Scripture called on to bring flowers,
or decorate therewith the place of prayer, to God's glory.
And there is a fear, that if a minister were to yield in this
respect, by calling for the dressing of the church with flowers,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH. 327
(which is a human device) as well as for the song with instru
mental help (which should be out of a loving heart) he would
soon find these externals, when multiplied, offered in place of
that heart service, which God, Who is a Spirit, invariably re
quires (John iv. 23) .• and which even " the children of Zion "
find it so arduous to render. (See Philip, iii. 1—3.) He has no
alternative therefore but to confine himself to requirement of
that^ service with the heart aided by vocal and instrumental
music, for which there is authority in Holy Scripture.
The fourth verse is, " For Jehovah hath pleasure in His people ;
He will beautify the meek with salvation."
Here is our encouragement to offer praise unto our King and
God! He hath pleasure therein.
Not that He needs our service for His own happiness ; but
because there appears to be no other way whereby moral respon
sible creatures admit of being made partakers in His holiness,
than by proving their desire for it ; and this is to be proved,
among other ways, in praising Him ! He delighteth in the pros
perity of His servants ! This is the most exalted way of being
prosperous : namely, in holiness ; for without holiness no man
shall see His face or share His rest. Heb. xii. 14. It is writ
ten in Ps. xxii. 3, " Thou art Holy, 0 Thou, that inhabitest the
praises of Israel." In Isa. lvii. 19, is to be seen how He doth
this. " He creates the fruit of the lips," that is, in answer to
prayer for renewal with the Holy Ghost, He puts the Spirit of
His Son into one's heart, Which rising to the lips in thanks, and
praise, and prayer, yields " fruit."
But this Spirit is His own Divine nature, consequently " He
inhabiteth the praises of Israel," bring in that respect the
believer's Maker or New Creator.
And when He finds us zealous in obtaining renewal, for the
sake of yielding Him this fruit, He taketh pleasure in His
people ; so desirous is He (speaking after the manner of man)
that they should be partakers of His holiness !
These people are " the meek " or poor. See Isa. lxi. 1, to
whom the Gospel is preached. These He " beautifies " with
more grace, " the beauties of holiness." Ps. ex. 2. The fifth
verse is, " Let the saints be joyful in glory ; let them sing aloud
upon their beds." The meaning of this verse is difficult to be
determined. Some think it a call to them whose eyes are held by God
waking at night (Ps. lxxvii. 4), to say as did Elihu,, in Job
xxxv. 10, "Where is God. my Maker, that giveth songs in the
night." (Ps. xlii. 8.)
Others think it is a call to that part of the Church which is m
the separate state to join with thoir brethren in mortal bodies
on earth, in praise of their King and God ; for —

328 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH.
" One family, we dwell in Him —
One church, above, beneath ;
Tho' now divided by the stream—
The narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God,
To His command we bow!
Part of the host have cross'd the flood,
And part are crossing now ! "
In Isa. lvii. 2, there is an undoubted use of " bed " for the
grave, and to me it seems clear, that in this fifth verse of the
psalm before us, it has in the psalmist's intention that meaning.
But it appears to me, that he is in spirit carried forward to
speak of that crisis referred to in Isa. xxvi. 13 — 21, where in the
last struggle of the saints on earth with Antichrist, immediately
preceding the Lord's second Advent by unfurling of His sign in
the clouds of heaven, (Matt. xxiv. 30) it seems darkly intimated,
that through the severity of the persecution, the " meek " will
be required to accept death in firm faith, that the grave is a
chamber, wherein to retire and shut their doors about them,
until the wrath of God, which permits Antichrist to rage against
them, be past ; and the Lord, Who is then to be in the upper
air, (1 Thess. iv. 16, and Zech. xiv. 5) manifest Himself !
It may be, that though in their graves, there will be white
raiment given to these meek ones (Eev. vi. 9 — 11), and they on
their beds shall literally praise the Lord till the hour, which is
mercifully shortened, be over. (Matt. xxvi. 22.)
That past, they shall be actually called forth from their graves
to join with the latter generation of Israel that survives, (for the
earth shall cast forth her dead as regards them, the word " till,"
limiting it to them, Isa. xxvi. 20,) in executing the commis
sion in the verses which follow ! (Eev. iii. 24 — 29.) We are
here reminded, how St. Peter saith, that " if when we do well
and suffer for it, we take it patiently, this is thankworthy."
(1 Peter ii. 19.)
Now praise of God, whereto we are called in the psalm before
us, is evidently conducive to cheerfulness in His service; and such
help is the more necessary to be resorted to, when the strait to be
passed through is the narrower. (2 Cor. ix. 7.)
Praise of Gcd is also a preservative against the incursions of
evil or repining thoughts, by kindling anew " the expulsive force
of a new affection."
Here then are reasons why we should prudentially cultivate
praise of God, privately and in the congregation, remembering
that hereby too we give pleasure to Him who delighteth in the
prosperity of His servants. (Lukexv. 7 and 10.) For He would
have us partakers in His holiness.
For we are hereby stirred up to joyful aspirations after it, in
the midst of tribulation on His account (Matt; v. 12), while our

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH. 329
patience under tribulation redounds to His praise in the world.
(2 Cor. ix. 10—15.)
Oh that these considerations suggested by the psalm before
us may move the reader to seek out some choice passages of
Scripture, suited for praise, or some hymns to the same effect for
exercise of the heart in this gladeniug service! as becomes
children of Zion — saints, who are joyful in their King !
1.
Hallelujah ! in the newness
Of the Spirit sing, 0 sing
To Jehovah ! let His due praise
Through the saints' assembly ring !

Joy, 0 Israel, in your Makers !
Zion's children in your King !
Melody's sweet-ton'd awakers —
Pipe and harp, and timbrel — bring !
3.
For Jehovah in His chosen
Finds delight; yea beautifies
Meek ones, who their hopes repose on
Hiin, with their best energies.

Loud ye saints rejoice in glory;
On your lowly couches sing !
Blest the work, that lies before ye,
When in God's cause up ye spring !

Handling your two-edg'd swords boldly,
On the heathen vengeance take !
Kings in iron bondage hold ye —
Princes' pride with fetters break,

330 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH.

Kighteous vengeance on the nations,
As 'tis written, to bring down !
Of His saints long-harass'd patience,
Hallelujah ! this the crown !

PSALM CL.

AEGUMENT.
This psalm begins with Hallelujah, or Praise ye Jah !
Then follows, Praise ye El or God !
The distinction between these names is to be gathered from
Exod. vi. 3, where Jah or Jehovah appears to be the Name de
noting that the Creator will " reconcile all things unto Himself,"
which by the fall of man have been alienated from Him. (Col.
i. 20.) Whereas El is God's name as the Creator.
In regard to this exhortation in verse 1 , —
" Praise ye God,"—
it is to be observed how, in the closing section of Ps. cxix. verse
171, we read : —
" My lips shall utter praise, when Thou hast taught me Thy
statutes." Also in Ps. Ixxxi. 3, it was written : —
" Blow up the trumpet in the new moon,
In the time appointed, on our solemn feast-day.
For this was a statute for Israel,
And a law for the God of Jacob."
In commenting on that psalm it was shewn to be highly pro
bable that the trumpet was a musical instrument first made by
God's direction, as recorded in Numb, x., to commemorate the
delivery of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, with the sound as
of a trumpet.
Again, in 1 Cor. xiv. 7, the sound of the trumpet is used by
St. Paul for a figurative representation of that infusion of the
Spirit of God, whereby the true ministers of Christ everywhere
preach one gospel harmoniously, and without uncertainty of
sound. What then, if the psalmist, when in the hundred and nine
teenth psalm saying, " My lips shall utter praise, when Thou
hast taught me Thy statutes," according to the light granted in

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH. 331
his day, spake of that infusion of the Spirit for the purpose of
uttering the praises of God, which should be poured out upon
the Apostles of- the Lord Jesus at Jerusalem, in the sight of the
world, after He had ascended unto heaven to His Father's right
hand, for the purpose of receiving it from Him ?
So surely as the Israelites had authority for rendering God
praise on solemn feast-days with the trumpet by " statute," have
we of Christ's Church for rendering Him praise, by first receiving
a measure of His Spirit unto that end.
To use the psalmist's language in the hundred and nineteenth
psalm, we need to be " taught by Him this statute," before we
can utter praise, as we ought, through Christ our ascended Lord.
If we be energised with a measure of the Spirit of Christ unto
that end, in answer to our prayer for it, after the manner of the
•psalmist, then is our praise " the fruit of the lips, which God
creates" (Isa. lvii. 19) ; because the Spirit put by Him in our
hearts rises to our lips in praise or thanksgiving, or prayer or
intercession, as the case may be. In this way, to use the lan
guage of Christ by David, in the twenty-second psalm, at verse 3,
God " inhabits the praises of Israel."
In this way, too, we arrive at the true sense of St. Paul's
prayer, wherewith he concludes his Epistle to the Galatians,
(vi. 18), saying :-—
" Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your
Spirit." By this he meant not their human spirit, but that portion of
the Spirit of God which had been, (as St. Paul charitably assumed,)
granted to them for the purpose of worshipping God according
to His " statute " on this head.
Hnmistakeable trace of this doctrine is met with in our
Church's form of daily service, where there is provided to be said
by the minister immediately after the Creed, and preparatory to
the lesser Litany, this versicle —
" The Lord be with you."
Whereto (as an amoebic response) it is provided for the con
gregation to reply : —
" And with Thy Spirit."
Meaning that portion of the Spirit of Christ wherewith not
only the minister, but each of his congregation who would wor
ship God aright, must know, " when He shall have taught them
His statutes," that they need to be endued by Him before they
can yield Him aright praises and other fruit of the lips.
If, now, we have indeed been taught by God His statutes on
this head, the prefatory language of the psalmist in the hundred
and nineteenth psalm, in the section before referred to, acquires
a real rather than a figurative significance. For when he opens
the section with saying, " Let my cry come near before Thee, O
Lord," it has been observed by commentators, that the psalmist

332 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH.
in a boldly conceived figure of speech, personifies his prayer, by
asking God to permit it to come as a living being into His
presence, before His face, in heaven.
But we may enquire, is what the psalmist here asks only a
bold figure, or is it not rather a reality ? If praise uttered by
one to whom God has taught His statute on that head is the
fruit of a measure of the Spirit of Christ rising from the wor
shipper's heart to his lips, may it not (if rightly made ours by
our entertainment of it, though all the while undivided from
Christ — being a measure of the Spirit of Christ) really eome
acceptably within the veil into the presence of God, where
Christ our ascended Mediator presents it, Who pleads for us
according to the covenant sealed with His blood, laid sacrificially
before the throne of God ?
May not also the need of appropriating Christ's Spirit to be
ours by faith be denoted in that language of our Liturgy —
" The Lord be with thy Spirit."
For though the Spirit be the Spirit of Christ given us, yet it
will not be available for us, so that the Father should be " with
us" therein to bless us for Christ's sake, unless we be " serving
Him — the living God — with living faith." (Heb. ix. 14.) For
after this manner holy desires, which come from the Father into
our hearts, only become our own when we entertain them.
Persuaded I am that a statute of the God of Israel concerning
worship has, in the above words from Ps. xxii. 3, and Isa. lvii. 19,
been Scripturally spoken of, and that to this statute the psalmist
referred in verse 171 of the last section of Ps. cxix., which also
has been for the first time fully unfolded in the Epistles of St.
Paul. Persuaded, to.o, I am, that in this way our praises and prayers
— being measures of the Spirit of Christ given us, " come near
before God" to be acceptably presented, and interpreted by our
High Priest, more fully than we ourselves know how to express,
who cannot articulately utter all that the Spirit within our bosom
prompts us to desire ; as St. Paul teaches in Eom. viii. 26.
This explicit exposition of the language respecting a believer's
acquisition of the power to worship God aright will, I trust, be
deemed by my reader a parting word of refreshment, on arriving
at the exhortation in this closing psalm to praise Jehovah, the
Creator. (Ps. cxv. 15.)
According to the first verse we are, in the strength above
referred to, to praise — El— the Creator " in His Sanctuary," or
congregation on earth : —
and again ; " in the firmament of His power," or the outstretched
expanse of the sky enveloping the universe, just as David is seen
to have done in Ps. v. verses 3 and 7, compared together.
According to the second verse, we are to praise Him — El— for
His mighty acts— in regard to what He did, by Christ, in crea-

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH. 333
tion, or rescue of Israel out of Egypt — or much more (as we now
know) by redemption of mankind, wherein is to be seen what El
is to us. For " the only -begotten Son Which is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath declared Him :" (John i. 18, and xvii. 26,)
after which the psalmist exhorts us in this verse to praise the
Creator according to His excellent greatness — that is, in regard
to what He is in Himself — what He hath not revealed, wherein
He is unsearchable.
_ In the next three verses the saints of God are hid call to their
aid in the work of praise instrumental music, which we have
shewn in regard to the kind first mentioned to have been in all
probability directly derived from heaven ; as beyond question,
indirectly, are all the other instruments — the whole being ten in
number — a definite for an indefinite — to shew that whatsoever
man employs to produce within him emotions of gladness, cannot
be more worthily used than in the praise of God, and ought to
be so used, where it is practicable, in His congregation. Of the
instruments here mentioned —
"131127, the trumpet — in Joshua vi. 4, 5, 6, of ram's horns. So
called, says Gesenius, from its clear sharp sound."
733, the psaltery — but twice in Isa. and Amos ' the viol.'
"'"133, the harp, played with the hand ; not with a plectrum
(as Josephus says, Ant. vii. 12, Sect. 3).
-j'n, the timbrel.
bino, a pipe or flute. De Burgh observes that in Ps. xxx. 11,
and Jer. xxxi. 4, 13, it means a species of triumphant procession
in measured motion, accompanied by music ; such as that led by
Miriam in Exod. xv. 20, 21.
D\3K>, literally — ' strings' — stringed instruments.
2S3J, pipes, originally played with the mouth like the Pandean
pipes— the foundation of the organ ; mentioned in Gen. iv. 21.
D'bsbs, cymbals, a name evidently derived from the sound —
warbling sweetly or loud sounding.
In the last verse the psalmist calls on all that have breath ;
namely, every intelligent' soul, to praise Jah— thus shewing Jah
to be El. (Gen. xxviii. 21 ; Deut, xxvi. 17.)
It seems to me that we here find ample warrant and encou
ragement for introduction of suitable instruments into Divine
worship : and that it would be such shabbiness as men energised
with the Spirit of God could not be guilty of, after having been
made by God to abound in wealth, to grudge Him on the score of
1 Ver. 5- nl3tt??> the rational soul, see Joshua xi. 14, where man is thus
distinguished from the beasts ; also in Job 'xxxiv. 14, 15, man is declared to
be possessed of two living principles -the TVT) or animal life, and nat£?3
" rational life." (So Isa. xlii. 6 ; Prov. xx. 27 ; Job. xxxii. 8.)

334 PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH.
expense, the best of music that can be procured, to be used in
the Congregation, along with the breath of man in His praise.
(2 Chron. v. 13 ; Ezra iii. 10—13 ; Eev. xv. 2, 3.)

Hallelujah. 1.
Laud God in His house of prayer,
Laud Him 'bove the out-spread air,
Laud Him for pre-eminence.
Laud Him for His excellence.

Laud Him with the trumpet sharp,
With the psalt'ry and the harp,
Him with pipe and timbrel laud,
Him with use of reed and chord.
3.
Laud Him on the cymbals soft,
Or whose sound is borne aloft —
Ev'ry soul that owns His care
Laud Jehovah every where.
Hallelujah !

THE END.

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