Psalm 73

Psalm 73

PSALM 35

1–28 THERE is this link of connection between this Psalm and the preceding, that in both we find "the bones" referred to; in the former as "not broken" (ver. 20), in the latter as "rejoicing" (ver. 16). In both, too, we find the angel of the Lord acting as the Lord's instrument. In the former the angel acts to protect and preserve (ver. 6), because the whole song is one of the Lord's care; but in the latter the angel acts in the way of vengeance, as an instrument in inflicting the Lord's wrath (ver. 5, 6), because the burden of the Psalm is an awful intercession against those who hate the righteous without cause.

Throughout this is an awful Psalm. Let us read it as the words of the Lord Jesus, and what do we find? We find Him praying to the Father for help, and then consenting to the doom of his relentless, impenitent foes; yea, rather pronouncing the doom with his own lips, even as when He shall say to the barren fig-tree, "Cut it down," and to those on the left hand, "Depart." It is in that spirit He says:—

"Let them be confounded.

Let them be turned back.

Let them be as chaff,

Let the angel of the Lord smite them down.

Let their way be dark.

Let the angel of the Lord chase them." (Ver. 4, 5, 6)

This is their sentence, uttered by the lips of the Judge. It is not the wish of one who is revengeful; it is the utterance of justice, compelled by the state of the parties to speak in stern severity. Our Lord himself quotes verse 19, "they hate me without a cause," in John 15:25, on the last evening he spent with his disciples before he suffered. For then he found himself in the very situation so strikingly described in verses 11, 12;—false witnesses rising up,—men rewarding his whole career of kindness by spoiling his soul.

What a deeply affecting picture do verses 13, 14, 15, give of the Saviour's life for us. It may have been literally realised at Nazareth; Christ may have put on sackcloth when he heard of some one in sickness, fasting for the dying man whose soul he longed to save—none the less that the man was a foe. Jesus acted as if the man had been "friend or brother;" yea, he felt such grief as men usually feel only when a beloved "mother" dies. And so he felt for all this miserable world. But now, says he, when the day of my calamity has come, they do not sympathise with me:—

"They rejoice and gather together.

They gather against me, the objects!

Even those whom I knew not, tear me, and cease not.

The vile, who mock for a cake (parasites), gnash their teeth at me." (Ver. 15, 16.)

His cry ascends; his pleadings up go before the righteous Father, "Lord, bring back my soul from desolations caused by their ruinous plots. The vehement appeal (ver. 23), "My God, and my Lord!" may have been in Thomas's thoughts on that memorable occasion, John 20:28. We have the answer in verses 26, 27:—

"They are ashamed; they are clothed with shame."

This answer carries us forward to the day when they who rejected Him shall have as their portion "shame and everlasting contempt;" while they that favour his righteous cause—

"Shout for joy, and are glad;

They cry continually, Let the Lord be magnified!

Whose pleasure is the prosperity of his servants."

Is not this the "Hallelujah" of the glorified redeemed? Is not this their shout of joy, when sorrow and sighing flee away? And, once more, is not this the sound of the Lamb's harp and voice we hear, when amid this jubilee of bliss he says,—

"And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness,

Of thy praise, all the day long."

Throughout the endless day of eternity the Lord Jesus shall himself speak the Father's "praise," and shall put marked emphasis on his "righteousness"—that righteousness which shall have been exhibited both in the doom of those who hated the offered Redeemer, and in the salvation of those who received him. There is nothing in all this wherein his own may not fully join, especially on that day when their views of justice shall be far clearer and fuller than now. On that day we shall be able to understand how Samuel could hew Agag in pieces, and the godly hosts of Israel slay utterly in Canaan man and woman and child, at God's command. We shall be able, not only fully to agree in the doom, "Let them be confounded," &c., but even to sing, "Amen, Hallelujah," over the smoke of torment. (Rev. 19:1, 2) We should in some measure now be able to use every verse of this Psalm in the spirit in which the Judge spake it, we feeling ourselves his assessors in judging the world. (1 Cor. 6:2) We shall, at all events, be able to use it on that day when what is written here shall be all accomplished:—

The awful utterance of the Righteous One regarding those that hate Him without a cause.

PSALM 36

1–12 HE whom the Holy Ghost employs to write in these strains of elevated thought and intense feeling, is one not ashamed of his God. It is David; and as in Psalm 18:1, so here he describes himself as "Servant of Jehovah." Perhaps it was specially appropriate to use this designation in a Psalm that shews us so fully the apostasy of men and a world in rebellion. David glories in being "Servant" to Him whom men desert and despise.

Like Balaam (Numb. 24:3 נְאֻם) speaking in the Lord's name to Balak, so the Psalmist, in a kind of irony, represents "transgression" as uttering its oracle to the wicked. The first verse reads thus:—

"Transgression utters its oracle to the wicked in my heart! (i. e., my heart thus apprehends their meaning,)

There is no fear of God before his eyes!"—(Hengstenberg.*)

And then he states seven features of the man who has no fear of God. All this prepares the way for the contrast, Jehovah's character and thoughts towards us, verses 5–9. Nor is he done till he has shewn us the Fountain of life, surrounded by the redeemed, and then pointed to the ruin of the lost, "Yonder are they fallen!" (ver. 12),—scenes that carry us forward to the Great Day and its issues.

What a Psalm is this! David, and David's Son, and every member of the household of faith, must always have found it congenial; it is such a picture of earth, and such a glimpse of Godhead-glory and grace. It suggests the deliverance of all creation, "man and beast," and streams of bliss in reserve for us. It abounds in allusions to Old Testament history—allusions that make it more fragrant and savoury; as when verse 7th sings of Jehovah's care of "man and beast," thereby calling up before us the ark of Noah, and the rainbow that spanned it after the flood; or when verse 8 sings of "the river," as if to remind us of the streams that watered Paradise ("a river of thy pleasures" עֵדֵן); or when "the fountain" is spoken of, as if to send our thoughts to Deut. 30:20, Israel's fountain. It is such a song of Zion as can be appreciated only by meditation deep and frequent—such solemn meditation as will try to gaze up to those heavens (verse 5), wherein mercy dwells; penetrate those clouds in which faithfulness is hid; climb and explore the massy mountain-heights of justice (hills of God, worthy of his greatness, glorious and immense); cast the line into the fathomless deep of his judgments, (i. e., his providential dealings); and feel drawn by that grace that leads men to the shade of the Almighty wings, and then to the rivers of pleasure which flow from the fountain of life. If asked to describe what we see in this Psalm, we would say, We see here

The Righteous One looking up to the God of grace from amid a world lying in wickedness.

PSALM 37

1–40 THERE are seven alphabetic Psalms, and this is one of them. It is a song of Zion, in which precious truths are stored up in the memory by the aid of the alphabetic beginnings of each verse. But, as usual, there occurs one irregularity (viz. ע is omitted), to prevent us, perhaps, attaching too great importance to this form of structure.

The two-edged sword gleams bright here; justice and mercy ride together over the field of earth. It is a song suitable for the Church and the Church's Head alike, and for every age of the Church's history. And yet how exactly some verses suit special scenes. Thus, verses 31, 32, is a full-length portrait of the Just One—word, thought, deed; while Antichrist might be said to have sat for his picture in verses 35, 36. "I saw the wicked," &c.

Our Lord seems to quote this Psalm in Matt. 5:2: "Blessed are the meek—they shall inherit the earth." And in this Psalm "the little while" is spoken of, that "little while" of the Church's patient waiting, now so well known to us:

"Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be."

"And the meek shall inherit the earth." (Ver. 10, 11.)

Verses 37, 38, describe the final reward, "The End," of the perfect man, and the final doom, "the end," of transgressors, on the Great Day, when He comes who has "His reward with him." And so it closes with ascribing all victory to the Lord alone. (Ver. 39, 40.)

The title is simply, "of David," and this much we may remark regarding the penman's style in it, that in very many portions his own history supplied striking exemplifications of his doctrinal statements.

In verses 1–6 we have the Lord's treatment of His own. He lets them be proved and tried, while the wicked prosper. David's adversity in the day of Saul's authority, and Nabal's history, might be referred to as illustrating these verses. "Dwell in the Land" may send us to Gen. 26:34, or to 1 Sam. 27:1, 2, by contrast. Notice how it is faith and hope together that are recommended in verses 5, 6, and remark that "judgment" may well be rendered "The decision of thy cause in favour of the right," just as in Isaiah 42:3, 4; John 12:31, and 16:11, it signifies the decision of the controversy pending between God and us, against the great Accuser.

In verses 7–15 we have The Lord's treatment of his foes. Instead of complaining of our burdens, and anxieties, and cares, and fears, and instead of throwing them off in stoical indifference, let us "roll them on the Lord" (as ver. 5), and then "Wait—be silent"—q. d., standing still at the Red Sea, till God opens the way. "The meek" are they who bow to God's will; they shall as surely "inherit the earth" as ever Israel entered into possession of Canaan. This is a promise repeated in verses 11, 22, 29, 34, as if to reiterate, "that though you have little of earth and earth's good things now, all shall yet be yours, and the ungodly be gone for ever."

From verses 16–22 we have God's blessing on the substance of the godly, and his curse on what belongs to the wicked. This is seen in the godly enjoying sufficiency at all times, and in their being able (ver. 21) to give to others also; whereas the ungodly are blighted, yea so reduced (ver. 21) as to be found "borrowing," and unable to repay. All this is a foretaste of the future day described in Matt. 25:34, 41, and to which reference is made in these words,

"For the Lord's blessed ones shall inherit the earth,

And his cursed ones shall be cut off."

In verses 23–26 we have contrasts that even now distinguish the lot of these two classes of men. The godly are directed; lifted up when calamity has overtaken them (ver. 24); never forsaken (ver. 25).

"I have never seen the righteous forsaken (of God),

Nor (have I seen) his seed (forsaken) even when in greatest poverty."

Nay, so far from this, the righteous is enabled to shew kindness to others (ver. 26), and leaves blessing to his seed. "For (says one) so far is charity from impoverishing, that what is given away, like vapours emitted by the earth, returns in showers of blessing."

From verses 27–33 we have an implied invitation to join the godly, whom the Lord so cares for, in cherishing all that is holy. Things are said which in their full sense are realised only in the person of the Righteous One.

In verses 34–40 we arrive at the final issues of things. Wait—that "wicked one" who is so "terrible" (עָרִיץ), shall soon disappear—that Saul, that foe of yours, that Antichrist, the Church's foe! And fail not to mark the perfect, "For to the perfect there is an end," an אַחְרַיִת. This "אַחְרַיִת" is what Baalam speaks of in Numb, 23:10, the end in the latter day, the resurrection time.

And now let us revert to several expressions, in which we find a marked likeness to our Lord's mode of speaking when on earth. We noticed at verse 22, the resemblance to Matt. 25:34, 41, the "blessed" and the "cursed;" but not less remarkable is the five times repeated "inherit the earth," for our Lord quotes it in Matt. 5:5, when promising still future blessing. Add to these the "little while" of verse 10, as used by the Lord in John 16:16–19, and also "the end" as parallel to our Lord's "end of the age" in Matt. 13:19. With all these expressions before us, may we not say that the Master himself is the chief speaker of this Psalm? It is as properly the lips of David's Son that utter it, as it is the pen of David that writes it. And this is the theme of it—

The Righteous One quieting our heart by teaching us to discern between the godly and the wicked.

PSALM 38

1–22 HERE is "The inhabitant saying, I am sick"—David, and every believer with him, and the Head of all believers, David's Son, when he took his place in our world as The Inhabitant who was to heal the sicknesses of others. One writer vehemently asserts, "It is a prophetic prayer of Christ; it has no personal reference whatever to David" (Tucker); while one of the ancient fathers is content with saying, "It would be hard not to apply to Christ a Psalm that as graphically describes his passion as if we were reading it out of the gospels. (Valde durum et contrarium est, ut ille Psalmus non pertineat ad Christum ubi habemus tarn apertam passionem ejus tanquam ex Evangelio recitetur."—Aug). We are content to notice that the tone of the voice of him that speaks is none other than that of the speaker in Psalm 6, as verse 1 in both is sufficient to prove. Nor is it unlike Psalm 22, as verses 21 and 22 will at once suggest (Psa. 22:29). The difficulty in the way of supposing it used by the Lord Jesus, as descriptive of his feelings and state, when he took on our guilt by imputation, is not at all greater than in some passages of Psalms 40 and 69 which almost no one doubts to be his utterances. There is some light cast on our Lord's feelings under the imputation of our sins, if we consider verse 5 to be a statement of his abhorrence of the sin he bears: "My wounds stink and are corrupt"—i. e., there is inexpressible loathsomeness in my festering wounds, those wounds which I have been subjected to "because of my foolishness," viz., the folly imputed to me (as in Psa. 69:5), the foolishness, the infatuation and sins of my people. He was weary of wearing that poisoned garment of our sins; he was weary of having our leprosy appearing on his spotless person; he was weary and woe-begone, and longed for the time when he should "appear without sin," (Heb. 9:28).

It is thus that we can understand it to have been used by Christ, and yet to be suitable at the same time, though in a different manner, to Christ's redeemed ones, who feel their personal corruption and guilt. And in either case the title is appropriate, "To bring to remembrance"—just as in Psalm 70. It speaks of God apparently forgetting the sufferer, so that a cry ascends, equivalent to, "Lord, remember David and all his afflictions."

What a cry is verse 1, "Lord, rebuke me not," &c., in the lips of the Head, or of the members. It conveys a foreboding apprehension of another wave of the wrath to come, ready to break over the already bruised soul. "If it be possible, let this cup pass!" What a groan is verse 2, "For thine arrows stick fast in, or, sink into me"—one of which arrows we saw on the bow in Psalm 7:12—arrows that drink up the life-blood. What an overwhelming sight verse 4 presents, "Mine iniquities are gone over my head,"—like the tide rising while he is within tide-mark. What convulsive agony is depicted in verse 6, "I am racked with pain, I am bowed down greatly. Day by day do I go in sadness."

How terrible in their very calmness are verses 9 and 10:

"Lord, all my desire is before thee,

And my groaning is not hid from thee.

My heart panteth, my strength faileth,—

The light of mine eyes—even that no longer remains to me;"

for weeping and sorrow have dimmed the eye; a state to which His members have been at times reduced, as when that remarkable disciple in the Highlands of Scotland wept herself blind, through sorrow for sin, after her awakening. And then the gloomy cloud closes round Him, verse 11, "Lovers and friends stand aloof,—sympathy here is none. Nor does his gloom soon pass; for verse 17 renews the sad complaint,

"I am ready to halt," i. e., to fall and be broken,

for the keeper of Israel has to appearance forgotten me, and does not "keep my feet from sliding," (Psa. 121:3),

The deliverance is foreseen in verse 21, "Haste to my help;" to save me from those who are to me like Satan (ver. 20); and the fulness of it at last is implied and wrapt up in "O! Jehovah, my salvation." If Jehovah is my salvation, then is He to me what he was to Moses at the Red Sea (Exod. 15:2), and my triumph is sure and full. The Head and his members have a salvation from Jehovah of wondrous extent—beginning in the resurrection of the Head, and to be completed at the resurrection of all the members.

Read, then, in either application, this Psalm describes

The Leprosy of sin abhorred by the righteous.

PSALM 39

1–13 IN last Psalm, verses 13, 14, resemble the first verse here, and on this account the two Psalms have been put side by side. But besides, here is one whom we might call "Gershom," for he is a stranger in a strange land, and he is the same speaker (whoever that was) as in the previous Psalm. For, if the one Psalm spoke thus, "I said, I am ready to halt" (ver. 16), this begins with, "I said, I will take heed to my ways;" and if the one spoke of being "dumb with silence" (ver. 14), not less does this in verse 2; and if the one said, verse 15, "In thee do I hope," this also says, verse 7, "My hope is in thee."

The title does not tell us more than that there was a musical chorus, in which, perhaps, "Jeduthun" may have been the name of the presiding singer, to whose care it was committed. But a glance at the contents shews a pilgrim-spirit, one journeying through a world of vanity, and praying at every step to be taught and kept in the will of God. Christ, when "learning obedience" and identifying himself with us (as in ver. 12), could use it, supplicating his Father in verse 4; sympathising with our feeble frame in verse 5, "Thou hast given me some hand-breadths as the length of my days: and my life is as nonexistence before thee;" pronouncing the sentence of "Vanity and Vexation" on all that this world presents, however good and fair to the eye (ver. 6), and in verse 7 turning towards Jehovah, as the only source of bliss. In verses 9, 10, not only can every believer find his own experience, or what should be his experience under trial, but the Lord Jesus also could have used these words. On earth, he said, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight," praying at the same time, "If it be possible, let this cup pass." The marred countenance of the Son of Man, in which nothing of the "King in his beauty" could be seen, may be described in the words of verse 11. Like verse 5, this verse is followed by a "Selah," calling for silent thought. But intermixed with all the pilgrim's melancholy laments, do we not recognise his hope and expectation of something better to come? Is not "the vanity" of verse 6, like that of Romans 8:20, for it is followed up by verse 7, "My hope is in thee." There is "Hope" for this world! its "vanity" may give place to reality of bliss. An Israelite, amid Canaan's plenty, could feel this, as 1 Chron. 29:15 shews, and as Levit. 25:33 had taught them to feel. And is not verse 13 a Samson-like cry (Judges 16:28) to be carried through the crisis of a final struggle! The believer and his Lord could find here a most suitable petition. Alexander notices also how full of references to Job is this verse: thus chap. 7:19, 14:6, and 10:20, 21. But "Spare me that I may be refreshed," is a prayer that all in him which sin withered may be renovated, and his sad soul be refreshed with Divine grace. The Psalmist thus describes Christ when on earth, and at the same time every one of his family while passing through this earth to the kingdom. It is,

The Righteous One a Pilgrim and a Stranger.

PSALM 40

1–17 "I waited, I waited for Jehovah," I did nothing but wait, (Alexander). Here is one who cries, "Lo! I come to do thy will, O God." We cannot fail to recognise Messiah here, even if we had not had the aid of the writer of Hebrews 10:5–10. The iniquities he speaks of in verse 12 are all ours* imputed to him. He might say, "And I am a sinner in thy sight, although I never sinned." Christ speaks throughout, so exclusively indeed, that the believer must here take up the words not as his own experience (except where he can follow Christ to gather the spoil), but as the experience of the Captain of Salvation, in fighting that battle which has ended in everlasting triumph. It is only by accommodation that even verses 1–3 can be used by the believer in describing his own case. Christ is the Joseph and Jeremiah of this pit.

Read verse 4, and meditate on what He who is the Word suggests—"God's thoughts toward us!" The unnumbered multitude of his thoughts of love to us! The forests with their countless leaves, the grass on every plain and mountain of earth with its numberless blades, the sands on every shore of every river and ocean, the waves of every sea and the drops of every wave of every sea, the stars of heaven—none of these, nor all combined, could afford an adequate idea of "His thoughts toward us!"—"there is no comparison to thee"—nothing wherewith to help out a statement. And the depth of love in every one of these thoughts! Who can sit down and meditate on Redemption's wonders? Who would not be confounded?

Now the whole Psalm has this as its theme. From verses 1 to 3, a summary of God's dealings toward the Saviour, ending in the gathering of multitudes to Him as the Shiloh. Verses 4 and 5, adoration of the purposes of God; and from verse 9 to the end, we are made to witness something of the style in which these glorious purposes were carried on to fulfilment, in the actual coming and suffering of the Saviour. See him obeying; see him proclaiming Jehovah's name in its breadth and fulness, wherever he came, in the villages, towns, cities, the synagogues, the temple, the open air assemblies, "I have proclaimed righteousness, and I will not at any future time restrain my lips." Hear in verse 12 his unutterable groanings, when "sorrowful unto death." Then hear him in verse 15 foretelling Israel's desolation, and that of others like them, because of their rejection of Him; while verse 16 pictures to us present "joy and peace in believing," with the ultimate result in the ages to come, in the joy of The Kingdom. It would be endless were we to dwell on the rich and copious suggestions afforded by almost every verse.* It is a manual of the History of Redemption. It is

Messiah exhibited as our once-for-all Sacrifice, and all our Salvation.

PSALM 41

1–13 THE melancholy interest attached to this Psalm has made it well-known in Zion. Our Lord quoted it as his own, on the night when he was betrayed (see John 13:18, compared with ver. 9), when he saw the traitor take his seat at the Passover table with him, and sit down on his left hand, so near that he could hand him the sop, and dip with him in the dish. The strain, however, is such as suits his family as well as himself; they may use it in Him.

It is the Lord who says, "Blessed is he that acts wisely toward the poor," ver. 1; the same who said "Blessed are the merciful!" and the same who on the day of his coming shall say, "Come, ye blessed; I was sick, and ye visited me." He encourages us to do good works in his Name, especially to those of the household of faith. What is written from verse 1 to 3 is a promise which Barzillai could have claimed; and Ebedmelech, who drew Jeremiah from the pit; and Onesiphorus, who oft refreshed Paul; and the women of Galilee, Susannah and others, who ministered to Christ of their substance; and the daughters of Jerusalem, who gave him sympathy as he bore the cross, pitying his marred countenance.

Perhaps in verse 4 Christ may be understood as saying, "I, even I, myself, did that to others, and do, therefore, claim the blessing. But how differently my foes act toward me! All my miracles of kindness are forgotten, the memory of all my thousand benefits is drowned in their malice; they wish my death, "When shall He die;" and "his name perish?" (Ver. 5.) "If he comes to see me," (i. e. to play the spy on me), he goes away, saying,

"Some cursed thing cleaves to him." (Ver. 8, literally, "is soldered into him.")

But the issue shall disappoint them; I shall not even once err, and I shall soon stand at thy right hand;

"Mine enemy is not to triumph over me:

And as for me, thou upholdest me in my integrity,

And settest me before thy face for ever." (Ver. 12.)

In this he anticipates the reward of his obedience unto death, and "the glory that should follow," as we too may do.

In this prospect it is interesting to hear him say, "Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel," (ver. 13). The rejected and despised One has not forgotten or given up the people who rejected him. He will be their King, "King of the Jews," though they crucify him; he intends grace and glory for them in the latter day. "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." And that "A men and A men," how sweetly it dropped from the lips of the Faithful Witness, who delighted to preface his weighty sayings with "Verily," verily, Αμην, Αμην, and who fixes his mark to this blessed Psalm (resembling what Paul does in some of his Epistles), as if to say, "The signature of me, the Faithful Witness, with mine own hand."

The Righteous One unpitied in his time of need.

PSALM 42

1–11 THE Jews begin Book II. with this Psalm. There is little doubt that their fourfold division of the Book of Psalms is arbitrary, and was suggested by the single circumstance that "Amen" happens to occur at the close of Ps. 40, 72, 89, and 106, which are the closing Psalms of the different divisions. The Maschil has reference to the music. As for the sons of Korah, descendants of the rebel Korah whose children, spared by grace, took a conspicuous part in the Temple worship of song, they were only the receivers, not the writers of the Psalm. Probably the Levites who were with David (2 Sam. 15:24) include the sons of Korah.

Here is the hart in the wilderness panting for the water brooks which it had not got at. It stands on some bank that hangs over (עַל), the brook,—the water is not reached. Such is the Psalmist's state of soul. "O that I might see the face of God!" is the force of verse 2; and verse 4 is the soul responding to itself, saying, in remembrance of past joys now withheld, "Thereon will I think, and pour out my soul within myself."

The Septuagint has translated this very nearly in the words used in Matt. 26:38, and John 12:27.

"Why art thou ('μεριλυπος' Septuagint) very sorrowful, O my soul?

And why art thou (ταρασσεις με) troubled within me?"

Our Lord, as well as every troubled and sorrowful one of his people, could use this Psalm, when, as the true David, he was driven out, not by a son, but by his Father for our sakes—driven farther from heaven than Hermon or Jordan, or "the Little Hill," are from Zion and the Tabernacle, hearing deeper floods calling to one another, and mustering their waters, as at the deluge the cataracts dashed upon the ark from above, while bursting fountains heaved it up from below.* Still, He knew the issue: "For the joy set before Him he endured the cross." He could sing in the gloom, "I shall yet praise him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God!" The marginal reading is, "His presence is salvation;" but verse 11 is against this. The meaning is, I shall praise Him as He who shall change my marred form, and give me beauty; who shall change my humiliation into exaltation; who shall in my case, and then in the case of all my people, exchange the wilderness and its parched sands for the kingdom and its rivers of pleasure.

The sorest pang of Christ, arising from reproach and scorn, was that which he felt when they cast suspicion on the love and faithfulness of his Father (ver. 10), "Where is thy God?" In proportion as sanctification advances, his members feel this, too, forgetting their own glory, and intent upon his. In the primary use of the Psalm, this taunt would be felt by David when his enemies insinuated that though God had anointed him king, yet He could not bring him to his kingdom: or even if "the sons of Korah"† wrote this Psalm, (as Hengstenberg thinks), there would be the same feeling in them in regard to this taunt flung at that devoted leader, whose cause they espoused, coming to him at Ziklag. (1 Chron. 12:6.) But the Holy Ghost founded on these circumstances a song of Zion, which was meant for Zion's King, and all his princes in their passage to the throne and kingdom. The Lord Jesus might specially call it to mind, and sing it with his disciples on that remarkable day when, at Cæsarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13), he asked what men were saying of him? On that day, Hermon was in sight, and Jordan's double-fountain close beside him, and some "Little Hill" near them, some "Mizar,"* that, by contrast, called up to mind the Hills of Zion. On that day, it may be, the Head of the Church made special use of this Psalm, and embalmed it in the hearts of his disciples, who would never afterwards fail to sing it (even as we do), with double refreshment in the thought that it had comforted the Master, expressing, as it does,

The Righteous One in his weariness looking up to the Father for refreshment.

PSALM 43

1–5 MANY ancient and modern writers make this Psalm a part of the former. They have failed to see that the strain is now more gladsome and hopeful. The hart is now bounding on to the water brooks. The psalmist is claiming his right to refreshment, and anticipating it as at his very lips. The gloom of "night" (42:8) and of "mourning" (ver. 2) is to be exchanged for favour or "light" (ver. 3), and "truth," i. e., the fulfilment of the promises made to him (Aben-Ezra) shall soon shew that he has not been "forgotten" (42:9); and soon his God shall be his jubilee-song, "joy of his joy," and the harp shall celebrate the well pleased countenance of "Eloi, Eloi," my God, who once seemed to stand afar of.

To Christ and to his members, the highest gladness (spoken of verse 4) comes from The altar, with its accepted sacrifice. Christ risen, and Christ ascended, are pointed out therein; and it is in his resurrection and ascension that we see the sacrifice accepted, and our hearts learn true joy. No doubt this same source of joy is to be opened up to us more fully still when He appears the second time "without sin" unto salvation, and all enemies are put under him. He, too, shall rejoice afresh in that day, drinking of the coolest of the longed-for water brooks. Let us, meanwhile, read and sing this Psalm in happy confidence, as

The Righteous One's claiming his right to full refreshment.

PSALM 44

1–26 THERE is apparently a series commencing here and extending to Psalm 50, wherein the Head is addressed, and the various phenomena of his actings described, by the members of his body. This Psalm, committed to "the Sons of Korah," is the cry of David and any other true followers of the Lord, in times of trial, when the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth. It is not so much a national Psalm, as one for the Church Universal, inasmuch as verses 17–22, humbly protest (what Israel as a nation could not) firm, unfaltering adherence to his name; and in Rom. 8:36, are applied by Paul as expressive of the believer's state in a persecuting world. The Maschil is a musical reference.

It is the cry, or appeal, of the slaughtered sheep to their Shepherd. They begin by recalling to mind his great deeds in behalf of his people coming out of Egypt. They lay all the stress of that deliverance on Himself, on his holy arm alone. (Ver. 2.)

"THOU (אַתָּה) didst drive out the heathen," &c.

This "Thou" is emphatic, quite similar to the use of the pronoun in Ezekiel 37:3, "THOU (אַתָּה), and none else, knowest;" and then verse 5, "I (אֲנִי), and none else, will cause the Spirit of life to enter into you." Or like the pronoun (Rev. 4:11), "For thou (συ), and none else, hast created all things." Then in verse 5, there is an emphatic הוּא, "O God, thou art he, my King."

Not less significant is that other monosyllable (ver. 9),—

"BUT (אַף) thou hast cast off."—

A Selah-pause (ver. 8) had for a moment brought the harp to silence; and when its strings are touched again, it is to breathe forth lamentation. It seems to reverse the case stated in Leviticus 26:44, where, after long tribulation, there is hope of the removing of the calamity introduced by וְאַף, which the Jews have marked on this account as "a golden אַף," speaking as it does of a change to prosperity. All different here! The tide has ebbed, and no prospect of its coming in appears! We are sold for the most trifling sum, as if the master were only anxious to get his sheep off his hand. (Ver. 12.) We are a by-word (ver. 14), and are put to shame by "the enemy and the avenger," whom thou couldest so easily still. (Psa. 8:2.)

And yet the sheep own no Shepherd but Jehovah. Their protest is without reserve.

"Thou hast broken us, (and laid us helpless,) in the place of dragons,

And covered us with the shadow of death,

If we have forgotten the name of our God—

Or (if) we have stretched out our hands to a strange God"—

We are cut off from the society of our fellow-men, we are thrust out into dens and caves, we flee to where serpents are the only inhabitants, we are lingering on the brink of the grave. Yet we can appeal "IF we have forgotten!" This "If" is a form of strong asseveration. It is the same form as our Lord employs in Luke 19:42, "IF thou hadst known"—then would blessing have come. It is like Exod. 32:32, "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin." It is like Psa. 95:7, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice"—then ye shall enter into rest.

Having made this protestation, they add, "Shall not God search this out?" He knoweth all things; He knoweth that we love Him; He knoweth that "our belly is grovelling on the earth," like the serpent.

"Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?" (Ver. 23.)

Hope dawns. Their God shall hear. He allows them to awaken Him, and they in a manner cry through the curtains of his Pavilion, "Up! why steepest thou?" (Prayar Book version.) The Banner of the Deliverer appears through the gloom. The sleeping Saviour awakes at the cry of his disciples, and is about to arise and still the storm "For his mercies' sake" (ver. 26),—for the sake of the tender love he bears to them. In the Latter Day we shall see, what is meant by this arising, in its full glory.

Such is this Psalm—

The cry of the slaughtered sheep to the Shepherd.

PSALM 45

1–17 THE appeal made to the Shepherd, by the sheep led to the slaughter, is heard. Here is what Hengstenberg would call a "matter-of-fact reply." The Shepherd at the bleating of his flock appears in glory to help them; but appears in the character of a Mighty Conqueror. The Lamb is the Lion of Judah.

The title given to this Psalm corresponds to its glowing words and theme. "Upon Shoshannim," the lily-instrument, some Temple instrument of music, peculiarly adapted for the celebration of themes that were fresh and bright and beautiful. "For the sons of Korah," and "To the Chief Musician"—the services of the Chief Singer, and the help of the whole choir of singers are put in requisition. It is also "Maschil," what calls for skill in the musician as being the product of great skill in the Singer of Israel who writes it, whether he were David or Solomon, and whether or not the occasion of its composition were the marriage-festivities of the royal Court. And once more; it is "A song of loves;" or rather "of the Beloved," viz., the Bride. At least the word "יְדִידות" may mean this. It is used in Jeremiah 12:7, as a term for Israel while Israel was God's Beloved (God's Spouse), and He the Husband; and so it corresponds to Jedidiah, "Beloved of Jehovah," just as Shulamite does to Solomon. If so, it is a Song concerning The Bride, as well as concerning The King, the Bridegroom.

"My heart boils with goodly words.

My work is for the King!

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer!" (Ver. 1).

Abrupt and fervent surely—the Holy Spirit thus using the faculties and feelings of the human instrument to indicate the exciting nature of the subject.

"Thou art beautified with beauty among the sons of men!"

The verb employed has an unusual form, and might be rendered "Beautiful, beautiful art thou," (Alexander).

"Grace is poured upon thy lips."

Everything that is attractive, everything that is graceful in character and form, in feature and expression, is meant by "grace." It is not what we usually call by that name; it is a term for what fits with the person and draws the eyes of others to him. It is thus used (Prov. 4:9), "She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee"—wisdom so clothing the person with moral beauty. It is thus, too, in Psalm 84:11—"The Lord will give grace and glory"—the ornament of beauty, the crown of glory. All this, in full perfection, is found in Messiah's person; all that is fitted to attract and fix the soul's gaze; all that is beautiful in excellence; all that is drawing in holiness and majestic worth.

Now comes verse 3,

"Warrior! gird thy sword upon thy thigh, (Horsley).

This is "The Mighty One" whom Isaiah (9:5) calls "The Mighty God." He is the גִּבּוֹר who goes forth to victory, and yet acts in behalf of "meekness and truth and righteousness" (see Rev. 19:15), or more literally, "in behalf of meekness and truth;" the doing which in such a cause is "righteousness." "On his thigh," we find a name in Rev. 19:16 in perfect keeping with the גִבּוֹר here, "King of kings, Lord or lords."

"Thine arrows are sharpened!

The nations fall under thee!

They (thy arrows) are in the hearts of the King's enemies!"

He reaches the Throne, and sits down, his enemies made his footstool. Messiah, thus seated on the throne in visible majesty, is addressed in verses 6, 7, by the name "God;"

"Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever."

"Thy God hath anointed thee, O God!" (Comp. Heb. 1:8, 9, in the Greek, and undoubtedly the true rendering of the Hebrew.)

Everything is ready for the Marriage: "myrrh and aloes and cassia" (Song 3:6) have been prepared for this day of Espousals, brought out of "palaces of ivory" to help the joy, or in other words, to complete the mirthful arrangements of this day of heavenly gladness.

"Out of the ivory palace, the sound of the harp (מִגִּי) maketh thee glad,"

(taking מִנִּי to mean "stringed instruments."—Tholuck.)

The "King's daughters" who are in attendance "precious ones," i. e., of high value, seem to be like the "daughter of Jerusalem" in The Song; and especially does this portion of the Psalm remind us of Song 6:8, 9, "The threescore queens, fourscore concubines, and virgins without number." We suspect that both in that Song and here also, these represent the Angelic hosts. They are natives of that heavenly country—not, like The Bride, brought into it from a far foreign land. The Bride, or Queen, is the redeemed Church, made up of Jew and Gentile saints, the one Body of the redeemed who are referred to in Hebrews 11:39, 40.

In this view we find no difficulties left. "Be it," sings the sweet singer, "Be it that thy princesses who fill thy court are of highest rank, such as are Kings' daughters, yet pre-eminent stands The Queen in gold of Ophir! No rival to her! She is honoured, and worthy of honour, above all!"

A pause follows. The Bride is addressed in prospect of this day. It is, q. d., "Wilt thou not, since this is thy glorious destiny, be willing to leave all former relationships? Wilt thou not, O daughter, be as Rebecca going to Isaac? This Mighty One is thy Lord; be thou as Sarah to Abraham." (Gen. 18:12; 1 Pet. 3:5, 6.)

But the scene is not yet sufficiently set before us. The sweet singer touches his harp again to a lofty strain, to describe the splendour of dominion possessed by the Bride in right of the Bridegroom.

"The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift.

The rich among the people (עם) shall entreat thy favour." (Ver. 12.)

This tells of the Glorified Church, the Lamb's Wife, ruling over a subdued world, in the millennial days. "Tyre" is taken as a sample of Gentile nations, and is elsewhere referred to as acting a part in these happy times (see Isa. 23:18); while "the rich among the People" are the Jews in their restored prosperity. The glorified Church reigns with Christ over the nations upon earth. The glorified Church is with Christ on his throne, wherever that may be, while he rules the people and nations under the whole heaven, Gentile and Jew, Tyre and The People.

"The virgins her companions" are, we think, the same as verse 9 and as Song 6:8, "virgins without number," namely, the angelic hosts. These participate in the joy of this scene, even as they sympathized with the birth of the Bridegroom at Bethlehem. As for her she is all splendour, and "gold embroidery" is her vesture, i. e., the richest and the rarest fabric of creation.

And (not to dwell too long on verses that tempt us to linger at every step), at last domes the final strain. The Queen, or Bride, is addressed in verse 16. It is, like Genesis 24:60 and Ruth 4:11, the expression of a wish for the after fruitfulness of the Bride. The Glorified Church, reigning with Christ, is to see her prayers answered and her labours crowned, in the blessings which shall be poured on Earth in those glad millennial days.

"Instead of thy fathers," those who filled earth in thy former days "shall be thy children." Earth shall have its new generations, generations of holy men,—"whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth"—every one fit to be a prince, the weakest among them as David, and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord.

"So shall the nations praise thee for ever and ever!"

This ends the loftiest Epithalamium ever sung. It is what Milton would call

"The unexpressive nuptial song,

In the blest kingdom meek of joy and love."

It is Earth taught by Heaven to sing heaven's infinite love to man. It is a prelude to the New Song. Every clause in it is melody, and every thought in it is sublimity; but it is just such as we might expect to be breathed forth when the theme on hand was—

Messiah the Mighty One appearing as King and Bridegroom.

PSALM 46

1–11 BEFORE the dawn of that day of the Bridegroom and the Bride, the Marriage-feast, earth shall shake with commotions; wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilence, all combining to make men perplexed. But here we find the same Mighty One giving strength to his own in these perilous times.

The title is peculiar, "on Alamoth," suggesting "a choir of virgins," as if this Virgin-choir were selected to sing a Psalm that tells of perils and fears and alarms abounding, in order to shew that even the feeble virgins may in that day sing without dread because of "The Mighty One" on their side. They and the "Sons of Korah" join in this lofty strain of confidence. We all know how Luther used to sing this Psalm in times of peril and alarm, and many have done the like in all ages.

They sing of Jehovah "a very present help," or more literally, "He is found a help most truly," נִמְצָא, being the same word here as in 1 Sam. 13:16, "present with Saul;" 2 Chron. 35:18, "Judah and Israel present," or found at their post; and 1 Sam. 21:3, "whatever is present"—is at hand. He has proved himself to be a help at hand.

The river in verse 4 alludes to the Euphrates of Babylon, and the Tigris of Assyria. Jerusalem has not such mighty floods to boast of. Yet Jerusalem has a river too. She has her "waters of Siloah," flowing softly from her Temple (Isa. 8:6–8), which may be despised by men of might, yet are Jerusalem's glory. Her glory is, that Jehovah is in her Temple, from beneath whose rock flows out Siloah; and thus "A river is there, that gladdens this city of God." Or, if this be not the primary reference, the allusion is to this same Siloah when it shall flow from the Temple (see Joel 3:18; Isa. 33:21; Ezek. 47:1–16), and shall heal whatever it laves; far excelling the mighty waters of Euphrates and Hiddekel, which bear the proud gallies of tyrants.

Victory shall come as soon as the Lord's set time arrives; "when morning appears," as at the Red Sea. (Exod. 14:27). The Lord himself shall invite men to see his victory: "Come and see!" (ver. 8), and to hear Him proclaim his own right to exaltation. At this announcement, his people shout in reply, verses 7 and 11, each marked (like ver. 5) by the "Selah."

"The Lord of hosts is with us!

The God of Jacob is our refuge!"

(Our מִשְּׁגַב, more than מַחְסַהֶ of verse 1.)

Thus setting forth

The Mighty One on the side of the righteous, amid earth's sorest throes.

PSALM 47

1–9 SOME have applied this Psalm to Christ's ascension; but it speaks of his Second Coming. The Mighty One is seated peacefully on his throne. We are referred back to Psalm 45:9. His happy people stand around, exulting in his coronation, as Israel (to use a feeble emblem) rejoiced till earth rang again, when Athaliah, the usurper, was deposed, and the King of David's line was manifested after his long concealment. Then they clapt their hands (2 Kings 11:12) to shew their rapturous joy, as here all earth is invited to do; for even woods and trees and rivers are elsewhere represented as joining in this ecstacy of bliss (Isa. 55:12); Psa. 98:9), when our King sets the New Earth in its regenerated order.

Verses 2, 3, 4, shew what the King has come to do, viz., to choose the "excellency," or the excellent Land, "of Jacob." Resting over this blissful scene, the Psalmist inserts his "Selah"—a pause of meditation. But verse 5 breaks the thoughtful silence with a shout to our Immanuel—for he it is who is celebrated as "God"—

"Sing praises to God!

Sing praises!

Sing praises to our King!

Sing praises!

For God is King over all the earth!

Sing praises with understanding.

God reigneth over the nations!

God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness!"

Around our Incarnate God and King are gathered Israel's princes—"princes of the God of Abraham"—Abraham's seed now receiving in full the blessings promised to their father, and all earth blest in him. Everywhere, "the shields of earth," earth's princes, who once, like "the shields" mentioned in Hosea 4:18, instead of defending their people, robbed and preyed on them, now gather round our God to receive authority from him and use it for him. He is King of kings. He is Lord of lords. And this is the enthusiastic celebration of

The Mighty One on the throne of earth.

PSALM 48

1–14 THE subject of the Mighty One's history is still continued. The Mighty One is king, has entered on his dominion, is seated on his throne, is ruling in righteousness. But where is his capital? It is at Jerusalem. Here He manifests himself; and by the glory of his presence being shed over that "City of the Great King," brighter than the light of seven days, yet far more mellow and tranquillising than the sweetest hues of evening, Jerusalem becomes

" 'The joy of the whole earth.

(The joy) of the sides* of the north." (Jer. 6:22.)

She has become the joy of earth, far and near, the source of joy to earth's remotest bounds. Now is fulfilled Isaiah 24:23. Now is Jerusalem made "beautiful for situation," or, set aloft on its hills in beauty, in another sense than formerly. Now is Zion exalted above the mountains, and obtains established pre-eminence above the hills.

And if associations are needed to make any place completely interesting, these are not wanting here. Such deeds have been done here, that Sennacherib's overthrow is, in a manner, cast into the shade. The gathered kings of earth came up, "they passed" in all the pomp of battle, and the Lord scattered them; and writes here his "Veni, vidi, vici," to all nations.

"They saw!

They marvelled!

They were troubled!

They hasted away!" (Ver. 5.)

It was as when an east wind hurls the ships of Tarshish on the rocks. (Ver. 7.) It comprised in it all that is recorded as wonderful in the achievements of former days; present events now come fully up to the measure of former good deeds,

"As we have heard, so have we seen,

In the city of the Lord of hosts." (Ver. 8.)

The solemn Selah-pause occurs here; and then we look out on a peaceful scene, God known in all the earth. (Ver. 10.) "Thou art praised wherever thy name is known," or rather, now at last thou art getting praise worthy of thy glorious name. Zion is glad, Judah's tears are wiped away, while a voice invites all men to come and survey the bulwarks of the city of the Great King, that they may tell it from age to age. The bulwarks are strong, for the Lord's presence, Jehovah Shammah, is the wall of fire, on whose battlements the happy citizens walk in security, singing,

"This God is our God for ever and ever;

He is our guide even over death." (Tholuck, "even beyond death.")

The last clause is much misunderstood, It is not, "Our guide unto death," for the words are יְנֲהֲגֵנוּ עַל מוּת "shall lead us over death." Surely it means, "It is He who leads over death to resurrection"—over Jordan into Canaan. The עַל is used in Levit. 15:25 for "BEYOND," in regard to time, and is not this the sense here? "Beyond the time of death?" Till death is to us over? Till we have stood upon the grave of death? Yes: He it is who leads us on to this last victory; he swallows up death in victory, and leads us to trample on death. And so viewed, we easily discern the beautiful link of thought that joins this Psalm to that which follows.

Such is the celebration of

The Mighty One become the glory of Jerusalem.

PSALM 49

1–20 THE mighty one never rests till he has "led us over death" (48:14), to Resurrection-fulness of bliss in the kingdom. Thrice happy they who shall enjoy it! But who shall tell the misery of those who are excluded from that bliss? It is this misery that is the theme of this Psalm. As sure as the eternal felicity of the redeemed is the miserable doom of the unredeemed; and this Psalm is the dirge over them.

The Redeemer himself speaks this "parable," this weighty discourse, which in its topics is to the world no better than an unintelligible enigma—"a dark saying." But nevertheless, "these things which have been kept secret from the beginning" (Matt. 13:38), are here laid open in their solemn grandeur, in their awful importance, in their truth and certainty. Messiah here speaks "wisdom" (חָכְמוֹת) and "understanding," as in Prov. 1:20, revealing the deep things of God to man. It is Messiah who says (ver. 5), "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heals doth compass me about?" Messiah in our world of evil, pursued by sons of Belial, who would fain trample on him, surrounded by the troops of hell, breathing the atmosphere of this polluted world, walking amid its snares, is able to break through all unscathed, and foretell impending ruin to every foe.

Man has no means of paying to God his ransom-money (Exod. 21:30), although he bring the most costly price earth can furnish. He "must let that alone for ever" (Prayer Book Version); he cannot come up to the amount demanded; he cannot give even what might be sufficient to redeem the life from the grave. See how generations die, disappear, give place to other generations, all equally the prey of corruption; and yet fools continue to hope for immortality for themselves. Think of this infatuation; pause, meditate; the harp will be silent for a time that you may ponder it—"Selah!"

But lift the veil! Where are these sons of folly? In the grave; "Death leads them into his pastures," as his sheep (Hengstenberg); and

"The righteous have dominion over them in the morning.

Their beauty consumes away;

The grave is the dwelling for every one of them." (Ver. 14.)

The First Resurrection is described in these few strokes, the Resurrection of the Just. They live and reign—have dominion—while "the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished." (Rev. 20:5.) And to stifle all doubts in their birth, the Redeemer declares himself sure of resurrection; and if he, then they also, for he is the first fruits, the pledge of theirs.

"Surely, (אַךְ) God shall redeem my soul from the hand of the grave; For He shall redeem me." (Ver. 15.)

He shall receive me as Enoch was received, receive me up to glorious rest. (See Gen. 5:24, the same word, לָקַח) Hear, therefore, the sum of the whole matter. The ungodly shall never see "the light" of that "morning" (ver. 14); yea, (ver. 20), "man in prosperity," even Antichrist in the flush of his power, "is like the beasts; he is to be rooted out," (Hengstenberg)—he has no lot or portion with the blessed.

In such strains the Redeemer himself utters this melancholy

Dirge of the Righteous over the unredeemed.

PSALM 50

1–23 "El, Elohim, Jehovah, has spoken!"* So reads the Hebrew. Arrived at the end—having sung of the elect's cry, the response to their cry in the Mighty One's appearing, the Mighty One's protection, the throne on which he sits, the city where his glory abides, and himself in the glory—having also sung that melancholy dirge over those who have no portion in this lot of the righteous—the Psalmist is led by the Spirit to strike his harp to one other strain of a kindred nature. He here sets forth the principles of judgment that guide the decision of the King "who sits on the throne of his holiness," and reigns from "out of Zion."

It is the day of Rom. 1:18. The heavens are not silent now; angels come with the God of heaven. The glory of the Lord, and the gathering of the saints around him (see 2 Thess. 2:4), those who over the sacrifice have entered into covenant with him, being celebrated in ver. 1–6, and the solemn Selah-pause having given us time to fix our eye upon the scene, the Lord suddenly speaks, reasoning with men as to their wrong ideas of the way of salvation (ver. 7–15). Then follows their sinful practice (ver. 16–22). In ver. 22d the word נא is emphatic—"Consider this, I beseech you, ye who forget God." Man treats God as if he were a being to be ministered unto, instead of a gracious, sovereign benefactor. Man acts in the view of God as if the holy God were such a one as himself. But the end comes. None shall enter into glory, none be shewn "the salvation of God," i. e., his glorious completed redemption (such as Paul spoke of, Rom. 13:11, and Peter, 1 Pet. 1:5) at the Lord's Appearing, excepting the man who "orders his conversation aright;" that is, who regulates his life by such rule as ver. 5; in other words, by gospel-rule—who prepares his way according to the preparation revealed to him by the Lord. The man who would so do must begin at the altar (ver. 5), and there "sacrifice," or, "offer praise," even as ver. 14 also declared. He must begin by owning Jehovah's benefits to us sinners, responding to the song of the angels at Bethlehem over a Saviour born, and answering to the Saviour's cry, "It is finished," by his soul's glad acceptance of that finished work. This is the "ordering of the conversation"—and to declare this is the object of this Psalm. It sets forth, at the lips of the Righteous Judge himself,

The principles that shall guide the judgment of the Righteous One at the gathering of the Saints.

PSALM 51

1–19 "THE riches, the power," (says a well-known writer), the glory of a kingdom, could neither present nor remove the torrent of sin, which puts the monarch and the beggar upon a level." No one has more keenly scrutinized his own backslidings, and more bitterly lamented them, "laying bare the iron ribs of misery," than David, in this Psalm. We saw a series of considerable length concluded in Psalm 1. The Psalm before us stands in an isolated position. It is not part of any series. It has a peculiarity that no previous Psalm has exhibited, for it is written (and the Hebrew title authenticates the fact) on occasion of David's adultery, and his detestable attempts to hide his adultery by murder of the basest kind. Now, no such circumstances as these could ever have in them aught that corresponded in the remotest manner to any circumstances in the life of the Surety, David's Son. On the contrary, so far is this Psalm from being fitted to express the work of the Surety, that it seems introduced at this point in order to lead us to look back on the former songs of David, and to say of what was set forth therein, "Surely this David, who here appears as a leper all over, with a heart as vile as the worst action of his life, cannot be the David of whom such glorious things were formerly spoken?" Viewed in this light, the Psalm before us is fitted, both by its title and its contents, to direct us in the other Psalms to the true David, as He of whom the lofty things of preceding Psalms were sung.

Coming, as this Psalm does, close upon one which set the principles of judgment before us, it is not uninteresting to observe that it falls into its place very appropriately. For here we find a sinner—an individual sinner—realizing his position at that bar, and consenting to the decisions of a tribunal whereat nothing but justice has free course. The sinner acknowledges in verse 4 that his sin is all his own, and done in direct opposition to the Holy One; and he owns his folly before all the universe.

"That thou mayest be justified, in the matter of the law proclaimed by thee,

And be clear, in regard to the judgment pronounced by thee on the lawbreaker."

He finds nothing in the terms of the law too strict, nor aught in the penalty annexed too severe. The use of דָבְרֶךָ may be a reference to Exod. 20:1, where the Ten Commandments are called הַדְּבָרִיﬦ.

It is as if God had printed the diary of David, and, in order to humble him, handed it to the "Chief musician," that all Israel might know his bitter repentance, and might say, in substance, what Augustine writes, ("Non ergo cadendi exemplum propositum est, sed si cecideris resurgendi. Tu hoc amas in David, quod in se odit David?") "It is not an example of falling into sin that is set before thee, but of rising if thou hast fallen. Dost thou love in David that which David hated in himself?"

1. Deep groans for pardoning mercy, from the pit of pollution. (Ver. 1, 2)

2. Confession of sin, and acknowledgment of the Lord's righteous law. (Ver. 3, 4)

3. An awful gaze upon the source of all actual sin. (Ver. 5)

4. Deliverance from falsehood, folly, and guilt, must come from God alone. (Ver. 6, 7) "Purge me from sin with hyssop," as the leper is purged.

5. The voice of a reconciled God heard again. (Ver. 8) Perhaps it was the idea of Resurrection that suggested "bones rejoicing."

6. On the foundation of thorough forgiveness; prayer is made for thorough and constant holiness. (Ver. 9, 10) "Renew to me the gift of a fixed (נָכוֹן) spirit."

7. He seeks permanent holiness, as well as permanent fellowship. (Ver. 11)

8. The joy of full salvation (i. e., of both pardon and holiness) is sought, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, the true and natural equipment for future usefulness. (Ver. 12) "Uphold me with the Spirit, who is generous,"—princely.

9. Efforts are to be made for the good of others. (Ver. 13)

10. Sorrow for having, in days past, injured others is expressed. (Ver. 4, first clause.)

11. Closing strain of adoring gratitude. (The last clause of verse 14, and 15, 16, 17.)

12. A closing prayer for the glory of God in the land and in the earth. (Ver. 18, 19.)

This desire for God's glory, the unfailing mark of a soul in communion with God, is expressed in terms that indicate hope as well as faith. "Be favourable to Zion for thine own sake, as a fruit of thy free-will," בִרְצוֹנְךָ. This is the sense; as if he said, "I have given thee cause to forsake my kingdom and people, and even to abandon Zion, where thine ark stands; but wilt thou not rather shew free grace?"

"Build the walls of Jerusalem!"

Make thy people in Jerusalem strong against their foes; build up* this city which I took from the Jebusites and am seeking to beautify, though my sin might provoke thee to give it back to the Canaanite again. Make Zion and Jerusalem strong in their bulwarks as thou wilt yet do in the latter day. (Psalm 48:11)

"Then shalt thou be pleased with sacrifices of righteousness."

In that spot where thy name has been blasphemed by me thou shalt yet again be honoured, if instead of judgment thou sendest us victory and peace. We shall testify of thee to all lands by the "sacrifices according to just rule and measure" (Levit. 19:36), and by "bullocks," as our פָרים "calves of thank-offering." (Hosea 14:3) This city Jerusalem shall be a place wherein atonement is proclaimed, and thy praises sung by thy forgiven ones, whose contrite, broken hearts shall be a daily thankoffering. (Ver. 17)

This last result was specially attained under Solomon. But in addition to what we have stated as the primary meaning, is there not a look into the future? Is not the strain to this effect:—Hasten Zion's final glory, and then shall there be no more scandals to give the enemy cause to blaspheme, no more backslidings, no more falls; then shalt thou be fully honoured as the God of atonement and fully praised with the calves of our lips. Hasten the day of Jerusalem's glory under the true Solomon.

Such is this Psalm of David—

The broken-hearted sinner's cry to the God of grace.

PSALM 52

1–9 THIS Psalm was originally written when Doeg informed Saul against David. In arranging the Psalms it was natural to place it after the last, inasmuch as the assaults which it describes would no doubt be repeated in some shape on the occasion of David's fall, and even after his restoration to the full sunshine of divine fellowship. The enemy of the Woman's Seed has never in any age been at a loss for matter of calumny and reproach, nor will he cease till the Lord come and he be finally cast out.

In verse 1, "the mighty man" is גִבּוֹר, even as Nimrod is called in Gen. 10:9; the very antithesis in character to "אֵל־גִבּוֹר," "the mighty God," (Isaiah 9:6,) who is to destroy him.

In verse 5, closed by the significant Selah, the true rendering of the middle clause is, "He will pluck thee out of The Tabernacle;" not only referring us back to such cases as Korah, or any rebels whom the Lord thrust out of the holy camp of Israel, but pointing us onward to the time when "the Tabernacle of God shall be with men." On that day thou shalt have no place among the blessed ones; they shall see thee uprooted with ease, and shall enjoy the "laugh" of Him who sitteth in the heavens (Psalm 2:4), and of Wisdom whom thou didst despise (Prov. 1:26), but who then mocks at thy calamity. Men will not then say of the Son of God (as they could say in the day of his humiliation), but shall say of his ruined foes,—

"Behold the man!" (Ver. 7)

All along their history true Israelites could adopt and appropriate the words of verse 8, but they shall sing it better still on the day of Antichrist's final ruin, when they become "The Olive tree" again. (Rom. 11:17) At the same time it is David's Son, Christ himself, who best of all could sing this Psalm, and best of all could appropriate these words:—

"I am a green olive tree in the house of God." (Ver. 8)

He being indeed the true Israelite who "continued in God's goodness" (Rom. 11:17, 22), the tender love of his God ever being as dew on his branches. He will, on the Day of his Appearing, give the key-note of praise over foes overthrown for ever, raising the "Hallelujah" of Rev. 19:2,—"Because thou hast done it." Nothing less than this result is what we look for and expect; and Christ along with us is looking for that display of the Divine character, "waiting for thy name," (as in Psalm 75:1) when it shall be discovered in judgment acts. Thus viewed, this Psalm may be entitled,

The hope of the Righteous One when everywhere spoken against.

PSALM 53

1–6 THE unknown instrument "Mahalath" (derived from the Ethiopic root "to sing"), is here fixed on as the one to be used by "the chief Musician." And the music is to be selected with care, for this Psalm is, like some others, one that has the mark "Maschil."

The state of earth ought to be deeply felt by us. The world lying in wickedness should occupy much of our thoughts. The enormous guilt, the inconceivable pollution, the ineffably provoking atheism of this fallen province of God's dominion, might be a theme for our ceaseless meditation and mourning. To impress it the more on us, therefore, this Psalm repeats what has been already sung in Psalm 14. It is the same Psalm, with only a few words varied; it is "line upon line, precept upon precept;" the harp's most melancholy, most dismal notes again sounded in our ear. Not that the Lord would detain us always or disproportionably long amid scenes of sadness, for elsewhere he repeats in like manner that most triumphant melody, Psalm 60:6–12; 108:6–13; but it is good to return now and then to the open field on which we all were found, cast out in loathsome degradation.

There is one variation of some interest. It is in verse 5. The words of Psalm 14:5 are referred to, but altered to express much more of triumph and victory on the part of God's despised ones; for the two passages run thus:—

Psalm 53

"There were they in great fear where no fear was,

For God has scattered the bones of the encamper against thee.

Thou hast put them to shame!

For God has despised them!"

Psalm 14

"There were they in great fear,

For God is in the generation of the righteous.

You shamed the counsel of the poor,

Because the Lord is his refuge."

Besides substituting "Elohim" for Jehovah throughout, the changes in the Psalm before us seems made on purpose to declare emphatically the complete overthrow of the ungodly. "Thou" is emphatic in verse 5, and like Isa. 37:22, the verse expresses victory over the ungodly. The term employed in verse 6 is to be noticed. In Psalm 14:6 it was, "O that the salvation, יְשׁוּעַת, were come;" in this Psalm it is "salvations" "יְשֻׁעוֹת" full, entire deliverance. On these grounds they may be right who suggest that Psalm 14 (which see), may be read as the report of the Son of man regarding earth at his First Coming, and Psalm 53 as his description of its state and prospects at his Second.* There is here certainly more said of the full victory; so that while we gave Psalm 14 the title of "The Righteous One's view of earth and its prospects," we are inclined to state as the contents of this—

The Righteous One's view of earth, and the victory of God's people.

PSALM 54

1–7 THE title is such as we have already met with, "On Neginoth" and "Maschil;" and the occasion when it was first written is mentioned as the time when the men of Ziph informed against David.

The burden of this Psalm is simply—to what quarter should one look for help in the time of trouble? Wholly to the Lord. "Save me by thy name" (ver. 1), reminds us of John 17:11. We are kept by the putting forth of God's perfections in our behalf, truth, mercy, love, power, wisdom, holiness. Our Lord was so kept by the Father, when he prayed in the words of verse 1, using them as his own, and giving his Church an instance in himself of that safe keeping. The Selah-pause of thoughtfulness in verse 3 is beautifully followed by "Behold" of verse 4. It is q. d., silent prayer followed by confidence of an answer.

It is in verses 6 and 7 that the future dawns on our view. David, David's Son, and all who follow David's Son, may exult in the prospect of that sacrifice of thankfulness to be offered. When delivered out of all distress, we shall look with triumph on our enemies; for as Calvin remarks (quoted by Hengstenberg), "Only let the eye be pure, and we can piously and holily refresh ourselves with the manifestations of God's justice." That will be the time of the hallelujah in Rev. 19:1–4, all resulting from his name glorified, his name manifested as "good." (Ver. 6)

We have therefore in this short Psalm,

The Righteous One's help found in the Lord's name.

PSALM 55

1–23 THE title is the same as that of some former Psalms, "on Neginoth," "Maschil," and then "of David." We may read these strains as expressing David's feelings in some peculiar seasons of distress, and as the experience of Christ's Church in every age; for we find much, very much, that accords altogether with humanity in a state of intensely stirred emotion, and affection wounded to the quick. Yet still it is in Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, that the Psalm finds its fullest illustration. His was the soul that was stirred to its lowest depth by scenes such as are described here. The quotation of Psa. 41:9 by our Lord, is almost equivalent to a quotation of verse 13, they are so similar as to words.

It is the wickedness of the wicked that raises this mournful cry, and makes him say,

"I mourn in my complaint;" or, "give free course to my sorrow." (Ver. 2)

It is not unlikely that our Lord, possessed as he was of true humanity, might often give utterance to this expressive wish (verse 6), "O that I had wings as a dove," when seeing the turtle-dove fly out from the olives of the Mount of Olives over guilty Jerusalem, the city wherein He saw "violence and strife"—"wickedness, deceit, and guile, never absent from her streets." Either there, or standing on some of the hills around Nazareth, He might witness the home-loving dove's swift flight,* and hear its peace-suggesting note, and be led to this utterance of strong feeling, not at all unfit for Him who so rejoiced in the thought, "And now I am no more in the world! Now I come to thee, Holy Father," (John 17:11). He to whom he was thought to bear so close a resemblance (Matt. 16:14), the weeping prophet Jeremiah, gave utterance to his wounded feeling in strains that naturally took a similar form, "Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place," though only that of the wayfaring man! (9:2). But the melancholy Psalmist here rises a degree beyond this—

"I would remain in the desert." (Ver. 7)

And then there is the Selah-pause, as there is in the middle of verse 19, indicating the calm, solemn state of soul in which these things were uttered.

The prayer in verse 9 reminds us of Babel, where the language of earth was divided that pride might be humbled for ever, and its aims irretrievably baffled; while verse 15, "go quick to hell," at once recalls the doom of Korah and his company, who rejected the true High Priest, and the Lord's King in Jeshurun. Our Lord describes Israel in verse 13, "his own" nation (John 1:11), though, especially, Judas, one of his trusted ones who owned him as Master; and "mine equal" signifies, "Thou who wert by my side on terms of equality, as if on a level with me." He permits them to perish in unbelief, they having rejected the true Priest and King. He no longer acts the Intercessor's part towards such, but stands over them as a Judge, pronouncing their doom. And then in verses 16, 17, we hear him express his confidence of full deliverance. "The twelve legions of angels," whom He might at any time have called to his help, have arrived, or rather He sees them on their way.

"For there are many with me.

God heareth and answereth,

Yea, He sits enthroned for ever!" Selah. (Ver. 19)

It is a glance at future redress for every wrong, in the Day of Vengance and the Year of the Redeemed. In prospect of this, verse 22 invites us to cast our burden upon the Lord, whatever that burden be, even if it be the crushing weight of persecution, and reproach, and treachery. The Lord will "provide" as Joseph did, Gen. 45:11, and as 1 Kings 4:7. "The godly shall not be tossed about for ever;" the Lord shall arise to hurl the foe into "the pit of destruction" ("the lake of fire" of Rev. 20:15), in which Antichrist sinks for ever.

In the last verse there is something of an enthymeme; for while the clause, "The bloody and deceitful men shall not live half their days" predicts and pourtrays their doom, as cut off by untimely judgment, the responsive clause, "And I will trust in thee" tells of no proper converse, no judgment in favour of the godly. But it nevertheless contains in it the equivalent to a declaration that his lot shall be the reverse of the bloody and deceitful. It is equivalent to saying. We go different ways—they on the broad road, where ruin overtakes them speedily, and I on the safe road of faith in thee, where I shall soon meet with Him whom unseen I loved, and in whom I believed, though as yet I saw him not. Does not, then, this Psalm depict—

The Righteous One's weary soul resting in the certainty of what the Lord will do.

PSALM 56

1–13 THE reason why fear gains ascendancy in a believing soul on occasions of danger and trouble is sententiously expressed by Augustine, "Magnitudinem mail vides, potestatem medici non vides." "Thou seest the magnitude of the evil; the power of the physician thou dost not see." The faith which penetrates the unseen reaches the case. This Psalm, in verses 1, 2, sets forth perils and evils in their magnitude, every day felt, every day repeating their vigorous assaults; but verses 3, 4, declare the remedy.

"In the day of my fear, I will trust in thee." (Ver. 3.)

This is nothing less than the voice of the Master, of him who said in John 14:1, 27, "Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God;" "Peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

"God I will extol—his Word." (Ver. 4.)

I will rest my heart in God; I will praise God (אְהַלֵּל בְ, as in Psalm 44:9, and as in verse 10 again); I will praise God with a special reverence to "his Word"—his promises, which are not like those of the world.* David might refer to the Lord's special promise to him of the seed that was to come,—a promise that of course implied his preservation in order to its accomplishment. The Son of David had his eye on that same promise in another of its aspects, its implied engagement to supply strength and give victory. Every believing one, in hours of darkness, reverts to that promise, saying to his soul, "He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" It is thus that the Lord "magnifies his Word," making it felt to be the prominent and most attractive to sinful men of all his ways of revealing himself. (Psalm 138:2.)

The world goes on, adding sin to sin. The world goes on, seeking daily to overthrow God by overthrowing his people; even as it sought to overthrow God by overthrowing his Son. (Verses 5, 6.) But

"Shall they escape by (על) iniquity?" (Ver. 7.)

They have made a covenant with death and hell; shall it stand? No; if they were to escape by their iniquity, by their boldness in defying God, this would be a result wholly unlike the past dealings of God.

"God, in anger, has brought down the nations" (ver. 7);

and will do so again on that day when their anger is hot against him. (Rev. 11:18.)

On the other hand, He has never failed to take account of the wanderings and tears of his own. Their נוֹד, "wandering," and his נֹאד, "bottle" (something far more expressive than the Roman Lacrymatory urn), correspond so far, that every tear shed by them in their wanderings is in that bottle of his; as if he had travelled along with them through their wilderness, and never suffered one drop to reach the ground. His bottle and his book of remembrance have preserved these precious tears; and if so, what good reason have we for exultation (verses 9–11), and for reiterating

"God I will extol—the Word!"*

I will praise Jehovah, and why? that "Word," already referred to, verse 4, explains all. He has spoken, he has promised; all shall go on well, and then shall come the glorious issue—

"I shall walk before God in the light of the living." (Ver. 13.)

Which, while not necessarily confined to the future, yet surely carries us forward to New Jerusalem days, when he who is "Life," and who by being so, is "the Light" of man, shall walk with his redeemed in the kingdom. He himself is the grand example of this. His every tear was precious, his every step was marked; the book of remembrance has a record of these so vast, and ample and full, that, were it published here, "I suppose the world itself could not contain the volumes that could be written." He arose on the third day, "walking in the light of the living;" no more a prisoner in the darkness of the grave; no more subjected to the gloom of his Father's wrath; no more walking through the dark valley where love was withheld; entering on the endless brightness of divine favour at the right hand. A believer's course resembles His, ending, too, in this unclouded noon of resurrection glory. "O come that glorious morning (says Horne), when the redeemed shall sing eternal praise to the God of salvation, for having delivered their souls, from death, and feet from falling, that they might walk before him in the land of the living."

One point we have not noticed. The title of this Psalm is peculiar. It is "Michtam," in common with Psalm 16 (which see) and many others; but also it is "Upon Jonath-elem-recho-kim." Hengstenberg renders this "The silent dove among strangers;" which certainly well expresses the substance of the Psalm, as being the breathing of One who returned not reviling for reviling, but moaned his sorrows in the ear of his God. Still, since we have reason to believe that these titles all refer to something in the music to which the Psalms were set, especially when עַל, "Upon," is prefixed, we incline to think that these words indicate somewhat of the instrument and the tune; no doubt, however, a tune and an instrument suited to the subject, and used on occasions of melancholy interest, such as "Dove among strangers" may suggest. In either view the title corresponds to what we gather up as the substance of the Psalm, written by inspiration, when David had put himself into the hands of the Philistines, and was "sore afraid" (1 Sam. 21:12), namely,

God's word enabling the Righteous One, amid his wanderings, to anticipate final rest.

PSALM 57

1–11 WE spoke of the title of last Psalm as peculiar, and as suitable to the theme handled. We may say the same of the title of this Psalm, "Al-taschith," i. e., destroy not; for it is suitable, whether taken as a musical term or as indicating the spirit breathed throughout. We do not, however, think that it is taken from Deut. 9:26, nor yet from 1 Sam. 26:9,* where the sentiment occurs, addressed in the one case to God, in the other to man. We suspect it is a musical term of some sort, perhaps connected with the lofty ideas entertained regarding the harp and its accompaniments,—the "Ære perennius," the "indestructible," common to all nations as an epithet of poetic and musical compositions.

Christ is the chief Speaker, entering into his own difficulties and those of his Church. The tone is such as we find in John 12:27, 28, "Father, save me! Father, glorify thy name!" But his people can use every word of it also. Perhaps the publican's prayer was drawn from the 1st verse, "O God, be merciful to me." (John 5:1.) The calamities, or rather the "mischiefs" (הַוּוֹת) of a malicious world and a malicious hell are spoken of, but spoken of in order to fix our attention on the means of victory. The means of victory is (verse 2) "God Most High," God "who accomplishes all things," in spite of foes;* it is God, too, doing this with "mercy and truth,"—the attributes that are prominent in redemption, kindness to the guilty in consistency with his adherence to everything his mouth has uttered. "Selah," verse 3, gives peculiar force to the words, "The devourer snorts at me! Selah," Stop, my soul, and ponder; for, lo! God sends help. As for men, they are as lions, in violence; or if you refer to their secret ways, they are equally to be distrusted; for their tongue scoffs at all that is holy. (Verses 4, 6) They have fallen into their own pit—and another "Selah" calls us to ponder. But God, God in his glory, let me ever be in his hands (verses 5, 7)! My heart is fixed, my glory (i. e., my soul) bursts into song, "I awake the morning dawn" to sing his praises. For full is He of tender mercy that reaches above the heavens, as well as of truth that stretches unto the clouds,—such mercy and truth as was prayed for in verse 3, and which shine bright in all his redemption acts. The issue must be glory to himself, infinite glory, glory above the heavens, glory above all the earth. A flood of glory is to cover this earth above its highest mountains, nay, to cover heaven, too, above its loftiest pinnacles. The eye of the Psalmist is gazing on the ages to come in the New Heavens and New Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. David "in the cave," in the very presence of Saul, was taught by the Holy Spirit thus to sing for his own use, and the use of the Church, and the use of the Son of Man in the days of his flesh.

The Righteous One connecting his deliverance with Jehovah's glory.

PSALM 58

1–11 THOLUCK supposes that David was led to write this on occasion of Joab murdering Abner. At any rate, it might suit that event. The Righteous One reasons with the ungodly in prospect of their doom. It is another "Al-taschith" and "Michtam," as to its musical accompaniments.

A difficulty meets us in verse 1, some rendering the Hebrew by a change in one letter, (viz., אֵלִים for אֵלֶם,) "Ye mighty ones, do ye speak righteousness?" others retaining אֵלֶם as a verb, "Is justice then silent?" (Deut. 1:16), or, "Are ye, then, indeed dumb, so that ye will not speak what is right?" Horsley puts it thus, "Are ye in earnest reflection when ye talk of righteousness?"

It is addressed to "the sons of men" (ver. 1), not to rulers only, though to rulers also, as being among the sons of men. (See Psalm 82:6.)

"The wicked are alienated (from God) from the womb;

The speakers of falsehood have gone astray as soon as they are born." (Ver. 3.)

They are of the "seed of the serpent;" and, like the adder, they hide their ears in the dust, in order not to be charmed, let the charmer chant however sweet and long. Men bury their conscience in the things of earth, and shut out the alluring sound of the tidings of love to the guilty. Hence, judgment comes. "Woe to thee, Chorazin"—Woe to thee, O earth, that hast heard the offers of love as well as the demands of law. In verses 6–9 the wrath is shewn under which the mighty melt away "as a snail," suggesting (it has been thought) the idea of the filthy trail or mark which their beastly pollutions used to leave behind them. Their glory is no more than "an abortion." It is at the coming of the Son of man that it overtakes them. They are devising much and planning great schemes, but "ere their pots can feel the blazing thorn," ere their designs of ambition are reached, "he carries them away with a tempest,"—the green and the dry, the sodden and the raw (כְמוֹ חַי כְמוֹ־חָרוֹן), their finished and their unfinished works, and themselves, too, with all their gratified and all their as yet ungratified desires. There are seven similitudes: the lion's teeth broken; the torrents running off; the bow snapping asunder; the snail wasting away; the abortion that scarcely can be said to have had existence; the pots that never get time to feel the heat; the whirlwind that makes them its victim.

No doubt, at the sight of Sodom, Gomorrha Admah, and Zeboim, destroyed, angels saw cause to rejoice and sing, "Hallelujah." Wickedness was swept away; earth was lightened of a burden; justice, the justice of God, was highly exalted; love to his other creatures was displayed in freeing them from the neighbourhood of such hellish contaminations. On the same principles, (entering, however, yet deeper into the mind of the Father, and sympathizing to the full in his justice,) the Lord Jesus himself and each one of his members shall cry "Hallelujah" over Antichrist's ruined hosts. (Rev. 19:3).

"The righteous shall rejoice when He seeth the vengeance,

He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." (Ver. 10.)

He shall be refreshed at the end of his journey (John 13:5; Luke 7:44; Gen. 18:4), He shall wipe off all the dust of the way, and end its weariness by entering into that strange, that divine joy over sin destroyed, justice honoured, the law magnified, vengeance taken for the insult done to Godhead, the triumph of the Holy One over the unholy. It is not merely the time when that joy begins,—it is also the occasion and cause of that day's rapturous delight.

But what follows now? It is said, verse 11, וְיֹאמַר אָדָם, "And man shall say." Is not this the effect upon the world at large in turning them to know their God, his law, his justice, his hatred of sin, his love to his own? Now shall John 17:23 be fulfilled. Seeing Christ and his bride, the Church, triumphant and glorified, "The world shall know that the Father sent him, and that the Father loved them as he loved Christ." As they gaze on his and their enthroned glory, they shall confess, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous!" and shall bend their knee and say of Him who sitteth on the throne of his glory, with his princes who truly decree justice (Isa. 32:1), "Verily, God judgeth the earth!" Its government has come into the hands of the Just One and his saints; there is a God, there is a God who judges!

O that the sons of men would hear in this their day! O that every ear were opened to these words of

The Righteous One reasoning with the ungodly in prospect of the day of vengeance.

PSALM 59

1–17 "His own received Him not." The Sweet Singer of Israel knew what it is to be cast off by those who should have been his bosom friends; and it was on one of those occasions, when his father-in-law sent a band to take him, dead or alive, from his own house (1 Sam. 19:14), that David was taught by the Holy Ghost to pour out his soul in these strains of Strong appeal to justice and to mercy. Perhaps it was at Ramah, when resting in Samuel's dwelling for a time, that this Psalm was written—a Psalm for David himself—a Psalm for David's Son, when he too should be rejected of his own—a Psalm for all his followers when they should, in after ages, feel that the disciple is not greater than the Master. It is another "Al-taschith" and "Michtam," such as we have seen,

If a disciple, persecuted "for righteousness' sake," can confidently use the language of verse 4, saying, "not for any particular crime in me, nor yet for general unholiness, but because I am thine; without being able to fix on anything to justify their hostility"—if a disciple can use this language, much more the Master. And in this consciousness of being hated solely for "righteousness' sake," the Head and his members claim the help of Jehovah as being

1. "God of hosts," and therefore able; 2. "God of Israel," and therefore willing. (Ver. 5.)

It seems to be apostate Israel (Tholuck says, "heathenish-minded Israel") that is primarily described in verse 5 as "the heathen" q. d., these children of Abraham who are now children of the devil—Israelites become Goim! (Comp. Isa. 1:10) They are in character and conduct like city dogs, prowling for prey, feeding on the filth of the town, scouring its streets as if to clear them of the godly. But Jehovah—he who in Psalm 2:4 was seen on the throne of his glory deriding the kings of earth in their vain attempts—laughs at these impotent apostates. In verse 7, the Psalmist complainingly utters, "For who is there that hears?" And then (verse 8) as one confident in God, he exclaims,

"His strength!" (Yes, this is our stronghold—the idea flashes hope through the soul—

"Jehovah's strength!")—"I will wait on thee." (Ver. 9)

The "sin of their mouth" may be specially their declared rejection of Messiah's grace. Then, an intercession ascends, like that of Elijah against Israel—a prayer that these blinded apostates may be scattered, though not destroyed from the earth.* The prayer of verse 13—

"Consume them, in wrath consume them till they be no more"—

reminds us of 2 Thess. 2:16, "Wrath has come on them to the uttermost" (ἐίς τελος.) As a nation, as a kingdom, they are "consumed" but as a people they are "scattered," and men to earth's end are taught of Jacob's God by their doom. It is a doom of retribution for their treatment of the righteous. A solemn "Selah" follows, like that which in verse 5 closed the prayer for divine interposition, that we may ponder the awful judgment, Jacob driven to the ends of the earth! (ver. 13) Now they are as hungry dogs in another sense than when they snarled at the godly—they prowl about the world for food. (Verses 14, 15) In spite of them, the Just One flourishes, singing of Jehovah, mighty and merciful, and looks forward to a time when he shall sing louder still—a morning after a dark night, viz., the resurrection-morning, "Mane, transactis tentationibus; mane cum nox hujus sæculi transient; mane quando jam latronum insidias, et Diaboli et angelorum ejus, non expaveseimus; mane quando jam non ad lucernam Propbetiæ ambulamus, sed ipsum Dei Verbum, tanquam Solem, contemplamur" (Augustine).

In verse 11, the Righteous One seems to seethe sword hanging over apostate Israel, as when it was suspended over Jerusalem in the days of that pestilence that cut off 73,000 men of Israel. Seeing this exterminating sword, he cries, "Slay them not!" He asks a mitigation of their doom, even that which has been granted—their dispersion instead of their extirpation. Let them be as Cain, Gen. 4:12; "make them wander." Still, he fully agrees with the Lord as to their deserving wrath to the uttermost, and expresses this entire agreement in the closing verses. It is therefore a Psalm wherein the Head and members present an appeal against apostate Israel, and then consent to their long-enduring desolation, in prospect of mercy breaking out of the gloom at last, "in the Morning." It is

The Righteous One's appeal against apostate Israel, to the Lord's might and mercy.

PSALM 60

1–12 THE Sweet Singer outlived the dismal days of Saul. Seated firmly on his throne, he saw his armies go forth and return crowned with victory. One of his victories, gained by Joab, was over the king of Zobah, who, it appears, had engaged the men of Mesopotamia (Aram-naharaim) to take his side. When the trophies of victory from the river Euphrates (2 Sam. 8:3) were brought in, David's harp awoke, touched by the Spirit of God. It sang of a happier day to come—happier than that triumphant day of Israel in the birth-land of their father Abraham—a day when Israel's breaches shall be for ever healed, and Israel's strongest foes for ever subdued.

Sometimes it is the nation, sometimes it is the leader of the nation, that sings. (See ver. 1, 5, 9.) It may be used by Israel, or by Israel's Lord as one of themselves. But what is "upon Shushan-eduth?" It must be connected with "joy," or with "lilies," (שׁוּשַׁן), and may speak of some instrument such as Psalm 45 and Psalm 80 refer to. But no writer has come nearer certainty in regard to "Eduth" than that it may allude to Israel as the nation that had the "Testimony" (עֵדוּת), or the Ark of Testimony. "To teach"—as if pointing back to Moses' song, Deut. 31:19, and indicating that this also is such a national song as that.

The Psalm may be said to take up the preceding one's hope expressed at the close. The dispersion of Israel does not last for ever. Though they have been broken, and though God has put into their hand a cup of wrath that stuns them (Isa. 51:22), yet they shall arise. Their's is not the malefactor's cup of myrrh that deadens pain just as a prelude to death and utter extinction. Though Israel be broken, and his land cleft asunder a thousandfold more terribly than David's wars or any of the desolations of his time ever threatened, yet that desolation ends. (See verse 4)

"Thou hast given a Banner to them that fear thee."

Here is the voice of Israel owning Jehovah's gift of Messiah to them. Messiah is the ensign or banner, Isaiah 11:10.

"To be lifted up as an ensign, because of truth."

Holding up this banner*—in other words, owning God's truth, or the fulfilment of his ancient promise to Adam, to Abraham, to all the fathers—Israel may expect favour; and they find it. For suddenly, verse 5, Messiah appears, himself urging their request, and at verse 6 he gets a favourable answer; "God speaks in holiness," (or, as Israel's Holy One,) and grants the desire of him who asks, Shechem, on the west side of Jordan, where Jacob's first altar was raised, and where he bought the first parcel of ground (Gen. 33:18) and where afterwards destruction threatened the whole feeble family because of Levi and Simeon's enormity, is now re possessed in peace. Succoth, on the east side of Jordan, where Jacob first erected a dwelling (Gen. 33:17), and booths for cattle, as one intending to remain, is next claimed permanently. The country eastward beyond Jordan, under the name G. lead, where stood the mountain famed for healing balm, emblematic of healing to Israel, and which was one of the first districts settled and peopled by Israel, comes next, as well as westward Manasseh, on the opposite side; thus shewing us the stretching of the wing over the breadth of the land. Ephraim, full of power, comes in as being to push the foe with his horns (Deut. 33:17), while Judah appears as "Lawgiver," or "Ruler," the tribe of Messiah. The nations round submit; Moab stands as a slave at his master's foot; Edom picks up the sandal cast down at his feet by his lord (Hengst.);† and Philistia is compelled to receive the king with triumphant shouts.

"Philistia, shout to me The conqueror!"

And whose power is it that accomplished all this? Who is it that leads the conquering nation and its king to the strong city? even to Edom's strongholds, and to the battlefield of Edom in the latter day? (Isaiah 63:1) It is the very God who once cast them off—the very God that scattered them. Glory to the Lord of hosts, and to Him only! Israel and Israel's Leader rest on him, and so do valiantly—as Balaam, pointing to Moab and Edom, long since foretold (Num. 24:18, 19). And thus the scene of Psalm 59 is happily reversed at length.

The Righteous One asks, and rejoices in, Israel's restoration.

PSALM 61

1–8 "ON Neginah" (like Neginoth, unknown), and "by David" and perhaps sung at Mahanaim, (Tholuck). In this life, every member of the Church has a varied lot—now at rest, then troubled; now hopeful, then fearful; now a conqueror, then a combatant. Seated as he is on the Rock of Ages, immoveably seated, he sees at one time a fair sky and a bright sun; then, the thick cloud spreads gloom over nature; soon, the beam struggles through again, but soon all is mist once more. Such being the sure complexion of our sojourning here, we rejoice to find sympathy therewith evinced by our God who knoweth our frame, and evinced by the fact that he so often turns in the Songs of Zion from one state of mind to another, and from one aspect of our case to another.

Here is the Head and his members in a state of loneliness. As if suggested by the case of dispersed Israel, language (in verse 2) is adopted such as we find in Deut. 30:11 and Neh. 1:9. Our Lord could use such a Psalm in the days of his humiliation, looking to the Father, as in John 14:28, "the Rock higher than I," higher than the man Christ Jesus, higher than all his members. This Rock casts its shadow over those beneath it. The "Selah" at verse 4 gives us time to look upon the believing one's quiet repose under the wings of God, and then we hear the calm acknowledgment of verse 5, which may remind us of Psalm 22:25. The tone of the Song changes; all thereafter is hope, sure anticipation, a future of bliss realised as already at hand. "He shall sit (on the throne) before God for ever, (ver. 7).

Two things let us specially notice. "Mercy and truth" (ver. 7) are the attributives which preserve him. Now, "mercy and truth" are the prominent features of Redemption-blessing; God able to say, "Live," and yet to do this without retracting the sentence, "Thou shalt die." Christ's pillar-cloud was "mercy and truth;" the Christian's pillar-cloud is the same. Christ, by harmonising, magnified these perfections of Godhead; the Christian magnifies them by pointing the Father to them as harmonised. Thus this prayer is answered,

"O prepare mercy and truth;

Let them preserve him!"

Perhaps the unusual word מַז, "appoint," "prepare," may have been chosen as suggesting a reference to manna, the wilderness-provision. Give a manna-like provision of mercy and truth. This be our everlasting food while we dwell before God!

Another thing worthy of brief notice is verse 6, "The King." David's title was, "King," though a wanderer in Judah's deserts; David's Son, too, had the same name and title; and in the right of their Head, disciples of Christ claim kingship under him, and look forward with hope and expectation to the days of his visible manifestation as King in the kingdom that has no end. Here, then, we have

The Righteous One, when an outcast, looking for the day of his Restoration.

PSALM 62

1–12 THIS Psalm has three parts, each beginning with אַך, "truly;" verses 1, 4, 9. There was a "Rock" spoken of in Psalm 61:2. The God of Israel had long been known under that name, ever since Jacob, and Moses, and Hannah, had appropriated the Rock, with its many properties of shade, shelter, strength, solidity, dignity, to give a people accustomed to level deserts and sands an emblem of the Unchanging One to whom the helpless may resort. This Rock is prominent throughout this Psalm. At the commencement, the soul of the speaker is seen under it as his shelter—he reposes in its shade, and on its strength.

"Only upon God my soul reposeth!" (Horsley.) He is a rock, while enemies are as an "inclining wall and a fence that has had a shove"—on the verge of ruin. Thus he can sing,

"Truly in God

My soul takes rest." (Verses 1 and 6)

Foes and bitter persecutors are around him, and this keeps him very near the Refuge at all times. We have here the soul of the Righteous One—Christ and his members—resorting to Jehovah while iniquity surrounds them, and persecution tries them. We hear them calling on Him, and stirring up one another to do the like (ver. 8), affixing the solemn, "Selah."

"Trust in him at all times, ye people" (עָם, true Israel of God!)

"Our estimate of man (it has been said) depends on our estimate of God;" and here God is felt to be most gloriously great. The sons of men (ver 9) are a mere vapour; their greatness, even when it shall flush up to the splendour of Antichrist's dominion, is a mere mirage. The sentence against it is on the way. Already you may hear God speaking; it is no fancy. Two things have been declared by our God, viz., that he will bring down the proud, and that he has mercy for his own. As out of Sinai, so out of the Rock, we hear a voice telling that Jehovah is God Almighty, and yet merciful too.

"One thing God has spoken,

Two things there are which I have heard—

viz., That might is God's;

And that mercy also is Jehovah's!" (Verses 11, 12.)

In this certainty we look for the Great Day of the Lord—the day when a mismanaged world shall be set in order—a day sure to come, and sure to satisfy us when it has come,

"For thou renderest to every man according to his work."

When the choir of singers, at whose head was Jeduthun, sang this Psalm together, the godly in Israel would feel their souls raised to the very heights of confidence, sympathising with

The Righteous One, when threatened, looking to the Rock for help.

PSALM 63

1–11 IT may have been near the Dead Sea, on his way to the ford of Jordan, that the Psalmist first sung this song. It is a Psalm first heard by David's faithful ones in the wilderness of Judah; but truly a Psalm for every godly man who in the dry world-wilderness can sing—"All my springs are in thee"—a Psalm for David—a Psalm for David's Son—a Psalm for the Church in every age—a Psalm for every member of the Church in the weary land! What assurance, what vehement desire, what soul-filling delight in God, in God alone—in God the only fountain of living water amid a boundless wilderness! Hope, too, has its visions here; for it sees the ungodly perish (verses 8, 9, 10), and the King on the throne surrounded by a company who swear allegiance to Jehovah. Hope sees for itself what Isaiah 65:16 describes—every mouth "swearing by the God of truth;" and what Rev. 21:27 has foretold, the mouth of "liars" closed for ever—all who sought other gods, and trusted to other saviours, gone for ever. And when we read all this as spoken of Christ, how much does every verse become enhanced. His thirst for God! His vision of God! His estimate of God's loving-kindness! His soul satisfied! His mouth full of praise! His soul following hard after God!

"O God, thou art my El" mighty one. Thou art my omnipotence. It is this God he still seeks. The כֵן of verse 2 and of verse 4 is interesting. In verse 2 the force of it is this—"No wonder that I so thirst for thee; no wonder that my first thoughts at morning are toward thee; no wonder that my very flesh longeth for thee! Who would not, that has seen what I have seen? So have I gazed on thee in the sanctuary, seeing thy power* and glory!" The "so" is like 2 Peter 1:17, "Such a voice!" And then, if the past has been thus exquisitely blessed, my prospects for the future are not less so. I See illimitable bliss coming in as a tide; "so will I bless Thee while I have being!" (ver. 4) Yes; in ages to come, as well as in many a happy moment on earth, my soul shall be satiated as with marrow and fatness! And when verse 7 shews us the soul under the shadow of God's wings, rejoicing, we may say, it is not only like as "the bird sheltered from the heat of the sun amid the rich foliage sings its merry note," but it is the soul reposing there as if entering the cloud of glory, like Moses and Elias.

O world! come and see

The Righteous One finding water-springs in God.

PSALM 64

1–10 IT is a probable conjecture that David may have been led to write this Psalm while still a youth at Saul's court, when there discerning the arts and deceits of courtiers. We may illustrate it by referring to the case of Joseph and his many foes. Here is the Righteous One, or "the Perfect" (ver. 4), set before us—a name applicable to Christ in its fullest significancy, but applied also to his members, as being "Perfect" in purpose and in prospects, impartially aiming at the whole will of their God in heart and life. But the world hates such, as his brethren hated Joseph; the world lays snares, and levels arrows of malignity at them. "The archers have shot at them"—at our Joseph and his seed. He says, verse 5, "They will tell about hiding snares," and they think no eye is on them.

"They search deep into iniquity," (to find out the most deadly device).

"We have got it ready! Here is a well-matured plan!" (This is their shout over their deep-laid plot.)

"And close is each one,

And deep of heart." (Ver. 6)

But there is another that is an Archer: "God has shot at them." God has his bow, and his time is coming, (ver. 7). "All their hard speeches," are to be brought into judgment at the Lord's coming (Jude 15); and if they wounded others sorely, sorely shall they in turn be wounded. Theirs shall be a doom like Korah's (ver. 8), when all Israel fled at the cry (Num. 16:34).

"He has cast them down! Their tongues come on themselves." (Ver. 8.)

All earth shall then discern the righteous ways of God. That is the day of his Redeemed so often spoken of, so long expected—the day when the Righteous shall "enter into the joy of their Lord," and utteraloud their rejoicings and their glorying in Him.

"The Righteous One shall be glad in the Lord,

And flee for refuge to none but to him;

And all the upright in heart shall boast themselves." (Ver. 6.)

May we not, then, describe this song of Zion as one in which we find

Our Joseph and his seed foreseeing the doom of the archers that have shot at them.

PSALM 65

1–13 "A psalm of David; a true song" is the import of the title, thus describing the tone that prevails throughout. Possibly (as some think) it was composed at Passover time, when the sheaf of first fruits of barley harvest used to be offered.

Every note in this song tells the feeling of a happy soul reviewing the past, and seeing mercy abounding then and now. Messiah and his redeemed ones—the Lamb and his 144,000—might sing it on their Mount Zion, and we may sing it now. The Head leads the choir, and this is the substance of the song—

"O God, praise is thine!" such, praise as leaves the worshipper "silent," because the theme is too great for his harp to handle.* Now is the vow performed to thee! "O Hearer of Prayer, to thee (yes, even as far as to Thee, עֲד), the Holiest of all, all flesh are coming now." Our iniquities (iniquities which have been imputed to our Head) once prevailed against us (as Gen. 7:24, יִגְבְרוּ) like the waters of the deluge, surmounting the highest hills; but thou purgest them away, and we sing, "Blessed is the man whom thou causest to approach unto thee as a priest" (Num. 16:8). Aye, blessed, indeed, for he shall dwell in thy courts, and there be satisfied with good; thy house, thy holy place, yielding him its heavenly stores. When we cried to thee, terrible things (things of such surpassing glory and majesty as spread awe around) were thine answer. Thou wert God of salvation, displaying thy grace in such a way as to draw the confidence of all ends of earth. Creator, too, setting fast the mountains! and God of providence, stilling the raging waves of the most tumultuous sea, and by thy wonderful signs ("tokens," אוֹתוֹת) causing distant lands, the lands of the setting and rising sun, the east and the west, to fear and to rejoice,

And now let us sing together of the crowning act of all, displaying grace, creation, and providence in one—thy dealings with this Earth, which thou wilt renew into paradise. Once we sang, "What is man that thou visitest him?" and now we sing, "Thou visitest his dwelling-place, and makest it teem with plenty!" Yes, "Thou hast the earth under thy care, and waterest it."

"The fountain of God has plenty of waters. (Heng.)

Thou preparest (Horsley, makest sure) their corn, for lo! thus hast thou prepared!" (V. 9.)

What a table spread with abundance is that once barren earth! It is "thus (כן as in Ps. 63:3) thou dealest as God, with infinite liberality." The soaking rain descends on her furrowed fields.

"Thou layest down its ploughed fields;

Thou dost moisten it with showers;

Thou blesseth the springing thereof.

Thou hast crowned the year, so as to make it a year of goodness;

Thy chariot-wheels drop fatness.

They drop on the wilderness which has pastures now (meadow-lands);

The hills are girded with gladness."

What a changed world! And every season we see something of this exhibited. But the yearly return of spring and summer after winter is an emblem of Earth's summer day, when it shall be renewed. Then, even more than now, it shall be sung,

"The pastures are clad with flocks;

The valleys are covered over with corn!

They shout for joy! they break out into song!

Who does not seem, in reading this majestic Psalm, to hear the very melody that issues from the happy people of that New Earth? Originally it may have been sung as a "Psalm of David, a lively song," at a Feast of Tabernacles, when Israel's happyland and prosperous tribes furnished a scene that naturally suggested the future days of a renewed earth—earth's golden age returned. It is, however, on a much higher key than this; it is a Song of the Lamb, while he leads his glorified ones to fountains of living water, and shews them their old world presenting at length a counterpart to heaven—all paradise again, and better than paradise. Is it not then.

Prayers exchanged for praises because of blessings showered on Earth?

PSALM 66

1–20 Another שִׁיר מִזְמוֹר (as 65:1), at once a solemn Psalm, and a lively Temple song. It is specially the song of Messiah and the Church of Israel—a kind of Red Sea song, sung, however, in Canaan,

"Raise the shout of joy!

All the earth to God!

Shew forth the glory of his name!

Give glory (to him) as his praise"

Then, leading us to such scenes as were spoken of in Psalm 65:5—

"Say unto God, How awful these works of thine!"

There is a Bethel-solemnity in these scenes, though they bring us to the very gate of heaven—

"All the earth shall worship Thee.

They sing! they sing thy name!" Selah.

This Selah-pause divides the Psalm into portions at suitable times, and intimates a change of scene or tone. Here, as usual, it gives time for solemn thought; and then an invitation is given to men to "Come and see." As John 1:26, 27, at Christ's First Coming, and Rev. 6:3, 5, 7, in events leading on to his Second—

"Come and see the works of God!

Awful in his dealings to the sons of men" (Ver. 5)

And when we have cast our eye back to Red Sea and Jordan wonders, and have seen Him to be the same for ever, still subduing the nations, another "Selah" gives us time to pause and adore. But the harp is soon struck again (ver. 8),

"Bless our God, ye nations" (עַמִּים, not as Psa. 62:8)*

The Jews are now inviting the Gentiles; for the Jews are life from the dead to the world. They tell how their God refined them; how He "laid pressure on their loins," the seat of strength; yet made their trials act as a furnace to take away the dross. Even אֱנ שׁ "frail men" were made strong against them; yet Israel passed through desert and flood; and, at length, reached

"The wealthy place" (ver. 12)—affluence—refreshing. (רְוָיהָ).

Each of their number, as well as their Leader, thus invites the Gentile nations; and they do it by example, and not by word only—

"I will go into thine house with offerings;

I will perform my vows unto thee.

I will offer fat victims as burnt-offerings,

Along with rams that have incense-savour. Selah. (Ver. 13, 14)

Another pause—like Wisdom's in Prov. 1:23. And then once more, voice and instrument together sound forth a cheerful summons to draw near and listen to Messiah and the Church of Israel—

"Come, hear, and I will tell,

All ye that fear God,

What he has done for me." (Ver. 16)

He was (ver. 17) "Hearer of prayer" to me (Isa. 65:2); for no sooner did I call upon Him than he answered—turning my prayer into praise. Had I sought to "lying vanities," or had tried crooked paths, I should have failed in finding this blessed result. But the God of Israel, the Holy One, was honoured.

"Verily God hath heard,

He hath hearkened to the voice of my prayer." (Ver. 19)

But the way to this blessedness is by a holy path, verse 18 Messiah magnified the law; and in Him, we who come to God through his blood and righteousness do the same, and so shall sing the same song, and bless the same God.

"He has not turned away my prayer!

He has not turned away his mercy from me!"

A close equivalent to Rev. 5:8, where the golden vials, full of saints' prayers, are held up by the saints, and owned by the Hearer of Prayer on that day. Far from turning away my prayer, lo! he has done exceeding abundantly beyond all I asked. Instead of turning away his mercy from me, lo! He has brought me to the Wealthy Place! Such is the Song of

Messiah and his ransomed Israel praising the prayer-hearing God.

PSALM 67

1–7 ONCE more the Jewish Church is prominent in this solemn "Psalm," which is sung as a lively "Song," on Negineth. They pray for the outpouring of the full blessing which their High Priest, Jesus, is to bestow by their means on all the earth.

The language of verse 1 refers us to Num. 6:24, 25, and very appropriately; for the time is the Lord's Second Coming, when, as true High Priest, he comes forth from the Holiest to bless the people. The "Selah" at the end of verse 1 and verse 4 is, in both cases, very expressive, indicating, as it does, pauses in the sense and feeling, as well as the music.

"God be merciful to us

And bless us!

And cast the light of his countenance

(So as that it may be) with us." (אִתָּנוּ See Hengst.)

Bless us and guide us in thy way, (thy mode of dealing with thy people), that by us thy way may be known on the earth, as foretold in Gen. 12:3, and since those days, in Amos 8:14; Isa. 60:1, 2; Acts 15:15–17; Rom. 11:15, and many other places.

"The nations (עַמִּים) shall praise thee, O God;

The nations shall praise thee! (Ver. 3)

The peculiar people, הָעַם, here anticipate with joy the time when the עַמֹּיִם, the whole Gentile people, shall praise their God and Saviour, and that through their means.

"Let the tribes (of earth, the לְאֻמִּים who once raged against thee, Psa. 2:1) rejoice and sing,

For thou judgest (i. e., rulest) the (עַמִּים) nations righteously,

And as for the tribes of earth (לְאֻמִּים) thou guidest them" (Isa. 58:11, Hengst.)

And again at the happy prospect they cry, "Hallelujah!" for they repeat their song—

"The nations (עַמִּים) shall praise thee, O God,

The nations shall praise thee! every one of them!" (Ver. 5)

And now Earth, as well as Palestine, giveth its increase, for the curse is away, and the blessing rests on it (Lev. 26:4), Israel rejoices in this communication of their blessing to all men—

"Earth giveth its increase!

God, our God, blesseth us!

God blesseth us!

And they fear Him!

All ends of the earth!"

Horsley says, this is "A hymn for the Feast of Tabernacles, prophetic of a general conversion of the world to the worship of God." Dr Allix entitles this Psalm, "A Prayer of the Synagogue for the Second Coming of the Messias, when her empire is to be extended over all nations, and the temporal blessings which are promised to the Jews in several oracles shall be conferred on them." But it is simpler, and perhaps more correct to describe it thus—

The Prayer of Israel for the blessing which Messiah is to bestow on them, for the sake of earth at large.

PSALM 68

1–35 ANOTHER "Psalm and Song," by David, the sweet singer of Israel. As David's days of adversity furnished many occasions for appropriate Psalms, which the Son of David and his Church were afterwards to use in their times of trial, so the more prosperous season, when the Ark which had been removed in procession by David to Mount Zion, was and afterwards by Solomon carried up to Moriah, seems to have provided a fit occasion for this triumphant song. It has been called "The magnificent march." Certainly it is throughout a tracing of the stately steps of the Lord in his goings forth for His Church, from the Wilderness onward to final rest.

The plan is as follows:—

Ver. 1–3. Prefatory strains, celebrating Jehovah as almighty to scatter foes, almighty to make friends exult with joy.

Ver. 4–6. General characteristics of his ways—grace to the helpless—to all that do not reject his help.

Ver. 7–9. His ways, with Israel in the Wilderness—glorious majesty and gracious bounty.

Ver. 10–14. His ways, in bringing Israel into Canaan—the irresistible might of a King in behalf of his own.

Ver. 15–17. His ways, in fixing his seat on Zion, the ark being carried up thither—sovereignty.

Ver. 18–23. His ways, in the typical setting forth on Zion of an ascended Saviour, the savour of life to his own, though the savour of death to his rejecters.

Ver. 24–31. His ways, in the Ark removed afterwards to the temple on Moriah—Israel gathered round it (ver. 26, 27), and the Gentiles flocking to Shiloh there (ver. 29, 31). All this typical of the Lord's advent, as true Solomon.

Ver. 32–35. The closing doxology to the King of kings on reviewing the whole, and seeing "the Kingdom Come."

Such seems to be the plan. It would carry us beyond our limits to go into full details, since almost every verse is rich and laden with meaning. A few hints may be of use, however, on some of the more difficult clauses. Some render verse 1 "God shall arise," q. d., it shall always be thus, as they sang Num. 10:35, and Judges 5:31.

In verse 4 the justified ones, singing before their justifier, cry, "Make a way for him that rideth through the wilderness" (עֲרָבוֹת) or plain; the Angel of the Covenant that redeemed them from all evil. It is their King whom they thus honour, and so they raise the cry, "Prepare the way!" as in Isa. 40:3, and as the Baptist did when he saw the King of the kingdom at hand. His name "Jah," יהּ expresses the fulness of being and perfection; and Horsley would fain add beauty too.

In verse 5, Israel's helpless case in Egypt, Earth's helpless case since the Fall, the sinner's state, "without strength," may all be found here. The "widow's judge," implies his managing and ruling the affairs of such as have no other to interpose, like as Gideon, or any judge of Israel, put in order a disordered county, and bore the burden of its cares. And does not Jas. 1:21 refer to this verse, for we have "the fatherless," "the widow" and then the "holiness," of the God we serve?

In verse 8 the ratifying of the covenant at Sinai, in circumstances of awful grandeur, is the theme; and verse 9 speaks of the "rain of gifts" (Hengst.) that attended Israel all through the Desert—manna, quails, water from the rock—when God's heritage pitched their tents on the flinty and scorched soil of that weary wilderness.

Then, in verse 10, the host of Israel "settle down on It," i. e., the well-known, ever-in-view Land of Promise. The Lord "gave the word"—(as in Psa. 105:19)—as if at every step there had been repeated, like Joshua 6:16, "Shout, for the Lord has given you the land!" and responding multitudes, even of the women of Israel, proclaim the victory, and sing, as did Miriam at the Red Sea,

"Kings of armies flee! they flee!

And she that tarries at home divides the spoil." (Ver. 12.)

So easily does Jehovah conquer! And now, "Ye lie down amid the borders, and are as doves;" or rather, they who were "lying among the pots" are now like the dove that has washed itself in the streams, and is basking in the sun whose bright beams glance on its feathers with the sheen of silver and gold. Yes, it was easy for Jehovah to scatter kings. "There was snow on Zalmon." They fell before him as snow disappears among the thick-wooded heights of Zalmon (Judg. 9:48) in the day of tempest.*

Israel now at rest, where is the Ark of the Covenant? Not on Bashan, i. e., the range of Antilibanus, though that was a "hill of God," such a hill as reminded one of the power of Him who setteth fast the hills by his might (Hengst.)—nor yet on other lofty hills such as Tabor, Lebanon, or Carmel. The more lowly Zion is selected, and thither the sovereign Lord comes with all his hosts. There he resides, as in a pavilion—in that Holy of Holies which combines the manifestation of justice and mercy at the mercy-seat—for "Sinai is in the sanctuary" (סִנַי בַקּדשֶׁ). He is as much present here as when the law was given on Sinai. There, though unseen except by the eye of faith, he reigns, more mighty in his angelic heavenly hosts than ever was king with his chariots, so that Israel need no more fear a Jabin with his nine hundred chariots of iron (Judg. 4:2). An anointed eye, (like his in 2 Kings 6:27,) might see these hosts in Israel's land at any moment, under the rule of Israel's king.

Ascended to Zion, no more wandering from place to place, the Ark is the centre of blessing to Israel—there worshippers get gifts; there daily benefits are dispensed. And in this was typified the Saviour, no more a wanderer on earth from place to place, seated at the Father's right hand, and showering down his gifts on man—the antitype infinitely greater than the type, and his gifts infinitely more spiritual and plentiful (Eph. 3:8). Here is (ver. 7) a "Selah," the mark of solemn thought; for herein is a great mystery of love (ver. 19). The words are literally rendered, "Thou hast received gifts among men." Here is a constr. prægn. for "received, and, given out among men (Eph. 4:18), even among the rebels." And then follows, "At the tabernacling of Jah Elohim" (as ver. 16), that is, at the time when he pitched his tabernacle. But, there is reference. 1. To the type on Zion; 2. To the days of his First Coming; 3. To the still future Tabernacling, Rev. 21:3.

But again let the harp sing of Him who is thus exalted, mighty to save, and mighty to overcome his enemies. Jehovah is "God of our salvation," and "Selah" calls on us to ponder. Then it is repeated,

"The God (of Israel) is God to us, as to salvations. (לְמוֹשׂעוֹת)

And to Jehovah belong the issues, as to the death" (לָמָּוֶת). (Ver. 21.)

He dashes his foes in pieces, cleaving their hairy scalp from the head from which the helmet has been struck off. Yes, says the Lord,

"I will turn him (the foe) back from Bashan,

I will turn him back from the depths of the sea." (Ver. 22.)

Though they were to make lofty Bashan their fortress, or hide in the caverns of the deep. (See Amos 7:3; Obad. 4.)

But all is not yet over. The Ark moves again! It moves to Moriah—to Solomon's temple. Then see the royal procession (ver. 24), and hear the songs of happy thousands under the reign of that Prince of Peace—

"Bless ye God in the congregations,

The Lord (in the congregations that are), from the fountain of Israel."

There the gathered tribes are seen; the south sends Benjamin, once "their ruler," (as it sent Saul, 1 Sam. 14:7, and so became the conquering tribe) and Judah, their prince, or perhaps "their bulwark."* The north is represented by Zebulon and Naphtali. Thus God has provided strength to them. And Gentiles, too, are there (ver. 29). What a type of the latter days, when the true Solomon, Prince of Peace, has come from the Father's right hand to his own throne—from Zion to Moriah! Then, more fully than in the first Solomon's days, it will be sung:—

"He has rebuked the Beast of the Reed,

(The hippopotamus, who, like leviathan, is the type of Antichrist.)

The assembly of mighty ones (bulls, Psa. 22:12),

With calves of the nations." (Ver. 30.)

These mighty kings and their subjects—bulls and calves—with their leader, are rebuked and destroyed; and along with these, the mammon-worshipper, "who crouches with pieces of silver;" or rather,

"He that prostrates himself on pieces of silver."

The nations that delight in war are scattered, for it is the reign of the Prince of Peace. Egypt sends princes to Zion, and Ethiopia hastens to submit to God. And thus we are led on to the closing strain—the shout of joy over earth now delivered and put under Jehovah's sway—

"Ye kingdoms of earth, sing ye to God!

Chant ye to the Lord!

Who rideth in the heaven of ancient heaven" (שְׁמֵי קֶדֶם),

(i. e., Who claims as his domain the inmost recess of the eternal heaven.)

"Lo! he uttereth a mighty voice when he speaketh." (Ver. 33.)

He calls on the universe for praise in verse 34. But even in that universal hallelujah there is prominence given to Israel—"His majesty is over Israel" (ver. 34), as if Israel's land were the spot of the universe where his manifested glory is to be seen in its peculiar radiance—

"God of Israel! thou are a terrible God from thy holy places!" (Ver. 35.)

"Giving strength and might to the (peculiar) people! Blessed be God!"

Let every soul cry, "Blessed be God!" Let that be the heart-cry of earth for evermore. And let it not fail to be ours, while we trace in such a record as this,

Messiah's leadings of Israel and the Church from the Wilderness into final Rest.

PSALM 69

1–36 A deeply plaintive song. It is seven times quoted (and no other Psalm is so often quoted) in the New Testament as the utterance of Messiah. Why it is said to be "On Shoshannim," we cannot tell, till we know more of what that instrument was. It seems to speak of joy; and if so, it suits this Psalm so far that in it sorrow ends in joy.

The plan of it is very simple. There are three parts.

I. From verse 1–21, Messiah's sufferings are related by himself. What an embodiment of "prodigious passion" in the cry "Save me" (ver. 1), from the lips of the Saviour! Under the sea of wrath, sinking in the slime at the very bottom of this prisoner's dungeon (see Jer. 38:6), Messiah's voice is heard ascending to the Father. The "slime and mire" represent the loathing he felt toward sin. He is weary with crying, for in his true, real humanity he has all the experience of one in pain, who, during the slow, heavy hours of darkness and suffering, feels as if it were never to end. He is spent with calling on his God; he is unsympathised with, for foes are on every side, and all this at the very time when he is not taking from them, but restoring the blessings which they had forfeited. (Ver. 4.) As to the folly and the trespass imputed to him, he lays it before God—

"Lord, thou knowest AS TO my folly" (לְאִוַּלְתִי)

Thou knowest the history of the folly and sin laid to my charge, and why I stand charged therewith. He appeals to him as able to help, for he is "God of hosts," and proved to be willing, for he is "God of Israel" (ver. 6). While it is out of love to man that he suffers, it is also to glorify God (ver. 7), "for thy sake." He "weeps away his soul with fasting" (ver. 10), for the good of men, and yet they mock at him. He pours his sorrows into the bosom of his God (ver. 13), at a time when (perhaps in Nazareth) he was "the song of the drunkard," i. e., the נְגִינוֹת satire (Ges.), as Job 30:9, Lam, 3:14.

"They who sat in the gate talk at me;

And the songs of drunkards (do the same),"

"As for me, I pray to thee, O Jehovah."

And then he adds (though the punctuation in our version gives the sense differently), in a passage which Isaiah 49:8 seems to refer to—

"O God, in an acceptable time (i. e., a time when thou art favourable),

In the multitude of thy mercy, in the truth of thy salvation,

Answer me!"

Hear and answer me when thou seest fit, when thou art well-pleased. Let there be a time of acceptance. Jehovah, in Isa. 49:8, replies to this cry—"In an acceptable time I have heard thee"—well pleased with thy work, I give thee all thy desire. The cry at verses 14–16 is parallel to Heb. 5:7, and the complaint of want of sympathy (ver. 20) reminds us how even his three favoured disciples fell asleep during his agony; for here he seeks comforters with the cross in view (ver. 21). True, his whole life might be said to be a life in which he fed on gall, and drank vinegar, grief and bitterness being the everyday portion of the Man of Sorrows—still, the chief reference is to his life's closing scene, the scene of Calvary. And hence, immediately after this, the strain changes, and we find ourselves in another scene. He has finished his work; and they who crucified Him have gone away unmoved.

II. From ver. 22–28, the theme is, how these sufferings of Messiah become the "savour of death" to the unbelieving. It resembles Prov. 1:22, 23. He gives them up, saying, "Let their table become a snare to them," since they give the Beloved Son only gall and vinegar, "and for a recompence and for a trap."—(So Mendelssohn apud Phillips, and many others; and so Rom. 11:9). Ruin overtakes them at unthought-of moments, like 1 Kings 13:20, in the case of the disobedient prophet; and their "habitation is desolate," as Matt. 23:38 emphatically threatens.* The cup of iniquity is filling up, drop by drop, and Messiah does not interfere, but on the contrary, says to Him who records it in his book, "Add iniquity to iniquity, and let them never be justified." Such is the "savour of death." Instead of "Come to me!" it is now, "Let them not come!"

III. From ver. 29–36, the theme is, "the savour of life" from Messiah's sufferings. Himself is delivered and glorified, accepted of Jehovah as full type of, or fulfiller of every sacrifice of clean animals, "ox, and horned bullock with cloven hoof," (ver. 31). The sinner who ceases from self, "the humble," finds herein his source of joy, his acceptance with God. Men everywhere over all the earth may thus be blessed in him; and heaven and earth rejoice over the consummation. Israel, who once rejected him, shall then be his, proving that he can soften the most hardened, and pardon the most guilty. Such, then, is this Psalm—

Messiah's manifold sufferings a savour of death to the Unbelieving, and of life to the Believing.

PSALM 70

1–5 IT has been said by some that this Psalm is a prayer upon the 69th. It may be so taken. The title seems to mean, a Psalm "to put God in mind"—Messiah himself being the chief of God's Remembrancers. Compare this לְהַזְכִיר with Isa. 62:6, where they who pray unceasingly are called הַמַּוְכיִריִם אֵת יְהֹוָה The words are adopted from Psalm 40:13.

We have in verse 1, the cry; in verses 2, 3, a reason for the cry being heard, viz the guilt of his foes; in verse 4, another reason for the same, viz. the benefit of those that love the Lord; in verse 5, a third reason, viz. his own claims on God for deliverance from this state of humiliation and sorrow. And thus the cry rises up to heaven on the wings of three strong arguments certain to be answered in "The Glory that was to follow," implied in the "help."

It is such a Psalm as every member of the Church has often had occasion to use, in sympathy with David, and in which he is sympathised with by the Son of David, whether asking present help or hastening to the day of his Coming, which brings full help and deliverance—"Tarry not!" But still, it is most of all Messiah whose voice is heard here. It might be called, in reference to Heb. 5:7,

One of the Righteous One's strong cries for speedy help.

PSALM 71

1–24 The Third Part of the Book of Psalms (according to the Jewish division) begins, not inappropriately, with a plaintive yet pleasant song for the time of our sojourning here, embracing both prospect and retrospect Our Head could sing it too, when in all our affliction he was afflicted. It will be asked, however, how Christ could use such verses as verses 9 and 18, since these look forward apparently to the frailty of age. The reply to this felt difficulty is, that these expressions are used by him in sympathy with his members, and in his own case denote the state equivalent to age. His old age was ere he reached three-and-thirty years, as John 8:57 is supposed to imply; for "wornout men live fast" Barclay seems to give the right sense in the following lines;—

"Grown old and weak with pain and grief

Before his years were half complete.*

Besides, the words signify, "Forsake me not from this time onward, even were I to live to grey hairs" This is a view that conveys precious consolation to aged ones, who might be ready to say that Christ could not altogether enter into their feelings, having never experienced the failing weakness of age, the debility, the decay, the bodily infirmities so trying to the spirit. But this Psalm shews us that in effect he did pass through that stage of our sojourning, worn out and wasted in bodily frame and feeling, by living so much in so short a time. The aged members of his Church may find his sweet sympathy breathed out in Isaiah 46:3, 4; and here they may almost see him learning the lesson in a human way, as he bends under the weight of our frailties. For this reason, among others, this psalm was specially prized by Robert Blair, one of our godly forefathers. He used to call it "His psalm."

Such expressions as verse 6, "continually" verse 8, "all the day," verse 15, "all the day," may be illustrated by Augustine's comment:—"In prosperis, quia consolaris; in adversis, quia corrigis; antequam essem, quia fecisti; quum essem, quia salutem dedisti: quum peccâssem, quia ignovisti, quum conversus essem, quia adjuvisti: quum perseverâssem, quia coronâsti."

The plan of the Psalm is interesting, We have, from verses 1–4, prayer; verses 5–8, motives for confidence; verses 9–13, prayer; verses 14–17, confidence expressed; verse 18, prayer; verse 19 to end, confidence largely declared.

In verse 7, "wonder" is q. d., a monster, a prodigious sight.

We are to understand verse 16 a little differently from our version. It may read thus (as 66:13)—

"I will go forward, (thinking) upon the mighty deeds of the Lord Jehovah.

I will celebrate thy righteousness (in working these mighty deeds); Thee alone!"

Giving no glory to human skill and valour (Psalm 44:3), and finding in Jehovah himself alone a sufficient theme for praise, the Head and every member journeys on. His trust and theirs look to the power, and wisdom, and love of him who guides the vessel, not boasting of the frail vessel's strength to buffet the billows of a tempest-lashed ocean.

There are precious glimpses given us of Messiah's childhood in verses 5, 6, 17, when we listen to this Psalm as sung by his lips. And then in the close, from verse 20 to 24, resurrection-deliverance is the theme. The Head has enjoyed all that he anticipated; the members as surely will. Do we not see (verses 22–24) the ransomed company—the hundred and forty-four thousand with the Lamb—on Mount Zion, and hear the harpers harping with their harps in that day's unclouded bliss?

"I, too (as well as angels), praise thee with the psaltery,

Thy truth, O God!

I chant thee with the harp,

O Holy One of Israel!

My lips rejoice when I sing of thee,

And my soul which thou hast redeemed.

Yea, my tongue (as well as that of angels) all the day speaketh of thy righteousness (see verse 16):

For put to shame, sunk in confusion, are they who sought my hurt!"

Antichrist and all foes are for ever ruined; Christ and his Church triumph and reign. This is the anticipation that leads to these closing strains of rapturous exultation.

We may refer to Hebrews 3:6, as suggesting the substance of the whole Psalm; for what else is it than

The Righteous One's confidence of hope to the end?

PSALM 72

1–20 As ל in all the other titles expresses the order, the title, לִשְׁלֹמֹה is by many (such as Rosenmuller, Tholuck, Hengstenberg) rendered, "A Psalm of Solomon." But what then of verse 20? It seems to leave just one alternative;—the Psalm is not David's directly (uttered, as some think, in connection with 2 Sam. 23:1–5), but it must be David's indirectly; dictated to Solomon, and given forth by Solomon, who received it at David's lips for this end, and who says in the end, that his father's prayer will all be completely answered when this scene is realised. It would not ill suit the events of 1 Kings 1, and it may be that the Holy Spirit gave this song to David's harp, as he resigned it to Solomon along with his crown, on occasion of his coronation in the valley of Gihon, so near the Upper Pool where Isaiah afterwards stood foretelling the birth of Immanuel, the true Solomon.

In verse 1 the subjects pray for their King, the Church for her Head, as in Psa. 20. They ask that their anointed King, who is the Son of the King of kings,* may be sent forth to govern them. They ask this by requesting that all regal authority may be entrusted to him, and all regal qualifications imparted. They are referring, in this request, to the Lord's revealed will, to his decree given forth in Psa. 2:6, 7, 8. It is as if they said,

"Put thy statute-book into the hands of Him who is our King;

Clothe Him, thine own Son, with righteousness, that royal robe!"

At the same time, it may be the Psalmist himself praying—David for Solomon, Messiah for himself. And then follows the glowing picture of anticipated blessedness, when this king begins his reign of righteousness. Israel's poets and prophets know of no golden age of which the very centre and life is not Messiah, God incarnate. Restored paradise has streams; Messiah is their fountain-head. Restored paradise must have an Adam that cannot fall, that its scenes may never suffer blight, nor its bowers be invaded by the old serpent the devil. Dr Allix rightly speaks of this Psalm being that of "The Church and synagogue concerning the glorious kingdom of Messiah at his Second Coming" How intensely tranquil, and yet intensely glowing, are all the scenes! If it be true that the mediaeval hymn, "Dies iræ, dies illa," (a hymn of man's composition), has exerted a solemnising and overawing influence upon thousands in whose ears it has been sung, should not this glorious burst of song leave its never-effaced impressions of noon-bright hope, soon to be realised, on every saint who has a heart to feel?

The hills and mountains (ver. 3) prominent in Israel's land, the hills and mountains, too, of earth at large, generally so barren, hills and mountains on which the feet of other messengers have often stood (Isa. 40:9), but never any messengers so blest as those that visit them now—these hills and mountains display the signs of peace, viz., abundant produce, "because of righteousness"—because the Righteous One has come to dwell in this New Earth. Antichrist and all oppressors are overthrown (ver. 4); earth's thick-peopled regions fear Him, and shall go on fearing him in peace, so long as sun and moon remain, that sun and moon which at creation's dawn were appointed to light up earth and guide men to keep holy festivals to the Lord, (Gen. 1:14). The Lord Jesus is there. Like "plenty-dropping showers" that reach the very roots of the mown grass (ver. 6), so is He to the earth after it has been shorn by the scythe of war, and every form of ruin and wrath. He revives it, as summer's genial rains cause grass to spring up in new vigour, clothing the soil with a richer and thicker mantle of verdure than before—as Layard* tells us how in the season of spring the dusty soil of Mesopotamia will change its aspect, in one night the tame plains turning to a bright scarlet, or to deepest blue through the burst of flowers, while the meadows put on the emerald green of the most luxuriant pastures, causing even the wild Bedouin, as he riots in the rich herbage and scented air, to exclaim, "What delight has God given us equal to this!"

The wealth of opposite nations, Sheba and Seba (Meroe and Arabia), is consecrated to Him, as they bring "gifts" (ver. 10), or tribute, 2 Kings 3:4.

"The swart Sabeans and Panchaia's king

Shall cassia, myrrh, and sacred incense bring;

All kings shall homage to The King afford;

All nations shall receive him for their Lord." (Sandys.)

He is the true Job (see 29:12) who delivers the poor (ver. 12); "he looks with pity upon" (Fry), or "sympathises with" (Horsley), the poor and needy (ver. 13). He redeems them from Satan's craft and cruelty, from Satan as the serpent, and Satan as the lion, "from deceit and from violence."

We agree with Keble's hint in his metrical version of this book, that verse 15 refers to the well-known salutation offered to kings, "O king, live for ever." It runs thus—

"Yes, let him live!

And the gold of Sheba be given him!

And let him pray for every one continually."

The pronoun of the third person וֹ is used to express "every one," viz., every one of his subjects. They adore him and worship; he intercedes and acts as mediator to them for ever.

And what sights of strange fertility and beauty shall be seen, as indicated by verse 16! corn to the summit of the hills rustling like cedar boughs on Lebanon; while The City, the metropolis (Psa. 87), flourishes in population like the numberless blades of grass, all holy, all praising their King, presenting the spectacle of a model-city to the world.

And now is fulfilled to the utmost the promise made to Abraham, "in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18), so oft repeated; for Messiah's name (ver. 17) "produces posterity." i. e., renovates itself, acquiring fresh vigour, "for ever" (Hengst). All nations are blessed in him, and all call him blessed.

Sing, then, as verses 18, 19, sing with heart and voice for evermore—

"Blessed be Jehovah!

God (without a rival), God of Israel!

Who alone (needing no help of any) doeth wondrous works.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever and ever!

Yea, let the whole earth be filled with his glory!

Amen, and amen!"

The prospect of this consummation fills the heart of the Sweet Singer of Israel; it leaves him nothing more to wish for. He has reached the height and summit of desire and hope. Perhaps the last words of verse 19 should be joined to verse 20, and run thus—

וְאָמן כָּלוּ תפלּוֹת

דָּוִד בֶּן־יִשָׁי

The "Amen" of the whole Psalm falls on his ear from his own harp strings, and he catches it up and repeats it thus—"Yea, amen! the prayers are ended of David the son of Jesse."

"So let it be! Thy will on earth now done,

No more to seek has David, Jesse's son."

And thus it is that an individual's own peculiar desires shall all be satisfied in that kingdom, satisfied because absorbed in the flood of bliss. Who is there that ever takes up the former Psalm or the next, wearied, faint-hearted, and desponding? Look forward and see here

The Righteous One's hopes realised in the glory of the kingdom.

PSALM 73

1–28 A SORT of historical series begins here, relating to Israel's position in the world (73), to their temple (74), their land (75), God's deeds therein (76, 77), God's dealings in days past (78), Israel's desolation (79), and prayer regarding the same (80).

"A Psalm of Asaph;" perhaps one of those specially sung by Hezekiah's appointment at the altar (2 Chron. 29:30): and what more fit to be sung there when the ascending smoke and poured-out blood declared in type Jehovah's unspeakable gift, and so seemed to say, "Yes, God is good to Israel!" (2 Chron. 5:13)

How well it follows the last Psalm! As if Asaph had been singing it, and thereupon had felt all his surmises and faithless fears dissipated by the triumphant prospects held out there to the people of Messiah. It is a Psalm, not about Messiah himself, but about "his people" (ver. 10), about "Israel" (ver. 1); about the members, not the Head. It is uttered in the presence of the Head; but it tells how its members have often been nearly "offended in Him" (Luke 7:23). Had Asaph lived in Herod's day, such suspicious surmises as are expressed in verses 3–9 might have been raised in his soul, by seeing the Baptist first in the dungeon, and then in the tomb, while Herod ruled and rioted in luxury. Horsley remarks on the first word אַך, "It expresses the state of mind of a person meditating a difficult question, in which he is much interested and can hardly come to a conclusion."

Verse 4 should be rendered—"There are no death-bands to them" (Horsley); "they are never fettered with death" (Hengst), i. e., there are no death-bringing circumstances in their lot. They escape the annoyances and reproaches which God's people meet with (see 1 Cor. 10:13); their "pride" is their "ornamental chain" (ver. 6), and (ver. 7) "the imagination of their hearts overflows"—that is, speaks out, or vents itself;

"They speak of oppression from on high" (ver. 9) (Hengst);

as if they were out of reach of danger, aloft on their rock; or as old Sandys renders the line, "They speak like thunder from the troubled sky." Hence,

"His people return hither" (ver. 10);

i. e., God's people return to the state of mind described in verse 2, or to this sight which causes the unbelieving surmises. To quote Sandys again, as giving the right sense—

"The good not seldom, through their scandal, stray."

How like a desponding man's words is verse 12, "Yet they prosper for ever," or more literally, "They are everlasting prosperers!" But now, the likelihood of giving occasion to others to stumble crosses his mind; and forthwith the same Spirit who suggested that consideration, leads Asaph in his thoughts (as some understand the words of verse 17) to the sanctuary. Standing there, the very thought of the Holy One on his Throne is enough to remind him of what must be the end of these ungodly ones; but more especially is the remembrance that there is a resurrection day—a day when God will arise and scatter these dreams of earthly felicity (ver. 20).

"O Lord, when thou awakest, (see Psa. 17:15) thou wilt despise their splendid show,

As one does a dream, when he awakes out of it!"

Telling his grief and shame because of such unbelief, confessing himself a beast* or brute, he yet returns to sing that, notwithstanding all this, God has not forsaken him, and never will—

"And I continually am with thee!

And thou holdest me fast by my right hand."† (Ver. 23.)

I am in the wilderness, and thou art my guide, and wilt "receive me," as thou didst Enoch (Gen. 5:22, same word). The Hebrew words are rather obscure, but this may be because of the ideas rushing through the mind of the Psalmist, so various and so fast. They are literally rendered thus—

"Thou wilt lead me by thy counsel.

And afterwards, glory! Thou wilt receive me!"

Not unlike Psa. 49:6—"God shall redeem my soul from the grave" (equivalent to "afterwards glory!") "for he shall receive me."

Thus God is "the rock of my heart;" my heart rests on him as on a solid basis. All foes, and all prosperous wicked men, are from this point seen as ruined. No wonder. For has glory come? has the glory of the kingdom dawned on us? has the Lord himself welcomed us in? has he given us a place beside himself? Then, from this height we look down and see the impotency and ruin of Antichrist and all such opposers of God, "who go a-whoring from thee." (Comp. Rev. 17:5, "mother of harlots.") Meanwhile we draw near to God, reenter paradise, enjoy our lost fellowship; and our great employment is to praise Him, all clouds of providence being now cleared away, and no more unbelief to hinder our "telling of all his works."

The tone of this Psalm, especially of the latter part, is that of James 5:7, 8—"Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." The prevailing topic may be said to be,

"Messiah's people almost offended in Him."

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