{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42445/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42445","id":"gutenberg_42445","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42445","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE\n\n\n\n EDITED BY THE REV.\n SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n _Editor of \"The Expositor,\" etc._\n\n\n\n THE PSALMS\n\n BY\n\n A. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n\n _VOLUME 1._\n\n PSALMS I.--XXXVIII.\n\n\n\n\n\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO\n\n\n\n\n THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.\n\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._\n\n\n FIRST SERIES.\n\n Colossians.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D., D.Lit.\n\n St. Mark.\n By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n Genesis.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n 1 Samuel.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n 2 Samuel.\n By the same Author.\n\n Hebrews.\n By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\n SECOND SERIES.\n\n Galatians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n The Pastoral Epistles.\n By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Isaiah I.--XXXIX.\n By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Book of Revelation.\n By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n 1 Corinthians.\n By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n The Epistles of St. John.\n By the Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.\n\n THIRD SERIES.\n\n Judges and Ruth.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Jeremiah.\n By the Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n\n Isaiah XL.--LXVI.\n By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n St. Matthew.\n By the Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n Exodus.\n By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n St. Luke.\n By the Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.\n\n FOURTH SERIES.\n\n Ecclesiastes.\n By the Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n St. James and St. Jude.\n By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Proverbs.\n By the Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.\n\n Leviticus.\n By the Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n FIFTH SERIES.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n 1 and 2 Thessalonians.\n By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n The Book of Job.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n Ephesians.\n By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n SIXTH SERIES.\n\n 1 Kings.\n By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n\n Philippians.\n By Principal RAINY, D.D.\n\n Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n Joshua.\n By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Epistles of St. Peter.\n By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\n SEVENTH SERIES.\n\n 2 Kings.\n By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR. F.R.S.\n\n Romans.\n By the Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D.\n\n The Books of Chronicles.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, D.D., D.Lit.\n\n 2 Corinthians.\n By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n Numbers.\n By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.\n\n EIGHTH SERIES.\n\n Daniel.\n By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n\n The Book of Jeremiah.\n By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, D.D., D.Lit.\n\n Deuteronomy.\n By Prof. ANDREW HARPER, B.D.\n\n The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.\n By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n Ezekiel.\n By Prof. JOHN SKINNER, M.A.\n\n The Books of the Twelve Prophets.\n By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Two Vols.\n\n\n\n\n THE PSALMS\n\n\n\n\n BY\n A. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n\n\n\n\n _VOLUME 1._\n PSALMS I.--XXXVIII.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n\n LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO\n\n\n\n\n _Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE.\n\n\nA volume which appears in \"The Expositor's Bible\" should obviously,\nfirst of all, be expository. I have tried to conform to that\nrequirement, and have therefore found it necessary to leave questions\nof date and authorship all but untouched. They could not be adequately\ndiscussed in conjunction with Exposition. I venture to think that the\ndeepest and most precious elements in the Psalms are very slightly\naffected by the answers to these questions, and that expository\ntreatment of the bulk of the Psalter may be separated from critical,\nwithout condemning the former to incompleteness. If I have erred in\nthus restricting the scope of this volume, I have done so after due\nconsideration; and am not without hope that the restriction may\ncommend itself to some readers.\n\n A. McL.\n\n MANCHESTER, _Dec._ 1892.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS.\n\n\n PAGE\n\n PSALM I. 1\n\n \" II. 11\n\n \" III. 23\n\n \" IV. 30\n\n \" V. 37\n\n \" VI. 49\n\n \" VII. 57\n\n \" VIII. 68\n\n \" IX. 77\n\n \" X. 89\n\n \" XI. 101\n\n \" XII. 109\n\n \" XIII. 117\n\n \" XIV. 123\n\n \" XV. 132\n\n \" XVI. 140\n\n \" XVII. 150\n\n \" XVIII. 163\n\n \" XIX. 186\n\n \" XX. 195\n\n \" XXI. 201\n\n \" XXII. 208\n\n \" XXIII. 226\n\n \" XXIV. 233\n\n \" XXV. 240\n\n \" XXVI. 251\n\n \" XXVII. 258\n\n \" XXVIII. 268\n\n \" XXIX. 273\n\n \" XXX. 280\n\n \" XXXI. 289\n\n \" XXXII. 302\n\n \" XXXIII. 311\n\n \" XXXIV. 320\n\n \" XXXV. 332\n\n \" XXXVI. 344\n\n \" XXXVII. 356\n\n \" XXXVIII. 375\n\n\n\n\n PSALM I.\n\n 1 Happy the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked,\n And has not stood in the way of sinners,\n And in the session of scorners has not sat.\n 2 But in the law of Jehovah [is] his delight,\n And in His law he meditates day and night.\n 3 And he is like a tree planted by the runnels of water,\n Which yields its fruit in its season,\n And whose leafage does not fade,\n And all which he does he prosperously accomplishes.\n\n 4 Not so are the wicked,\n But like chaff which the wind drives away.\n 5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment,\n Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.\n 6 For Jehovah knows the righteous,\n And the way of the wicked shall perish.\n\n\nThe Psalter may be regarded as the heart's echo to the speech of God,\nthe manifold music of its wind-swept strings as God's breath sweeps\nacross them. Law and Prophecy are the two main elements of that speech,\nand the first two psalms, as a double prelude to the book, answer to\nthese, the former setting forth the blessedness of loving and keeping\nthe law, and the latter celebrating the enthronement of Messiah. Jewish\ntradition says that they were originally one, and a well-attested\nreading of Acts xiii. 33 quotes \"Thou art my Son\" as part of \"the first\nPsalm.\" The diversity of subject makes original unity improbable, but\npossibly our present first Psalm was prefixed, unnumbered.\n\nIts theme, the blessedness of keeping the law, is enforced by the\njuxtaposition of two sharply contrasted pictures, one in bright light,\nanother in deep shadow, and each heightening the other. Ebal and\nGerizim face one another.\n\nThe character and fate of the lover of the law are sketched in vv.\n1-3, and that of the \"wicked\" in vv. 4-6.\n\n\"How abundantly is that word Blessed multiplied in the Book of Psalms!\nThe book seems to be made out of that word, and the foundation raised\nupon that word, for it is the first word of the book. But in all the\nbook there is not one Woe\" (Donne).\n\nIt is usually taken as an exclamation, but may equally well be a\nsimple affirmation, and declares a universal truth even more strongly,\nif so regarded. The characteristics which thus bring blessedness are\nfirst described negatively, and that order is significant. As long as\nthere is so much evil in the world, and society is what it is,\ngodliness must be largely negative, and its possessors \"a people whose\nlaws are different from all people that be on earth.\" Live fish swim\nagainst the stream; dead ones go with it.\n\nThe tender graces of the devout soul will not flourish unless there be\na wall of close-knit and unparticipating opposition round them, to\nkeep off nipping blasts. The negative clauses present a climax,\nnotwithstanding the unquestionable correctness of one of the grounds\non which that has been denied--namely, the practical equivalence of\n\"wicked\" and \"sinner.\"\n\nIncreasing closeness and permanence of association are obvious in the\nprogress from _walking_ to _standing_ and from standing to _sitting_.\nIncreasing boldness in evil is marked by the progress from _counsel_\nto _way_, or course of life, and thence to _scoffing_. Evil purposes\ncome out in deeds, and deeds are formularised at last in bitter\nspeech. Some men scoff because they have already sinned. The tongue is\nblackened and made sore by poison in the system. Therefore goodness\nwill avoid the smallest conformity with evil, as knowing that if the\nhem of the dress or the tips of the hair be caught in the cruel\nwheels, the whole body will be drawn in. But these negative\ncharacteristics are valuable mainly for their efficacy in contributing\nto the positive, as the wall round a young plantation is there for the\nsake of what grows behind it. On the other hand, these positive\ncharacteristics, and eminently that chief one of a higher love, are\nthe only basis for useful abstinence. Mere conventional, negative\nvirtue is of little power or worth unless it flow from a strong set of\nthe soul in another direction.\n\n\"So did not I\" is good and noble when we can go on to say, as Nehemiah\ndid, \"because of the fear of God.\" The true way of floating rubbish\nout is to pour water in. Delight in the law will deliver from delight\nin the counsel of the wicked. As the negative, so the positive begins\nwith the inward man. The main thing about all men is the direction of\ntheir \"delight.\" Where do tastes run? what pleases them most? and\nwhere are they most at ease? Deeds will follow the current of desires,\nand be right if the hidden man of the heart be right. To the psalmist,\nthat law was revealed by Pentateuch and prophets; but the delight in\nit, in which he recognises the germ of godliness, is the coincidence\nof will and inclination with the declared will of God, however\ndeclared. In effect, he reduces perfection to the same elements as the\nother psalmist who sang, \"I delight to do Thy will, yea, Thy law is\nwithin my heart.\" The secret of blessedness is self-renunciation,--\n\n \"A love to lose my will in His,\n And by that loss be free.\"\n\nThoughts which are sweet will be familiar.\n\nThe command to Joshua is the instinct of the devout man. In the\ndistractions and activities of the busy day the law beloved will be\nwith him, illuminating his path and shaping his acts. In hours of rest\nit will solace weariness and renew strength. That habit of patient,\nprotracted brooding on the revelation of God's will needs to be\ncultivated. Men live meanly because they live so fast. Religion lacks\ndepth and volume because it is not fed by hidden springs.\n\nThe good man's character being thus all condensed into one trait, the\npsalm next gathers his blessedness up in one image. The tree is an\neloquent figure to Orientals, who knew water as the one requisite to\nturn desert into garden. Such a life as has been sketched will be\nrooted and steadfast. \"Planted\" is expressed by a word which suggests\nfixity. The good man's life is deeply anchored, and so rides out\nstorms. It goes down through superficial fleeting things to that\nEternal Will, and so stands unmoved and upright when winds howl.\nScotch firs lift massive, corrugated boles, and thrust out wide,\ngnarled branches clothed in steadfast green, and look as if they could\nface any tempest, but their roots run laterally among the surface\ngravel, and therefore they go down before blasts which feeble\nsaplings, that strike theirs vertically, meet unharmed.\n\nSuch a life is fed and refreshed. The law of the Lord is at once soil\nand stream. In the one aspect fastening a life to it gives stability;\nin the other, freshening and means of growth. Truly loved, that Will\nbecomes, in its manifold expressions, as the divided irrigation\nchannels through which a great river is brought to the roots of each\nplant. If men do not find it life-giving as rivers of water in a dry\nplace, it is because they do not delight in it. Opposed, it is\nburdensome and harsh; accepted, this sweet image tells what it\nbecomes--the true good, the only thing that really nourishes and\nreinvigorates. The disciples came back to Jesus, whom they had left\ntoo wearied and faint to go with them to the city, and found Him fresh\nand strong. Their wonder was answered by, \"My meat is to do the will\nof Him that sent me.\"\n\nSuch a life is vigorous and productive. It would be artificial\nstraining to assign definite meanings to \"fruit\" and \"leaf.\" All that\nbelongs to vigorous vitality and beauty is included. These come\nnaturally when the preceding condition is fulfilled. This stage of the\npsalm is the appropriate place for deeds to come into view. By loving\nfellowship with God and delight in His law the man is made capable of\ngood. His virtues are growths, the outcome of life. The psalm\nanticipates Christ's teaching of the good tree bringing forth good\nfruit, and also tells how His precept of making the tree good is to be\nobeyed--namely, by transplanting it from the soil of self-will to that\nof delight in the law. How that transplanting is to be effected it\ndoes not tell. \"But now being made free from sin, and become servants\nof God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,\" and the fruit of the Spirit\nin \"whatsoever things are lovely and of good report\" hangs in clusters\non the life that has been shifted from the realm of darkness and\nrooted in Christ. The relation is more intimate still. \"I am the vine,\nye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same\nbeareth much fruit.\"\n\nSuch a life will be prosperous. The figure is abandoned here. The\nmeaning is not affected whether we translate \"whatsoever he doeth\nshall prosper,\" or \"whatsoever ... he shall cause to succeed.\" That is\nnot unconditionally true now, nor was it then, if referred to what the\nworld calls prospering, as many a sad and questioning strain in the\nPsalter proves. He whose life is rooted in God will have his full\nshare of foiled plans and abortive hopes, and will often see the fruit\nnipped by frost or blown green from the boughs, but still the promise\nis true in its inmost meaning. For what is prosperity? Does the\npsalmist merely mean to preach the more vulgar form of the doctrine\nthat religion makes the best of both worlds? or are his hopes to be\nharmonised with experience, by giving a deeper meaning to\n\"prosperity\"? They to whom the will of God is delight can never be\nhurt by evil, for all that meets them expresses and serves that will,\nand the fellow-servants of the King do not wound one another. If a\nlife be rooted in God and a heart delight in His law, that life will\nbe prosperous and that heart will be at rest.\n\nThe second half of the psalm gives the dark contrast of the fruitless,\nrootless life (vv. 4-6). The Hebrew flashes the whole dread antithesis\non the view at once by its first word, \"Not so,\" a universal negative,\nwhich reverses every part of the preceding picture. \"Wicked\" is\npreferable to \"ungodly,\" as the designation of the subjects. Whether\nwe take the root idea of the word to be \"restless,\" as most of the\nolder and many modern commentators do, or \"crooked\" (Hupfeld), or\n\"loose, flaccid\" (Delitzsch), it is the opposite of \"righteous,\" and\ntherefore means one who lives not by the law of God, but by his own\nwill. The psalmist has no need to describe him further nor to\nenumerate his deeds. The fundamental trait of his character is enough.\nTwo classes only, then, are recognised here. If a man has not God's\nuttered will for his governor, he goes into the category of \"wicked.\"\nThat sounds harsh doctrine, and not corresponding to the innumerable\ngradations of character actually seen. But it does correspond to\nfacts, if they are grasped in their roots of motive and principle. If\nGod be not the supreme delight, and His law sovereign, some other\nobject is men's delight and aim, and that departure from God taints a\nlife, however fair it may be. It is a plain deduction from our\nrelations to God that lives lived irrespective of Him are sinful,\nwhatever be their complexion otherwise.\n\nThe remainder of the psalm has three thoughts--the real nullity of such\nlives, their consequent disappearance in \"the judgment,\" and the ground\nof both the blessedness of the one type of character and the vanishing\nof the other in the diverse attitude of God to each. Nothing could more\nvividly suggest the essential nothingness of the \"wicked\" than the\ncontrast of the leafy beauty of the fruit-laden tree and the chaff,\nrootless, fruitless, lifeless, light, and therefore the sport of every\npuff of wind that blows across the elevated and open threshing floor.\n\nSuch is indeed a true picture of every life not rooted in God and\ndrawing fertility from Him. It is rootless; for what hold-fast is there\nbut in Him? or where shall the heart twine its tendrils if not round\nGod's stable throne? or what basis do fleeting objects supply for him\nwho builds elsewhere than on the enduring Rock? It is fruitless; for\nwhat is fruit? There may be much activity and many results satisfying to\npart of man's nature and admired by others. One fruit there will be, in\ncharacter elaborated. But if we ask what ought to be the products of a\nlife, man and God being what they are in themselves and to each other,\nwe shall not wonder if every result of godless energy is regarded by\n\"those clear eyes and perfect judgment\" of heaven as barrenness. In the\nlight of these higher demands, achievements hymned by the world's\nacclamations seem infinitely small, and many a man, rich in the apparent\nresults of a busy and prosperous life, will find to his dismayed\nastonishment that he has nothing to show but unfruitful works of\ndarkness. Chaff is fruitless because lifeless.\n\nIts disappearance in the winnowing wind is the consequence and\nmanifestation of its essential nullity. \"Therefore\" draws the\nconclusion of necessary transiency. Just as the winnower throws up his\nshovel full into the breeze, and the chaff goes fluttering out of the\nfloor because it is light, while the wheat falls on the heap because\nit is solid, so the wind of judgment will one day blow and deal with\neach man according to his nature. It will separate them, whirling away\nthe one, and not the other. \"One shall be taken and the other left.\"\nWhen does this sifting take effect? The psalmist does not date it.\nThere is a continually operative law of retribution, and there are\ncrises of individual or national life, when the accumulated\nconsequences of evil deeds fall on the doers. But the definite article\nprefixed to \"judgment\" seems to suggest some special \"day\" of\nseparation. It is noteworthy and perhaps illuminative that John the\nBaptist uses the same figures of the tree and the chaff in his picture\nof the Messianic judgments, and that epoch may have been in the\npsalmist's mind. Whatever the date, this he is sure of--that the wind\nwill rise some time, and that, when it does, the wicked will be blown\nout of sight. When the judgment comes, the \"congregation of the\nrighteous\"--that is, the true Israel within Israel, or, to speak in\nChristian language, the true invisible Church--will be freed from\nadmixture of outward adherents, whose lives give the lie to their\nprofession. Men shall be associated according to spiritual affinity,\nand \"being let go,\" will \"go to their own company\" and \"place,\"\nwherever that may be.\n\nThe ground of these diverse fates is the different attitude of God to\neach life. Each clause of the last verse really involves two ideas,\nbut the pregnant brevity of style states only half of the antithesis\nin each, suppressing the second member in the first clause and the\nfirst member in the second clause, and so making the contrast the more\nstriking by emphasising the cause of an unspoken consequence in the\nformer, and the opposite consequence of an unspoken cause in the\nlatter. \"The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous [therefore it shall\nlast]. The Lord knoweth not the way of the wicked [therefore it shall\nperish].\" The way which the Lord knows abides. \"Know\" is, of course,\nhere used in its full sense of loving knowledge, care, and approval,\nas in \"He knoweth my path\" and the like sayings. The direction of the\ngood man's life is watched, guarded, approved, and blessed by God.\nTherefore it will not fail to reach its goal. They who walk patiently\nin the paths which He has prepared will find them paths of peace, and\nwill not tread them unaccompanied, nor ever see them diverging from\nthe straight road to home and rest. \"Commit thy way unto the Lord,\"\nand let His way be thine, and He shall make thy way prosperous.\n\nThe way or course of life which God does not know perishes. A path\nperishes when, like some dim forest track, it dies out, leaving the\ntraveller bewildered amid impenetrable forests, or when, like some\ntreacherous Alpine track among rotten rocks, it crumbles beneath the\ntread. Every course of life but that of the man who delights in and\nkeeps the law of the Lord comes to a fatal end, and leads to the brink\nof a precipice, over which the impetus of descent carries the\nreluctant foot. \"The path of the just is as the shining light, which\nshineth more and more till the noontide of the day. The way of the\nwicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM II.\n\n 1 Why do the nations muster with tumult,\n And the peoples meditate vanity?\n 2 The kings of the earth take up their posts,\n And the chieftains sit in counsel together\n Against Jehovah and against His Anointed.\n 3 \"Let us wrench off their bands,\n And let us fling off from us their cords.\"\n\n 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;\n The Lord mocks at them.\n 5 Then He speaks to them in His anger-wrath,\n And in His wrath-heat puts them in panic.\n 6 ... \"And yet I, I have set my King\n Upon Zion, my holy mountain.\"\n\n 7 I will tell of a decree:\n Jehovah said unto me, My son art thou;\n I have begotten thee this day.\n 8 Ask from me and I will give thee the nations as thine inheritance,\n And as thy possession the ends of the earth.\n 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron,\n Like a potter's vessel shalt thou shatter them.\n\n 10 And now, O kings, be wise;\n Let yourselves be warned, O judges of the earth.\n 11 Serve Jehovah in fear,\n And rejoice in trembling.\n 12 Kiss the Son (?), lest He be angry, and ye perish in [your] way;\n For easily may His wrath kindle.\n Blessed are all who take refuge in Him!\n\n\nVarious unsatisfactory conjectures as to a historical basis for this\nmagnificent lyric have been made, but none succeeds in specifying\nevents which fit with the situation painted in it. The banded enemies\nare rebels, and the revolt is widespread; for the \"kings of the earth\"\nis a very comprehensive, if we may not even say a universal,\nexpression. If taken in connection with the \"uttermost parts of the\nearth\" (ver. 8), which are the King's rightful dominion, it implies a\nsweep of authority and a breadth of opposition quite beyond any\nrecorded facts. Authorship and date must be left undetermined. The\npsalm is anonymous, like Psalm i., and is thereby marked off from the\npsalms which follow in Book I., and with one exception are ascribed to\nDavid. Whether these two preludes to the Psalter were set in their\npresent place on the completion of the whole book, or were prefixed to\nthe smaller \"Davidic\" collection, cannot be settled. The date of\ncomposition may have been much earlier than that of either the smaller\nor the larger collection.\n\nThe true basis of the psalm is not some petty revolt of subject\ntribes, even if such could be adduced, but Nathan's prophecy in 2 Sam.\nvii., which sets forth the dignity and dominion of the King of Israel\nas God's son and representative. The poet-prophet of our psalm may\nhave lived after many monarchs had borne the title, but failed to\nrealise the ideal there outlined, and the imperfect shadows may have\nhelped to lift his thoughts to the reality. His grand poem may be\ncalled an idealising of the monarch of Israel, but it is an idealising\nwhich expected realisation. The psalm is prophecy as well as poetry;\nand whether it had contemporaneous persons and events as a\nstarting-point or not, its theme is a real person, fully possessing\nthe prerogatives and wielding the dominion which Nathan had declared\nto be God's gift to the King of Israel.\n\nThe psalm falls into four strophes of three verses each, in the first\nthree of which the reader is made spectator and auditor of vividly\npainted scenes, while in the last the psalmist exhorts the rebels to\nreturn to allegiance.\n\nIn the first strophe (vv. 1-3) the conspiracy of banded rebels is set\nbefore us with extraordinary force. The singer does not delay to tell\nwhat he sees, but breaks into a question of astonished indignation as to\nwhat _can_ be the cause of it all. Then, in a series of swift clauses,\nof which the vivid movement cannot be preserved in a translation, he\nlets us see what had so moved him. The masses of the \"nations\" are\nhurrying tumultuously to the mustering-place; the \"peoples\" are\nmeditating revolt, which is smitingly stigmatised in anticipation as\n\"vanity.\" But it is no mere uprising of the common herd; \"the kings of\nthe earth\" take their stand as in battle-array, and the men of mark and\ninfluence lay their heads together, pressing close to one another on the\ndivan as they plot. All classes and orders are united in revolt, and\nhurry and eagerness mark their action and throb in the words. The rule\nagainst which the revolt is directed is that of \"Jehovah and His\nAnointed.\" That is one rule, not two,--the dominion of Jehovah exercised\nthrough the Messiah. The psalmist had grasped firmly the conception that\nGod's visible rule is wielded by Messiah, so that rebellion against one\nis rebellion against both. Their \"bands\" are the same. Pure monotheist\nas the psalmist was, he had the thought of a king so closely associated\nwith Jehovah, that he could name them in one breath as, in some sense,\nsharers of the same throne and struck at by the same revolt. The\nfoundation of such a conception was given in the designation of the\nDavidic monarch as God's vicegerent and representative, but its full\njustification is the relation of the historic Christ to the Father whose\nthrone He shares in glory.\n\nThat eloquent \"why\" may include both the ideas of \"for what reason?\" and\n\"to what purpose?\" Opposition to that King, whether by communities or\nindividuals, is unreasonable. Every rising of a human will against the\nrule which it is blessedness to accept is absurd, and hopelessly\nincapable of justification. The question, so understood, is unanswerable\nby the rebels or by any one else. The one mystery of mysteries is that a\nfinite will should be able to lift itself against the Infinite Will, and\nbe willing to use its power. In the other aspect, the question, like\nthat pregnant \"vanity,\" implies the failure of all rebellion. Plot and\nstrive, conspire and muster, as men may, all is vanity and striving of\nwind. It is destined to break down from the beginning. It is as hopeless\nas if the stars were to combine to abolish gravitation. That dominion\ndoes not depend on man's acceptance of it, and he can no more throw it\noff by opposition than he can fling a somersault into space and so get\naway from earth. When we can vote ourselves out of submission to\nphysical law, we may plot or fight ourselves out of subjection to the\nreign of Jehovah and of His Anointed.\n\nAll the self-will in the world does not alter the fact that the\nauthority of Christ is sovereign over human wills. We cannot get away\nfrom it; but we can either lovingly embrace it, and then it is our\nlife, or we can set ourselves against it, like an obstinate ox\nplanting its feet and standing stock-still, and then the goad is\ndriven deep and draws blood.\n\nThe metaphor of bands and cords is taken from the fastenings of the\nyoke on a draught bullock. One can scarcely miss the lovely contrast\nof this truculent exhortation to rebellion with the gracious summons\n\"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.\" The \"bands\" are already on\nour necks in a very real sense, for we are all under Christ's\nauthority, and opposition is rebellion, not the effort to prevent a\nyoke being imposed, but to shake off one already laid on. But yet the\nconsent of our own wills is called for, and thereby we take the yoke,\nwhich is a stay rather than a fetter, and bear the burden which bears\nup those who bear it.\n\nPsalm i. set side by side in sharp contrast the godly and the godless.\nHere a still more striking transition is made in the second strophe\n(vv. 4-6), which changes the scene to heaven. The lower half of the\npicture is all eager motion and strained effort; the upper is full of\nDivine calm. Hot with hatred, flushed with defiant self-confidence and\nbusy with plots, the rebels hurry together like swarming ants on their\nhillock. \"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.\" That\nrepresentation of the seated God contrasts grandly with the stir on\nearth. He needs not to rise from His throned tranquillity, but regards\nundisturbed the disturbances of earth. The thought embodied is like\nthat expressed in the Egyptian statues of gods carved out of the side\nof a mountain, \"moulded in colossal calm,\" with their mighty hands\nlaid in their laps and their wide-opened eyes gazing down on the\nlittle ways of the men creeping about their feet.\n\nAnd what shall we say of that daring and awful image of the laughter\nof God? The attribution of such action to Him is so bold that no\ndanger of misunderstanding it is possible. It sends us at once to look\nfor its translation, which probably lies in the thought of the\nessential ludicrousness of opposition, which is discerned in heaven to\nbe so utterly groundless and hopeless as to be absurd. \"When He came\nnigh and beheld the city, He wept over it.\" The two pictures are not\nincapable of being reconciled. The Christ who wept over sinners is the\nfullest revelation of the heart of God, and the laughter of the psalm\nis consistent with the tears of Jesus as He stood on Olivet, and\nlooked across the glen to the Temple glittering in the morning sun.\n\nGod's laughter passes into the utterance of His wrath at the time\ndetermined by Him. The silence is broken by His voice, and the\nmotionless form flashes into action. One movement is enough to \"vex\"\nthe enemies and fling them into panic, as a flock of birds put to\nflight by the lifting of an arm. There is a point, known to God alone,\nwhen He perceives that the fulness of time has come, and the\nopposition must be ended. By long-drawn-out, gentle patience He has\nsought to win to obedience (though that side of His dealings is not\npresented in this psalm), but the moment arrives when in world-wide\ncatastrophes or crushing blows on individuals sleeping retribution\nwakes at the right moment, determined by considerations inappreciable\nby us: \"Then does He speak in His wrath.\"\n\nThe last verse of this strophe is parallel with the last of the\npreceding, being, like it, the dramatically introduced speech of the\nactor in the previous verses. The revolters' mutual encouragement is\ndirectly answered by the sovereign word of God, which discloses the\nreason for the futility of their attempts. The \"I\" of ver. 6 is\nemphatic. On one side is that majestic \"I have set my King\"; on the\nother a world of rebels. They may put their shoulders to the throne\nof the Anointed to overthrow it; but what of that? God's hand holds it\nfirm, whatever forces press on it. All enmity of banded or of single\nwills breaks against and is dashed by it into ineffectual spray.\n\nAnother speaker is next heard, the Anointed King, who, in the third\nstrophe (vv. 7-9), bears witness to Himself and claims universal\ndominion as His by a Divine decree. \"Thou art my son; to-day have I\nbegotten thee.\" So runs the first part of the decree. The allusion to\nNathan's words to David is clear. In them the prophet spoke of the\nsuccession of David's descendants, the king as a collective person, so\nto speak. The psalmist, knowing how incompletely any or all of these\nhad fulfilled the words which were the patent of their kingship,\nrepeats them in confident faith as certain to be accomplished in the\nMessiah-king, who fills the future for him with a great light of hope.\nHe knew not the historic person in whom the word has to be fulfilled,\nbut it is difficult to resist the conclusion that he had before him\nthe prospect of a king living as a man, the heir of the promises. Now,\nthis idea of sonship, as belonging to the monarch, is much better\nillustrated by the fact that Israel, the nation, was so named, than by\nthe boasts of Gentile dynasties to be sons of Zeus or Ra. The\nrelationship is moral and spiritual, involving Divine care and love\nand appointment to office, and demanding human obedience and use of\ndignity for God. It is to be observed that in our psalm the day of the\nKing's self-attestation is the day of His being \"begotten.\" The point\nof time referred to is not the beginning of personal existence, but of\ninvestiture with royalty. With accurate insight, then, into the\nmeaning of the words, the New Testament takes them as fulfilled in\nthe Resurrection (Acts xiii. 33; Rom. i. 4). In it, as the first step\nin the process which was completed in the Ascension, the manhood of\nJesus was lifted above the limitations and weaknesses of earth, and\nbegan to rise to the throne. The day of His resurrection was, as it\nwere, the day of the birth of His humanity into royal glory.\n\nBuilt upon this exaltation to royalty and sonship follows the promise\nof universal dominion. Surely the expectation of \"the uttermost parts\nof the earth for a possession\" bursts the bonds of the tiny Jewish\nkingdom! The wildest national pride could scarcely have dreamed that\nthe narrow strip of seaboard, whose inhabitants never entered on any\nwide schemes of conquest, should expand into a universal monarchy,\nstretching even farther than the giant empires on either side. If such\nwere the psalmist's expectations, they were never even approximately\nfulfilled; but the reference of the glowing words to Messiah's kingdom\nis in accordance with the current of prophetic hopes, and need cause\nno hesitation to those who believe in prophecy at all.\n\nUniversal dominion is God's gift to Messiah. Even while putting His\nfoot on the step of the throne, Jesus said, \"All power is _given_ unto\nme.\" This dominion is founded not on His essential divinity, but on\nHis suffering and sacrifice. His rule is the rule of God in Him, for\nHe is the highest form of the Divine self-revelation, and whoso\ntrusts, loves, and obeys Christ, trusts, loves, and obeys God in Him.\nThe psalmist did not know in how much more profound a sense than he\nattached to his words they were true. They had an intelligible, great,\nand true meaning for him. They have a greater for us.\n\nThe Divine voice foretells victory over opposition and destruction to\nopposers. The sceptre is of iron, though the hand that holds it once\ngrasped the reed. The word rendered \"break\" may also be translated,\nwith a different set of vowels, \"shepherd,\" and is so rendered by the\nLXX. (which Rev. ii. 27, etc., follows) and by some other versions.\nBut, in view of the parallelism of the next clause, \"break\" is to be\npreferred. The truth of Christ's destructive energy is too often\nforgotten, and, when remembered, is too often thrown forward into\nanother world. The history of this world ever since the Resurrection\nhas been but a record of conquered antagonism to Him. The stone cut\nout without hands has dashed against the images of clay and silver and\ngold and broken them all. The Gospel of Christ is the great solvent of\ninstitutions not based upon itself. Its work is\n\n \"To cast the kingdoms old\n Into another mould.\"\n\nDestructive work has still to be done, and its most terrible energy is\nto be displayed in the future, when all opposition shall be withered\ninto nothingness by the brightness of His presence. There are two\nkinds of breaking: a merciful one, when His love shatters our pride\nand breaks into penitence the earthen vessels of our hearts; and a\nterrible one, when the weight of His sceptre crushes, and His hand\ncasts down in shivers \"vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction.\"\n\nWe have listened to three voices, and now, in vv. 10-12, the poet\nspeaks in solemn exhortation: \"Be wise now, ye kings.\" The \"now\" is\nargumentative, not temporal. It means \"since things are so.\" The kings\naddressed are the rebel monarchs whose power seems so puny measured\nagainst that of \"my King.\" But not only these are addressed, but all\npossessors of power and influence. Open-eyed consideration of the\nfacts is true wisdom. The maddest thing a man can do is to shut his\neyes to them and steel his heart against their instruction. This\npleading invitation to calm reflection is the purpose of all the\npreceding. To draw rebels to loyalty, which is life, is the meaning of\nall appeals to terror. God and His prophet desire that the conviction\nof the futility of rebellion with a poor \"ten thousand\" against \"the\nking of twenty thousands\" should lead to \"sending an embassage\" to sue\nfor peace. The facts are before men, that they may be warned and wise.\n\nThe exhortation which follows in vv. 11, 12 points to the conduct which\nwill be dictated by wise reception of instruction. So far as regards\nver. 11 there is little difficulty. The exhortation to \"serve Jehovah\nwith fear and rejoice with trembling\" points to obedience founded on awe\nof God's majesty,--the fear which love does not cast out, but perfect;\nand to the gladness which blends with reverence, but is not darkened by\nit. To love and cleave to God, to feel the silent awe of His greatness\nand holiness giving dignity and solemnity to our gladness, and from this\ninmost heaven of contemplation to come down to a life of practical\nobedience--this is God's command and man's blessedness.\n\nThe close connection between Jehovah and Messiah in the preceding\nsections, in each of which the dominion of the latter is treated as that\nof the former and rebellion as against both at once, renders it\nextremely improbable that there should be no reference to the King in\nthis closing hortatory strophe. The view-point of the psalm, if\nconsistently retained throughout, requires something equivalent to the\nexhortation to \"kiss the Son\" in token of fealty, to follow, \"serve\nJehovah.\" But the rendering \"Son\" is impossible. The word so translated\nis _Bar_, which is the Aramaic for _son_, but is not found in that sense\nin the Old Testament except in the Aramaic of Ezra and Daniel and in\nProv. xxxi. 2, a chapter which has in other respects a distinct Aramaic\ntinge. No good reason appears for the supposition that the singer here\nwent out of his way to employ a foreign word instead of the usual _Ben_.\nBut it is probably impossible to make any good and certain rendering of\nthe existing text. The LXX. and Targum agree in rendering, \"Take hold of\ninstruction,\" which probably implies another reading of Hebrew text.\nNone of the various proposed translations--_e.g._, _Worship purely,\nWorship the chosen One_--are without objection; and, on the whole, the\nsupposition of textual corruption seems best. The conjectural\nemendations of Gr\u00e4tz, _Hold fast by warning_, or reproof; Cheyne's\nalternative ones, _Seek ye His face_ (\"Book of Psalms,\" adopted from\nBr\u00fcll) or _Put on [again] His bonds_ (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" p. 351, adopted\nfrom Lagarde), and Hupfeld's (in his translation) _Cleave to Him_,\nobliterate the reference to the King, which seems needful in this\nsection, as has been pointed out, and depart from the well-established\nmeaning of the verb--namely, \"kiss.\" These two considerations seem to\nrequire that a noun referring to Messiah, and grammatically object of\nthe verb, should stand in the place occupied by _Son_. The Messianic\nreference of the psalm remains undimmed by the uncertainty of the\nmeaning of this clause.\n\nThe transition from the representative of Jehovah to Jehovah Himself,\nwhich takes place in the next clause, is in accordance with the close\nunion between them which has marked the whole psalm. It is henceforth\nJehovah only who appears till the close. But the anger which is\ndestructive, and which may easily flash out like flames from a furnace\nmouth, is excited by opposition to Messiah's kingdom, and the\nexclusive mention of Jehovah in these closing clauses makes the\npicture of the anger the more terrible.\n\nBut since the disclosure of the danger of perishing \"in [or as to] the\nway\" or course of rebellious conduct is part of an exhortation, the\npurpose of which is that the threatened flash of wrath may never need\nto shoot forth, the psalmist will not close without setting forth the\nblessed alternative. The sweet benediction of the close bends round to\nthe opening words of the companion psalm of prelude, and thus\nidentifies the man who delights in the law of Jehovah with him who\nsubmits to the kingdom of God's Anointed. The expression \"put their\ntrust\" literally means to take refuge in. The act of trust cannot be\nmore beautifully or forcibly described than as the flight of the soul\nto God. They who take shelter in God need fear no kindling anger. They\nwho yield to the King are they who take refuge in Jehovah; and such\nnever know aught of His kingdom but its blessings, nor experience any\nflame of His wrath, but only the happy glow of His love.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM III.\n\n 1 Jehovah, how many are my oppressors!\n Many are rising against me.\n 2 Many are saying to my soul,\n There is no salvation for him in God. Selah.\n\n 3 And yet Thou, Jehovah, art a shield round me;\n My glory, and the lifter up of my head.\n 4 With my voice to Jehovah I cry aloud,\n And He answers me from His holy mountain. Selah.\n\n 5 I laid myself down and slept;\n I awaked; for Jehovah upholds me.\n 6 I am not afraid of ten thousands of people,\n Who round about have set themselves against me.\n\n 7 Arise, Jehovah; save me, my God:\n For Thou hast smitten all my enemies [on] the cheek-bone;\n The teeth of the wicked Thou hast broken.\n 8 To Jehovah belongs salvation:\n Upon Thy people be Thy blessing. Selah.\n\n\nAnother pair of psalms follows the two of the Introduction. They are\nclosely connected linguistically, structurally, and in subject. The one\nis a morning, the other an evening hymn, and possibly they are placed at\nthe beginning of the earliest psalter for that reason. Ewald and Hitzig\naccept the Davidic authorship, though the latter shifts the period in\nDavid's life at which they were composed to the mutiny of his men at\nZiklag (1 Sam. xxx.). Cheyne thinks that \"you will find no situation\nwhich corresponds to these psalms,\" though you \"search the story of\nDavid's life from end to end.\" He takes the whole of the Psalms from\niii. to xvii., excepting viii., xv., xvi., as a group, \"the heart\nutterances of the Church amidst some bitter persecution\"--namely, \"the\nperiod when faithful Israelites were so sorely oppressed both by\ntraitors in their midst and by Persian tyrants\" (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" pp.\n226, 227). But correspondences of the two psalms with David's situation\nwill strike many readers as being at least as close as that which is\nsought to be established with the \"spiritual kernel of the nation during\nthe Persian domination,\" and the absence of more specific reference is\nsurely not unnatural in devout song, however strange it would be in\nprosaic narrative. We do not look for mention of the actual facts which\nwring the poet's soul and were peculiar to him, but are content with his\nexpression of his religious emotions, which are common to all devout\nsouls. Who expects Cowper to describe his aberrations of intellect in\nthe \"Olney Hymns\"? But who cannot trace the connection of his pathetic\nstrains with his sad lot? If ever a seeming reference to facts is\npointed out in a so-called Davidic psalm, it is brushed aside as\n\"prosaic,\" but the absence of such is, notwithstanding, urged as an\nargument against the authorship. Surely that is inconsistent.\n\nThis psalm falls into four strophes, three of which are marked by Selah.\nIn the first (vv. 1, 2) the psalmist recounts his enemies. If we regard\nthis as a morning psalm, it is touchingly true to experience that the\nfirst waking thought should be the renewed inrush of the trouble which\nsleep had for a time dammed back. His enemies are many, and they taunt\nhim as forsaken of God. Surely it is a strong thing to say that there is\nno correspondence here with David's situation during Absalom's revolt.\nIt was no partial conspiracy, but practically the nation had risen\nagainst him, \"ut totidem fere haberet hostes quot subditos\" (Calvin).\n\nShimei's foul tongue spoke the general mind: \"The Lord hath delivered\nthe kingdom into the hand of Absalom\" (2 Sam. xvi. 8). There had been\nsin enough in the king's recent past to give colour to the\ninterpretation of his present calamity as the sign of his being\nforsaken of God. The conviction that such was the fact would swell the\nrebel ranks. The multitude has delight in helping to drown a sinking\nman who has been prosperous. The taunt went deep, for the Hebrew has\n\"to my soul,\" as if the cruel scoff cut like a knife to the very\ncentre of his personality, and wounded all the more because it gave\nutterance to his own fears. \"The Lord hath bidden him,\" said David\nabout Shimei's curses. But the psalmist is finding refuge from fears\nand foes even in telling how many there are, since he begins his\ncomplaint with \"Jehovah.\" Without that word the exclamations of this\nfirst strophe are the voice of cowardice or despair. With it they are\ncalmed into the appeal of trust.\n\nThe Selah which parts the first from the second strophe is probably a\ndirection for an instrumental interlude while the singer pauses.\n\nThe second strophe (vv. 3, 4) is the utterance of faith, based on\nexperience, laying hold of Jehovah as defence. By an effort of will\nthe psalmist rises from the contemplation of surrounding enemies to\nthat of the encircling Jehovah. In the thickest of danger and dread\nthere is a power of choice left a man as to what shall be the object\nof thought, whether the stormy sea or the outstretched hand of the\nChrist. This harassed man flings himself out of the coil of troubles\nround about him and looks up to God. He sees in Him precisely what he\nneeds most at the moment, for in that infinite nature is fulness\ncorresponding to all emptiness of ours. \"A shield around me,\" as He\nhad promised to be to Abraham in his peril; \"my glory,\" at a time when\ncalumny and shame were wrapping him about and his kingdom seemed gone;\n\"the lifter up of my head,\" sunk as it is both in sadness and\ncalamity, since Jehovah can both cheer his spirit and restore his\ndignity. And how comes this sudden burst of confidence to lighten the\ncomplaining soul? Ver. 4 tells. Experience has taught him that as\noften as he cries to Jehovah he is heard. The tenses in ver. 4 express\na habitual act and a constant result. Not once or twice, but as his\nwont, he prays, and Jehovah answers. The normal relation between him\nand Jehovah is that of frank communion; and since it has long been so\nand is so now, even the pressure of present disaster does not make\nfaith falter. It is hard to begin to trust when in the grip of\ncalamity, but feet accustomed to the road to God can find it in the\ndark. There may be an allusion to David's absence from sanctuary and\nark in ver. 4. The expectation of being answered \"from His holy hill\"\ngains in pathetic force when the lovely scene of submissive sacrifice\nin which he sent back the Ark is recalled (2 Sam. xv. 25). Though he\nbe far from the place of prayer, and feeling the pain of absence, the\nsinger's faith is not so tied to form as to falter in the assurance\nthat his prayer is heard. Jehovah is shield, glory, and strengthener\nto the man who cries to Him, and it is by means of such crying that\nthe heart wins the certitude that He is all these. Again the\ninstruments sound and the singer pauses.\n\nThe third strophe (vv. 5, 6) beautifully expresses the tranquil\ncourage which comes from trust. Since sleeping and safe waking again\nin ordinary circumstances is no such striking proof of Divine help\nthat one in the psalmist's situation would be induced to think\nespecially of it and to found his confidence on it, the view is to be\ntaken that the psalmist in ver. 5 is contemplating the experience\nwhich he has just made in his present situation. \"Surrounded by\nenemies, he was quite safe under God's protection and exposed to no\nperil even in the night\" (Riehm, in Hupfeld _in loc._). Surely\ncorrespondence with David's circumstances may be traced here. His\nlittle band had no fortress in Mahanaim, and Ahithophel's counsel to\nattack them by night was so natural that the possibility must have\nbeen present to the king. But another night had come and gone in\nsafety, disturbed by no shout of an enemy. The nocturnal danger had\npassed, and day was again brightening.\n\nThey were safe because the Keeper of Israel had kept them. It is\ndifficult to fit this verse into the theory that here the persecuted\nIsraelitish Church is speaking, but it suits the situation pointed to\nin the superscription. To lie down and sleep in such circumstances was\nitself an act of faith, and a sign of the quiet heart which faith\ngives. Like Christ on the hard wooden \"pillow\" during the storm, or\nlike Peter sleeping an infant's sleep the night before his purposed\nexecution, this man can shut his eyes and quiet himself to slumber,\nthough \"ten thousands have set themselves against him.\" They ring him\nround, but cannot reach him through his shield. Ver. 6 rises to bold\ndefiance, the result of the experience in ver. 5. How different the\ntone of reference to the swarms of the enemy here and in ver. 1! There\nthe psalmist was counting them and cowering before them; here their\nvery number is an element in his triumphant confidence. Courage comes\nfrom thinking of the one Divine Ally, before whom myriads of enemies\nare nothing. One man with God to back him is always in the majority.\nSuch courage, based on such experience and faith, is most modest and\nreasonable, but it is not won without an effort of will, which refuses\nto fear, and fixes a trustful gaze not on peril, but on the protector.\n\"I will not be afraid\" speaks of resolve and of temptations to fear,\nwhich it repels, and from \"the nettle danger plucks the flower\"\n_trust_ and the fruit _safety_. Selah does not follow here. The tone\nof the strophe is that of lowly confidence, which is less congruous\nwith an instrumental interlude than are the more agitated preceding\nstrophes. The last strophe, too, is closely connected with the third,\nsince faith bracing itself against fear glides naturally into prayer.\n\nThe final strophe (vv. 7, 8) gives the culmination of faith in prayer.\n\"Arise, Jehovah,\" is quoted from the ancient invocation (Num. x. 35),\nand expresses in strongly anthropomorphic form the desire for some\ninterposition of Divine power. Fearlessness is not so complete that\nthe psalmist is beyond the need of praying. He is courageous because\nhe knows that God will help, but he knows, too, that God's help\ndepends on his prayer. The courage which does not pray is foolish, and\nwill break down into panic; that which fears enough to cry \"Arise,\nJehovah,\" will be vindicated by victory. This prayer is built on\nexperience, as the preceding confidence was. The enemies are now,\naccording to a very frequent figure in the Psalter, compared to wild\nbeasts. Smiting on the cheek is usually a symbol of insult, but here\nis better taken in close connection with the following \"breaking the\nteeth.\" By a daring image Jehovah is represented as dealing the beasts\nof prey, who prowl round the psalmist with open mouth, the buffets\nwhich shatter their jaws and dislodge their teeth, thus making them\npowerless to harm him. So it has been in the past, and that past is a\nplea that so it will be now. God will be but doing as He has done, if\nnow He \"arise.\" If He is to be true to Himself, and not to stultify\nHis past deliverances, He must save his suppliant now. Such is the\nlogic of faith, which is only valid on the supposition that God's\nresources and purpose are inexhaustible and unchangeable. The whole\nends with confident anticipation of an answer. \"Salvation belongeth\nunto Jehovah.\" The full spiritual meaning of that salvation was not\nyet developed. Literally, the word means \"breadth,\" and so, by a\nmetaphor common to many languages, deliverance as an act, and\nwell-being or prosperity as a state. Deliverance from his enemies is\nthe psalmist's main idea in the word here. It \"belongs to Jehovah,\"\nsince its bestowal is His act. Thus the psalmist's last utterance of\ntrust traverses the scoff which wounded him so much (ver. 2), but in a\nform which beautifully combines affiance and humility, since it\ntriumphantly asserts that salvation is in God's power, and silently\nimplies that what is thus God's \"to will and do\" shall certainly be\nHis suppliant's to enjoy.\n\nIntensely personal as the psalm is, it is the prayer of a king; and\nrebels as the bulk of the people are (\"ten thousands of the people\"),\nthey are still God's. Therefore all are included in the scope of his\npitying prayer. In other psalms evil is invoked on evil-doers, but\nhere hate is met by love, and the self-absorption of sorrow\ncounteracted by wide sympathy. It is a lower exemplification of the\nsame spirit which breathed from the lips of the greater King the\nprayer, \"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM IV.\n\n 1 When I cry answer me, O God of my righteousness; Thou hast in\n straits made space for me:\n Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.\n 2 Sons of men! how long shall my glory be mocked, [in that] ye love\n vanity,\n [And] seek after a lie? Selah.\n 3 But know that Jehovah has set apart as His own him whom He\n favours:\n Jehovah hears when I cry to Him.\n 4 Stand in awe, and sin not:\n Speak in your hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah.\n 5 Sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness,\n And trust on Jehovah.\n 6 Many are saying, Who will let us see good?\n Lift Thou upon us the light of Thy face, O Jehovah.\n 7 Thou hast given gladness in my heart,\n More than in the time of their corn and their wine [when] they\n abound.\n 8 In peace will I lie down and at once sleep:\n For Thou, Jehovah, in [my] loneliness, makest me dwell in safety.\n\n\nPsalms iii. and iv. are a pair. They are similar in expression (_my\nglory, there be many which say, I laid me down and slept_), in the\npsalmist's situation, and in structure (as indicated by the _Selahs_).\nBut they need not be cotemporaneous, nor need the superscription of\nPsalm iii. be extended to Psalm iv. Their tone is different, the\nfourth having little reference to the personal danger so acutely felt\nin Psalm iii., and being mainly a gentle, earnest remonstrance with\nantagonists, seeking to win them to a better mind. The strophical\ndivision into four parts of two verses each, as marked by the Selahs,\nis imperfectly carried out, as in Psalm iii., and does not correspond\nwith the logical division--a phenomenon which occurs not infrequently\nin the Psalter, as in all poetry, where the surging thought or emotion\noverleaps its bounds. Dividing according to the form, we have four\nstrophes, of which the first two are marked by Selah; dividing by the\nflow of thought, we have three parts of unequal length--prayer (ver.\n1), remonstrance (vv. 2-5), communion and prayer (vv. 6-8).\n\nThe cry for an answer by deed is based on the name and on the past\nacts of God. Grammatically, it would be possible and regular to render\n\"my God of righteousness,\" _i.e._, \"my righteous God\"; but the pronoun\nis best attached to \"righteousness\" only, as the consideration that\nGod is righteous is less relevant than that He is the source of the\npsalmist's righteousness. Since He is so, He may be expected to\nvindicate it by answering prayer by deliverance. He who feels that all\ngood in himself comes from God may be quite sure that, sooner or\nlater, and by some means or other, God will witness to His own work.\nTo the psalmist nothing was so incredible as that God should not take\ncare of what He had planted, or let the springing crop be trodden down\nor rooted up. The Old Testament takes prosperity as the Divine\nattestation of righteousness; and though they who worship the Man of\nSorrows have new light thrown on the meaning of that conception, the\nsubstance of it remains true for ever. The compellation \"God of my\nrighteousness\" is still mighty with God. The second ground of the\nprayer is laid in the past deeds of God. Whether the clause \"Thou hast\nin straits made space for me\" be taken relatively or not, it appeals\nto former deliverances as reasons for man's prayer and for God's act.\nIn many languages trouble and deliverance are symbolised by narrowness\nand breadth. Compression is oppression. Closely hemmed in by crowds or\nby frowning rocks, freedom of movement is impossible and breathing is\ndifficult. But out in the open, one expatiates, and a clear horizon\nmeans an ample sky.\n\nThe strophe division keeps together the prayer and the beginning of\nthe remonstrance to opponents, and does so in order to emphasise the\neloquent, sharp juxtaposition of God and the \"sons of men.\" The phrase\nis usually employed to mean persons of position, but here the contrast\nbetween the varying height of men's molehills is not so much in view\nas that between them all and the loftiness of God. The lips which by\nprayer have been purged and cured of quivering can speak to foes\nwithout being much abashed by their dignity or their hatred. But the\nvery slight reference to the psalmist's own share in the hostility of\nthese \"sons of men\" is noticeable. It is their false relation to God\nwhich is prominent throughout the remonstrance; and that being so, \"my\nglory,\" in ver. 2, is probably to be taken, as in iii. 3, as a\ndesignation of God. It is usually understood to mean either personal\nor official dignity, but the suggested interpretation is more in\nkeeping with the tone of the psalm. The enemies were really flouting\nGod and turning that great name in which the singer gloried into a\njest. They were not therefore idolaters, but practical heathen in\nIsrael, and their \"vanity\" and \"lies\" were their schemes doomed to\nfail and their blasphemies. These two verses bring most vividly into\nview the contrast between the psalmist clinging to his helping God and\nthe knot of opponents hatching their plans which are sure to fail.\n\nThe Selah indicates a pause in the song, as if to underscore the\nquestion \"How long?\" and let it soak into the hearts of the foes, and\nthen, in vv. 3 and 4, the remonstrating voice presses on them the\ngreat truth which has sprung anew in the singer's soul in answer to\nhis prayer, and beseeches them to let it stay their course and still\ntheir tumult. By \"the godly\" is meant, of course the psalmist. He is\nsure that he belongs to God and is set apart, so that no real evil can\ntouch him; but does he build this confidence on his own character or\non Jehovah's grace? The answer depends on the meaning of the pregnant\nword rendered \"godly,\" which here occurs for the first time in the\nPsalter. So far as its form is concerned, it may be either active, one\nwho shows _chesed_ (lovingkindness or favour), or passive, one to whom\nit is shown. But the usage in the Psalter seems to decide in favour of\nthe passive meaning, which is also more in accordance with the general\nbiblical view, which traces all man's hopes and blessings, not to his\nattitude to God, but to God's to him, and regards man's love to God as\na derivative, \"Amati amamus, amantes amplius meremur amari\" (Bern).\nOut of His own deep heart of love Jehovah has poured His\nlovingkindness on the psalmist, as he thrillingly feels, and He will\ntake care that His treasure is not lost; therefore this conviction,\nwhich has flamed up anew since the moment before when he prayed,\nbrings with it the assurance that He \"hears when I cry,\" as he had\njust asked Him to do. The slight emendation, adopted by Cheyne from\nGr\u00e4tz and others, is tempting, but unnecessary. He would read, with a\nsmall change which would bring this verse into parallelism with xxxi.\n22, \"See how passing great lovingkindness Jehovah hath shown me\"; but\nthe present text is preferable, inasmuch as what we should expect to\nbe urged upon the enemies is not outward facts, but some truth of\nfaith neglected by them. On such a truth the singer rests his own\nconfidence; such a truth he lays, like a cold hand, on the hot brows\nof the plotters, and bids them pause and ponder. Believed, it would\nfill them with awe, and set in a lurid light the sinfulness of their\nassault on him. Clearly the rendering \"Be ye angry\" instead of \"Stand\nin awe\" gives a less worthy meaning, and mars the picture of the\nprogressive conversion of the enemy into a devout worshipper, of which\nthe first stage is the recognition of the truth in ver. 3; the second\nis the awestruck dropping of the weapons, and the third is the silent\nreflection in the calm and solitude of night. The psalm being an\nevening song, the reference to \"your bed\" is the more natural; but\n\"speak in your hearts\"--what? The new fact which you have learned from\nmy lips. Say it quietly to yourselves then, when forgotten truths\nblaze on the waking eye, like phosphorescent writing in the dark, and\nthe nobler self makes its voice heard. \"Speak ... and be silent,\" says\nthe psalmist, for such meditation will end the busy plots against him,\nand in a wider application \"that dread voice,\" heard in the awed\nspirit, \"shrinks the streams\" of passion and earthly desires, which\notherwise brawl and roar there. Another strain of the \"stringed\ninstruments\" makes that silence, as it were, audible, and then the\nremonstrance goes on once more.\n\nIt rises higher now, exhorting to positive godliness, and that in the\ntwo forms of offering \"sacrifices of righteousness,\" which here simply\nmeans those which are prescribed or which are offered with right\ndispositions, and of trusting in Jehovah--the two aspects of true\nreligion, which outwardly is worship and inwardly is trust. The poet\nwho could meet hate with no weapon but these earnest pleadings had\nlearned a better lesson than \"the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,\nthe love of love,\" and anticipated \"bless them which curse you.\" The\nteacher who thus outlined the stages of the way back to God as\nrecognition of His relation to the godly, solitary meditation thereon,\nforsaking of sin and hushing of the Spirit thereby, and finally\nworship and trust, knew the discipline for rebellious souls.\n\nVer. 6 seems at first sight to belong more closely to what follows\nthan to what precedes, and is taken by those who hold the Davidic\nauthorship as addressed to his followers beginning to despond. But it\nmay be the continuance of the address to the enemies, carrying on the\nexhortation to trust. The sudden appearance of the plural \"us\"\nsuggests that the psalmist associates himself with the persons whom he\nhas been addressing, and, while he glances at the vain cries of the\n\"many,\" would make himself the mouthpiece of the nascent faith which\nhe hopes may follow his beseechings. The cry of _the many_ would, in\nthat case, have a general reference to the universal desire for\n\"good,\" and would pathetically echo the hopelessness which must needs\nmingle with it, so long as the heart does not know who is the only\ngood. The passionate weariness of the question, holding a negation in\nitself, is wonderfully contrasted with the calm prayer. The eyes fail\nfor want of seeing the yearned-for blessing; but if Jehovah lifts the\nlight of His face upon us, as He will certainly do in answer to\nprayer, \"in His light we shall see light.\" Every good, however\nvarious, is sphered in Him. All colours are smelted into the perfect\nwhite and glory of His face.\n\nThere is no Selah after ver. 6, but, as in iii. 6, one is due, though\nomitted.\n\nVv. 7 and 8 are separated from ver. 6 by their purely personal\nreference. The psalmist returns to the tone of his prayer in ver. 1,\nonly that petition has given place, as it should do, to possession and\nconfident thankfulness. The many ask, Who?; he prays, \"Lord.\" They have\nvague desires after God; he knows what he needs and wants. Therefore in\nthe brightness of that Face shining on him his heart is glad. The mirth\nof harvest and vintage is exuberant, but it is poor beside the deep,\nstill blessedness which trickles round the heart that craves most the\nlight of Jehovah's countenance. That craving is joy and the fruition is\nbliss. The psalmist here touches the bottom, the foundation fact on\nwhich every life that is not vanity must be based, and which verifies\nitself in every life that is so based. Strange and tragic that men\nshould forget it and love vanity which mocks them, and, though won,\nstill leaves them looking wearily round the horizon for any glimmer of\ngood! The glad heart possessing Jehovah can, on the other hand, lay\nitself down in peace and sleep, though foes stand round. The last words\nof the psalm flow restfully like a lullaby. The expression of confidence\ngains much if \"alone\" be taken as referring to the psalmist. Solitary as\nhe is, ringed round by hostility as he may be, Jehovah's presence makes\nhim safe, and being thus safe, he is secure and confidant. So he shuts\nhis eyes in peace, though he may be lying in the open, beneath the\nstars, without defences or sentries. The Face brings light in darkness,\ngladness in want, enlargement in straits, safety in peril, and any and\nevery good that any and every man needs.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM V.\n\n 1 Give ear to my words, Jehovah;\n Consider my meditation.\n 2 Listen to the voice of my crying, my King and my God,\n For to Thee do I make supplication.\n 3 Jehovah, in the morning Thou shalt hear my voice;\n In the morning will I order my [prayer] to Thee and keep watch.\n\n 4 For not a God delighting in wickedness art Thou;\n Evil cannot sojourn with Thee.\n 5 Fools cannot stand before Thine eyes;\n Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.\n 6 Thou destroyest the speakers of falsehood;\n The man of blood and deceit Jehovah loathes.\n 7 But I, in the multitude of Thy loving-kindness I dare come into\n Thy house;\n I dare fall prostrate before Thy holy temple in Thy fear.\n\n 8 Jehovah, lead me in Thy righteousness, because of them that are\n spies on me;\n Make Thy way level before me.\n 9 For in his mouth is nothing trustworthy;\n Their inward part is destruction;\n An open grave is their throat;\n Their tongue they smooth.\n\n 10 Hold them guilty, Jehovah: let them fall by their own schemes;\n In the multitude of their transgressions strike them down, for\n they have rebelled against Thee.\n 11 Then shall all those who take refuge in Thee be glad;\n For ever shall they shout for joy, since Thou dost shelter them;\n And they that love Thy name shall exult in Thee.\n 12 For Thou dost bless the righteous;\n Jehovah, as with a shield, with favour dost Thou compass him\n about.\n\n\nThe reference to the temple in ver. 7 is not conclusive against the\nDavidic authorship of this psalm, since the same word is applied in 1\nSam. i. 9 and iii. 3 to the house of God in Shiloh. It means a\npalace, and may well be used for any structure, even if a hair tent,\nin which God dwelt. No doubt it is oftenest used for the Solomonic\ntemple, but it does not necessarily refer to it. Its use here, then,\ncannot be urged as fatal to the correctness of the superscription. At\nthe same time, it does create a certain presumption against it. But\nthere is nothing in the psalm to determine its date, and its worth is\nquite independent of its authorship. The psalmist is surrounded by\nfoes, and seeks access to God. These are constant features of the\nreligious life, and their expression here fits as closely to the\npresent time as to any past.\n\nThe psalm falls into two main parts: vv. 1-7 and 8-12. The former\ndivision deals with the inner side of the devout life, its access to\nGod, to whom sinful men cannot approach, the latter with the outward\nside, the conduct, \"the way\" in which the psalmist seeks to be led, and\nin which sinful men come to ruin because they will not walk. Naturally\nthe inward comes first, for communion with God in the secret place of\nthe Most High must precede all walking in His way and all blessed\nexperience of His protection, with the joy that springs from it. These\ntwo halves of the psalm are arranged in inverted parallelism, the first\nverse of the second part (ver. 8) corresponding to the last verse of the\nfirst (ver. 7) and being, like it, purely personal; vv. 9 and 10\ncorresponding similarly to vv. 4-6 and, like them, painting the\ncharacter and fate of evil-doers; and, finally, vv. 11, 12, answering to\nvv. 1-3 and representing the blessedness of the devout soul, as in the\none case led and protected by God and therefore glad, and in the other\nabiding in His presence. The whole is a prayerful meditation on the\ninexhaustible theme of the contrasted blessedness of the righteous and\nmisery of the sinner as shown in the two great halves of life: the\ninward of communion and the outward of action.\n\nIn the first part (vv. 1-7) the central thought is that of access to\nGod's presence, as the desire and purpose of the psalmist (1-3), as\nbarred to evil-doers (4-6), and as permitted to, and embraced as his\nchief blessing by, the singer (7). The petition to be heard in vv. 1\nand 2 passes into confidence that he is heard in ver. 3. There is no\nshade of sadness nor trace of struggle with doubt in this prayer,\nwhich is all sunny and fresh, like the morning sky, through which it\nascends to God. \"Consider [or Understand] my meditation\"--the\nbrooding, silent thought is spread before God, who knows unspoken\ndesires, and \"understands thoughts afar off.\" The contrast between\n\"understanding the meditation\" and \"hearkening to the voice of my cry\"\nis scarcely unintentional, and gives vividness to the picture of the\nmusing psalmist, in whom, as he muses, the fire burns, and he speaks\nwith his tongue, in a \"cry\" as loud as the silence from which it\nissued had been deep. Meditations that do not pass into cries and\ncries which are not preceded by meditations are alike imperfect. The\ninvocation \"my King\" is full of meaning if the singer be David, who\nthus recognises the delegated character of his own royalty; but\nwhoever wrote the psalm, that expression equally witnesses to his firm\ngrasp of the true theocratic idea.\n\nNoteworthy is the intensely personal tone of the invocation in both\nits clauses, as in the whole of these first verses, in every clause of\nwhich \"my\" or \"I\" occurs. The poet is alone with God and seeking to\nclasp still closer the guiding hand, to draw still nearer to the\nsweet and awful presence where is rest. The invocation holds a plea in\nitself. He who says, \"My King and my God,\" urges the relation, brought\nabout by God's love and accepted by man's faith, as a ground for the\nhearing of his petition. And so prayer passes into swift assurance;\nand with a new turn in thought, marked by the repetition of the name\n\"Jehovah\" (ver. 3), he speaks his confidence and his resolve. \"In the\nmorning\" is best taken literally, whether we suppose the psalm to have\nbeen composed for a morning song or no. Apparently the compilers of\nthe first Psalter placed it next to Psalm iv., which they regarded as\nan evening hymn, for this reason. \"I will lay me down and sleep\" is\nbeautifully followed by \"In the morning shalt Thou hear my voice.\" The\norder of clauses in ver. 3 is significant in its apparent breach of\nstrict sequence, by which God's hearing is made to precede the\npsalmist's praying. It is the order dictated by confidence, and it is\nthe order in which the thoughts rise in the trustful heart. He who is\nsure that God will hear will therefore address himself to speak. First\ncomes the confidence, and then the resolve. There are prayers wrung\nfrom men by sore need, and in which doubt causes faltering, but the\nhappier, serener experience is like that of this singer. He resolves\nto \"order\" his prayer, using there the word employed for the priest's\nwork in preparing the materials for the morning sacrifice. Thus he\ncompares his prayer to it, and stands at the same level as the writer\nof Psalm iv., with whose command to \"offer the sacrifices of\nrighteousness\" this thought again presents a parallel.\n\nA psalmist who has grasped the idea that the true sacrifice is prayer is\nnot likely to have missed the cognate thought that the \"house of the\nLord,\" of which he will presently speak, is something other than any\nmaterial shrine. But to offer the sacrifice is not all which he rejoices\nto resolve. He will \"keep watch,\" as Habakkuk said that he would do, on\nhis watch-tower; and that can only mean that he will be on the outlook\nfor the answer to his prayer, or, if we may retain the allusion to\nsacrifice, for the downward flash of the Divine fire, which tells his\nprayer's acceptance. Many a prayer is offered, and no eyes afterwards\nturned to heaven to watch for the answer, and perhaps some answers sent\nare like water spilled on the ground, for want of such observance.\n\nThe confidence and resolve ground themselves on God's holiness,\nthrough which the necessary condition of approach to Him comes to be\npurity--a conviction which finds expression in all religions, but is\nnowhere so vividly conceived or construed as demanding such stainless\ninward whiteness as in the Psalter. The \"for\" of ver. 4 would\nnaturally have heralded a statement of the psalmist's grounds for\nexpecting that he would be welcomed in his approach, but the turn of\nthought, which postpones that, and first regards God's holiness as\nshutting out the impure, is profoundly significant. \"Thou art not a\nGod that hath pleasure in wickedness\" means more than the simple \"Thou\nhast not pleasure\" would do; it argues from the character of God, and\nglances at some of the foul deities whose nostrils snuff up sensual\nimpurity as acceptable sacrifice. The one idea of absolute contrariety\nbetween God and evil is put in a rich variety of shapes in vv. 4-6,\nwhich first deal with it negatively in three clauses (_not a God_;\n_not dwell_; _not stand in Thy sight_) and then positively in other\nthree (_hatest_; _shalt destroy_; _abhorreth_). \"Evil shall not\nsojourn with Thee.\" The verb is to be taken in its full meaning of\nsojourning as a guest-friend, who has the right to hospitality and\ndefence. It thus constitutes the antithesis to ver. 7. Clearly the\nsojourning does not mean access to the temple, but abiding with God.\nThe barriers are of the same nature as the communion which they\nhinder, and something far deeper is meant than outward access to any\nvisible shrine. No one sojourned in the temple. In like manner, the\n\"standing in Thy sight\" is a figure drawn from courts, reminding us of\n\"my King\" in ver. 2 and suggesting the impossibility of evil or its\ndoers approaching the Divine throne.\n\nBut there is more than a negative side to the relation between God and\nevil, which the psalm goes on to paint in sombre colours, for God not\nonly does not delight in sin, but hates it with a hatred like the\nphysical loathing of some disgusting thing, and will gather all His\nalienation into one fatal lightning bolt. Such thoughts do not exhaust\nthe truth as to the Divine relation to sin. They did not exhaust the\npsalmist's knowledge of that relation, and still less do they exhaust\nours, but they are parts of the truth to-day as much as then, and\nnothing in Christ's revelation has antiquated them.\n\nThe psalmist's vocabulary is full of synonyms for sin, which witness to\nthe profound consciousness of it which law and ritual had evoked in\ndevout hearts. First, he speaks of it in the abstract, as \"wickedness\"\nand \"evil.\" Then he passes to individuals, of whom he singles out two\npairs, the first a more comprehensive and the second a more specific\ndesignation. The former pair are \"the foolish\" and \"workers of\niniquity.\" The word for \"foolish\" is usually translated by the moderns\n\"arrogant,\" but the parallelism with the general expression \"workers of\niniquity\" rather favours a less special meaning, such as Hupfeld's\n\"fools\" or the LXX.'s \"transgressors.\" Only in the last pair are special\nforms of evil mentioned, and the two selected are significant of the\npsalmist's own experience. _Liars_ and _men of blood and craft_ are his\ninstances of the sort of sinners most abominable to God. That\nspecification surely witnesses to his own sufferings from such.\n\nIn ver. 7 the psalmist comes back to the personal reference,\ncontrasting his own access to God with the separation of evil-doers\nfrom His presence. But he does not assert that he has the right of\nentrance because he is pure. Very strikingly he finds the ground of\nhis right of entry to the palace in God's \"multitude of mercy,\" not in\nhis own innocence. Answering to \"in Thy righteousness\" is \"in Thy\nfear.\" The one phrase expresses God's disposition to man which makes\naccess possible, the other man's disposition to God which makes\nworship acceptable. \"In the multitude of Thy mercy\" and \"in Thy fear,\"\ntaken together, set forth the conditions of approach. Having regard to\nver. 4, it seems impossible to restrict the meaning of \"Thy house\" to\nthe material sanctuary. It is rather a symbol of communion,\nprotection, and friendship. Does the meaning pass into the narrower\nsense of outward worship in the material \"temple\" in the second\nclause? It may be fairly taken as doing so (Hupfeld). But it may be\nmaintained that the whole verse refers to the spiritual realities of\nprayer and fellowship, and not at all to the externalities of worship,\nwhich are used as symbols, just as in ver. 3 prayer is symbolised by\nthe morning sacrifice. But probably it is better to suppose that the\npsalmist's faith, though not tied to form, was fed by form, and that\nsymbol and reality, the outward and the inward worship, the access to\nthe temple and the approach of the silent soul to God, are fused in\nhis psalm as they tended to be in his experience. Thus the first part\nof the psalm ends with the psalmist prostrate (for so the word for\n\"worship\" means) before the palace sanctuary of his King and God. It\nhas thus far taught the conditions of approach to God, and given a\nconcrete embodiment of them in the progress of the singer's thoughts\nfrom petition to assurance and from resolve to accomplishment.\n\nThe second part may be taken as his prayer when in the temple, whether\nthat be the outward sanctuary or no. It is likewise a further carrying\nout of the contrast of the condition of the wicked and of the lovers\nof God, expressed in terms applying to outward life rather than to\nworship. It falls into three parts: the personal prayer for guidance\nin life, the contemplation of evil-doers, and the vehement prayer for\ntheir destruction, corresponding to vv. 4-6, and the contrasted prayer\nfor the righteous, among whom he implies his own inclusion.\n\nThe whole of the devout man's desires for himself are summed up in\nthat prayer for guidance. All which the soul needs is included in\nthese two: access to God in the depths of still prostration before His\nthrone as the all-sufficient good for the inner life; guidance, as by\na shepherd, on a plain path, chosen not by self-will but by God, for\nthe outward. He who has received the former in any degree will in the\nsame measure have the latter. To dwell in God's house is to desire His\nguidance as the chief good. \"In Thy righteousness\" is capable of two\nmeanings: it may either designate the path by which the psalmist\ndesired to be led, or the Divine attribute to which he appealed. The\nlatter meaning, which is substantially equivalent to \"because Thou art\nrighteous,\" is made more probable by the other instances in the psalm\nof a similar use of \"in\" (_in the multitude of Thy mercy_; _in Thy\nfear_; _in the multitude of their transgressions_). His righteousness\nis manifested in leading those who seek for His guidance (compare\nPsalm xxv. 8; xxxi. 1, etc.). Then comes the only trace in the psalm\nof the presence of enemies, because of whom the singer prays for\nguidance. It is not so much that he fears falling into their hands as\nthat he dreads lest, if left to himself, he may take some step which\nwill give them occasion for malicious joy in his fall or his calamity.\nWherever a man is earnestly God-fearing, many eyes watch him, and\ngleam with base delight if they see him stumble. The psalmist, whether\nDavid or another, had that cross to carry, like every thorough-going\nadherent of the religious ideal (or of any lofty ideal, for that\nmatter); and his prayer shows how heavy it was, since thoughts of it\nmingled with even his longings for righteousness. \"Plain\" does not\nmean _obvious_, but _level_, and may possibly include both freedom\nfrom stumbling-blocks (\"Lead us not into temptation\") and from\ncalamities, but the prevalent tone of the psalm points rather to the\nformer. He who knows his own weaknesses may legitimately shrink from\nsnares and occasions to fall, even though, knowing the wisdom of his\nGuide and the help that waits on his steps, he may \"count it all joy\"\nwhen he encounters them.\n\nThe picture of the evil-doers in ver. 9 is introduced, as in ver. 4,\nwith a \"for.\" The sinners here are evidently the _enemies_ of the\nprevious verse. Their sins are those of speech; and the force of the\nrapid clauses of the picture betrays how recently and sorely the\npsalmist had smarted from lies, flatteries, slanders, and all the rest\nof the weapons of smooth and bitter tongues. He complains that there\nis no faithfulness or steadfastness in \"his mouth\"--a distributive\nsingular, which immediately passes into the plural--nothing there that\na man can rely on, but all treacherous. \"Their inward part is\ndestruction.\" The other rendering, \"engulfing ruin\" or \"a yawning\ngulf,\" is picturesque; but _destruction_ is more commonly the meaning\nof the word and yields a vigorous sense here. They plot inwardly the\nruin of the men whom they flatter. The figure is bold. Down to this\npit of destruction is a way like an open sepulchre, the throat\nexpanded in the act of speech; and the falsely smoothed tongue is like\na slippery approach to the descent (so Jennings and Lowe). Such\nfigures strike Western minds as violent, but are natural to the East.\nThe shuddering sense of the deadly power of words is a marked\ncharacteristic of the Psalter. Nothing stirs psalmists to deeper\nindignation than \"God's great gift of speech abused,\" and this\ngeneration would be all the better for relearning the lesson.\n\nThe psalmist is \"in the sanctuary,\" and there \"understands their end,\"\nand breaks into prayer which is also prophecy. The vindication of such\nprayers for the destruction of evil-doers is that they are not the\nexpressions of personal enmity (\"They have rebelled against Thee\"),\nand that they correspond to one side of the Divine character and acts,\nwhich was prominent in the Old Testament epoch of revelation, and is\nnot superseded by the New. But they do belong to that lower level; and\nto hesitate to admit their imperfection from the Christian point of\nview is to neglect the plain teaching of our Lord, who built His law\nof the kingdom on the declared relative imperfection of the ethics of\nthe Old. Terrible indeed are the prayers here. _Hold them\nguilty_--that is, probably, treat them as such by punishing; _let them\nfall_; _thrust them out_--from Thy presence, if they have ventured\nthither, or out into the darkness of death. Let us be thankful that we\ndare not pray such prayers, but let us not forget that for the\npsalmist not to have prayed them would have indicated, not that he had\nanticipated the tenderness of the Gospel, but that he had failed to\nlearn the lesson of the law and was basely tolerant of baseness.\n\nBut we come into the sunshine again at the close, and hear the\ncontrasted prayer, which thrills with gladness and hope. \"When the\nwicked perish there is shouting.\" The servants of God, relieved from\nthe incubus and beholding the fall of evil, lift up their praises. The\norder in which the designations of these servants occur is very\nnoteworthy. It is surely not accidental that we have them first\ndescribed as \"those that trust in Thee,\" then as \"all them that love\nThy name,\" and finally as \"the righteous.\" What is this sequence but\nan anticipation of the evangelical order? The root of all is trust,\nthen love, then righteousness. Love follows trust. \"We have known and\nbelieved the love which God hath to us.\" Righteousness follows trust\nand love, inasmuch as by faith the new life enters the heart and\ninasmuch as love supplies the great motive for keeping the\ncommandments. So root, stem, and flower are here, wrapped up, as it\nwere, in a seed, which unfolds into full growth in the New Testament.\nThe literal meaning of the word rendered \"put their trust\" is \"flee as\nto a refuge,\" and that beautifully expresses the very essence of the\nact of faith; while the same metaphor is carried on in \"defendest,\"\nwhich literally means _coverest_. The fugitive who shelters in God is\ncovered by the shadow of His wing. Faith, love, and righteousness are\nthe conditions of the purest joy. Trust is joy; love is joy; obedience\nto a loved law is joy. And round him who thus, in his deepest self,\ndwells in God's house and in his daily life walks, with these angels\nfor his companions, on God's path, which by choice he has made his\nown, there is ever cast the broad buckler of God's favour. He is safe\nfrom all evil on whom God looks with love, and he on whom God so looks\nis he whose heart dwells in God's house and whose feet \"travel on\nlife's common way in cheerful godliness.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM VI.\n\n 1 Jehovah, not in Thine anger do Thou correct me,\n And not in Thy hot wrath do Thou chastise me.\n 2 Be gracious to me, Jehovah, for I am withered away;\n Heal me, Jehovah, for my bones are dismayed:\n 3 And my soul is sorely dismayed;\n And Thou, Jehovah--how long?\n\n 4 Return, Jehovah, deliver my soul;\n Save me for the sake of Thy loving-kindness.\n 5 For in death there is no remembrance of Thee;\n In Sheol who gives thee thanks?\n\n 6 I am wearied out with my groaning;\n Every night I make my bed swim;\n With my tears I melt away my couch.\n 7 My eye is wasted with trouble;\n It is aged because of all my oppressors.\n\n 8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity,\n For Jehovah has heard the voice of my weeping.\n 9 Jehovah has heard my supplication;\n Jehovah will accept my prayer.\n 10 Ashamed and sore dismayed shall be all my enemies;\n They shall turn back, shall be ashamed in a moment.\n\n\nThe theme and progress of thought in this psalm are very common,\nespecially in those attributed to David. A soul compassed by enemies,\nwhose hate has all but sapped the life out of it, \"catches at God's\nskirts and prays,\" and thence wins confidence which anticipates\ndeliverance and victory. There are numerous variations of this\n_leitmotif_, and each of the psalms which embody it has its own beauty,\nits own discords resolved into its own harmonies. The representation of\nthe trouble of spirit as producing wasting of the body is also frequent,\nand is apparently not to be taken as metaphor, though not to be pressed,\nas if the psalmist were at once struck with the two calamities of\nhostility and disease, but the latter is simply the result of the\nformer, and will disappear with it. It is needless to look for a\nhistorical occasion of the psalm, but to an ear that knows the tones of\nsorrow, or to a heart that has itself uttered them, the supposition that\nin these pathetic cries we hear only a representative Israelite\nbewailing the national ruin sounds singularly artificial. If ever the\nthrob of personal anguish found tears and a voice, it does so in this\npsalm. Whoever wrote it wrote with his blood. There are in it no obvious\nreferences to events in the recorded life of David, and hence the\nascription of it to him must rest on something else than the\ninterpretation of the psalm. The very absence of such allusions is a\nfact to be dealt with by those who deny the accuracy of the attribution\nof authorship. But, however that question may be settled, the worth of\nthis little plaintive cry depends on quite other considerations than the\ndiscovery of the name of the singer or the nature of his sorrow. It is a\ntranscript of a perennial experience, a guide for a road which all feet\nhave to travel. Its stream runs turbid and broken at first, but calms\nand clears as it flows. It has four curves or windings, which can\nscarcely be called strophes without making too artificial a framework\nfor such a simple and spontaneous gush of feeling. Still the transitions\nare clear enough.\n\nIn vv. 1-3 we have a cluster of sharp, short cries to God for help,\nwhich all mean the same thing. In each of these the great name of\nJehovah is repeated, and in each the plea urged is simply the sore\nneed of the suppliant. These are no \"vain repetitions,\" which are\npressed out of a soul by the grip of the rack; and it is not \"taking\nthe name of the Lord in vain\" when four times in three short verses\nthe passionate cry for help is winged with it as the arrow with its\nfeather. Two thoughts fill the psalmist's consciousness, or rather one\nthought--the Lord--and one feeling--his pains. In ver. 1 the Hebrew\nmakes \"in Thine anger\" and \"in Thine hot wrath\" emphatic by setting\nthese two phrases between the negative and the verb: \"Not in Thine\nanger rebuke me; not in Thy heat chasten me.\" He is willing to submit\nto both rebuke and chastisement; but he shrinks appalled from that\nform of either which tends to destruction, not to betterment. There\nare chastisements in tenderness, which express God's love, and there\nare others which manifest His alienation and wrath. This psalmist did\nnot think that all Divine retribution was intended for reformation. To\nhim there was such a thing as wrath which slew. Jeremiah has the same\ndistinction (x. 24), and the parallel has been made an argument for\nthe later date of the psalm. Cheyne and others assume that Jeremiah is\nthe original, but that is simple conjecture, and the prophet's\nconspicuous fondness for quotations from older authors makes the\nsupposition more probable that the psalm is the earlier. Resignation\nand shrinking blend in that cry, in which a heart conscious of evil\nconfesses as well as implores, recognises the justice and yet\ndeprecates the utmost severity of the blow. He who asks, \"Not in Thine\nanger rebuke me,\" thereby submits to _loving_ chastisement.\n\nThen follow in vv. 2 and 3 three short petitions, which are as much\ncries of pain as prayers, and as much prayers as cries of pain. In the\ntwo former the prayer is put first, and its plea second; in the last\nthe order is reversed, and so the whole is, as it were, enclosed in a\ncirclet of prayer. Two words make the petition in each clause, \"Have\nmercy on me, Jehovah\" (tastelessly corrected by Gr\u00e4tz into \"Revive\nme\"), and \"Heal me, Jehovah.\" The third petition is daring and\npregnant in its incompleteness. In that emphatic \"And Thou, Jehovah,\"\nthe psalmist looks up, with almost reproach in his gaze, to the\ninfinite Personality which seems so unaccountably passive. The hours\nthat bring pain are leaden-footed, and their moments each seem an\neternity. The most patient sufferer may cry, \"How long?\" and God will\nnot mistake the voice of pain for that of impatience. This threefold\nprayer, with its triple invocation, has a triple plea, which is all\nsubstantially one. His misery fills the psalmist's soul, and he\nbelieves that God will feel for him. He does not at first appeal to\nGod's revealed character, except in so far as the plaintive\nreiteration of the Divine name carries such an appeal, but he spreads\nout his own wretchedness, and he who does that has faith in God's\npity. \"I am withered away,\" like a faded flower. \"My bones are\nvexed\";--the physical effects of his calamity, \"bones\" being put for\nthe whole body, and regarded as the seat of sensibility, as is\nfrequently the usage. \"Vexed\" is too weak a rendering. The idea is\nthat of the utmost consternation. Not only the body, but the soul,\npartakes in the dismay. The \"soul\" is even more shaken than the\n\"bones\"; that is to say, mental agitation rather than physical disease\n(and the latter as the result of the former) troubles the psalmist. We\ncan scarcely fail to remember the added sanctity which these\nplaintive words have received, since they were used by the Prince of\nsufferers when all but in sight of the cross.\n\nThe next turn of thought includes vv. 4, 5, and is remarkable for the\nnew pleas on which it rests the triple prayer, \"Return; deliver;\nsave.\" God is His own motive, and His self-revelation in act must\nalways be self-consistent. Therefore the plea is presented, \"for Thy\nloving-kindness' sake.\" It beseeches Him to be what He is, and to show\nHimself as still being what He had always been. The second plea is\nstriking both in its view of the condition of the dead and in its use\nof that view as an argument with God. Like many other psalmists, the\nwriter thinks of Sheol as the common gathering-place of the departed,\na dim region where they live a poor shadowy life, inactive, joyless,\nand all but godless, inasmuch as praise, service, and fellowship with\nHim have ceased.\n\nThat view is equally compatible with the belief in a resurrection and\nthe denial of it, for it assumes continued individual consciousness.\nIt is the prevailing tone in the Psalter and in Job and Ecclesiastes.\nBut in some psalms, which embody the highest rapture of inward and\nmystical devotion, the sense of present union with God bears up the\npsalmist into the sunlight of the assurance that against such a union\ndeath can have no power, and we see the hope of immortality in the\nvery act of dawning on the devout soul. May we not say that the\nsubjective experience of the reality of communion with God now is\nstill the path by which the certainty of its perpetuity in a future\nlife is reached? The objective proof in the resurrection of Jesus\nChrist is verified by this experience. The psalmists had not the\nformer, but, having the latter, they attained to at all events\noccasional confidence in a blessed life beyond. But the tone of such\ntriumphant glimpses as xvi. 10, xvii. 15, xlix. 15, lxxiii. 24, is of\na higher mood than that of this and other psalms, which probably\nrepresent the usual view of devout Hebrews.\n\nThe fact, as it appeared to those at the then stage of revelation,\nthat remembrance and praise of God were impossible in Sheol, is urged\nas a plea. That implies the psalmist's belief that God cared for men's\npraise--a thought which may be so put as to make Him an almighty\nSelfishness, but which in its true aspect is the direct inference from\nthe faith that He is infinite Love. It is the same sweet thought of\nHim which Browning has when he makes God say, \"I miss my little human\npraise.\" God's joy in men's praise is joy in men's love and in their\nrecognition of His love.\n\nThe third turn of feeling is in vv. 6 and 7. The sense of his own\npains which, in the two previous parts of the psalm, had been\ncontending with the thought of God, masters the psalmist in these\ndreary verses, in which the absence of the name of God is noteworthy\nas expressive of his absorption in brooding over his misery. The\nvehemence of the manifestations of sorrow and the frankness of the\nrecord of these manifestations in the song are characteristic of the\nemotional, demonstrative Eastern temperament, and strike our more\nreticent dispositions as excessive. But however expressed in\nunfamiliar terms, the emotion which wails in these sad verses is only\ntoo familiar to men of all temperaments. All sad hearts are tempted to\nshut out God and to look only at their griefs. There is a strange\npleasure in turning round the knife in the wound and recounting the\ntokens of misery. This man feels some ease in telling how he had\nexhausted his strength with groaning and worn away the sleepless\nnight with weeping. Night is ever the nurse of heavy thought, and\nstings burn again then. The hyperbolical expressions that he had set\nhis bed afloat with his tears and \"melted\" it (as the word means) are\nmatched by the other hyperboles which follow, describing the effect of\nthis unmeasured weeping on his eyes. He had wept them away, and they\nwere bleared and dim like those of an old man. The cause of this\npassion of weeping is next expressed, in plain words, which connect\nthis turn of the thought with the next verses, and seem to explain the\npreviously mentioned physical pains as either metaphorical or\nconsequent on the hostility of \"mine adversaries.\"\n\nBut even while thus his spirit is bitterly burying itself in his\nsorrows the sudden certainty of the answer to his prayer flashes on\nhim. \"Sometimes a light surprises,\" as Cowper, who too well knew what\nit was to be worn with groaning, has sung. That swift conviction\nwitnesses its origin in a Divine inspiration by its very suddenness.\nNothing has changed in circumstances, but everything has changed in\naspect. Wonder and exultation throb in the threefold assurance that\nthe prayer is heard. In the two former clauses the \"hearing\" is\nregarded as a present act; in the latter the \"receiving\" is looked for\nin the future. The process, which is usually treated as one simple\nact, is here analysed. \"God has heard; therefore God will\nreceive\"--_i.e._, answer--\"my weeping prayer.\" Whence came that\nconfidence but from the breath of God on the troubled spirit? \"The\npeace of God\" is ever the reward of submissive prayer. In this\nconfidence a man can front the close-knit ring of enemies, of whatever\nsort they be, and bid them back. Their triumphant dismissal is a\nvivid way of expressing the certainty of their departure, with their\nmurderous hate unslaked and baulked. \"Mine enemies\" are \"workers of\niniquity.\" That is a daring assumption, made still more remarkable by\nthe previous confession that the psalmist's sorrow was God's rebuke\nand chastening. But a man has the right to believe that his cause is\nGod's in the measure in which he makes God's cause his. In the\nconfidence of prayer heard, the psalmist can see \"things that are not\nas though they were,\" and, though no change has passed on the\nbeleaguering hosts, triumphs in their sure rout and retreat. Very\nsignificantly does he predict in ver. 10 the same fate for them which\nhe had bewailed as his own. The \"dismay\" which had afflicted his soul\nshall pass to them (\"sore vexed\"). Since God \"returns\" (ver. 4), the\nenemy will have to \"return\" in baffled abandonment of their plans, and\nbe \"ashamed\" at the failure of their cruel hopes. And all this will\ncome as suddenly as the glad conviction had started up in the troubled\nheart of the singer. His outward life shall be as swiftly rescued as\nhis inward has been. One gleam of God's presence in his soul had lit\nits darkness, and turned tears into sparkling homes of the rainbow;\none flash of that same presence in his outward life shall scatter all\nhis foes with like swiftness.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM VII.\n\n 1 Jehovah, my God, in Thee I take refuge;\n Save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,\n 2 Lest like a lion he tear my soul, breaking it while there is no\n deliverer.\n 3 Jehovah, my God, if I have done this,\n If there is iniquity in my hands,\n 4 If I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me--\n Nay, I have delivered him that was my enemy causelessly--\n 5 May the enemy chase my soul and overtake it, and trample my life\n to the ground!\n And may he lay my honour in the dust! Selah.\n\n 6 Arise, Jehovah, in Thine anger;\n Lift up Thyself against the ragings of my adversaries,\n And awake for me: judgment Thou hast appointed.\n 7 And let a gathering of peoples stand round Thee,\n And above it sit Thou on high.\n 8 Jehovah will judge the peoples;\n Do me right, Jehovah, according to my righteousness and according\n to my innocence [that is] upon me.\n 9 Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and establish Thou the\n righteous,\n For a Trier of hearts and reins is God the righteous.\n 10 My shield is upon God,\n The Saviour of the upright-hearted.\n\n 11 God is a righteous Judge,\n And a God who is angry every day.\n 12 If [a man] turn not, He will sharpen His sword;\n His bow He has bent, and made it ready.\n 13 And at him He has aimed deadly weapons;\n His arrows He will kindle into flaming darts.\n 14 See! he is in labour with wickedness;\n Yea, he is pregnant with mischief, and gives birth to a lie.\n 15 A pit has he sunk, and dug it out;\n And he will fall into the hole he is making.\n 16 His mischief shall come back on his own head,\n And upon his own skull shall his violence come down.\n\n 17 I will thank Jehovah according to His righteousness,\n And sing with the harp to the name of Jehovah most high.\n\n\nThis is the only psalm with the title \"Shiggaion.\" The word occurs\nonly here and in Hab. iii. 1, where it stands in the plural, and with\nthe preposition \"upon,\" as if it designated instruments. The meaning\nis unknown, and commentators, who do not like to say so, have much ado\nto find one. The root is a verb, \"to wander,\" and the explanation is\ncommon that the word describes the disconnected character of the\npsalm, which is full of swiftly succeeding emotions rather than of\nsequent thoughts. But there is no such exceptional discontinuity as to\nexplain the title. It may refer to the character of the musical\naccompaniment rather than to that of the words. The authorities are\nall at sea, the LXX. shirking the difficulty by rendering \"psalm,\"\nothers giving \"error\" or \"ignorance,\" with allusion to David's\nrepentance after cutting off Saul's skirt or to Saul's repentance of\nhis persecuting David. The later Jewish writers quoted by Neubauer\n(\"Studia Biblic.,\" ii. 36, _sq._) guess at most various meanings, such\nas \"love and pleasure,\" \"occupation with music,\" \"affliction,\"\n\"humility,\" while others, again, explain it as the name of a musical\ninstrument. Clearly the antiquity of the title is proved by this\nunintelligibility. If we turn to the other part of it, we find further\nevidence of age and of independence. Who was \"Cush, a Benjamite\"? He\nis not mentioned elsewhere. The author of the title, then, had access\nto some sources for David's life other than the Biblical records; and,\nas Hupfeld acknowledges, we have here evidence of ancient ascription\nof authorship which \"has more weight than most of the others.\" Cush\nhas been supposed to be Shimei or Saul himself, and to have been so\ncalled because of his swarthy complexion (Cush meaning an African) or\nas a jest, because of his personal beauty. Cheyne, following Krochmal,\nwould correct into \"because of [Mordecai] the son of Kish, a\nBenjamite,\" and finds in this entirely conjectural and violent\nemendation an \"attestation that the psalm was very early regarded as a\nwork of the Persian age\" (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" p. 229). But there is\nreally no reason of weight for denying the Davidic authorship, as\nEwald, Hitzig, Hupfeld, and Riehm allow; and there is much in 1 Sam.\nxxiv.-xxvi. correspondent with the situation and emotions of the\npsalmist here, such as, _e.g._, the protestations of innocence, the\ncalumnies launched at him, and the call on God to judge. The tone of\nthe psalm is high and courageous, in remarkable contrast to the\ndepression of spirit in the former psalm, up out of which the singer\nhad to pray himself. Here, on the contrary, he fronts the enemy,\nlion-like though he be, without a quiver. It is the courage of\ninnocence and of trust. Psalm vi. wailed like some soft flute; Psalm\nvii. peals like the trumpet of judgment, and there is triumph in the\nnote. The whole may be divided into three parts, of which the close of\nthe first is marked by the Selah at the end of ver. 5; and the second\nincludes vv. 6-10. Thus we have the appeal of innocence for help (vv.\n1-5), the cry for more than help--namely, definite judgment (vv.\n6-10)--and the vision of judgment (vv. 11-17).\n\nThe first section has two main thoughts: the cry for help and the\nprotestation of innocence. It is in accordance with the bold\ntriumphant tone of the psalm that its first words are a profession of\nfaith in Jehovah. It is well to look _to_ God before looking _at_\ndangers and foes. He who begins with trust can go on to think of the\nfiercest antagonism without dismay. Many of the psalms ascribed to\nDavid begin thus, but it is no mere stereotyped formula. Each\nrepresents a new act of faith, in the presence of a new danger. The\nword for \"put trust\" here is very illuminative and graphic, meaning\nproperly the act of fleeing to a refuge. It is sometimes blended with\nthe image of a sheltering rock, sometimes with the still tenderer one\nof a mother-bird, as when Ruth \"came to trust under the wings of\nJehovah,\" and in many other places. The very essence of the act of\nfaith is better expressed by that metaphor than by much subtle\nexposition. Its blessedness as bringing security and warm shelter and\ntenderness more than maternal is wrapped up in the sweet and\ninstructive figure. The many enemies are, as it were, embodied in one,\non whom the psalmist concentrates his thoughts as the most formidable\nand fierce. The metaphor of the lion is common in the psalms\nattributed to David, and is, at all events, natural in the mouth of a\nshepherd king, who had taken a lion by the beard. He is quite aware of\nhis peril, if God does not help him, but he is so sure of his safety,\nsince he trusts, that he can contemplate the enemy's power unmoved,\nlike a man standing within arm's length of the lion's open jaws, but\nwith a strong grating between. This is the blessing of true faith, not\nthe oblivion of dangers, but the calm fronting of them because our\nrefuge is in God.\n\nIndignant repelling of slander follows the first burst of triumphant\ntrust (vv. 3-5). Apparently \"the words of Cush\" were calumnies\npoisoning Saul's suspicious nature, such as David refers to in 1 Sam.\nxxiv. 9: \"Wherefore hearkenest thou to men's words, saying, Behold,\nDavid seeketh thy hurt?\" The emphatic and enigmatic _This_ in ver. 3\nis unintelligible, unless it refers to some slander freshly coined,\nthe base malice of which stirs its object into flashing anger and\nvehement self-vindication. The special point of the falsehood is plain\nfrom the repudiation. He had been charged with attempting to injure\none who was at peace with him. That is exactly what \"men's words\"\ncharged on David, \"saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt\" (1 Samuel,\nas above). \"If there be iniquity in my hands\" is very like \"See that\nthere is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and I have not\nsinned against thee\"; \"Thou huntest after my soul to take it\" (1\nSamuel) is also like our ver. 1: \"them that pursue me,\" and ver. 5:\n\"let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it.\" The specific form of\nthis protestation of innocence finds no explanation in the now\nfavourite view of the sufferer in the psalm as being the righteous\nnation. The clause which is usually treated as a parenthesis in ver.\n4, and translated, as in the R.V., \"I have delivered him that without\ncause was mine adversary,\" is needlessly taken by Delitzsch and others\nas a continuation of the hypothetical clauses, and rendered, with a\nchange in the meaning of the verb, \"And if I have despoiled him,\"\netc.; but it is better taken as above and referred to the incident in\nthe cave when David spared Saul's life. What meaning would that clause\nhave with the national reference? The metaphor of a wild beast in\nchase of its prey colours the vehement declaration in ver. 5 of\nreadiness to suffer if guilty. We see the swift pursuit, the victim\novertaken and trampled to death. There may also be an echo of the\nSong of Miriam (Exod. xv. 9): \"The enemy said, I will pursue; I will\novertake.\" To \"lay my glory in the dust\" is equivalent to \"bring down\nmy soul to the dust of death.\" Man's glory is his \"soul.\" Thus, nobly\nthrobbing with conscious innocence and fronting unmerited hate, the\nrush of words stops, to let the musical accompaniment blare on, for a\nwhile, as if defiant and confident.\n\nThe second section of the psalm (vv. 6-10) is a cry for the coming of\nthe Divine Judge. The previous prayer was content with deliverance,\nbut this takes a bolder flight, and asks for the manifestation of the\npunitive activity of God on the enemies, who, as usually, are\nidentified with \"evil-doers.\" The grand metaphors in \"Arise,\" \"Lift up\nThyself,\" \"Awake,\" mean substantially the same thing. The long periods\nduring which evil works and flaunts with impunity are the times when\nGod sits as if passive and, in a figure still more daring, as if\nasleep. When His destructive power flashed into act, and some\nlong-tolerated iniquity was smitten at a blow, the Hebrew singers saw\ntherein God springing to His feet or awaking to judgment. Such long\nstretches of patient permission of evil and of swift punishment are\nrepeated through the ages, and individual lives have them in\nminiature. The great judgments of nations and the small ones of single\nmen embody the same principles, just as the tiniest crystal has the\nsame angles and lines of cleavage as the greatest of its kind. So this\npsalmist has penetrated to a true discernment of the relations of the\nsmall and the great, when he links his own vindication by the judicial\nact of God with the pomp and splendour of a world-wide judgment, and\nbases his prayer for the former on the Divine purpose to effect the\nlatter. The sequence, \"The Lord ministereth judgment to the\npeoples\"--therefore--\"judge me, O Lord,\" does not imply that the \"me\"\nis the nation, but simply indicates as the ground of the individual\nhope of a vindicating judgment the Divine fact, of which history had\ngiven him ample proof and faith gave him still fuller evidence, that\nGod, though He sometimes seemed to sleep, did indeed judge the\nnations. The prerogative of the poet, and still more, the instinct of\nthe inspired spirit, is to see the law of the greatest exemplified in\nthe small and to bring every triviality of personal life into contact\nwith God and His government. The somewhat harsh construction of the\nlast clause of ver. 6 begins the transition from the prayer for the\nsmaller to the assurance of the greater judgment which is its basis,\nand similarly the first clause of ver. 8 closes the picture of that\nwider act, and the next clause returns to the prayer. This picture,\nthus embedded in the heart of the supplication, is majestic in its few\nbroad strokes. First comes the appointment of judgment, then the\nassembling of the \"peoples,\" which here may, perhaps, have the\nnarrower meaning of the \"tribes,\" since \"congregation\" is the word\nused for them in their national assembly, and would scarcely be\nemployed for the collection of Gentile nations. But whether the\nconcourse be all Israel or all nations, they are gathered in silent\nexpectance as in a great judgment-hall. Then enters the Judge. If we\nretain the usual reading and rendering of ver. 7 _b_, the act of\njudgment is passed over in silence, and the poet beholds God, the\njudgment finished, soaring above the awe-struck multitudes, in\ntriumphant return to the repose of His heavenly throne. But the slight\nemendation of the text, needed to yield the meaning \"Sit Thou above\nit,\" is worthy of consideration. In either case, the picture closes\nwith the repeated assurance of the Divine judgment of the peoples, and\n(ver. 8) the prayer begins again. The emphatic assertion of innocence\nmust be taken in connection with the slanders already repudiated. The\nmatter in hand is the evils charged on the psalmist, for which he was\nbeing chased as if by lions, the judgment craved is the chastisement\nof his persecutors, and the innocence professed is simply the\ninnocence which they calumniated. The words have no bearing at all on\nthe psalmist's general relation to the Divine law, nor is there any\nneed to have recourse to the hypothesis that the speaker is the\n\"righteous nation.\" It is much more difficult to vindicate a member of\nthat remnant from the charge of overestimating the extent and quality\nof even the righteous nation's obedience, if he meant to allege, as\nthat interpretation would make him do, that the nation was pure in\nlife and heart, than it is to vindicate the single psalmist vehemently\nprotesting his innocence of the charges for which he was hunted.\nCheyne confesses (Commentary _in loc._) that the \"psalmist's view may\nseem too rose-coloured,\" which is another way of acknowledging that\nthe interpretation of the protestation as the voice of the nation is\nat variance with the facts of its condition.\n\nThe accents require ver. 9 _a_ to be rendered \"Let wickedness make an\nend of the wicked,\" but that introduces an irrelevant thought of the\nsuicidal nature of evil. It may be significant that the psalmist's\nprayer is not for the destruction of the wicked, but of their\nwickedness. Such annihilation of evil is the great end of God's\njudgment, and its consequence will be the establishment of the\nrighteous. Again the prayer strengthens itself by the thought of God\nas righteous and as trying the hearts and reins (the seat of feeling).\nIn the presence of rampant and all but triumphant evil, a man needs to\nfeed hopes of its overthrow that would else seem vainest dreams, by\ngazing on the righteousness and searching power of God. Very\nbeautifully does the order of the words in ver. 9 suggest the kindred\nof the good man with God by closing each division of the verse with\n\"righteous.\" A righteous man has a claim on a righteous God. Most\nnaturally then the prayer ends with the calm confidence of ver. 10:\n\"My shield is upon God.\" He Himself bears the defence of the psalmist.\nThis confidence he has won by his prayer, and in it he ceases to be a\nsuppliant and becomes a seer.\n\nThe last section (ver. 11 to end) is a vision of the judgment prayed\nfor, and may be supposed to be addressed to the enemy. If so, the\nhunted man towers above them, and becomes a rebuker. The character of\nGod underlies the fact of judgment, as it had encouraged the prayer\nfor it. What he had said to himself when his hope drooped, he now, as\na prophet, peals out to men as making retribution sure: \"God is a\nrighteous Judge, yea a God that hath indignation every day.\" The\nabsence of an object specified for the indignation makes its\ninevitable flow wherever there is evil the more vividly certain. If He\nis such, then of course follows the destruction of every one who\n\"turns not.\" Retribution is set forth with solemn vigour under four\nfigures. First, God is as an armed enemy sharpening His sword in\npreparation for action, a work of time which in the Hebrew is\nrepresented as in process, and bending His bow, which is the work of a\nmoment, and in the Hebrew is represented as a completed act. Another\nsecond, and the arrow will whizz. Not only is the bow bent, but (ver.\n11) the deadly arrows are aimed, and not only aimed, but continuously\nfed with flame. The Hebrew puts \"At him\" (the wicked) emphatically at\nthe beginning of the verse, and uses the form of the verb which\nimplies completed action for the \"aiming\" and that which implies\nincomplete for \"making\" the arrows burn. So the stern picture is drawn\nof God as in the moment before the outburst of His punitive\nenergy--the sword sharpened, the bow bent, the arrows fitted, the\nburning stuff being smeared on their tips. What will happen when all\nthis preparation blazes into action?\n\nThe next figure in ver. 14 insists on the automatic action of evil in\nbringing punishment. It is the Old Testament version of \"Sin when it\nis finished bringeth forth death.\" The evil-doer is boldly represented\nas \"travailing with iniquity,\" and that metaphor is broken up into the\ntwo parts \"He hath conceived mischief\" and \"He hath brought forth\nfalsehood.\" The \"falsehood,\" which is the thing actually produced, is\nso called, not because it deceives others, but because it mocks its\nproducer with false hopes and never fulfils his purposes. This is but\nthe highly metaphorical way of saying that a sinner never does what he\nmeans to do, but that the end of all his plans is disappointment. The\nlaw of the universe condemns him to feed on ashes and to make and\ntrust in lies.\n\nA third figure brings out more fully the idea implied in \"falsehood,\"\nnamely, the failure of evil to accomplish its doer's purpose. Crafty\nattempts to trap others have an ugly habit of snaring their contriver.\nThe irony of fortune tumbles the hunter into the pitfall dug by him for\nhis prey. The fourth figure (ver. 16) represents the incidence of his\nevil on the evil-doer as being certain as the fall of a stone thrown\nstraight up, which will infallibly come back in the line of its ascent.\nRetribution is as sure as gravitation, especially if there is an Unseen\nHand above, which adds impetus and direction to the falling weight. All\nthese metaphors, dealing with the \"natural\" consequences of evil, are\nadduced as guarantees of _God's_ judgment, whence it is clear both that\nthe psalmist is thinking not of some final future judgment, but of the\ncontinuous one of daily providence, and that he made no sharp line of\ndemarcation between the supernatural and the natural. The qualities of\nthings and the play of natural events are God's working.\n\nSo the end of all is thanksgiving. A stern but not selfish nor\nunworthy thankfulness follows judgment, with praise which is not\ninconsistent with tears of pity, even as the act of judgment which\ncalls it forth is not inconsistent with Divine love. The vindication\nof God's righteousness is worthily hymned by the choral thanksgivings\nof all who love righteousness. By judgment Jehovah makes Himself known\nas \"most high,\" supreme over all creatures; and hence the music of\nthanksgiving celebrates Him under that name. The title \"Elyon\" here\nemployed is regarded by Cheyne and others as a sign of late date, but\nthe use of it seems rather a matter of poetic style than of\nchronology. Melchizedek, Balaam, and the king of Babylon (Isa. xiv.\n14) use it; it occurs in Daniel, but, with these exceptions, is\nconfined to poetical passages, and cannot be made out to be a mark of\nlate date, except by assuming the point in question--namely, the late\ndate of the poetry, principally nineteen psalms, in which it occurs.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM VIII.\n\n 1 Jehovah, our Lord,\n How glorious is Thy name in all the earth!\n Who hast set Thy glory upon the heavens.\n 2 Out of the mouth of children and sucklings hast Thou founded a\n strength,\n Because of Thine adversaries,\n To still the enemy and the revengeful.\n\n 3 When I gaze on Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,\n Moon and stars, which Thou hast established,\n 4 What is frail man, that Thou rememberest him,\n And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?\n 5 For Thou didst let him fall but little short of God,\n And crownedst him with glory and honour.\n 6 Thou madest him ruler over the works of Thy hands;\n Thou hast put all things under his feet,\n 7 Sheep and oxen, all of them,\n And likewise beasts of the field,\n 8 Fowl of the heavens and fishes of the sea,\n Whatever traverses the paths of the seas.\n\n 9 Jehovah, our Lord, how glorious is Thy name in all the earth!\n\n\nThe exclamation which begins and ends this psalm, enclosing it as a\njewel in a setting, determines its theme as being neither the nightly\nheaven, with all its stars, nor the dignity of man, but the name of the\nLord as proclaimed by both. The Biblical contemplation of nature and man\nstarts from and ends in God. The main thought of the psalm is the\nsuperiority of the revelation in man's nature and place to that in the\nvault of heaven. The very smallness of man makes the revelation of God\nin His dealings with him great. In his insignificance is lodged a Divine\nspark, and, lowly as is his head as he stands beneath the midnight sky\nblazing with inaccessible lights, it is crowned with a halo which\nreflects God's glory more brightly than does their lustre. That one idea\nis the theme of both parts of the psalm. In the former (vv. 1, 2) it is\nbriefly stated; in the latter (vv. 3-8) it is wrought out in detail. The\nmovement of thought is by expansion rather than progress.\n\nThe name of the Lord is His character as made known. The psalmist\nlooks beyond Israel, the recipient of a fuller manifestation, and,\nwith adoring wonder, sees far-flashing through all the earth, as if\nwritten in light, the splendour of that name. The universal revelation\nin the depths of the sparkling heavens and the special one by which\nIsrael can say, \"our Lord,\" are both recognised. The very abruptness\nof the exclamation in ver. 1 tells that it is the end of long, silent\ncontemplation, which overflows at last in speech. The remainder of\nver. 1 and ver. 2 present the two forms of Divine manifestation which\nit is the main purpose of the psalm to contrast, and which effect the\nworld-wide diffusion of the glory of the Name. These are the\napocalypse in the nightly heavens and the witness from the mouth of\nbabes and sucklings. As to the former, there is some difficulty in the\ntext as it stands; and there may be a question also as to the\nconnection with the preceding burst of praise. The word rendered \"hast\nset\" is an imperative, which introduces an incongruous thought, since\nthe psalm proceeds on the conviction that God has already done what\nsuch a reading would be asking Him to do. The simplest solution is to\nsuppose a textual corruption, and to make the slight change required\nfor the rendering of the A.V. and R.V. God's name is glorious in all\nthe earth, first, because He has set His glory upon the heavens, which\nstretch their solemn magnificence above every land. It is His glory of\nwhich theirs is the shimmering reflection, visible to every eye\nupturned from \"this dim spot which men call earth.\" May we attach\nsignificance to the difference between \"Thy name\" and \"Thy glory\"?\nPossibly there is a hint of the relative inferiority even of the\nheavenly proclamation, inasmuch as, while it rays out \"glory,\" the\nlustre of power and infinitude, it is only on earth that that\nrevelation becomes the utterance of the Name, since here are hearts\nand minds to interpret.\n\nThe relative at the beginning of the last clause of ver. 1 seems to\nrequire that the initial exclamation should not be isolated, as it is\nin the last verse; but, in any case, the two methods of revelation\nmust be taken in the closest connection, and brought into line as\nparallel media of revelation.\n\nVer. 2 gives the second of these. The sudden drop from the glories of\nthe heavens to the babble and prattle of infancy and childhood is most\nimpressive, and gives extraordinary force to the paradox that the\nlatter's witness is more powerful to silence gainsayers than that of the\nformer. This conviction is expressed in a noble metaphor, which is\nblurred by the rendering \"strength.\" The word here rather means _a\nstrength_ in the old use of the term--that is, a stronghold or\nfortress--and the image, somewhat more daring than colder Western taste\nfinds permissible, is that, out of such frail material as children's\nspeech, God builds a tower of strength, which, like some border castle,\nwill bridle and still the restless enemy. There seems no sufficient\nreason for taking \"children and sucklings\" in any but its natural\nmeaning, however the reference to lowly believers may accord with the\nspirit of the psalm. The children's voices are taken as a type of feeble\ninstruments, which are yet strong enough to silence the enemy.\nChildhood, \"with no language but a cry,\" is, if rightly regarded in its\nsource, its budding possibilities, its dependence, its growth, a more\npotent witness to a more wondrous name than are all the stars. In like\nmanner, man is man's clearest revelation of God. The more lowly he is,\nthe more lofty his testimony. What are all His servants' words but the\nbabbling of children who \"do not know half the deep things they speak\"?\nGod's strongest fortress is built of weakest stones. The rendering of\nthe LXX., which is that used by our Lord in the Temple when He claimed\nthe children's shrill hosannas as perfected praise, is an explanation\nrather than a translation, and as such is quite in the line of the\npsalmist's meaning. To find in the \"children and sucklings\" a reference\neither to the humble believers in Israel or to the nation as a whole,\nand in the \"enemy and the vengeful man\" hostile nations, introduces\nthoughts alien to the universality of the psalm, which deals with\nhumanity as a whole and with the great revelations wide as humanity. If\nthe two parts of the psalm are to be kept together, the theme of the\ncompendious first portion must be the same as that of the second,\nnamely, the glory of God as revealed by nature and man, but most chiefly\nby the latter, notwithstanding and even by his comparative feebleness.\n\nThe second part (vv. 3-8) expands the theme of the first. The nightly\nsky is more overwhelming than the bare blue vault of day. Light\nconceals and darkness unveils the solemn glories. The silent depths,\nthe inaccessible splendours, spoke to this psalmist, as they do to all\nsensitive souls, of man's relative insignificance, but they spoke also\nof the God whose hand had fashioned them, and the thought of Him\ncarried with it the assurance of His care for so small a creature, and\ntherefore changed the aspect of his insignificance. To an ear deaf to\nthe witness of the heavens to their Maker, the only voice which sounds\nfrom their crushing magnificence is one which counsels unmitigated\ndespair, insists on man's nothingness, and mocks his aspirations. If\nwe stop with \"What is man?\" the answer is, A fleeting nothing. The\nmagnitude, the duration, the multitudes of these awful suns and stars\ndwarf him. Modern astronomy has so far increased the impression that\nit has landed many minds in blank unbelief that God has visited so\nsmall a speck as earth, and abundant ridicule has been poured on the\narrogance which dreams that such stupendous events, as the Christian\nrevelation asserts, have been transacted on earth for man. If we begin\nwith man, certainly his insignificance makes it supremely absurd to\nsuppose him thus distinguished; but if we begin at the other end, the\nsupposition takes a new appearance of probability. If there is a God,\nand men are His creatures, it is supremely unlikely that He should not\nhave a care of them. Nothing can be more absurd than the supposition\nof a dumb God, who has never spoken to such a being as man. The\npsalmist gives full weight to man's smallness, his frailty, and his\nlowly origin, for his exclamation, \"What is man?\" means, \"How little\nis he!\" and he uses the words which connote frailty and mortality, and\nemphasise the fact of birth as if in contrast with \"the work of Thy\nfingers\"; but all these points only enhance the wonderfulness of what\nis to the poet an axiom--that God has personal relations with His\ncreature. \"Thou art mindful of him\" refers to God's thought, \"Thou\nvisitest him\" to His acts of loving care; and both point to God's\nuniversal beneficence, not to His special revelation. The bitter\nparody in Job vii. 17, 18, takes the truth by the other handle, and\nmakes the personal relations those of a rigid inspector on the one\nhand and a creature not worth being so strict with on the other.\nMindfulness is only watchfulness for slips, and visiting means penal\nvisitation. So the same fact may be the source of thankful wonder or\nof almost blasphemous murmuring.\n\nVv. 5-8 draw out the consequences of God's loving regard, which has\nmade the insignificance of man the medium of a nobler manifestation of\nthe Divine name than streams from all the stars. There is no allusion\nhere to sin; and its absence has led to the assertion that this\npsalmist knew nothing of a fall, and was not in harmony with the\nprevalent Old Testament tone as to the condition of humanity. But\nsurely the contemplation of the ideal manhood, as it came from God's\nhand, does not need to be darkened by the shadows of the actual. The\npicture of man as God made him is the only theme which concerns the\npsalmist; and he paints it with colours drawn from the Genesis\naccount, which tells of the fall as well as the creation of man.\n\nThe picture contains three elements: man is Deiform, crowned with glory\nand honour, and lord of the creatures on earth. The rendering \"than the\nangels\" in the A.V. comes from the LXX., but though defensible, is less\nprobable than the more lofty conception contained in \"than God,\" which\nis vindicated, not only by lexical considerations, but as embodying an\nallusion to the original creation \"in the image of God.\" What then is\nthe \"little\" which marks man's inferiority? It is mainly that the\nspirit, which is God's image, is confined in and limited by flesh, and\nsubject to death. The distance from the apex of creation to the Creator\nmust ever be infinite; but man is so far above the non-sentient, though\nmighty, stars and the creatures which share earth with him, by reason of\nhis being made in the Divine image--_i.e._, having consciousness, will,\nand reason--that the distance is foreshortened. The gulf between man and\nmatter is greater than that between man and God. The moral separation\ncaused by sin is not in the psalmist's mind. Thus man is invested with\nsome reflection of God's glory, and wears this as a crown. He is king on\nearth.\n\nThe enumeration of his subjects follows, in language reminding again\nof the Genesis narrative. The catalogue begins with those nearest to\nhim, the long-tamed domestic animals, and of these the most submissive\n(sheep) first; it then passes to the untamed animals, whose home is\n\"the field\" or uncultivated land, and from them goes to the heights\nand depths, where the free fowls of the air and fish of the sea and\nall the mysterious monsters that may roam the hidden ways of that\nunknown ocean dwell. The power of taming and disciplining some, the\nright to use all, belong to man, but his subjects have their rights\nand their king his limits of power and his duties.\n\nSuch then is man, as God meant him to be. Such a being is a more\nglorious revelation of the Name than all stars and systems. Looked at in\nregard to his duration, his years are a handbreadth before these shining\nancients of days that have seen his generations fret their little hour\nand sink into silence; looked at in contrast with their magnitude and\nnumbers numberless, he is but an atom, and his dwelling-place a speck.\nScience increases the knowledge of his insignificance, but perhaps not\nthe impression of it made on a quiet heart by the simple sight of the\nheavens. But besides the merely scientific view, and the merely poetic,\nand the grimly Agnostic, there is the other, the religious, and it is as\nvalid to-day as ever. To it the heavens are the work of God's finger,\nand their glories are His, set there by Him. That being so, man's\nlittleness magnifies the name, because it enhances the condescending\nlove of God, which has greatened the littleness by such nearness of care\nand such gifts of dignity. The reflection of His glory which blazes in\nthe heavens is less bright than that which gleams in the crown of glory\nand honour on man's lowly yet lofty head. The \"babe and suckling\" of\ncreation has a mouth from which the strength of perfected praise issues\nand makes a bulwark against all gainsayers.\n\nThe use made of this psalm in the Epistle to the Hebrews proceeds on\nthe understanding that it describes ideal humanity. Where, then, says\nthe writer of the epistle, shall we look for the realisation of that\nideal? Do not the grand words sound liker irony than truth? Is this\npoor creature that crawls about the world, its slave, discrowned and\nsure to die, the Man whom the psalmist saw? No. Then was the fair\nvision a baseless fabric, and is there nothing to be looked for but a\ndreary continuance of such abortions dragging out their futile being\nthrough hopeless generations? No; the promise shall be fulfilled for\nhumanity, because it has been fulfilled in one Man: the Man Christ\nJesus. He is the realised ideal, and in Him is a life which will be\ncommunicated to all who trust and obey Him, and they, too, will become\nall that God meant man to be. The psalm was not intended as a\nprophecy, but every clear vision of God's purpose is a prophecy, for\nnone of His purposes remain unfulfilled. It was not intended as a\npicture of the Christ, but it is so; for He, and He alone, is the Man\nwho answers to that fair Divine Ideal, and He will make all His people\npartakers of His royalty and perfect manhood.\n\nSo the psalm ends, as it began, with adoring wonder, and proclaims\nthis as the result of the twofold witness which it has so nobly set\nforth: that God's name shines glorious through all the earth, and\nevery eye may see its lustre.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM IX.\n\n 1 (\u05d0) I will thank Jehovah with my whole heart;\n I will recount all Thy wonders.\n 2 I will be glad and exult in Thee;\n I will sing Thy name, Most High,\n\n 3 (\u05d1) Because mine enemies turn back;\n They stumble and perish at Thy presence.\n 4 For Thou hast upheld my right and my suit;\n Thou didst seat Thyself on Thy throne, judging righteously.\n\n 5 (\u05d2) Thou hast rebuked the nations, Thou hast destroyed the wicked;\n Thou hast blotted out their name for ever and aye.\n 6 The enemy--they are ended, [they are] desolations for ever,\n And [their] cities hast Thou rooted out; perished is their memory.\n\n 7 (\u05d4) They [are perished], but Jehovah shall sit throned for ever;\n He hath prepared His throne for judgment.\n 8 And He--He shall judge the world in righteousness;\n He shall deal judgment to the peoples in equity.\n\n 9 (\u05d5) And Jehovah shall be a lofty stronghold for the crushed,\n A lofty stronghold in times of extremity.\n 10 And they who know Thy name will put trust in Thee,\n For Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee, Jehovah.\n\n 11 (\u05d6) Sing with the harp to Jehovah, sitting throned in Zion;\n Declare among the peoples His doings.\n 12 For He that makes inquisition for blood has remembered them;\n He has not forgotten the cry of the humble.\n\n 13 (\u05d7) Have mercy on me, Jehovah;\n Look on my affliction from my haters,\n Thou who liftest me up from the gates of death\n 14 To the end that I may recount all Thy praises.\n In the gates of the daughter of Zion,\n I will rejoice in Thy salvation.\n\n 15 (\u05d8) The nations are sunk in the pit they made;\n In the net which they spread their foot is caught.\n 16 Jehovah makes Himself known; judgment hath He done,\n Snaring the wicked by the work of his own hands. Higgaion; Selah.\n\n 17 (\u05d9) The wicked shall return to Sheol,\n All the nations who forget God\n 18 For not for ever shall the needy be forgotten,\n Nor the expectation of the afflicted perish for aye.\n\n 19 (\u05e7) Arise, Jehovah: let not man grow strong;\n Let the nations be judged before Thy presence.\n 20 Appoint, Jehovah, terrors for them;\n Let the nations come to know that they are men.\n\n\nPsalms vii. and ix. are connected by the recurrence of the two thoughts\nof God as the Judge of nations and the wicked falling into the pit which\nhe digged. Probably the original arrangement of the Psalter put these\ntwo next each other, and Psalm viii. was inserted later.\n\nPsalm ix. is imperfectly acrostic. It falls into strains of two verses\neach, which are marked by sequence of thought as well as by the acrostic\narrangement. The first begins with Aleph, the second with Beth, and so\non, the second verse of each pair not being counted in the scheme. The\nfourth letter is missing, and ver. 7, which should begin with it, begins\nwith the sixth. But a textual correction, which is desirable on other\ngrounds, makes the fifth letter (He) the initial of ver. 7, and then the\nregular sequence is kept up till ver. 19, which should begin with the\nsoft K, but takes instead the guttural Q. What has become of the rest of\nthe alphabet? Part of it is found in Psalm x., where the first verse\nbegins with the L, which should follow the regular K for ver. 19. But\nthere is no more trace of acrostic structure in x. till ver. 12, which\nresumes it with the Q which has already appeared out of place in ix.\n19; and it goes on to the end of the alphabet, with only the\nirregularity that the R strain (x. 14) has but one verse. Verses with\nthe missing letters would just about occupy the space of the\nnon-acrostic verses in Psalm x., and the suggestion is obvious that the\nlatter are part of some other psalm which has been substituted for the\noriginal; but there are links of connection between the non-acrostic and\nacrostic portions of Psalm x., which make that hypothesis difficult. The\nresemblances between the two psalms as they stand are close, and the\ndissimilarities not less obvious. The psalmist's enemies are different.\nIn the former they are foreign, in the latter domestic. Psalm ix. rings\nwith triumph; Psalm x. is in a minor key. The former celebrates a\njudgment as accomplished which the latter almost despairingly longs to\nsee begun. On the whole, the two were most probably never formally one,\nbut are a closely connected pair.\n\nThere is nothing to discredit the Davidic authorship. The singer's\nenemies are \"nations,\" and the destruction of these foreign foes is\nequivalent to \"maintaining his cause.\" That would be language natural\nin the mouth of a king, and there were foreign wars enough in David's\nreign to supply appropriate occasions for such a song. The psalm falls\ninto two parts, vv. 1-12 and 13 to end, of which the second\nsubstantially repeats the main thoughts of the first, but with a\nsignificant difference. In the first part the sequence is praise and\nits occasion (Aleph and Beth verses, 1-4), triumphant recounting of\naccomplished judgment (Gimel verses, 5, 6), confident expectation of\nfuture wider judgment (amended He and Vav pairs, vv. 7-10), and a\nfinal call to praise (vii. 12). Thus set, as it were, in a circlet of\npraise, are experience of past and consequent confidence of future\ndeliverance. The second part gives the same order, only, instead of\npraise, it has prayer for its beginning and end, the two central\nportions remaining the same as in part I. The Cheth pair (vv. 13, 14)\nis prayer, the deliverance not being perfected, though some foes have\nfallen; the past act of accomplished judgment is again celebrated in\nthe Teth pair (vv. 15, 16), followed, as before, by the triumphant\nconfidence of future complete crushing of enemies (Yod strain, vv. 17,\n18); and all closes with prayer (Qoph pair, vv. 19, 20). Thus the same\nthoughts are twice dwelt on; and the different use made of them is the\nexplanation of the repetition, which strikes a cursory reader as\nneedless. The diamond is turned a little in the hand, and a\ndifferently tinted beam flashes from its facet.\n\nIn the first pair of verses, the song rushes out like some river\nbreaking through a dam and flashing as it hurries on its course. Each\nshort clause begins with Aleph; each makes the same fervid resolve.\nWholehearted praise is sincere, and all the singer's being is fused\ninto it. \"All Thy marvellous works\" include the great deliverances of\nthe past, with which a living sense of God's working associates those\nof the present, as one in character and source. To-day is as full of\nGod to this man as the sacred yesterdays of national history, and his\ndeliverances as wonderful as those of old. But high above the joy in\nGod's work is the joy in Himself to which it leads, and \"Thy name, O\nthou Most High,\" is the ground of all pure delight and the theme of\nall worthy praise.\n\nThe second stanza (Beth, vv. 3, 4) is best taken as giving the ground of\npraise. Render in close connection with preceding \"_because_ mine\nenemies turn back; they stumble and perish at [or from] Thy presence.\"\nGod's face blazes out on the foe, and they turn and flee from the field,\nbut in their flight they stumble, and, like fugitives, once fallen can\nrise no more. The underlying picture is of a battle-field and a\ndisastrous rout. It is God's coming into action that scatters the enemy,\nas ver. 4 tells by its \"for.\" When He took His seat on the throne (of\njudgment rather than of royalty), they fled; and that act of assuming\njudicial activity was the maintaining of the psalmist's cause.\n\nThe third pair of verses (Gimel, 5, 6) dwells on the grand picture of\njudgment, and specifies for the first time the enemies as \"the\nnations\" or \"heathen,\" thus showing that the psalmist is not a private\nindividual, and probably implying that the whole psalm is a hymn of\nvictory, in which the heat of battle still glows, but which writes no\nname on the trophy but that of God. The metaphor of a judgment-seat is\nexchanged for a triumphant description of the destructions fallen on\nthe land of the enemy, in all which God alone is recognised as the\nactor. \"Thou hast rebuked\"; and just as His creative word was\nall-powerful, so His destructive word sweeps its objects into\nnothingness. There is a grand and solemn sequence in that \"Thou hast\nrebuked; ... Thou hast destroyed.\" His breath has made; His breath can\nunmake. In ver. 6 the rendering to be preferred is substantially that\nof the R.V.: \"The enemy are ended, [they are] ruins for ever, and\ncities hast Thou rooted out; perished is their memory.\" To take\n\"enemy\" as a vocative breaks the continuity of the address to God, and\nbrings in an irrelevant reference to the former conquests of the foe\n(\"Thou hast destroyed cities\") which is much more forcible if\nregarded as descriptive of God's destruction of his cities. \"Their\nmemory\" refers to the enemy, not to the cities. Utter, perpetual ruin,\nso complete that the very name is forgotten, has fallen on the foe.\n\nIn the fourth pair of verses a slight emendation of the text is\napproved of by most critics. The last word of ver. 6 is the pronoun\n\"they,\" which, though possible in such a position, is awkward. If it\nis transferred to the beginning of ver. 7, and it is further supposed\nthat \"are perished\" has dropped out, as might easily be the case, from\nthe verb having just occurred in the singular, a staking antithesis is\ngained: \"They perish, but Jehovah shall sit,\" etc. Further, the pair\nof verses then begins with the fifth letter; and the only irregularity\nin the acrostic arrangement till ver. 19 is the omission of the fourth\nletter: Daleth. A very significant change in tenses takes place at\nthis point. Hitherto the verbs have been perfects, implying a finished\nact; that is to say, hitherto the psalm has been dealing with facts of\nrecent but completed experience. Now the verbs change to imperfects or\nfutures, and continue so till ver. 12; that is to say, \"experience\ndoth attain to something of prophetic strain,\" and passes into\nconfidence for the future. That confidence is cast in the mould\nsupplied by the deliverance on which it is founded. The smaller act of\njudgment, which maintained the psalmist's cause, expands into a\nworld-wide judgment in righteousness, for which the preparations are\nalready made. \"He hath prepared His throne for judgment\" is the only\nperfect in the series. This is the true point of view from which to\nregard the less comprehensive acts of judgment thinly sown through\nhistory, when God has arisen to smite some hoary iniquity or some\ngodless conqueror. Such acts are premonitions of the future, and every\n\"day of the Lord\" is a miniature of that final _dies ir\u00e6_. The\npsalmist probably was rather thinking of other acts of judgment which\nwould free him and his people from hostile nations, but his hope was\nbuilt on the great truth that all such acts are prophecies of others\nlike them, and it is a legitimate extension of the same principle to\nview them all in relation to the last and greatest of the series.\n\nThe fifth pair (Vav stanza, vv. 9, 10) turns to the glad contemplation\nof the purpose of all the pomp and terror of the judgment thus hoped\nfor. The Judge is seated on high, and His elevation makes a \"lofty\nstronghold\" for the crushed or downtrodden.\n\nThe rare word rendered \"extremity\" in ver. 9 occurs only here and in\nx. 1. It means a cutting off, _i.e._, of hope of deliverance. The\nnotion of distress intensified to despair is conveyed. God's judgments\nshow that even in such extremity He is an inexpugnable defence, like\nsome hill fortress, inaccessible to any foe. A further result of\njudgment is the (growing) trust of devout souls (ver. 10). To \"know\nThy name\" is here equivalent to learning God's character as made known\nby His acts, especially by the judgments anticipated. For such\nknowledge some measure of devout trust is required, but further\nknowledge deepens trust. The best teacher of faith is experience; and,\non the other hand, the condition of such experience is faith. The\naction of knowledge and of trust is reciprocal. That trust is\nreinforced by the renewed evidence, afforded by the judgments, that\nJehovah does not desert them that seek Him. To \"seek Him\" is to long\nfor Him, to look for His help in trouble, to turn with desire and\nobedience to Him in daily life; and anything is possible rather than\nthat He should not disclose and give Himself to such search. Trust and\nseeking, fruition and desire, the repose of the soul on God and its\nlonging after God, are inseparable. They are but varying aspects of\nthe one thing. When a finite spirit cleaves to the infinite God, there\nmust be longing as an element in all possession and possession as an\nelement in all longing; and both will be fed by contemplation of the\nself-revealing acts which are the syllables of His name.\n\nSection 6, the last of the first part (Zayin, vv. 11, 12), circles\nround to section 1, and calls on all trusters and seekers to be a\nchorus to the solo of praise therein. The ground of the praise is the\nsame past act which has been already set forth as that of the\npsalmist's thanksgiving, as is shown by the recurrence here of perfect\ntenses (_hath remembered_; _hath not forgotten_). The designation of\nGod as \"dwelling\" in Zion is perhaps better rendered, with allusion to\nthe same word in ver. 7, \"sitteth.\" His seat had been there from the\ntime that the Ark was brought thither. That earthly throne was the\ntype of His heavenly seat, and from Zion He is conceived as executing\njudgment. The world-wide destination of Israel's knowledge of God\ninspires the call to \"show forth His doings\" to \"the peoples.\" The\n\"nations\" are not merely the objects of destructive wrath, but are to\nbe summoned to share in the blessing of knowing His mighty acts. The\npsalmist may not have been able to harmonise these two points of view\nas to Israel's relation to the Gentile world, but both thoughts\nvibrate in his song. The designation of God as \"making inquisition for\nblood\" thinks of Him as the Goel, or Avenger. To seek means here to\ndemand back as one who had entrusted property to another who had\ndestroyed it would do, thence to demand compensation or satisfaction,\nand thus finally comes to mean to avenge or punish (so Hupfeld,\nDelitzsch, etc.). \"The poor\" or \"meek\" (R.V. and margin) whose cry is\nheard are the devout portion of the Jewish people, who are often\nspoken of in the Psalms and elsewhere as a class.\n\nThe second part of the psalm begins with ver. 13. The prayer in that\nverse is the only trace of trouble in the psalm. The rest is triumph and\nexultation. This, at first sight discordant, note has sorely exercised\ncommentators; and the violent solution that the whole Cheth stanza (vv.\n13, 14) should be regarded as \"the cry of the meek,\" quoted by the\npsalmist, and therefore be put in inverted commas (though adopted by\nDelitzsch and Cheyne), is artificial and cold. If the view of the\nstructure of the psalm given above is adopted, there is little\ndifficulty in the connection. The victory has been completed over\ncertain enemies, but there remain others; and the time for praise\nunmingled with petition has not yet come for the psalmist, as it never\ncomes for any of us in this life. Quatre Bras is won, but Waterloo has\nto be fought to-morrow. The prayer takes account of the dangers still\nthreatening, but it only glances at these, and then once more turns to\nlook with hope on the accomplished deliverance. The thought of how God\nhad lifted the suppliant up from the very gates of death heartens him to\npray for all further mercy needed. Death is the lord of a gloomy\nprison-house, the gates of which open inwards only and permit no egress.\nOn its very threshold the psalmist had stood. But God had lifted him\nthence, and the remembrance wings his prayer. \"The gates of the\ndaughter of Zion\" are in sharp, happy contrast with the frowning portals\nof death. A city's gates are the place of cheery life, stir, gossip,\nbusiness. Anything proclaimed there flies far. There the psalmist\nresolves that he will tell his story of rescue, which he believes was\ngranted that it might be told. God's purpose in blessing men is that\nthey may open their lips to proclaim the blessings and so bring others\nto share in them. God's end is the spread of His name, not for any good\nto Him, but because to know it is life to us.\n\nThe Teth pair (vv. 15, 16) repeats the thoughts of the Gimel stanza (5,\n6), recurring to the same significant perfects and dwelling on the new\nthought that the destruction of the enemy was self-caused. As in Psalm\nvii., the familiar figure of the pitfall catching the hunter expresses\nthe truth that all evil, and especially malice, recoils on its\ncontriver. A companion illustration is added of the fowler's (or\nhunter's) foot being caught in his own snare. Ver. 16 presents the other\nview of retribution, which was the only one in vv. 5, 6, namely that it\nis a Divine act. It is God who executes judgment, and who \"snareth the\nwicked,\" though it be \"the work of his own hands\" which weaves the\nsnare. Both views are needed for the complete truth. This close of the\nretrospect of deliverance which is the main motive of the psalm is\nappropriately marked by the musical direction \"Higgaion. Selah,\" which\ncalls for a strain of instrumental music to fill the pause of the song\nand to mark the rapture of triumph in accomplished deliverance.\n\nThe Yod stanza (vv. 17, 18), like the He and Vav stanzas (vv. 7-10),\npasses to confidence for the future. The correspondence is very close,\nbut the two verses of this stanza represent the four of the earlier\nones; thus ver. 17 answers to vv. 7 and 8, while ver. 18 is the\nrepresentative of vv. 9 and 10. In ver. 17 the \"return to Sheol\" is\nequivalent to destruction. In one view, men who cease to be may be\nregarded as going back to original nothingness, as in Psalm xc. 3.\nSheol is not here a place of punishment, but is the dreary dwelling of\nthe dead, from the gates of which the psalmist had been brought up.\nReduction to nothingness and yet a shadowy, dim life or death-in-life\nwill certainly be the end of the wicked. The psalmist's experience in\nhis past deliverance entitles him to generalise thus. To forget God is\nthe sure way to be forgotten. The reason for the certain destruction\nof the nations who forget God and for the psalmist's assurance of it\nis (ver. 18) the confidence he has that \"the needy shall not always be\nforgotten.\" That confidence corresponds precisely to vv. 9, 10, and\nalso looks back to the \"hath remembered\" and \"not forgotten\" of ver.\n12. They who remember God are remembered by Him; and their being\nremembered--_i.e._, by deliverance--necessitates the wicked's being\nforgotten, and those who are forgotten by God perish. The second\nclause of ver. 18 echoes the other solemn word of doom from vv. 3-6.\nThere the fate of the evil-doers was set forth as \"perishing\"; their\nvery memory was to \"perish.\" But the \"expectation of the poor shall\nnot perish.\" Apparently fragile and to the eye of sense unsubstantial\nas a soap-bubble, the devout man's hope is more solid than the most\nsolid-seeming realities, and will outlast them all.\n\nThe final stanza (vv. 19, 20) does not take Kaph as it should do, but\nQoph. Hence some critics suspect that this pair of verses has been\nadded by another hand, but the continuity of sense is plain, and is\nagainst this supposition. The psalmist was not so bound to his form\nbut that he could vary it, as here. The prayer of this concluding\nstanza circles round to the prayer in ver. 13, as has been noticed,\nand so completes the whole psalm symmetrically. The personal element\nin ver. 13 has passed away; and the prayer is general, just as the\nsolo of praise in ver. 1 broadened into the call for a chorus of\nvoices in ver. 12. The scope of the prayer is the very judgment which\nthe previous stanza has contemplated as certain. The devout man's\ndesires are moulded on God's promises, and his prayers echo these.\n\"Let not mortal man grow strong,\" or rather \"vaunt his strength.\" The\nword for _man_ here connotes weakness. How ridiculous for him, being\nsuch as he is, to swell and swagger as if strong, and how certain his\nboasted strength is to shrivel like a leaf in the fire, if God should\ncome forth, roused to action by his boasting! Ver. 20 closes the\nprayer with the cry that some awe-inspiring act of Divine justice may\nbe flashed before the \"nations,\" in order to force the conviction of\ntheir own weakness home to them. \"Set terror for them,\" the word\n_terror_ meaning not the emotion, but the object which produces it,\nnamely an act of judgment such as the whole psalm has had in view. Its\npurpose is not destruction, but conviction, the wholesome\nconsciousness of weakness, out of which may spring the recognition of\ntheir own folly and of God's strength to bless. So the two parts of\nthe psalm end with the thought that the \"nations\" may yet come to know\nthe name of God, the one calling upon those who have experienced His\ndeliverance to \"declare among the peoples His doings,\" the other\npraying God to teach by chastisement what nations who forget Him have\nfailed to learn from mercies.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM X.\n\n 1 (\u05dc) Why, Jehovah, dost Thou stand far off?\n Why veilest [Thine eyes] in times of extremity?\n 2 Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted is burned away;\n They are taken in the plots which these have devised.\n\n 3 For the wicked boasts of his soul's desire,\n And the rapacious man renounces, contemns, Jehovah.\n 4 The wicked, by (lit., according to) the uplifting of his nostrils,\n [says,] He will not inquire;\n There is no God, is all his thought.\n\n 5 His ways are stable at all times;\n High above [him] are Thy judgments, remote from before him;\n His adversaries--he snorts at them.\n\n 6 He says in his heart, I shall not be moved;\n To generation after generation, [I am he] who never falls into\n adversity.\n 7 Of cursing his mouth is full, and deceits, and oppression;\n Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.\n\n 8 He couches in the hiding-places of the villages;\n In secret he slays the innocent;\n His eyes watch the helpless.\n\n 9 He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his lair;\n He lies in wait to seize the afflicted;\n He seizes the afflicted, dragging him in his net.\n\n 10 He crouches, he bows down,\n And there falls into his strong [claws] the helpless.\n 11 He says in his heart, God forgets;\n He hides His face, He will not ever see it.\n\n 12 (\u05e7) Rise! Jehovah, God! lift up Thy hand!\n Forget not the afflicted.\n 13 Wherefore does the wicked blaspheme God,\n [And] say in his heart, Thou wilt not inquire?\n\n 14 (\u05e8) Thou hast seen, for Thou, Thou dost behold mischief and\n trouble, to take it into Thy hand;\n To Thee the helpless leaves himself;\n The orphan, Thou, Thou hast been his Helper.\n\n 15 (\u05e9) Break the arm of the wicked;\n As for the evil man, inquire for his wickedness [till] Thou find\n none.\n 16 Jehovah is King for ever and aye;\n The nations are perished out of the land.\n\n 17 (\u05ea) The desire of the meek Thou hast heard, Jehovah;\n Thou wilt prepare their heart, wilt make Thine ear attentive\n 18 To do judgment for the orphan and downtrodden;\n Terrible no more shall the man of the earth be.\n\n\nPsalms ix. and x. are alike in their imperfectly acrostic structure,\nthe occurrence of certain phrases--_e.g._, the very uncommon\nexpression for \"times of trouble\" (ix. 9; x. 1), \"Arise, O Lord\" (ix.\n19; x. 12)--and the references to the nations' judgment. But the\ndifferences are so great that the hypothesis of their original unity\nis hard to accept. As already remarked, the enemies are different. The\ntone of the one psalm is jubilant thanksgiving for victory won and\njudgment effected; that of the other is passionate portraiture of a\nrampant foe and cries for a judgment yet unmanifested. They are a\npair, though why the psalmist should have bound together two songs of\nwhich the unlikenesses are at least as great as the likenesses it is\nnot easy to discover. The circumstances of his day may have brought\nthe cruelty of domestic robbers close upon the heels of foreign foes,\nas is often the case, but that is mere conjecture.\n\nThe acrostic structure is continued into Psalm x., as if the last\nstanza of ix. had begun with the regular Kaph instead of the cognate\nQoph; but it then disappears till ver. 12, from which point it\ncontinues to the end of the psalm, with the anomaly that one of the\nfour stanzas has but one verse: the unusually long verse 14. These\nfour stanzas are allotted to the four last letters of the alphabet.\nSix letters are thus omitted, to which twelve verses should belong.\nThe nine non-acrostic verses (3-11) are by some supposed to be\nsubstituted for the missing twelve, but there are too many verbal\nallusions to them in the subsequent part of the psalm to admit of\ntheir being regarded as later than it. Why, then, the break in the\nacrostic structure? It is noticeable that the (acrostic) psalm ix. is\nwholly addressed to God, and that the parts of x. which are addressed\nto Him are likewise acrostic, the section vv. 3-11 being the vivid\ndescription of the \"wicked,\" for deliverance from whom the psalmist\nprays. The difference of theme may be the solution of the difference\nof form, which was intended to mark off the prayer stanzas and to\nsuggest, by the very continuity of the alphabetical scheme and the\nallowance made for the letters which do not appear, the calm flow of\ndevotion and persistency of prayer throughout the parenthesis of\noppression. The description of the \"wicked\" is as a black rock damming\nthe river, but it flows on beneath and emerges beyond.\n\nThe psalm falls into two parts after the introductory verse of\npetition and remonstrance: vv. 3-11, the grim picture of the enemy of\nthe \"poor\"; and vv. 12-18, the cry for deliverance and judgment.\n\nThe first stanza (vv. 1, 2) gives in its passionate cry a general\npicture of the situation, which is entirely different from that of\nPsalm ix. The two opposite characters, whose relations occupy so much\nof these early psalms, \"the wicked\" and \"the poor,\" are, as usual,\nhunter and hunted, and God is passive, as if far away, and hiding His\neyes. The voice of complaining but devout remonstrance is singularly\nlike the voice of arrogant godlessness (vv. 4-11), but the fact which\nbrings false security to the one moves the other to prayer. The\nboldness and the submissiveness of devotion are both throbbing in that\n\"Why?\" and beneath it lies the entreaty to break this apparent apathy.\nVer. 2 spreads the facts of the situation before God. \"Through the\npride of the wicked the afflicted is burned,\" _i.e._, with anguish,\n_pride_ being the fierce fire and _burning_ being a vigorous\nexpression for anguish, or possibly for destruction. The ambiguous\nnext clause may either have \"the wicked\" or \"the poor\" for its\nsubject. If the former (R. V.), it is a prayer that the retribution\nwhich has been already spoken of in Psalm ix. may fall, but the\ncontext rather suggests the other construction, carrying on the\ndescription of the sufferings of the poor, with an easy change to the\nplural, since the singular is a collective. This, then, being how\nthings stand, the natural flow of thought would be the continuance of\nthe prayer; but the reference to the enemy sets the psalmist on fire,\nand he \"burns\" in another fashion, flaming out into a passionate\nportraiture of the wicked, which is marked as an interruption to the\ncurrent of his song by the cessation of the acrostic arrangement.\n\nThe picture is drawn with extraordinary energy, and describes first\nthe character (vv. 3-6) and then the conduct of the wicked. The style\nreflects the vehemence of the psalmist's abhorrence, being full of\ngnarled phrases and harsh constructions. As with a merciless scalpel\nthe inner heart of the man is laid open. Observe the recurrence of\n\"saith,\" \"thoughts,\" and \"saith in his heart.\" But first comes a\nfeature of character which is open and palpable. He \"boasts of his\nsoul's desire.\" What is especially flagrant in that? The usual\nexplanation is that he is not ashamed of his shameful lusts, but\nglories in them, or that he boasts of succeeding in all that he\ndesires. But what will a good man do with his heart's desires? Ver. 7\ntells us, namely breathe them to God; and therefore to boast of them\ninstead is the outward expression of godless self-confidence and\nresolve to consult inclination and not God. The word rendered _boast_\nhas the two significations of _pray_ and _boast_, and the use of it\nhere, in the worse one, is parallel with the use of _bless_ or\n_renounce_ in the next clause. The wicked is also \"rapacious,\" for\n\"covetous\" is too weak. He grasps all that he can reach by fair or\nfoul means. Such a man in effect and by his very selfish greed\n\"renounces, contemns God.\" He may be a worshipper; but his \"blessing\"\nis like a parting salutation, dismissing Him to whom it is addressed.\nThere is no need to suppose that conscious apostacy is meant. Rather\nthe psalmist is laying bare the under-meaning of the earth-bound man's\nlife, and in effect anticipates Christ's \"Ye cannot serve God and\nmammon\" and Paul's \"covetousness which is idolatry.\"\n\nThe next trait of character is practical atheism and denial of Divine\nretribution. The Hebrew is rough and elliptical, but the A.V. misses\nits point, which the R.V. gives by the introduction of \"saith.\" \"The\npride of his countenance\" is literally \"the elevation of his nose.\"\nTranslate those upturned nostrils into words, and they mean that God\nwill not require (seek, in the sense of punish). But a God who does\nnot punish is a dim shape, through which the empty sky is seen, and\nthe denial (or forgetfulness) of God's retributive judgment is\nequivalent to denying that there is a God at all.\n\nThus armed, the wicked is in fancied security. \"His ways are\nfirm\"--_i.e._, he prospers--and, in the very madness of arrogance, he\nscoffs at God's judgments as too high up to be seen. His scoff is a\ntruth, for how can eyes glued to earth see the solemn lights that move\nin the heavens? Purblind men say, We do not see them, and mean, They are\nnot; but all that their speech proves is their own blindness. Defiant of\nGod, he is truculent to men, and \"snorts contempt at his enemies.\" \"In\nhis heart he says, I shall not be moved.\" The same words express the\nsane confidence of the devout soul and the foolish presumption of the\nman of the earth; but the one says, \"because He is at my right hand,\"\nand the other trusts in himself. \"To all generations I shall not be in\nadversity\" (R.V.). The Hebrew is gnarled and obscure; and attempts to\namend the text have been made (compare Cheyne, Gr\u00e4tz _in loc._), but\nneedlessly. The confidence has become almost insane, and has lost sight\naltogether of the brevity of life. \"His inward thought is that he shall\ncontinue for ever\" (Psalm xlix.). \"Pride stifles reason. The language of\nthe heart cannot be translated into spoken words without seeming\nexaggeration\" (Cheyne). He who can be so blind to facts as to find no\nGod may well carry his blindness a step further and wink hard enough to\nsee no death, or may live as if he did not.\n\nFollowing the disclosure of the inner springs of life in the secret\nthoughts comes, in vv. 7-10, the outcome of these in word and deed. When\nthe wicked \"lets the rank tongue blossom into speech,\" the product is\naffronts to God and maledictions, lies, mischiefs, for men. These stuff\nthe mouth full, and lie under the tongue as sweet morsels for the\nperverted taste or as stored there, ready to be shot out. The deeds\nmatch the words. The vivid picture of a prowling lion seems to begin in\nver. 8, though it is sometimes taken as the unmetaphorical description\nof the wicked man's crime. The stealthy couching of the beast of prey,\nhiding among the cover round the unwalled village or poorly sheltered\nfold, the eyes gleaming out of the darkness and steadfastly fixed on the\nvictim with a baleful light in them, belong to the figure, which is\nabruptly changed in one clause (ver. 9 _c_) into that of a hunter with\nhis net, and then is resumed and completed in ver. 10, where the R.V.\nis, on the whole, to be preferred--\"He croucheth; he boweth down\"--as\nresuming the figure at the point where it had been interrupted and\nfinishing it in the next clause, with the helpless victim fallen into\nthe grip of the strong claws. With great emphasis the picture is rounded\noff (ver. 11) with the repetition of the secret thought of God's\nforgetfulness, which underlies the cruel oppression.\n\nThis whole section indicates a lawless condition in which open violence,\nrobbery, and murder were common. In Hosea's vigorous language, \"blood\ntouched blood,\" the splashes being so numerous that they met, and the\nland was red with them. There is no reason to suppose that the picture\nis ideal or exaggerated. Where in the turbulent annals of Israel it is\nto be placed must remain uncertain; but that it is a transcript of\nbitter experience is obvious, and the aspect which it presents should be\nkept in view as a corrective of the tendency to idealise the moral\ncondition of Israel, which at no time was free from dark stains, and\nwhich offered only too many epochs of disorganisation in which the dark\npicture of the psalm could have been photographed from life.\n\nThe phrases for the victims in this section are noteworthy: \"the\ninnocent\"; \"the helpless\"; \"the poor.\" Of these the first and last are\nfrequent, and the meaning obvious. There is a doubt whether the last\nshould be regarded as the designation of outward condition or of\ndisposition, _i.e._ whether \"meek\" or \"poor\" is the idea. There are two\ncognate words in Hebrew, one of which means one who is bowed down,\n_i.e._ by outward troubles, and the other one who bows himself down,\n_i.e._ is meek. The margin of the Hebrew Bible is fond of correcting\nthese words when they occur in the text and substituting the one for the\nother, but arbitrarily; and it is doubtful whether in actual usage there\nis any real distinction between them. \"Helpless\" is a word only found in\nthis psalm (vv. 8, 10, 14), which has received various explanations, but\nis probably derived from a root meaning _to be black_, and hence comes\nto mean _miserable_, _hapless_, or the like. All the designations refer\nto a class--namely, the devout minority, the true Israel within\nIsrael--and hence the plurals in vv. 10, 12, and 17.\n\nThe second part of the psalm (ver. 12 to end) is the prayer, forced\nfrom the heart of the persecuted remnant, God's little flock in the\nmidst of wolves. No trace of individual reference appears in it, nor\nany breath of passion or vengeance, such as is found in some of the\npsalms of persecution; but it glows with indignation at the\nblasphemies which are, for the moment, triumphant, and cries aloud to\nGod for a judicial act which shall shatter the dream that He does not\nsee and will not requite. That impious boast, far more than the\npersonal incidence of sufferings, moves the prayer. As regards its\nform, the reappearance of the acrostic arrangement is significant, as\nis the repetition of the prayer and letter of ix. 19, which binds the\ntwo psalms together. The acrostic reappears with the direct address to\nGod. The seven verses of the prayer are divided by it into four\ngroups, one of which is abnormal as containing but one verse, the\nunusual length of which, however, somewhat compensates for the\nirregularity (ver. 14). The progress of thought in them follows the\nlogic of emotional prayer rather than of the understanding. First,\nthere are a vehement cry for God's intervention and a complaint of His\nmysterious apparent apathy. The familiar figure for the Divine\nflashing forth of judgment, \"Arise, O Lord,\" is intensified by the\nother cry that He would \"lift His hand.\" A God who has risen from His\nrestful throne and raised His arm is ready to bring it down with a\nshattering blow; but before it falls the psalmist spreads in God's\nsight the lies of the scornful men. They had said (ver. 11) that He\nforgot; the prayer pleads that He would not forget. Their confidence\nwas that He did not see nor would requite; the psalmist is bold to ask\nthe reason for the apparent facts which permit such a thought. The\ndeepest reverence will question God in a fashion which would be\ndaring, if it were not instinct with the assurance of the clearness of\nHis Divine knowledge of evil and of the worthiness of the reasons for\nits impunity. \"Wherefore doest Thou thus?\" may be insolence or faith.\nNext, the prayer centres itself on the facts of faith, which sense\ndoes not grasp (ver. 14). The specific acts of oppression which force\nout the psalmist's cry are certainly \"seen\" by God, for it is His very\nnature to look on all such (\"Thou\" in ver. 14 is emphatic); and faith\nargues from the character to the acts of God and from the general\nrelation of all sin towards Him to that which at present afflicts the\nmeek. But is God's gaze on the evil an idle look? No; He sees, and the\nsight moves Him to act. Such is the force of \"to take it into Thy\nhand,\" which expresses the purpose and issue of the beholding. What He\nsees He \"takes in hand,\" as we say, with a similar colloquialism. If a\nman believes these things about God, it will follow of course that he\nwill leave himself in God's hand, that uplifted hand which prayer has\nmoved. So ver. 14 is like a great picture in two compartments, as\nRaphael's Transfiguration. Above is God, risen with lifted arm,\nbeholding and ready to strike; beneath is the helpless man, appealing\nto God by the very act of \"leaving\" himself to Him. That absolute\nreliance has an all-prevalent voice which reaches the Divine heart, as\nsurely as her child's wail the mother's; and wherever it is exercised\nthe truth of faith which the past has established becomes a truth of\nexperience freshly confirmed. The form of the sentence in the Hebrew\n(the substantive verb with a participle, \"Thou hast been helping\")\ngives prominence to the continuousness of the action: It has always\nbeen Thy way, and it is so still. Of course \"fatherless\" here is\ntantamount to the \"hapless,\" or poor, of the rest of the psalm.\n\nThen at last comes the cry for the descent of God's uplifted hand (vv.\n15, 16). It is not invoked to destroy, but simply to \"break the arm\"\nof, the wicked, _i.e._ to make him powerless for mischief, as a\nswordsman with a shattered arm is. One blow from God's hand lames, and\nthe arm hangs useless. The impious denial of the Divine retribution\nstill affects the psalmist with horror; and he returns to it in the\nsecond clause of ver. 15, in which he prays that God would \"seek\nout\"--_i.e._, require and requite, so as to abolish and make utterly\nnon-existent--the wicked man's wickedness. The yearning of every heart\nthat beats in sympathy with and devotion to God, especially when it is\ntortured by evil experienced or beheld flourishing unsmitten, is for\nits annihilation. There is no prayer here for the destruction of the\ndoer; but the reduction to nothingness of his evil is the worthy\naspiration of all the good, and they who have no sympathy with such a\ncry as this have either small experience of evil, or a feeble\nrealisation of its character.\n\nThe psalmist was heartened to pray his prayer, because \"the nations\nare perished out of His land.\" Does that point back to the great\ninstance of exterminating justice in the destruction of the\nCanaanites? It may do so, but it is rather to be taken as referring to\nthe victories celebrated in the companion psalm. Note the recurrence\nof the words \"nations\" and \"perished,\" which are drawn from it. The\nconnection between the two psalms is thus witnessed, and the\ndeliverance from foreign enemies, which is the theme of Psalm ix., is\nurged as a plea with God and taken as a ground of confidence by the\npsalmist himself for the completion of the deliverance by making\ndomestic oppressors powerless. This lofty height of faith is preserved\nin the closing stanza, in which the agitation of the first part and\nthe yearning of the second are calmed into serene assurance that the\n_Ecclesia pressa_ has not cried nor ever can cry in vain. Into the\npraying, trusting heart \"the peace of God, which passeth\nunderstanding,\" steals, and the answer is certified to faith long\nbefore it is manifest to sense. To pray and immediately to feel the\nthrilling consciousness, \"Thou hast heard,\" is given to those who pray\nin faith. The wicked makes a boast of his \"desire\"; the humble makes\na prayer of it, and so has it fulfilled. Desires which can be\ntranslated into petitions will be converted into fruition. If the\nheart is humble, that Divine breath will be breathed over and into it\nwhich will prepare it to desire only what accords with God's will, and\nthe prepared heart will always find God's ear open. The cry of the\n_hapless_, which has been put into their lips by God himself, is the\nappointed prerequisite of the manifestations of Divine judgment which\nwill relieve the earth of the incubus of \"the man of the earth.\"\n\"Shall not God avenge His own elect, though He bear long with them? I\ntell you that He will avenge them speedily.\" The prayer of the humble,\nlike a whisper amid the avalanches, has power to start the swift,\nwhite destruction on its downward path; and when once that gliding\nmass has way on it, nothing which it smites can stand.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XI.\n\n 1 In Jehovah have I taken refuge;\n How say ye to my soul,\n Flee to the mountain as a bird?\n 2 For lo, the wicked bend the bow,\n They make ready their arrow upon the string,\n To shoot in the dark at those who are upright of heart.\n 3 For the foundations are being destroyed;\n The righteous--what hath he achieved?\n\n 4 Jehovah in His holy palace, Jehovah, whose throne is in heaven--\n His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men.\n 5 Jehovah trieth the righteous,\n But the wicked and lover of violence His soul hateth.\n 6 May He rain upon the wicked snares;\n Fire and brimstone and a burning wind be the portion of their cup!\n 7 For Jehovah is righteous: righteous deeds He loveth;\n The upright shall behold His face.\n\n\nThe correctness of the superscription is, in the present case,\ndefended by Ewald and Hitzig. Delitzsch refers the psalm to the eve of\nAbsalom's conspiracy, while other supporters of the Davidic authorship\nprefer the Sauline persecution. The situation as described in the\npsalm corresponds sufficiently well to either of these periods, in\nboth of which David was surrounded by stealthy hostility and\ncounselled by prudence to flight. But there are no definite marks of\ndate in the psalm itself; and all that is certain is its many\naffinities with the other psalms of the group which Cheyne calls the\n\"persecution psalms,\" including iii.-vii., ix.-xiv., xvii. These\nresemblances make a common authorship probable.\n\nThe structure of the psalm is simple and striking. There are two\nvividly contrasted halves; the first gives the suggestions of timid\ncounsellors who see only along the low levels of earth, the second the\nbrave answer of faith which looks up into heaven.\n\nIn the first part (vv. 1-3) the psalmist begins with an utterance of\nfaith, which makes him recoil with wonder and aversion from the\ncowardly, well-meant counsels of his friends. \"In Jehovah have I taken\nrefuge\"--a profession of faith which in Psalm vii. 1 was laid as the\nbasis of prayer for deliverance and is here the ground for steadfastly\nremaining where he stands. The metaphor of flight to a stronghold,\nwhich is in the word for trust, obviously colours the context, for\nwhat can be more absurd than that he who has sought and found shelter\nin God Himself should listen to the whisperings of his own heart or to\nthe advice of friends and hurry to some other hiding-place? \"He that\nbelieveth shall not make haste,\" and, even when the floods come, shall\nnot need to seek in wild hurry for an asylum above the rising waters.\nSafe in God, the psalmist wonders why such counsel should be given,\nand his question expresses its irrationality and his rejection of it.\nBut these timid voices spoke to his \"soul,\" and the speakers are\nundefined. Is he apostrophising his own lower nature? Have we here a\ngood man's dialogue with himself? Were there two voices in him: the\nvoice of sense, which spoke to the soul, and that of the soul, which\nspoke authoritatively to sense? Calvin finds here the mention of\n_spirituales luctas_; and whether there were actual counsellors of\nflight or no, no doubt prudence and fear said to and in his soul,\n\"Flee.\" If we might venture to suppose that the double thought of the\noneness of the psalmist's personality and the manifoldness of his\nfaculties was in his mind, we should have an explanation of the\nstrange fluctuation between singulars and plurals in ver. 1 _b_.\n\"Flee\" is plural, but is addressed to a singular subject: \"my soul\";\n\"your\" is also plural, and \"bird\" singular. The Hebrew marginal\ncorrection smooths away the first anomaly by reading the singular\nimperative, but that leaves the anomaly in \"your.\" The LXX. and other\nold versions had apparently a slightly different text, which got rid\nof that anomaly by reading (with the addition of one letter and a\nchange in the division of words), \"Flee to the mountain as a bird\";\nand that is probably the best solution of the difficulty. One can\nscarcely fail to recall the comparison of David to a partridge hunted\non the mountains. Cheyne finds in the plurals a proof that \"it is the\nChurch within the Jewish nation of which the poet thinks.\" The timid\ncounsel is enforced by two considerations: the danger of remaining a\nmark for the stealthy foe and the nobler thought of the hopelessness\nof resistance, and therefore the quixotism of sacrificing one's self\nin a prolongation of it.\n\nThe same figure employed in Psalm vii. 12 of God's judgments on the\nwicked is here used of the wicked's artillery against the righteous.\nThe peril is imminent, for the bows are bent, and the arrows already\nfitted to the string. In midnight darkness the assault will be made\n(compare lxiv. 3, 4). The appeal to the instinct of self-preservation\nis reinforced by the consideration (ver. 3) of the impotence of\nefforts to check the general anarchy. The particle at the beginning of\nthe verse is best taken as in the same sense as at the beginning of\nver. 2, thus introducing a second co-ordinate reason for the counsel.\nThe translation of it as hypothetical or temporal (if or when) rather\nweakens the urgency of ver. 3 as a motive for flight. The probably\nexaggerated fears of the advisers, who are still speaking, are\nexpressed in two short, breathless sentences: \"The foundations [of\nsociety] are being torn down; the righteous--what has he achieved?\" or\npossibly, \"What can he do?\" In either case, the implication is, Why\nwage a hopeless conflict any longer at the peril of life? All is lost;\nthe wise thing to do is to run. It is obvious that this description of\nthe dissolution of the foundations of the social order is either the\nexaggeration of fear, or poetic generalisation from an individual case\n(David's), or refers the psalm to some time of anarchy, when things\nwere much worse than even in the time of Saul or Absalom.\n\nAll these suggestions may well represent the voice of our own fears, the\nwhispers of sense and sloth, which ever dwell on and exaggerate the\nperils in the road of duty, and bid us abandon resistance to prevailing\nevils as useless and betake ourselves to the repose and security of some\ntempting nest far away from strife. But such counsels are always base,\nand though they be the result of \"prudence,\" are short-sighted, and\nleave out precisely the determining factor in the calculation. The enemy\nmay have fitted his arrows to the string, but there is another bow bent\nwhich will be drawn before his (Psalm vii. 12). The foundations are not\nbeing destroyed, however many and strong the arms that are trying to dig\nthem up. The righteous has done much, and can do more, though his work\nseem wasted. Self-preservation is not a man's first duty; flight is his\nlast. Better and wiser and infinitely nobler to stand a mark for the\n\"slings and arrows of outrageous fortune\" and to stop at our post,\nthough we fall there, better infinitely to toil on, even when toil seems\nvain, than cowardly to keep a whole skin at the cost of a wounded\nconscience or despairingly to fling up work, because the ground is hard\nand the growth of the seed imperceptible. Prudent advices, when the\nprudence is only inspired by sense, are generally foolish; and the only\nreasonable attitude is obstinate hopefulness and brave adherence to\nduty.\n\nSo the psalm turns, in its second part, from these creeping counsels,\nwhich see but half the field of vision, and that the lower, to soar\nand gaze on the upper half. \"God is in heaven; all's right with the\nworld,\" and with the good men who are trying to help to make it right.\nThe poet opposes to the picture drawn by fear the vision of the opened\nheaven and the throned Jehovah. In ver. 4 the former part is not to be\ntaken as a separate affirmation: \"The Lord is,\" etc., but \"Jehovah\" is\na nominative absolute, and the weight of the sentence falls on the\nlast clause. The \"holy palace\" in which Jehovah is beheld enthroned is\nnot on earth, as the parallelism of the clauses shows. To the eyes\nthat have seen that vision and before which it ever burns, all earthly\nsorrows and dangers seem small. There is the true asylum of the hunted\nsoul; that is the mountain to which it is wise to flee. If the\nfaint-hearted had seen that sight, their timid counsels would have\ncaught a new tone. They are preposterous to him who does see it. For\nnot only does he behold Jehovah enthroned, but he sees Him\nscrutinising all men's acts. We bring the eyelids close when minutely\nexamining any small thing. So God is by a bold figure represented as\ndoing, and the word for \"beholds\" has _to divide_ as its root idea,\nand hence implies a keen discriminating gaze. As fire tries metal, so\nHe tries men. And the result of the trial is twofold, as is described\nin the two clauses of ver. 5, which each require to be completed from\nthe other: \"The Lord trieth the righteous (and finding him approved,\nloveth), but the wicked\" (He trieth, and finding him base metal), His\nsoul \"hateth.\" In the former clause the process of trial is mentioned,\nand its result omitted; in the latter the process is omitted, and the\nresult described. The strong anthropomorphism which attributes a\n\"soul\" to God and \"hatred\" to His soul is not to be slurred over as\ndue to the imperfection of Hebrew ideas of the Divine nature. There is\nnecessarily in the Divine nature an aversion to evil and to the man\nwho has so completely given himself over to it as to \"love\" it. Such\nperverted love can only have turned to it that side of the Divine\ncharacter which in gravity of disapprobation and recoil from evil\nanswers to what we call hate, but neither desires to harm nor is\nperturbed by passion. The New Testament is as emphatic as the Old in\nasserting the reality of \"the wrath of God.\" But there are limitation\nand imperfection in this psalm in that it does not transcend the point\nof view which regards man's conduct as determining God's attitude.\nRetribution, not forgiveness nor the possibility of changing the moral\nbias of character, is its conception of the relations of man and God.\n\nThe Divine estimate, which in ver. 5 is the result of God's trial of\nthe two classes, is carried forward in vv. 6 and 7 to its twofold\nissues. But the form of ver. 6 is that of a wish, not of a prediction;\nand here again we encounter the tone which, after all allowances, must\nbe regarded as the result of the lower stage of revelation on which\nthe psalmist stood, even though personal revenge need not be ascribed\nto him. In the terrible picture of the judgment poured down from the\nopen heavens into which the singer has been gazing, there is a\nreproduction of the destruction of the cities of the plain, the fate\nof which stands in the Old Testament as the specimen and prophecy of\nall subsequent acts of judgment. But the rain from heaven is conceived\nas consisting of \"snares,\" which is a strangely incongruous idea. Such\nmingled metaphors are less distasteful to Hebrew poets than to Western\ncritics; and the various expedients to smooth this one away, such as\naltering the text and neglecting the accents and reading \"coals of\nfire,\" are unnecessary sacrifices to correctness of style. Delitzsch\nthinks that the \"snares\" are \"a whole discharge of lassoes,\" _i.e._\nlightnings, the zigzag course of which may be compared to a \"noose\nthrown down from above\"! The purpose of the snares is to hold fast the\nvictims so that they cannot escape the fiery rain--a terrible picture,\nthe very incongruity of figure heightening the grim effect. The\ndivision of the verse according to the accents parts the snares from\nthe actual components of the fatal shower, and makes the second half\nof the verse an independent clause, which is probably to be taken,\nlike the former clause, as a wish: \"Fire and brimstone and a burning\nwind [Zornhauch, Hupfeld] be the portion of their cup,\" again an\nincongruity making the representation more dreadful. What a\ndraught--flaming brimstone and a hot blast as of the simoom! The\ntremendous metaphor suggests awful reality.\n\nBut the double judgment of ver. 5 has a gentler side, and the reason for\nthe tempest of wrath is likewise that for the blessed hope of the\nupright, as the \"for\" of ver. 7 teaches. \"Jehovah is righteous.\" That\nis the rock foundation for the indomitable faith of the Psalter in the\ncertain ultimate triumph of patient, afflicted righteousness. Because\nGod in His own character is so, He must love righteous acts--His own and\nmen's. The latter seems to be the meaning here, where the fate of men is\nthe subject in hand. The Divine \"love\" is here contrasted with both the\nwicked man's \"love\" of \"violence\" and God's \"hate\" (ver. 5), and is the\nfoundation of the final confidence, \"The upright shall behold His face.\"\nThe converse rendering, \"His countenance doth behold the upright\"\n(A.V.), is grammatically permissible, but would be flat,\ntautological--since ver. 4 has already said so--and inappropriate to the\nclose, where a statement as to the upright, antithetical to that as to\nthe wicked, is needed. God looks on the upright, as has been said; and\nthe upright shall gaze on Him, here and now in the communion of that\nfaith which is a better kind of sight and hereafter in the vision of\nheaven, which the psalmist was on the verge of anticipating. That mutual\ngaze is blessedness. They who, looking up, behold Jehovah are brave to\nfront all foes and to keep calm hearts in the midst of alarms. Hope\nburns like a pillar of fire in them when it is gone out in others; and\nto all the suggestions of their own timidity or of others they have the\nanswer, \"In the Lord have I put my trust; how say ye to my soul, Flee?\"\n\"Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XII.\n\n 1 Save, Jehovah, for the godly ceases,\n For the trusty have vanished from the sons of men.\n 2 They speak vanity every man with his neighbour;\n [With] smooth lip and a heart and a heart do they speak.\n\n 3 May Jehovah cut off all smooth lips,\n The tongue that speaks proud things,\n 4 That says, To our tongues we give strength: our lips are our own\n (lit. with us);\n Who is lord to us?\n\n 5 For the oppression of the afflicted, for the sighing of the needy,\n Now I will arise, saith Jehovah; I will set him in the safety he\n pants for.\n 6 The words of Jehovah are pure words,\n Silver tried in a furnace [and flowing down] to the ground,\n purified seven times.\n\n 7 Thou, Jehovah, shalt guard them;\n Thou shalt preserve him from this generation for ever.\n 8 All around the wicked swagger,\n When vileness is set on high among the sons of men.\n\n\nOne penalty of living near God is keen pain from low lives. The ears\nthat hear God's word cannot but be stunned and hurt by the babble of\nempty speech. This psalm is profoundly melancholy, but without trace\nof personal affliction. The psalmist is not sad for himself, but sick\nof the clatter of godless tongues, in which he discerns the outcome of\ngodless lives. His plaint wakes echoes in hearts touched by the love\nof God and the visions of man's true life. It passes through four\nclearly marked stages, each consisting of two verses: despondent\ncontemplation of the flood of corrupt talk which seems to submerge all\n(1, 2); a passionate prayer for Divine intervention, wrung from the\npsalmist by the miserable spectacle (3, 4); the answer to that cry\nfrom the voice of God, with the rapturous response of the psalmist to\nit (5, 6); and the confidence built on the Divine word, which\nrectifies the too despondent complaint at the beginning, but is still\nshaded by the facts which stare him in the face (7, 8).\n\nThe cry for help (_Save_, LXX.) abruptly beginning the psalm tells of\nthe sharp pain from which it comes. The psalmist has been brooding\nover the black outlook till his overcharged heart relieves itself in\nthis single-worded prayer. As he looks round he sees no exceptions to\nthe prevailing evil. Like Elijah, he thinks that he is left alone, and\nlove to God and men and reliableness and truth are vanished with their\nrepresentatives. No doubt in all such despondent thoughts about the\nrarity of Christian charity and of transparent truthfulness there is\nan element of exaggeration, which in the present case is, as we shall\nsee, corrected by the process of God-taught meditation. But the\nclearer the insight into what society should be, the sadder the\nestimate of what it is. Roseate pictures of it augur ill for the ideal\nwhich their painters have. It is better to be too sensitive to evils\nthan to be contented with them. Unless the passionate conviction of\nthe psalmist has burned itself into us, we shall but languidly work to\nset things right. Heroes and reformers have all begun with\n\"exaggerated estimates\" of corruption. The judgment formed of the\nmoral state of this or of any generation depends on the clearness\nwith which we grasp as a standard the ideal realised in Jesus Christ\nand on the closeness of our communion with God.\n\nAs in Psalm v., sins of speech are singled out, and of these \"vanity\"\nand \"smooth lips with a heart and a heart\" are taken as typical. As in\nEph. iv. 25, the guilt of falsehood is deduced from the bond of\nneighbourliness, which it rends. The sin, to which a \"high\ncivilisation\" is especially prone, of saying pleasant things without\nmeaning them, seems to this moralist as grave as to most men it seems\nslight. Is the psalmist right or wrong in taking speech for an even\nmore clear index of corruption than deeds? What would he have said if\nhe had been among us, when the press has augmented the power of the\ntongue, and floods of \"vanity,\" not only in the form of actual lies,\nbut of inane trivialities and nothings of personal gossip, are poured\nover the whole nation? Surely, if his canon is right, there is\nsomething rotten in the state of this land; and the Babel around may\nwell make good men sad and wise men despondent.\n\nShall we venture to follow the psalmist in the second turn of his\nthoughts (vv. 3, 4), where the verb at the beginning is best taken as\nan optative and rendered, \"May Jehovah cut off\"? The deepest meaning\nof his desire every true man will take for his own, namely the\ncessation of the sin; but the more we live in the spirit of Jesus, the\nmore we shall cherish the hope that that may be accomplished by\nwinning the sinner. Better to have the tongue touched with a live coal\nfrom the altar than cut out. In the one case there is only a mute, in\nthe other an instrument for God's praise. But the impatience of evil\nand the certainty that God can subdue it, which make the very nerve\nof the prayer, should belong to Christians yet more than to the\npsalmist. A new phase of sinful speech appears as provoking judgment\neven more than the former did. The combination of flattery and\nboastfulness is not rare, discordant as they seem; but the special\ndescription of the \"proud things\" spoken is that they are denials of\nresponsibility to God or man for the use of lips and tongue. Insolence\nhas gone far when it has formulated itself into definite statements.\nTwenty men will act on the principle for one who will put it into\nwords. The conscious adoption and cynical avowal of it are a mark of\ndefiance of God. \"To our tongues we give strength\"--an obscure\nexpression which may be taken in various shades of meaning, _e.g._ as\n= We have power over, or = Through, or as to, our tongues we are\nstrong, or = We will give effect to our words. Possibly it stands as\nthe foundation of the daring defiance in the last clause of the verse,\nand asserts that the speaker is the author of his power of speech and\ntherefore responsible to none for its use. \"Our lips are with us\" may\nbe a further development of the same godless thought. \"With us\" is\nusually taken to mean \"our allies,\" or confederates, but signifies\nrather \"in our possession, to do as we will with them.\" \"Who is lord\nover us?\" There speaks godless insolence shaking off dependence, and\nasserting shamelessly licence of speech and life, unhindered by\nobligations to God and His law.\n\nWith dramatic swiftness the scene changes in the next pair of verses\n(5, 6). That deep voice, which silences all the loud bluster, as the\nlion's roar hushes the midnight cries of lesser creatures, speaks in\nthe waiting soul of the psalmist. Like Hezekiah with Sennacherib's\nletter, he spreads before the Lord the \"words with which they reproach\nThee,\" and, like Hezekiah, he has immediate answer. The inward\nassurance that God will arise is won by prayer at once, and changes\nthe whole aspect of the facts which as yet remain unchanged. The\nsituation does not seem so desperate when we know that God is moving.\nWhatever delay may intervene before the actual Divine act, there is\nnone before the assurance of it calms the soul. Many wintry days may\nhave to be faced, but a breath of spring has been in the air, and hope\nrevives. The twofold reason which rouses the Divine activity is very\nstrikingly put first in ver. 5. Not merely the \"oppression or spoiling\nof the meek,\" but that conjoined with the \"sighing of the needy,\"\nbring God into the field. Not affliction alone, but affliction which\nimpels to prayer, moves Him to \"stir up His strength.\" \"Now will I\narise.\" That solemn \"now\" marks the crisis, or turning-point, when\nlong forbearance ends and the crash of retribution begins. It is like\nthe whirr of the clock that precedes the striking. The swiftly\nfollowing blow will ring out the old evil. The purpose of God's\nintervention is the safety of the afflicted who have sighed to Him;\nbut while that is clear, the condensed language of ver. 5 is extremely\nobscure. The A.V.'s rendering, \"I will set him in safety from him that\npuffeth at him,\" requires a too liberal use of supplemental words to\neke out the sense; and the rendering of the R.V. (margin), \"the safety\nhe panteth for,\" is most congruous with the run of the sentence and of\nthe thought. What has just been described as a sigh is now, with equal\nnaturalness, figured as a pant of eager desire. The former is the\nexpression of the weight of the affliction, the latter of yearning to\nescape from it. The latter is vain waste of breath unless accompanied\nwith the former, which is also a prayer; but if so accompanied, the\ndesire of the humble soul is the prophecy of its own fulfilment: and\nthe measure of the Divine deliverance is regulated by His servant's\nlonging. He will always, sooner or later, get \"the safety for which he\npants.\" Faith determines the extent of God's gift.\n\nThe listening psalmist rapturously responds in ver. 6 to God's great\nword. That word stands, with strong force of contrast, side by side\nwith the arrogant chatter of irresponsible frivolity, and sounds\nmajestic by the side of the shrill feebleness of the defiance. Now the\npsalmist lifts his voice in trustful acceptance of the oracle.\n\nThe general sense of ver. 6 is clear, and the metaphor which compares\nGod's words to refined silver is familiar, but the precise meaning of\nthe words rendered \"in a furnace on the earth\" (R.V.) is doubtful. The\nword for \"furnace\" occurs only here, and has consequently been\nexplained in very different ways, is omitted altogether by the LXX.,\nand supposed by Cheyne to be a remnant of an ancient gloss. But the\nmeaning of furnace or crucible is fairly made out and appropriate. But\nwhat does \"tried in a furnace to the earth\" mean? The \"on the earth\"\nof the R.V. is scarcely in accordance with the use of the preposition\n\"to,\" and the best course is to adopt a supplement and read \"tried in\na furnace [and running down] to the earth.\" The sparkling stream of\nmolten silver as, free from dross, it runs from the melting-pot to the\nmould on the ground, is a beautiful figure of the word of God, clear\nof all the impurities of men's words, which the psalm has been\nbewailing and raining down on the world. God's words are a silver\nshower, precious and bright.\n\nThe last turn of the psalm builds hope on the pure words just heard\nfrom heaven. When God speaks a promise, faith repeats it as a\ncertitude and prophesies in the line of the revelation. \"Thou shalt\"\nis man's answer to God's \"I will.\" In the strength of the Divine word,\nthe despondency of the opening strain is brightened. The godly and\nfaithful shall not \"cease from among the children of men,\" since God\nwill keep them; and His keeping shall preserve them. \"This generation\"\ndescribes a class rather than an epoch. It means the vain talkers who\nhave been sketched in such dark colours in the earlier part of the\npsalm. These are \"the children of men\" among whom the meek and needy\nare to live, not failing before them because God holds them up. This\nhope is for the militant Church, whose lot is to stand for God amidst\nwide-flowing evil, which may swell and rage against the band of\nfaithful ones, but cannot sweep them away. Not of victory which\nannihilates opposition, but of charmed lives invulnerable in conflict,\nis the psalmist's confidence. There is no more lamenting of the\nextinction of good men and their goodness, neither is there triumphant\nanticipation of present extinction of bad men and their badness, but\nboth are to grow together till the harvest.\n\nBut even the pure words which promise safety and wake the response of\nfaith do not wholly scatter the clouds. The psalm recurs very\npathetically at its close to the tone of its beginning. Notice the\nrepetition of \"the children of men\" which links ver. 8 with ver. 1. If\nthe fear that the faithful should fail is soothed by God's promise heard\nby the psalmist sounding in his soul, the hard fact of dominant evil is\nnot altered thereby. That \"vileness is set on high among the sons of\nmen\" is the description of a world turned upside down. Beggars are on\nhorseback, and princes walking. The despicable is honoured, and\ncorruption is a recommendation to high position. There have been such\nepochs of moral dissolution; and there is always a drift in that\ndirection, which is only checked by the influence of the \"faithful.\" If\n\"vileness is set on high among the sons of men,\" it is because the sons\nof men prefer it to the stern purity of goodness. A corrupt people will\ncrown corrupt men and put them aloft. The average goodness of the\ncommunity is generally fairly represented by its heroes, rulers, and\npersons to whom influence is given; and when such topsy-turvydom as the\nrule of the worst is in fashion, \"the wicked walk on every side.\"\nImpunity breeds arrogance; and they swagger and swell, knowing that they\nare protected. Impunity multiplies the number; and on every side they\nswarm, like vermin in a dirty house. But even when such an outlook\nsaddens, the soul that has been in the secret place of the Most High and\nhas heard the words of His mouth will not fall into pessimistic\ndespondency, nor think that the faithful fail, because the wicked strut.\nWhen tempted to wail, \"I, even I only, am left,\" such a soul will listen\nto the still small voice that tells of seven thousands of God's hidden\nones, and will be of good cheer, as knowing that God's men can never\ncease so long as God continues.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XIII.\n\n 1 For how long, Jehovah, wilt Thou forget me for ever?\n For how long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?\n 2 For how long shall I brood on schemes (_i.e._, of deliverance) in\n my soul,\n Trouble in my heart by day?\n For how long shall my foe lift himself above me?\n\n 3 Look hither, answer me, Jehovah, my God;\n Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the death,\n 4 Lest my foe say, I have overcome him,\n And oppressors exult when I am moved.\n\n 5 But as for me, in Thy mercy have I trusted;\n Let my heart exult in Thy salvation:\n 6 I will sing to Jehovah, for He has dealt bountifully with me.\n\n\nThis little psalm begins in agitation, and ends in calm. The waves run\nhigh at first, but swiftly sink to rest, and at last lie peacefully\nglinting in sunshine. It falls into three strophes, of which the first\n(vv. 1, 2) is the complaint of endurance strained almost to giving\nway; the second (vv. 3, 4) is prayer which feeds fainting faith; and\nthe third (vv. 5, 6, which are one in the Hebrew) is the voice of\nconfidence, which, in the midst of trouble, makes future deliverance\nand praise a present experience.\n\nHowever true it is that sorrow is \"but for a moment,\" it seems to last\nfor an eternity. Sad hours are leaden-footed, and joyful ones winged.\nIf sorrows passed to our consciousness as quickly as joys, or joys\nlingered as long as sorrows, life would be less weary. That\nreiterated \"How long?\" betrays how weary it was to the psalmist. Very\nsignificant is the progress of thought in the fourfold questioning\nplaint, which turns first to God, then to himself, then to the enemy.\nThe root of his sorrow is that God seems to have forgotten him;\ntherefore his soul is full of plans for relief, and the enemy seems to\nbe lifted above him. The \"sorrow of the world\" begins with the visible\nevil, and stops with the inward pain; the sorrow which betakes itself\nfirst to God, and thinks last of the foe, has trust embedded in its\ndepths, and may unblamed use words which sound like impatience. If the\npsalmist had not held fast by his confidence, he would not have\nappealed to God. So the \"illogical\" combination in his first cry of\n\"How long?\" and \"for ever\" is not to be smoothed away, but represents\nvividly, because unconsciously, the conflict in his soul from the\nmingling of the assurance that God's seeming forgetfulness must have\nan end and the dread that it might have none. Luther, who had trodden\nthe dark places, understood the meaning of the cry, and puts it\nbeautifully when he says that here \"hope itself despairs, and despair\nyet hopes, and only that unspeakable groaning is audible with which\nthe Holy Spirit, who moves over the waters covered with darkness,\nintercedes for us.\" The psalmist is tempted to forget the confidence\nexpressed in Psalm ix. 18 and to sink to the denial animating the\nwicked in Psalms x., xi. The heart wrung by troubles finds little\nconsolation in the mere intellectual belief in a Divine omniscience.\nAn idle remembrance which does not lead to actual help is a poor stay\nfor such a time. No doubt the psalmist knew that forgetfulness was\nimpossible to God; but a God who, though He remembered, did nothing\nfor, His servant, was not enough for him, nor is He for any of us.\nHeart and flesh cry out for _active_ remembrance; and, however clear\nthe creed, the tendency of long-continued misery will be to tempt to\nthe feeling that the sufferer is forgotten. It takes much grace to\ncling fast to the belief that He thinks of the poor suppliant whose\ncry for deliverance is unanswered. The natural inference is one or\nother of the psalmist's two here: God has forgotten or has hidden His\nface in indifference or displeasure. The Evangelist's profound\n\"therefore\" is the corrective of the psalmist's temptation: \"Jesus\nloved\" the three sad ones at Bethany; \"when therefore He heard that he\nwas sick, He abode still two days in the place where He was.\"\n\nLeft alone, without God's help, what can a man do but think and think,\nplan and scheme to weariness all night and carry a heavy heart as he\nsees by daylight how futile his plans are? Probably \"by night\" should\nbe supplied in ver. 2 _a_; and the picture of the gnawing cares and\nbusy thoughts which banish sleep and of the fresh burst of sorrow on\neach new morning appeals only too well to all sad souls. A brother\nlaments across the centuries, and his long-silent wail is as the voice\nof our own griefs. The immediate visible occasion of trouble appears\nonly in the last of the fourfold cries. God's apparent forgetfulness\nand the psalmist's own subjective agitations are more prominent than\nthe \"enemy\" who \"lifts himself above him.\" His arrogant airs and\noppression would soon vanish if God would arise. The insight which\nplaces him last in order is taught by faith. The soul stands between\nGod and the external world, with all its possible calamities; and if\nthe relation with God is right, and help is flowing unbrokenly from\nHim, the relation to the world will quickly come right, and the soul\nbe lifted high above the foe, however lofty he be or think himself.\n\nThe agitation of the first strophe is somewhat stilled in the second, in\nwhich the stream of prayer runs clear without such foam, as the\nimpatient questions of the first part. It falls into four clauses, which\nhave an approximate correspondence to those of strophe 1. \"Look hither,\nanswer me, Jehovah, my God.\" The first petition corresponds to the\nhiding of God's face, and perhaps the second, by the law of inverted\nparallelism, may correspond to the _forgetting_, but in any case the\nnoticeable thing is the swift decisiveness of spring with which the\npsalmist's faith reaches firm ground here. Mark the implied belief that\nGod's look is not an otiose gaze, but brings immediate act answering the\nprayer; mark the absence of copula between the verbs, giving force to\nthe prayer and swiftness to the sequence of Divine acts; mark the\noutgoing of the psalmist's faith in the addition to the name \"Jehovah\"\n(as in ver. 1), of the personal \"my God,\" with all the sweet and\nreverent appeal hived in the address. The third petition, \"Lighten mine\neyes,\" is not for illumination of vision, but for renewed strength.\nDying eyes are glazed; a sick man's are heavy and dull. Returning health\nbrightens them. So here the figure of sickness threatening to become\ndeath stands for trouble, or possibly the \"enemy\" is a real foe seeking\nthe life, as will be the most natural interpretation if the Davidic\norigin is maintained. To \"sleep death\" is a forcible compressed\nexpression, which is only attenuated by being completed. The prayer\nrests upon the profound conviction that Jehovah is the fountain of life,\nand that only by His continual pouring of fresh vitality into a man can\nany eyes be kept from death. The brightest must be replenished from His\nhand, or they fail and become dim; the dimmest can be brightened by His\ngift of vigorous health. As in the first strophe the psalmist passed\nfrom God to self, and thence to enemies, so he does in the second. His\nprayer addresses God; its pleas regard, first, himself, and, second, his\nfoe. How is the preventing of the enemy's triumph in his being stronger\nthan the psalmist and of his malicious joy over the latter's misfortune\nan argument with God to help? It is the plea, so familiar in the Psalter\nand to devout hearts, that God's honour is identified with His servant's\ndeliverance, a true thought, and one that may reverently be entertained\nby the humblest lover of God, but which needs to be carefully guarded.\nWe must make very sure that God's cause is ours before we can be sure\nthat ours is His; we must be very completely living for His honour\nbefore we dare assume that His honour is involved in our continuing to\nlive. As Calvin says, \"Cum eo nobis communis erit h\u00e6c precatio, si sub\nDei imperio et auspiciis militamus.\"\n\nThe storm has all rolled away in the third strophe, in which faith has\ntriumphed over doubt and anticipates the fulfilment of its prayer. It\nbegins with an emphatic opposition of the psalmist's personality to the\nfoe: \"But as for me\"--however they may rage--\"I have trusted in Thy\nmercy.\" Because he has thus trusted, therefore he is sure that that\nmercy will work for him salvation or deliverance from his present peril.\nAnything is possible rather than that the appeal of faith to God's heart\nof love should not be answered. Whoever can say, I have trusted, has the\nright to say, I shall rejoice. It was but a moment ago that this man had\nasked, How long shall I have sorrow in my heart? and now the sad heart\nis flooded with sudden gladness. Such is the magic of faith, which can\nsee an unrisen light in the thickest darkness, and hear the birds\nsinging amongst the branches even while the trees are bare and the air\nsilent. How significant the contrast of the two rejoicings set side by\nside: the adversaries' when the good man is \"moved\"; the good man's when\nGod's salvation establishes him in his place! The closing strain reaches\nforward to deliverance not yet accomplished, and, by the prerogative of\ntrust, calls things that are not as though they were. \"He has dealt\nbountifully with me\"; so says the psalmist who had begun with \"How\nlong?\" No external change has taken place; but his complaint and prayer\nhave helped him to tighten his grasp of God, and have transported him\ninto the certain future of deliverance and praise. He who can thus say,\n\"I will sing,\" when the hoped-for mercy has wrought salvation, is not\nfar off singing even while it tarries. The sure anticipation of triumph\nis triumph. The sad minor of \"How long?\" if coming from faithful lips,\npasses into a jubilant key, which heralds the full gladness of the yet\nfuture songs of deliverance.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XIV.\n\n 1 The fool says in his heart, There is no God;\n They corrupt; they make abominable their doings;\n There is no one doing good.\n\n 2 Jehovah looketh down from heaven upon the sons of men\n To see if there is any having discernment,\n Seeking after God.\n\n 3 They are all turned aside: together they are become putrid;\n There is no one doing good,\n There is not even one.\n\n 4 Do they not know, all the workers of iniquity,\n Who devour my people [as] they devour bread?\n On Jehovah they do not call.\n\n 5 There they feared a [great] fear,\n For God is in the righteous generation.\n\n 6 The counsel of the afflicted ye would put to shame,\n For God is his refuge.\n\n 7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!\n When Jehovah brings back the captivity of His people,\n May Jacob exult, may Israel be glad!\n\n\nThis psalm springs from the same situation as Psalms x. and xii. It\nhas several points of likeness to both. It resembles the former in its\nattribution to \"the fool\" of the heart-speech, \"There is no God,\" and\nthe latter in its use of the phrases \"sons of men\" and \"generation\" as\nethical terms and in its thought of a Divine interference as the\nsource of safety for the righteous. We have thus three psalms closely\nconnected, but separated from each other by Psalms xi. and xiii. Now\nit is observable that these three have no personal references, and\nthat the two which part them have. It would appear that the five are\narranged on the principle of alternating a general complaint of the\nevil of the times with a more personal pleading of an individual\nsufferer. It is also noticeable that these five psalms--a little group\nof wailing and sighs--are marked off from the cognate psalms iii.-vii.\nand xvi., xvii., by two (Psalms viii. and xv.) in an entirely\ndifferent tone. A second recast of this psalm appears in the Elohistic\nBook (Psalm liii.), the characteristics of which will be dealt with\nthere. This is probably the original.\n\nThe structure of the psalm is simple, but is not carried out completely.\nIt should consist of seven verses each having three clauses, and so\nhaving stamped on it the sacred numbers 3 and 7, but vv. 5 and 6 each\nwant a clause, and are the more vehement from their brevity.\n\nThe heavy fact of wide-spread corruption presses on the psalmist, and\nstarts a train of thought which begins with a sad picture of the deluge\nof evil, rises to a vision of God's judgment of and on it, triumphs in\nthe prospect of the sudden panic which shall shake the souls of the\n\"workers of iniquity\" when they see that God is with the righteous, and\nends with a sigh for the coming of that time. The staple of the poem is\nbut the familiar contrast of a corrupt world and a righteous God who\njudges, but it is cast into very dramatic and vivid form here.\n\nWe listen first (ver. 1) to the psalmist's judgment of his generation.\nProbably it was very unlike the rosy hues in which a heart less in\ncontact with God and the unseen would have painted the condition of\nthings. Eras of great culture and material prosperity may have a very\nseamy side, which eyes accustomed to the light of God cannot fail to\nsee. The root of the evil lay, as the psalmist believed, in a\npractical denial of God; and whoever thus denied Him was \"a fool.\" It\ndoes not need formulated atheism in order to say in one's heart,\n\"There is no God.\" Practical denial or neglect of His working in the\nworld, rather than a creed of negation, is in the psalmist's mind. In\neffect, we say that there is no God when we shut Him up in a far-off\nheaven, and never think of Him as concerned in our affairs. To strip\nHim of His justice and rob Him of His control is the part of a fool.\nFor the Biblical conception of folly is moral perversity rather than\nintellectual feebleness, and whoever is morally and religiously wrong\ncannot be in reality intellectually right.\n\nThe practical denial of God lies at the root of two forms of evil.\nPositively, \"they have made their doings corrupt and abominable\"--rotten\nin themselves and sickening and loathsome to pure hearts and to God.\nNegatively, they do no good things. That is the dreary estimate of his\ncotemporaries forced on this sad-hearted singer, because he himself had\nso thrillingly felt God's touch and had therefore been smitten with\nloathing of men's low ways and with a passion for goodness. \"Sursum\ncorda\" is the only consolation for such hearts.\n\nSo the next wave of thought (ver. 2) brings into his consciousness the\nsolemn contrast between the godless noise and activity of earth and\nthe silent gaze of God, that marks it all. The strong anthropomorphism\nof the vivid picture recalls the stories of the Deluge, of Babel, and\nof Sodom, and casts an emotional hue over the abstract thought of the\nDivine omniscience and observance. The purpose of the Divine quest is\nset forth with deep insight, as being the finding of even one good,\ndevout man. It is the anticipation of Christ's tender word to the\nSamaritan that \"the Father seeketh such to worship Him.\" God's heart\nyearns to find hearts that turn to Him; He seeks those who seek Him;\nthey who seek Him, and only they, are \"wise.\" Other Scriptures present\nother reasons for that gaze of God from heaven, but this one in the\nmidst of its solemnity is gracious with revelation of Divine desires.\n\nWhat is to be the issue of the strongly contrasted situation in these\ntwo verses: beneath, a world full of godless lawlessness; above, a fixed\neye piercing to the discernment of the inmost nature of actions and\ncharacters? Ver. 3 answers. We may almost venture to say that it shows a\ndisappointed God, so sharply does it put the difference between what He\ndesired to see and what He did see. The psalmist's sad estimate is\nrepeated as the result of the Divine search. But it is also increased in\nemphasis and in compass. For \"the whole\" (race) is the subject.\nUniversality is insisted on in each clause; \"all,\" \"together,\" \"not\none,\" and strong metaphors are used to describe the condition of\nhumanity. It is \"turned aside,\" _i.e._, from the way of Jehovah; it is\nbecome putrid, like a rotting carcase, is rank, and smells to heaven.\nThere is a sad cadence in that \"no, not one,\" as of a hope long\ncherished and reluctantly abandoned, not without some tinge of wonder at\nthe barren results of such a search. This stern indictment is quoted by\nSt. Paul in Romans as confirmation of his thesis of universal\nsinfulness; and, however the psalmist had the wickedness of Israel in\nthe foreground of his consciousness, his language is studiously wide and\nmeant to include all \"the sons of men.\"\n\nBut this baffled quest cannot be the end. If Jehovah seeks in vain for\ngoodness on earth, earth cannot go on for ever in godless riot.\nTherefore, with eloquent abruptness, the voice from heaven crashes in\nupon the \"fools\" in the full career of their folly. The thunder rolls\nfrom a clear sky. God speaks in ver. 4. The three clauses of the\nDivine rebuke roughly correspond with those of ver. 1 in so far as the\nfirst points to ignorance as the root of wrong-doing, the second\ncharges positive sin, and the third refers to negative evil. \"Have all\nthe workers of iniquity no knowledge?\" The question has almost a tone\nof surprise, as if even Omniscience found matter of wonder in men's\nmysterious love of evil. Jesus \"marvelled\" at some men's \"unbelief\";\nand certainly sin is the most inexplicable thing in the world, and\nmight almost astonish God as well as heaven and earth. The meaning of\nthe word \"know\" here is best learned from ver. 1. \"Not to know\" is the\nsame thing as to be \"a fool.\" That ignorance, which is moral\nperversity as well as intellectual blindness, needs not to have a\nspecial object stated. Its thick veil hides all real knowledge of God,\nduty, and consequences from men. It makes evil-doing possible. If the\nevil-doer could have flashed before him the realities of things, his\nhand would stay its crime. It is not true that all sin can be resolved\ninto ignorance, but it is true that criminal ignorance is necessary to\nmake sin possible. A bull shuts its eyes when it charges. Men who do\nwrong are blind in one eye at least, for, if they saw at the moment\nwhat they probably know well enough, sin would be impossible.\n\nThis explanation of the words seems more congruous with ver. 1 than\nthat of others, \"made to know,\" _i.e._ by experience to rue.\n\nVer. 4 _b_ is obscure from its compressed brevity \"Eating my people,\nthey eat bread.\" The A.V. and R.V. take their introduction of the \"as\"\nof comparison from the old translations. The Hebrew has no term of\ncomparison, but it is not unusual to omit the formal term in rapid and\nemotional speech, and the picture of the appetite with which a hungry\nman devours his food may well stand for the relish with which the\noppressors swallowed up the innocent. There seems no need for the\ningenuities which have been applied to the interpretation of the\nclause, nor for departing, with Cheyne, from the division of the verse\naccording to the accents. The positive sins of the oppressors, of\nwhich we have heard so much in the connected psalms, are here\nconcentrated in their cruel plundering of \"my people,\" by which the\nwhole strain of the psalm leads us to understand the devout kernel of\nIsrael, in contrast with the mass of \"men of the earth\" in the nation,\nand not the nation as a whole in contrast with heathen enemies.\n\nThe Divine indictment is completed by \"They call not on Jehovah.\"\nPractical atheism is, of course, prayerless. That negation makes a\ndreary silence in the noisiest life, and is in one aspect the crown,\nand in another the foundation, of all evil-doing.\n\nThe thunder-peal of the Divine voice strikes a sudden panic into the\nhosts of evil. \"There they feared a fear.\" The psalmist conceives the\nscene and its locality. He does not say \"there\" when he means \"then,\"\nbut he pictures the terror seizing the oppressors where they stood\nwhen the Divine thunder rolled above their heads; and with him, as\nwith us, \"on the spot\" implies \"at the moment.\" The epoch of such\npanic is left vague. Whensoever in any man's experience that solemn\nvoice sounds, conscience wakes fear. The revelation by any means of a\nGod who sees evil and judges it makes cowards of us all. Probably the\npsalmist thought of some speedily impending act of judgment; but his\njuxtaposition of the two facts, the audible voice of God and the swift\nterror that shakes the heart, contains an eternal truth, which men who\nwhisper in their hearts, \"There is no God,\" need to ponder.\n\nThis verse 5 is the first of the two shorter verses of our psalm,\ncontaining only two clauses instead of the regular three; but it does\nnot therefore follow that anything has dropped out. Rather the\nframework is sufficiently elastic to allow of such variation according\nto the contents, and the shorter verse is not without a certain\nincrease of vigour, derived from the sharp opposition of its two\nclauses. On the one hand is the terror of the sinner occasioned by and\ncontrasted with the discovery which stands on the other that God is in\nthe righteous generation. The psalmist sets before himself and us the\ntwo camps: the panic-stricken and confused mass of enemies ready to\nbreak into flight and the little flock of the \"righteous generation,\"\nat peace in the midst of trouble and foes because God is in the midst\nof them. No added clause could heighten the effect of that contrast,\nwhich is like that of the host of Israel walking in light and safety\non one side of the fiery pillar and the army of Pharaoh groping in\ndarkness and dread on the other. The permanent relations of God to the\ntwo sorts of men who are found in every generation and community are\nset forth in that strongly marked contrast.\n\nIn ver. 6 the psalmist himself addresses the oppressors, with\ntriumphant confidence born of his previous contemplations. The first\nclause might be a question, but is more probably a taunting\naffirmation: \"You would frustrate the plans of the afflicted\"--and you\ncould not--\"for Jehovah is his refuge.\" Here again the briefer\nsentence brings out the eloquent contrast. The malicious foe, seeking\nto thwart the poor man's plans, is thwarted. His desire is\nunaccomplished; and there is but one explanation of the impotence of\nthe mighty and the powerfulness of the weak, namely that Jehovah is\nthe stronghold of His saints. Not by reason of his own wit or power\ndoes the afflicted baffle the oppressor, but by reason of the strength\nand inaccessibleness of his hiding-place. \"The conies are a feeble\nfolk, but they make their houses in the rocks,\" where nothing that has\nnot wings can get at them.\n\nSo, finally, the whole course of thought gathers itself up in the prayer\nthat the salvation of Israel--the true Israel apparently--were come out\nof Zion, God's dwelling, from which He comes forth in His delivering\npower. The salvation longed for is that just described. The voice of the\noppressed handful of good men in an evil generation is heard in this\nclosing prayer. It is encouraged by the visions which have passed before\nthe psalmist. The assurance that God will intervene is the very\nlife-breath of the cry to Him that He would. Because we know that He\nwill deliver, therefore we find it in our hearts to pray that He would\ndeliver. The revelation of His gracious purposes animates the longings\nfor their realisation. Such a sigh of desire has no sadness in its\nlonging and no doubt in its expectation. It basks in the light of an\nunrisen sun, and feels beforehand the gladness of the future joys \"when\nthe Lord shall bring again the captivity of His people.\"\n\nThis last verse is by some regarded as a liturgical addition to the\npsalm; but ver. 6 cannot be the original close, and it is scarcely\nprobable that some other ending has been put aside to make room for\nthis. Besides, the prayer of ver. 7 coheres very naturally with the rest\nof the psalm, if only we take that phrase \"turns the captivity\" in the\nsense which it admittedly bears in Job xlii. 10 and Ezek. xvi. 53,\nnamely that of deliverance from misfortune. Thus almost all modern\ninterpreters understand the words, and even those who most strongly hold\nthe late date of the psalm do not find here any reference to the\nhistorical bondage. The devout kernel of the nation is suffering from\noppressors, and that may well be called a captivity. For a good man the\npresent condition of society is bondage, as many a devout soul has felt\nsince the psalmist did. But there is a dawning hope of a better day of\nfreedom, the liberty of the glory of the children of God; and the\ngladness of the ransomed captives may be in some degree anticipated even\nnow. The psalmist was thinking only of some intervention on the field of\nhistory, and we are not to read loftier hopes into his song. But it is\nas impossible for Christians not to entertain, as it was for him to\ngrasp firmly, the last, mightiest hope of a last, utter deliverance from\nall evil and of an eternal and perfect joy.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XV.\n\n 1 Jehovah, who can be guest in Thy tent?\n Who can dwell in Thy holy hill?\n\n 2 The man walking blamelessly, and doing righteousness,\n And speaking truth with his heart.\n\n 3 He has not slander on his tongue,\n He does not harm to his comrade,\n And reproach he does not lay on his neighbour.\n\n 4 A reprobate is despised in his eyes,\n But the fearers of Jehovah he honours;\n He swears to his own hurt, and will not change.\n\n 5 His silver he does not give at usury,\n And a bribe against the innocent he does not take;\n He that does these things shall not be moved for ever.\n\n\nThe ideal worshipper of Jehovah is painted in this psalm in a few broad\noutlines. Zion is holy because God's \"tent\" is there. This is the only\nhint of date given by the psalm; and all that can be said is that, if\nthat consecration of Thy hill was recent, the poet would naturally\nponder all the more deeply the question of who were fit to dwell in the\nnew solemnities of the abode of Jehovah. The tone of the psalm, then,\naccords with the circumstances of the time when David brought the ark to\nJerusalem; but more than this cannot be affirmed. Much more important\nare its two main points: the conception of the guests of Jehovah and the\nstatement of the ethical qualifications of these.\n\nAs to structure, the psalm is simple. It has, first, the general\nquestion and answer in two verses of two clauses each (vv. 1, 2). Then\nthe general description of the guest of God is expanded in three\nverses of three clauses each, the last of which closes with an\nassurance of stability, which varies and heightens the idea of\ndwelling in the tent of Jehovah.\n\nIt is no mere poetic apostrophe with which the psalmist's question is\nprefaced. He does thereby consult the Master of the house as to the\nterms on which He extends hospitality, which terms it is His right to\nprescribe. He brings to his own view and to his readers' all that lies\nin the name of Jehovah, the covenant name, and all that is meant by\n\"holiness,\" and thence draws the answer to his question, which is none\nthe less Jehovah's answer because it springs in the psalmist's heart\nand is spoken by his lips. The character of the God determines the\ncharacter of the worshipper. The roots of ethics are in religion. The\nOld Testament ideal of the righteous man flows from its revelation of\nthe righteous God. Not men's own fancies, but insight gained by\ncommunion with God and docile inquiry of Him, will reliably tell what\nmanner of men they are who can abide in His light.\n\nThe thought, expressed so forcibly in the question of the psalm, that\nmen may be God's guests, is a very deep and tender one, common to a\nconsiderable number of psalms (v. 5, xxvii. 4, lxxxiv. 5, etc.). The\nword translated \"abide\" in the A.V. and \"sojourn\" in the R.V.\noriginally implied a transient residence as a stranger, but when\napplied to men's relations to God, it does not always preserve the\nidea of transiency (see, for instance, lxi. 4: \"I will dwell in Thy\ntent _for ever_\"); and the idea of protection is the most prominent.\nThe stranger who took refuge in the tent even of the wild Beduin was\nsafe, much more the happy man who crept under the folds of the tent of\nJehovah. If the holy hill of Zion were not immediately mentioned, one\nmight be tempted to think that the tent here was only used as a\nmetaphor; but the juxtaposition of the two things seems to set the\nallusion to the dwelling-place of the Ark on its hill beyond question.\nIn the gracious hospitality of the antique world, a guest was\nsheltered from all harm; his person was inviolable, his wants all met.\nSo the guest of Jehovah is safe, can claim asylum from every foe and a\nshare in all the bountiful provision of His abode. Taken accurately,\nthe two verbs in ver. 1 differ in that the first implies transient and\nthe second permanent abode; but that difference is not in the\npsalmist's mind, and the two phrases mean the same thing, with only\nthe difference that the former brings out his conception of the rights\nof the guest. Clearly, then, the psalmist's question by no means\nrefers only to an outward approach to an outward tabernacle; but we\nsee here the symbol in the very act of melting into the deep spiritual\nreality signified. The singer has been educated by the husks of ritual\nto pass beyond these, and has learned that there is a better\ndwelling-place for Jehovah, and therefore for himself, than that\npitched on Zion and frequented by impure and pure alike.\n\nVer. 2 sums the qualifications of Jehovah's guest in one comprehensive\ndemand, that he should walk uprightly, and then analyses that\nrequirement into the two of righteous deeds and truthful speech. The\nverbs are in the participial form, which emphasises the notion of\nhabitual action. The general answer is expanded in the three following\nverses, which each contain three clauses, and take up the two points\nof ver. 2 in inverted order, although perhaps not with absolute\naccuracy of arrangement. The participial construction is in them\nchanged for finite verbs. Ver. 2 sketches the figure in outline, and\nthe rest of the psalm adds clause on clause of description as if the\nman stood before the psalmist's vision. Habits are described as acts.\n\nThe first outstanding characteristic of this ideal is that it deals\nentirely with duties to men, and the second is that it is almost\nwholly negative. Moral qualities of the most obvious kind, and such as\ncan be tested in daily life and are cultivated by rigid abstinence\nfrom prevailing evils, and not any recondite and impalpable\nrefinements of conduct, still less any peculiar emotions of souls\nraised high above the dusty levels of common life, are the\nqualifications for dwelling, a guarded guest, in that great pavilion.\nSuch a stress laid on homely duties, which the universal conscience\nrecognises, is characteristic of the ethics of the Old Testament as a\nwhole and of the Psalter in particular, and is exemplified in the\nlives of its saints and heroes. They \"come eating and drinking,\"\nsharing in domestic joys and civic duties; and however high their\naspirations and vows may soar, they have always their feet firmly\nplanted on the ground and, laying the smallest duties on themselves,\n\"tread life's common road in cheerful godliness.\" The Christian answer\nto the psalmist's question goes deeper than his, but is fatally\nincomplete unless it include his and lay the same stress on duties to\nmen which all acknowledge, as that does. Lofty emotions, raptures of\ncommunion, aspirations which bring their own fulfilment, and all the\nexperiences of the devout soul, which are sometimes apt to be divorced\nfrom plain morality, need the ballast of the psalmist's homely answer\nto the great question. There is something in a religion of emotion\nnot wholly favourable to the practice of ordinary duties; and many\nmen, good after a fashion, seem to have their spiritual nature divided\ninto water-tight and uncommunicating compartments, in one of which\nthey keep their religion, and in the other their morality.\n\nThe stringent assertion that these two are inseparable was the great\npeculiarity of Judaism as compared with the old world religions, from\nwhich, as from the heathenism of to-day, the conception that religion\nhad anything to do with conduct was absent. But it is not only\nheathenism that needs the reminder.\n\nTrue, the ideal drawn here is not the full Christian one. It is too\nmerely negative for that, and too entirely concerned with acts.\nTherein it reproduces the limitations of the earlier revelation. It\nscarcely touches at all the deeper forms of \"love to our neighbour\";\nand, above all, it has no answer to the question which instinctively\nrises in the heart when the psalm has answered its own question. How\ncan I attain to these qualifications? is a second interrogation,\nraised by the response to the first, and for its answer we have to\nturn to Jesus. The psalm, like the law which inspired it, is mainly\nnegative, deals mainly with acts, and has no light to show how its\nrequirements may be won. But it yet stands as an unantiquated\nstatement of what a man must be who dwells in the secret place of the\nMost High. How he may become such a one we must learn from Him who\nboth teaches us the way, and gives us the power, to become such as God\nwill shelter in the safe recesses of His pavilion.\n\nThe details of the qualifications as described in the psalm are simple\nand homely. They relate first to right speech, which holds so\nprominent a place in the ethics of the Psalter. The triplets of ver. 3\nprobably all refer to sins of the tongue. The good man has no slander\non his tongue; he does not harm his companion (by word) nor heap\nreproach on his neighbour. These things are the staple of much common\ntalk. What a quantity of brilliant wit and polished sarcasm would\nperish if this rule were observed! How dull many sparkling circles\nwould become, and how many columns of newspapers and pages of books\nwould be obliterated, if the censor's pencil struck out all that\ninfringed it! Ver. 4 adds as characteristic of a righteous man that in\nhis estimate of character he gives each his own, and judges men by no\nother standard than their moral worth. The reprobate may be a\nmillionaire or a prince, but his due is contempt; the devout man may\nbe a pauper or one of narrow culture, but his due is respect, and he\ngets it. \"A terrible sagacity informs\" the good man's heart; and he\nwho is, in his own inmost desires, walking uprightly will not be\nseduced into adulation of a popular idol who is a bad man, nor turned\nfrom reverence for lowly goodness. The world will be a paradise when\nthe churl is no more called bountiful.\n\nApparently the utterance of these estimates is in the psalmist's mind,\nand he is still thinking of speech. Neither calumny (ver. 3) nor the\nequally ignoble flattery of evil-doers (ver. 4) pollutes the lips of\nhis ideal good man. If this reference to spoken estimates is allowed,\nthe last clause of ver. 4 completes the references to the right use of\nspeech. The obligation of speaking \"truth with his heart\" is pursued\ninto a third region: that of vows or promises. These must be conceived\nas not religious vows, but, in accordance with the reference of the\nwhole psalm to duties to neighbours, as oaths made to men. They must\nbe kept, whatever consequences may ensue. The law prohibited the\nsubstitution of another animal sacrifice for that which had been vowed\n(Lev. xxvii. 10); and the psalm uses the same word for \"changeth,\"\nwith evident allusion to the prohibition, which must therefore have\nbeen known to the psalmist.\n\nUsury and bribery were common sins, as they still are in communities\non the same industrial and judicial level as that mirrored in the\npsalm. Capitalists who \"bite\" the poor (for that is the literal\nmeaning of the words for usurious taking of interest) and judges who\ncondemn the innocent for gain are the blood-suckers of such societies.\nThe avoidance of such gross sin is a most elementary illustration of\nwalking uprightly, and could only have been chosen to stand in lieu of\nall other neighbourly virtues in an age when these sins were\ndeplorably common. This draft of a God-pleasing character is by no\nmeans complete even from the Old Testament ethical point of view.\nThere are two variations of it, which add important elements: that in\nPsalm xxiv., which seems to have been occasioned by the same\ncircumstances; and the noble adaptation in Isa. xxxiii. 13-16, which\nis probably moulded on a reminiscence of both psalms. Add to these\nMicah's answer to the question what God requires of man (ch. vi. 8),\nand we have an interesting series, exhibiting the effects of the Law\non the moral judgments of devout men in Israel.\n\nThe psalmist's last word goes beyond his question, in the clear\nrecognition that such a character as he has outlined not only dwells\nin Jehovah's tent, but will stand unmoved, though all the world should\nrock. He does not see how far onward that \"for ever\" may stretch, but\nof this he is sure: that righteousness is the one stable thing in the\nuniverse, and there may have shone before him the hope that it was\npossible to travel on beyond the horizon that bounds this life. \"I\nshall be a guest in Jehovah's tent for ever,\" says the other psalm\nalready quoted; \"He shall never be moved,\" says this one. Both find\ntheir fulfilment in the great words of the Apostle who taught a\ncompleter ideal of love to men, because he had dwelt close by the\nperfect revelation of God's love: \"The world passeth away, and the\nlust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XVI.\n\n 1 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in Thee\n 2 I have said to Jehovah, Thou art my Lord;\n Good for me there is none besides Thee.\n 3 As for the saints which are in the earth,\n They are the excellent, in whom is all my delight.\n 4 Their griefs are many who change [Jehovah] for another.\n I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood,\n And will not take their names on my lips.\n\n 5 Jehovah is my allotted portion and my cup;\n Thou art continually my lot.\n 6 The measuring lines have fallen for me in pleasant places,\n And my inheritance is fair to me.\n 7 I will bless Jehovah who has given me counsel;\n Yea, in the night seasons my reins instruct me.\n 8 I set Jehovah before me continually,\n Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.\n\n 9 Therefore my heart rejoices, and my glory exults;\n Yea, my flesh dwells in safety.\n 10 For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol;\n Thou wilt not suffer Thy Beloved One to see the pit.\n 11 Thou wilt make me know the path of life;\n Before Thy face is fulness of joys;\n Pleasures are in Thy right hand for evermore.\n\n\nThe progress of thought in this psalm is striking. The singer is first\na bold confessor in the face of idolatry and apostasy (vv. 1-4). Then\nthe inward sweetness of his faith fills his soul, as is ever the\nreward of brave avowal, and he buries himself, bee-like in the pure\ndelights of communion with Jehovah (vv. 5-8). Finally, on the ground\nof such experience, he rises to the assurance that \"its very\nsweetness yieldeth proof\" that he and it are born for undying life\n(vv. 9-11). The conviction of immortality is then most vividly felt,\nwhen it results from the consciousness of a present full of God. The\noutpourings of a pure and wholesome mystic religion in the psalm are\nso entirely independent of the personality and environment of the\nsinger that there is no need to encumber the study of it with\nquestions of date. If we accept the opinion that the conception of\nresurrection was the result of intercourse with Persia, we shall have\nto give a post-exilic date to the psalm. But even if the general\nadoption of that belief was historically so motived, that does not\nforbid our believing that select souls, living in touch with God, rose\nto it long before. The peaks caught the glow while the valleys were\nfilled with mists. The tone of the last section sounds liker that of a\ndevout soul in the very act of grasping a wonderful new thought, which\nGod was then and there revealing to him through his present\nexperience, than of one who was simply repeating a theological truth\nbecome familiar to all.\n\nThe first turn of thought (vv. 1-4) is clear in its general purport.\nIt is a profession of personal adherence to Jehovah and of attachment\nto His lovers, in the face of idol worship which had drawn away some.\nThe brief cry for preservation at the beginning does not necessarily\nimply actual danger, but refers to the possible antagonism of the idol\nworshippers provoked by the psalmist's bold testimony. The two\nmeanings of Martyr, a witness and a sufferer, are closely intertwined\nin fact. He needs to be preserved, and he has a claim to be so, for\nhis profession of faith has brought the peril.\n\nThe remarkable expression in ver. 2 _b_ is best understood as\nunfolding the depth of what lies in saying, My God. It means the\ncleaving to Him of the whole nature as the all-comprehending supply of\nevery desire and capacity. \"Good for me is none besides Thee.\" This is\nthe same high strain as in the cognate Psalm lxxiii. 25, where, as\nhere, the joy of communion is seen in the very act of creating the\nconfidence of immortality. The purest expression of the loftiest\ndevotion lies in these few words. The soul that speaks thus to Jehovah\nturns next to Jehovah's friends and then to His foes. To the former it\nspeaks, in ver. 3, of the gnarled obscurity of which the simplest\nclearing up is that adopted by the R.V. This requires a very small\ncorrection of the text, the omission of one letter, (_Waw_ = and)\nbefore \"excellent,\" and the transference to the second clause of\n\"these,\" which the accents append clumsily to the first. If we regard\nthe \"to\" at the beginning, as the R.V. does, as marking simply\nreference (\"as for\"), the verse is an independent sentence; but it is\npossible to regard the influence of \"I have said\" as still continuing,\nand in that case we should have what the psalmist said to the saints,\nfollowing on what he said to Jehovah, which gives unity to the whole\ncontext, and is probably best. Cheyne would expunge the first clause\nas a gloss crept in from the margin; and that clears the sense, though\nthe remedy is somewhat drastic, and a fine touch is lost, \"I said to\nThy loved ones,--these (and not the braggarts who strut as great men)\nare the truly excellent, in whom is all my delight.\" When temptations\nto forsake Jehovah are many, the true worshipper has to choose his\ncompany, and his devotion to his only God will lead to penetrating\ninsight into the unreality of many shining reputations and the modest\nbeauty of humble lives of godliness. Eyes which have been purged to\nsee God, by seeing Him will see through much. Hearts that have learned\nto love Jehovah will be quick to discern kindred hearts, and, if they\nhave found all good in Him, will surely find purest delight in them.\nThe solitary confessor clasps the hands of his unknown fellows.\n\nWith dramatic abruptness he points to the unnamed recreants from\nJehovah. \"Their griefs are many--they exchange (Jehovah) for another.\"\nApparently, then, there was some tendency in Israel to idolatry, which\ngives energy to the psalmist's vehement vow that he will not offer\ntheir libations of blood, nor take the abhorred names of the gods they\npronounced into his lips. This state of things would suit but too much\nof Israel's history, during which temptations to idol worship were\ncontinually present, and the bloody libations would point to such\nabominations of human sacrifice as we know characterised the worship\nof Moloch and Chemosh. Cheyne sees in the reference to these a sign of\nthe post-exilic date of the psalm; but was there any period after the\nexile in which there was danger of relapse to idolatry, and was not\nrather a rigid monotheism the great treasure which the exiles brought\nback? The trait seems rather to favour an earlier date.\n\nIn the second section (vv. 5-8) the devout soul suns itself in the\nlight of God, and tells itself how rich it is. \"The portion of mine\ninheritance\" might mean an allotted share of either food or land, but\nver. 6 favours the latter interpretation. \"Cup\" here is not so much an\nimage for that which satisfies thirst, though that would be beautiful,\nas for that which is appointed for one to experience. Such a use of\nthe figure is familiar, and brings it into line with the other of\ninheritance, which is plainly the principal, as that of the cup is\ndropped in the following words. Every godly man has the same\npossession and the same prohibitions as the priests had. Like them he\nis landless, and instead of estates has Jehovah. They presented in\nmere outward fashion what is the very law of the devout life. Because\nGod is the only true Good, the soul must have none other, and if it\nhave forsaken all other by reason of the greater wealth of even\npartial possession of Him, it will be growingly rich in Him. He who\nhas said unto the Lord, \"Thou art my Lord,\" will with ever increasing\ndecisiveness of choice and consciousness of sufficiency say, \"The Lord\nis the portion of mine inheritance.\" The same figure is continued in\nver. 5 _b_. \"My lot\" is the same idea as \"my portion,\" and the natural\nflow of thought would lead us to expect that Jehovah is both. That\nconsideration combines with the very anomalous grammatical form of the\nword rendered \"maintainest\" to recommend the slight alteration adopted\nby Cheyne following Dyserinck and Bickell, by which \"continually\" is\nread for it. What God is rather than what He does is filling the\npsalmist's happy thoughts, and the depth of his blessedness already\nkindles that confidence in its perpetuity which shoots up to so bright\na flame in the closing verses (cf. lxxiii.). The consciousness of\nperfect rest in perfect satisfaction of need and desires ever follows\npossession of God. So the calm rapture of ver. 6 is the true utterance\nof the heart acquainted with God, and of it alone. One possession only\nbears reflection. Whatever else a man has, if he has not Jehovah for\nhis portion, some part of himself will stand stiffly out, dissentient\nand unsatisfied, and hinder him from saying \"My inheritance is fair\nto me.\" That verdict of experience implies, as it stands in the\nHebrew, subjective delight in the portion and not merely the objective\nworth of it. This is the peculiar pre-eminence of a God-filled life,\nthat the Infinitely good is wholly Good to it, through all the extent\nof capacities and cravings. Who else can say the same? Blessed they\nwhose delights are in God! He will ever delight them.\n\nNo wonder that the psalmist breaks into blessing; but it is deeply\nsignificant of the freedom from mere sentimental religion which\ncharacterises the highest flights of his devotion, that his special\nground of blessing Jehovah is not inward peace of communion, but the\nwise guidance given thereby for daily difficulties. A God whose sweet\nsufficiency gives satisfaction for all desires and balm for every\nwound is much, but a God who by these very gifts makes duty plain, is\nmore. The test of inward devotion is its bearing on common tasks. True\nwisdom is found in fellowship with God. Eyes which look on Him see\nmany things more clearly. The \"reins\" are conceived of as the seat of\nthe Divine voice. In Old Testament psychology they seem to stand for\nfeelings rather than reason or conscience, and it is no mistake of the\npsalmist's when he thinks that through them God's counsel comes. He\nmeans much the same as we do when we say that devout instincts are of\nGod. He will purify, ennoble and instruct even the lower propensities\nand emotions, so that they may be trusted to guide, when the heart is\nat rest in Him. \"Prayer is better than sleep,\" says the Mohammedan\ncall to devotion. \"In the night seasons,\" says the psalmist, when\nthings are more clearly seen in the dark than by day, many a whisper\nfrom Jehovah steals into his ears.\n\nThe upshot of all is a firm resolve to make really his what is his. \"I\nset Jehovah always before me\"--since He is \"always my lot.\" That\neffort of faith is the very life of devotion. We have any possession\nonly while it is present to our thoughts. It is all one not to have a\ngreat estate and never to see it or think about it. True love is an\nintense desire for the presence of its object. God is only ours in\nreality when we are conscious of His nearness, and that is strange\nlove of Him which is content to pass days without ever setting Him\nbefore itself. The effort of faith brings an ally and champion for\nfaith, for \"He is at my right hand,\" in so far as I set Him before me.\n\"At my right hand,\"--then I am at His left, and the left arm wears the\nshield, and the shield covers my head. Then He is close by my working\nhand, to direct its activity and to lay His own great hand on my\nfeeble one, as the prophet did his on the wasted fingers of the sick\nking to give strength to draw the bow. The ally of faith secures the\nstability of faith. \"I shall not be moved,\" either by the agitations\nof passions or by the shocks of fortune. A calm heart, which is not\nthe same thing as a stagnant heart, is the heritage of him who has God\nat his side; and he who is fixed on that rock stands four-square to\nall the winds that blow. Foolhardy self-reliance says, I shall never\nbe moved (x. 6), and the end of that boast is destruction. A good man,\nseduced by prosperity, may forget himself so far as to say it (xxx.\n6), and the end of that has to be fatherly discipline, to bring him\nright. But to say \"Because He is at my right hand I shall not be\nmoved\" is but to claim the blessings belonging to the possession of\nthe only satisfying inheritance, even Jehovah Himself.\n\nThe heart that expands with such blessed consciousness of possessing\nGod can chant its triumphant song even in front of the grave. So, in\nhis closing strain the psalmist pours out his rapturous faith that his\nfellowship with God abolishes death. No worthy climax to the profound\nconsciousness of communion already expressed, nor any satisfactory\nprogress of thought justifying the \"therefore\" of ver. 9, can be made\nout with any explanation of the final verses, which eliminates the\nassurance of immortal life from them. The experiences of the devout\nlife here are prophecies. These aspirations and enjoyments are to\ntheir possessor, not only authentic proofs \"that God is and that He is\nthe rewarder of the heart that seeks Him,\" but also witnesses of\nimmortality not to be silenced. They \"were not born for death,\" but,\nin their sweetness and incompleteness alike, point onwards to their\nown perpetuity and perfecting. If a man has been able to say and has\nsaid \"My God,\" nothing will seem more impossible to him than that such\na trifle as death should have power to choke his voice or still the\noutgoings of his heart towards, and its rest in, his God. Whatever may\nhave been the current beliefs of the psalmist's time in regard to a\nfuture life, and whether his sunny confidence here abode with him in\nless blessed hours of less \"high communion with the living God,\" or\nebbed away, leaving him to the gloomier thoughts of other psalms, we\nneed not try to determine. Here, at all events, we see his faith in\nthe act of embracing the great thought, which may have been like the\nrising of a new sun in his sky--namely, the conviction that this his\njoy was joy for ever. A like depth of personal experience of the\nsweetness of communion with God will always issue in like far-seeing\nassurance of its duration as unaffected by anything that touches only\nthe physical husk of the true self. If we would be sure of immortal\nlife, we must make the mortal a God-filled life.\n\nThe psalmist feels the glad certainty in all his complex nature,\nheart, soul, and flesh. All three have their portion in the joy which\nit brings. The foundation of the exultation of heart and soul and of\nthe quiet rest of flesh is not so much the assurance that after death\nthere will be life, and after the grave a resurrection, as the\nconfidence that there will be no death at all. To \"see the pit\" is a\nsynonym for experiencing death, and what is hoped for is exemption\nfrom it altogether, and a Divine hand leading him, as Enoch was led,\nalong the high levels on a \"path of life\" which leads to God's right\nhand, without any grim descent to the dark valley below. Such an\nexpectation may be called vain, but we must distinguish between the\nform and the substance of the psalmist's hope. Its essence\nwas--unbroken and perfected communion with God, uninterrupted sense of\npossessing Him, and therein all delights and satisfactions. To secure\nthese he dared to hope that for him death would be abolished. But he\ndied, and assuredly he found that the unbroken communion for which he\nlonged was persistent through death, and that in dying his hope that\nhe should not die was fulfilled beyond his hope.\n\nThe correspondence between his effort of faith in ver. 8 and his final\nposition in ver. 11 is striking. He who sets Jehovah continually before\nhimself will, in due time, come where there are fulness of joys before\nGod's face; and he who here, amid distractions and sorrows, has kept\nJehovah at his right hand as his counsellor, defender and companion,\nwill one day stand at Jehovah's right hand, and be satisfied for\nevermore with the uncloying and inexhaustible pleasures that there\nabide.\n\nThe singer, whose clear notes thus rang above the grave, died and saw\ncorruption. But, as the apostolic use of this psalm as a prophecy of\nChrist's resurrection has taught us, the apparent contradiction of his\ntriumphal chant by the fact of his death did not prove it to be a vain\ndream. If there ever should be a life of absolutely unbroken\ncommunion, that would be a life in which death would be abolished.\nJesus Christ is God's \"Beloved\" as no other is. He has conquered death\nas no other has. The psalm sets forth the ideal relation of the\nperfectly devout man to death and the future, and that ideal is a\nreality in Him, from whom the blessed continuity, which the psalmist\nwas sure must belong to fellowship so close as was his with God, flows\nto all who unite themselves with Him. He has trodden the path of life\nwhich He shows to us, and it _is_ life, at every step, even when it\ndips into the darkness of what men call death, whence it rises into\nthe light of the Face which it is joy to see, and close to the loving\nstrong Hand which holds and gives pleasures for evermore.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XVII.\n\n 1 Hear a righteous cause, Jehovah, attend to my cry;\n Give ear to my prayer from no lips of guile.\n 2 From Thy face let my sentence go forth;\n Thine eyes behold rightly.\n 3 Thou provest my heart, searchest it by night,\n Triest me by fire: Thou findest not [anything];\n Should I purpose evil, it shall not pass my mouth (?)\n 4 As for (During) the doings of men, by the word of Thy lips\n I have kept [me from] the paths of the violent man.\n 5 My steps have held fast to Thy ways;\n My feet have not slipped.\n\n 6 I, I call upon Thee, for Thou wilt answer me, O God;\n Incline Thine ear unto me: hear my speech.\n 7 Magnify (Make wonderful) Thy loving-kindnesses, Thou who savest\n those who seek refuge\n From those who rise [against them?] by Thy right hand.\n 8 Keep me as the pupil, the daughter of the eye;\n In the shadow of Thy wing hide me\n 9 From the wicked, who lay me waste,\n My enemies at heart, [who] ring me round.\n 10 Their heart they have shut up;\n With their mouth they speak in arrogance.\n 11 In our steps, they already compass us about;\n Their eyes they fix, to lay [us] on the ground.\n 12 He is like a lion who longs to rend,\n And a young lion crouching in coverts.\n\n 13 Arise, Jehovah: meet his face: make him crouch;\n Deliver my soul from the wicked [with] Thy sword,\n 14 From men [by] Thy hand, Jehovah, from men of the world,\n [Having] their portion in [this] life, and [with] Thy hidden\n treasure Thou fillest their belly;\n They are full of sons, and leave their overabundance to their\n children.\n 15 I, I shall in righteousness behold Thy face;\n I shall be satisfied on awaking [with] Thy likeness.\n\n\nThe investigations as to authorship and date yield the usual\nconflicting results. Davidic, say one school; undoubtedly post-exilic,\nsay another, without venturing on closer definition; late in the\nPersian period, says Cheyne. Perhaps we may content ourselves with the\nmodest judgment of Baethgen in his last book (\"Handcommentar,\" 1892,\np. 45): \"The date of composition cannot be decided by internal\nindications.\" The background is the familiar one of causeless foes\nround an innocent sufferer, who flings himself into God's arms for\nsafety, and in prayer enters into peace and hope. He is, no doubt, a\nrepresentative of the _Ecclesia pressa_; but he is so just because his\ncry is intensely personal. The experience of one is the type for all,\nand a poet's prerogative is to cast his most thoroughly individual\nemotions into words that fit the universal heart. The psalm is called\na \"prayer,\" a title given to only four other psalms, none of which are\nin the First Book. It has three movements, marked by the repetition of\nthe name of God, which does not appear elsewhere, except in the\ndoubtful verse 14. These three are vv. 1-5, in which the cry for help\nis founded on a strong profession of innocence; vv. 6-12, in which it\nis based on a vivid description of the enemies; and vv. 13-15, in\nwhich it soars into the pure air of mystic devotion, and thence looks\ndown on the transient prosperity of the foe and upwards, in a rapture\nof hope, to the face of God.\n\nThe petition proper, in vv. 1, 2, and its ground, are both strongly\nmarked by conscious innocence, and therefore sound strange to our\nears, trained as we have been by the New Testament to deeper insight\ninto sin. This sufferer asks God to \"hear righteousness,\" _i.e._ his\nrighteous cause. He pleads the _bona fides_ of his prayer, the fervour\nof which is marked by its designation as \"my _cry_,\" the high-pitched\nnote usually the expression of joy, but here of sore need and strong\ndesire. Boldly he asks for his \"sentence from Thy face,\" and the\nground of that petition is that \"Thine eyes behold rightly.\" Was\nthere, then, no inner baseness that should have toned down such\nconfidence? Was this prayer not much the same as the Pharisee's in\nChrist's parable? The answer is partly found in the considerations\nthat the innocence professed is specially in regard to the occasions\nof the psalmist's present distress, and that the acquittal by\ndeliverance which he asks is God's testimony that as to these he was\nslandered and clear. But, further, the strong professions of\nheart-cleanness and outward obedience which follow are not so much\ndenials of any sin as avowals of sincere devotion and honest\nsubmission of life to God's law. They are \"the answer of a good\nconscience towards God,\" expressed, indeed, more absolutely than\nbefits Christian consciousness, but having nothing in common with\nPharisaic self-complacency. The modern type of religion which recoils\nfrom such professions, and contents itself with always confessing sins\nwhich it has given up hope of overcoming, would be all the better for\nlistening to the psalmist and aiming a little more vigorously and\nhopefully at being able to say, \"I know nothing against myself.\" There\nis no danger in such a saying, if it be accompanied by \"Yet am I not\nhereby justified\" and by \"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou\nme from secret faults.\"\n\nThe general drift of vv. 3-5 is clear, but the precise meaning and\nconnection are extremely obscure. Probably the text is faulty. It has\nbeen twisted in all sorts of ways, the Masoretic accents have been\ndisregarded, the division of verses set aside, and still no proposed\nrendering of parts of vv. 3, 4, is wholly satisfactory. The psalmist\ndeals with heart, lips, feet--that is, thoughts, words, and deeds--and\ndeclares the innocence of all. But difficulties begin when we look\ncloser. The first question is as to the meaning and connection of the\nword rendered in the A.V. and R.V., \"I am purposed.\" It may be a first\nperson singular or an infinitive used as a noun or even a noun,\nmeaning, in both the latter cases, substantially the same, _i.e._ my\nthinking or my thoughts. It is connected by the accents with what\nfollows; but in that case the preceding verb \"find\" is left without an\nobject, and hence many renderings attach the word to the preceding\nclause, and so get \"Thou shalt find no [evil] thoughts in me.\" This\ndivision of the clauses leaves the words rendered, by A.V. and R.V.,\n\"My mouth shall not transgress,\" standing alone. There is no other\ninstance of the verb standing by itself with that meaning, nor is\n\"mouth\" clearly the subject. It may as well be the object, and the\nclause be, \"[It] shall not pass my mouth.\" If that is the meaning, we\nhave to look to the preceding word as defining what it is that is thus\nto be kept unuttered, and so detach it from the verb \"find,\" as the\naccents do. The knot has been untied in two ways: \"My [evil] purpose\nshall not pass,\" etc., or, taking the word as a verb and regarding the\nclause as hypothetical, \"Should I think evil, it shall not pass,\" etc.\n\nEither of these renderings has the advantage of retaining the\nrecognised meaning of the verb and of avoiding neglect of the accent.\nSuch a rendering has been objected to as inconsistent with the\nprevious clause, but the psalmist may be looking back to it, feeling\nthat his partial self-knowledge makes it a bold statement, and thus\nfar limiting it, that _if_ any evil thought is found in his heart, it\nis sternly repressed in silence.\n\nObscurity continues in ver. 4. The usual rendering, \"As for [or,\nDuring] the works of men, by the word of Thy mouth I have kept me,\"\netc., is against the accents, which make the principal division of the\nverse fall after \"lips\"; but no satisfactory sense results if the\naccentuation is followed unless we suppose a verb implied, such as,\n_e.g._, _stand fast_ or the like, so getting the profession of\nsteadfastness in the words of God's lips, in face of men's self-willed\ndoings. But this is precarious, and probably the ordinary way of\ncutting the knot by neglecting the accents is best. In any case the\navowal of innocence passes here from thoughts and words to acts. The\ncontrast of the psalmist's closed mouth and God's lips is significant,\neven if unintended. Only he who silences much that rises in his heart\ncan hear God speaking. \"I kept me from,\" is a very unusual meaning for\nthe word employed, which generally signifies to _guard_ or _watch_,\nbut here seems to mean _to take heed so as to avoid_. Possibly the\npreposition _from_, denoted by a single letter, has fallen out before\n\"paths.\" This negative avoidance precedes positive walking in God's\nways, since the poet's position is amidst evil men. Goodness has to\nlearn to say No to men, if it is ever to say Yes to God. The foot has\nto be forcibly plucked and vigilantly kept from foul ways before it\ncan be planted firmly in \"Thy paths.\" By holding fast to courses\nappointed by God stability is ensured. Thus the closing clause of this\nfirst part is rather an acknowledgment of the happy result of devoted\ncleaving to God than an assertion of self-secured steadfastness. \"My\nfeet do not slip,\" not so much because they are strong as because the\nroad is good, and the Guide's word and hand ready.\n\nThe second part repeats the prayer for help, but bases it on the\ndouble ground of God's character and acts and of the suppliant's\ndesperate straits; and of these two the former comes first in the\nprayer, though the latter has impelled to the prayer. Faith may be\nhelped to self-consciousness by the sense of danger, but when awakened\nit grasps God's hand first and then faces its foes. In this part of\nthe psalm the petitions, the aspects of the Divine character and\nworking, and the grim picture of dangers are all noteworthy. The\npetitions by their number and variety reveal the pressure of trouble,\neach new prick of fear or pain forcing a new cry and each cry\nrecording a fresh act of faith tightening its grasp. The \"I\" in ver. 6\nis emphatic, and may be taken as gathering up the psalmist's preceding\ndeclarations and humbly laying them before God as a plea: \"_I, who\nthus cleave to Thy ways_, call upon Thee, and my prayer is that of\nfaith, which is sure of answer.\" But that confidence does not make\npetition superfluous, but rather encourages it. The assurance that\n\"Thou wilt answer\" is the reason for the prayer, \"Incline Thine ear.\"\nNaturally at such a moment the name of God springs to the psalmist's\nlips, but significantly it is not the name found in the other two\nparts of the psalm. There He is invoked as \"Jehovah,\" here as \"God.\"\nThe variation is not merely rhetorical, but the name which connotes\npower is appropriate in a prayer for deliverance from peril so\nextreme. \"Magnify [or make wonderful] Thy loving-kindnesses\" is a\npetition containing at once a glimpse of the psalmist's danger, for\nescape from which nothing short of a wonder of power will avail, and\nan appeal to God's delight in magnifying His name by the display of\nHis mercy. The prayer sounds arrogant, as if the petitioner thought\nhimself important enough to have miracles wrought for him; but it is\nreally most humble, for the very wonder of the loving-kindness\nbesought is that it should be exercised for such a one. God wins\nhonour by saving a poor man who cries to Him; and it is with deep\ninsight into the heart of God that this man presents himself as\noffering an occasion, in which God must delight, to flash the glory of\nHis loving power before dull eyes. The petitions grow in boldness as\nthey go on, and culminate in two which occur in similar contiguity in\nthe great Song of Moses in Deut. xxxii.: \"Keep me as the pupil of Thy\neye.\" What closeness of union with God that lovely figure implies, and\nwhat sedulous guardianship it implores! \"In the shadow of Thy wings\nhide me.\" What tenderness of fostering protection that ascribes to\nGod, and what warmth and security it asks for man! The combination and\norder of these two petitions may teach us that, if we are to be\n\"kept,\" we must be hidden; that if these frail lives of ours are to be\ndear to God as the apple of His eye, they must be passed nestling\nclose by His side. Deep, secret communion with Him is the condition of\nHis protection of us, as another psalm, using the same image, has it:\n\"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide\nunder the shadow of the Almighty.\"\n\nThe aspects of the Divine character, which the psalmist employs to move\nGod's heart and to encourage his own, are contained first in the name\n\"God,\" and next in the reference to His habitual dealings with trusting\nsouls, in ver 7. From of old it has been His way to be the Saviour of\nsuch as take refuge in Him from their enemies, and His right hand has\nshielded them. That past is a prophecy which the psalmist grasps in\nfaith. He has in view instances enough to warrant an induction\nabsolutely certain. He knows the law of the Divine dealings, and is sure\nthat anything may happen rather than that it shall fail. Was he wrong in\nthus characterising God? Much in his experience and in ours looks as if\nhe were; but they who most truly understand what help or salvation truly\nis will most joyously dwell in the sunny clearness of this confidence,\nwhich will not be clouded for them, though their own and others' trust\nis not answered by what sense calls deliverance.\n\nThe eye which steadily looks on God can look calmly at dangers. It is\nwith no failure of faith that the poet's thoughts turn to his enemies.\nFears that have become prayers are already more than half conquered.\nThe psalmist would move God to help, not himself to despair, by\nrecounting his perils. The enemy \"spoil\" him or lay him waste, the\nword used for the ravages of invaders. They are \"enemies in\nsoul\"--_i.e._, deadly--or perhaps \"against [my] soul\" or life. They\nare pitiless and proud, closing their hearts, which prosperity has\nmade \"fat\" or arrogant, against the entrance of compassion, and\nindulging in gasconading boasts of their own power and contemptuous\nscoffs at his weakness. They ring him round, watching his steps. The\ntext has a sudden change here from singular to plural, and back again\nto singular, reading \"_our_ steps,\" and \"They have compassed _me_,\"\nwhich the Hebrew margin alters to \"us.\" The wavering between the\nsingular and plural is accounted for by the upholders of the Davidic\nauthorship by a reference to him and his followers, and by the\nadvocates of the theory that the speaker is the personified Israel by\nsupposing that the mask falls for a moment, and the \"me,\" which always\nmeans \"us,\" gives place to the collective. Ver. 11 _b_ is ambiguous in\nconsequence of the absence of an object to the second verb. To \"set\nthe eyes\" is to watch fixedly and eagerly; and the purpose of the gaze\nis in the next clause stated by an infinitive with a preposition, not\nby a participle, as in the A.V. The verb is sometimes transitive and\nsometimes intransitive, but the former is the better meaning here, and\nthe omitted object is most naturally \"us\" or \"me.\" The sense, then,\nwill be that the enemies eagerly watch for an opportunity to cast down\nthe psalmist, so as to lay him low on the earth. The intransitive\nmeaning \"to bow down\" is taken by some commentators. If that is\nadopted (as it is by Hupfeld and others), the reference is to \"our\nsteps\" in the previous clause, and the sense of the whole is that\neager eyes watch for these \"bowing to the ground,\" that is stumbling.\nBut such a rendering is harsh, since steps are always on the ground.\nBaethgen (\"Handcommentar\"), on the strength of Num. xxi. 22, the only\nplace where the verb occurs with the same preposition as here, and\nwhich he takes as meaning \"to turn aside to field or vineyard--_i.e._,\nto plunder them\"--would translate, \"They direct their eyes to burst\ninto the land,\" and supposes the reference to be to some impending\ninvasion. A similar variation in number to that in ver. 11 occurs in\nver. 12, where the enemies are concentrated into one. The allusion is\nsupposed to be to some one conspicuous leader--_e.g._, Saul--but\nprobably the change is merely an illustration of the carelessness as\nto such grammatical accuracy characteristic of emotional Hebrew\npoetry. The familiar metaphor of the lurking lion may have been led up\nto in the poet's imagination by the preceding picture of the steadfast\ngaze of the enemy, like the glare of the green eyeballs flashing from\nthe covert of a jungle.\n\nThe third part (vv. 13-15) renews the cry for deliverance, and unites\nthe points of view of the preceding parts in inverted order,\ndescribing first the enemies and then the psalmist, but with these\nsignificant differences, the fruits of his communion with God, that\nnow the former are painted, not in their fierceness, but in their\ntransitory attachments and low delights, and that the latter does not\nbemoan his own helplessness nor build on his own integrity, but feeds\nhis soul on his confidence of the vision of God and the satisfaction\nwhich it will bring. The smoke clouds that rolled in the former parts\nhave caught fire, and one clear shoot of flame aspires heavenward. He\nwho makes his needs known to God gains for immediate answer \"the peace\nof God, which passeth understanding,\" and can wait God's time for the\nrest. The crouching lion is still ready to spring; but the psalmist\nhides himself behind God, whom he asks to face the brute and make him\ngrovel at his feet (\"Make him bow down,\" the same word used for a lion\ncouchant in Gen. xlix. 9 and Num. xxiv. 9). The rendering of ver. 13\n_b_, \"the wicked, who is Thy sword,\" introduces an irrelevant thought;\nand it is better to regard the sword as God's weapon that slays the\ncrouching wild beast. The excessive length of ver. 14 and the entirely\npleonastic \"from men (by) Thy hand, O Lord,\" suggest textual\ncorruption. The thought runs more smoothly, though not altogether\nclearly, if these words are omitted. There remains a penetrating\ncharacterisation of the enemy in the sensuous limitations and mistaken\naims of his godless being, which may be satiated with low delights,\nbut never satisfied, and has to leave them all at last. He is no\nlonger dreaded, but pitied. His prayer has cleared the psalmist's eyes\nand lifted him high enough to see his foes as they are. They are \"men\nof the world,\" belonging, by the set of their lives, to a transitory\norder of things--an anticipation of New Testament language about \"the\nchildren of this world.\" \"Their portion is in [this] life,\" while the\npsalmist's is God (xvi. 5). They have chosen to have their good things\nin their lifetime. Hopes, desires, aims, tastes, are all confined\nwithin the narrow bounds of time and sense, than which there can be no\ngreater folly. Such limitation will often seem to succeed, for low\naims are easily reached; and God sometimes lets men have their fill of\nthe goods at which their perverted choice clutches. But even so the\nchoice is madness and misery, for the man, gorged with worldly good,\nhas yet to leave it, however unwilling to loosen his hold. He cannot\nuse his goods; and it is no comfort to him, sent away naked into\ndarkness of death, that his descendants revel in what was his.\n\nHow different the contrasted conditions of the hunted psalmist and his\nenemies look when the light of such thoughts streams on them! The\nhelpless victim towers above his persecutors, for his desires go up to\nHim who abides and saturates with His blessed fulness the heart that\naspires to Him. Terrors vanish; foes are forgotten; every other wish\nis swallowed up in one, which is a confidence as well as a desire. The\npsalmist neither grudges, nor is perplexed by, the prosperity of the\nwicked. The mysteries of men's earthly lot puzzle those who stand at a\nlower elevation; but they do not disturb the soul on these supreme\nheights of mystic devotion, where God is seen to be the only good, and\nthe hungry heart is filled with Him. Assuredly the psalmist's closing\nexpectation embodies the one contrast worth notice: that between the\npresent gross and partial satisfactions of sense-bound lives and the\ncalm, permanent, full delights of communion with God. But does he\nlimit his hopes to such \"hours of high communion with the living God\"\nas may be ours, even while the foe rings us round and earth holds us\ndown? Possibly so, but it is difficult to find a worthy meaning for\n\"when I awake\" unless it be from the sleep of death. Possibly, too,\nthe allusion to the men of the world as \"leaving their substance\"\nmakes the reference to a future beatific vision more likely. Death is\nto them the stripping off of their chosen portion; it is to him whose\nportion is God the fuller possession of all that he loves and desires.\nCheyne (\"Orig. of Psalt.,\" p. 407) regards the \"awaking\" as that from\nthe \"sleep\" of the intermediate state by \"the passing of the soul into\na resurrection body.\" He is led to the recognition of the doctrine of\nthe resurrection here by his theory of the late date of the psalm and\nthe influence of Zoroastrianism on it. But it is not necessary to\nsuppose an allusion to the resurrection. Rather the psalmist's\nconfidence is the offspring of his profound consciousness of present\ncommunion, and we see here the very process by which a devout man, in\nthe absence of a clear revelation of the future, reached up to a\nconclusion to which he was led by his experience of the inmost reality\nof friendship with God. The impotence of death on the relation of the\ndevout soul to God is a postulate of faith, whether formulated as an\narticle of faith or not. Probably the psalmist had no clear conception\nof a future life; but certainly he had a distinct assurance of it,\nbecause he felt that the very \"sweetness\" of present fellowship with\nGod \"yielded proof that it was born for immortality.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XVIII.\n\n 1 Heartily do I love Thee, Jehovah, my strength!\n 2 Jehovah, my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,\n My God, my rock in whom I take refuge,\n My shield and the horn of my salvation and my high tower!\n 3 I call upon Him who is to be praised, Jehovah;\n And from mine enemies am I saved.\n\n 4 The breakers of death ringed me round,\n And streams of destruction terrified me.\n 5 The cords of Sheol encircled me;\n The snares of death fronted me.\n 6 In my distress I called on Jehovah,\n And to my God I loudly cried;\n He heard my voice from His palace-temple,\n And my loud crying before Him entered His ears.\n\n 7 Then the earth rocked and reeled,\n And the foundations of the mountains quivered\n And rocked again, for He was wroth.\n 8 Smoke went up in His nostrils,\n And fire from His mouth devoured;\n Brands came blazing from Him.\n 9 And He bowed the heavens and came down,\n And cloud gloom [was] below His feet.\n 10 And He rode upon the cherub and flew,\n And came swooping on the wings of the wind.\n 11 He made darkness His covert, His tent round about Him,\n Darkness of waters and cloud masses of the skies.\n 12 From the brightness before Him there passed through His\n cloud-masses\n Hail and brands of fire.\n 13 And Jehovah thundered in the heavens,\n And the Most High gave forth His voice.\n 14 And He sent forth His arrows and scattered them,\n And lightnings many, and flung them into panic.\n 15 And the beds of the waters were seen,\n And the foundations of the earth bared,\n At Thy rebuke, Jehovah,\n At the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.\n\n 16 He stretched from on high: He took me;\n He drew me from many waters.\n 17 He rescued me from my strong enemy\n And from my haters, because they were too mighty for me.\n 18 They fell on me in the day of my calamity,\n But Jehovah became as a staff to me.\n 19 And He brought me out into a wide place;\n He delivered me, because He delighted in me.\n\n 20 Jehovah treated me according to my righteousness;\n According to the cleanness of my hands He returned [recompense]\n to me.\n 21 For I kept the ways of Jehovah,\n And did not part myself by sin from my God.\n 22 For all His judgments were before me,\n And His statutes did I not put away from me.\n 23 And I was without fault with Him,\n And I kept myself from my iniquity.\n 24 Therefore Jehovah returned [recompense] to me according to my\n righteousness,\n According to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes.\n\n 25 With the gracious man Thou showest Thyself gracious;\n With the faultless man Thou showest Thyself faultless.\n 26 With him who purifies himself Thou showest Thyself pure,\n And with the perverse Thou showest Thyself froward.\n 27 For Thou savest humbled people,\n And eyes uplifted Thou dost bring low.\n\n 28 For Thou lightest my lamp;\n Jehovah my God brightens my darkness.\n 29 For by Thee I run down a troop,\n And through my God I spring over a rampart.\n 30 As for God, His way is faultless;\n The word of Jehovah is tried (as by fire):\n A shield is He to all who take refuge in Him.\n 31 For who is God but Jehovah,\n And who is a rock besides our God?\n 32 [It is] God who girded me with strength,\n And made my way faultless;\n 33 Who made my feet like hinds' [feet],\n And made me stand upon my high places;\n 34 Who schooled my hands for war,\n So that my arms bend a bow of brass.\n\n 35 And Thou didst give me the shield of Thy salvation,\n And Thy right hand upheld me,\n And Thy humility made me great.\n 36 Thou didst broaden under me [a path for] my step,\n And my ankles did not give.\n\n 37 I pursued my enemies, and overtook them;\n And I did not turn till I had consumed them.\n 38 I shattered them, and they could not rise;\n They fell beneath my feet.\n 39 And Thou girdedst me with might for battle;\n Thou didst bring my assailants to their knees under me.\n 40 And my enemies Thou madest to turn their backs to me,\n And my haters--I annihilated them.\n\n 41 They shrieked, and there was no helper,\n To Jehovah, and He answered them not.\n 42 I pounded them like dust before the wind;\n Like street mud I emptied them out.\n\n 43 Thou didst deliver me from the strifes of the people;\n Thou didst set me for a head of the nations;\n A people whom I knew not served me.\n 44 At the hearing of the ear they made themselves obedient to me;\n The children of the foreigner came feigning to me.\n 45 The children of the foreigner faded away,\n And came trembling from their strongholds.\n\n 46 Jehovah lives, and blessed be my rock;\n And exalted be the God of my salvation,\n 47 The God who gave me revenges\n And subdued peoples under me,\n 48 My deliverer from my enemies:\n Yea, from my assailants Thou didst set me on high,\n From the man of violence didst Thou rescue me.\n\n 49 Therefore will I give Thee thanks among the nations, Jehovah;\n And to Thy name will I sing praise.\n 50 He magnifies salvations for His king,\n And works loving-kindness for His anointed,\n For David and for his seed for evermore.\n\n\nThe description of the theophany (vv. 7-19) and that of the psalmist's\nGod-won victories (vv. 32-46) appear to refer to the same facts,\ntransfigured in the former case by devout imagination and presented in\nthe latter in their actual form. These two portions make the two central\nmasses round which the psalm is built up. They are connected by a\ntransitional section, of which the main theme is the power of character\nto determine God's aspect to a man as exemplified in the singer's\nexperience; and they are preceded and followed by an introduction and a\nconclusion, throbbing with gratitude and love to Jehovah, the Deliverer.\n\nThe Davidic authorship of this psalm has been admitted even by critics\nwho are slow to recognise it. Cheyne asks, as if sure of a negative\nanswer, \"What is there in it that suggests the history of David?\"\n(\"Orig. of the Psalter,\" p. 205). Baethgen, who \"suspects\" that a\nDavidic psalm has been \"worked over\" for use in public worship, may\nanswer the question: \"The following points speak for the Davidic\nauthorship. The poet is a military commander and king, who wages\nsuccessful wars, and subdues peoples whom he hitherto did not know.\nThere is no Israelite king to whom the expressions in question in the\npsalm apply so closely as is the case with David.\" To these points may\nbe added the allusions to earlier trials and perils, and the distinct\ncorrespondence, in a certain warmth and inwardness of personal relation\nto Jehovah, with the other psalms attributed to David, as well as the\npregnant use of the word _to flee to a refuge_, applied to the soul's\nflight to God, which we find here (ver. 2) and in the psalms ascribed to\nhim. If the clear notes of the psalm be the voice of personal\nexperience, there is but one author possible--namely, David--and the\nglow and intensity of the whole make the personification theory\nsingularly inadequate. It is much easier to believe that David used the\nword \"temple\" or \"palace\" for Jehovah's heavenly dwelling, than that the\n\"I\" of the psalm, with his clinging sense of possession in Jehovah, his\nvivid remembrance of sorrows, his protestations of integrity, his wonder\nat his own victories, and his triumphant praise, is not a man, but a\nfrosty personification of the nation.\n\nThe preluding invocation in vv. 1-3 at once touches the high-water mark\nof Old Testament devotion, and is conspicuous among its noblest\nutterances. Nowhere else in Scripture is the form of the word employed\nwhich is here used for \"love.\" It has special depth and tenderness. How\nfar into the centre this man had penetrated, who could thus isolate and\nunite Jehovah and himself, and could feel that they two were alone and\nknit together by love! The true estimate of Jehovah's ways with a man\nwill always lead to that resolve to love, based on the consciousness of\nGod's love to him. Happy they who learn that lesson by retrospect;\nhappier still if they gather it from their sorrows while these press!\nLove delights in addressing the beloved and heaping tender names on its\nobject, each made more tender and blessed by that appropriating \"my.\" It\nseems more accordant with the fervent tone of the psalm to regard the\nreiterated designations in ver. 2 as vocatives, than to take \"Jehovah\"\nand \"God\" as subjects and the other names as predicates. Rather the\nwhole is one long, loving accumulation of dear names, a series of\ninvocations, in which the restful heart murmurs to itself how rich it is\nand is never wearied of saying, \"my delight and defence.\" As in Psalm\nxvii., the name of Jehovah occurs twice, and that of God once. Each of\nthese is expanded, as it were, by the following epithets, and the\nexpansion becomes more extended as it advances, beginning with one\nmember in ver. 1, having three in ver. 2 _a_ and four in ver. 2 _b_.\nLeaving out the Divine names proper, there are seven in ver. 2,\nseparated into two groups by the name of God. It may be observed there\nis a general correspondence between the two sets, each beginning with\n\"rock\" (though the word is different in the two clauses), each having\nthe metaphor of a fortress, and \"shield and horn of salvation,\" roughly\nanswering to \"Deliverer.\" The first word for _rock_ is more properly\n_crag_ or _cliff_, thus suggesting inaccessibility, and the second a\n_rock mass_, thus giving the notion of firmness or solidity. The shade\nof difference need not be pressed, but the general idea is that of\nsafety, or by elevation above the enemy and by reason of the\nunchangeable strength of Jehovah. In that lofty eyrie, a man may look\ndown on all the armies of earth, idly active on the plain. That great\nRock towers unchangeable above fleeting things. The river at its base\nruns past, the woods nestling at its feet bud and shed their leaves, but\nit stands the same. David had many a time found shelter among the hills\nand caves of Judah and the South land, and it may not be fancy that sees\nreminiscences of these experiences in his song. The beautiful figure for\ntrust embodied in the word in 2 _b_ belongs to the metaphor of the rock.\nIt is found with singular appropriateness in Psalm lvii., which the\ntitle ascribes to David \"in the cave,\" the sides of which bent above\nhim and sheltered him, like a great pair of wings, and possibly\nsuggested the image, \"In the shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge.\"\nThe difference between \"fortress\" and \"high tower\" is slight, but the\nformer gives more prominence to the idea of strength, and the latter to\nthat of elevation, both concurring in the same thought as was expressed\nby \"rock,\" but with the additional suggestion of Jehovah as the home of\nthe soul. Safety, then, comes through communion. Abiding in God is\nseclusion from danger. \"Deliverer\" stands last in the first set, saying\nin plain words what the preceding had put in figures. \"My shield and the\nhorn of my salvation\" come in the centre of the second set, in obedience\nto the law of variety in reiteration which the poet's artistic instincts\nimpose. They shift the figure to that of a warrior in actual conflict.\nThe others picture a fugitive from enemies, these a fighter. The shield\nis a defensive weapon; horns are offensive ones, and the combination\nsuggests that in conflict we are safe by the interposition of God's\ncovering power, and are armed by the same power for striking at the foe.\nThat power ensures salvation, whether in the narrower or wider sense.\nThus Jehovah is all the armour and all the refuge of His servant. To\ntrust Him is to have His protection cast around and His power infused\nfor conflict and victory. The end of all life's experience is to reveal\nHim in these characters, and they have rightly learned its lessons whose\nsong of retrospect begins with \"I will love Thee, Jehovah,\" and pours\nout at His feet all happy names expressive of His sufficiency and of the\nsinger's rest in possessing Him. Ver. 3 is not a resolution for the\nfuture--\"I will call; ... so shall I be saved\"--but the summing up of\nexperience in a great truth: \"I call, ... and I am saved.\" It unfolds\nthe meaning of the previous names of God, and strikes the key-note for\nthe magnificent sequel.\n\nThe superb idealisation of past deliverances under the figure of a\ntheophany is prepared for by a retrospect of dangers, which still\npalpitates with the memory of former fears. \"A sorrow's crown of\nsorrow is remembering happier things,\" and a joy's crown of joy is\nremembering past perils. No better description of David's early life\ncould have been given than that contained in the two vivid figures of\nvv. 4 and 5. If we adopt the more congruous reading of the other\nrecension of the psalm in 2 Sam. xxii., we have in both members of\nver. 4 a parallel metaphor. Instead of \"sorrows\" or \"cords\" (both of\nwhich renderings are possible for the text of the psalm here), it\nreads \"breakers,\" corresponding with \"floods\" in the second clause.\n\"Destruction\" is better than _ungodly men_ as the rendering of the\nunusual word \"Belial.\" Thus the psalmist pictures himself as standing\non a diminishing bit of solid ground, round which a rising flood runs\nstrong, breaking on its crumbling narrowness. Islanded thus, he is all\nbut lost. With swift transition he casts the picture of his distress\ninto another metaphor. Now he is a hunted creature, surrounded and\nconfronted by cords and snares. Sheol and Death have marked him for\ntheir prey, and are drawing their nets round him. What is left for\nhim? One thing only. He has a voice, and he has a God. In his despair\none piercing cry breaks from him; and, wonder of wonders, that thin\nshoot of prayer rises right into the heavenly palace-temple and the\nears of God. The repetition of \"I called upon the Lord\" connects this\nwith ver. 3 as the experience on which the generalisation there is\nbased. His extremity of peril had not paralysed the psalmist's grasp\nof God as still \"my God,\" and his confidence is vindicated. There is\nan eloquent contrast between the insignificance of the cause and the\nstupendous grandeur of the effect: one poor man's shrill cry and a\nshaking earth and all the dread pomp attending an interposing God. A\ncupful of water poured into a hydraulic ram sets in motion power that\nlifts tons; the prayer of faith brings the dread magnificence of\nJehovah into the field. The reading of 2 Samuel is preferable in the\nlast clause of ver. 6, omitting the superfluous \"before Him.\"\n\nThe phenomena of a thunderstorm are the substratum of the grand\ndescription of Jehovah's delivering self-manifestation. The garb is\nlofty poetry; but a definite fact lies beneath, namely some\ndeliverance in which the psalmist saw Jehovah's coming in storm and\nlightning flash to destroy, and therefore to save. Faith sees more\ntruly because more deeply than sense. What would have appeared to an\nordinary looker-on as merely a remarkable escape was to its subject\nthe manifestation of a present God. Which eye sees the \"things that\nare,\"--that which is cognisant only of a concatenation of events, or\nthat which discerns a Person directing these? The cry of this hunted\nman has for first effect the kindling of the Divine \"wrath,\" which is\nrepresented as flaming into action in the tremendous imagery of vv. 7\nand 8. The description of the storm in which God comes to help the\nsuppliant does not begin with these verses, as is commonly understood.\nThe Divine power is not in motion yet, but is, as it were, gathering\nitself up for action. The complaining prayer is boldly treated as\nbringing to God's knowledge His servant's straits, and the knowledge\nas moving Him to wrath towards the enemies of one who takes shelter\nbeneath His wings. \"What have I here that my\"--servant is thus\nbestead? saith the Lord. The poet can venture to paint a picture with\nthe pen, which the painter dare not attempt with the pencil. The anger\nof Jehovah is described in words of singular daring, as rising like\nsmoke from His nostrils and pouring in fire from His lips, from which\nblazing brands issue. No wonder that the earth reels even to the roots\nof the mountains, as unable to endure that wrath! The frank\nanthropomorphism of the picture, of which the features are taken from\nthe hard breathing of an angry man or animal (compare Job's crocodile\nin Job xli. 10-13), and the underlying conception are equally\noffensive to many; but as for the former, the more \"gross\" the\nhumanising of the picture, the less likely is it to be mistaken for\nprose fact, and the more easy to apprehend as symbol: and as for the\nlatter, the New Testament endorses the conception of the \"wrath of\nGod,\" and bids us take heed lest, if we cast it away, we maim His\nlove. This same psalm hymns Jehovah's \"gentleness\"; and the more\ndeeply His love is apprehended, the more surely will His wrath be\ndiscerned as its necessary accompaniment. The dark orb and its radiant\nsister move round a common centre.\n\nThus kindled, God's wrath flashes into action, as is wonderfully\npainted in that great storm piece in vv. 9-15. The stages of a violent\nthunder tempest are painted with unsurpassable force and brevity.\n\nFirst we see the low clouds: far nearer the trembling earth than the\nhidden blue was, and seeming to press down with leaden weight, their\nboding blackness is above us; but\n\n \"Whose foot shall we see emerge,\n Whose from the straining topmost dark?\"\n\nTheir low gathering is followed by the sudden rush of wind, which\nbreaks the awful calm. In its \"sound,\" the psalmist hears the\nwinnowing of mighty wings: those of the cherub on whom, as a living\nchariot, Jehovah sits throned. This is called \"mythology.\" Is it not\nrather a poetic personification of elemental powers, which gives\nemphasis to their being God's instruments? The cherubim are in\nScripture represented in varying forms and with different attributes.\nIn Ezekiel they assume a composite form, due apparently to Babylonian\ninfluences; but here there is no trace of that, and the absence of\nsuch strongly supports a pre-exilic date.\n\nBlacker grows the gloom, in which awed hearts are conscious of a present\nDeity shrouded behind the livid folds of the thunder-clouds, as in a\ntent. Down rushes the rain; the darkness is \"a darkness of waters,\" and\nalso \"thick clouds of the skies,\" or \"cloud masses,\" a mingled chaos of\nrain and cloud. Then lightning tears a way through the blackness, and\nthe language becomes abrupt, like the flash. In vv. 12 and 13 the fury\nof the storm rages. Blinding brightness and deafening thunder-claps\ngleam and rattle through the broken words. Probably ver. 12 should be\nrendered, \"From the brightness before Him there came through His clouds\nhail and brands of fire.\" Hidden in the cloudy tent is the light of\nJehovah's presence, sparkles from which, flung forth by Him, pierce the\nsolid gloom; and men call them lightnings. Then thunder rolls, the voice\nof the Most High. The repetition in ver. 13 of \"hail and brands of fire\"\ngives much abrupt force, and one is unwilling to part with it. The\nreason for omitting it from the text is the want of grammatical\nconnection, but that is rather a reason for retaining it, as the\nisolated clause breaks in on the continuity of the sentence, just as\nthe flash shoots suddenly out of the cloud. These lightnings are God's\narrows; and, as they are showered down in flights, the psalmist's\nenemies, unnamed since ver. 3, scatter in panic. The ideal character of\nthe whole representation is plain from the last element in it--the\ndescription in ver. 15 of laying bare the sea's depths, as the waters\nwere parted at the Exodus. That voice and the fierce blast from these\nfire-breathing nostrils have dried the streams, and the oozy bed is\nseen. God's \"rebuke\" has power to produce physical changes. The\nearthquake at the beginning and the empty ocean bed at the end are both\nsomewhat outside the picture of the storm, and complete the\nrepresentation of all nature as moved by the theophany.\n\nThen comes the purpose of all the dread magnificence, strangely small\nexcept to the psalmist. Heaven and earth have been shaken, and\nlightnings set leaping through the sky, for nothing greater than to\ndrag one half-drowned man from the floods. But the result of the\ntheophany is small only in the same fashion as its cause was small.\nThis same poor man cried, and the cry set Jehovah's activity in\nmotion. The deliverance of a single soul may seem a small thing, but\nif the single soul has prayed it is no longer small, for God's good\nname is involved. A nation is disgraced if its meanest subject is left\nto die in the hands of foreign enemies, and blood and treasure are not\nwasted if poured out lavishly for his rescue. God cannot let a\nsuppliant who has taken shelter in His tent be dragged thence.\nTherefore there is no disproportion between the theophany and the\nindividual deliverance which is its sole result.\n\nThe psalmist lays aside the figure in vv. 17, 18, and comes to the\nbare fact of his deliverance from enemies, and perhaps from one\nespecially formidable (\"my enemy,\" ver. 17). The prose of the whole\nwould have been that he was in great danger and without means of\naverting it, but had a hair-breadth escape. But the outside of a fact\nis not all of it; and in this mystical life of ours poetry gets nearer\nthe heart of things than does prose, and religion nearer than either.\nIt is no miracle, in the narrow meaning of that word, which the\npsalmist sings; but his eye has seen the unseen force which moves all\nvisible events. We may see the same apocalypse of a present Jehovah,\nif our eyes are purged, and our hearts pure. It is always true that\nthe cry of a trustful soul pierces heaven and moves God; it is always\ntrue that He comes to His servant sinking and crying, \"Lord, save me;\nI perish.\" The scene on the Galilean lake when Christ's strong grasp\nheld Peter up, because his fear struck out a spark of faith, though\nhis faith was darkened with fear, is ever being repeated.\n\nThe note slightly touched at the close of the description of the\ndeliverance dominates the second part of the psalm (vv. 20-31), of\nwhich the main theme is the correspondence of God's dealings with\ncharacter, as illustrated in the singer's experience, and thence\ngeneralised into a law of the Divine administration. It begins with\nstartling protestations of innocence. These are rounded into a whole\nby the repetition, at the beginning and end, of the same statement\nthat God dealt with the psalmist according to his righteousness and\nclean-handedness. If the author is David, this voice of a good\nconscience must have been uttered before his great fall, after which\nhe could, indeed, sing of forgiveness and restoring grace, but never\nagain of integrity. Unlike as the tone of these verses is to that\ndeeper consciousness of sin which is not the least of Christ's gifts,\nthe truth which they embody is as much a part of the Christian as of\nthe earlier revelation. True, penitence must now mingle with conscious\nrectitude more abundantly than it does in this psalm; but it is still\nand for ever true that God deals with His servants according to their\nrighteousness. Cherished sin separates from Him, and forces His love\nto leave cries for help many times unanswered, in order that, filled\nwith the fruit of their doings, His people may have a wholesome fear\nof again straying from the narrow way. Unless a Christian can say, \"I\nkeep myself from mine iniquity,\" he has no right to look for the\nsunshine of God's face to gladden his eyes, nor for the strength of\nGod's hand to pluck his feet from the net. In noble and daring words,\nthe psalmist proclaims as a law of God's dealings his own experience\ngeneralised (vv. 25-27). It is a bold reversal of the ordinary point\nof view to regard man as taking the initiative and God as following\nhis lead. And yet is not life full of solemn facts confirmatory of the\ntruth that God is to a man what the man is to God? That is so, both\nsubjectively and objectively. Subjectively our conceptions of God vary\nwith our moral nature, and objectively the dealings of God are moulded\naccording to that nature. There is such a thing as colour blindness in\nregard to the Divine character, whereby some men cannot see the green\nof faithful love or the red of wrath, but each beholds that in God\nwhich his vision fits him to see; and the many-sided dealings of God\nare different in their incidence upon different characters, so that\nthe same heat melts wax and hardens clay; and further the actual\ndealings are accurately adapted to the state of their objects, so\nthat each gets what he needs most: the loving heart, sweet love tokens\nfrom the Divine Lover; the perverse, thwartings which come from a God\n\"contrary\" to them who are contrary to Him. \"The history of the world\nis the judgment of the world.\" But the first of the designations of\ncharacter in ver. 25 hints that before man's initiative had been\nGod's; for \"merciful\" is the pregnant word occurring so often in the\nPsalter, and so impossible to translate by any one word. It means, as\nwe have already had occasion to point out, one who is the subject of\nthe Divine loving-kindness, and who therefore loves God in return.\nHere it seems rather to be taken in the sense of loving than of\nbeloved. He who exercises this loving-kindness, whether towards God or\nman, shall find in God One who exercises it to him. But the word\nitself regards man's loving-kindness towards God as being the echo of\nGod's, and so the very first step in determining the mutual relations\nis God's, and but for it there would never have been that in man which\nGod could answer by showing Himself as loving. The contrasted dealings\nand characters are summed up in the familiar antithesis of ver. 27.\nThe \"afflicted\" or humble are the type of God-pleasing character,\nsince humility, such as befits dependent creatures, is the mother of\nall goodness, and \"high looks\" the master sin, and the whole drift of\nProvidence is to lift the lowly and abase the proud.\n\nThe psalmist's swift thought vibrates throughout this part of the song\nbetween his own experience and the general truths exemplified in it.\nHe is too full of his own deliverance to be long silent about it, and,\non the other hand, is continually reminded by it of the wide sweep of\nthe beneficent laws which have been so fruitful of good to him. The\nmost precious result of individual mercy is the vision obtained\nthrough it of the universal Lover of souls. \"My God\" will be widened\ninto \"our God,\" and \"our God\" will rest upon \"my God,\" if either is\nspoken from the heart's depths. So in vv. 27-29 the personal element\ncomes again to the front. The individualising name \"My God\" occurs in\neach verse, and the deliverance underlying the theophany is described\nin terms which prepare for the fuller celebration of victory in the\nlast part of the psalm. God lights the psalmist's lamp, by which is\nmeant not the continuance of his family (as the expression elsewhere\nmeans), but the preservation of his own life, with the added idea,\nespecially in ver. 28 _b_, of prosperity. Ver. 29 tells how the lamp\nwas kept alight, namely by the singer's victory in actual battle, in\nwhich his swift rush had overtaken the enemy, and his agile limbs had\nscaled their walls. The parallelism of the clauses is made more\ncomplete by the emendation adopted by Lagarde, Cheyne, Baethgen, etc.,\nwho read ver. 29 _a_, \"I [can] break down a fence,\" but this is\nunnecessary. The same combination of running and climbing occurs in\nJoel ii. 7, and the two clauses of ver. 33 seem to repeat those of\nver. 29. The swift, agile warrior, then, traces these physical powers\nto God, as he does more at large in later verses.\n\nOnce more, the song passes, in ver. 30, to the wider truths taught by\nthe personal deliverance. \"Our God\" takes the place of \"my God\"; and\n\"all who take refuge in Him\" are discerned as gathering, a shadowy\ncrowd, round the solitary psalmist, and as sharing in his blessings.\nThe large truths of these verses are the precious fruit of distress\nand deliverance. Both have cleared the singer's eyes to see, and\ntuned his lips to sing, a God whose doings are without a flaw, whose\nword is like pure gold without alloy or falsehood, whose ample\nprotection shields all who flee to its shelter, who alone is God, the\nfountain of strength, who stands firm for ever, the inexpugnable\ndefence and dwelling-place of men. This burst of pure adoration echoes\nthe tones of the glorious beginning of the psalm. Happy they who, as\nthe result of life's experience, solve \"the riddle of this painful\nearth,\" with these firm and jubilant convictions as the very\nfoundation of their being.\n\nThe remainder of the psalm (ver. 32 to end) describes the victorious\ncampaign of the psalmist and the establishment of his kingdom. There is\ndifficulty in determining the tenses of the verbs in some verses, and\ninterpreters vary between pasts and futures. The inclination of the\ngreater number of recent commentators is to carry the historical\nretrospect uninterruptedly through the whole context, which, as Hupfeld\nacknowledges, \"allerdings das bequemste ist,\" and those who suppose\noccasional futures interspersed (as the R.V. and Hupfeld) differ in the\nplaces of their introduction. \"Everything here is retrospective,\" says\nDelitzsch, and certainly that view is simplest and gives unity to the\nwhole. The name of God is never mentioned in the entire section, except\nas vainly invoked by the flying foe. Not till the closing doxologies\ndoes it appear again, with the frequency which marks the middle part of\nthe psalm. A similar sparse use of it characterises the description of\nthe theophany. In both cases there is a peculiar force given by the\nstream of verbs without expressed nominatives. The hurrying clauses here\nvividly reproduce the haste of battle, and each falls like the blow of a\nbattle mace wielded by a strong arm. The equipment of the king for the\nfight (vv. 32-36), the fierce assault, flight of the foe and their utter\nannihilation (vv. 37-42), the extension by conquest of the singer's\nkingdom (vv. 43, 44), successively pass before us as we listen to the\npanting words with the heat of battle in them; and all rises at last\ninto exuberant praise, which re-echoes some strains of the introductory\nburst of thanksgiving.\n\nMany mythologies have told how the gods arm their champions, but the\npsalmist reaches a loftier height than these. He ventures to think of\nGod as doing the humble office of bracing on his girdle, but the girdle\nis itself strength. God, whose own \"way is perfect\" (ver. 30), makes His\nservant's \"way\" in some measure like His own; and though, no doubt, the\nfigure must be interpreted in a manner congruous with its context, as\nchiefly implying \"perfection\" in regard to the purpose in hand--namely,\nwarfare--we need not miss the deeper truth that God's soldiers are\nfitted for conflict by their \"ways\" being conformed to God's. This man's\n\"strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure.\"\nStrength and swiftness are the two characteristics of antique heroes,\nand God's gift bestowed both on the psalmist. Light of foot as a deer\nand able to climb to the robber forts perched on crags, as a chamois\nwould, his hands deft, and his muscular arms strong to bend the bow\nwhich others could not use, he is the ideal of a warrior of old; and all\nthese natural powers he again ascribes to God's gift. A goddess gave\nAchilles his wondrous shield, but what was it to that which God binds\nupon this warrior's arm? As his girdle was strength, and not merely a\nmeans of strength, his shield is salvation, and not merely a means of\nsafety. The fact that God purposes to save and does act for saving is\nthe defence against all dangers and enemies. It is the same deep truth\nas the prophet expresses by making \"salvation\" the walls and bulwarks of\nthe strong city where the righteous nation dwells in peace. God does not\nthus arm His servant and then send him out alone to fight as he can, but\n\"Thy right hand holds me up.\" What assailant can beat him down, if that\nhand is under his armpit to support him? The beautiful rendering of the\nA.V., \"Thy gentleness,\" scarcely conveys the meaning, and weakens the\nantithesis with the psalmist's \"greatness,\" which is brought out by\ntranslating \"Thy lowliness,\" or even more boldly \"Thy humility.\" There\nis that in God which answers to the peculiarly human virtue of\nlowliness; and unless there were, man would remain small and unclothed\nwith God-given strength. The devout soul thrills with wonder at God's\nstooping love, which it discerns to be the foundation of all His gifts\nand therefore of its blessedness. This singer saw deep into the heart of\nGod, and anticipated the great word of the one Revealer, \"I am meek and\nlowly in heart.\" But God's care for him does not merely fit him for the\nfight: it also orders circumstances so as to give him a free course.\nHaving made his \"feet like hinds' feet,\" God then prepares paths that he\nshould walk in them. The work is only half done when the man is endowed\nfor service or conflict; a field for his powers must be forthcoming, and\nGod will take care that no strength given by Him lies idle for want of a\nwrestling ground. Sooner or later feet find the road.\n\nThen follow six verses (37-42) full of the stir and tumult of battle.\nThere is no necessity for the change to futures in the verbs of vv.\n37, 38, which the R.V. adopts. The whole is a picture of past\nconflict, for which the psalmist had been equipped by God. It is a\nliteral fight, the triumph of which still glows in the singer's heart\nand flames in his vivid words. We see him in swift pursuit, pressing\nhard on the enemy, crushing them with his fierce onset, trampling them\nunder foot. They break and flee, shrieking out prayers, which the\npursuer has a stern joy in knowing to be fruitless. His blows fall\nlike those of a great pestle, and crush the fleeing wretches, who are\nscattered by his irresistible charge, like dust whirled by the storm.\nThe last clause of the picture of the routed foe is better given by\nthe various reading in 2 Samuel, which requires only a very slight\nalteration in one letter: \"I did stamp them as the mire of the\nstreets.\" Such delight in the enemy's despair and destruction, such\ngratification at hearing their vain cries to Jehovah, are far away\nfrom Christian sentiments; and the gulf is not wholly bridged by the\nconsideration that the psalmist felt himself to be God's anointed, and\nenmity to him to be treason against God. Most natural as his feelings\nwere, perfectly consistent with the level of religion proper to the\nthen stage of revelation, capable of being purified into that triumph\nin the victory of good and ruin of evil without which there is no\nvigorous sympathy with Christ's battle, and kindling as they do by\ntheir splendid energy and condensed rapidity an answering glow in even\nreaders so far away from their scene as we are, they are still of\n\"another spirit\" from that which Christ has breathed into the Church,\nand nothing but confusion and mischief can come of slurring over the\ndifference. The light of battle which blazes in them is not the fire\nwhich Jesus longed to kindle upon earth.\n\nThus far the enemies seem to have been native foes rebelling against\nGod's anointed or, if the reference to the Sauline persecution is held\nby, seeking to prevent his reaching his throne. But, in the concluding\nverses of this part (43-45), a transition is made to victory over\n\"strangers,\" _i.e._ foreign nations. \"The strivings of the people\" seems\nto point back to the war described already, while \"Thou hast made me the\nhead of the nations\" refers to external conquests. In 2 Samuel the\nreading is \"my people,\" which would bring out the domestic reference\nmore strongly; but the suffix for \"my\" may be a defective form of\nwriting the plural; if so, the peoples in ver. 43 _a_ are the \"nations\"\nof 43 _b_. In any case the royal singer celebrates the extension of his\ndominion. The tenses in vv. 44, 45, which the R.V. again gives as\nfutures (as does Hupfeld), are better regarded, like all the others, as\npasts. The wider dominion is not inconsistent with Davidic origin, as\nhis conquests were extended beyond the territory of Israel. The picture\nof the hasty surrender of the enemy at the very sound of the conqueror's\nname is graphic. \"They lied unto me,\" as the words in ver. 44 _b_ are\nliterally, gives forcibly the feigned submission covering bitter hate.\n\"They fade away,\" as if withered by the simoom, the hot blast of the\npsalmist's conquering power. \"They come trembling [or, as 2 Samuel\nreads, come limping] from their strongholds.\"\n\nVv. 46 to end make a noble close to a noble hymn, in which the singer's\nstrong wing never flags nor the rush of thought and feeling slackens.\nEven more absolutely than in the rest of the psalm every victory is\nascribed to Jehovah. He alone acts; the psalmist is simply the\nrecipient. To have learned by life's struggles and deliverances that\nJehovah is a living God and \"my Rock\" is to have gathered life's best\nfruit. A morning of tempest has cleared into sunny calm, as it always\nwill, if tempest drives to God. He who cries to Jehovah when the floods\nof destruction make him afraid will in due time have to set to his seal\nthat Jehovah liveth. If we begin with \"The Lord is my Rock,\" we shall\nend with \"Blessed be my Rock.\" Thankfulness does not weary of\nreiterating acknowledgments; and so the psalmist gathers up once more\nthe main points of the psalm in these closing strains and lays all his\nmass of blessings at the feet of the Giver. His deliverance from his\ndomestic foes and his conquests over external enemies are wholly God's\nwork, and therefore supply both impulse and material for praises which\nshall sound out beyond the limits of Israel. The vow to give thanks\namong the nations has been thought fatal to the Davidic origin of the\npsalm. Seeing, however, that some foreign peoples were conquered by him,\nthere was opportunity for its fulfilment. His function to make known the\nname of Jehovah was the reason for his victories. David had learned the\npurpose of his elevation, and recognised in an extended kingdom a wider\naudience for his song. Therefore Paul penetrates to the heart of the\npsalm when he quotes ver. 49 in Rom. xv. 9 as a proof that the\nevangelising of the Gentiles was an Old Testament hope. The plain lesson\nfrom the psalmist's vow is that God's mercies bind, and if felt aright\nwill joyfully impel, the receiver to spread His name as far as his voice\ncan reach. Love is sometimes silent, but gratitude must speak. The most\nunmusical voice is tuned to melody by thankfulness, and they need never\nwant a theme who can tell what the Lord has done for their soul.\n\nThe last verse of the psalm is sometimes regarded as a liturgical\naddition, and the mention of David gratuitously supposed to be adverse\nto his authorship, but there is nothing unnatural in a king's\nmentioning himself in such a connection nor in the reference to his\ndynasty, which is evidently based upon the promise of perpetual\ndominion given through Nathan. The Christian reader knows how much\nmore wonderful than the singer knew was the mercy granted to the king\nin that great promise, fulfilled in the Son of David, whose kingdom is\nan everlasting kingdom, and who bears God's name to all the nations.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XIX.\n\n 1 The heavens declare the glory of God,\n And the work of His hands the firmament makes known.\n 2 Day to day pours forth speech,\n And night to night shows knowledge.\n 3 There is no speech and no words;\n Not heard is their voice.\n 4 In all the earth their line goes forth, and in the end of the\n world their words;\n For the sun has He set a tent in them,\n 5 And he is like a bridegroom going out from his chamber;\n He rejoices like a hero to run (his) course.\n 6 From the end of the heavens is his going forth, and his circuit\n unto their ends;\n And nothing is hid from his heat.\n\n 7 The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul;\n The testimony of Jehovah is trusty, making wise the simple.\n 8 The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart;\n The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes.\n 9 The fear of Jehovah is clean, standing for ever;\n The judgments of Jehovah are truth: they are righteous altogether.\n 10 They are more to be desired than gold and than abundant [gold]\n refined,\n And they are sweeter than honey and the droppings of the\n honeycomb.\n\n 11 Moreover, Thy servant is warned by them;\n In keeping them is reward abundant.\n 12 Inadvertencies who can discern?\n From hidden sins absolve me.\n 13 Also from presumptuous [sins] keep back Thy servant: let them not\n rule over me;\n Then shall I be guiltless, and I shall be absolved from great\n transgression.\n 14 Accepted be the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart in\n Thy sight,\n Jehovah, my Rock and my Kinsman-redeemer!\n\n\nIs this originally one psalm or bits of two, pieced together to suggest\na comparison between the two sources of knowledge of God, which the\nauthors did not dream of? The affirmative is strongly _main_tained, but,\nwe may venture to say, not so strongly _sus_tained. The two parts are\nsaid to differ in style, rhythm, and subject. Certainly they do, but the\ndifference in style accounts for the difference in structure. It is not\nan unheard-of phenomenon that cadence should change with theme; and if\nthe very purpose of the song is to set forth the difference of the two\nwitnesses to God, nothing can be more likely than such a change in\nmeasure. The two halves are said to be put together abruptly without\nanything to smooth the transition. So they are, and so is ver. 4 put by\nthe side of ver. 3; and so does the last turn of thought (vv. 12-14)\nfollow the second. Cyclopean architecture without mortar has a certain\nimpressiveness. The abruptness is rather an argument for than against\nthe original unity, for a compiler would have been likely to try to make\nsome sort of glue to hold his two fragments together, while a poet, in\nthe rush of his afflatus, would welcome the very abruptness which the\nmanufacturer would avoid. Surely the thought that binds the whole into a\nunity--that _Jehovah_ is _El_, and that nature and law witness to the\nsame Divine Person, though with varying clearness--is not so strange as\nthat we should have to find its author in some late editor unknown.\n\nVv. 1-6 hymn the silent declaration by the heavens. The details of\nexposition must first be dealt with. \"Declare\" and \"makes known\" are\nparticiples, and thus express the continuity of the acts. The\nsubstance of the witness is set forth with distinct reference to its\nlimitations, for \"glory\" has here no moral element, but simply means\nwhat Paul calls \"eternal power and Godhead,\" while the Divine name of\nGod (\"El\") is used in intended contrast to \"Jehovah\" in the second\nhalf, a _nuance_ which must be obliterated if this is a conglomerate\npsalm. \"His handiwork,\" in like manner, limits the revelation. The\nheavens by day are so marvellously unlike the heavens by night that\nthe psalmist's imagination conjures up two long processions, each\nmember of which passes on the word entrusted to him to his\nsuccessor--the blazing days with heaven naked but for one great light,\nand the still nights with all their stars. Ver. 3 has given\ncommentators much trouble in attempting to smooth its paradox. Tastes\nare curiously different, for some critics think that the familiar\ninterpretation gives a flat, prosaic meaning, while Cheyne takes the\nverse to be a gloss for dull readers, and exclaims, \"How much the\nbrilliant psalm fragment gains by its omission!\" _De gustibus_, etc.\nSome of us may still feel that the psalmist's contrast of the awful\nsilence in the depths of the sky and of the voice that speaks to\nopened ears thrills us with something very like the electric touch of\npoetry. In ver. 4 the thought of the great voices returns. \"Their\nline\" is usually explained as meaning their sphere of influence,\nmarked out, as it were, by a measuring cord. If that rendering is\nadopted, ver. 4 _b_ would in effect say, \"Their words go as far as\ntheir realm.\" Or the rendering \"sound\" may be deduced, though somewhat\nprecariously, from that of _line_, since a line stretched is musical.\nBut the word is not used as meaning the string of an instrument, and\nthe very slight conjectural emendation which gives \"voice\" instead of\n\"line\" has much to recommend it. In any case the teaching of the verse\nis plain from the last clause, namely the universality of the\nrevelation. It is singular that the mention of the sun should come in\nthe close of the verse; and there may be some error in the text,\nthough the introduction of the sun here may be explained as completing\nthe picture of the heavens, of which it is the crowning glory. Then\nfollows the fuller delineation of his joyous energy, of his swift\nstrength in his course, of his penetrating beams, illuminating and\nwarming all. Why should the glowing metaphors, so natural and\nvigorous, of the sun coming forth from his bridal chamber and,\nhero-like, running his race, be taken to be traces of ancient myths\nnow innocently reclaimed from the service of superstition? To find in\nthese two images a proof that the first part of the psalm belongs to\nthe post-exilic \"literary revival of Hebrew mythology\" is surely to\nlay more on them than they can bear.\n\nThe scientific contemplation of nature is wholly absent from\nScripture, and the picturesque is very rare. This psalmist knew\nnothing about solar spectra or stellar distances, but he heard a voice\nfrom out of the else waste heavens which sounded to him as if it named\nGod. Comte ventured to say that the heavens declare the glory of the\nastronomer, not of God; but, if there be an order in them, which it is\na man's glory to discover, must there not be a mind behind the order,\nand must not the Maker have more glory than the investigator? The\npsalmist is protesting against stellar worship, which some of his\nneighbours practised. The sun was a creature, not a god; his \"race\"\nwas marked out by the same hand which in depths beyond the visible\nheavens had pitched a \"tent\" for his nightly rest. We smile at the\nsimple astronomy; the religious depth is as deep as ever. Dull ears do\nnot hear these voices; but whether they are stopped with the clay of\nearthly tastes and occupations, or stuffed with scientific wadding of\nthe most modern kind, the ears that do not hear God's name sounded\nfrom the abysses above, have failed to hear the only word which can\nmake man feel at home in nature. Carlyle said that the sky was \"a sad\nsicht.\" The sadness and awfulness are taken away when we hear the\nheavens telling the glory of God. The unscientific psalmist who did\nhear them was nearer the very heart of the mystery than the scientist\nwho knows everything else about them but that.\n\nWith an abrupt transition which is full of poetical force, the singer\nturns to the praises of the better revelation of Jehovah. Nature\nspeaks in eloquent silence of the strong God, but has no witness to\nHis righteous will for men or His love to them which can compare with\nthe clear utterances of His law. The rhythm changes, and in its\ncadence expresses the psalmist's exuberant delight in that law. In vv.\n7-11 the clauses are constructed on a uniform plan, each containing a\nname for the law, an attribute of it, and one of its effects. The\nabundance of synonyms indicates familiarity and clear views of the\nmany sides of the subject. The psalmist had often brooded on the\nthought of what that law was, because, loving its Giver, he must needs\nlove the gift. So he calls it \"law,\" or teaching, since there he found\nthe best lessons for character and life. It was \"testimony,\" for in it\nGod witnessed what He is and what we should be, and so witnessed\nagainst sin; it was a body of \"precepts\" (statutes, A.V.) giving rich\nvariety of directions; it was \"commandment,\" blessedly imperative; it\nwas \"fear of the Lord,\" the effect being put for the cause; it was\n\"judgments,\" the decisions of infinite truth concerning duty.\n\nThese synonyms have each an attribute attached, which, together, give\na grand aggregate of qualities discerned by a devout heart to inhere\nin that law which is to so many but a restraint and a foe. It is\n\"perfect,\" as containing without flaw or defect the ideal of conduct;\n\"sure\" or reliable, as worthy of being absolutely followed and certain\nto be completely fulfilled; \"right,\" as prescribing the straight road\nto man's true goal; \"pure\" or bright, as being light like the sun, but\nof a higher quality than that material brilliance; \"clean,\" as\ncontrasted with the foulness bedaubing false faiths and making idol\nworship unutterably loathsome; \"true\" and \"wholly righteous,\" as\ncorresponding accurately to the mind of Jehovah and the facts of\nhumanity and as being in full accordance with the justice which has\nits seat in the bosom of God.\n\nThe effects are summed up in the latter clauses of these verses, which\nstand, as it were, a little apart, and by the slight pause are made more\nemphatic. The rhythm rises and falls like the upspringing and sinking of\na fountain. The law \"restores the soul,\" or rather refreshes the life,\nas food does; it \"makes the simple wise\" by its sure testimony, giving\npractical guidance to narrow understandings and wills open to easy\nbeguiling by sin; it \"rejoices the heart,\" since there is no gladness\nequal to that of knowing and doing the will of God; it \"enlightens the\neyes\" with brightness beyond that of the created light which rules the\nday. Then the relation of clauses changes slightly in ver. 9, and a\nsecond attribute takes the place of the effect. It \"endures for ever,\"\nand, as we have seen, is \"wholly righteous.\" The Old Testament law was\nrelatively imperfect and destined to be done away, but the moral core of\nit abides. Being more valuable than all other treasures, there is wealth\nin the very desire after it more than in possessing these. Loved, it\nyields sweetness in comparison with which the delights of sense are\nbitter; done, it automatically rewards the doer. If obedience had no\nresults except its inward consequences, it would be abundantly repaid.\nEvery true servant of Jehovah will be willing to be warned by that\nvoice, even though it rebuke and threaten.\n\nAll this rapture of delight in the law contrasts with the impatience\nand dislike which some men entertain for it. To the disobedient that\nlaw spoils their coarse gratifications. It is as a prison in which\nlife is wearisomely barred from delights; but they who dwell behind\nits fences know that these keep evils off, and that within are calm\njoys and pure pleasures.\n\nThe contemplation of the law cannot but lead to self-examination, and\nthat to petition. So the psalmist passes into prayer. His shortcomings\nappal, for \"by the law is the knowledge of sin,\" and he feels that\nbeyond the sin which he knows, there is a dark region in him where foul\nthings nestle and breed fast. \"Secret faults\" are those hidden, not from\nmen, but from himself. He discovers that he has hitherto undiscovered\nsins. Lurking evils are most dangerous because, like aphides on the\nunder-side of a rose leaf, they multiply so quickly unobserved; small\ndeeds make up life, and small, unnoticed sins darken the soul. Mud in\nwater, at the rate of a grain to a glassful, will make a lake opaque.\n\"Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he\nalloweth.\" Conscience needs educating; and we have to compare ourselves\nwith the ideal of perfect life in Jesus, if we would know our faults,\nas young artists go over their copies in front of the masterpiece. But\nthe psalmist knows that, servant of God though he is, he is in danger\nfrom another class of sins, and so prays to be held back from\n\"presumptuous sins,\" _i.e._ wilful conscious transgressions. Such\ndeliberate contraventions of law tend to become habitual and despotic;\nso the prayer follows that they may not \"have dominion.\" But even that\nis not the lowest depth. Deliberate sin, which has gained the upper\nhand, is but too apt to end in apostacy. \"Great transgression\" is\nprobably a designation for casting off the very pretence of worshipping\nJehovah. That is the story of many a fall. First, some unsuspected evil\nhabit gnaws away the substance of the life, as white ants do wood,\nleaving the shell apparently intact; then come sins open and palpable,\nand these enslave the will, becoming habits, and then follows entire\nabandonment of the profession of religion. It is a slippery, dark\nstairway, and the only safety is in not setting foot on the top step.\nGod, and God only, can \"keep us back.\" He will, if we cling to Him,\nknowing our weakness. Thus clinging, we may unblamed cherish the daring\nhope that we shall be \"upright and innocent,\" since nothing less than\nentire deliverance from sin in all its forms and issues can correspond\nto the will of God concerning us and the power of God in us, nor satisfy\nour deepest desires.\n\nThe closing aspiration is that Jehovah would accept the song and prayer.\nThere is an allusion to the acceptance of a sacrifice, for the phrase\n\"be acceptable\" is frequent in connection with the sacrificial ritual.\nWhen the words of the mouth coincide with the meditation of the heart,\nwe may hope that prayers for cleansing from, and defence against, sin,\noffered to Him whom our faith recognises as our \"strength\" and our\n\"Redeemer,\" will be as a sacrifice of a sweet smell, well-pleasing to\nGod. He best loves the law of Jehovah who lets it teach him his sin, and\nsend him to his knees; he best appreciates the glories of the silent\nheavens who knows that their witness to God is but the prelude of the\ndeeper music of the Scriptures' declaration of the heart and will of\nJehovah, and who grasps Him as his \"strength and his Redeemer\" from all\nevil, whether evil of sin or evil of sorrow.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XX.\n\n 1 Jehovah answer thee in the day of trouble,\n The name of the God of Jacob set thee on high;\n 2 Send thy help from the holy place,\n And from Zion hold thee up;\n 3 Remember all thy meal offerings,\n And thy burnt offerings may He find fat; Selah.\n 4 Give thee according to thy heart,\n And all thy counsel may He fulfil.\n\n 5 May we exult in thy salvation, and in the name of our God wave our\n standards;\n Jehovah fulfil all thy petitions!\n\n 6 Now I know that Jehovah saves His anointed;\n He will answer him from his Holy heaven, with mighty deeds of the\n salvation of His right hand.\n\n 7 These boast in chariots, and these in horses;\n And we--in the name of Jehovah our God we boast.\n 8 They--they are bowed down, and fall;\n And we--we are risen, and stand firm.\n 9 Jehovah, save!\n May the King hear us in the day when we call.\n\n\nThis is a battle song, followed by a chant of victory. They are\nconnected in subject and probably in occasion, but fight and triumph\nhave fallen dim to us, though we can still feel how hotly the fire\nonce glowed. The passion of loyalty and love for the king, expressed\nin these psalms, fits no reign in Judah so well as the bright noonday\nof David's, when \"whatever the king did pleased all the people.\"\nCheyne, indeed, would bring them down to the Maccabean period, and\nsuggests Simon Maccab\u00e6us as the ruler referred to. He has to put a\nlittle gentle pressure on \"king\" to contract it to fit the man of his\nchoice, and appeals to the \"good old Semitic sense\" of \"consul.\" But\nwould not an appeal to Hebrew usage have been more satisfactory? If\n\"king\" means \"king,\" great or small, the psalm is not post-exilic, and\nthe Davidic date will not seem impossible. It does not seem impossible\nthat a poet-king should have composed a national hymn praying for his\nown victory, which was the nation's also.\n\nThe psalm has traces of the alternation of chorus and solo. The nation\nor army first pours out its united prayer for victory in vv. 1-5, and is\nsucceeded by a single voice (possibly that of the officiating priest or\nthe king himself) in ver. 6, expressing confidence that the prayer is\nanswered, which, again, is followed by the closing chorus of many voices\nthrobbing with the assurance of victory before a blow is struck, and\nsending one more long-drawn cry to God ere battle is joined.\n\nThe prayer in vv. 1-5 breathes self-distrust and confidence in\nJehovah, the temper which brings victory, not only to Israel, but to\nall fighters for God. Here is no boasting of former victories, nor of\nman's bravery and strength, nor of a captain's skill. One name is\ninvoked. It alone rouses courage and pledges triumph. \"The name of the\nGod of Jacob set thee on high.\" That name is almost regarded as a\nperson, as is often the case. Attributes and acts are ascribed to it\nwhich properly belong to the Unnameable whom it names, as if with some\ndim inkling that the agent of revealing a person must be a person. The\nname is the revealed character, which is contemplated as having\nexistence in some sense apart from Him whose character it is.\nPossibly there is a reference to Gen. xxxv. 3, where Jacob speaks of\n\"the God who answered me in the day of my distress.\" That ancient\ninstance of His power to hear and help may have floated before the\nsinger's mind as heartening faith for this day of battle. To \"set on\nhigh\" is a familiar natural figure for deliverance. The earthly\nsanctuary is Jehovah's throne; and all real help must come thence, of\nwhich help His dwelling there is a pledge. So in these two verses the\nextremity of need, the history of past revelation, and the special\nrelation of Jehovah to Israel are woven into the people's prayer for\ntheir king. In vv. 3, 4, they add the incense of their intercession to\nhis sacrifices. The background of the psalm is probably the altar on\nwhich the accustomed offerings before a battle were being presented (1\nSam. xiii. 9). The prayer for acceptance of the burnt offering is very\ngraphic, since the word rendered \"accept\" is literally \"esteem fat.\"\n\nOne wish moved the sacrificing king and the praying people. Their common\ndesire was victory, but the people are content to be obscure, and their\nloyal love so clings to their monarch and leader that they only wish the\nfulfilment of his wishes. This unity of feeling culminates in the\nclosing petitions in ver. 6, where self-oblivion wishes \"May we exult in\nthy salvation,\" arrogating none of the glory of victory to themselves,\nbut ascribing all to him, and vows \"In the name of our God we will wave\nour standards,\" ascribing victory to Him, its ultimate cause. An army\nthat prays, \"Jehovah fulfil all thy petitions,\" will be ready to obey\nall its captain's commands and to move in obedience to his impulse as if\nit were part of himself. The enthusiastic community of purpose with its\nchief and absolute reliance on Jehovah, with which this prayer throbs,\nwould go far towards securing victory anywhere. They should find their\nhighest exemplification in that union between Christ and us in which all\nhuman relationships find theirs, since, in the deepest sense, they are\nall Messianic prophecies, and point to Him who is all the good that\nother men and women have partially been, and satisfies all the cravings\nand necessities which human relationships, however blessed, but\nincompletely supply.\n\nThe sacrifice has been offered; the choral prayer has gone up. Silence\nfollows, the worshippers watching the curling smoke as it rises; and\nthen a single voice breaks out into a burst of glad assurance that\nsacrifice and prayer are answered. Who speaks? The most natural answer\nis, \"The king\"; and the fact that he speaks of himself as Jehovah's\nanointed in the third person does not present a difficulty. What is the\nreference in that \"now\" at the beginning of ver. 6? May we venture to\nsuppose that the king's heart swelled at the exhibition of his subjects'\ndevotion and hailed it as a pledge of victory? The future is brought\ninto the present by the outstretched hand of faith, for this single\nspeaker knows that \"Jehovah has saved,\" though no blow has yet been\nstruck. The prayer had asked for help from Zion; the anticipation of\nanswer looks higher: to the holier sanctuary, where Jehovah indeed\ndwells. The answer now waited for in sure confidence is \"the mighty\ndeeds of salvation of His right hand,\" some signal forthputting of\nDivine power scattering the foe. A whisper may start an avalanche. The\nprayer of the people has set Omnipotence in motion. Such assurance that\npetitions are heard is wont to spring in the heart that truly prays, and\ncomes as a forerunner of fulfilment, shedding on the soul the dawn of\nthe yet unrisen sun. He has but half prayed who does not wait in\nsilence, watching the flight of his arrow and not content to cease till\nthe calm certainty that it has reached its aim fills his heart.\n\nAgain the many voices take up the song, responding to the confidence\nof the single speaker and, like him, treating the victory as already\nwon. Looking across the field to the masses of the enemy's cavalry and\nchariots, forces forbidden to Israel, though employed by them in later\ndays, the song grandly opposes to these \"the name of Jehovah our God.\"\nThere is a world of contempt and confidence in the juxtaposition.\nChariots and horses are very terrible, especially to raw soldiers\nunaccustomed to their whirling onset; but the Name is mightier, as\nPharaoh and his array proved by the Red Sea. This reference to the\narmy of Israel as unequipped with cavalry and chariots is in favour of\nan early date, since the importation and use of both began as soon as\nSolomon's time. The certain issue of the fight is given in ver. 8 in a\npicturesque fashion, made more vigorous by the tenses which describe\ncompleted acts. When the brief struggle is over, this is what will be\nseen--the enemy prone, Israel risen from subjection and standing firm.\nThen comes a closing cry for help, which, according to the traditional\ndivision of the verse, has one very short clause and one long drawn\nout, like the blast of the trumpet sounding the charge. The intensity\nof appeal is condensed in the former clause into the one word \"save\"\nand the renewed utterance of the name, thrice referred to in this\nshort psalm as the source at once of strength and confidence. The\nlatter clause, as in the A.V. and R.V., transfers the title of King\nfrom the earthly shadow to the true Monarch in the heavens, and\nthereby suggests yet another plea for help. The other division of the\nverse, adopted in the LXX. and by some moderns, equalises the clauses\nby transferring \"the king\" to the former (\"O Lord, save the king, and\nanswer us,\" etc.). But this involves a violent change from the second\nperson imperfect in the first clause to the third person imperfect in\nthe second. It would be intolerably clumsy to say, \"Do Thou save; may\nHe hear,\" and therefore the LXX. has had recourse to inserting \"and\"\nat the beginning of the second clause, which somewhat breaks the jolt,\nbut is not in the Hebrew. The text, as it stands, yields a striking\nmeaning, beautifully suggesting the subordinate office of the earthly\nmonarch and appealing to the true King to defend His own army and go\nforth with it to the battle which is waged for His name. When we are\nsure that we are serving Jehovah and fighting for Him, we may be sure\nthat we go not a warfare at our own charges nor alone.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXI.\n\n 1 Jehovah, in Thy strength the king rejoices,\n And in Thy salvation how greatly he exults!\n 2 The desire of his heart Thou hast given to him,\n And the request of his lips Thou hast not refused.\n 3 For Thou meetest him with blessings of good;\n Thou settest on his head a crown of pure gold.\n 4 Life he asked from Thee; Thou gavest it to him,\n Length of days for ever and ever.\n 5 Great is his glory through Thy salvation;\n Honour and majesty Thou layest upon him.\n 6 For Thou dost set him [to be] blessings for ever,\n Dost gladden him in joy with Thy face.\n 7 For the king trusts in Jehovah,\n And in the loving-kindness of the Most High he shall not be moved.\n\n 8 Thine hand shall reach towards all thy foes;\n Thy right hand shall reach all thy haters.\n 9 Thou shalt make them as a furnace of fire at the time of thine\n appearance (face);\n Jehovah in His wrath shall swallow them up: fire shall devour\n them.\n 10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth,\n And their seed from the sons of men.\n 11 For they cause evil to hang over thee;\n They meditate mischief: they will achieve nothing.\n 12 For thou shalt make them turn their back,\n On thy bowstrings wilt aim [arrows] at their faces.\n\n 13 Lift Thyself up, Jehovah, in Thy strength;\n We will sing and harp, [praising] Thy might.\n\n\nThis psalm is a pendant to the preceding. There the people prayed for\nthe king; here they give thanks for him: there they asked that his\ndesires might be fulfilled; here they bless Jehovah, who has\nfulfilled them: there the battle was impending; here it has been won,\nthough foes are still in the field: there the victory was prayed for;\nhere it is prophesied. Who is the \"king\"? The superscription points to\nDavid. Conjecture has referred to Hezekiah, principally because of his\nmiraculous recovery, which is supposed to be intended in ver. 4.\nCheyne thinks of Simon Maccab\u00e6us, and sees his priestly crown in ver.\n3. But there are no individualising features in the royal portrait,\nand it is so idealised, or rather spiritualised, that it is hard to\nsuppose that any single monarch was before the singer's mind. The\nremarkable greatness and majesty of the figure will appear as we read.\nThe whole may be cast into two parts, with a closing strain of prayer.\nIn the first part (vv. 1-7) the people praise Jehovah for His gifts to\nthe king; in the second (vv. 8-12) they prophesy to the king complete\nvictory; in ver. 13 they end, as in xx., with a short petition, which,\nhowever, here is, in accordance with the tone of the whole, more\njubilant than the former and less shrill.\n\nThe former psalm had asked for strength to be given to the king; this\nbegins with thanks for the strength in which the king rejoices. In the\nformer the people had anticipated triumph in the king's salvation or\nvictory; here they celebrate his exceeding exultation in it. It was\nhis, since he was victor, but it was Jehovah's, since He was Giver of\nvictory. Loyal subjects share in the king's triumph, and connect it\nwith him; but he himself traces it to God. The extraordinarily lofty\nlanguage in which Jehovah's gifts are described in the subsequent\nverses has, no doubt, analogies in the Assyrian hymns to which Cheyne\nrefers; but the abject reverence and partial deification which these\nbreathe were foreign to the relations of Israel to its kings, who were\nnot separated from their subjects by such a gulf as divided the great\nsovereigns of the East from theirs. The mysterious Divinity which\nhedges \"the king\" in the royal psalms is in sharp contrast with the\ndemocratic familiarity between prince and people exhibited in the\nhistory. The phenomena common to these psalms naturally suggest that\n\"the king\" whom they celebrate is rather the ideal than the real\nmonarch. The office rather than the individual who partially fulfils\nits demands and possesses its endowments seems to fill the singer's\ncanvas. But the ideal of the office is destined to be realised in the\nMessiah, and the psalm is in a true sense Messianic, inasmuch as, with\nwhatever mixture of conceptions proper to the then stage of\nrevelation, it still ascribes to the ideal king attributes which no\nking of Judah exhibited. The transcendant character of the gifts of\nJehovah enumerated here is obvious, however the language may be pared\ndown. First, we have the striking picture of Jehovah coming forth to\nmeet the conqueror with \"blessings of goodness,\" as Melchizedek met\nAbraham with refreshments in his hands and benedictions on his lips.\nVictory is naturally followed by repose and enjoyment, and all are\nJehovah's gift. The subsequent endowments may possibly be regarded as\nthe details of these blessings, the fruits of the victory. Of these\nthe first is the coronation of the conqueror, not as if he had not\nbeen king before, but as now more fully recognised as such. The\nsupporters of the Davidic authorship refer to the crown of gold won at\nthe capture of Rabbath of Ammon, but there is no need to seek\nhistorical basis for the representation. Then comes a signal instance\nof the king's closeness of intercourse with Jehovah and of his\nreceiving his heart's desire in that he asked for \"life\" and received\n\"length of days for ever and ever.\" No doubt the strong expression for\nperpetuity may be paralleled in such phrases as \"O king, live for\never,\" and others which are obviously hyperbolical and mean not\nperpetual, but indefinitely protracted, duration; but the great\nemphasis of expression here and its repetition in ver. 6 can scarcely\nbe disposed of as mere hyperbole. If it is the ideal king who is\nmeant, his undying life is substantially synonymous with the\ncontinuance of the dynasty which 2 Sam. vii. represents as the promise\nunderlying the Davidic throne. The figure of the king is then brought\nstill nearer to the light of Jehovah, and words which are consecrated\nto express Divine attributes are applied to him in ver. 5. \"Glory,\"\n\"honour and majesty,\" are predicated of him, not as if there were an\napotheosis, as would have been possible in Assyrian or Roman flattery,\nbut the royal recipient and the Divine Giver are clearly separated,\neven while the lustre raying from Jehovah is conceived of as falling\nin brightness upon the king. These flashing emanations of the Divine\nglory make their recipient \"blessings for ever,\" which seems to\ninclude both the possession and the communication of good. An eternal\nfountain of blessing and himself blessed, he is cheered with joy which\ncomes from Jehovah's face, so close is his approach and so gracious to\nhim is that countenance. Nothing higher could be thought of than such\nintimacy and friendliness of access. To dwell in the blaze of that\nface and to find only joy therein is the crown of human blessedness\n(Psalm xvi. 11). Finally, the double foundation of all the king's\ngifts is laid in ver. 7: he trusts and Jehovah's loving-kindness\ngives, and therefore he stands firm, and his throne endures, whatever\nmay dash against it. These daring anticipations are too exuberant to\nbe realised in any but One, whose victory was achieved in the hour of\napparent defeat; whose conquest was both His salvation and God's; who\nprays knowing that He is always heard; who is King of men because He\nendured the cross,--and wears the crown of pure gold because He did\nnot refuse the crown of thorns; who liveth for evermore, having been\ngiven by the Father to have life in Himself; who is the outshining of\nthe Father's glory, and has all power granted unto Him; who is the\nsource of all blessing to all, who dwells in the joy to which He will\nwelcome His servants; and who Himself lived and conquered by the life\nof faith, and so became the first Leader of the long line of those who\nhave trusted and therefore have stood fast. Whomsoever the psalmist\nsaw in his vision, he has gathered into one many traits which are\nrealised only in Jesus Christ.\n\nThe second part (vv. 8-12) is, by Hupfeld and others, taken as addressed\nto Jehovah; and that idea has much to recommend it, but it seems to go\nto wreck on the separate reference to Jehovah in ver. 9, on the\nharshness of applying \"evil against thee\" and \"a mischievous device\"\n(ver. 11) to Him, and on the absence of a sufficient link of connection\nbetween the parts if it is adopted. If, on the other hand, we suppose\nthat the king is addressed in these verses, there is the same dramatic\nstructure as in Psalm xx.; and the victory which has been won is now\ntaken as a pledge of future ones. The expectation is couched in terms\nadapted to the horizon of the singer, and on his lips probably meant\nstern extermination of hostile nations. The picture is that of a fierce\nconqueror, and we must not seek to soften the features, nor, on the\nother hand, to deny the prophetic inspiration of the psalmist. The task\nof the ideal king was to crush and root out opposition to his monarchy,\nwhich was Jehovah's. Very terrible are the judgments of his hand, which\nsound liker those of Jehovah than those inflicted by a man, as Hupfeld\nand others have felt. In ver. 8 the construction is slightly varied in\nthe two clauses, the verb \"reach\" having a preposition attached in the\nformer, and not in the latter, which difference may be reproduced by the\ndistinction between \"reach towards\" and \"reach.\" The seeking hand is\nstretched out after, and then it grasps, its victims. The comparison of\nthe \"fiery oven\" is inexact in form, but the very negligence helps the\nimpression of agitation and terribleness. The enemy are not likened to a\nfurnace, but to the fuel cast into it. But the phrase rendered in A.V.\n\"in the time of thine anger\" is very remarkable, being literally \"in the\ntime of thy face.\" The destructive effect of Jehovah's countenance\n(xxxiv. 17) is here transferred to His king's, into whose face has\npassed, as he gazed in joy on the face of Jehovah, some of the lustre\nwhich kills where it does not gladden. Compare \"everlasting destruction\nfrom the face of the Lord\" (2 Thess. i. 9). The king is so completely\nrepresentative of Jehovah that the destruction of the enemy is the work\nof the one fire of wrath common to both. The destruction extends to the\nwhole generation of enemies, as in the ferocious warfare of old days,\nwhen a nation was wiped off the earth. The psalmist sees in the\nextremest vengeance the righteous and inevitable consequence of\nhostility condemned by the nature of the case to be futile, and yet\ncriminal: \"They cause evil to hang over thee: they meditate mischief;\nthey will achieve nothing.\" Then, in ver. 12, the dread scene is\ncompleted by the picture of the flying foe and the overtaking pursuer,\nwho first puts them to flight, and then, getting in front of them, sends\nhis arrows full in their faces. The ideal of the king has a side of\nterror; and while his chosen weapon is patient love, he has other arrows\nin his quiver. The pictures of the destroying conqueror are taken up and\nsurpassed in the New Testament. They do not see the whole Christ who do\nnot see the Warrior Christ, nor have they realised all His work who slur\nover the solemn expectation that one day men shall call on rocks and\nhills to cover them from \"the steady whole of the Judge's face.\"\n\nAs in Psalm xx., the close is a brief petition, which asks the\nfulfilment of the anticipations in vv. 8-12, and traces, as in ver. 1,\nthe king's triumph to Jehovah's strength. The loyal love of the nation\nwill take its monarch's victory as its own joy, and be glad in the\nmanifestation thereby of Jehovah's power. That is the true voice of\ndevotion which recognises God, not man, in all victories, and answers\nthe forthflashing of His delivering power by the thunder of praise.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXII.\n\n 1 My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?\n [Why art Thou] afar from my help, from the words of my roar?\n 2 My God, I cry to Thee by day, and Thou answerest not;\n And by night, but there is no rest for me.\n\n 3 Yet Thou art Holy,\n Throned upon the praises of Israel.\n 4 In Thee our fathers trusted;\n They trusted and Thou deliveredst them.\n 5 To Thee they cried and were delivered;\n In Thee they trusted and were not put to shame.\n\n 6 But I am a worm, and not a man;\n A reproach of men and despised of people.\n 7 All who see me mock at me;\n They draw open the lips, they nod the head.\n 8 \"Roll [thy cares] on Jehovah--let Him deliver him;\n Let Him rescue him, for He delights in him.\"\n\n 9 Yea, Thou art He who didst draw me from the womb\n Didst make me trust when on my mother's breasts.\n 10 Upon Thee was I thrown from birth;\n From my mother's womb art Thou my God.\n 11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near;\n For there is no helper.\n\n 12 Many bulls have surrounded me,\n Strong ones of Bashan have encircled me.\n 13 They gape upon me with their mouth,\n [Like] a lion tearing and roaring.\n\n 14 Like water I am poured out,\n And all my bones are out of joint\n My heart has become like wax,\n Melted in the midst of my bowels.\n 15 My strength (palate?) is dried up like a potsherd,\n And my tongue cleaves to my gums,\n And Thou layest me in the dust of death.\n\n 16 For dogs have surrounded me,\n A pack of evil-doers closed round me,\n They pierced my hands and my feet.\n 17 I can count all my bones,\n These--they gaze, upon me they look.\n 18 They divide my garments among them,\n And on my vesture they cast lots.\n\n 19 But Thou, Jehovah, be not far off;\n My Strength, haste to my help.\n 20 Deliver my soul from the sword,\n My only [life] from the paw of the dog.\n 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion,\n And from the horns of the wild oxen--Thou hast answered me.\n\n 22 I will declare Thy name to my brethren,\n In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.\n 23 Ye that fear Jehovah, praise Him,\n All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him,\n And stand in awe of Him, all ye the seed of Israel.\n 24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the\n afflicted one.\n And has not hid His face from him,\n And when he cried has hearkened to him.\n 25 From Thee [comes] my praise in the great congregation;\n My vows will I pay before them that fear Him.\n 26 The humble shall eat and be satisfied,\n They shall praise Jehovah that seek Him;\n Let your heart live for ever.\n\n 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Jehovah.\n And all the families of the nations shall bow before Thee.\n 28 For the kingdom is Jehovah's;\n And He is ruler among the nations.\n 29 All the fat ones of the earth eat and bow down;\n Before His face kneel all they who were going down to the dust,\n And he [who] could not keep his soul alive.\n 30 A seed shall serve Him;\n And it shall be told of Jehovah unto the [next] generation.\n 31 They shall come and declare His righteousness\n Unto a people that shall be born, that He has done [this].\n\n\nWho is the sufferer whose wail is the very voice of desolation and\ndespair, and who yet dares to believe that the tale of his sorrow will\nbe a gospel for the world? The usual answers are given. The title\nascribes the authorship to David, and is accepted by Delitzsch and\nothers. Hengstenberg and his followers see in the picture the ideal\nrighteous man. Others think of Hezekiah, or Jeremiah, with whose\nprophecies and history there are many points of connection. The most\nrecent critics find here \"the personalised Genius of Israel, or more\nprecisely the followers of Nehemiah, including the large-hearted\npsalmist\" (Cheyne, \"Orig. of Psalt.,\" 264). On any theory of authorship,\nthe startling correspondence of the details of the psalmist's sufferings\nwith those of the Crucifixion has to be accounted for. How startling\nthat correspondence is, both in the number and minuteness of its points,\nneed not be insisted on. Not only does our Lord quote the first verse on\nthe cross, and so show that the psalm was in his heart then, but the\ngestures and words of mockery were verbally reproduced, as Luke\nsignificantly indicates by using the LXX's word for \"laugh to scorn\"\n(ver. 7). Christ's thirst is regarded by John as the fulfilment of\n\"scripture,\" which can scarcely be other than ver. 15. The physical\neffects of crucifixion are described in the ghastly picture of vv. 14,\n15. Whatever difficulty exists in determining the true reading and\nmeaning of the allusion to \"my hands and my feet,\" some violence or\nindignity to them is intended. The peculiar detail of dividing the\nraiment was more than fulfilled, since the apparently parallel and\nsynonymous clauses were resolved into two distinct acts. The recognition\nof these points in the psalm as prophecies is one thing; the\ndetermination of their relation to the psalmist's own experience is\nquite another. It is taken for granted in many quarters that every such\ndetail in prophecy must describe the writer's own circumstances, and the\nsupposition that they may transcend these is said to be \"psychologically\nimpossible.\" But it is somewhat hazardous for those who have not been\nsubjects of prophetic inspiration to lay down canons of what is possible\nand impossible in it, and there are examples enough to prove that the\nrelation of the prophets' speech to their consciousness and\ncircumstances was singularly complex, and not to be unravelled by any\nsuch _obiter dicta_ as to psychological possibilities. They were\nrecipients of messages, and did not always understand what the \"Spirit\nof Christ which was in them did signify.\" Theories which neglect that\naspect of the case do not front all the facts. Certainty as to the\nauthorship of this psalm is probably unattainable. How far its words\nfitted the condition of the singer must therefore remain unsettled. But\nthat these minute and numerous correspondences are more than\ncoincidences, it seems perverse to deny. The present writer, for one,\nsees shining through the shadowy personality of the psalmist the figure\nof the Prince of Sufferers, and believes that whether the former's\nplaints applied in all their particulars to him, or whether there is in\nthem a certain \"element of hyperbole\" which becomes simple fact in\nJesus' sufferings, the psalm is a prophecy of Him and them. In the\nformer case the psalmist's experience, in the latter case his\nutterances, were divinely shaped so as to prefigure the sacred sorrows\nof the Man of Sorrows.\n\nTo a reader who shares in this understanding of the psalm, it must be\nholy ground, to be trodden reverently and with thoughts adoringly fixed\non Jesus. Cold analysis is out of place. And yet there is a distinct\norder even in the groans, and a manifest contrast in the two halves of\nthe psalm (vv. 1-21 and 22-31). \"Thou answerest not\" is the key-note of\nthe former; \"Thou hast answered me,\" of the latter. The one paints the\nsufferings, the other the glory that should follow. Both point to Jesus:\nthe former by the desolation which it breathes; the latter by the\nworld-wide consequences of these solitary sufferings which it foresees.\n\nSurely opposites were never more startlingly blended in one gush of\nfeeling than in that plaint of mingled faith and despair, \"My God, my\nGod, why hast Thou forsaken me?\" which by its thus addressing God\nclings fast to Him, and by its wondering question discloses the dreary\nconsciousness of separation from Him. The evidence to the psalmist\nthat he was forsaken was the apparent rejection of his prayers for\ndeliverance; and if David be the speaker, we may suppose that the\npathetic fate of his predecessor hovered before his thoughts: \"I am\nsore distressed ... God is departed from me and answereth me no more.\"\nBut, while lower degrees of this conflict of trust and despair belong\nto all deep religious life, and are experienced by saintly sufferers\nin all ages, the voice that rang through the darkness on Calvary was\nthe cry of Him who experienced its force in supreme measure and in\naltogether unique manner. None but He can ask that question \"Why?\"\nwith conscience void of offence. None but He have known the mortal\nagony of utter separation from God. None but He have clung to God with\nabsolute trust even in the horror of great darkness. In Christ's\nconsciousness of being forsaken by God lie elements peculiar to it\nalone, for the separating agent was the gathered sins of the whole\nworld, laid on Him and accepted by Him in the perfection of His loving\nidentification of Himself with men. Unless in that dread hour He was\nbearing a world's sin, there is no worthy explanation of His cry, and\nmany a silent martyr has faced death for Him with more courage derived\nfrom Him than He manifested on His cross.\n\nAfter the introductory strophe of two verses, there come seven\nstrophes, of which three contain 3 verses each (vv. 3-11) followed by\ntwo of 2 verses each (vv. 12-15) and these again by two with 3 verses\neach. Can a soul agitated as this singer's was regulate its sobs thus?\nYes, if it is a singer's, and still more if it is a saint's. The\nfetters make the limbs move less violently, and there is soothing in\nthe ordered expression of disordered emotion. The form is artistic not\nartificial; and objections to the reality of the feelings on the\nground of the regularity of the form ignore the witness of the\nmasterpieces of literature in all tongues.\n\nThe desolation rising from unanswered prayer drives to the\ncontemplation of God's holiness and past responses to trusting men,\nwhich are in one aspect an aggravation and in another an alleviation.\nThe psalmist partly answers his own question \"Why?\" and preaches to\nHimself that the reason cannot be in Jehovah, whose character and\nformer deeds bind Him to answer trust by help. God's holiness is\nprimarily His separation from, by elevation above, the creature, both\nin regard of His freedom from limitations and of His perfect purity.\nIf He is thus \"holy,\" He will not break His promise, nor change His\nways with those who trust. It takes some energy of faith to believe\nthat a silent and apparently deaf God is \"holy,\" and the effect of the\nbelief may either be to crush or to lift the spirit. Its first result\nwith this psalmist seems to have been to crush, as the next strophe\nshows, but the more blessed consequence is won before the end. Here it\nis partly a plea urged with God, as is that beautiful bold image of\nGod enthroned \"on the praises of Israel.\" These praises are evoked by\nformer acts of grace answering prayers, and of them is built a yet\nnobler throne than the outstretched wings of the Cherubim. The daring\nmetaphor penetrates deeply into God's delight in men's praise, and the\npower of Israel's voice to exalt Him in the world. How could a God\nthus throned cease to give mercies like those which were perpetually\ncommemorated thereby? The same half-wistful, half-confident retrospect\nis continued in the remaining verses of this strophe (vv. 4, 5), which\nlook back to the \"grey fathers'\" experience. Mark the plaintive\nreiteration of \"trust\" and \"deliver,\" the two inseparables, as the\ndays of old attested, which had now become so sadly parted. Not more\ncertainly the flow of water in a pipe answers the application of\nthirsty lips to its opening than did God's rescuing act respond to the\nfather's trust. And now!--\n\nThe use of \"Our\" in reference to the fathers has been laid hold of as\nfavouring the hypothesis that the speaker is the personified nation;\nbut no individual member of a nation would speak of the common\nancestors as \"My fathers.\" That would mean his own family progenitors,\nwhereas the psalmist means the Patriarchs and the earlier\ngenerations. No argument for the national theory, then, can be drawn\nfrom the phrase. Can the reference to Jesus be carried into this\nstrophe? Assuredly it may, and it shows us how truly He associated\nHimself with His nation, and fed His faith by the records of the past.\n\"He also is a son of Abraham.\"\n\nSuch remembrances make the contrast of present sufferings and of a\nfar-off God more bitter; and so a fresh wave of agony rolls over the\npsalmist's soul. He feels himself crushed and as incapable of\nresistance as a worm bruised in all its soft length by an armed heel.\nThe very semblance of manhood has faded. One can scarcely fail to\nrecall \"his visage was so marred more than any man\" (Isa. lii. 14),\nand the designation of Jehovah's servant Israel as \"thou worm\" (Isa.\nxli. 14). The taunts that wounded the psalmist so sorely have long\nsince fallen dumb, and the wounds are all healed; but the immortal\nwords in which he wails the pain of misapprehension and rejection are\nengraved for ever on the heart of the world. No suffering is more\nacute than that of a sensitive soul, brimming with love and eagerness\nto help, and met with scorn, rejection and ferocious mockery of its\nsacredest emotions. No man has ever felt that pang with the intensity\nwith which Jesus felt it, for none has ever brought such wealth of\nlonging love to be thrown back on itself, nor been so devoid of the\ncallousness with which selfishness is shielded. His pure nature was\ntender as an infant's hand, and felt the keen edge of the spear as\nnone but He can have done. They are His sorrows that are painted here,\nso vividly and truly that the evangelist Luke takes the very word of\nthe LXX. version of the psalm to describe the rulers' mockery (Luke\nxxiii. 35). \"They draw open the lips,\" grinning with delight or\ncontempt; \"they nod the head\" in mockery and assent to the suffering\ninflicted; and then the savage hate bursts into irony which defiles\nthe sacredest emotions and comes near to blaspheming God in ridiculing\ntrust in Him. The mockers thought it exquisite sarcasm to bid Jesus\nroll His troubles on Jehovah, and to bid God deliver Him since He\ndelighted in Him. How little they knew that they were thereby\nproclaiming Him as the Christ of prophecy, and were giving the\nunimpeachable testimony of enemies to His life of devout trust and His\nconsciousness of Divine favour! \"Roll (it) on God,\" sneered they; and\nthe answer was, \"Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.\" \"Let Him\ndeliver Him, since He delighteth in Him,\" they impiously cried, and\nthey knew not that God's delight in Him was the very reason why He did\nnot deliver Him. Because He was His Son in whom He was well pleased,\n\"it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.\" The mockery of opponents brings\ninto clear light the deepest secrets of that cross.\n\nAnother wave of feeling follows in the next strophe (vv. 9-11).\nBackwards and forwards, from trust to complaint and from complaint to\ntrust, rolls the troubled sea of thought, each mood evoking its\nopposite. Now reproach makes the psalmist tighten his grasp on God,\nand plead former help as a reason for present hearing. Faith turns\ntaunts into prayers. This strophe begins with a \"Yea,\" and, on the\nrelationship with God which the enemies had ridiculed and which his\nheart knows to be true, pleads that God would not remain, as ver. 1\nhad wailed that He was, far off from His help. It goes back to the\nbeginning of life, and in the mystery of birth and the dependence of\ninfancy finds arguments with God. They are the personal application\nof the wide truth that God by His making us men gives us a claim on\nHim, that He has bound Himself by giving life to give what is needful\nfor its development and well-being. He will not stultify Himself by\nmaking a man and then leaving him to struggle alone, as birds do with\ntheir young, as soon as they can fly. He is \"a faithful Creator.\" May\nwe venture to find special reference here to the mystery of the\nIncarnation? It is noticeable that \"my mother\" is emphatically\nmentioned, while there is no reference to a father. No doubt the cast\nof the thought accounts for that, but still the special agency of\nDivine power in the birth of Jesus gives special force to His prayer\nfor Divine help in the life so peculiarly the result of the Divine\nhand. But while the plea had singular force on Christ's lips, it is\nvalid for all men.\n\nThe closing verse of this strophe takes the complaint of ver. 1 and\nturns it into prayer. Faith does not rest with plaintively crying \"Why\nart Thou so far?\" but pleads \"Be not far\"; and makes the nearness of\ntrouble and the absence of all other help its twofold pleas. So much\nthe psalmist has already won by his communing with God. Now he can\nface environing sorrows and solitary defencelessness, and feel them to\nbe reasons for God's coming, not tokens of His distance.\n\nWe now come to two strophes of two verses each (vv. 12-15), of which the\nformer describes the encircling foes and the latter the psalmist's\nfailure of vital power. The metaphor of raging wild animals recurs in\nlater verses, and is common to many psalms. Bashan was a land of\npastures over which herds of half wild cattle roamed. They \"have\nsurrounded me\" is a picturesque touch, drawn direct from life, as any\none knows who has ever found himself in the midst of such a herd. The\ngaping mouth is rather characteristic of the lion than of the bull. The\nopen jaws emit the fierce roar which precedes the fatal spring and the\n\"ravening\" on its prey. The next short strophe passes from enemies\naround to paint inward feebleness. All vital force has melted away; the\nvery bones are dislocated, raging thirst has supervened. These are\ncapable of being construed as simply strong metaphors, parallels to\nwhich may be found in other psalms; but it must not be left unnoticed\nthat they are accurate transcripts of the physical effects of\ncrucifixion. That torture killed by exhaustion, it stretched the body as\non a rack, it was attended with agonies of thirst. It requires\nconsiderable courage to brush aside such coincidences as accidental, in\nobedience to a theory of interpretation. But the picture is not\ncompleted when the bodily sufferings are set forth. A mysterious\nattribution of them all to God closes the strophe. \"Thou hast brought me\nto the dust of death.\" Then, it is God's hand that has laid all these on\nhim. No doubt this may be, and probably was in the psalmist's thought,\nonly a devout recognition of Providence working through calamities; but\nthe words receive full force only by being regarded as parallel with\nthose of Isa. liii. 10, \"He hath put Him to grief.\" In like manner the\napostolic preaching regards Christ's murderers as God's instruments.\n\nThe next strophe returns to the three-verse arrangement, and blends\nthe contents of the two preceding, dealing both with the assailing\nenemies and the enfeebled sufferer. The former metaphor of wild\nanimals encircling him is repeated with variations. A baser order of\nfoes than bulls and lions, namely a troop of cowardly curs, are\nsnarling and snapping round him. The contemptuous figure is explained\nin ver. 16 _b_, as meaning a mob of evildoers, and is then resumed in\nthe next clause, which has been the subject of so much dispute. It\nseems plain that the Massoretic text is corrupt. \"Like a lion, my\nhands and my feet\" can only be made into sense by violent methods. The\ndifference between the letters which yield \"like a lion\" and those\nwhich give \"they pierced\" is only in the length of the upright stroke\nof the final one. LXX. Vulg. Syr. translate _they dug_ or _pierced_,\nand other ancient versions attest that they read the word as a verb.\nThe spelling of the word is anomalous, if we take it to mean _dig_,\nbut the irregularity is not without parallels, and may be smoothed\naway either by assuming an unusual form of a common verb or a rare\nroot cognate with the more common one. The word would then mean \"they\ndug\" rather than _pierced_, but the shade of difference in meaning is\nnot so great as to forbid the latter rendering. In any case \"it is the\nbest attested reading. It is to be understood of the gaping wounds\nwhich are inflicted on the sufferer's hands and feet, and which stare\nat him like holes\" (Baethgen, \"Hand Comment.,\" p. 65). \"Behold my\nhands and my feet,\" said the risen Lord, and that calm word is\nsufficient proof that both bore the prints of nails. The words might\nbe written over this psalm. Strange and sad that so many should look\non it and not see Him!\n\nThe picture of bodily sufferings has one more touch in \"I can count\nall my bones.\" Emaciation would produce that effect. But so would\ncrucifixion which extended the frame and threw the bones of the thorax\ninto prominence. Then the sufferer turns his eyes once more to his\nenemies, and describes the stony gaze, protracted and unfeeling, with\nwhich they feed upon his agonies. Crucifixion was a slow process, and\nwe recall the long hours in which the crowds sated their hatred\nthrough their eyes.\n\nIt is extremely unlikely that the psalmist's garments were literally\nparted among his foes, and the usual explanation of the singular\ndetails in ver. 18 is that they are either a metaphor drawn from\nplundering the slain in battle or a proverbial expression. What\nreference the words had to the original speaker of them must, in our\nignorance of his circumstances, remain uncertain. But they at all\nevents depict his death as so sure that his enemies regard his dress\nas their perquisite. Surely this is a distinct instance of Divine\nguidance moulding a psalmist's words so as to fill them with a deeper\nmeaning than the speaker knew. He who so shaped them saw the soldiers\ndividing the rest of the garments and gambling for the seamless cloak;\nand He was \"the Spirit of Christ which was in\" the singer.\n\nThe next strophe closes the first part with petition which, in the\nlast words, becomes thanksgiving, and realises the answer so fervently\nbesought. The initial complaint of God's distance is again turned into\nprayer, and the former metaphors of wild beasts are gathered into one\nlong cry for deliverance from the dangerous weapons of each, the dog's\npaw, the lion's mouth, the wild oxen's horns. The psalmist speaks of\nhis \"soul\" or life as \"my only one,\" referring not to his isolation,\nbut to his life as that which, once lost, could never be regained. He\nhas but one life, therefore he clings to it, and cannot but believe\nthat it is precious in God's eyes. And then, all at once, up shoots a\nclear light of joy, and he knows that he has not been speaking to a\ndeaf or remote God, but that his cry is answered. He had been brought\nto the dust of death, but even thence he is heard and brought out\nwith no soil of it upon him. Such suddenness and completeness of\ndeliverance from such extremity of peril may, indeed, have been\nexperienced by many, but receives its fullest meaning in its Messianic\napplication. \"From the horns of the wild oxen,\" says he, as if the\nphrase were still dependent, like the preceding ones, on the prayer,\n\"deliver me.\" But, as he thus cries, the conviction that he is heard\nfloods his soul, and he ends, not with a cry for help, but with that\none rapturous word, \"Thou hast answered me.\" It is like a parting\nburst of sunshine at the end of a day of tempest. A man already\ntransfixed by a buffalo's horns has little hope of escape, but even\nthence God delivers. The psalmist did not know, but the Christian\nreader should not forget that the Prince of sufferers was yet more\nwondrously delivered from death by passing through death, and that by\nHis victory all who cleave to Him are, in like manner, saved from the\nhorns even while these gore them, and are then victors over death when\nthey fall beneath its dart.\n\nThe consequences of the psalmist's deliverance are described in the last\npart (vv. 22-31) in language so wide that it is hard to suppose that any\nman could think his personal experiences so important and far-reaching.\nThe whole congregation of Israel are to share in his thanksgiving and to\nlearn more of God's name through him (vv. 22-6). Nor does that bound his\nanticipations, for they traverse the whole world and embrace all lands\nand ages, and contemplate that the story of his sufferings and triumph\nwill prove a true gospel, bringing every country and generation to\nremember and turn to Jehovah. The exuberant language becomes but one\nmouth. Such consequences, so wide-spread and agelong, can follow from\nthe story of but one life. If the sorrows of the preceding part can only\nbe a description of the passion, the glories of the second can only be a\nvision of the universal and eternal kingdom of Christ. It is a gospel\nbefore the Gospels and an Apocalypse before Revelations.\n\nIn the first strophe (vv. 22-6) the delivered singer vows to make\nGod's name known to His brethren. The epistle to the Hebrews quotes\nthe vow as not only expressive of our Lord's true manhood, but as\nspecifying its purpose. Jesus became man that men might learn to know\nGod; and the knowledge of His name streams most brightly from the\ncross. The death and resurrection, the sufferings and glory of Christ\nopen deeper regions in the character of God than even His gracious\nlife disclosed. Rising from the dead and exalted to the throne, He has\n\"a new song\" in His immortal lips, and more to teach concerning God\nthan He had before.\n\nThe psalm calls Israel to praise with the singer, and tells the ground\nof their joyful songs (vv. 23, 24). Here the absence of any reference\nto the relation which the New Testament reveals between these\nsufferings and that praise is to be noted as an instance of the\ngradual development of prophecy. \"We are not yet on the level of\nIsaiah liii.\" (Kirkpatrick, \"Psalms,\" 122). The close of this part\nspeaks of a sacrifice of which \"the humble shall eat and be\nsatisfied\"--\"I will pay my vows\"--_i.e._ the thank-offerings vowed\nwhen in trouble. The custom of feasting on the \"sacrifices for\npeace-offering for thanksgiving\" (Lev. vii. 15) is here referred to,\nbut the ceremonial garb covers spiritual truth. The condition of\npartaking in this feast is humility, that poverty of spirit which\nknows itself to be hungry and unable to find food for itself. The\nconsequence of partaking is satisfaction--a deep truth reaching far\nbeyond the ceremonial emblem. A further result is that \"your heart\nshall live for ever\"--an unmeaning hyperbole, but in one application\nof the words. We penetrate to the core of the psalm in this part, when\nwe read it in the light of Christ's words. \"My flesh is meat indeed,\nand my blood is drink indeed,\" and when we connect it with the central\nact of Christian worship, the Lord's Supper.\n\nThe universal and perpetual diffusion of the kingdom and knowledge of\nGod is the theme of the closing strain (vv. 27-31). That diffusion is\nnot definitely stated as the issue of the sufferings or deliverance,\nbut the very fact that such a universal knowledge comes into view here\nrequires that it should be so regarded, else the unity of the psalm is\nshattered. While, therefore, the ground alleged in ver. 28 for this\nuniversal recognition of God is only His universal dominion, we must\nsuppose that the history of the singer as told to the world is the\ngreat fact which brings home to men the truth of God's government over\nand care for them. True, men know God apart from revelation and from\nthe gospel, but He is to them a forgotten God, and the great influence\nwhich helps them to \"remember and turn to Jehovah\" is the message of\nthe Cross and the Throne of Jesus.\n\nThe psalm had just laid down the condition of partaking in the\nsacrificial meal as being lowliness, and (ver. 29) it prophecies that\nthe \"fat\" shall also share in it. That can only be, if they become\n\"humble.\" Great and small, lofty and low must take the same place and\naccept the food of their souls as a meal of charity. The following words\nare very difficult, as the text stands. There would appear to be a\ncontrast intended between the obese self-complacency of the prosperous\nand proud, and the pauper-like misery of \"those who are going down to\nthe dust\" and who \"cannot keep their soul alive,\" that is, who are in\nsuch penury and wretchedness that they are all but dead. There is a\nplace for ragged outcasts at the table side by side with the \"fat on\nearth.\" Others take the words as referring to those already dead, and\nsee here a hint that the dim regions of Sheol receive beams of the great\nlight and some share in the great feast. The thought is beautiful, but\ntoo remote from anything else in the Old Testament to be adopted here.\nVarious attempts at conjectural emendations and redivision of clauses\nhave been made in order to lighten the difficulties of the verse.\nHowever attractive some of these are, the existing reading yields a not\nunworthy sense, and is best adhered to.\n\nAs universality in extent, so perpetuity in duration is anticipated\nfor the story of the psalmist's deliverance and for the praise to God\nthence accruing. \"A seed shall serve Him.\" That is one generation of\nobedient worshippers. \"It shall be told of Jehovah unto the [next]\ngeneration.\" That is, a second, who shall receive from their\nprogenitors, the seed that serves, the blessed story. \"They ... shall\ndeclare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born.\" That is,\na third, which in its turn receives the good news from parents' lips.\nAnd what is the word which thus maintains itself living amid dying\ngenerations, and blesses each, and impels each to bequeath it as their\nbest treasure to their successors? \"That He hath done.\" Done what?\nWith eloquent silence the psalm omits to specify. What was it that was\nmeant by that word on the cross which, with like reticence, forbore\nto tell of what it spoke? \"He hath done.\" \"It is finished.\" No one\nword can express all that was accomplished in that sacrifice. Eternity\nwill not fully supply the missing word, for the consequences of that\nfinished work go on unfolding for ever, and are for ever unfinished,\nbecause for ever increasing.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXIII.\n\n 1 Jehovah is my Shepherd; I do not want.\n 2 In pastures of fresh grass He leads me;\n By waters of rest He makes me lie.\n 3 My soul He refreshes;\n He guides me in paths of righteousness [straight paths] for His\n name's sake.\n 4 Even if I walk in a gorge of gloom, I fear not evil, for Thou art\n with me;\n Thy rod and Thy staff--they comfort me.\n\n 5 Thou spreadest before me a table in presence of my foes;\n Thou anointest with oil my head: my cup is overfulness.\n 6 Only good and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,\n And my dwelling shall be in the house of Jehovah for length of\n days.\n\n\nThe world could spare many a large book better than this sunny little\npsalm. It has dried many tears and supplied the mould into which many\nhearts have poured their peaceful faith. To suppose that the speaker\nis the personified nation chills the whole. The tone is too intense\nnot to be the outcome of personal experience, however admissible the\napplication to the nation may be as secondary. No doubt Jehovah is the\nShepherd of Israel in several Asaphite psalms and in Jeremiah; but,\nnotwithstanding great authorities, I cannot persuade myself that the\nvoice which comes so straight to the heart did not come from the heart\nof a brother speaking across the centuries his own personal emotions,\nwhich are universal just because they are individual. It is the pure\nutterance of personal trust in Jehovah, darkened by no fears or\ncomplaints and so perfectly at rest that it has nothing more to ask.\nFor the time desire is stilled in satisfaction. One tone, and that the\nmost blessed which can sound in a life, is heard through the whole. It\nis the psalm of quiet trust, undisturbed even by its joy, which is\nquiet too. The fire glows, but does not flame or crackle. The one\nthought is expanded in two kindred images: that of the shepherd and\nthat of the host. The same ideas are substantially repeated under both\nforms. The lovely series of vivid pictures, each but a clause long,\nbut clear-cut in that small compass, like the fine work incised on a\ngem, combines with the depth and simplicity of the religious emotion\nexpressed, to lay this sweet psalm on all hearts.\n\nVv. 1-4 present the realities of the devout life under the image of\nthe Divine Shepherd and His lamb.\n\nThe comparison of rulers to shepherds is familiar to many tongues, and\ncould scarcely fail to occur to a pastoral people like the Jews, nor\nis the application to Jehovah's relation to the people so recondite\nthat we need to relegate the psalms in which it occurs to a late era\nin the national history. The psalmist lovingly lingers on the image,\nand draws out the various aspects of the shepherd's care and of the\nflock's travels, with a ripeness and calmness which suggests that we\nlisten to a much-experienced man. The sequence in which the successive\npictures occur is noteworthy. Guidance to refreshment comes first, and\nis described in ver. 2, in words which fall as softly as the gentle\nstreams of which they speak. The noontide is fierce, and the land lies\nbaking in the sun-blaze; but deep down in some wady runs a brook, and\nalong its course the herbage is bright with perpetual moisture, and\namong the lush grass are cool lairs where the footsore, panting flock\nmay couch. The shepherd's tenderness is beautifully hinted at in the\ntwo verbs: he \"leads,\" not drives, but in Eastern wise precedes and so\ndraws the trustful sheep; he \"makes me to lie down,\" taking care that\nthe sheep shall stretch weary limbs in full enjoyment of repose. God\nthus guides to rest and lays to rest the soul that follows Him. Why\ndoes the psalmist begin with this aspect of life? Because it is\nfittest to express the shepherd's care, and because it is, after all,\nthe predominant aspect to the devout heart. Life is full of trial and\neffort, but it is an unusually rainy region where rain falls on more\nthan half the days of the year. We live so much more vividly and fully\nin the moments of agony or crisis that they seem to fill more space\nthan they really do. But they are only moments, and the periods of\ncontinued peaceful possession of blessings are measured by years. But\nthe sweet words of the psalm are not to be confined to material good.\nThe psalmist does not tell us whether he is thinking more of the outer\nor of the inner life, but both are in his mind, and while his\nconfidence is only partially warranted by the facts of the former, it\nis unlimitedly true in regard to the latter. In that application of\nthe words the significance of the priority given to the pastures of\nfresh springing grass and the waters of repose is plain, for there the\nrest of trust and the drinking of living water must precede all\nwalking in paths of righteousness.\n\nFood and drink and rest refresh fainting powers, and this\nreinvigoration is meant by \"restoring my soul\" or life.\n\nBut the midday or nightly rest is intended to fit for effort, and so a\nsecond little picture follows in ver. 3, presenting another aspect of\nthe shepherd's care and of the sheep's course. Out again on to the\nroad, in spite of heat and dust, the flock goes. \"Paths of\nrighteousness\" is perhaps best taken as \"straight paths,\" as that\nrendering keeps within the bounds of the metaphor; but since the sheep\nare men, straight paths for them must needs be paths of righteousness.\nThat guidance is \"for His name's sake.\" God has regard to His revealed\ncharacter in shepherding His lamb, and will give direction because He\nis what He is, and in order that He may be known to be what He has\ndeclared Himself. The psalmist had learned the purpose of repose and\nrefreshment which, in all regions of life, are intended to prepare for\ntasks and marches. We are to \"drink for strength, and not for\ndrunkenness.\" A man may lie in a bath till strength is diminished, or\nmay take his plunge and come from it braced for work. In the religious\nlife it is possible to commit an analogous error, and to prize so\nunwisely peaceful hours of communion, as to waive imperative duty for\nthe sake of them; like Peter with his \"Let us make here three\ntabernacles,\" while there were devil-ridden sufferers waiting to be\nhealed down on the plain. Moments of devotion, which do not prepare\nfor hours of practical righteousness, are very untrustworthy. But, on\nthe other hand, the paths of righteousness will not be trodden by\nthose who have known nothing of the green pastures and waters where\nthe wearied can rest.\n\nBut life has another aspect than these two--rest and toil; and the\nguidance into danger and sorrow is as tender as its other forms are.\nThe singular word rendered \"shadow of death\" should probably simply be\n\"gloomy darkness,\" such, for instance, as in the shaft of a mine (Job\nxxviii. 3). But, even if the former rendering is retained, it is not\nto be interpreted as meaning actual death. No wise forward look can\nignore the possibility of many sorrows and the certainty of some. Hope\nhas ever something of dread in her eyes. The road will not be always\nbright and smooth, but will sometimes plunge down into grim ca\u00f1ons,\nwhere no sunbeams reach. But even that anticipation may be calm. \"Thou\nart with me\" is enough. He who guides into the gorge will guide\nthrough it. It is not a _cul de sac_, shut in with precipices at the\nfar end; but it opens out on shining table-lands, where there is\ngreener pasture. The rod and staff seem to be two names for one\ninstrument, which was used both to beat off predatory animals and to\ndirect the sheep. The two synonyms and the appended pronoun express by\ntheir redundancy the full confidence of the psalmist. He will not\nfear, though there are grounds enough for terror, in the dark valley;\nand though sense prompts him to dread, he conquers fear because he\ntrusts. \"Comfort\" suggests a struggle, or, as Calvin says, \"Quorsum\nenim consolatio ipsa, nisi quia metus eum solicitat?\"\n\nThe second image of the Divine Host and His guest is expanded in vv. 5,\n6. The ideas are substantially the same as in the first part. Repose and\nprovision, danger and change, again fill the foreground; and again there\nis forecast of a more remote future. But all is intensified, the need\nand the supply being painted in stronger colours and the hope being\nbrighter. The devout man is God's guest while he marches through foes,\nand travels towards perpetual repose in the house of Jehovah.\n\nJehovah supplies His servants' wants in the midst of conflict. The table\nspread in the sight of the enemy is a more signal token of care and\npower than the green pastures are. Life is not only journey and effort,\nbut conflict; and it is possible not only to have seasons of refreshment\ninterspersed in the weary march, but to find a sudden table spread by\nthe same unseen hand which holds back the foes, who look on with grim\neyes, powerless to intercept the sustenance or disturb the guests. This\nis the condition of God's servant--always conflict, but always a spread\ntable. Joy snatched in the face of danger is specially poignant. The\nflowers that bloom on the brink of a cataract are bright, and their\ntremulous motion adds a charm. Special experiences of God's sufficiency\nare wont to come in seasons of special difficulty, as many a true heart\nknows. It is no scanty meal that waits God's soldier under such\ncircumstances, but a banquet accompanied with signs of festivity, viz.,\nthe head anointed with oil and the cup which is \"fulness.\" God's\nsupplies are wont to surpass the narrow limits of need and even to\ntranscend capacity, having a something over which as yet we are unable\nto take in, but which is not disproportioned or wasted, since it widens\ndesire and thereby increases receptivity.\n\nIn the last verse we seem to pass to pure anticipation. Memory melts\ninto hope, and that brighter than the forecast which closed the first\npart. There the psalmist's trust simply refused to yield to fear,\nwhile keenly conscious of evil which might warrant it; but here he has\nrisen higher, and the alchemy of his happy faith and experience has\nconverted evil into something fairer. \"_Only_ good and mercy shall\nfollow me.\" There is no evil for the heart wedded to Jehovah; there\nare no foes to pursue, but two bright-faced angels walk behind him as\nhis rear-guard. It is much when the retrospect of life can, like\nJacob on his deathbed, see \"the Angel which redeemed me from all\nevil\"; but it is perhaps more when the else fearful heart can look\nforward and say that not only will it fear no evil, but that nothing\nbut blessings, the outcome of God's mercy, will ever reach it.\n\nThe closing hope of dwelling in the house of Jehovah to length of days\nrises above even the former verse. The singer knew himself a guest of\nGod's at the table spread before the foe, but that was, as it were,\nrefreshment on the march, while this is continual abiding in the home.\nSuch an unbroken continuity of abode in the house of Jehovah is a\nfamiliar aspiration in other psalms, and is always regarded as\npossible even while hands are engaged in ordinary duties and cares.\nThe psalms which conceive of the religious life under this image are\nmarked by a peculiar depth and inwardness. They are wholesomely\nmystical. The hope of this guest of God's is that, by the might of\nfixed faith and continual communion, he may have his life so hid in\nGod that wherever he goes he may still be in His house, and whatever\nhe does he may still be \"inquiring in His temple.\" The hope is here\nconfined to the earthly present, but the Christian reading of the\npsalm can scarcely fail to transfer the words to a future. God will\nbring those whom He has fed and guided in journeying and conflict to\nan unchanging mansion in a home beyond the stars. Here we eat at a\ntable spread with pilgrims' food, manna from heaven and water from the\nrock. We eat in haste and with an eye on the foe, but we may hope to\nsit down at another table in the perfected kingdom. The end of the\nfray is the beginning of the feast. \"We shall go no more out.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXIV.\n\n 1 Jehovah's is the earth, and what fills it,\n The world and the dwellers therein.\n 2 For He--upon the seas He founded it,\n And upon the floods established it.\n\n 3 Who may ascend into the hill of Jehovah,\n And who may stand in His holy place?\n\n 4 The clean-handed and pure-hearted,\n Who lifts not his desire to vanity,\n And swears not to falsehood.\n 5 He shall receive blessing from Jehovah\n And righteousness from the God of his salvation.\n 6 This is the generation of them that seek Him,\n That seek Thy face; [this is] Jacob. Selah.\n\n 7 Lift up, O gates, your heads,\n Yea, lift up yourselves, O ancient doors,\n That the King of glory may come in.\n 8 Who then is the King of glory?\n Jehovah, strong and a Champion,\n Jehovah, a Champion in battle.\n\n 9 Lift up, O gates, your heads,\n Yea, lift them up, O ancient doors,\n That the King of glory may come in.\n 10 Who is He, then, the King of glory?\n Jehovah of hosts,\n He is the King of glory. Selah.\n\n\nEwald's widely accepted view that this psalm is a composite of two\nfragments rests on a somewhat exaggerated estimate of the differences\nin tone and structure of the parts. These are obvious, but do not\ndemand the hypothesis of compilation; and the original author has as\ngood a right to be credited with the uniting thought as the supposed\neditor has. The usually alleged occasion of the psalm fits its tone so\nwell and gives such appropriateness to some of its phrases that\nstronger reasons than are forthcoming are required to negative it. The\naccount in 2 Sam. vi. tells of exuberant enthusiasm and joy, of which\nsome echo sounds in the psalm. It is a processional hymn, celebrating\nJehovah's entrance to His house; and that one event, apprehended on\nits two sides, informs the whole. Hence the two halves have the same\ninterchange of question and answer, and the two questions correspond,\nthe one inquiring the character of the men who dare dwell with God,\nthe other the name of the God who dwells with men. The procession is\nclimbing the steep to the gates of the ancient Jebusite fortress,\nrecently won by David. As it climbs, the song proclaims Jehovah as the\nuniversal Lord, basing the truth of His special dwelling in Zion upon\nthat of His world-wide rule. The question, so fitting the lips of the\nclimbers, is asked, possibly in solo, and the answer describing the\nqualifications of true worshippers, and possibly choral (vv. 3-6), is\nfollowed by a long-drawn musical interlude. Now the barred gates are\nreached. A voice summons them to open. The guards within, or possibly\nthe gates themselves, endowed by the poet with consciousness and\nspeech, ask who thus demands entrance. The answer is a triumphant\nshout from the procession. But the question is repeated, as if to\nallow of the still fuller reiteration of Jehovah's name, which shakes\nthe grey walls; and then, with clang of trumpets and clash of cymbals,\nthe ancient portals creak open, and Jehovah \"enters into His rest, He\nand the ark of His strength.\"\n\nJehovah's dwelling on Zion did not mean His desertion of the rest of\nthe world, nor did His choice of Israel imply His abdication of rule\nover, or withdrawal of blessings from, the nations. The light which\nglorified the bare hilltop, where the Ark rested, was reflected thence\nover all the world. \"The glory\" was there concentrated, not confined.\nThis psalm guards against all superstitious misconceptions, and\nprotests against national narrowness, in exactly the same way as Exod.\nxix. 5 bases Israel's selection from among all peoples on the fact\nthat \"all the earth is Mine.\"\n\n\"Who may ascend?\" was a picturesquely appropriate question for singers\ntoning upwards, and \"who may stand?\" for those who hoped presently to\nenter the sacred presence. The Ark which they bore had brought\ndisaster to Dagon's temple, so that the Philistine lords had asked in\nterror, \"Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?\" and at\nBeth-shemesh its presence had been so fatal that David had abandoned\nthe design of bringing it up and said, \"How shall the ark of the Lord\ncome to me?\" The answer, which lays down the qualifications of true\ndwellers in Jehovah's house, may be compared with the similar outlines\nof ideal character in Psalm xv. and Isa. xxxiii. 14. The one\nrequirement is purity. Here that requirement is deduced from the\nmajesty of Jehovah, as set forth in vv. 1, 2, and from the designation\nof His dwelling as \"holy.\" This is the postulate of the whole Psalter.\nIn it the approach to Jehovah is purely spiritual, even while the\noutward access is used as a symbol; and the conditions are of the same\nnature as the approach. The general truth implied is that the\ncharacter of the God determines the character of the worshippers.\nWorship is supreme admiration, culminating in imitation. Its law is\nalways \"They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that\ntrusteth in them.\" A god of war will have warriors, and a god of lust\nsensualists, for his devotees. The worshippers in Jehovah's holy place\nmust be holy. The details of the answer are but the echoes of a\nconscience enlightened by the perception of His character. In ver. 4\nit may be noted that of the four aspects of purity enumerated the two\ncentral refer to the inward life (_pure heart; lifts not his desire\nunto vanity_), and these are embedded, as it were, in the outward life\nof deeds and words. Purity of act is expressed by \"clean\nhands\"--neither red with blood, nor foul with grubbing in dunghills\nfor gold and other so-called good. Purity of speech is condensed into\nthe one virtue of truthfulness (_swears not to a falsehood_). But the\noutward will only be right if the inward disposition is pure, and that\ninward purity will only be realised when desires are carefully curbed\nand directed. As is the desire, so is the man. Therefore the prime\nrequisite for a pure heart is the withdrawal of affection, esteem, and\nlonging from the solid-seeming illusions of sense. \"Vanity\" has,\nindeed, the special meaning of _idols_, but the notion of earthly good\napart from God is more relevant here.\n\nIn ver. 5 the possessor of such purity is represented as receiving \"a\nblessing, even righteousness,\" from God, which is by many taken to mean\nbeneficence on the part of God, \"inasmuch as, according to the Hebrew\nreligious view of the world, all good is regarded as reward from God's\nretributive righteousness, and consequently as that of man's own\nrighteousness or right conduct\" (Hupfeld). The expression is thus\nequivalent to \"salvation\" in the next clause. But, while the word has\nthis meaning in some places, it does not seem necessary to adopt it\nhere, where the ordinary meaning is quite appropriate. Such a man as is\ndescribed in ver. 4 will have God's blessing on his efforts after\npurity, and a Divine gift will furnish him with that which he strives\nafter. The hope is not lit by the full sunshine of New Testament truth,\nbut it approximates thereto. It dimly anticipates \"Blessed are they that\nhunger and thirst after righteousness\"; and it feels after the great\nthought that the highest righteousness is not to be won, but to be\naccepted, even while it only asserts that man's effort after must\nprecede his possession of righteousness. We can give the words a deeper\nmeaning, and see in them the dawn of the later teaching that\nrighteousness must be \"received\" from \"the God of salvation.\"\n\nVer. 6 seems to carry the adumbration of truth not yet disclosed a step\nfurther. A great planet is trembling into visibility, and is divined\nbefore it is seen. The emphasis in ver. 6 is on \"seek,\" and the\nimplication is that the men who seek find. If we seek God's face, we\nshall receive purity. There the psalm touches the foundation. The Divine\nheart so earnestly desires to give righteousness that to seek is to\nfind. In that region a wish brings an answer, and no outstretched hand\nremains empty. Things of less worth have to be toiled and fought for;\nbut the most precious of all is a gift, to be had for the asking. That\nthought did not stand clearly before the Old Testament worshippers, but\nstruggles towards expression in many a psalm, as it could not but do\nwhenever a devout heart pondered the problems of conduct. We have\nabundant warnings against the anachronism of thrusting New Testament\ndoctrine into the Psalms, but it is no less one-sided to ignore\nanticipations which could not but spring up where there was earnest\nwrestling with the thoughts of sin and of the need for purity.\n\nAre we to adopt the supplement, \"O God of,\" before the abrupt \"Jacob\"?\nThe clause is harsh in any construction. The preceding \"thy\" seems to\nrequire the addition, as God is not directly addressed elsewhere in\nthe psalm. On the other hand, the declaration that such seekers are\nthe true people of God is a worthy close of the whole description, and\nthe reference to the \"face\" of God verbally recalls Peniel and that\nwonderful incident when Jacob became Israel. The seeker after God will\nhave that scene repeated, and be able to say, \"I have seen God.\" The\nabrupt introduction of \"Jacob\" is made more emphatic by the musical\ninterlude which closes the first part.\n\nThere is a pause, while the procession ascends the hill of the Lord,\nrevolving the stringent qualifications for entrance. It stands before\nthe barred gates, while possibly part of the choir is within. The\nadvancing singers summon the doors to open and receive the incoming\nJehovah. Their portals are too low for Him to enter, and therefore\nthey are called upon to lift their lintels. They are grey with age,\nand round them cluster long memories; therefore they are addressed as\n\"gates of ancient time.\" The question from within expresses ignorance\nand hesitation, and dramatically represents the ancient gates as\nsharing the relation of the former inhabitants to the God of Israel,\nwhose name they did not know, and whose authority they did not own. It\nheightens the force of the triumphant shout proclaiming His mighty\nname. He is Jehovah, the self-existent God, who has made a covenant\nwith Israel, and fights for His people, as these grey walls bear\nwitness. His warrior might had wrested them from their former\npossessors, and the gates must open for their Conqueror. The repeated\nquestion is pertinacious and animated: \"Who then is He, the King of\nglory?\" as if recognition and surrender were reluctant. The answer is\nsharp and authoritative, being at once briefer and fuller. It peals\nforth the great name \"Jehovah of hosts.\" There may be reference in the\nname to God's command of the armies of Israel, thereby expressing the\nreligious character of their wars; but the \"hosts\" include the angels,\n\"His ministers who do His pleasure,\" and the stars, of which He brings\nforth the hosts by number. In fact, the conception underlying the name\nis that of the universe as an ordered whole, a disciplined army, a\ncosmos obedient to His voice. It is the same conception which the\ncenturion had learned from his legion, where the utterance of one will\nmoved all the stern, shining ranks. That mighty name, like a charge of\nexplosives, bursts the gates of brass asunder, and the procession\nsweeps through them amid yet another burst of triumphant music.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXV.\n\n 1 (\u05d0) Unto Thee, Jehovah, I uplift my soul;\n [On Thee I wait all the day, O my God!].\n 2 (\u05d1) On Thee I hang: let me not be put to shame;\n Let not my enemies exult over me.\n 3 (\u05d2) Yea, all who wait on Thee shall not be put to shame;\n Put to shame shall they be who faithlessly forsake Thee without\n cause.\n 4 (\u05d3) Thy ways, Jehovah, make me to know,\n Thy paths teach Thou me.\n 5 (\u05d4) Make me walk in Thy troth, and teach me,\n For Thou art the God of my salvation.\n 6 (\u05d6) Remember Thy compassions, Jehovah, and Thy loving-kindnesses,\n For from of old are they.\n 7 (\u05d7) Sins of my youth and my transgression remember not;\n According to Thy loving-kindness remember me,\n For Thy goodness' sake, Jehovah.\n 8 (\u05d8) Good and upright is Jehovah;\n Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.\n 9 (\u05d9) He will cause the meek to walk in that which is right,\n And will teach the meek His way.\n\n 10 (\u05db) All the paths of Jehovah are loving-kindness and troth\n To keepers of His covenant and His testimonies.\n 11 (\u05dc) For Thy name's sake, Jehovah,\n Pardon my iniquity, for great is it.\n 12 (\u05de) Who, then, is the man who fears Jehovah?\n He will instruct him in the way he should choose.\n 13 (\u05e0) Himself shall dwell in prosperity,\n And his seed shall possess the land.\n 14 (\u05e1) The secret of Jehovah is [told] to them that fear Him,\n And His covenant He makes them know.\n 15 (\u05e2) My eyes are continually toward Jehovah,\n For He, He shall bring out my feet from the net.\n 16 (\u05e4) Turn Thee unto me, and be gracious to me,\n For solitary and afflicted am I.\n 17 (\u05e6) The straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (?),\n And from my distresses bring me out.\n 18 (\u05e8) Look on my affliction and my travail,\n And lift away all my sins.\n 19 (\u05e8) Look on my enemies, for they are many,\n And they hate me with cruel hate.\n 20 (\u05e9) Keep my soul and deliver me;\n Let me not be put to shame, for I have taken refuge in Thee.\n 21 (\u05ea) Let integrity and uprightness guard me,\n For I wait on Thee.\n 22 Redeem Israel, O God,\n From all his straits.\n\n\nThe recurrence of the phrase \"lift up the soul\" may have determined\nthe place of this psalm next to Psalm xxiv. It is acrostic, but with\nirregularities. As the text now stands, the second, not the first,\nword in ver. 2 begins with Beth; Vav is omitted or represented in the\n\"and teach me\" of the He verse (ver. 5); Qoph is also omitted, and its\nplace taken by a supernumerary Resh, which letter has thus two verses\n(18, 19); and ver. 22 begins with Pe, and is outside the scheme of the\npsalm, both as regards alphabetic structure and subject. The same\npeculiarities of deficient Vav and superfluous Pe verses reappear in\nanother acrostic psalm (xxxiv.), in which the initial word of the last\nverse is, as here, \"redeem.\" Possibly the two psalms are connected.\n\nThe fetters of the acrostic structure forbid freedom and progress of\nthought, and almost compel repetition. It is fitted for meditative\nreiteration of favourite emotions or familiar axioms, and results in a\nloosely twined wreath rather than in a column with base, shaft, and\ncapital. A slight trace of consecution of parts may be noticed in the\ndivision of the verses (excluding ver. 22) into three sevens, of which\nthe first is prayer, the second meditation on the Divine character and\nthe blessings secured by covenant to them who fear Him, and the third is\nbent round, wreath-like, to meet the first, and is again prayer. Such\nalternation of petition and contemplation is like the heart's beat of\nthe religious life, now expanding in desire, now closing in possession.\nThe psalm has no marks of occasion or period. It deals with the\npermanent elements in a devout man's relation to God.\n\nThe first prayer-section embraces the three standing needs:\nprotection, guidance, and forgiveness. With these are intertwined\ntheir pleas according to the logic of faith--the suppliant's uplifted\ndesires and God's eternal tenderness and manifested mercy. The order\nof mention of the needs proceeds from without inwards, for protection\nfrom enemies is superficial as compared with illumination as to duty,\nand deeper than even that, as well as prior in order of time (and\ntherefore last in order of enumeration), is pardon. Similarly the\npleas go deeper as they succeed each other; for the psalmist's trust\nand waiting is superficial as compared with the plea breathed in the\nname of \"the God of my salvation\"; and that general designation leads\nto the gaze upon the ancient and changeless mercies, which constitute\nthe measure and pattern of God's working (_according to_, ver. 7), and\nupon the self-originated motive, which is the deepest and strongest of\nall arguments with Him (_for Thy goodness' sake_, ver. 7).\n\nA qualification of the guest in God's house was in Psalm xxiv. the\nnegative one that he did not lift up his soul--_i.e._, set his\ndesires--on the emptinesses of time and sense. Here the psalmist\nbegins with the plea that he has set his on Jehovah, and, as the\nposition of \"Unto Thee, Jehovah,\" at the beginning shows, on Him\nalone. The very nature of such aspiration after God demands that it\nshall be exclusive. \"All in all or not at all\" is the requirement of\ntrue devotion, and such completeness is not attained without continual\nwithdrawal of desire from created good. The tendrils of the heart must\nbe untwined from other props before they can be wreathed round their\ntrue stay. The irregularity in ver. 2, where the second, not the\nfirst, word of the verse begins with Beth, may be attenuated by\ntreating the Divine name as outside the acrostic order. An acute\nconjecture, however, that the last clause of ver. 5 really belongs to\nver. 1 and should include \"my God\" now in ver. 2, has much in its\nfavour. Its transposition restores to both verses the two-claused\nstructure which runs through the psalm, gets rid of the acrostical\nanomaly, and emphasises the subsequent reference to those who wait on\nJehovah in ver. 3.\n\nIn that case ver. 2 begins with the requisite letter. It passes from\nplea to petition: \"Let me not be shamed.\" Trust that was not\nvindicated by deliverance would cover the face with confusion. \"Hopes\nthat breed not shame\" are the treasure of him whose hope is in\nJehovah. Foes unnamed threaten; but the stress of the petitions in the\nfirst section of the psalm is less on enemies than on sins. One cry\nfor protection from the former is all that the psalmist utters, and\nthen his prayer swiftly turns to deeper needs. In the last section the\npetitions are more exclusively for deliverance from enemies. Needful\nas such escape is, it is less needful than the knowledge of God's\nways, and the man in extremest peril orders his desires rightly, if he\nasks holiness first and safety second. The cry in ver. 2 rests upon\nthe confidence nobly expressed in ver. 3, in which the verbs are not\noptatives, but futures, declaring a truth certain to be realised in\nthe psalmist's experience, because it is true for all who, like him,\nwait on Jehovah. True prayer is the individual's sheltering himself\nunder the broad folds of the mantle that covers all who pray. The\ndouble confidence as to the waiters on Jehovah and the \"treacherous\nwithout cause\" is the summary of human experience as read by faith.\nSense has much to adduce in contradiction, but the dictum is\nnevertheless true, only its truth does not always appear in the small\narc of the circle which lies between cradle and grave.\n\nThe prayer for deliverance glides into that for guidance, since the\nlatter is the deeper need, and the former will scarcely be answered\nunless the suppliant's will docilely offers the latter. The soul\nlifted to Jehovah will long to know His will and submit itself to His\nmanifold teachings. \"Thy ways\" and \"Thy paths\" necessarily mean here\nthe ways in which Jehovah desires that the psalmist should go. \"In Thy\ntruth\" is ambiguous, both as to the preposition and the noun. The\nclause may either present God's truth (_i.e._, faithfulness) as His\nmotive for answering the prayer, or His truth (_i.e._, the objective\nrevelation) as the path for men. Predominant usage inclines to the\nformer signification of the noun, but the possibility still remains of\nregarding God's faithfulness as the path in which the psalmist desires\nto be led, _i.e._ to experience it. The cry for forgiveness strikes a\ndeeper note of pathos, and, as asking a more wondrous blessing, grasps\nstill more firmly the thought of what Jehovah is and always has been.\nThe appeal is made to \"_Thy_ compassions and loving-kindnesses,\" as\nbelonging to His nature, and to their past exercise as having been\n\"from of old.\" Emboldened thus, the psalmist can look back on his own\npast, both on his outbursts of youthful passion and levity, which he\ncalls \"failures,\" as missing the mark, and on the darker evils of\nlater manhood, which he calls \"rebellions,\" and can trust that Jehovah\nwill think upon him _according to His mercy_, and _for the sake of His\ngoodness_ or love. The vivid realisation of that Eternal Mercy as the\nvery mainspring of God's actions, and as setting forth, in many an\nancient deed, the eternal pattern of His dealings, enables a man to\nbear the thought of his own sins.\n\nThe contemplation of the Divine character prepares the way for the\ntransition to the second group of seven verses, which are mainly\nmeditation on that character and on God's dealings and the blessedness\nof those who fear Him (vv. 8-14). The thought of God beautifully draws\nthe singer from himself. How deeply and lovingly he had pondered on\nthe name of the Lord before he attained to the grand truth that His\ngoodness and very uprightness pledged Him to show sinners where they\nshould walk! Since there is at the heart of things an infinitely pure\nand equally loving Being, nothing is more impossible than that He\nshould wrap Himself in thick darkness and leave men to grope after\nduty. Revelation of the path of life in some fashion is the only\nconduct consistent with His character. All presumptions are in favour\nof such Divine teaching; and the fact of sin makes it only the more\ncertain. That fact may separate men from God, but not God from men,\nand if they transgress, the more need, both in their characters and in\nGod's, is there that He should speak. But while their being sinners\ndoes not prevent His utterance, their disposition determines their\nactual reception of His teaching, and \"the meek\" or lowly of heart are\nHis true scholars. His instruction is not wasted on them, and, being\nwelcomed, is increased. A fuller communication of His will rewards the\nhumble acceptance of it. Sinners are led _in_ the way; the meek are\ntaught His way. Here the conception of God's way is in transition from\nits meaning in ver. 4 to that in ver. 10, where it distinctly must\nmean His manner of dealing with men. They who accept His teaching, and\norder their paths as He would have them do, will learn that the\nimpulse and meaning of all which He does to them are \"mercy and\ntruth,\" the two great attributes to which the former petitions\nappealed, and which the humble of heart, who observe the conditions of\nGod's covenant which is witness of His own character and of their\nduty, will see gleaming with lambent light even in calamities.\n\nThe participators, then, in this blessed knowledge have a threefold\ncharacter: sinners; humble; keepers of the covenant and testimonies.\nThe thought of these requirements drives the psalmist back on himself,\nas it will do all devout souls, and forces from him a short\nejaculation of prayer, which breaks with much pathos and beauty the\ncalm flow of contemplation. The pleas for forgiveness of the\n\"iniquity\" which makes him feel unworthy of Jehovah's guidance are\nremarkable. \"For Thy name's sake\" appeals to the revealed character of\nGod, as concerned in the suppliant's pardon, inasmuch as it will be\nhonoured thereby, and God will be true to Himself in forgiving. \"For\nit is great\" speaks the boldness of helplessness. The magnitude of sin\ndemands a Divine intervention. None else than God can deal with it.\nFaith makes the very greatness of sin and extremity of need a reason\nfor God's act of pardon.\n\nPassing from self, the singer again recurs to his theme, reiterating\nin vivid language and with some amplification the former thoughts. In\nvv. 8-10 the character of Jehovah was the main subject, and the men\nwhom He blessed were in the background. In vv. 12-14 they stand\nforward. Their designation now is the wide one of \"those who fear\nJehovah,\" and the blessings they receive are, first, that of being\ntaught the way, which has been prominent thus far, but here has a new\nphase, as being \"the way that he should choose\"; _i.e._, God's\nteaching illuminates the path, and tells a man what he ought to do,\nwhile his freedom of choice is uninfringed. Next, outward blessings of\nsettled prosperity shall be his, and his children shall have the\npromises to Israel fulfilled in their possession of the land. These\noutward blessings belong to the Old Testament epoch, and can only\npartially be applied to the present stage of Providence. But the final\nelement of the good man's blessedness (ver. 14) is eternally true.\nWhether we translate the first word \"secret\" or \"friendship,\" the\nsense is substantially the same. Obedience and the true fear of\nJehovah directly tend to discernment of His purposes, and will besides\nbe rewarded by whispers from heaven. God would not hide from Abraham\nwhat He would do, and still His friend will know His mind better than\nthe disobedient. The last clause of ver. 14 is capable of various\nrenderings. \"His covenant\" may be in the accusative, and the verb a\nperiphrastic future, as the A.V. takes it, or the former word may be\nnominative, and the clause be rendered, \"And His covenant [is] to make\nthem to know.\" But the absolute use of the verb without a\nspecification of the object taught is somewhat harsh, and probably the\nformer rendering is to be preferred. The deeper teaching of the\ncovenant which follows on the fear of the Lord includes both its\nobligations and blessings, and the knowledge is not mere intellectual\nperception, but vital experience. In this region life is knowledge,\nand knowledge life. Whoso \"keeps His covenant\" (ver. 10) will ever\ngrow in appropriation of its blessings and apprehension of its\nobligations by his submissive will.\n\nThe third heptad of verses returns to simple petition, and that, with\none exception (ver. 18 _b_), for deliverance from enemies. This\nrecurrence, in increased intensity, of the consciousness of hostility\nis not usual, for the psalms which begin with it generally pray\nthemselves out of it. \"The peace which passeth understanding,\" which\nis the best answer to prayer, has not fully settled on the heaving\nsea. A heavy ground swell runs in these last short petitions, which\nall mean substantially the same thing. But there is a beginning of\ncalm; and the renewed petitions are a pattern of that continual\nknocking of which such great things are said and recorded in\nScripture. The section begins with a declaration of patient\nexpectance: \"Mine eyes are ever towards Jehovah,\" with wistful\nfixedness which does not doubt though it has long to look. Nets are\nwrapped round his feet, inextricably but for one hand. We can bear to\nfeel our limbs entangled and fettered, if our eyes are free to gaze,\nand fixed in gazing, upwards. The desired deliverance is thrice\npresented (ver. 16, \"turn unto\"; ver. 18, \"look upon\"; ver. 19,\n\"consider,\" lit. look upon) as the result of Jehovah's face being\ndirected towards the psalmist.\n\nWhen Jehovah turns to a man, the light streaming from His face makes\ndarkness day. The pains on which He \"looks\" are soothed; the enemies\nwhom He beholds shrivel beneath His eye. The psalmist believes that\nGod's presence, in the deeper sense of that phrase, as manifested partly\nthrough delivering acts and partly through inward consciousness, is his\none need, in which all deliverances and gladnesses are enwrapped. He\nplaintively pleads, \"For I am alone and afflicted.\" The soul that has\nawakened to the sense of the awful solitude of personal being, and\nstretched out yearning desires to the only God, and felt that with Him\nit would know no pain in loneliness, will not cry in vain. In ver. 17 a\nslight alteration in the text, the transference of the final Vav of one\nword to the beginning of the next, gets rid of the incongruous phrase\n\"are enlarged\" as applied to troubles (lit. straits), and gives a prayer\nwhich is in keeping with the familiar use of the verb in reference to\nafflictions: \"The troubles of my heart do Thou enlarge [cf. iv. 2;\nxviii. 36], and from my distresses,\" etc. Ver. 18 should begin with\nQoph, but has Resh, which is repeated in the following verse, to which\nit rightly belongs. It is at least noteworthy that the anomaly makes the\npetition for Jehovah's \"look\" more emphatic, and brings into prominence\nthe twofold direction of it. The \"look\" on the psalmist's affliction and\npain will be tender and sympathetic, as a mother eagle's on her sick\neaglet; that on his foes will be stern and destructive, many though they\nbe. In ver. 11 the prayer for pardon was sustained by the plea that the\nsin was \"great\"; in ver. 19 that for deliverance from foes rests on the\nfact that \"they are many,\" for which the verb cognate with the adjective\nof ver. 11 is used. Thus both dangers without and evils within are\nregarded as crying out, by their multitude, for God's intervention. The\nwreath is twined so that its end is brought round to its beginning. \"Let\nme not be ashamed, for I trust in Thee,\" is the second petition of the\nfirst part repeated; and \"I wait on Thee,\" which is the last word of the\npsalm, omitting the superfluous verse, echoes the clause which it is\nproposed to transfer to ver. 1. Thus the two final verses correspond to\nthe two initial, the last but one to the first but one, and the last to\nthe first. The final prayer is that \"integrity (probably complete\ndevotion of heart to God) and uprightness\" (in relation to men) may\npreserve him, as guardian angels; but this does not assert the\npossession of these, but is a petition for the gift of them quite as\nmuch as for their preserving action. The implication of that petition is\nthat no harm can imperil or destroy him whom these characteristics\nguard. That is true in the whole sweep of human life, however often\ncontradicted in the judgment of sense.\n\nLike Psalm xxxiv., this concludes with a supplementary verse beginning\nwith Pe, a letter already represented in the acrostic scheme. This may\nbe a later addition, for liturgical purposes.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXVI.\n\n 1 Judge me, Jehovah, for I--in my integrity do I walk,\n And in Jehovah do I trust unwavering.\n 2 Test me, Jehovah, and try me,\n My reins and my heart.\n 3 For Thy loving-kindness is before my eyes,\n And I walk in Thy troth.\n\n 4 I sit not with men of vanity,\n And with those who mask themselves do I not go.\n 5 I hate the congregation of evil-doers,\n And with the wicked I do not sit.\n\n 6 I will wash my hands in innocence,\n That I may compass Thine altar, Jehovah,\n 7 To cause the voice of praise to be heard,\n And to tell forth all Thy wonders.\n\n 8 Jehovah, I love the shelter of Thy house,\n And the place of the dwelling of Thy glory.\n 9 Take not away with sinners my soul,\n Nor with men of blood my life,\n 10 In whose hands is outrage,\n And their right hand is full of bribery.\n\n 11 But I--in my integrity will I walk;\n Redeem me, and be gracious to me.\n 12 My foot stands on level ground;\n In the congregations will I bless Jehovah.\n\n\nThe image of \"the way\" which is characteristic of Psalm xxv. reappears\nin a modified form in this psalm, which speaks of \"walking in\nintegrity\" and truth and of \"feet standing in an even place.\" Other\nresemblances to the preceding psalm are the use of \"redeem,\" \"be\nmerciful\"; the references to God's loving-kindness and truth, in which\nthe psalmist walks, and to his own integrity. These similarities may\nor may not indicate common authorship, but probably guided the\ncompilers in placing the psalm here. It has not clear marks of date or\nof the writer's circumstances. Its two ground tones are profession of\nintegrity and of revulsion from the society of the wicked and prayer\nfor vindication of innocence by the fact of deliverance. The verses\nare usually grouped in couples, but with some irregularity.\n\nThe two key-notes are both struck in the first group of three verses, in\nwhich vv. 2 and 3 are substantially an expansion of ver. 1. The prayer,\n\"Judge me,\" asks for a Divine act of deliverance based upon a Divine\nrecognition of the psalmist's sincerity and unwavering trust. Both the\nprayer and its ground are startling. It grates upon ears accustomed to\nthe tone of the New Testament that a suppliant should allege his\nsingle-eyed simplicity and steadfast faith as pleas with God, and the\nstrange tone sounds on through the whole psalm. The threefold prayer in\nver. 2 courts Divine scrutiny, as conscious of innocence, and bares the\ninmost recesses of affection and impulse for testing, proving by\ncircumstances, and smelting by any fire. The psalmist is ready for the\nordeal, because he has kept God's \"loving-kindness\" steadily in sight\nthrough all the glamour of earthly brightnesses, and his outward life\nhas been all, as it were, transacted in the sphere of God's\ntruthfulness; _i.e._, the inward contemplation of His mercy and\nfaithfulness has been the active principle of his life. Such\nself-consciousness is strange enough to us, but, strange as it is, it\ncannot fairly be stigmatised as Pharisaic self-righteousness. The\npsalmist knows that all goodness comes from God, and he clings to God in\nchildlike trust. The humblest Christian heart might venture in similar\nlanguage to declare its recoil from evil-doers and its deepest spring of\naction as being trust. Such professions are not inconsistent with\nconsciousness of sin, which is, in fact, often associated with them in\nother psalms (xxv. 20, 21, and vii. 11, 18). They do indicate a lower\nstage of religious development, a less keen sense of sinfulness and of\nsins, a less clear recognition of the worthlessness before God of all\nman's goodness, than belong to Christian feeling. The same language when\nspoken at one stage of revelation may be childlike and lowly, and be\nswelling arrogance and self-righteous self-ignorance, if spoken at\nanother.\n\nSuch high and sweet communion cannot but breed profound distaste for\nthe society of evil-doers. The eyes which have God's loving-kindness\never before them are endowed with penetrative clearness of vision into\nthe true hollowness of most of the objects pursued by men, and with a\nterrible sagacity which detects hypocrisy and shams. Association with\nsuch men is necessary, else we must needs go out of the world, and\nleaven must be in contact with dough in order to do its transforming\nwork; but it is impossible for a man whose heart is truly in touch\nwith God not to feel ill at ease when brought into contact with those\nwho have no share in his deepest convictions and emotions. \"Men of\nvanity\" is a general designation for the ungodly, pronouncing on every\nsuch life the sentence that it is devoted to empty unrealities and\npartakes of the nature of that to which it is given up. One who has\nJehovah's loving-kindness before his eyes cannot \"sit\" with such men\nin friendly association, as if sharing their ways of thinking, nor\n\"go\" with them in their course of conduct. \"Those who mask themselves\"\nare another class, namely hypocrites who conceal their pursuit of\nvanity under the show of religion. The psalmist's revulsion is\nintensified in ver. 5 into \"hate,\" because the evil-doers and sinners\nspoken of there are of a deeper tint of blackness, and are banded\ntogether in a \"congregation,\" the opposite and parody of the\nassemblies of the righteous, whom he feels to be his kindred. No doubt\nseparateness from evil-doers is but part of a godly man's duty, and\nhas often been exaggerated into selfish withdrawal from a world which\nneeds good men's presence all the more the worse it is; but it _is_ a\npart of his duty, and \"Come out from among them and be separate\" is\nnot yet an abrogated command. No man will ever mingle with \"men of\nvanity,\" so as to draw them from the shadows of earth to the substance\nin God, unless his loving association with them rests on profound\nrevulsion from their principles of action. None comes so near to\nsinful men as the sinless Christ; and if He had not been ever\n\"separate from sinners,\" He would never have been near enough to\nredeem them. We may safely imitate His free companionship, which\nearned Him His glorious name of their Friend, if we imitate His\nremoteness from their evil.\n\nFrom the uncongenial companionship of the wicked the psalmist's\nyearnings instinctively turn to his heart's home, the sanctuary. The\nmore a man feels out of sympathy with a godless world, the more\nlongingly he presses into the depths of communion with God; and,\nconversely, the more he feels at home in still communion, the more\ndoes the tumult of sense-bound crowds grate on his soul. The psalmist,\nthen, in the next group of verses (6, 7), opposes access to the house\nof God and the solemn joy of thankful praises sounding there to the\nloathed consorting with evil. He will not sit with men of vanity\nbecause he will enter the sanctuary. Outward participation in its\nworship may be included in his vows and wishes, but the tone of the\nverses rather points to a symbolical use of the externalities of\nritual. Cleansing the hands alludes to priestly lustration; compassing\nthe altar is not known to have been a Jewish practice, and probably is\nto be taken as simply a picturesque way of describing himself as one\nof the joyous circle of worshippers; the sacrifice is praise. The\npsalmist rises to the height of the true Israelite's priestly\nvocation, and ritual has become transparent to him. None the less may\nhe have clung to the outwardnesses of ceremonial worship, because he\napprehended them in their highest significance and had learned that\nthe qualification of the worshipper was purity, and the best offering\npraise. Well for those who, like him, are driven to the sanctuary by\nthe revulsion from vanities and from those who pursue them!\n\nVer. 8 is closely connected with the two preceding, but is perhaps\nbest united with the following verse, as being the ground of the\nprayer there. Hate of the congregation of evil-doers has love to God's\nhouse for its complement or foundation. The measure of attachment is\nthat of detachment. The designations of the sanctuary in ver. 8 show\nthe aspects in which it drew the psalmist's love. It was \"the shelter\nof Thy house,\" where he could hide himself from the strife of tongues\nand escape the pain of herding with evil-doers; it was \"the place of\nthe dwelling of Thy glory,\" the abode of that symbol of Divine\npresence which flamed between the cherubim and lit the darkness of\nthe innermost shrine. Because the singer felt his true home to be\nthere, he prayed that his soul might not be gathered with sinners,\n_i.e._ that he might not be involved in their fate. He has had no\nfellowship with them in their evil, and therefore he asks that he may\nbe separate from them in their punishment. To \"gather the soul\" is\nequivalent to taking away the life. God's judgments sort out\ncharacters and bring like to like, as the tares are bound in bundles\nor as, with so different a purpose, Christ made the multitudes sit\ndown by companies on the green sward. General judgments are not\nindiscriminate. The prayer of the psalmist may not have looked beyond\nexemption from calamities or from death, but the essence of the faith\nwhich it expresses is eternally true: that distinction of attitude\ntowards God and goodness must secure distinction of lot, even though\nexternal circumstances are identical. The same things are not the same\nto men so profoundly different. The picture of the evil-doers from\nwhom the psalmist recoils is darker in these last verses than before.\nIt is evidently a portrait and points to a state of society in which\nviolence, outrage, and corruption were rampant. The psalmist washed\nhis hands in innocency, but these men had violence and bribes in\ntheirs. They were therefore persons in authority, prostituting\njustice. The description fits too many periods too well to give a clue\nto the date of the psalm.\n\nOnce more the consciousness of difference and the resolve not to be\nlike such men break forth in the closing couple of verses. The psalm\nbegan with the profession that he had walked in his integrity; it ends\nwith the vow that he will. It had begun with the prayer \"Judge me\"; it\nends with the expansion of it into \"Redeem me\"--_i.e._, from existing\ndangers, from evil-doers, or from their fate--and \"Be gracious unto\nme,\" the positive side of the same petition. He who purposes to walk\nuprightly has the right to expect God's delivering and giving hand to\nbe extended to him. The resolve to walk uprightly unaccompanied with\nthe prayer for that hand to hold up is as rash as the prayer without\nthe resolve is vain. But if these two go together, quiet confidence\nwill steal into the heart; and though there be no change in\ncircumstances, the mood of mind will be so soothed and lightened that\nthe suppliant will feel that he has suddenly emerged from the steep\ngorge where he had been struggling and shut up, and stands on the\nlevel ground of the \"shining table-lands, whereof our God Himself is\nsun and moon.\" Such peaceful foretaste of coming security is the\nforerunner which visits the faithful heart. Gladdened by it, the\npsalmist is sure that his desire of compassing God's altar with praise\nwill be fulfilled, and that, instead of compulsory association with\nthe \"congregation of evil-doers,\" he will bless Jehovah \"in the\ncongregations\" where His name is loved and find himself among those\nwho, like himself, delight in His praise.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXVII.\n\n 1 Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?\n Jehovah is the fortress of my life; for whom should I tremble?\n 2 When evil-doers drew near against me, to devour my flesh,\n My oppressors and my foes, they stumbled and fell.\n 3 Though a host encamp against me,\n My heart fears not;\n Though war rises against me,\n Even then am I confident.\n\n 4 One thing have I asked from Jehovah; that will I seek:\n That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life,\n To gaze upon the pleasantness of Jehovah and to meditate in His\n palace.\n 5 For He will hide me in a bower in the day of evil;\n He will secrete me in the secret of His tent;\n On a rock will He lift me.\n 6 And now shall my head be lifted above my foes around me,\n And I will sacrifice in His tent sacrifices of joy;\n I will sing and I will harp to Jehovah.\n\n 7 Hear, Jehovah, when I cry with my voice;\n And be gracious to me, and answer me.\n 8 To Thee hath my heart said, (when Thou saidst) \"Seek ye my face\";\n That face of Thine, Jehovah, will I seek.\n 9 Hide not Thy face from me:\n Repulse not Thy servant in anger;\n My help Thou hast been:\n Cast me not off, and forsake me not, O God of my salvation\n 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me;\n But Jehovah will take me up.\n\n 11 Show me, Jehovah, Thy way,\n And lead me in a level path, because of those who lie in wait for\n me.\n 12 Give me not up to the desire of my oppressors,\n For false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out\n violence.\n 13 If I had not believed that I should see the goodness of Jehovah\n In the land of the living----!\n 14 Wait on Jehovah;\n Be strong, and let thine heart take courage, and wait on Jehovah.\n\n\nThe hypothesis that two originally distinct psalms or fragments are\nhere blended has much in its favour. The rhythm and style of the\nlatter half (ver. 7 to end) are strikingly unlike those of the former\npart, and the contrast of feeling is equally marked, and is in the\nopposite direction from that which is usual, since it drops from\nexultant faith to at least plaintive, if not anxious, petition. But\nwhile the phenomena are plain and remarkable, they do not seem to\ndemand the separation suggested. Form and rhythm are elastic in the\npoet's hands, and change in correspondence with his change of mood.\nThe flowing melody of the earlier part is the natural expression of\nits sunny confidence, and the harsher strains of the later verses fit\nno less well their contents. Why may not the key change to a minor,\nand yet the voice be the same? The fall from jubilant to suppliant\nfaith is not unexampled in other psalms (cf. ix. and xxv.), nor in\nitself unnatural. Dangers, which for a moment cease to press, do\nrecur, however real the victory over fear has been, and in this\nrecrudescence of the consciousness of peril, which yet does not\nloosen, but tighten, the grasp of faith, this ancient singer speaks\nthe universal experience; and his song becomes more precious and more\nfitted for all lips than if it had been unmingled triumph. One can\nbetter understand the original author passing in swift transition from\nthe one to the other tone, than a later editor deliberately appending\nto a pure burst of joyous faith and aspiration a tag which flattened\nit. The more unlike the two halves are, the less probable is it that\ntheir union is owing to any but the author of both. The fire of the\noriginal inspiration could fuse them into homogeneousness; it is\nscarcely possible that a mechanical patcher should have done so. If,\nthen, we take the psalm as a whole, it gives a picture of the\ntransitions of a trustful soul surrounded by dangers, in which all\nsuch souls may recognise their own likeness.\n\nThe first half (vv. 1-6) is the exultant song of soaring faith. But even\nin it there sounds an undertone. The very refusal to be afraid glances\nsideways at outstanding causes for fear. The very names of Jehovah as\n\"Light, Salvation,\" \"the Stronghold of my life,\" imply darkness, danger,\nand besetting foes. The resolve to keep alight the fire of courage and\nconfidence in the face of encamping foes and rising wars is much too\nenergetic to be mere hypothetical courage. The hopes of safety in\nJehovah's tent, of a firm standing on a rock, and of the head being\nlifted above surrounding foes are not the hopes of a man at ease, but of\none threatened on all sides, and triumphant only because he clasps\nJehovah's hand. The first words of the psalm carry it all in germ. By a\nnoble dead-lift of confidence, the singer turns from foes and fears to\nstay himself on Jehovah, his light and salvation, and then, in the\nstrength of that assurance, bids back his rising fears to their dens. \"I\nwill trust, and not be afraid,\" confesses the presence of fear, and,\nlike our psalm, unveils the only reasonable counteraction of it in the\ncontemplation of what God is. There is much to fear unless He is our\nlight, and they who will not begin with the psalmist's confidence have\nno right to repeat his courage.\n\nTo a devout man the past is eloquent with reasons for confidence, and\nin ver. 2 the psalm points to a past fact. The stumbling and falling\nof former foes, who came open-mouthed at him, is not a hypothetical\ncase, but a bit of autobiography, which lives to nourish present\nconfidence. It is worth notice that the language employed has\nremarkable correspondence with that used in the story of David's fight\nwith Goliath. There the same word as here is twice employed to\ndescribe the Philistine's advance (1 Sam. xvii. 41, 48). Goliath's\nvaunt, \"I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the\nbeasts of the field,\" may have supplied the mould for the expression\nhere, and the fall of the giant, with his face to the earth and the\nsmooth stone in his brain, is narrated with the same word as occurs in\nthe psalm. It might well be that when David was a fugitive before Saul\nthe remembrance of his victory over Goliath should have cheered him,\njust as that of his earlier prowess against bear and lion heartened\nhim to face the Philistine bully; and such recollections would be all\nthe more natural since jealousy of the fame that came to him from that\nfeat had set the first light to Saul's hatred. Ver. 3 is not to be\nleft swinging _in vacuo_, a cheap vow of courage in hypothetical\ndanger. The supposed case is actual fact, and the expressions of trust\nare not only assertions for the future, but statements of the present\ntemper of the psalmist: \"I _do_ not fear; I _am_ confident.\"\n\nThe confidence of ver. 3 is rested not only on Jehovah's past acts,\nbut on the psalmist's past and present set of soul towards Him. That\nseems to be the connecting link between vv. 1-3 and 4-6. Such desire,\nthe psalmist is sure, cannot but be answered, and in the answer all\nsafety is included. The purest longing after God, as the deepest,\nmost fixed yearning of a heart, was never more nobly expressed.\nClearly the terms forbid the limitation of meaning to mere external\npresence in a material sanctuary. \"All the days of my life\" points to\na continuance inward and capable of accomplishment, wherever the body\nmay be. The exclusiveness and continuity of the longing, as well as\nthe gaze on God which is its true object, are incapable of the lower\nmeaning, while, no doubt, the externals of worship supply the mould\ninto which these longings are poured. But what the psalmist wants is\nwhat the devout soul in all ages and stages has wanted: the abiding\nconsciousness of the Divine presence; and the prime good which makes\nthat presence so infinitely and exclusively desirable to him is the\ngood which draws all such souls in yearning, namely the vision of God.\nThe lifelong persistence and exclusiveness of the desire are such as\nall must cherish if they are to receive its fruition. Blessed are they\nwho are delivered from the misery of multiplied and transient aims\nwhich break life into fragments by steadfastly and continually\nfollowing one great desire, which binds all the days each to each, and\nin its single simplicity encloses and hallows and unifies the else\ndistracting manifoldness! That life is filled with light, however it\nmay be ringed round with darkness, which has the perpetual vision of\nGod, who is its light. Very beautifully does the psalm describe the\noccupation of God's guest as \"gazing upon the pleasantness of\nJehovah.\" In that expression the construction of the verb with a\npreposition implies a steadfast and penetrating contemplation, and the\nword rendered \"beauty\" or \"pleasantness\" may mean \"friendliness,\" but\nis perhaps better taken in a more general meaning, as equivalent to\nthe whole gathered delightsomeness of the Divine character, the\nsupremely fair and sweet. \"To inquire\" may be rendered \"to consider\";\nbut the rendering \"meditate [or contemplate] in\" is better, as the\npalace would scarcely be a worthy object of consideration; and it is\nnatural that the gaze on the goodness of Jehovah should be followed by\nloving meditation on what that earnest look had seen. The two acts\ncomplete the joyful employment of a soul communing with God: first\nperceiving and then reflecting upon His uncreated beauty of goodness.\n\nSuch intimacy of communion brings security from external dangers. The\nguest has a claim for protection. And that is a subsidiary reason for\nthe psalmist's desire as well as a ground of his confidence. Therefore\nthe assurance of ver. 5 follows the longing of ver. 4. \"A pavilion,\"\nas the Hebrew text reads, has been needlessly corrected in the margin\ninto \"His pavilion\" (A.V.). \"It is not God's dwelling, as the\nfollowing 'tent' is, but a booth ... as an image of protection from\nheat and inclemency of weather (Isa. iv. 6)\" (Hupfeld). God's dwelling\nis a \"tent,\" where He will shelter His guests. The privilege of asylum\nis theirs. Then, with a swift change of figure, the psalmist expresses\nthe same idea of security by elevation on a rock, possibly conceiving\nthe tent as pitched there. The reality of all is that communion with\nGod secures from perils and enemies, an eternal truth, if the true\nmeaning of security is grasped. Borne up by such thoughts, the singer\nfeels himself lifted clear above the reach of surrounding foes, and,\nwith the triumphant \"now\" of ver. 6, stretches out his hand to bring\nfuture deliverance into the midst of present distress. Faith can blend\nthe seasons, and transport June and its roses into December's snows.\nDeliverance suggests thankfulness to a true heart, and its\nanticipation calls out prophetic \"songs in the night.\"\n\nBut the very brightness of the prospect recalls the stern reality of\npresent need, and the firmest faith cannot keep on the wing\ncontinually. In the first part of the psalm it sings and soars; in the\nsecond the note is less jubilant, and it sings and sinks; but in both\nit is faith. Prayer for deliverance is as really the voice of faith as\ntriumph in the assurance of deliverance is, and he who sees his foes\nand yet \"believes to see the goodness of Jehovah\" is not far below him\nwho gazes only on the beauty of the Lord. There is a parallelism\nbetween the two halves of the psalm worth noting. In the former part\nthe psalmist's confidence reposed on the two facts of past deliverance\nand of his past and continuous \"seeking after\" the one good; in the\nsecond his prayers repose on the same two grounds, which occur in\ninverted order. \"That will I seek after\" (ver. 4), is echoed by \"Thy\nface will I seek\" (ver. 8). To seek the face is the same substantially\nas to desire to \"gaze on the pleasantness of Jehovah.\" The past\nexperience of the fall of foes (ver. 2) is repeated in \"Thou hast been\nmy help.\" On these two pleas the prayer in which faith speaks itself\nfounds. The former is urged in vv. 8 and 9 with some harshness of\nconstruction, which is smoothed over, rightly as regards meaning, in\nthe A.V. and R.V. But the very brokenness of the sentence adds to the\nearnestness of the prayer: \"To Thee my heart has said, Seek ye my\nface; Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek.\" The answering heart repeats the\ninvitation which gave it courage to seek before it responds with its\nresolve. The insertion of some such phrase as \"in answer to Thy word\"\nbefore \"seek ye\" helps the sense in a translation, but mars the\nvigour of the original. The invitation is not quoted from any\nScripture, but is the summary of the meaning of all God's\nself-revelation. He is ever saying, \"Seek ye my face.\" Therefore He\ncannot but show it to a man who takes Him at His word and pleads that\nword as the warrant for his petition. \"I have never said to the seed\nof Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain.\" The consistency of the Divine\ncharacter ensures His satisfying the desires which He has implanted.\nHe will neither stultify Himself nor tantalise men by setting them on\nquests which end in disappointment. In a similar manner, the psalm\nurges the familiar argument from God's past, which reposes on the\nconfidence of unalterable grace and inexhaustible resources. The\npsalmist had no cold abstract doctrine of immutability as a Divine\nattribute. His conception was intensely practical. Since God has\nhelped in the past, He will help in the future, because He is God, and\nbecause He is \"the God of my salvation.\" He cannot reverse His action\nnor stay His hand until His dealings with His servants have vindicated\nthat name by completing the process to which it binds Him.\n\nThe prayer \"Forsake me not\" is based upon a remarkable ground in ver.\n10: \"For my father and my mother have forsaken me.\" That seems a\nsingular plea for a mature man, who has a considerably varied\nexperience of life behind him, to urge. It is generally explained as a\nproverbial expression, meaning no more than the frequent complaints in\nthe Psalter of desertion by friends and lovers. Cheyne (Commentary in\nloc.) sees in it a clear indication that the speaker is the afflicted\nnation, comparing itself to a sobbing child deserted by its parents.\nBut it is at least noteworthy that, when David was hard pressed at\nAdullam, he bestowed his father and mother for safety with the king of\nMoab (1 Sam. xxi. 3, 4). It is objected that this was not their\n\"forsaking\" him, but it was, at least, their \"leaving\" him, and might\nwell add an imaginative pang as well as a real loss to the fugitive.\nSo specific a statement as that of the psalm can scarcely be weakened\ndown into proverb or metaphor. The allusion may be undiscoverable, but\nthe words sound uncommonly like the assertion of a fact, and the fact\nreferred to is the only known one which in any degree fits them.\n\nThe general petitions of vv. 7-10 become more specific as the song\nnears its close. As in Psalm xxv., guidance and protection are the\npsalmist's needs now. The analogy of other psalms suggests an ethical\nmeaning for \"the plain path\" of ver. 11; and that signification,\nrather than that of a safe road, is to be preferred, for the sake of\npreserving a difference between this and the following prayer for\ndeliverance. The figures of his enemies stand out more threateningly\nthan before (ver. 12). Is that all his gain from his prayer? Is it not\na faint-hearted descent from ver. 6, where, from the height of his\nDivine security, he looked down on them far below, and unable to reach\nhim? Now they have \"risen up,\" and he has dropped down among them. But\nsuch changes of mood are not inconsistent with unchanged faith, if\nonly the gaze which discerns the precipice at either side is not\nturned away from the goal ahead and above, nor from Him who holds up\nHis servant. The effect of that clearer sight of the enemies is very\nbeautifully given in the abrupt half-sentence of ver. 13: \"If I had\nnot believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the\nliving!\" As he thinks of his foes, he breaks into an exclamation,\nwhich he leaves unfinished. The omission is easy to supply. He would\nhave been their victim but for his faith. The broken words tell of his\nrecoil from the terrible possibility forced on him by the sight of the\nformidable enemies. Well for us if we are but driven the closer to\nGod, in conscious helplessness, by the sight of dangers and\nantagonisms! Faith does not falter, though it is keenly conscious of\ndifficulties. It is not preserved by ignoring facts, but should be by\nthem impelled to clasp God more firmly as its only safety.\n\nSo the psalm goes back to the major key at last, and in the closing\nverse prayer passes into self-encouragement. The heart that spoke to\nGod now speaks to itself. Faith exhorts sense and soul to \"wait on\nJehovah.\" The self-communing of the psalmist, beginning with exultant\nconfidence and merging into prayer thrilled with consciousness of need\nand of weakness, closes with bracing him up to courage, which is not\npresumption, because it is the fruit of waiting on the Lord. He who\nthus keeps his heart in touch with God will be able to obey the\nancient command, which had rung so long before in the ears of Joshua\nin the plains of Jericho and is never out of date, \"Be strong and of a\ngood courage\"; and none but those who wait on the Lord will be at once\nconscious of weakness and filled with strength, aware of the foes and\nbold to meet them.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXVIII.\n\n 1 Unto Thee, Jehovah, I cry;\n My Rock, be not deaf to me,\n Lest Thou be silent to me,\n And I become as those who go down to the pit.\n 2 Hear the voice of my supplications in my crying to Thee for help,\n In my lifting my hands to Thy holy shrine.\n\n 3 Drag me not away with wicked men, and with workers of iniquity,\n Speaking peace with their neighbours,\n And evil is in their hearts.\n 4 Give them according to their doings and according to the evil of\n their deeds;\n According to the work of their hands give them;\n Return their desert to them.\n 5 For they pay no heed to the doings of Jehovah\n Nor to the work of His hands;\n He shall cast them down, and not build them up.\n\n 6 Blessed be Jehovah\n For He has heard the voice of my supplications.\n 7 Jehovah is my fortress and my shield;\n In Him has my heart trusted, and I am helped;\n So my heart leaps [for joy], and by my song will I praise Him.\n\n 8 Jehovah is their strength (or the strength of His people),\n And a fortress of salvation for His anointed is He.\n 9 Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance\n And shepherd them, and carry them even for evermore.\n\n\nThe unquestionable resemblances to Psalm xxvi. scarcely require that\nthis should be considered its companion. The differences are as obvious\nas the likenesses. While the prayer \"Draw me not away with the wicked\"\nand the characterisation of these are alike in both, the further\nemphatic prayer for retribution here and the closing half of this psalm\nhave nothing corresponding to them in the other. This psalm is built on\nthe familiar plan of groups of two verses each, with the exception that\nthe prayer, which is its centre, runs over into three. The course of\nthought is as familiar as the structure. Invocation is followed by\npetition, and that by exultant anticipation of the answer as already\ngiven; and all closes with wider petitions for the whole people.\n\nVv. 1, 2, are a prelude to the prayer proper, bespeaking the Divine\nacceptance of it, on the double ground of the psalmist's helplessness\napart from God's help and of his outstretched hands appealing to God\nenthroned above the mercy-seat. He is in such straits that, unless his\nprayer brings an answer in act, he must sink into the pit of Sheol,\nand be made like those that lie huddled there in its darkness. On the\nedge of the slippery slope, he stretches out his hands toward the\ninnermost sanctuary (for so the word rendered, by a mistaken\netymology, \"oracle\" means). He beseeches God to hear, and blends the\ntwo figures of deafness and silence as both meaning the withholding of\nhelp. Jehovah seems deaf when prayer is unanswered, and is silent when\nHe does not speak in deliverance. This prelude of invocation throbs\nwith earnestness, and sets the pattern for suppliants, teaching them\nhow to quicken their own desires as well as how to appeal to God by\nbreathing to Him their consciousness that only His hand can keep them\nfrom sliding down into death.\n\nThe prayer itself (vv. 3-5) touches lightly on the petition that the\npsalmist may be delivered from the fate of the wicked, and then launches\nout into indignant description of their practices and solemn invocation\nof retribution upon them. \"Drag away\" is parallel with, but stronger\nthan, \"Gather not\" in xxvi. 9. Commentators quote Job xxiv. 22, where\nthe word is used of God's dragging the mighty out of life by His power,\nas a struggling criminal is haled to the scaffold. The shuddering recoil\nfrom the fate of the wicked is accompanied with vehement loathing of\ntheir practices. A man who keeps his heart in touch with God cannot but\nshrink, as from a pestilence, from complicity with evil, and the depth\nof his hearty hatred of it is the measure of his right to ask that he\nmay not share in the ruin it must bring, since God is righteous. One\ntype of evil-doers is the object of the psalmist's special abhorrence:\nfalse friends with smooth tongues and daggers in their sleeves, the\n\"dissemblers\" of Psalm xxvi.; but he passes to the more general\ncharacterisation of the class, in his terrible prayer for retribution,\nin vv. 4, 5. The sin of sins, from which all specific acts of evil flow,\nis blindness to God's \"deeds\" and to \"the work of His hands,\" His acts\nboth of mercy and of judgment. Practical atheism, the indifference which\nlooks upon nature, history, and self, and sees no signs of a mighty hand\ntender, pure, and strong, ever active in them all, will surely lead the\npurblind \"Agnostics\" to do \"works of their hands\" which, for lack of\nreference to Him, fail to conform to the highest ideal and draw down\nrighteous judgment. But the blindness to God's work here meant is that\nof an averted will rather than that of mistaken understanding, and from\nthe stem of such a thorn the grapes of holy living cannot be gathered.\nTherefore the psalmist is but putting into words the necessary result of\nsuch lives when from suppliant he becomes prophet, and declares that \"He\nshall cast them down, and not build them up.\" The stern tone of this\nprayer marks it as belonging to the older type of religion, and its\ndissimilarity to the New Testament teaching is not to be slurred over.\nNo doubt the element of personal enmity is all but absent, but it is not\nthe prayer which those who have heard \"Father, forgive them,\" are to\ncopy. Yet, on the other hand, the wholesome abhorrence of evil, the\nsolemn certitude that sin is death, the desire that it may cease from\nthe world, and the lowly petition that it may not drag us into fatal\nassociations are all to be preserved in Christian feeling, while\nsoftened by the light that falls from Calvary.\n\nAs in many psalms, the faith which prays passes at once into the faith\nwhich possesses. This man, when he \"stood praying, believed that he\nhad what he asked,\" and, so believing, had it. There was no change in\ncircumstances, but he was changed. There is no fear of going down into\nthe pit now, and the rabble of evil-doers have disappeared. This is\nthe blessing which every true suppliant may bear away from the throne,\nthe peace which passeth understanding, the sure pledge of the Divine\nact which answers prayer. It is the first gentle ripple of the\nincoming tide; high water is sure to come at the due hour. So the\npsalmist is exuberant and happily tautological in telling how his\ntrusting heart has become a leaping heart, and help has been flashed\nback from heaven as swiftly as his prayer had travelled thither.\n\nThe closing strophe (vv. 8, 9) is but loosely connected with the body of\nthe psalm except on one supposition. What if the singer were king over\nIsrael, and if the dangers threatening him were public perils? That\nwould explain the else singular attachment of intercession for Israel to\nso intensely personal a supplication. It is most natural that God's\n\"anointed,\" who has been asking deliverance for himself, should widen\nhis petitions to take in that flock of which he was but the\nunder-shepherd, and should devolve the shepherding and carrying of it on\nthe Divine Shepherd-King, of whom he was the shadowy representative. The\naddition of one letter changes \"their\" in ver. 8 into \"to His people,\" a\nreading which has the support of the LXX. and of some manuscripts and\nversions and is recommended by its congruity with the context. Cheyne's\nsuggestion that \"His anointed\" is the high-priest is only conjecture.\nThe reference of the expression to the king who is also the psalmist\npreserves the unity of the psalm. The Christian reader cannot but think\nof the true King and Intercessor, whose great prayer before His passion\nbegan, like our psalm, with petitions for Himself, but passed into\nsupplication for His little flock and for all the unnumbered millions\n\"who should believe on\" Him \"through their word.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXIX.\n\n 1 Give to Jehovah, ye sons of God,\n Give to Jehovah glory and strength.\n 2 Give to Jehovah the glory of His name;\n Bow down to Jehovah in holy attire.\n\n 3 The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters;\n The God of glory thunders;\n Jehovah is on many waters.\n 4 The voice of Jehovah is with power;\n The voice of Jehovah is with majesty.\n\n 5 The voice of Jehovah shivers the cedars;\n Yea, Jehovah shivers the cedars of Lebanon,\n 6 And makes them leap like a calf,\n Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.\n 7 The voice of Jehovah hews out flames of fire.\n\n 8 The voice of Jehovah shakes the wilderness;\n Jehovah shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.\n 9 The voice of Jehovah makes the hinds calve, and strips the woods:\n And in His palace every one is saying, Glory!\n\n 10 Jehovah sat enthroned for the Flood;\n And Jehovah sits King for ever.\n 11 Jehovah will give strength to His people;\n Jehovah will bless His people with peace.\n\n\nThe core of this psalm is the magnificent description of the\nthunderstorm rolling over the whole length of the land. That picture\nis framed by two verses of introduction and two of conclusion, which\nare connected, inasmuch as the one deals with the \"glory to God in the\nhighest\" which is the echo of the tempest in angels' praises, and the\nother with the \"peace on earth\" in which its thunders die away.\n\nThe invocation in vv. 1, 2, is addressed to angels, whatever may be\nthe exact rendering of the remarkable title by which they are summoned\nin ver. 1. It is all but unique, and the only other instance of its\nuse (Psalm lxxxix. 6) establishes its meaning, since \"holy ones\" is\nthere given as synonymous in the verses preceding and following. The\nmost probable explanation of the peculiar phrase (B'ne Elim) is that\nof Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, and Riehm in his edition of Hupfeld's\nCommentary: that it is a double plural, both members of the compound\nphrase being inflected. Similarly \"mighty men of valour\" (1 Chron.\nvii. 5) has the second noun in the plural. This seems more probable\nthan the rendering \"sons of the gods.\" The psalmist summons these\nlofty beings to \"give\" glory and strength to Jehovah, that is, to\nascribe to Him the attributes manifested in His acts, or, as ver. 2\nputs it, \"the glory of His name,\" _i.e._, belonging to His character\nas thus revealed. The worship of earth is regarded as a type of that\nof heaven, and as here, so there, they who bow before Him are to be\nclothed in \"holy attire.\" The thought underlying this ringing summons\nis that even angels learn the character of God from the exhibitions of\nHis power in the Creation, and as they sang together for joy at first,\nstill attend its manifestations with adoration. The contrast of their\npraise with the tumult and terror on earth, while the thunder growls\nin the sky, is surely not unintended. It suggests the different\naspects of God's dread deeds as seen by them and by men, and carries a\ntacit lesson true of all calamities and convulsions. The thunder-cloud\nhangs boding in its piled blue blackness to those who from beneath\nwatch the slow crumbling away of its torn edges and the ominous\nmovements in its sullen heart or hear the crashes from its depths,\nbut, seen from above, it is transfigured by the light that falls on\nits upper surface; and it stretches placid before the throne, like the\nsea of glass mingled with fire. Whatever may be earth's terror,\nheaven's echo of God's thunders is praise.\n\nThen the storm bursts. We can hear it rolling in the short periods,\nmostly uniform in structure and grouped in verses of two clauses each,\nthe second of which echoes the first, like the long-drawn roll that\npauses, slackens, and yet persists. Seven times \"the voice of Jehovah\"\nis heard, like the apocalyptic \"seven thunders before the throne.\" The\npoet's eye travels with the swift tempest, and his picture is full of\nmotion, sweeping from the waters above the firmament to earth and from\nthe northern boundary of the land to the far south. First we hear the\nmutterings in the sky (ver. 3). If we understood \"the waters\" as\nmeaning the Mediterranean, we should have the picture of the storm\nworking up from the sea; but it is better to take the expression as\nreferring to the super-terrestrial reservoirs or the rain flood stored\nin the thunder-clouds. Up there the peals roll before their fury\nshakes the earth. It was not enough in the poet's mind to call the\nthunder the voice of Jehovah, but it must be brought into still closer\nconnection with Him by the plain statement that it is He who\n\"thunders\" and who rides on the storm-clouds as they hurry across the\nsky. To catch tones of a Divine voice, full of power and majesty, in a\nnoise so entirely explicable as a thunderclap, is, no doubt,\nunscientific; but the Hebrew contemplation of nature is occupied with\nanother set of ideas than scientific, and is entirely unaffected by\nthese. The psalmist had no notion of the physical cause of thunder,\nbut there is no reason why a man who can make as much electricity as\nhe wants by the grinding of a dynamo and then use it to carry his\ntrivial messages should not repeat the psalmist's devout assertion. We\ncan assimilate all that physicists can tell us, and then, passing into\nanother region, can hear Jehovah speaking in thunder. The psalm begins\nwhere science leaves off.\n\nWhile the psalmist speaks the swift tempest has come down with a roar\nand a crash on the northern mountains, and Lebanon and \"Sirion\" (a\nSidonian name for Hermon) reel, and the firm-boled, stately cedars are\nshivered. The structure of the verses already noticed, in which the\nsecond clause reduplicates, with some specialising, the thought of the\nfirst, makes it probable that in ver. 6 _a_ the mountains, and not the\ncedars, are meant by them. The trees are broken; the mountains shake.\nAn emendation has been proposed, by which \"Lebanon\" should be\ntransferred from ver. 5 to ver. 6 and substituted for \"them\" so as to\nbring out this meaning more smoothly, but the roughness of putting the\npronoun in the first clause and the nouns to which it refers in the\nsecond is not so considerable as to require the change. The image of\nthe mountains \"skipping\" sounds exaggerated to Western ears, but is\nnot infrequent in Scripture, and in the present instance is simply a\nstrong way of expressing the violence of the storm, which seems even\nto shake the steadfast mountains that keep guard over the furthest\nborders of the land. Nor are we to forget that here there may be some\nhint of a parable in nature. The heights are thunder-smitten; the\nvalleys are safe. \"The day of the Lord shall be upon all the cedars of\nLebanon that are high and lifted up, ... and upon all the high\nmountains\" (Isa. ii. 13, 14).\n\nThe two-claused verses are interrupted by one of a single clause (ver.\n7), the brevity of which vividly suggests the suddenness and speed of\nthe flash: \"The voice of Jehovah cleaves [or, hews out] fire flames.\"\nThe thunder is conceived of as the principal phenomenon and as creating\nthe lightning, as if it hewed out the flash from the dark mass of cloud.\nA corrected accentuation of this short verse divides it into three\nparts, perhaps representing the triple zigzag; but in any case the one\nsolitary, sudden fork, blazing fiercely for a moment and then swallowed\nup in the gloom, is marvellously given. It is further to be noted that\nthis single lightning gleam parts the description of the storm into two,\nthe former part painting it as in the north, the latter as in the\nextreme south. It has swept over the whole length of the land, while we\nhave been watching the flash. Now it is rolling over the wide plain of\nthe southern desert. The precise position of Kadesh is keenly debated,\nbut it was certainly in the eastern part of the desert region on the\nsouthern border. It, too, shakes, low-lying as it is; and far and wide\nover its uninhabited levels the tempest ranges. Its effects there are\nvariously understood. The parallelism of clauses and the fact that\nnowhere else in the picture is animal life introduced give great\nprobability to the very slight alteration required in ver. 9 _a_, in\norder to yield the rendering \"pierces the oaks\" (Cheyne), instead of\n\"makes the hinds calve\" which harmonises admirably with the next clause;\nbut, on the other hand, the premature dropping of the young of wild\nanimals from fear is said to be an authentic fact, and gives a\ndefensible trait to the picture, which is perhaps none the less striking\nfor the introduction of one small piece of animated nature. In any case\nthe next clause paints the dishevelled forest trees, with scarred bark,\nbroken boughs, and strewn leaves, after the fierce roar and flash, wind\nand rain, have swept over them. The southern border must have been very\nunlike its present self, or the poet's thoughts must have travelled\neastwards, among the oaks on the other side of the Arabah, if the local\ncolouring of ver. 9 is correct.\n\nWhile tumult of storm and crash of thunder have been raging and\nrolling below, the singer hears \"a deeper voice across the storm,\" the\nsongs of the \"sons of God\" in the temple palace above, chanting the\npraise to which he had summoned them. \"In His temple every one is\nsaying, Glory!\" That is the issue of all storms. The clear eyes of the\nangels see, and their \"loud uplifted trumpets\" celebrate, the lustrous\nself-manifestation of Jehovah, who rides upon the storm, and makes the\nrush of the thunder minister to the fruitfulness of earth.\n\nBut what of the effects down here? The concluding strophe (vv. 10, 11)\ntells. Its general sense is clear, though the first clause of ver. 10\nis ambiguous. The source of the difficulty in rendering is twofold.\nThe preposition may mean \"for\"--_i.e._, in order to bring about--or,\naccording to some, \"on,\" or \"above,\" or \"at.\" The word rendered\n\"flood\" is only used elsewhere in reference to the Noachic deluge, and\nhere has the definite article, which is most naturally explained as\nfixing the reference to that event; but it has been objected that the\nallusion would be far-fetched and out of place, and therefore the\nrendering \"rain-storm\" has been suggested. In the absence of any\ninstance of the word's being used for anything but the Deluge, it is\nsafest to retain that meaning here. There must, however, be combined\nwith that rendering an allusion to the torrents of thunder rain,\nwhich closed the thunderstorm. These could scarcely be omitted. They\nremind the singer of the downpour that drowned the world, and his\nthought is that just as Jehovah \"sat\"--_i.e._, solemnly took His place\nas King and Judge--in order to execute that act of retribution, so, in\nall subsequent smaller acts of an analogous nature, He \"will sit\nenthroned for ever.\" The supremacy of Jehovah over all transient\ntempests and the judicial punitive nature of these are the thoughts\nwhich the storm has left with him. It has rolled away; God, who sent\nit, remains throned above nature and floods: they are His ministers.\n\nAnd all ends with a sweet, calm word, assuring Jehovah's people of a\nshare in the \"strength\" which spoke in the thunder, and, better still,\nof peace. That close is like the brightness of the glistening earth,\nwith freshened air, and birds venturing to sing once more, and a sky\nof deeper blue, and the spent clouds low and harmless on the horizon.\nBeethoven has given the same contrast between storm and after-calm in\nthe music of the Pastoral Symphony. Faith can listen to the wildest\ncrashing thunder in quiet confidence that angels are saying, \"Glory!\"\nas each peal rolls, and that when the last, low mutterings are hushed,\nearth will smile the brighter, and deeper peace will fall on trusting\nhearts.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXX.\n\n 1 Thee will I exalt, Jehovah, for me hast Thou lifted up,\n And not made my foes rejoice over me.\n 2 Jehovah, my God,\n I cried loudly to Thee, and Thou healedst me.\n 3 Jehovah, Thou hast brought up from Sheol my soul;\n Thou hast revived me from among those who descend to the pit.\n\n 4 Make music to Jehovah, ye who are favoured by Him;\n And thank His holy Name.\n 5 For a moment passes in His anger,\n A life in His favour;\n In the evening comes weeping as a guest,\n And at morn [there is] a shout of joy.\n\n 6 But I--I said in my security,\n I shall not be moved for ever.\n 7 Jehovah, by Thy favour Thou hadst established strength to my\n mountain;\n Thou didst hide Thy face: I was troubled.\n\n 8 To Thee, Jehovah, I cried;\n And to the Lord I made supplication.\n 9 \"What profit is in my blood when I descend to the pit?\n Can dust thank Thee? can it declare Thy faithfulness?\n 10 Hear, Jehovah, and be gracious to me;\n Jehovah, be my Helper!\"\n\n 11 Thou didst turn for me my mourning to dancing;\n Thou didst unloose my sackcloth and gird me with gladness,\n 12 To the end that [my] glory should make music to Thee, and not be\n silent:\n Jehovah, my God, for ever will I thank Thee.\n\n\nThe title of this psalm is apparently a composite, the usual \"Psalm of\nDavid\" having been enlarged by the awkward insertion of \"A Song at the\nDedication of the House,\" which probably indicates its later\nliturgical use, and not its first destination. Its occasion was\nevidently a deliverance from grave peril; and, whilst its tone is\nstrikingly inappropriate if it had been composed for the inauguration\nof temple, tabernacle, or palace, one can understand how the venerable\nwords, which praised Jehovah for swift deliverance from impending\ndestruction, would be felt to fit the circumstances and emotions of\nthe time when the Temple, profaned by the mad acts of Antiochus\nEpiphanes, was purified and the ceremonial worship restored. Never had\nIsrael seemed nearer going down to the pit; never had deliverance come\nmore suddenly and completely. The intrusive title is best explained as\ndating from that time and indicating the use then found for the song.\n\nIt is an outpouring of thankfulness, and mainly a leaf from the\npsalmist's autobiography, interrupted only by a call to all who share\nJehovah's favour to help the single voice to praise Him (vv. 4, 5).\nThe familiar arrangement in pairs of verses is slightly broken twice,\nvv. 1-3 being linked together as a kind of prelude and vv. 8-10 as a\nrepetition of the singer's prayer. His praise breaks the barrier of\nsilence and rushes out in a flood. The very first word tells of his\nexuberant thankfulness, and stands in striking relation to God's act\nwhich evokes it. Jehovah has raised him from the very sides of the\npit, and therefore what shall he do but exalt Jehovah by praise and\ncommemoration of His deeds? The song runs over in varying expressions\nfor the one deliverance, which is designated as lifting up,\ndisappointment of the malignant joy of enemies, healing, rescue from\nSheol and the company who descend thither, by restoration to life.\nPossibly the prose fact was recovery from sickness, but the metaphor\nof healing is so frequent that the literal use of the word here is\nquestionable. As Calvin remarks, sackcloth (ver. 11) is not a sick\nman's garb. These glad repetitions of the one thought in various forms\nindicate how deeply moved the singer was, and how lovingly he brooded\nover his deliverance. A heart truly penetrated with thankfulness\ndelights to turn its blessings round and round, and see how prismatic\nlights play on their facets, as on revolving diamonds. The same warmth\nof feeling, which glows in the reiterated celebration of deliverance,\nimpels to the frequent direct mention of Jehovah. Each verse has that\nname set on it as a seal, and the central one of the three (ver. 2),\nnot content with it only, grasps Him as \"my God,\" manifested as such\nwith renewed and deepened tenderness by the recent fact that \"I cried\nloudly unto Thee, and Thou healedst me.\" The best result of God's\ngoodness is a firmer assurance of a personal relation to Him. \"This is\nan enclosure of a common without damage: to make God mine own, to find\nthat all that God says is spoken to me\" (Donne). The stress of these\nthree verses lies on the reiterated contemplation of God's fresh act\nof mercy and on the reiterated invocation of His name, which is not\nvain repetition, but represents distinct acts of consciousness,\ndrawing near to delight the soul in thoughts of Him. The psalmist's\nvow of praise and former cry for help could not be left out of view,\nsince the one was the condition and the other the issue of\ndeliverance, but they are slightly touched. Such claiming of God for\none's own and such absorbing gaze on Him are the intended results of\nHis deeds, the crown of devotion, and the repose of the soul.\n\nTrue thankfulness is expansive, and joy craves for sympathy. So the\npsalmist invites other voices to join his song, since he is sure that\nothers there are who have shared his experience. It has been but one\ninstance of a universal law. He is not the only one whom Jehovah has\ntreated with loving-kindness, and he would fain hear a chorus\nsupporting his solo. Therefore he calls upon \"the favoured of God\" to\nswell the praise with harp and voice and to give thanks to His \"holy\nmemorial,\" _i.e._ the name by which His deeds of grace are\ncommemorated. The ground of their praise is the psalmist's own case\ngeneralised. A tiny mirror may reflect the sun, and the humblest\nperson's history, devoutly pondered, will yield insight into God's\nwidest dealings. This, then, is what the psalmist had learned in\nsuffering, and wishes to teach in song: that sorrow is transient and\njoy perennial. A cheerful optimism should be the fruit of experience,\nand especially of sorrowful experience. The antitheses in ver. 5 are\nobvious. In the first part of the verse \"anger\" and \"favour\" are\nplainly contrasted, and it is natural to suppose that \"a moment\" and\n\"life\" are so too. The rendering, then, is, \"A moment passes in His\nanger, a life [_i.e._, a lifetime] in His favour.\" Sorrow is brief;\nblessings are long. Thunderstorms occupy but a small part of summer.\nThere is usually less sickness than health in a life. But memory and\nanticipation beat out sorrow thin, so as to cover a great space. A\nlittle solid matter, diffused by currents, will discolour miles of a\nstream. Unfortunately we have better memories for trouble than for\nblessing, and the smart of the rose's prickles lasts longer in the\nflesh than its fragrance in the nostril or its hue in the eye. But the\nrelation of ideas here is not merely that of contrast. May we not say\nthat just as the \"moment\" is included in the \"life,\" so the \"anger\" is\nin the \"favour\"? Probably that application of the thought was not\npresent to the psalmist, but it is an Old Testament belief that \"whom\nthe Lord loveth He chasteneth,\" and God's anger is the aversion of\nholy love to its moral opposite. Hence comes the truth that varying\nand sometimes opposite Divine methods have one motive and one purpose,\nas the same motion of the earth brings summer and winter in turn.\nSince the desire of God is to make men partakers of His holiness, the\nroot of chastisement is love, and hours of sorrow are not\ninterruptions of the continuous favour which fills the life.\n\nA like double antithesis moulds the beautiful image of the last clause.\nNight and morning are contrasted, as are weeping and joy; and the latter\ncontrast is more striking, if it be observed that \"joy\" is literally a\n\"joyful shout,\" raised by the voice that had been breaking into audible\nweeping. The verb used means to lodge for a night, and thus the whole is\na picture of two guests, the one coming, sombre-robed, in the hour\nbefitting her, the other, bright-garmented, taking the place of the\nformer, when all things are dewy and sunny, in the morning. The thought\nmay either be that of the substitution of joy for sorrow, or of the\ntransformation of sorrow into joy. No grief lasts in its first\nbitterness. Recuperative forces begin to tell by slow degrees. \"The low\nbeginnings of content\" appear. The sharpest-cutting edge is partially\nblunted by time and what it brings. Tender green drapes every ruin.\nSorrow is transformed into something not undeserving of the name of joy.\nGriefs accepted change their nature. \"Your sorrow shall be turned into\njoy.\" The man who in the darkness took in the dark guest to sit by his\nfireside finds in the morning that she is transfigured, and her name is\nGladness. Rich vintages are gathered on the crumbling lava of the\nquiescent volcano. Even for irremediable losses and immedicable griefs,\nthe psalmist's prophecy is true, only that for these \"the morning\" is\nbeyond earth's dim dawns, and breaks when this night which we call life,\nand which is wearing thin, is past. In the level light of that sunrise,\nevery raindrop becomes a rainbow, and every sorrow rightly--that is,\nsubmissively--borne shall be represented by a special and particular\njoy.\n\nBut the thrilling sense of recent deliverance runs in too strong a\ncurrent to be long turned aside, even by the thought of others'\npraise; and the personal element recurs in ver. 6, and persists till\nthe close. This latter part falls into three well-marked minor\ndivisions: the confession of self-confidence, bred of ease and\nshattered by chastisement, in vv. 6, 7; the prayer of the man startled\ninto renewed dependence in vv. 8-10; and the closing reiterated\ncommemoration of mercies received and vow of thankful praise, which\nechoes the first part, in vv. 11, 12.\n\nIn ver. 6 the psalmist's foolish confidence is emphatically contrasted\nwith the truth won by experience and stated in ver. 5. \"The law of\nGod's dealings is so, but I--I thought so and so.\" The word rendered\n\"prosperity\" may be taken as meaning also security. The passage from\nthe one idea to the other is easy, inasmuch as calm days lull men to\nsleep, and make it hard to believe that \"to-morrow shall\" not \"be as\nthis day.\" Even devout hearts are apt to count upon the continuance of\npresent good. \"Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not\nGod.\" The bottom of the crater of Vesuvius had once great trees\ngrowing, the produce of centuries of quiescence. It would be difficult\nto think, when looking at them, that they would ever be torn up and\nwhirled aloft in flame by a new outburst. While continual peril and\nchange may not foster remembrance of God, continuous peace is but too\napt to lull to forgetfulness of Him. The psalmist was beguiled by\ncomfort into saying precisely what \"the wicked said in his heart\"\n(Psalm x. 6). How different may be the meaning of the same words on\ndifferent lips! The mad arrogance of the godless man's confidence, the\nerror of the good man rocked to sleep by prosperity, and the warranted\nconfidence of a trustful soul are all expressed by the same words; but\nthe last has an addition which changes the whole: \"_Because He is at\nmy right hand_, I shall not be moved.\" The end of the first man's\nboast can only be destruction; that of the third's faith will\ncertainly be \"pleasures for evermore\"; that of the second's lapse from\ndependence is recorded in ver. 7. The sudden crash of his false\nsecurity is graphically reproduced by the abrupt clauses without\nconnecting particles. It was the \"favour\" already celebrated which\ngave the stability which had been abused. Its effect is described in\nterms of which the general meaning is clear, though the exact\nrendering is doubtful. \"Thou hast [or hadst] established strength to\nmy mountain\" is harsh, and the proposed emendation (Hupfeld, Cheyne,\netc.), \"hast set me on strong mountains,\" requires the addition to the\ntext of the pronoun. In either case, we have a natural metaphor for\nprosperity. The emphasis lies on the recognition that it was God's\nwork, a truth which the psalmist had forgotten and had to be taught by\nthe sudden withdrawal of God's countenance, on which followed his own\nimmediate passage from careless security to agitation and alarm. The\nword \"troubled\" is that used for Saul's conflicting emotions and\ndespair in the witch's house at Endor, and for the agitation of\nJoseph's brethren when they heard that the man who had their lives in\nhis hand was their wronged brother. Thus alarmed and filled with\ndistracting thoughts was the psalmist. \"Thou didst hide Thy face,\"\ndescribes his calamities in their source. When the sun goes in, an\nimmediate gloom wraps the land, and the birds cease to sing. But the\n\"trouble\" was preferable to \"security,\" for it drove to God. Any\ntempest which does that is better than calm which beguiles from Him;\nand, since all His storms are meant to \"drive us to His breast,\" they\ncome from His \"favour.\"\n\nThe approach to God is told in vv. 8-10, of which the two latter are a\nquotation of the prayer then wrung from the psalmist. The ground of\nthis appeal for deliverance from a danger threatening life is as in\nHezekiah's prayer (Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19), and reflects the same\nconception of the state of the dead as Psalm vi. 5. If the suppliant\ndies, his voice will be missed from the chorus which sings God's\npraise on earth. \"The dust\" (_i.e._, the grave) is a region of\nsilence. Here, where life yielded daily proofs of God's \"truth\"\n(_i.e._, faithfulness), it could be extolled, but there dumb tongues\ncould bring Him no \"profit\" of praise. The boldness of the thought\nthat God is in some sense advantaged by men's magnifying of His\nfaithfulness, the cheerless gaze into the dark realm, and the\nimplication that to live is desired not only for the sake of life's\njoys, but in order to show forth God's dealings, are all remarkable.\nThe tone of the prayer indicates the imperfect view of the future life\nwhich shadows many psalms, and could only be completed by the\nhistorical facts of the Resurrection and Ascension. Concern for the\nhonour of the Old Testament revelation may, in this matter, be\nstretched to invalidate the distinctive glory of the New, which has\n\"brought life and immortality to light.\"\n\nWith quick transition, corresponding to the swiftness of the answer to\nprayer, the closing pair of verses tells of the instantaneous change\nwhich that answer wrought. As in the earlier metaphor weeping was\ntransformed into joy, here mourning is turned into dancing, and God's\nhand unties the cord which loosely bound the sackcloth robe, and arrays\nthe mourner in festival attire. The same conception of the sweetness of\ngrateful praise to the ear of God which was presented in the prayer\nrecurs here, where the purpose of God's gifts is regarded as being man's\npraise. The thought may be construed so as to be repulsive, but its true\nforce is to present God as desiring hearts' love and trust, and as\n\"seeking such to worship Him,\" because therein they will find supreme\nand abiding bliss. \"My glory,\" that wonderful personal being, which in\nits lowest debasement retains glimmering reflections caught from God, is\nnever so truly glory as when it \"sings praise to Thee,\" and never so\nblessed as when, through a longer \"for ever\" than the psalmist saw\nstretching before him, it \"gives thanks unto Thee.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXI.\n\n 1 In Thee, Jehovah, have I taken refuge: let me never be ashamed;\n In Thy righteousness deliver me.\n 2 Bend down Thine ear to me: speedily extricate me;\n Be to me for a refuge-rock, for a fortress-house, to save me.\n 3 For my rock and my fortress art Thou,\n And for Thy name's sake wilt guide me and lead me.\n 4 Thou wilt bring me from the net which they have hidden for me,\n For Thou art my defence.\n\n 5 Into Thy hand I commend my spirit;\n Thou hast redeemed me, Jehovah, God of faithfulness.\n 6 I hate the worshippers of empty nothingnesses;\n And I--to Jehovah do I cling.\n 7 I will exult and be joyful in Thy loving-kindness,\n Who hast beheld my affliction,\n [And] hast taken note of the distresses of my soul,\n 8 And hast not enclosed me in the hand of the enemy;\n Thou hast set my feet at large.\n\n 9 Be merciful to me, Jehovah, for I am in straits;\n Wasted away in grief is my eye,--my soul and my body.\n 10 For my life is consumed with sorrow,\n And my years with sighing;\n My strength reels because of mine iniquity,\n And my bones are wasted.\n 11 Because of all my adversaries I am become a reproach\n And to my neighbours exceedingly, and a fear to my acquaintances;\n They who see me without flee from me.\n 12 I am forgotten, out of mind, like a dead man;\n I am like a broken vessel.\n 13 For I hear the whispering of many,\n Terror on every side;\n In their consulting together against me,\n To take away my life do they scheme.\n 14 And I--on Thee I trust, Jehovah;\n I say, My God art Thou.\n 15 In Thy hand are my times;\n Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my pursuers.\n 16 Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant;\n Save me in Thy loving-kindness.\n 17 Jehovah, I shall not be shamed, for I cry to Thee;\n The wicked shall be shamed, shall be silent in Sheol.\n 18 Dumb shall the lying lips be made,\n That speak arrogance against the righteous,\n In pride and contempt.\n\n 19 How great is Thy goodness which Thou dost keep in secret for them\n who fear Thee,\n Dost work before the sons of men for them who take refuge in Thee.\n 20 Thou dost shelter them in the shelter of Thy face from the plots\n of men;\n Thou keepest them in secret in an arbour from the strife of\n tongues.\n 21 Blessed be Jehovah,\n For He has done marvels of loving-kindness for me in a strong\n city!\n 22 And I--I said in my agitation, I am cut off from before Thine\n eyes,\n But truly Thou didst hear the voice of my supplication in my\n crying aloud to Thee.\n 23 Love Jehovah, all His beloved;\n Jehovah keeps faithfulness,\n And repays overflowingly him that practises pride.\n 24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,\n All ye that wait on Jehovah.\n\n\nThe swift transitions of feeling in this psalm may seem strange to\ncolder natures whose lives run smoothly, but reveal a brother-soul to\nthose who have known what it is to ride on the top of the wave and then\nto go down into its trough. What is peculiar to the psalm is not only\nthe inclusion of the whole gamut of feeling, but the force with which\neach key is struck and the persistence through all of the one ground\ntone of cleaving to Jehovah. The poetic temperament passes quickly from\nhope to fear. The devout man in sorrow can sometimes look away from a\ndarkened earth to a bright sky, but the stern realities of pain and loss\nagain force themselves in upon him. The psalm is like an April day, in\nwhich sunshine and rain chase each other across the plain.\n\n \"The beautiful uncertain weather,\n Where gloom and glory meet together,\"\n\nmakes the landscape live, and is the precursor of fruitfulness.\n\nThe stream of the psalmist's thoughts now runs in shadow of grim\ncliffs and vexed by opposing rocks, and now opens out in sunny\nstretches of smoothness; but its source is \"In Thee, Jehovah, do I\ntake refuge\" (ver. 1): and its end is \"Be strong, and let your heart\ntake courage, all ye that wait for Jehovah\" (ver. 24).\n\nThe first turn of the stream is in vv. 1-4, which consist of petitions\nand their grounds. The prayers reveal the suppliant's state. They are\nthe familiar cries of an afflicted soul common to many psalms, and\npresenting no special features. The needs of the human heart are\nuniform, and the cry of distress is much alike on all lips. This\nsufferer asks, as his fellows have done and will do, for deliverance, a\nswift answer, shelter and defence, guidance and leading, escape from the\nnet spread for him. These are the commonplaces of prayer, which God is\nnot wearied of hearing, and which fit us all. The last place to look for\noriginality is in the \"sighing of such as be sorrowful.\" The pleas on\nwhich the petitions rest are also familiar. The man who trusts in\nJehovah has a right to expect that his trust will not be put to shame,\nsince God is faithful. Therefore the first plea is the psalmist's faith,\nexpressed in ver. 1 by the word which literally means to flee to a\nrefuge. The fact that he has done so makes his deliverance a work of\nGod's \"righteousness.\" The metaphor latent in \"flee for refuge\" comes\ninto full sight in that beautiful plea in ver. 3, which unsympathetic\ncritics would call illogical, \"_Be_ for me a refuge-rock, for ... Thou\n_art_ my rock.\" Be what Thou art; manifest Thyself in act to be what\nThou art in nature: be what I, Thy poor servant, have taken Thee to be.\nMy heart has clasped Thy revelation of Thyself and fled to this strong\ntower. Let me not be deceived and find it incapable of sheltering me\nfrom my foes. \"Therefore for Thy name's sake,\" or because of that\nrevelation and for its glory as true in men's sight, deliver me. God's\nnature as revealed is the strongest plea with Him, and surely that\ncannot but be potent and acceptable prayer which says, Be what Thou art,\nand what Thou hast taught me to believe Thee.\n\nVv. 5-8 prolong the tone of the preceding, with some difference,\ninasmuch as God's past acts are more specifically dwelt on as the\nground of confidence. In this turn of the stream, faith does not so\nmuch supplicate as meditate, plucking the flower of confidence from\nthe nettle of past dangers and deliverances, and renewing its acts of\nsurrender. The sacred words which Jesus made His own on the cross, and\nwhich have been the last utterance of so many saints, were meant by\nthe psalmist to apply to life, not to death. He laid his spirit as a\nprecious deposit in God's hand, assured that He was able to keep that\nwhich was committed to Him. Often had he done this before, and now he\ndoes it once more. Petitions pass into surrender. Resignation as well\nas confidence speaks. To lay one's life in God's hand is to leave the\ndisposal of it to Him, and such absolute submission must come as the\ncalm close and incipient reward of every cry for deliverance. Trust\nshould not be hard to those who can remember. So Jehovah's past\nredemptions--_i.e._, deliverances from temporal dangers--are its\nground here; and these avail as pledges for the future, since He is\n\"the God of truth,\" who can never falsify His past. The more\nnestlingly a soul clings to God, the more vehemently will it recoil\nfrom other trust. Attraction and repulsion are equal and contrary. The\nmore clearly it sees God's faithfulness and living power as a reality\noperating in its life, the more penetrating will be its detection of\nthe falseness of other helpers. \"Nothingnesses of emptiness\" are they\nall to one who has felt the clasp of that great, tender hand; and\nunless the soul feels them to be such, it will never strongly clutch\nor firmly hold its true stay. Such trust has its crown in joyful\nexperience of God's mercy even before the actual deliverance comes to\npass, as wind-borne fragrance meets the traveller before he sees the\nspice gardens from which it comes. The cohortative verbs in ver. 7 may\nbe petition (\"Let me exult\"), or they may be anticipation of future\ngladness, but in either case some waft of joy has already reached the\nsinger, as how could it fail to do, when his faith was thus renewing\nitself, and his eyes gazing on God's deeds of old? The past tenses in\nvv. 7, 8, refer to former experiences. God's sight of the psalmist's\naffliction was not idle contemplation, but implied active\nintervention. To \"take note of the distresses of my soul\" (or\npossibly, \"of my soul in distresses\") is the same as to care for it.\nIt is enough to know that God sees the secret sorrows, the obscure\ntrials which can be told to none. He loves as well as knows, and looks\non no griefs which He will not comfort nor on any wounds which He is\nnot ready to bind up. The psalmist was sure that God had seen, because\nhe had experienced His delivering power, as he goes on joyfully to\ntell. The figure in ver. 8 _a_ points back to the act of trust in ver.\n5. How should God let the hand of the enemy close round and crush the\nspirit which had been entrusted to His own hand? One sees the greedy\nfingers of the foe drawing themselves together on their prey as on a\nfly, but they close on nothing. Instead of suffering constraint the\ndelivered spirit walks at liberty. They who are enclosed in God's hand\nhave ample room there; and unhindered activity, with the ennobling\nconsciousness of freedom, is the reward of trust.\n\nIs it inconceivable that such sunny confidence should be suddenly\nclouded and followed, as in the third turn of thought (vv. 9-13), by\nplaintive absorption in the sad realities of present distress? The\nvery remembrance of a brighter past may have sharpened the sense of\npresent trouble. But it is to be noted that these complaints are\nprayer, not aimless, self-pitying wailing. The enumeration of miseries\nwhich begins with \"Have mercy upon me, for----,\" has a hidden hope\ntinging its darkness, like the faint flush of sunrise on clouds. There\nis no such violent change of tone as is sometimes conceived; but the\npleas of the former parts are continued in this section, which adds\nthe psalmist's sore need to God's past and the suppliant's faith, as\nanother reason for Jehovah's help. He begins with the effects of his\ntrouble on himself in body and soul; thence he passes to its\nconsequences on those around him, and finally he spreads before God\nits cause: plots against his life. The resemblances to Psalm vi. and\nto several parts of Jeremiah are unmistakable. In vv. 9, 10, the\nphysical and mental effects of anxiety are graphically described.\nSunken eyes, enfeebled soul, wasted body, are gaunt witnesses of his\ndistress. Cares seem to him to have gnawed his very bones, so weak is\nhe. All that he can do is to sigh. And worse than all, conscience\ntells him that his own sin underlies his trouble, and so he is without\ninward stay. The picture seems exaggerated to easy-going, prosperous\npeople; but many a sufferer has since recognised himself in it as in a\nmirror, and been thankful for words which gave voice to his pained\nheart and cheered him with the sense of companionship in the gloom.\n\nVv. 11, 12, are mainly the description of the often-repeated\nexperience of friends forsaking the troubled. \"Because of all my\nadversaries\" somewhat anticipates ver. 13 in assigning the reason for\nthe cowardly desertion. The three phrases \"neighbours,\"\n\"acquaintance,\" and \"those who see me without\" indicate concentric\ncircles of increasing diameter. The psalmist is in the middle; and\nround him are, first, neighbours, who pour reproach on him, because of\nhis enemies, then the wider range of \"acquaintances,\" afraid to have\nanything to do with one who has such strong and numerous foes, and\nremotest of all, the chance people met on the way who fly from Him, as\ninfected and dangerous. \"They all forsook Him and fled.\" That bitter\ningredient mingles in every cup of sorrow. The meanness of human\nnature and the selfishness of much apparent friendship are\ncommonplaces, but the experience of them is always as painful and\nastonishing, as if nobody besides had ever suffered therefrom. The\nroughness of structure in ver. 11 _b_, \"and unto my neighbours\nexceedingly,\" seems to fit the psalmist's emotion, and does not need\nthe emendation of \"exceedingly\" into \"burden\" (Delitzsch) or \"shaking\nof the head\" (Cheyne).\n\nIn ver. 12 the desertion is bitterly summed up, as like the oblivion\nthat waits for the dead. The unsympathising world goes on its way, and\nfriends find new interests and forget the broken man, who used to be\nso much to them, as completely as if he were in his grave, or as they\ndo the damaged cup, flung on the rubbish heap. Ver. 13 discloses the\nnature of the calamity which has had these effects. Whispering\nslanders buzz round him; he is ringed about with causes for fear,\nsince enemies are plotting his death. The use of the first part of the\nverse by Jeremiah does not require the hypothesis of his authorship of\nthe psalm, nor of the prophet's priority to the psalmist. It is always\na difficult problem to settle which of two cases of the employment of\nthe same phrase is original and which quotation. The criteria are\nelastic, and the conclusion is very often arrived at in deference to\npreconceived ideas. But Jeremiah uses the phrase as if it were a\nproverb or familiar expression, and the psalmist as if it were the\nfreshly struck coinage of his own experience.\n\nAgain the key changes, and the minor is modulated into confident\npetition. It is the test of true trust that it is deepened by the\nfullest recognition of dangers and enemies. The same facts may feed\ndespair and be the fuel of faith. This man's eyes took in all\nsurrounding evils, and these drove him to avert his gaze from them and\nfix it on Jehovah. That is the best thing that troubles can do for us.\nIf they, on the contrary, monopolise our sight, they turn our hearts\nto stone; but if we can wrench our stare from them, they clear our\nvision to see our Helper. In vv. 14-18 we have the recoil of the\ndevout soul to God, occasioned by its recognition of need and\nhelplessness. This turn of the psalm begins with a strong emphatic\nadversative: \"But I--I trust in Jehovah.\" We see the man flinging\nhimself into the arms of God. The word for \"trust\" is the same as in\nver. 6, and means to _hang_ or _lean upon_, or, as we say, to _depend\non_. He utters his trust in his prayer, which occupies the rest of\nthis part of the psalm. A prayer, which is the voice of trust, does\nnot begin with petition, but with renewed adherence to God and happy\nconsciousness of the soul's relation to Him, and thence melts into\nsupplication for the blessings which are consequences of that\nrelation. To feel, on occasion of the very dreariness of\ncircumstances, that God is mine, makes miraculous sunrise at midnight.\nBuilt on that act of trust claiming its portion in God, is the\nrecognition of God's all-regulating hand, as shaping the psalmist's\n\"times,\" the changing periods, each of which has its definite\ncharacter, responsibilities, and opportunities. Every man's life is a\nseries of crises, in each of which there is some special work to be\ndone or lesson to be learned, some particular virtue to be cultivated\nor sacrifice made. The opportunity does not return. \"It might have\nbeen once; and we missed it, lost it for ever.\"\n\nBut the psalmist is thinking rather of the varying complexion of his\ndays as bright or dark; and looking beyond circumstances, he sees God.\nThe \"hand of mine enemies\" seems shrivelled into impotence when\ncontrasted with that great hand, to which he has committed his spirit,\nand in which are his \"times\"; and the psalmist's recognition that it\nholds his destiny is the ground of his prayer for deliverance from the\nfoes' paralysed grasp. They who feel the tender clasp of an almighty\nhand need not doubt their security from hostile assaults. The\npetitions proper are three in number: for deliverance, for the light\nof God's face, and for \"salvation.\" The central petition recalls the\npriestly blessing (Num. vi. 25). It asks for consciousness of God's\nfriendship and for the manifestation thereof in safety from present\ndangers. That face, turned in love to a man, can \"make a sunshine in a\nshady place,\" and brings healing on its beams. It seems best to take\nthe verbs in vv. 17, 18, as futures and not optatives. The prayer\npasses into assurance of its answer, and what was petition in ver. 1\nis now trustful prediction: \"I shall not be ashamed, for I cry to\nThee.\" With like elevation of faith, the psalmist foresees the end of\nthe whispering defamers round him: shame for their vain plots and\ntheir silent descent to the silent land. The loudest outcry against\nGod's lovers will be hushed some day, and the hands that threatened\nthem will be laid motionless and stiff across motionless breasts. He\nwho stands by God and looks forward, can, by the light of that face,\nsee the end of much transient bluster, \"with pride and contempt,\"\nagainst the righteous. Lying lips fall dumb; praying lips, like the\npsalmist's, are opened to show forth God's praise. His prayer is\naudible still across the centuries; the mutterings of his enemies only\nlive in his mention of them.\n\nThat assurance prepares the way for the noble burst of thanksgiving, as\nfor accomplished deliverance, which ends the psalm, springing up in a\njoyous outpouring of melody, like a lark from a bare furrow. But there\nis no such change of tone as to warrant the supposition that these last\nverses (19-24) are either the psalmist's later addition or the work of\nanother, nor do they oblige us to suppose that the whole psalm was\nwritten after the peril which it commemorates had passed. Rather the\nsame voice which triumphantly rings out in these last verses has been\nsounding in the preceding, even in their saddest strains. The ear\ncatches a twitter hushed again and renewed more than once before the\nfull song breaks out. The psalmist has been absorbed with his own\ntroubles till now, but thankfulness expands his vision, and suddenly\nthere is with him a multitude of fellow-dependants on God's goodness. He\nhungers alone, but he feasts in company. The abundance of God's\n\"goodness\" is conceived of as a treasure stored, and in part openly\ndisplayed, before the sons of men. The antithesis suggests manifold\napplications of the contrast, such as the inexhaustibleness of the mercy\nwhich, after all revelation, remains unrevealed, and, after all\nexpenditure, has not perceptibly diminished in its shining mass, as of\nbullion in some vault; or the varying dealings of God, who sometimes,\nwhile sorrow is allowed to have its scope, seems to keep His riches of\nhelp under lock and key, and then again flashes them forth in deeds of\ndeliverance; or the difference between the partial unfolding of these on\nearth and the full endowment of His servants with \"riches in glory\"\nhereafter. All these carry the one lesson that there is more in God than\nany creature or all creatures have ever drawn from Him or can ever draw.\nThe repetition of the idea of hiding in ver. 20 is a true touch of\ndevout poetry. The same word is used for laying up the treasure and for\nsheltering in a pavilion from the jangle of tongues. The wealth and the\npoor men who need it are stored together, as it were; and the place\nwhere they both lie safe is God Himself. How can they be poor who are\ndwelling close beside infinite riches? The psalmist has just prayed that\nGod would make His face to shine upon him; and now he rejoices in the\nassurance of the answer, and knows himself and all like-minded men to be\nhidden in that \"glorious privacy of light,\" where evil things cannot\nlive. As if caught up to and \"clothed with the sun,\" he and they are\nbeyond the reach of hostile conspiracies, and have \"outsoared the shadow\nof\" earth's antagonisms. The great thought of security in God has never\nbeen more nobly expressed than by that magnificent metaphor of the light\ninaccessible streaming from God's face to be the bulwark of a poor man.\n\nThe personal tone recurs for a moment in vv. 21, 22, in which it is\ndoubtful whether we hear thankfulness for deliverance anticipated as\ncertain and so spoken of as past, since it is as good as done, or for\nsome recently experienced marvel of loving-kindness, which heartens the\npsalmist in present trouble. If this psalm is David's, the reference may\nbe to his finding a city of refuge, at the time when his fortunes were\nvery low, in Ziklag, a strange place for a Jewish fugitive to be\nsheltered. One can scarcely help feeling that the allusion is so\nspecific as to suggest historical fact as its basis. At the same time it\nmust be admitted that the expression may be the carrying on of the\nmetaphor of the hiding in a pavilion. The \"strong city\" is worthily\ninterpreted as being God Himself, though the historical explanation is\ntempting. God's mercy makes a true man ashamed of his doubts, and\ntherefore the thanksgiving of ver. 21 leads to the confession of ver.\n22. Agitated into despair, the psalmist had thought that he was \"cut off\nfrom God's eyes\"--_i.e._, hidden so as not to be helped--but the event\nhas showed that God both heard and saw him. If alarm does not so make us\nthink that God is blind to our need and deaf to our cry as to make us\ndumb, we shall be taught the folly of our fears by His answers to our\nprayers. These will have a voice of gentle rebuke, and ask us, \"O thou\nof little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?\" He delivers first, and\nlets the deliverance stand in place of chiding.\n\nThe whole closes with a summons to all whom Jehovah loves to love Him\nfor His mercy's sake. The joyful singer longs for a chorus to join his\nsingle voice, as all devout hearts do. He generalises his own\nexperience, as all who have for themselves experienced deliverance are\nentitled and bound to do, and discerns that in his single case the\nbroad law is attested that the faithful are guarded whatever dangers\nassail, and \"the proud doer\" abundantly repaid for all his contempt\nand hatred of the just. Therefore the last result of contemplating\nGod's ways with His servants is an incentive to courage, strength, and\npatient waiting for the Lord.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXII.\n\n 1 Blessed he whose transgression is taken away, whose sin is\n covered,\n 2 Blessed the man to whom Jehovah reckons not iniquity,\n In whose spirit is no guile.\n\n 3 When I kept silence, my bones rotted away,\n Through my roaring all the day.\n 4 For day and night Thy hand weighed heavily upon me;\n My sap was turned [as] in droughts of summer. Selah.\n\n 5 My sin I acknowledged to Thee, and my iniquity I covered not,\n I said, I will confess because of my transgressions to Jehovah,\n And Thou--Thou didst take away the iniquity of my sin. Selah.\n\n 6 Because of this let every one beloved [of Thee] pray to Thee in a\n time of finding;\n Surely when great waters are in flood, to him they shall not\n reach.\n 7 Thou art a shelter for me; from trouble wilt Thou preserve me,\n [With] shouts of deliverance wilt encircle me. Selah.\n\n 8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou\n shouldest go;\n I will counsel thee, [with] mine eye upon thee.\n 9 Be not ye like horse, like mule, without understanding,\n Whose harness to hold them in is bit and bridle,\n Else no coming near to thee.\n 10 The wicked has many sorrows,\n And he who trusts in Jehovah--with loving-kindness will He\n encircle him.\n\n 11 Rejoice in Jehovah, and exult, ye righteous;\n And shout joyfully, all ye upright of heart.\n\n\nOne must have a dull ear not to hear the voice of personal experience in\nthis psalm. It throbs with emotion, and is a burst of rapture from a\nheart tasting the sweetness of the new joy of forgiveness. It is hard\nto believe that the speaker is but a personification of the nation, and\nthe difficulty is recognised by Cheyne's concession that we have here\n\"principally, though not exclusively, a national psalm.\" The old opinion\nthat it records David's experience in the dark time when, for a whole\nyear, he lived impenitent after his great sin of sense, and was then\nbroken down by Nathan's message and restored to peace through pardon\nfollowing swiftly on penitence, is still defensible, and gives a fit\nsetting for this gem. Whoever was the singer, his song goes deep down to\npermanent realities in conscience and in men's relations to God, and\ntherefore is not for an age, but for all time. Across the dim waste of\nyears, we hear this man speaking our sins, our penitence, our joy; and\nthe antique words are as fresh, and fit as close to our experiences, as\nif they had been welled up from a living heart to-day. The theme is the\nway of forgiveness and its blessedness; and this is set forth in two\nparts: the first (vv. 1-5) a leaf from the psalmist's autobiography, the\nsecond (ver. 6 to end) the generalisation of individual experience and\nits application to others. In each part the prevailing division of\nverses is into strophes of two, each containing two members, but with\nsome irregularity.\n\nThe page from the psalmist's confessions (vv. 1-5) begins with a burst\nof rapturous thankfulness for the joy of forgiveness (vv. 1, 2),\npasses to paint in dark colours the misery of sullen impenitence (vv.\n3, 4), and then, in one longer verse, tells with glad wonder how\nsudden and complete was the transition to the joy of forgiveness by\nthe way of penitence. It is a chart of one man's path from the depths\nto the heights, and avails to guide all.\n\nThe psalmist begins abruptly with an exclamation (Oh, the blessedness,\netc.). His new joy wells up irrepressibly. To think that he who had gone\nso far down in the mire, and had locked his lips in silence for so long,\nshould find himself so blessed! Joy so exuberant cannot content itself\nwith one statement of its grounds. It runs over in synonyms for sin and\nits forgiveness, which are not feeble tautology. The heart is too full\nto be emptied at one outpouring, and though all the clauses describe the\nsame things, they do so with differences. This is true with regard to\nthe words both for sin and for pardon. The three designations of the\nformer present three aspects of its hideousness. The first, rendered\n(\"transgression,\") conceives of it as rebellion against rightful\nauthority, not merely breach of an impersonal law, but breaking away\nfrom a rightful king. The second (\"sin\") describes it as missing a mark.\nWhat is in regard to God rebellion is in regard to myself missing the\naim, whether that aim be considered as that which a man is, by his very\nmake and relations, intended to be and do, or as that which he proposes\nto himself by his act. All sin tragically fails to hit the mark in both\nthese senses. It is a failure as to reaching the ideal of conduct, \"the\nchief end of man,\" and not less so as to winning the satisfaction sought\nby the deed. It keeps the word of promise to the ear, and breaks it to\nthe hope, ever luring by lying offers; and if it gives the poor delights\nwhich it holds out, it ever adds something that embitters them, like\nspirits of wine methylated and made undrinkable. It is always a blunder\nto do wrong. The last synonym (\"iniquity\") means crookedness or\ndistortion, and seems to embody the same idea as our words \"right\" and\n\"wrong,\" namely the contrast between the straight line of duty and the\ncontorted lines drawn by sinful hands. What runs parallel with law is\nright; what diverges is wrong. The three expressions for pardon are also\neloquent in their variety. The first word means taken away or lifted\noff, as a burden from aching shoulders. It implies more than holding\nback penal consequences; it is the removal of sin itself, and that not\nmerely in the multitudinousness of its manifestations in act, but in the\ndepth of its inward source. This is the metaphor which Bunyan has made\nso familiar by his picture of the pilgrim losing his load at the cross.\nThe second (\"covered\") paints pardon as God's shrouding the foul thing\nfrom His pure eyes, so that His action is no longer determined by its\nexistence. The third describes forgiveness as God's not reckoning a\nman's sin to him, in which expression hovers some allusion to cancelling\na debt. The clause \"in whose spirit is no guile\" is best taken as a\nconditional one, pointing to sincerity which confesses guilt as a\ncondition of pardon. But the alternative construction as a continuation\nof the description of the forgiven man is quite possible; and if thus\nunderstood, the crowning blessing of pardon is set forth as being the\nliberation of the forgiven spirit from all \"guile\" or evil. God's kiss\nof forgiveness sucks the poison from the wound.\n\nRetrospect of the dismal depth from which it has climbed is natural to a\nsoul sunning itself on high. Therefore on the overflowing description of\npresent blessedness follows a shuddering glance downwards to past\nunrest. Sullen silence caused the one; frank acknowledgment brought the\nother. He who will not speak his sin to God has to groan. A dumb\nconscience often makes a loud-voiced pain. This man's sin had indeed\nmissed its aim; for it had brought about three things: rotting bones\n(which may be but a strong metaphor or may be a physical fact), the\nconsciousness of God's displeasure dimly felt as if a great hand were\npressing him down, and the drying up of the sap of his life, as if the\nfierce heat of summer had burned the marrow in his bones. These were the\nfruits of pleasant sin, and by reason of them many a moan broke from his\nlocked lips. Stolid indifference may delay remorse, but its serpent fang\nstrikes soon or later, and then strength and joy die. The Selah\nindicates a swell or prolongation of the accompaniment, to emphasise\nthis terrible picture of a soul gnawing itself.\n\nThe abrupt turn to description of the opposite disposition in ver. 5\nsuggests a sudden gush of penitence. As at a bound, the soul passes from\ndreary remorse. The break with the former self is complete, and effected\nin one wrench. Some things are best done by degrees; and some, of which\nforsaking sin is one, are best done quickly. And as swift as the resolve\nto crave pardon, so swift is the answer giving it. We are reminded of\nthat gospel compressed into a verse, \"David said unto Nathan, I have\nsinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath\nput away thy sin.\" Again the three designations of sin are employed,\nthough in different order; and the act of confession is thrice\nmentioned, as that of forgiveness was. The fulness and immediateness of\npardon are emphatically given by the double epithet \"the iniquity of thy\nsin\" and by the representation that it follows the resolve to confess,\nand does not wait for the act. The Divine love is so eager to forgive\nthat it tarries not for actual confession, but anticipates it, as the\nfather interrupts the prodigal's acknowledgment with gifts and welcome.\nThe Selah at the end of ver. 5 is as triumphant as that at the close of\nver. 4 had been sad. It parts the autobiographical section from the more\ngeneral one which follows.\n\nIn the second part the solitary soul translates its experience into\nexhortations for all, and woos men to follow on the same path, by\nsetting forth in rich variety the joys of pardon. The exhortation\nfirst dwells on the positive blessings associated with penitence (vv.\n6, 7), and next on the degradation and sorrow involved in obstinate\nhard-heartedness (vv. 8-10). The natural impulse of him who has known\nboth is to beseech others to share his happy experience, and the\npsalmist's course of thought obeys that impulse, for the future \"shall\npray\" (R.V.) is better regarded as hortatory \"let ... pray.\" \"Because\nof this\" does not express the contents of the petitions, but their\nreason. The manifestation of God as infinitely ready to forgive should\nhearten to prayer; and, since God's beloved need forgiveness day by\nday, even though they may not have fallen into such gross sin as this\npsalmist, there is no incongruity in the exhortation being addressed\nto them. \"He that is washed\" still needs that feet fouled in muddy\nways should be cleansed. Every time of seeking by such prayer is a\n\"time of finding\"; but the phrase implies that there is a time of not\nfinding, and, in its very graciousness, is heavy with warning against\ndelay. With forgiveness comes security. The penitent, praying,\npardoned man is set as on a rock islet in the midst of floods, whether\nthese be conceived of as temptation to sin or as calamities. The\nhortatory tone is broken in ver. 7 by the recurrence of the personal\nelement, since the singer's heart was too full for silence; but there\nis no real interruption, for the joyous utterance of one's own faith\nis often the most winning persuasive, and a devout man can scarcely\nhold out to others the sweetness of finding God without at the same\ntime tasting what he offers. Unless he does, his words will ring\nunreal. \"Thou art a shelter for me\" (same word as in xxvii. 5, xxxi.\n20), is the utterance of trust; and the emphasis is on \"my.\" To hide\nin God is to be \"preserved from trouble,\" not in the sense of being\nexempt, but in that of not being overwhelmed, as the beautiful last\nclause of v. 7 shows, in which \"shouts of deliverance\" from trouble\nwhich had pressed are represented by a bold, but not harsh, metaphor\nas ringing the psalmist round. The air is filled with jubilant voices,\nthe echoes of his own. The word rendered \"songs\" or preferably\n\"shouts\" is unusual, and its consonants repeat the last three of the\npreceding word (\"shalt preserve me\"). These peculiarities have led to\nthe suggestion that we have in it a \"dittograph.\" If so, the remaining\nwords of the last clause would read, \"Thou wilt compass me about with\ndeliverance,\" which would be a perfectly appropriate expression. But\nprobably the similarity of letters is a play upon words, of which we\nhave another example in the preceding clause where the consonants of\nthe word for \"trouble,\" reappear in their order in the verb \"wilt\npreserve.\" The shout of joy is caught up by the Selah.\n\nBut now the tone changes into solemn warning against obstinate disregard\nof God's leading. It is usual to suppose that the psalmist still speaks,\nbut surely \"I will counsel thee, with mine eye upon thee,\" does not fit\nhuman lips. It is to be observed, too, that in ver. 8 a single person is\naddressed, who is most naturally taken to be the same as he who spoke\nhis individual faith in ver. 7. In other words, the psalmist's\nconfidence evokes a Divine response, and that brief interchange of\nclinging trust and answering promise stands in the midst of the appeal\nto men, which it scarcely interrupts. Ver. 9 may either be regarded as\nthe continuance of the Divine voice, or perhaps better, as the\nresumption by the psalmist of his hortatory address. God's direction as\nto duty and protection in peril are both included in the promise of ver.\n8. With His eye upon His servant, He will show him the way, and will\nkeep him ever in sight as he travels on it. The beautiful meaning of the\nA.V., that God guides with a glance those who dwell near enough to Him\nto see His look, is scarcely contained in the words, though it is true\nthat the sense of pardon binds men to Him in such sweet bonds that they\nare eager to catch the faintest indications of His will, and \"His looks\ncommand, His lightest words are spells.\"\n\nVv. 9, 10, are a warning against brutish obstinacy. The former verse\nhas difficulties in detail, but its drift is plain. It contrasts the\ngracious guidance which avails for those made docile by forgiveness\nand trust with the harsh constraint which must curb and coerce mulish\nnatures. The only things which such understand are bits and bridles.\nThey will not come near to God without such rough outward constraint,\nany more than an unbroken horse will approach a man unless dragged by\na halter. That untamableness except by force is the reason why \"many\nsorrows\" must strike \"the wicked.\" If these are here compared to \"bit\"\nand \"bridle,\" they are meant to drive to God, and are therefore\nregarded as being such mercies as the obstinate are capable of\nreceiving. Obedience extorted by force is no obedience, but approach\nto God compelled by sorrows that restrain unbridled licence of tempers\nand of sense is accepted as a real approach and then is purged into\naccess with confidence. They who are at first driven are afterwards\ndrawn, and taught to know no delight so great as that of coming and\nkeeping near God.\n\nThe antithesis of \"wicked\" and \"he that trusteth in Jehovah\" is\nsignificant as teaching that faith is the true opposite of sinfulness.\nNot less full of meaning is the sequence of trust, righteousness, and\nuprightness of heart in vv. 10, 11. Faith leads to righteousness, and\nthey are upright, not who have never fallen, but who have been raised\nfrom their fall by pardon. The psalmist had thought of himself as\ncompassed with shouts of deliverance. Another circle is cast round him\nand all who, with him, trust Jehovah. A ring of mercies, like a fiery\nwall, surrounds the pardoned, faithful soul, without a break through\nwhich a real evil can creep. Therefore the encompassing songs of\ndeliverance are continuous as the mercies which they hymn, and in the\ncentre of that double circle the soul sits secure and thankful.\n\nThe psalm ends with a joyful summons to general joy. All share in the\nsolitary soul's exultation. The depth of penitence measures the height\nof gladness. The breath that was spent in \"roaring all the day long\"\nis used for shouts of deliverance. Every tear sparkles like a diamond\nin the sunshine of pardon, and he who begins with the lowly cry for\nforgiveness will end with lofty songs of joy and be made, by God's\nguidance and Spirit, righteous and upright in heart.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXIII.\n\n 1 Rejoice aloud, ye righteous, in Jehovah,\n For the upright praise is seemly.\n 2 Give thanks to Jehovah with harp;\n With ten-stringed psaltery play unto Him.\n 3 Sing to Him a new song,\n Strike well [the strings] with joyful shouts.\n\n 4 For upright is the word of Jehovah,\n And all His work is in faithfulness.\n 5 He loves righteousness and judgment,\n Of Jehovah's loving-kindness the earth is full.\n 6 By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made,\n And all their host by the breath of His mouth.\n 7 Who gathereth as an heap the waters of the sea,\n Who layeth up the deeps in storehouses.\n 8 Let all the earth fear Jehovah,\n Before Him let all inhabitants of the world stand in awe.\n 9 For He, He spoke and it was;\n He, He commanded and it stood.\n 10 Jehovah has brought to nothing the counsel of the nations,\n He has frustrated the designs of the peoples.\n 11 The counsel of Jehovah shall stand for ever,\n The designs of His heart to generation after generation.\n\n 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah,\n The people He has chosen for an inheritance for Himself.\n 13 From heaven Jehovah looks down,\n He beholds all the sons of men.\n 14 From the place where He sits, He gazes\n On all the inhabitants of earth:--\n 15 Even He who forms the hearts of them all,\n Who marks all their works.\n 16 A king is not saved by the greatness of [his] army,\n A hero is not delivered by the greatness of [his] strength.\n 17 A horse is a vain thing for safety;\n And by the greatness of its strength it does not give escape.\n 18 Behold the eye of Jehovah is on them who fear Him,\n On them who hope for His loving-kindness,\n 19 To deliver their soul from death,\n And to keep them alive in famine.\n\n 20 Our soul waits for Jehovah,\n Our help and our shield is He.\n 21 For in Him shall our heart rejoice,\n For in His holy name have we trusted.\n 22 Let Thy loving-kindness, Jehovah, be upon us,\n According as we have hoped for Thee.\n\n\nThis is the last of the four psalms in Book I. which have no title,\nthe others being Psalms i., ii., which are introductory, and x. which\nis closely connected with ix. Some have endeavoured to establish a\nsimilar connection between xxxii. and xxxiii.; but, while the closing\nsummons to the righteous in the former is substantially repeated in\nthe opening words of the latter, there is little other trace of\nconnection, except the references in both to \"the eye of Jehovah\"\n(xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 18); and no two psalms could be more different in\nsubject and tone than these. The one is full of profound, personal\nemotion, and deals with the depths of experience; the other is devoid\nof personal reference, and is a devout, calm contemplation of the\ncreative power and providential government of God. It is kindred with\nthe later type of psalms, and has many verbal allusions connecting it\nwith them. It has probably been placed here simply because of the\nsimilarity just noticed between its beginning and the end of the\npreceding. The reasons for the arrangement of the psalter were, so far\nas they can be traced, usually such merely verbal coincidences. To one\nwho has been travelling through the heights and depths, the storms and\nsunny gleams of the previous psalms, this impersonal didactic\nmeditation, with its historical allusions and entire ignoring of sins\nand sorrows, is indeed \"a new song.\" It is apparently meant for\nliturgical use, and falls into three unequal parts; the first three\nverses and the last three being prelude and conclusion, the former\nsummoning the \"righteous\" to praise Jehovah, the latter putting words\nof trust and triumph and prayer into their mouths. The central mass\n(vv. 4-19) celebrates the creative and providential work of God, in\ntwo parts, of which the first extends these Divine acts over the world\n(vv. 4-11) and the second concentrates them on Israel (vv. 12-19).\n\nThe opening summons to praise takes us far away from the solitary\nwrestlings and communings in former psalms. Now\n\n \"The singers lift up their voice,\n And the trumpets make endeavour,\n Sounding, 'In God rejoice!\n In Him rejoice for ever!'\"\n\nBut the clear recognition of purity as the condition of access to God\nspeaks in this invocation as distinctly as in any of the preceding.\n\"The righteous\" whose lives conform to the Divine will, and only they\ncan shout aloud their joy in Jehovah. Praise fits and adorns the lips\nof the \"upright\" only, whose spirits are without twist of self-will\nand sin. The direction of character expressed in the word is\nhorizontal rather than vertical, and is better represented by\n\"straight\" than \"upright.\" Praise gilds the gold of purity and adds\ngrace even to the beauty of holiness. Experts tell us that the\n_kinnor_ (harp, A.V. and R.V.) and _nebel_ (psaltery) were both\nstringed instruments, differing in the position of the sounding board,\nwhich was below in the former and above in the latter, and also in the\ncovering of the strings (_v._ Delitzsch, Eng. transl. of latest ed.,\nI. 7, n.). The \"new song\" is not necessarily the psalm itself, but may\nmean other thanksgivings evoked by God's meditated-on goodness. But,\nin any case, it is noteworthy that the occasions of the new song are\nvery old acts, stretching back to the first creation and continued\ndown through the ages. The psalm has no trace of special recent\nmercies, but to the devout soul the old deeds are never antiquated,\nand each new meditation on them breaks into new praise. So\ninexhaustible is the theme that all generations take it up in turn,\nand find \"songs unheard\" and \"sweeter\" with which to celebrate it.\nEach new rising of the old sun brings music from the lips of Memnon,\nas he sits fronting the east. The facts of revelation must be sung by\neach age and soul for itself, and the glowing strains grow cold and\narchaic, while the ancient mercies which they magnify live on bright\nand young. There is always room for a fresh voice to praise the old\ngospel, the old creation, the old providence.\n\nThis new song is saturated with reminiscences of old ones, and deals\nwith familiar thoughts which have come to the psalmist with fresh\npower. He magnifies the moral attributes manifested in God's\nself-revelation, His creative Word, and His providential government.\n\"The word of Jehovah,\" in ver. 4, is to be taken in the wide sense of\nevery utterance of His thought or will (\"non accipi pro doctrina, sed\npro mundi gubernandi ratione,\" Calvin). It underlies His \"works,\" as\nis more largely declared in the following verses. It is \"upright,\" the\nsame word as in ver. 1, and here equivalent to the general idea of\nmorally perfect. The acts which flow from it are \"in faithfulness,\"\ncorrespond to and keep His word. The perfect word and works have for\nsource the deep heart of Jehovah, which loves \"righteousness and\njudgment,\" and therefore speaks and acts in accordance with these.\nTherefore the outcome of all is a world full of God's loving-kindness.\nThe psalmist has won that \"serene and blessed mood\" in which the\nproblem of life seems easy, and all harsh and gloomy thoughts have\nmelted out of the sky. There is but one omnipotent Will at work\neverywhere, and that is a Will whose law for itself is the love of\nrighteousness and truth. The majestic simplicity and universality of\nthe cause are answered by the simplicity and universality of the\nresult, the flooding of the whole world with blessing. Many another\npsalm shows how hard it is to maintain such a faith in the face of the\nterrible miseries of men, and the more complex \"civilisation\" becomes,\nthe harder it grows; but it is well to hear sometimes the one clear\nnote of gladness without its chord of melancholy.\n\nThe work of creation is set forth in vv. 6-9, as the effect of the\nDivine word alone. The psalmist is fascinated not by the glories\ncreated, but by the wonder of the process of creation. The Divine will\nuttered itself, and the universe was. Of course the thought is parallel\nwith that of Genesis, \"God said, Let there be ... and there was....\" Nor\nare we to antedate the Christian teaching of a personal Word of God, the\nagent of creation. The old versions and interpreters, followed by\nCheyne, read \"as in a bottle\" for \"as an heap,\" vocalising the text\ndifferently from the present pointing; but there seems to be an allusion\nto the wall of waters at the passage of the Red Sea, the same word being\nused in Miriam's song; with \"depths\" in the next clause, there as here\n(Exod. xv. 8). What is meant, however, here, is the separation of land\nand water at first, and possibly the continuance of the same power\nkeeping them still apart, since the verbs in ver. 7 are participles,\nwhich imply continued action. The image of \"an heap\" is probably due to\nthe same optical delusion which has coined the expression \"the high\nseas,\" since, to an eye looking seawards from the beach, the level\nwaters seem to rise as they recede; or it may merely express the\ngathering together in a mass. Away out there, in that ocean of which the\nHebrews knew so little, were unplumbed depths in which, as in vast\nstorehouses, the abundance of the sea was shut up, and the ever-present\nWord which made them at first was to them instead of bolts and bars.\nPossibly the thought of the storehouses suggested that of the Flood when\nthese were opened, and that thought, crossing the psalmist's mind, led\nto the exhortation in ver. 8 to fear Jehovah, which would more naturally\nhave followed ver. 9. The power displayed in creation is, however, a\nsufficient ground for the summons to reverent obedience, and ver. 9 may\nbe but an emphatic repetition of the substance of the foregoing\ndescription. It is eloquent in its brevity and juxtaposition of the\ncreative word and the created world. \"It stood,\"--\"the word includes\nmuch: first, the coming into being (_Entstehen_), then, the continued\nsubsistence (_Bestehen_), lastly, attendance (_Dastehen_) in readiness\nfor service\" (Stier).\n\nFrom the original creation the psalmist's mind runs over the ages\nbetween it and him, and sees the same mystical might of the Divine\nWill working in what we call providential government. God's bare word\nhas power without material means. Nay, His very thoughts unspoken are\nendowed with immortal vigour, and are at bottom the only real powers\nin history. God's \"thoughts stand,\" as creation does, lasting on\nthrough all men's fleeting years. With reverent boldness the psalm\nparallels the processes (if we may so speak) of the Divine mind with\nthose of the human; \"counsel\" and \"thoughts\" being attributed to both.\nBut how different the issue of the solemn thoughts of God and those of\nmen, in so far as they are not in accordance with His! It unduly\nnarrows the sweep of the psalmist's vision to suppose that he is\nspeaking of a recent experience when some assault on Israel was\nrepelled. He is much rather linking the hour of creation with to-day\nby one swift summary of the net result of all history. The only\nstable, permanent reality is the will of God, and it imparts derived\nstability to those who ally themselves with it, yielding to its\ncounsels and moulding their thoughts by its. \"He that doeth the will\nof God abideth for ever,\" but the shore of time is littered with\nwreckage, the sad fragments of proud fleets which would sail in the\nteeth of the wind and went to pieces on the rocks.\n\nFrom such thoughts the transition to the second part of the main body\nof the psalm is natural. Vv. 12-19 are a joyous celebration of the\nblessedness of Israel as the people of so great a God. The most\nstriking feature of these verses is the pervading reference to the\npassage of the Red Sea which, as we have already seen, has coloured\nver. 7. From Miriam's song come the designation of the people as God's\n\"inheritance,\" and the phrase \"the place of His habitation\" (Exod. xv.\n17). The \"looking upon the inhabitants of the earth,\" and the thought\nthat the \"eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear Him, to deliver their\nsoul in death\" (vv. 14, 18), remind us of the Lord's looking from the\npillar on the host of Egyptians and the terrified crowd of fugitives,\nand of the same glance being darkness to the one and light to the\nother. The abrupt introduction of the king not saved by his host, and\nof the vanity of the horse for safety, are explained if we catch an\necho of Miriam's ringing notes, \"Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath\nHe cast into the sea.... The horse and his rider hath He thrown into\nthe sea\" (Exod. xv. 4, 21).\n\nIf this historical allusion be not recognised, the connection of these\nverses is somewhat obscure, but still discernible. The people who\nstand in special relation to God are blessed, because that eye, which\nsees all men, rests on them in loving-kindness and with gracious\npurpose of special protection. This contrast of God's universal\nknowledge and of that knowledge which is accompanied with loving care\nis the very nerve of these verses, as is shown by the otherwise\naimless repetition of the thought of God's looking down on men. There\nis a wide all-seeingness, characterised by three words in an ascending\nscale of closeness of observance, in vv. 13, 14. It is possible to God\nas being Creator: \"He fashions their hearts individually,\" or \"one by\none,\" seems the best interpretation of ver. 15 _a_, and thence is\ndeduced His intimate knowledge of all His creatures' doings. The\nsudden turn to the impotence of earthly might, as illustrated by the\nking and the hero and the battle-horse, may be taken as intended to\ncontrast the weakness of such strength both with the preceding picture\nof Divine omniscience and almightiness, and with the succeeding\nassurance of safety in Jehovah. The true reason for the blessedness of\nthe chosen people is that God's eye is on them, not merely with cold\nomniscience nor with critical considering of their works, but with the\ndirect purpose of sheltering them from surrounding evil. But the\nstress of the characterisation of these guarded and nourished\nfavourites of heaven is now laid not upon a Divine act of choice, but\nupon their meek looking to Him. His eye meets with love the upturned\npatient eye of humble expectance and loving fear.\n\nWhat should be the issue of such thoughts, but the glad profession of\ntrust, with which the psalm fittingly ends, corresponding to the\ninvocation to praise which began it? Once in each of these three closing\nverses do the speakers profess their dependence on God. The attitude of\nwaiting with fixed hope and patient submission is the characteristic of\nGod's true servants in all ages. In it are blended consciousness of\nweakness and vulnerability, dread of assault, reliance on Divine Love,\nconfidence of safety, patience, submission and strong aspiration.\n\nThese were the tribal marks of God's people, when this was \"a new\nsong\"; they are so to-day, for, though the Name of the Lord be more\nfully known by Christ, the trust in it is the same. A threefold good\nis possessed, expected and asked as the issue of this waiting. God is\n\"help and shield\" to those who exercise it. Its sure fruit is joy in\nHim, since He will answer the expectance of His people, and will make\nHis name more fully known and more sweet to those who have clung to\nit, in so far as they knew it. The measure of hope in God is the\nmeasure of experience of His loving-kindness, and the closing prayer\ndoes not allege hope as meriting the answer which it expects, but\nrecognises that desire is a condition of possession of God's best\ngifts, and knows it to be most impossible of all impossibilities that\nhope fixed on God should be ashamed. Hands, lifted empty to heaven in\nlonging trust, will never drop empty back and hang listless, without a\nblessing in their grasp.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXIV.\n\n 1 (\u05d0) I will bless Jehovah at all times,\n Continually shall His praise be in my mouth.\n 2 (\u05d1) In Jehovah my soul shall boast herself,\n The humble shall hear and rejoice.\n 3 (\u05d2) Magnify Jehovah with me,\n And let us exalt His name together.\n\n 4 (\u05d3) I sought Jehovah and He answered me,\n And from all my terrors did He deliver me.\n 5 (\u05d4) They looked to Him and were brightened,\n (\u05d5) And their faces did not blush.\n 6 (\u05d6) This afflicted man cried and Jehovah heard,\n And from all his distresses saved him.\n 7 (\u05d7) The angel of Jehovah encamps round them that fear Him,\n And delivers them.\n 8 (\u05d8) Taste and see that Jehovah is good;\n Happy the man that takes refuge in Him.\n 9 (\u05d9) Fear Jehovah, ye His holy ones;\n For there is no want to them that fear Him.\n 10 (\u05db) Young lions famish and starve,\n But they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good.\n\n 11 (\u05dc) Come [my] sons, hearken to me;\n I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.\n 12 (\u05de) Who is the man who desires life,\n Who loves [many] days, in order to see good?\n 13 (\u05e0) Keep thy tongue from evil,\n And thy lips from speaking deceit.\n 14 (\u05e1) Depart from evil and do good;\n Seek peace and pursue it.\n 15 (\u05e2) The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous,\n And His ears are towards their loud cry.\n 16 (\u05e4) The face of Jehovah is against the doers of evil\n To cut off their remembrance from the earth.\n 17 (\u05e6) The righteous cry and Jehovah hears;\n And from all their straits He rescues them.\n 18 (\u05e7) Jehovah is near to the broken in heart,\n And the crushed in spirit He saves.\n 19 (\u05e8) Many are the afflictions of the righteous;\n But from them all Jehovah delivers him.\n 20 (\u05e9) He keeps all his bones,\n Not one of them is broken.\n 21 (\u05ea) Evil shall slay the wicked;\n And the haters of the righteous shall be held guilty.\n 22 (\u05e4) Jehovah redeems the soul of His servants;\n And not held guilty shall any be who take refuge in Him.\n\n\nThe occasion of this psalm, according to the superscription, was that\nhumiliating and questionable episode, when David pretended insanity to\nsave his life from the ruler of Goliath's city of Gath. The set of\ncritical opinion sweeps away this tradition as unworthy of serious\nrefutation. The psalm is acrostic, therefore of late date; there are no\nreferences to the supposed occasion; the careless scribe has blundered\n\"blindly\" (Hupfeld) in the king's name, mixing up the stories about\nAbraham and Isaac in Genesis with the legend about David at Gath; the\ndidactic, gnomical cast of the psalm speaks of a late age. But the\nassumption that acrostic structure is necessarily a mark of late date is\nnot by any means self-evident, and needs more proof than is forthcoming;\nthe absence of plain allusions to the singer's circumstances cuts both\nways, and suggests the question, how the attribution to the period\nstated arose, since there is nothing in the psalm to suggest it; the\nblunder of the king's name is perhaps not a blunder after all, but, as\nthe Genesis passages seem to imply, \"Abimelech\" (the father of the King)\nmay be a title, like Pharaoh, common to Philistine \"kings,\" and Achish\nmay have been the name of the reigning Abimelech; the proverbial style\nand somewhat slight connection and progress of thought are necessary\nresults of acrostic fetters. If the psalm be David's, the contrast\nbetween the degrading expedient which saved him and the exalted\nsentiments here is remarkable, but not incredible. The seeming idiot\nscrabbling on the gate is now saint, poet, and preacher; and, looking\nback on the deliverance won by a trick, he thinks of it as an instance\nof Jehovah's answer to prayer! It is a strange psychological study; and\nyet, keeping in view the then existing standard of morality as to\nstratagems in warfare, and the wonderful power that even good men have\nof ignoring flaws in their faith and faults in their conduct, we may\nventure to suppose that the event which evoked this song of thanksgiving\nand is transfigured in ver. 4 is the escape by craft from Achish. To\nDavid his feigning madness did not seem inconsistent with trust and\nprayer.\n\nWhatever be the occasion of the psalm, its course of thought is\nobvious. There is first a vow of praise in which others are summoned\nto unite (vv. 1-3); then follows a section in which personal\nexperience and invocation to others are similarly blended (vv. 4-10);\nand finally a purely didactic section, analysing the practical\nmanifestations of \"the fear of the Lord\" and enforcing it by the\nfamiliar contrast of the blessedness of the righteous and the\nmiserable fate of the ungodly. Throughout we find familiar turns of\nthought and expression, such as are usual in acrostic psalms.\n\nThe glad vow of unbroken praise and undivided trust, which begins the\npsalm, sounds like the welling over of a heart for recent mercy. It\nseems easy and natural while the glow of fresh blessings is felt, to\n\"rejoice in the Lord always, and again to say Rejoice.\" Thankfulness\nwhich looks forward to its own cessation, and takes into account the\ndistractions of circumstance and changes of mood which will surely\ncome, is too foreseeing. Whether the vow be kept or no, it is well\nthat it should be made; still better is it that it should be kept, as\nit may be, even amid distracting circumstances and changing moods. The\nincense on the altar did not flame throughout the day, but, being\nfanned into a glow at morning and evening sacrifice, it smouldered\nwith a thread of fragrant smoke continually. It is not only the\nexigencies of the acrostic which determine the order in ver. 2: \"In\nJehovah shall my soul boast,\"--_in Him_, and not in self or worldly\nground, of trust and glorying. The ideal of the devout life, which in\nmoments of exaltation seems capable of realisation, as in clear\nweather Alpine summits look near enough to be reached in an hour, is\nunbroken praise and undivided reliance on and joy in Jehovah. But\nalas--how far above us the peaks are! Still to see them ennobles, and\nto strive to reach them secures an upward course.\n\nThe solitary heart hungers for sympathy in its joy, as in its sorrow;\nbut knows full well that such can only be given by those who have\nknown like bitterness and have learned submission in the same way. We\nmust be purged of self in order to be glad in another's deliverance,\nand must be pupils in the same school in order to be entitled to take\nhis experience as our encouragement, and to make a chorus to his solo\nof thanksgiving. The invocation is so natural an expression of the\ninstinctive desire for companionship in praise that one needs not to\nlook for any particular group to whom it is addressed; but if the\npsalm be David's, the call is not inappropriate in the mouth of the\nleader of his band of devoted followers.\n\nThe second section of the psalm (vv. 4-10) is at first biographical,\nand then generalises personal experience into broad universal truth.\nBut even in recounting what befell himself, the singer will not eat\nhis morsel alone, but is glad to be able at every turn to feel that he\nhas companions in his happy experience. Vv. 4, 5 are a pair, as are\nvv. 6, 7, and in each the same fact is narrated first in reference to\nthe single soul, and then in regard to all the servants of Jehovah.\n\"This poor man\" is by most of the older expositors taken to be the\npsalmist, but by the majority of moderns supposed to be an\nindividualising way of saying, \"poor men.\" The former explanation\nseems to me the more natural, as preserving the parallelism between\nthe two groups of verses. If so, the close correspondence of\nexpression in vv. 4 and 6 is explained, since the same event is\nsubject of both. In both is the psalmist's appeal to Jehovah\npresented; in the one as \"seeking\" with anxious eagerness, and in the\nother as \"crying\" with the loud call of one in urgent need of\nimmediate rescue. In both, Divine acceptance follows close on the cry,\nand in both immediately ensues succour. \"He delivered me from all my\nfears,\" and \"saved him out of all his troubles,\" correspond entirely,\nthough not verbally. In like manner vv. 5 and 7 are alike in extending\nthe blessing of the unit so as to embrace the class. The absence of\nany expressed subject of the verb in ver. 5 makes the statement more\ncomprehensive, like the French \"_on_,\" or English \"they.\" To \"look\nunto Him\" is the same thing as is expressed in the individualising\nverses by the two phrases, \"sought,\" and \"cried unto,\" only the\nmetaphor is changed into that of silent, wistful directing of\nbeseeching and sad eyes to God. And its issue is beautifully told, in\npursuance of the metaphor. Whoever turns his face to Jehovah will\nreceive reflected brightness on his face; as when a mirror is directed\nsunwards, the dark surface will flash into sudden glory. Weary eyes\nwill gleam. Faces turned to the sun are sure to be radiant.\n\nThe hypothesis of the Davidic authorship gives special force to the\ngreat assurance of ver. 7. The fugitive, in his rude shelter in the\ncave of Adullam, thinks of Jacob, who, in his hour of defenceless\nneed, was heartened by the vision of the angel encampment surrounding\nhis own little band, and named the place \"Mahanaim,\" the two camps.\nThat fleeting vision was a temporary manifestation of abiding reality.\nWherever there is a camp of them that fear God, there is another, of\nwhich the helmed and sworded angel that appeared to Joshua is Captain,\nand the name of every such place is Two Camps. That is the sight which\nbrightens the eyes that look to God. That mysterious personality, \"the\nAngel of the Lord,\" is only mentioned in the Psalter here and in Psalm\nxxxv. In other places, He appears as the agent of Divine\ncommunications, and especially as the guide and champion of Israel. He\nis \"the angel of God's face,\" the personal revealer of His presence\nand nature. His functions correspond to those of the Word in John's\nGospel, and these, conjoined with the supremacy indicated in his name,\nsuggest that \"_the_ Angel of the Lord\" is, in fact, the everlasting\nSon of the Father, through whom the Christology of the New Testament\nteaches that all Revelation has been mediated. The psalmist did not\nknow the full force of the name, but he believed that there was a\nPerson, in an eminent and singular sense God's messenger, who would\ncast his protection round the devout, and bid inferior heavenly\nbeings draw their impregnable ranks about them. Christians can tell\nmore than he could, of the Bearer of the name. It becomes them to be\nall the surer of His protection.\n\nJust as the vow of ver. 1 passed into invocation, so does the personal\nexperience of vv. 4-7 glide into exhortation. If such be the experience\nof poor men, trusting in Jehovah, how should the sharers in it be able\nto withhold themselves from calling on others to take their part in the\njoy? The depth of a man's religion may be roughly, but on the whole\nfairly, tested by his irrepressible impulse to bring other men to the\nfountain from which he has drunk. Very significantly does the psalm call\non men to \"taste and see,\" for in religion experience must precede\nknowledge. The way to \"taste\" is to \"trust\" or to \"take refuge in\"\nJehovah. \"Crede et manducasti,\" says Augustine. The psalm said it before\nhim. Just as the act of appealing to Jehovah was described in a\nthreefold way in vv. 4-6, so a threefold designation of devout men\noccurs in vv. 8-10. They \"trust,\" are \"saints,\" they \"seek.\" Faith,\nconsecration and aspiration are their marks. These are the essentials of\nthe religious life, whatever be the degree of revelation. These were its\nessentials in the psalmist's time, and they are so to-day. As abiding as\nthey, are the blessings consequent. These may all be summed up in\none--the satisfaction of every need and desire. There are two ways of\nseeking for satisfaction: that of effort, violence and reliance on one's\nown teeth and claws to get one's meat; the other that of patient,\nsubmissive trust. Were there lions prowling round the camp at Adullam,\nand did the psalmist take their growls as typical of all vain attempts\nto satisfy the soul? Struggle and force and self-reliant efforts leave\nmen gaunt and hungry. He who takes the path of trust and has his supreme\ndesires set on God, and who looks to Him to give what he himself cannot\nwring out of life, will get first his deepest desires answered in\npossessing God, and will then find that the One great Good is an\nencyclop\u00e6dia of separate goods. They that \"seek Jehovah\" shall assuredly\nfind Him, and in Him everything. He is multiform, and His goodness takes\nmany shapes, according to the curves of the vessels which it fills.\n\"Seek ye first the kingdom of God ... and all these things shall be\nadded unto you.\"\n\nThe mention of the \"fear of the Lord\" prepares the way for the\ntransition to the third part of the psalm. It is purely didactic, and,\nin its simple moral teaching and familiar contrast of the fates of\nrighteous and ungodly, has affinities with the Book of Proverbs; but\nthese are not so special as to require the supposition of\ncontemporaneousness. It is unfashionable now to incline to the Davidic\nauthorship; but would not the supposition that the \"children,\" who are\nto be taught the elements of religion, are the band of outlaws who\nhave gathered round the fugitive, give appropriateness to the\ntransition from the thanksgiving of the first part to the didactic\ntone of the second? We can see them sitting round the singer in the\nhalf-darkness of the cave, a wild group, needing much control and yet\nwith faithful hearts, and loyal to their leader, who now tells them\nthe laws of his camp, at the same time as he sets forth the broad\nprinciples of that morality, which is the garment and manifestation\namong men of the \"fear of the Lord.\" The relations of religion and\nmorals were never more clearly and strikingly expressed than in the\nsimple language of this psalm, which puts the substance of many\nprofound treatises in a nutshell, when it expounds the \"fear of\nJehovah\" as consisting in speaking truth, doing good, abhorring evil\nand seeking peace even when it seems to flee from us. The primal\nvirtues are the same for all ages and stages of revelation. The\ndefinition of good and evil may vary and become more spiritual and\ninward, but the dictum that it is good to love and do good shines\nunalterable. The psalmist's belief that doing good was the sure way to\nenjoy good was a commonplace of Old Testament teaching, and under a\nTheocracy was more distinctly verified by outward facts than now; but\neven then, as many psalms show, had exceptions so stark as to stir\nmany doubts. Unquestionably good in the sense of blessedness is\ninseparable from good in the sense of righteousness, as evil which is\nsuffering is from evil which is sin, but the conception of what\nconstitutes blessedness and sorrow must be modified so as to throw\nmost weight on inward experiences, if such necessary coincidence is to\nbe maintained in the face of patent facts.\n\nThe psalmist closes his song with a bold statement of the general\nprinciple that goodness is blessedness and wickedness is wretchedness;\nbut he finds his proof mainly in the contrasted relation to Jehovah\ninvolved in the two opposite moral conditions. He has no vulgar\nconception of blessedness as resulting from circumstances. The\nloving-kindness of Jehovah is, in his view, prosperity, whatever be\nthe aspect of externals. So with bold symbols, the very grossness of\nthe letter of which shields them from misinterpretation, he declares\nthis as the secret of all blessedness, that Jehovah's eyes are towards\nthe righteous and His ears open to their cry. The individual\nexperiences of vv. 5 and 6 are generalised. The eye of God--_i.e._\nHis loving observance--rests upon and blesses those whose faces are\nturned to Him, and His ear hears the poor man's cry. The grim\nantithesis, which contains in itself the seeds of all unrest, is that\nthe \"face of Jehovah\"--_i.e._ His manifested presence, the same face\nin the reflected light of which the faces of the righteous are lit up\nwith gladness and dawning glory--is against evil doers. The moral\ncondition of the beholder determines the operation of the light of\nGod's countenance upon him. The same presence is light and darkness,\nlife and death. Evil and its doers shrivel and perish in its beams, as\nthe sunshine kills creatures whose haunt is the dark, or as Apollo's\nkeen light-arrows slew the monsters of the slime. All else follows\nfrom this double relationship.\n\nThe remainder of the psalm runs out into a detailed description of the\njoyful fate of the lovers of good broken only by one tragic verse (21),\nlike a black rock in the midst of a sunny stream, telling how evil and\nevil-doers end. In ver. 17, as in ver. 5, the verb has no subject\nexpressed, but the supplement of A.V. and R.V., \"the righteous,\" is\nnaturally drawn from the context and is found in the LXX., whether as\npart of the original text, or as supplement thereto, is unknown. The\nconstruction may, as in ver. 6, indicate that whoever cries to Jehovah\nis heard. Hitzig and others propose to transpose vv. 15 and 16, so as to\nget a nearer subject for the verb in the \"righteous\" of ver. 15, and\ndefend the inversion by referring to the alphabetic order in Lam. ii.,\niii., iv., where similarly Pe precedes Ayin; but the present order of\nverses is better as putting the principal theme of this part of the\npsalm--the blessedness of the righteous--in the foreground, and the\nopposite thought as its foil. The main thought of vv. 17-20 is nothing\nmore than the experience of vv. 4-7 thrown into the form of general\nmaxims. They are the commonplaces of religion, but come with strange\nfreshness to a man, when they have been verified in his life. Happy they\nwho can cast their personal experience into such proverbial sayings,\nand, having by faith individualised the general promises, can\nre-generalise the individual experience! The psalmist does not promise\nuntroubled outward good. His anticipation is of troubled lives,\ndelivered because of crying to Jehovah. \"Many are the afflictions,\" but\nmore are the deliverances. Many are the blows and painful is the\npressure, but they break no bones, though they rack and wrench the\nframe. Significant, too, is the sequence of synonyms--righteous,\nbroken-hearted, crushed in spirit, servants, them that take refuge in\nJehovah. The first of these refers mainly to conduct, the second to that\nsubmission of will and spirit which sorrow rightly borne brings about,\nsubstantially equivalent to \"the humble\" or \"afflicted\" of vv. 2 and 6,\nthe third again deals mostly with practice, and the last touches the\nfoundation of all service, submission, and righteousness, as laid in the\nact of faith in Jehovah.\n\nThe last group of vv. 21, 22, puts the teaching of the psalm in one\nterrible contrast, \"Evil shall slay the wicked.\" It were a mere\nplatitude if by \"evil\" were meant misfortune. The same thought of the\ninseparable connection of the two senses of that word, which runs\nthrough the context, is here expressed in the most terse fashion. To\ndo evil is to suffer evil, and all sin is suicide. Its wages is death.\nEvery sin is a strand in the hangman's rope, which the sinner nooses\nand puts round his own neck. That is so because every sin brings\nguilt, and guilt brings retribution. Much more than \"desolate\" is\nmeant in vv. 21 and 22. The word means _to be condemned_ or _held\nguilty_. Jehovah is the Judge; before His bar all actions and\ncharacters are set: His unerring estimate of each brings with it, here\nand now, consequences of reward and punishment which prophesy a\nfuture, more perfect judgment. The redemption of the soul of God's\nservants is the antithesis to that awful experience; and they only,\nwho take refuge in Him, escape it. The full Christian significance of\nthis final contrast is in the Apostle's words, \"There is therefore now\nno condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXV.\n\n 1 Plead my cause, Jehovah, with those who plead against me;\n Fight with those who fight with me.\n 2 Grasp target and shield,\n And stand up in my help,\n 3 And unsheathe lance and battle-axe (?) against my pursuers;\n Say to my soul, Thy salvation am I.\n\n 4 Be the seekers after my life put to shame and dishonoured;\n Be the plotters of my hurt turned back and confounded\n 5 Be they as chaff before the wind,\n And the angel of Jehovah striking them down!\n 6 Be their path darkness and slipperiness,\n And the angel of Jehovah pursuing them!\n\n 7 For without provocation have they hidden for me their net;\n Without provocation have they dug a pit for my life.\n 8 May destruction light on him unawares,\n And his net which he hath hidden snare him;\n Into destruction (the pit?)--may he fall therein!\n\n 9 And my soul shall exult in Jehovah,\n Shall rejoice in His salvation.\n 10 All my bones shall say, Jehovah, who is like Thee,\n Delivering the afflicted from a stronger than he,\n Even the afflicted and poor from his spoiler?\n\n 11 Unjust witnesses rise up;\n Of what I know not they ask me.\n 12 They requite me evil for good--\n Bereavement to my soul!\n 13 But I--in their sickness my garment was sackcloth,\n I afflicted my soul by fasting,\n And my prayer--may it return again (do thou return?) to my own\n bosom.\n 14 As [for] my friend or brother, I dragged myself about (bowed\n myself down?);\n As one mourning for a mother, I bowed down (dragged myself about?)\n in squalid attire.\n 15 And at my tottering they rejoice and assemble themselves;\n Abjects and those whom I know not assemble against me;\n They tear me, and cease not,\n 16 Like the profanest of buffoons for a bit of bread,\n Gnashing their teeth at me.\n\n 17 Lord, how long wilt Thou look on?\n Bring back my soul from their destructions,\n My only one from the young lions.\n 18 I will praise Thee in the great congregation;\n Among people strong [in number] will I sound Thy praise.\n\n 19 Let not my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me,\n Nor my haters without provocation wink the eye.\n 20 For it is not peace they speak,\n And against the quiet of the land they plan words of guile.\n 21 And they open wide their mouth against me;\n They say, Oho! Oho! our eyes have seen.\n\n 22 Thou hast seen, Jehovah: be not deaf;\n Lord, be not far from me!\n 23 Arouse Thyself, and awake for my judgment,\n My God and my Lord, for my suit!\n 24 Judge me according to Thy righteousness, Jehovah, my God,\n And let them not rejoice over me.\n\n 25 Let them not say in their hearts, Oho! our desire!\n Let them not say, We have swallowed him.\n 26 Be those who rejoice over my calamity put to shame and confounded\n together!\n Be those who magnify themselves against me clothed in shame and\n dishonour!\n\n 27 May those who delight in my righteous cause sound out their\n gladness and rejoice,\n And say continually, Magnified be Jehovah,\n Who delights in the peace of His servant.\n 28 And my tongue shall meditate Thy righteousness,\n All day long Thy praise.\n\n\nThe psalmist's life is in danger. He is the victim of ungrateful\nhatred. False accusations of crimes that he never dreamed of are\nbrought against him. He professes innocence, and appeals to Jehovah to\nbe his Advocate and also his Judge. The prayer in ver. 1 a uses the\nsame word and metaphor as David does in his remonstrance with Saul (1\nSam. xxiv. 15). The correspondence with David's situation in the\nSauline persecution is, at least, remarkable, and goes far to sustain\nthe Davidic authorship. The distinctly individual traits in the psalm\nare difficulties in the way of regarding it as a national psalm.\nJeremiah has several coincidences in point of expression and\nsentiment, which are more naturally accounted for as reminiscences by\nthe prophet than as indications that he was the psalmist. His genius\nwas assimilative, and liked to rest itself on earlier utterances.\n\nThe psalm has three parts, all of substantially the same import, and\nmarked off by the conclusion of each being a vow of praise and the\nmain body of each being a cry for deliverance, a characterisation of\nthe enemy as ungrateful and malicious, and a profession of the\nsinger's innocence. We do not look for melodious variations of note in\na cry for help. The only variety to be expected is in its shrill\nintensity and prolongation. The triple division is in accordance with\nthe natural feeling of completeness attaching to the number. If there\nis any difference between the three sets of petitions, it may be\nobserved that the first (vv. 1-10) alleges innocence and vows praise\nwithout reference to others; that the second (vv. 11-18) rises to a\nprofession not only of innocence, but of beneficence and affection met\nby hate, and ends with a vow of public praise; and that the final\nsection (vv. 19-28) has less description of the machinations of the\nenemy and more prolonged appeal to Jehovah for His judgment, and ends,\nnot with a solo of the psalmist's gratitude, but with a chorus of his\nfriends, praising God for his \"prosperity.\"\n\nThe most striking features of the first part are the boldness of the\nappeal to Jehovah to fight for the psalmist and the terrible\nimprecations and magnificent picture in vv. 5, 6. The relation between\nthe two petitions of ver. 1, \"Plead with those who plead against the\"\nand \"Fight with them that fight against me,\" may be variously\ndetermined. Both may be figurative, the former drawn from legal\nprocesses, the latter from the battle-field. But more probably the\npsalmist was really the object of armed attack, and the \"fighting\" was\na grim reality. The suit against him was being carried on, not in a\ncourt, but in the field. The rendering of the R.V. in ver. 1, \"Strive\nwith ... who strive against me,\" obscures the metaphor of a lawsuit,\nwhich, in view of its further expansion in vv. 23, 24 (and in\n\"witnesses\" in ver. 11?), is best retained. That is a daring flight of\nreverent imagination which thinks of the armed Jehovah as starting to\nHis feet to help one poor man. The attitude anticipates Stephen's\nvision of \"the Son of man standing,\" not throned in rest, but risen in\neager sympathy and intent to succour. But the panoply in which the\npsalmist's faith arrays Jehovah, is purely imaginative and, of course,\nhas nothing parallel in the martyr's vision. The \"target\" was smaller\nthan the \"shield\" (2 Chron. ix. 15, 16). Both could not be wielded at\nonce, but the incongruity helps to idealise the bold imagery and to\nemphasise the Divine completeness of protecting power. It is the\npsalmist, and not his heavenly Ally, who is to be sheltered. The two\ndefensive weapons are probably matched by two offensive ones in ver.\n3. The word rendered in the A.V. \"stop\" (\"the way\" being a supplement)\nis more probably to be taken as the name of a weapon, a battle-axe\naccording to some, a dirk or dagger according to others. The ordinary\ntranslation gives a satisfactory sense, but the other is more in\naccordance with the following preposition, with the accents, and with\nthe parallelism of target and shield. In either case, how beautifully\nthe spiritual reality breaks through the warlike metaphor! This armed\nJehovah, grasping shield and drawing spear, utters no battle shout,\nbut whispers consolation to the trembling man crouching behind his\nshield. The outward side of the Divine activity, turned to the foe, is\nmartial and menacing; the inner side is full of tender, secret\nbreathings of comfort and love.\n\nThe previous imagery of the battle-field and the Warrior God moulds the\nterrible wishes in vv. 4-6, which should not be interpreted as having a\nwider reference than to the issue of the attacks on the psalmist. The\nsubstance of them is nothing more than the obverse of his wish for his\nown deliverance, which necessarily is accomplished by the defeat of his\nenemies. The \"moral difficulty\" of such wishes is not removed by\nrestricting them to the special matter in hand, but it is unduly\naggravated if they are supposed to go beyond it. However restricted,\nthey express a stage of feeling far beneath the Christian, and the\nattempt to slur over the contrast is in danger of hiding the glory of\nmidday for fear of not doing justice to the beauty of morning twilight.\nIt is true that the \"imprecations\" of the Psalter are not the offspring\nof passion, and that the psalmists speak as identifying their cause with\nGod's; but when all such considerations are taken into account, these\nprayers against enemies remain distinctly inferior to the code of\nChristian ethics. The more frankly the fact is recognised, the better.\nBut, if we turn from the moral to the poetic side of these verses, what\nstern beauty there is in that awful picture of the fleeing foe, with\nthe angel of Jehovah pressing hard on their broken ranks! The hope which\nhas been embodied in the legends of many nations, that the gods were\nseen fighting for their worshippers, is the psalmist's faith, and in its\nessence is ever true. That angel, whom we heard of in the previous psalm\nas defending the defenceless encampment of them that fear Jehovah,\nfights with and scatters the enemies like chaff before the wind. One\nmore touch of terror is added in that picture of flight in the dark, on\na slippery path, with the celestial avenger close on the fugitives'\nheels, as when the Amorite kings fled down the pass of Beth-horon, and\n\"Jehovah cast great stones from heaven upon them.\" \u00c6schylus or Dante has\nnothing more concentrated or suggestive of terror and beauty than this\npicture.\n\nThe psalmist's consciousness of innocence is the ground of his prayer\nand confidence. Causeless hatred is the lot of the good in this evil\nworld. Their goodness is cause enough; for men's likes and dislikes\nfollow their moral character. Virtue rebukes, and even patient endurance\nirritates. No hostility is so hard to turn into love as that which has\nits origin, not in the attitude of its object, but in instinctive\nconsciousness of contrariety in the depths of the soul. Whoever wills to\nlive near God and tries to shape his life accordingly may make up his\nmind to be the mark for many arrows of popular dislike, sometimes\nlightly tipped with ridicule, sometimes dipped in gall, sometimes\nsteeped in poison, but always sharpened by hostility. The experience is\ntoo uniform to identify the poet by it, but the correspondence with\nDavid's tone in his remonstrances with Saul is, at least, worthy of\nconsideration. The familiar figures of the hunter's snare and pitfall\nrecur here, as expressing crafty plans for destruction, and pass, as in\nother places, into the wish that the lex talionis may fall on the\nwould-be ensnarer. The text appears to be somewhat dislocated and\ncorrupted in vv. 7, 8. The word \"pit\" is needless in ver. 7 _a_, since\nsnares are not usually spread in pits, and it is wanted in the next\nclause, and should therefore probably be transposed. Again, the last\nclause of ver. 8, whether the translation of the A.V. or of the R.V. be\nadopted, is awkward and feeble from the repetition of \"destruction,\" but\nif we read \"pit,\" which involves only a slight change of letters, we\navoid tautology, and preserve the reference to the two engines of craft:\n\"Let his net which he spread catch him; in the pit--let him fall\ntherein!\" The enemy's fall is the occasion of glad praise, not because\nhis intended victim yields to the temptation to take malicious delight\nin his calamity (_Schadenfreude_). His own deliverance, not the other's\ndestruction, makes the singer joyful in Jehovah, and what he vows to\ncelebrate is not the retributive, but the delivering, aspect of the\nDivine act. In such joy there is nothing unworthy of the purest\nforgiving love to foes. The relaxation of the tension of anxiety and\nfear brings the sweetest moments, in the sweetness of which soul and\nbody seem to share, and the very bones, which were consumed and waxed\nold (vi. 3, xxxii. 3), are at ease, and, in their sense of well-being,\nhave a tongue to ascribe it to Jehovah's delivering hand. No physical\nenjoyment surpasses the delight of simple freedom from long torture of\npain, nor are there many experiences so poignantly blessed as that of\npassing out of tempest into calm. Well for those who deepen and hallow\nsuch joy by turning it into praise, and see even in the experiences of\ntheir little lives tokens of the incomparable greatness and\nunparalleled love of their delivering God!\n\nOnce more the singer plunges into the depths, not because his faith\nfails to sustain him on the heights which it had won, but because it\nwould travel the road again, in order to strengthen itself by persistent\nprayers which are not \"vain repetitions.\" The second division (vv.\n11-18) runs parallel with the first, with some differences. The\nreference to \"unjust witnesses\" and their charges of crimes which he had\nnever dreamed of may be but the reappearance of the image of a lawsuit,\nas in ver. 1, but is more probably fact. We may venture to think of the\nslanders which poisoned Saul's too jealous mind, just as in \"They\nrequite me evil for good\" we have at least a remarkable verbal\ncoincidence with the latter's burst of tearful penitence (1 Sam. xxiv.\n17): \"Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rendered unto me\ngood, whereas I have rendered unto thee evil.\" What a wail breaks the\ncontinuity of the sentence in the pathetic words of ver. 12\n_b_!--\"Bereavement to my soul!\" The word is used again in Isa. xlviii.\n7, 8, and there is translated \"loss of children.\" The forlorn man felt\nas if all whom he loved were swept away, and he left alone to face the\nstorm. The utter loneliness of sorrow was never more vividly expressed.\nThe interjected clause sounds like an agonised cry forced from a man on\nthe rack. Surely we hear in it not the voice of a personified nation,\nbut of an individual sufferer, and if we have been down into the depths\nourselves, we recognise the sound. The consciousness of innocence\nmarking the former section becomes now the assertion of active sympathy,\nmet by ungrateful hate. The power of kindness is great, but there are\nill-conditioned souls which resent it. There is too much truth in the\ncynical belief that the sure way to make an enemy is to do a kindness.\nIt is all too common an experience that the more abundantly one loves,\nthe less he is loved. The highest degree of unrequited participation in\nothers' sorrows is seen in Him who \"Himself took our sicknesses.\" This\npsalmist so shared in those of his foes that in sackcloth and with\nfasting he prayed for their healing. Whether the prayer was answered to\nthem or not, it brought reflex blessing to him, for self-forgetting\nsympathy is never waste, even though it does not secure returns of\ngratitude. \"Your peace shall return to you again,\" though it may not\nbring peace to nor with a jangling household. Riehm (in Hupfeld)\nsuggests the transposition of the verbs in 14 _a_ and _b_: \"I _bowed\ndown_ as though he had been my friend or brother; I _went_ in mourning,\"\netc., the former clause painting the drooping head of a mourner, the\nlatter his slow walk and sad attire, either squalid or black.\n\nThe reverse of this picture of true sympathy is given in the conduct\nof its objects when it was the psalmist's turn to sorrow. Gleefully\nthey flock together to mock and triumph. His calamity was as good as a\nfeast to the ingrates. Vv. 15 and 16 are in parts obscure, but the\ngeneral sense is clear. The word rendered \"abjects\" is unique, and\nconsequently its meaning is doubtful, and various conjectural\nemendations have been proposed--_e.g._, \"foreigners,\" which, as\nHupfeld says, is \"as foreign to the connection as can be,\" \"smiting,\"\nand others--but the rendering \"abjects,\" or men of low degree, gives\nan intelligible meaning. The comparison in ver. 16 _a_ is extremely\nobscure. The existing text is harsh; \"profane of mockers for a cake\"\nneeds much explanation to be intelligible. \"Mockers for a cake\" are\nusually explained to be hangers-on at feasts who found wit for dull\nguests and were paid by a share of good things, or who crept into\nfavour and entertainment by slandering the objects of the host's\ndislike. Another explanation, suggested by Hupfeld as an alternative,\nconnects the word rendered \"mockers\" with the imagery in \"tear\" (ver.\n15) and \"gnash\" (ver. 16) and \"swallow\" (ver. 25), and by an\nalteration of one letter gets the rendering \"like profane\ncake-devourers,\" so comparing the enemies to greedy gluttons, to whom\nthe psalmist's ruin is a dainty morsel eagerly devoured.\n\nThe picture of his danger is followed, as in the former part, by the\npsalmist's prayer. To him God's beholding without interposing is\nstrange, and the time seems protracted; for the moments creep when\nsorrow-laden, and God's help seems slow to tortured hearts. But the\nimpatience which speaks of itself to Him is soothed, and, though the\nman who cries, _How long?_ may feel that his life lies as among lions,\nhe will swiftly change his note of petition into thanksgiving. The\ndesignation of the life as \"my only one,\" as in xxii. 20, enhances the\nearnestness of petition by the thought that, once lost, it can never\nbe restored. A man has but one life; therefore he holds it so dear.\nThe mercy implored for the single soul will be occasion of praise\nbefore many people. Not now, as in vv. 9, 10, is the thankfulness a\nprivate soliloquy. Individual blessings should be publicly\nacknowledged, and the praise accruing thence may be used as a plea\nwith God, who delivers men that they may \"show forth the excellencies\nof Him who hath called them out of\" trouble into His marvellous peace.\n\nThe third division (ver. 18 to end) goes over nearly the same ground\nas before, with the difference that the prayer for deliverance is\nmore extended, and that the resulting praise comes from the great\ncongregation, joining in as chorus in the singer's solo. The former\nreferences to innocence and causeless hatred, lies and plots,\nopen-mouthed rage, are repeated. \"Our eyes have seen,\" say the\nenemies, counting their plots as good as successful and snorting\ncontempt of their victim's helplessness; but he bethinks him of\nanother eye, and grandly opposes God's sight to theirs. Usually that\nJehovah sees is, in the Psalter, the same as His helping; but here, as\nin ver. 17, the two things are separated, as they so often are, in\nfact, for the trial of faith. God's inaction does not disprove His\nknowledge, but the pleading soul presses on Him His knowledge as a\nplea that He would not be deaf to its cry nor far from its help. The\ngreedy eyes of the enemy round the psalmist gloat on their prey; but\nhe cries aloud to his God, and dares to speak to Him as if He were\ndeaf and far off, inactive and asleep. The imagery of the lawsuit\nreappears in fuller form here. \"My cause\" in ver. 23 is a noun cognate\nwith the verb rendered \"plead\" or \"strive\" in ver. 1; \"Judge me\" in\nver. 24 does not mean, Pronounce sentence on my character and conduct,\nbut, Do me right in this case of mine _versus_ my gratuitous foes.\n\nAgain recurs the prayer for their confusion, which clearly has no\nwider scope than concerning the matter in hand. It is no breach of\nChristian charity to pray that hostile devices may fail. The vivid\nimagination of the poet hears the triumphant exclamations of gratified\nhatred: \"Oho! our desire!\" \"We have swallowed him,\" and sums up the\ncharacter of his enemies in the two traits of malicious joy in his\nhurt and self-exaltation in their hostility to him.\n\nAt last the prayer, which has run through so many moods of feeling,\nsettles itself into restful contemplation of the sure results of\nJehovah's sure deliverance. One receives the blessing; many rejoice in\nit. In significant antithesis to the enemies' joy is the joy of the\nrescued man's lovers and favourers. Their \"saying\" stands over against\nthe silenced boastings of the losers of the suit. The latter\n\"magnified themselves,\" but the end of Jehovah's deliverance will be\nthat true hearts will \"magnify\" Him. The victor in the cause will give\nall the praise to the Judge, and he and his friends will unite in\nself-oblivious praise. Those who delight in his righteousness are of\none mind with Jehovah, and magnify Him because He \"delights in the\npeace of His servant.\" While they ring out their praises, the humble\nsuppliant, whose cry has brought the Divine act which has waked all\nthis surging song, \"shall musingly speak in the low murmur of one\nentranced by a sweet thought\" (Cheyne), or, if we might use a fine old\nword, shall \"croon\" over God's righteousness all the day long. That is\nthe right end of mercies received. Whether there be many voices to\njoin in praise or no, one voice should not be silent, that of the\nreceiver of the blessings, and, even when he pauses in his song, his\nheart should keep singing day-long and life-long praises.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXVI.\n\n 1 The wicked has an Oracle of Transgression within his heart;\n There is no fear of God before his eyes.\n 2 For it speaks smooth things to him in his imagination (eyes)\n As to finding out his iniquity, as to hating [it].\n\n 3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit;\n He has ceased being wise, doing good.\n 4 He plots mischief upon his bed;\n He sets himself firmly in a way [that is] not good;\n Evil he loathes not.\n\n 5 Jehovah, Thy loving-kindness is in the heavens,\n Thy faithfulness is unto the clouds.\n 6 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God,\n Thy judgments a mighty deep;\n Man and beast preservest Thou, Jehovah.\n\n 7 How precious is Thy loving-kindness, Jehovah, O God!\n And the sons of men in the shadow of Thy wings take refuge.\n 8 They are satisfied from the fatness of Thy house,\n And [of] the river of Thy delights Thou givest them to drink.\n 9 For with Thee is the fountain of life;\n In Thy light do we see light.\n\n 10 Continue Thy loving-kindness to those who know Thee,\n And Thy righteousness to the upright in heart.\n 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me,\n And the hand of the wicked--let it not drive me forth.\n\n 12 There the workers of iniquity are fallen;\n They are struck down, and are not able to rise.\n\n\nThe supposition that the sombre picture of \"the wicked\" in vv. 1-4 was\noriginally unconnected with the glorious hymn in vv. 5-9 fails to give\nweight to the difference between the sober pace of pedestrian prose and\nthe swift flight of winged poetry. It fails also in apprehending the\ninstinctive turning of a devout meditative spectator from the darkness\nof earth and its sins to the light above. The one refuge from the sad\nvision of evil here is in the faith that God is above it all, and that\nHis name is Mercy. Nor can the blackness of the one picture be anywhere\nso plainly seen as when it is set in front of the brightness of the\nother. A religious man, who has laid to heart the miserable sights of\nwhich earth is full, will scarcely think that the psalmist's quick\naverting of his eyes from these to steep them in the light of God is\nunnatural, or that the original connection of the two parts of this\npsalm is an artificial supposition. Besides this, the closing section of\nprayer is tinged with references to the first part, and derives its\n_raison d'\u00eatre_ from it. The three parts form an organic whole.\n\nThe gnarled obscurity of the language in which the \"wicked\" is described\ncorresponds to the theme, and contrasts strikingly with the limpid flow\nof the second part. \"The line, too, labours\" as it tries to tell the\ndark thoughts that move to dark deeds. Vv. 1, 2, unveil the secret\nbeliefs of the sinner, vv. 3, 4, his consequent acts. As the text\nstands, it needs much torturing to get a tolerable meaning out of ver.\n1, and the slight alteration, found in the LXX. and in some old\nversions, of \"his heart\" instead of \"my heart\" smooths the difficulty.\nWe have then a bold personification of \"Transgression\" as speaking in\nthe secret heart of the wicked, as in some dark cave, such as heathen\noracle-mongers haunted. There is bitter irony in using the sacred word\nwhich stamped the prophets' utterances, and which we may translate\n\"oracle,\" for the godless lies muttered in the sinner's heart. This is\nthe account of how men come to do evil: that there is a voice within\nwhispering falsehood. And the reason why that bitter voice has the\nshrine to itself is that \"there is no fear of God before\" the man's\n\"eyes.\" The two clauses of ver. 1 are simply set side by side, leaving\nthe reader to spell out their logical relation. Possibly the absence of\nthe fear of God may be regarded as both the occasion and the result of\nthe oracle of Transgression, since, in fact, it is both. Still more\nobscure is ver. 2. Who is the \"flatterer\"? The answers are conflicting.\nThe \"wicked,\" say some, but if so, \"in his own eyes\" is superfluous;\n\"God,\" say others, but that requires a doubtful meaning for\n\"flatters\"--namely, \"treats gently\"--and is open to the same objection\nas the preceding in regard to \"in his own eyes.\" The most natural\nsupposition is that \"transgression,\" which was represented in ver. 1 as\nspeaking, is here also meant. Clearly the person in whose eyes the\nflattery is real is the wicked, and therefore its speaker must be\nanother. \"Sin beguiled me,\" says Paul, and therein echoes this psalmist.\nTransgression in its oracle is one of \"those juggling fiends that palter\nwith us in a double sense,\" promising delights and impunity. But the\nclosing words of ver. 2 are a crux. Conjectural emendations have been\nsuggested, but do not afford much help. Probably the best way is to take\nthe text as it stands, and make the best of it. The meaning it yields is\nharsh, but tolerable: \"to find out his sin, to hate\" (it?). Who finds\nout sin? God. If He is the finder, it is He who also \"hates\"; and if it\nis sin that is the object of the one verb, it is most natural to suppose\nit that of the other also. The two verbs are infinitives, with the\npreposition of purpose or of reference prefixed. Either meaning is\nallowable. If the preposition is taken as implying reference, the sense\nwill be that the glosing whispers of sin deceive a man in regard to the\ndiscovery of his wrong-doing and God's displeasure at it. Impunity is\npromised, and God's holiness is smoothed down. If, on the other hand,\nthe idea of purpose is adopted, the solemn thought emerges that the\noracle is spoken with intent to ruin the deluded listener and set his\nsecret sins in the condemning light of God's face. Sin is cruel, and a\ntraitor. This profound glimpse into the depths of a soul without the\nfear of God is followed by the picture of the consequences of such\npractical atheism, as seen in conduct. It is deeply charged with\nblackness and unrelieved by any gleam of light. Falsehood, abandonment\nof all attempts to do right, insensibility to the hallowing influences\nof nightly solitude, when men are wont to see their evil more clearly in\nthe dark, like phosphorus streaks on the wall, obstinate planting the\nfeet in ways not good, a silenced conscience which has no movement of\naversion to evil--these are the fruits of that oracle of Transgression\nwhen it has its perfect work. We may call such a picture the\nidealisation of the character described, but there have been men who\nrealised it, and the warning is weighty that such a uniform and\nall-enwrapping darkness is the terrible goal towards which all listening\nto that bitter voice tends. No wonder that the psalmist wrenches himself\nswiftly away from such a sight!\n\nThe two strophes of the second division (vv. 5, 6, and 7-9) present\nthe glorious realities of the Divine name in contrast with the false\noracle of vv. 1, 2, and the blessedness of God's guests in contrast\nwith the gloomy picture of the \"wicked\" in vv. 3, 4. It is noteworthy\nthat the first and last-named \"attributes\" are the same.\n\"Loving-kindness\" begins and ends the glowing series. That stooping,\nactive love encloses, like a golden circlet, all else that men can\nknow or say of the perfection whose name is God. It is the white beam\ninto which all colours melt, and from which all are evolved. As\nscience feels after the reduction of all forms of physical energy to\none, for which there is no name but energy, all the adorable glories\nof God pass into one, which He has bidden us call love. \"Thy\nloving-kindness is in the heavens,\" towering on high. It is like some\nDivine \u00e6ther, filling all space. The heavens are the home of light.\nThey arch above every head; they rim every horizon; they are filled\nwith nightly stars; they open into abysses as the eye gazes; they bend\nunchanged and untroubled above a weary earth; from them fall\nbenedictions of rain and sunshine. All these subordinate allusions may\nlie in the psalmist's thought, while its main intention is to magnify\nthe greatness of that mercy as heaven-high.\n\nBut mercy standing alone might seem to lack a guarantee of its\nduration, and therefore the strength of \"faithfulness,\" unalterable\ncontinuance in a course begun, and adherence to every promise either\nspoken in words or implied in creation or providence, is added to the\ntenderness of mercy. The boundlessness of that faithfulness is the\nmain thought, but the contrast of the whirling, shifting clouds with\nit is striking. The realm of eternal purpose and enduring act reaches\nto and stretches above the lower region where change rules.\n\nBut a third glory has yet to be flashed before glad eyes, God's\n\"righteousness,\" which here is not merely nor mainly punitive, but\ndelivering, or, perhaps in a still wider view, the perfect conformity\nof His nature with the ideal of ethical completeness. Right is the\nsame for heaven as for earth, and \"whatsoever things are just\" have\ntheir home in the bosom of God. The point of comparison with \"the\nmountains of God\" is, as in the previous clauses, their loftiness,\nwhich expresses greatness and elevation above our reach; but the\nsubsidiary ideas of permanence and sublimity are not to be overlooked.\n\"The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but His\nrighteousness endures for ever.\" There is safe hiding there, in the\nfastnesses of that everlasting hill. From character the psalmist\npasses to acts, and sets all the Divine dealings forth under the one\ncategory of \"judgments,\" the utterances in act of His judicial\nestimate of men. Mountains seem highest and ocean broadest when the\nformer rise sheer from the water's edge, as Carmel does. The\nimmobility of the silent hills is wonderfully contrasted with the\never-moving sea, which to the Hebrew was the very home of mystery. The\nobscurity of the Divine judgments is a subject of praise, if we hold\nfast by faith in God's loving-kindness, faithfulness, and\nrighteousness. They are obscure by reason of their vast scale, which\npermits the vision of only a fragment. How little of the ocean is seen\nfrom any shore! But there is no arbitrary obscurity. The sea is \"of\nglass mingled with fire\"; and if the eye cannot pierce its depths, it\nis not because of any darkening impurity in the crystal clearness, but\nsimply because not even light can travel to the bottom. The higher up\non the mountains men go, the deeper down can they see into that ocean.\nIt is a hymn, not an indictment, which says, \"Thy judgments are a\ngreat deep.\" But however the heights tower and the abysses open, there\nis a strip of green, solid earth on which \"man and beast\" live in\nsafe plenty. The plain blessings of an all-embracing providence should\nmake it easier to believe in the unmingled goodness of acts which are\ntoo vast for men to judge and of that mighty name which towers above\ntheir conceptions. What they see is goodness; what they cannot see\nmust be of a piece. The psalmist is in \"that serene and blessed mood\"\nwhen the terrible mysteries of creation and providence do not\ninterfere with his \"steadfast faith that all which he beholds is full\nof blessings.\" There are times when these mysteries press with\nagonising force on devout souls, but there should also be moments when\nthe pure love of the perfectly good God is seen to fill all space and\noutstretch all dimensions of height and depth and breadth. The awful\nproblems of pain and death will be best dealt with by those who can\necho the rapture of this psalm.\n\nIf God is such, what is man's natural attitude to so great and sweet a\nname? Glad wonder, accepting His gift as the one precious thing, and\nfaith sheltering beneath the great shadow of His outstretched wing.\nThe exclamation in ver. 8, \"How precious is Thy loving-kindness!\"\nexpresses not only its intrinsic value, but the devout soul's\nappreciation of it. The secret of blessedness and test of true wisdom\nlie in a sane estimate of the worth of God's loving-kindness as\ncompared with all other treasures. Such an estimate leads to trust in\nHim, as the psalmist implies by his juxtaposition of the two clauses\nof ver. 7, though he connects them, not by an expressed \"therefore,\"\nbut by the simple copula. The representation of trust as taking refuge\nreappears here, with its usual suggestions of haste and peril. The\n\"wing\" of God suggests tenderness and security. And the reason for\ntrust is enforced in the designation \"sons of men,\" partakers of\nweakness and mortality, and therefore needing the refuge which, in the\nwonderfulness of His loving-kindness, they find under the pinions of\nso great a God.\n\nThe psalm follows the refugees into their hiding-place, and shows how\nmuch more than bare shelter they find there. They are God's guests,\nand royally entertained as such. The joyful priestly feasts in the\nTemple colour the metaphor, but the idea of hospitable reception of\nguests is the more prominent. The psalmist speaks the language of that\ntrue and wholesome mysticism without which religion is feeble and\nformal. The root ideas of his delineation of the blessedness of the\nfugitives to God are their union with God and possession of Him. Such\nis the magical might of lowly trust that by it weak dying \"sons of\nmen\" are so knit to the God whose glories the singer has been\ncelebrating that they partake of Himself and are saturated with His\nsufficiency, drink of His delights in some deep sense, bathe in the\nfountain of life, and have His light for their organ and medium and\nobject of sight. These great sentences beggar all exposition. They\ntouch on the rim of infinite things, whereof only the nearer fringe\ncomes within our ken in this life. The soul that lives in God is\nsatisfied, having real possession of the only adequate object. The\nvariety of desires, appetites, and needs requires manifoldness in\ntheir food, but the unity of our nature demands that all that\nmanifoldness should be in One. Multiplicity in objects, aims, loves,\nis misery; oneness is blessedness. We need a lasting good and an\never-growing one to meet and unfold the capacity of indefinite growth.\nNothing but God can satisfy the narrowest human capacity.\n\nUnion with Him is the source of all delight, as of all true fruition\nof desires. Possibly a reference to Eden may be intended in the\nselection of the word for \"pleasures,\" which is a cognate with that\nname. So there may be allusion to the river which watered that garden,\nand the thought may be that the present life of the guest of God is\nnot all unlike the delights of that vanished paradise. We may perhaps\nscarcely venture on supposing that \"Thy pleasures\" means those which\nthe blessed God Himself possesses; but even if we take the lower and\nsafer meaning of those which God gives, we may bring into connection\nChrist's own gift to His disciples of His own peace, and His assurance\nthat faithful servants will \"enter into the joy of their Lord.\"\nShepherd and sheep drink of the same brook by the way and of the same\nliving fountains above. The psalmist's conception of religion is\nessentially joyful. No doubt there are sources of sadness peculiar to\na religious man, and he is necessarily shut out from much of the\neffervescent poison of earthly joys drugged with sin. Much in his life\nis inevitably grave, stern, and sad. But the sources of joy opened are\nfar deeper than those that are closed. Surface wells (many of them\nlittle better than open sewers) may be shut up, but an unfailing\nstream is found in the desert. Satisfaction and joy flow from God,\nbecause life and light are with Him; and therefore he who is with Him\nhas them for his. \"With Thee is the fountain of life\" is true in every\nsense of the word \"life.\" In regard to life natural, the saying\nembodies a loftier conception of the Creator's relation to the\ncreature than the mechanical notion of creation. The fountain pours\nits waters into stream or basin, which it keeps full by continual\nflow. Stop the efflux, and these are dried up. So the great mystery of\nlife in all its forms is as a spark from a fire, a drop from a\nfountain, or, as Scripture puts it in regard to man, a breath from\nGod's own lips. In a very real sense, wherever life is, there God is,\nand only by some form of union with Him or by the presence of His\npower, which is Himself, do creatures live. But the psalm is dealing\nwith the blessings belonging to those who trust beneath the shadow of\nGod's wing; therefore life here, in this verse, is no equivalent to\nmere existence, physical or self-conscious, but it must be taken in\nits highest spiritual sense. Union with God is its condition, and that\nunion is brought to pass by taking refuge with Him. The deep words\nanticipated the explicit teaching of the Gospel in so far as they\nproclaimed these truths, but the greatest utterance still remained\nunspoken: that this life is \"in His Son.\"\n\nLight and life are closely connected. Whether knowledge, purity, or\njoy is regarded as the dominant idea in the symbol, or whether all are\nunited in it, the profound words of the psalm are true. In God's light\nwe see light. In the lowest region \"the seeing eye is from the Lord.\"\n\"The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding.\" Faculty and\nmedium of vision are both of Him. But hearts in communion with God are\nillumined, and they who are \"in the light\" cannot walk in darkness.\nPractical wisdom is theirs. The light of God, like the star of the\nMagi, stoops to guide pilgrims' steps. Clear certitude as to sovereign\nrealities is the guerdon of the guests of God. Where other eyes see\nnothing but mists, they can discern solid land and the gleaming towers\nof the city across the sea. Nor is that light only the dry light by\nwhich we know, but it means purity and joy also; and to \"see light\" is\nto possess these too by derivation from the purity and joy of God\nHimself. He is the \"master light of all our seeing.\" The fountain has\nbecome a stream, and taken to itself movement towards men; for the\npsalmist's glowing picture is more than fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who\nhas said, \"I am the Light of the world; he that followeth me shall not\nwalk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.\"\n\nThe closing division is prayer, based both upon the contemplation of\nGod's attributes in vv. 5, 6, and of the wicked in the first part. This\ndistinct reference to both the preceding sections is in favour of the\noriginal unity of the psalm. The belief in the immensity of Divine\nloving-kindness and righteousness inspires the prayer for their\nlong-drawn-out (so \"continue\" means literally) continuance to the\npsalmist and his fellows. He will not separate himself from these in his\npetition, but thinks of them before himself. \"Those who know Thee\" are\nthose who take refuge under the shadow of the great wing. Their\nknowledge is intimate, vital; it is acquaintanceship, not mere\nintellectual apprehension. It is such as to purge the heart and make its\npossessors upright. Thus we have set forth in that sequence of trust,\nknowledge, and uprightness stages of growing Godlikeness closely\ncorresponding to the Gospel sequence of faith, love, and holiness. Such\nsouls are _capaces Dei_, fit to receive the manifestations of God's\nloving-kindness and righteousness; and from such these will never\nremove. They will stand stable as His firm attributes, and the spurning\nfoot of proud oppressors shall not trample on them, nor violent hands be\nable to stir them from their steadfast, secure place. The prayer of the\npsalm goes deeper than any mere deprecation of earthly removal, and is\nbut prosaically understood, if thought to refer to exile or the like.\nThe dwelling-place from which it beseeches that the suppliant may never\nbe removed is his safe refuge beneath the wing, or in the house, of God.\nChrist answered it when He said, \"No man is able to pluck them out of my\nFather's hand.\" The one desire of the heart which has tasted the\nabundance, satisfaction, delights, fulness of life, and clearness of\nlight that attend the presence of God is that nothing may draw it\nthence.\n\nPrayer wins prophetic certitude. From his serene shelter under the\nwing, the suppliant looks out on the rout of battled foes, and sees\nthe end which gives the lie to the oracle of transgression and its\nflatteries. \"They are struck down,\" the same word as in the picture of\nthe pursuing angel of the Lord in Psalm xxxv. Here the agent of their\nfall is unnamed, but one power only can inflict such irrevocable ruin.\nGod, who is the shelter of the upright in heart, has at last found out\nthe sinners' iniquity, and His hatred of sin stands ready to \"smite\nonce, and smite no more.\"\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXVII.\n\n 1 (\u05d0) Heat not thyself because of the evil-doers;\n Be not envious because of the workers of perversity\n 2 For like grass shall they swiftly fade,\n And like green herbage shall they wither.\n\n 3 (\u05d1) Trust in Jehovah, and do good;\n Inhabit the land, and feed on faithfulness.\n 4 And delight thyself in Jehovah,\n And He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.\n\n 5 (\u05d2) Roll thy way upon Jehovah,\n And trust in Him, and He shall do [all that thou dost need].\n 6 And He shall bring forth as the light thy righteousness,\n And thy judgment as the noonday.\n\n 7 (\u05d3) Be silent to Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him;\n Heat not thyself because of him who makes his way prosperous,\n Because of the man who carries out intrigues.\n\n 8 (\u05d4) Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;\n Heat not thyself: [it leads] only to doing evil.\n 9 For evil-doers shall be cut off;\n And they who wait on Jehovah--they shall inherit the land.\n\n 10 (\u05d5) And yet a little while, and the wicked is no more,\n And thou shalt take heed to his place, and he is not [there].\n 11 And the meek shall inherit the land,\n And delight themselves in the abundance of peace.\n\n 12 (\u05d6) The wicked intrigues against the righteous,\n And grinds his teeth at him.\n 13 The Lord laughs at him,\n For He sees that his day is coming.\n\n 14 (\u05d7) The wicked draw sword and bend their bow,\n To slay the afflicted and poor,\n To butcher the upright in way;\n 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart,\n And their bows shall be broken.\n\n 16 (\u05d8) Better is the little of the righteous\n Than the abundance of many wicked.\n 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,\n And Jehovah holds up the righteous.\n\n 18 (\u05d9) Jehovah has knowledge of the days of the perfect,\n And their inheritance shall be for ever;\n 19 They shall not be put to shame in the time of evil,\n And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.\n\n 20 (\u05db) For the wicked shall perish,\n And the enemies of Jehovah shall be like the beauty of the\n pastures;\n They melt away in smoke: they melt away.\n\n 21 (\u05dc) The wicked borrows, and does not pay;\n And the righteous deals generously, and gives.\n 22 For His blessed ones shall inherit the earth,\n And His cursed ones shall be cut off.\n\n 23 (\u05de) From Jehovah are a man's steps established,\n And He delighteth in his way;\n 24 If he falls, he shall not lie prostrate,\n For Jehovah holds up his hand.\n\n 25 (\u05e0) A youth have I been, now I am old,\n And I have not seen a righteous man forsaken,\n Or his seed begging bread.\n 26 All day long he is dealing generously and lending,\n And his seed is blessed.\n\n 27 (\u05e1) Depart from evil, and do good;\n And dwell for evermore.\n 28 For Jehovah loves judgment,\n And forsakes not them whom He favours.\n\n (\u05e2) They are preserved for ever\n (The unrighteous are destroyed for ever?),\n And the seed of the wicked is cut off.\n 29 The righteous shall inherit the land,\n And dwell thereon for ever.\n\n 30 (\u05e4) The mouth of the righteous meditates wisdom,\n And his tongue speaks judgment.\n 31 The law of his God is in his heart;\n His steps shall not waver.\n\n 32 (\u05e6) The wicked watches the righteous,\n And seeks to slay him;\n 33 Jehovah will not leave him in his hand,\n And will not condemn him when he is judged.\n\n 34 (\u05e7) Wait for Jehovah, and keep His way,\n And He will exalt thee to inherit the land;\n When the wicked is cut off, thou shalt see [it].\n\n 35 (\u05e8) I have seen the wicked terror-striking\n And spreading himself abroad like [a tree] native to the soil\n [and] green.\n 36 And he passed (I passed by?), and lo, he was not [there];\n And I sought for him, and he was not to be found.\n\n 37 (\u05e9) Mark the perfect, and behold the upright;\n For there is a posterity to the man of peace.\n 38 And apostates are destroyed together;\n The posterity of the wicked is cut off.\n\n 39 (\u05ea) And the salvation of the righteous is from Jehovah,\n Their stronghold in time of trouble.\n 40 And Jehovah helps them and rescues them;\n He rescues them from the wicked, and saves them,\n Because they take refuge in Him.\n\n\nThere is a natural connection between acrostic structure and didactic\ntone, as is shown in several instances, and especially in this psalm.\nThe structure is on the whole regular, each second verse beginning\nwith the required letter, but here and there the period is curtailed\nor elongated by one member. Such irregularities do not seem to mark\nstages in the thought or breaks in the sequence, but are simply\nreliefs to the monotony of the rhythm, like the shiftings of the place\nof the pause in blank verse, the management of which makes the\ndifference between a master and a bungler. The psalm grapples with the\nproblem which tried the faith of the Old Testament saints--namely, the\napparent absence of correlation of conduct with condition--and solves\nit by the strong assertion of the brevity of godless prosperity and\nthe certainty that well-doing will lean to well-being. The principle\nis true absolutely in the long run, but there is no reference in the\npsalm to the future life. Visible material prosperity is its promise\nfor the righteous, and the opposite its threatening for the godless.\nNo doubt retribution is not wholly postponed till another life, but it\ndoes not fall so surely and visibly as this psalm would lead us to\nexpect. The relative imperfection of the Old Testament revelation is\nreflected in the Psalms, faith's answer to Heaven's word. The clear\nlight of New Testament revelation of the future is wanting, nor could\nthe truest view of the meaning and blessedness of sorrow be adequately\nand proportionately held before Christ had taught it by His own\nhistory and by His words. The Cross was needed before the mystery of\nrighteous suffering could be fully elucidated, and the psalmist's\nsolution is but provisional. His faith that infinite love ruled and\nthat righteousness was always gain, and sin loss, is grandly and\neternally true. Nor is it to be forgotten that he lived and sang in an\norder of things in which the Divine government had promised material\nblessings as the result of spiritual faithfulness, and that, with\nwhatever anomalies, modest prosperity did, on the whole, attend the\ntrue Israelite. The Scripture books which wrestle most profoundly with\nthe standing puzzle of prosperous evil and afflicted goodness are late\nbooks, not merely because religious reflectiveness was slowly evolved,\nbut because decaying faith had laid Israel open to many wounds, and\nthe condition of things which accompanied the decline of the ancient\norder abounded with instances of triumphant wickedness.\n\nBut though this psalm does not go to the bottom of its theme, its\nteaching of the blessedness of absolute trust in God's providence is\never fresh, and fits close to all stages of revelation; and its\nprophecies of triumph for the afflicted who trust and of confusion to\nthe evil-doer need only to be referred to the end to be completely\nestablished. As a theodicy, or vindication of the ways of God with\nmen, it was true for its age, but the New Testament goes beneath it.\nAs an exhortation to patient trust and an exhibition of the sure\nblessings thereof, it remains what it has been to many generations:\nthe gentle encourager of meek faith and the stay of afflicted hearts.\n\nMarked progress of thought is not to be looked for in an acrostic\npsalm. In the present instance the same ideas are reiterated with\nemphatic persistence, but little addition or variation. To the\ndidactic poet \"to write the same things is not grievous,\" for they are\nhis habitual thoughts; and for his scholars \"it is safe,\" for there is\nno better aid to memory than the cadenced monotony of the same ideas\ncast into song and slightly varied. But a possible grouping may be\nsuggested by observing that the thought of the \"cutting off\" of the\nwicked and the inheritance of the land by the righteous occurs three\ntimes. If it is taken as a kind of refrain, we may cast the psalm into\nfour portions, the first three of which close with that double\nthought. Vv. 1-9 will then form a group, characterised by exhortations\nto trust and assurances of triumph. The second section will then be\nvv. 10-22, which, while reiterating the ground tone of the whole, does\nso with a difference, inasmuch as its main thought is the destruction\nof the wicked, in contrast with the triumph of the righteous in the\npreceding verses. A third division will be vv. 23-29, of which the\nchief feature is the adduction of the psalmist's own experience as\nauthenticating his teaching in regard to the Divine care of the\nrighteous, and that extended to his descendants. The last section (vv.\n30-40) gathers up all, reasserts the main thesis, and confirms it by\nagain adducing the psalmist's experience in confirmation of the other\nhalf of his assurances, namely the destruction of the wicked. But the\npoet does not wish to close his words with that gloomy picture, and\ntherefore this last section bends round again to reiterate and\nstrengthen the promises for the righteous, and its last note is one of\nuntroubled trust and joy in experienced deliverance.\n\nThe first portion (vv. 1-9) consists of a series of exhortations to\ntrust and patience, accompanied by assurance of consequent blessing.\nThese are preceded and followed by a dehortation from yielding to the\ntemptation of fretting against the prosperity of evil-doers, based\nupon the assurance of its transitoriness. Thus the positive precepts\ninculcating the ideal temper to be cultivated are framed in a setting\nof negatives, inseparable from them. The tendency to murmur at\nflaunting wrong must be repressed if the disposition of trust is to be\ncultivated; and, on the other hand, full obedience to the negative\nprecepts is only possible when the positive ones have been obeyed with\nsome degree of completeness. The soul's husbandry must be busied in\ngrubbing up weeds as well as in sowing; but the true way to take away\nnourishment from the baser is to throw the strength of the soil into\ngrowing the nobler crop. \"Fret not thyself\" (A.V.) is literally, \"Heat\nnot thyself,\" and \"Be not envious\" is \"Do not glow,\" the root idea\nbeing that of becoming fiery red. The one word expresses the kindling\nemotion, the other its visible sign in the flushed face. Envy, anger,\nand any other violent and God-forgetting emotion are included. There\nis nothing in the matter in hand worth getting into a heat about, for\nthe prosperity in question is short-lived. This leading conviction\nmoulds the whole psalm, and, as we have pointed out, is half of the\nrefrain. We look for the other half to accompany it, as usual, and we\nfind it in one rendering of ver. 3, which has fallen into discredit\nwith modern commentators, and to which we shall come presently; but\nfor the moment we may pause to suggest that the picture of the herbage\nwithering as soon as cut, under the fierce heat of the Eastern sun,\nmay stand in connection with the metaphors in ver. 1. Why should we\nblaze with indignation when so much hotter a glow will dry up the cut\ngrass? Let it wave in brief glory, unmeddled with by us. The scythe\nand the sunshine will soon make an end. The precept and its reason are\nnot on the highest levels of Christian ethics, but they are unfairly\ndealt with if taken to mean, Do not envy the wicked man's prosperity,\nnor wish it were yours, but solace yourself with the assurance of his\nspeedy ruin. What is said is far nobler than that. It is, Do not let\nthe prosperity of unworthy men shake your faith in God's government,\nnor fling you into an unwholesome heat, for God will sweep away the\nanomaly in due time.\n\nIn regard to the positive precepts, the question arises whether ver. 3\n_b_ is command or promise, with which is associated another question\nas to the translation of the words rendered by the A.V., \"Verily thou\nshalt be fed,\" and by the R.V., \"Follow after faithfulness.\" The\nrelation of the first and second parts of the subsequent verses is in\nfavour of regarding the clause as promise, but the force of that\nconsideration is somewhat weakened by the non-occurrence in ver. 3 of\nthe copula which introduces the promises of the other verses. Still\nits omission does not seem sufficient to forbid taking the clause as\ncorresponding with these. The imperative is similarly used as\nsubstantially a future in ver. 27: \"and dwell for evermore.\" The fact\nthat in every other place in the psalm where \"dwelling in the land\" is\nspoken of it is a promise of the sure results of trust, points to the\nsame sense here, and the juxtaposition of the two ideas in the refrain\nleads us to expect to find the prediction of ver. 2 followed by its\ncompanion there. On the whole, then, to understand ver. 3 _b_ as\npromise seems best. (So LXX., Ewald, Gr\u00e4tz, etc.) What, then, is the\nmeaning of its last words? If they are a continuation of the promise,\nthey must describe some blessed effect of trust. Two renderings\npresent themselves, one that adopted in the R.V. margin, \"Feed\nsecurely,\" and another \"Feed on faithfulness\" (_i.e._, of God).\nHupfeld calls this an \"arbitrary and forced\" reference of\n\"faithfulness\"; but it worthily completes the great promise. The\nblessed results of trust and active goodness are stable dwelling in\nthe land and nourishment there from a faithful God. The thoughts move\nwithin the Old Testament circle, but their substance is eternally\ntrue, for they who take God for their portion have a safe abode, and\nfeed their souls on His unalterable adherence to His promises and on\nthe abundance flowing thence.\n\nThe subsequent precepts bear a certain relation to each other, and,\ntaken together, make a lovely picture of the inner secret of the\ndevout life: \"Delight thyself in Jehovah; roll thy way on Him; trust\nin Him; be silent to Jehovah.\" No man will commit his way to God who\ndoes not delight in Him; and unless he has so committed his way, he\ncannot rest in the Lord. The heart that delights in God, finding its\ntruest joy in Him and being well and at ease when consciously moving\nin Him as an all-encompassing atmosphere and reaching towards Him with\nthe deepest of its desires, will live far above the region of\ndisappointment. For it desire and fruition go together. Longings fixed\non Him fulfil themselves. We can have as much of God as we wish. If He\nis our delight, we shall wish nothing contrary to nor apart from Him,\nand wishes which are directed to Him cannot be in vain. To delight in\nGod is to possess our delight, and in Him to find fulfilled wishes and\nabiding joys. \"Commit thy way unto Him,\" or \"Roll it upon Him\" in the\nexercise of trust; and, as the verse says with grand generality,\nomitting to specify an object for the verb, \"He will do\"--all that is\nwanted, or will finish the work. To roll one's way upon Jehovah\nimplies subordination of will and judgment to Him and quiet confidence\nin His guidance. If the heart delights in Him, and the will waits\nsilent before Him, and a happy consciousness of dependence fills the\nsoul, the desert will not be trackless, nor the travellers fail to\nhear the voice which says, \"This is the way; walk ye in it.\" He who\ntrusts is led, and God works for him, clearing away clouds and\nobstructions. His good may be evil spoken of, but the vindication by\nfact will make his righteousness shine spotless; and his cause may be\napparently hopeless, but God will deliver him. He shall shine forth as\nthe sun, not only in such earthly vindication as the psalmist\nprophesied, but more resplendently, as Christian faith has been gifted\nwith long sight to anticipate, \"in the kingdom of my Father.\" Thus\ndelighting and trusting, a man may \"be silent.\" Be still before\nJehovah, in the silence of a submissive heart, and let not that\nstillness be torpor, but gather thyself together and stretch out thy\nhope towards Him. That patience is no mere passive endurance without\nmurmuring, but implies tension of expectance. Only if it is thus\noccupied will it be possible to purge the heart of that foolish and\nweakening heat which does no harm to any one but to the man himself.\n\"Heat not thyself; it only leads to doing evil.\" Thus the section\nreturns upon itself and once more ends with the unhesitating\nassurance, based upon the very essence of God's covenant with the\nnation, that righteousness is the condition of inheritance, and sin\nthe cause of certain destruction. The narrower application of the\nprinciple, which was all that the then stage of revelation made clear\nto the psalmist, melts away for us into the Christian certainty that\nrighteousness is the condition of dwelling in the true land of\npromise, and that sin is always death, in germ or in full fruitage.\n\nThe refrain occurs next in ver. 22, and the portion thus marked off\n(vv. 10-22) may be dealt with as a smaller whole. After a repetition\n(vv. 10, 11) of the main thesis slightly expanded, it sketches in\nvivid outline the fury of \"the wicked\" against \"the just\" and the grim\nretribution that turns their weapons into agents of their destruction.\nHow dramatically are contrasted the two pictures of the quiet\nrighteous in the former section and of this raging enemy, with his\ngnashing teeth and arsenal of murder! And with what crushing force the\nthought of the awful laughter of Jehovah, in foresight of the swift\nflight towards the blind miscreant of the day of his fall, which has\nalready, as it were, set out on its road, smites his elaborate\npreparations into dust! Silently the good man sits wrapped in his\nfaith. Without are raging, armed foes. Above, the laughter of God\nrolls thunderous, and from the throne the obedient \"day\" is winging\nits flight, like an eagle with lightning bolts in its claws. What can\nthe end be but another instance of the solemn lex talionis, by which a\nman's evil slays himself?\n\nVarious forms of the contrast between the two classes follow, with\nconsiderable repetition and windings. One consideration which has to\nbe taken into account in estimating the distribution of material\nprosperity is strongly put in vv. 16, 17. The good of outward\nblessings depends chiefly on the character of their owner. The\nstrength of the extract from a raw material depends on the solvent\napplied, and there is none so powerful to draw out the last drop of\nmost poignant and pure sweetness from earthly good as is righteousness\nof heart. Naboth's vineyard will yield better wine, if Naboth is\ntrusting in Jehovah, than all the vines of Jezreel or Samaria. \"Many\nwicked\" have not as much of the potentiality of blessedness in all\ntheir bursting coffers as a poor widow may distil out of two mites.\nThe reasons for that are manifold, but the prevailing thought of the\npsalm leads to one only being named here. \"For,\" says ver. 17, \"the\narms of the wicked shall be broken.\" Little is the good of possessions\nwhich cannot defend their owners from the stroke of God's\nexecutioners, but themselves pass away. The poor man's little is much,\nbecause, among other reasons, he is upheld by God, and therefore needs\nnot to cherish anxiety, which embitters the enjoyments of others.\nAgain the familiar thought of permanent inheritance recurs, but now\nwith a glance at the picture just drawn of the destruction coming to\nthe wicked. There are days and days. God saw that day of ruin\nspeeding on its errand, and He has loving sympathetic knowledge of the\ndays of the righteous (i. 6), and holds their lives in His hand;\ntherefore continuance and abundance are ensured.\n\nThe antithetical structure of vv. 16-22 is skilfully varied, so as to\navoid monotony. It is elastic within limits. We note that in the Teth\nstrophe (vv. 16, 17) each verse contains a complete contrast, while in\nthe Yod strophe (vv. 18, 19) one half only of the contrast is\npresented, which would require a similar expansion of the other over\ntwo verses. Instead of this, however, the latter half is compressed\ninto one verse (20), which is elongated by a clause. Then in the Lamed\nstrophe (vv. 21, 22) the briefer form recurs, as in vv. 16, 17. Thus\nthe longer antithesis is enclosed between two parallel shorter ones,\nand a certain variety breaks up the sameness of the swing from one\nside to the other, and suggests a pause in the flow of the psalm. The\nelongated verse (20) reiterates the initial metaphor of withering\nherbage (ver. 2) with an addition, for the rendering \"fat of lambs\"\nmust be given up as incongruous, and only plausible on account of the\nemblem of smoke in the next clause. But the two metaphors are\nindependent. Just as in ver. 2, so here, the gay \"beauty of the\npastures,\" so soon to wilt and be changed into brown barrenness,\nmirrors the fate of the wicked. Ver. 2 shows the grass fallen before\nthe scythe; ver. 20 lets us see it in its flush of loveliness, so\ntragically unlike what it will be when its \"day\" has come. The other\nfigure of smoke is a stereotype in all tongues for evanescence. The\nthick wreaths thin away and melt. Another peculiar form of the\nstanding antithesis appears in the Lamed strophe (vv. 21, 22), which\nsets forth the gradual impoverishment of the wicked and prosperity as\nwell as beneficence of the righteous, and, by the \"for\" of ver. 22,\ntraces these up to the \"curse and blessing of God, which become\nmanifest in the final destiny of the two\" (Delitzsch). Not dishonesty,\nbut bankruptcy, is the cause of \"not paying again\"; while, on the\nother hand, the blessing of God not only enriches, but softens, making\nthe heart which has received grace a well-spring of grace to needy\nones, even if they are foes. The form of the contrast suggests its\ndependence on the promises in Deut. xii. 44, xv. 6, 28. Thus the\nrefrain is once more reached, and a new departure taken.\n\nThe third section is shorter than the preceding (vv. 23-29), and has,\nas its centre, the psalmist's confirmation from his own experience of\nthe former part of his antithesis, the fourth section similarly\nconfirming the second. All this third part is sunny with the Divine\nfavour streaming upon the righteous, the only reference to the wicked\nbeing in the refrain at the close. The first strophe (vv. 23, 24)\ndeclares God's care for the former under the familiar image of\nguidance and support to a traveller. As in vv. 5, 7, the \"way\" is an\nemblem of active life, and is designated as \"his\" who treads it. The\nintention of the psalm, the context of the metaphor, and the\nparallelism with the verses just referred to, settle the reference of\nthe ambiguous pronouns \"he\" and \"his\" in ver. 23 _b_. God delights in\nthe good man's way (i. 6), and that is the reason for His establishing\nhis goings. \"Quoniam Deo grata est piorum via, gressus ipsum ad l\u00e6tum\nfinem adducit\" (Calvin). That promise is not to be limited to either\nthe material or moral region. The ground tone of the psalm is that the\ntwo regions coincide in so far as prosperity in the outer is the\ninfallible index of rightness in the inner. The dial has two sets of\nhands, one within and one without, but both are, as it were, mounted\non the same spindle, and move accurately alike. Steadfast treading in\nthe path of duty and successful undertakings are both included, since\nthey are inseparable in fact. True, even the fixed faith of the\npsalmist has to admit that the good man's path is not always smooth.\nIf facts had not often contradicted his creed, he would never have\nsung his song; and hence he takes into account the case of such a\nman's falling, and seeks to reduce its importance by the\nconsiderations of its recoverableness and of God's keeping hold of the\nman's hand all the while.\n\nThe Nun strophe brings in the psalmist's experience to confirm his\ndoctrine. The studiously impersonal tone of the psalm is dropped only\nhere and in the complementary reference to the fall of the wicked (vv.\n35, 36). Observation and reflection yield the same results. Experience\nseals the declarations of faith. His old eyes have seen much; and the\nnet result is that the righteous may be troubled, but not abandoned,\nand that there is an entail of blessing to their children. In general,\nexperience preaches the same truths to-day, for, on the whole,\nwrong-doing lies at the root of most of the hopeless poverty and\nmisery of modern society. Idleness, recklessness, thriftlessness,\nlust, drunkenness, are the potent factors of it; and if their\nhandiwork and that of the subtler forms of respectable godlessness and\nevil were to be eliminated, the sum of human wretchedness would shrink\nto very small dimensions. The mystery of suffering is made more\nmysterious by ignoring its patent connection with sin, and by denying\nthe name of sin to many of its causes. If men's conduct were judged by\nGod's standard, there would be less wonder at God's judgments\nmanifested in men's suffering.\n\nThe solidarity of the family was more strongly felt in ancient times\nthan in our days of individualism, but even now the children of the\nrighteous, if they maintain the hereditary character, do largely\nrealise the blessing which the psalmist declares is uniformly theirs.\nHe is not to be tied down to literality in his statement of the\ngeneral working of things. What he deals with is the prevailing trend,\nand isolated exceptions do not destroy his assertion. Of course\ncontinuance in paternal virtues is presupposed as the condition of\nsucceeding to paternal good. In the strength of the adduced\nexperience, a hortatory tone, dropped since ver. 8, is resumed, with\nreminiscences of that earlier series of counsels. The secret of\npermanence is condensed into two antithetical precepts, to depart from\nevil and do good, and the key-note is sounded once more in a promise,\ncast into the guise of a commandment (compare ver. 3), of unmoved\nhabitation, which is, however, not to be stretched to refer to a\nfuture life, of which the psalm says nothing. Such permanent abiding\nis sure, inasmuch as Jehovah loves judgment and watches over the\nobjects of His loving-kindness.\n\nThe acrostic sequence fails at this point, if the Masoretic text is\nadhered to. There is evident disorder in the division of verses, for\nver. 28 has four clauses instead of the normal two. If the superfluous\ntwo are detached from it and connected as one strophe with ver. 29, a\nregular two-versed and four-claused strophe results. Its first word\n(L'olam = \"for ever\") has the Ayin, due in the alphabetical sequence,\nin its second letter, the first being a prefixed preposition, which\nmay be passed over, as in ver. 39 the copula Vav is prefixed to the\ninitial letter. Delitzsch takes this to be the required letter; but if\nso, another irregularity remains, inasmuch as the first couplet of the\nstrophe should be occupied with the fate of the wicked, as\nantithetical to that of the righteous in ver. 29. \"They are preserved\nfor ever\" throws the whole strophe out of order. Probably, therefore,\nthere is textual corruption here, which the LXX. helps in correcting.\nIt has an evidently double rendering of the clause, as is not\nunfrequently the case where there is ambiguity or textual difficulty,\nand gives side by side with \"They shall be preserved for ever\" the\nrendering \"The lawless shall be hunted out,\" which can be re-turned\ninto Hebrew so as to give the needed initial Ayin either in a somewhat\nrare word, or in one which occurs in ver. 35. If this correction is\nadopted, the anomalies disappear, and strophe, division, acrostic, and\nantithetical refrain are all in order.\n\nThe last section (ver. 30 to end), like the preceding, has the\npsalmist's experience for its centre, and traces the entail of conduct\nto a second generation of evil-doers, as the former did to the seed of\nthe righteous. Both sections begin with the promise of firmness for the\n\"goings or steps\" of the righteous, but the later verses expand the\nthought by a fuller description of the moral conditions of stability.\n\"The law of his God is in his heart.\" That is the foundation on which\nall permanence is built. From that as centre there issue wise and just\nwords on the one hand and stable deeds on the other. That is true in the\npsalmist's view in reference to outward success and continuance, but\nstill more profoundly in regard to steadfast progress in paths of\nrighteousness. He who orders his footsteps by God's known will is saved\nfrom much hesitancy, vacillation, and stumbling, and plants a firm foot\neven on slippery places.\n\nOnce more the picture of the enmity of the wicked recurs, as in vv.\n12-14, with the difference that there the emphasis was laid on the\ndestruction of the plotters, and here it is put on the vindication of\nthe righteous by acts of deliverance (vv. 32, 33).\n\nIn ver. 34 another irregularity occurs, in its being the only verse in\na strophe and being prolonged to three clauses. This may be intended\nto give emphasis to the exhortation contained in it, which, like that\nin ver. 27, is the only one in its section. The two key words\n\"inherit\" and \"cut off\" are brought together. Not only are the two\nfates set in contrast, but the waiters on Jehovah are promised the\nsight of the destruction of the wicked. Satisfaction at the sight is\nimplied. There is nothing unworthy in solemn thankfulness when God's\njudgments break the teeth of some devouring lion. Divine judgments\nminister occasion for praise even from pure spirits before the throne,\nand men relieved from the incubus of godless oppression may well draw\na long breath of relief, which passes into celebration of His\nrighteous acts. No doubt there is a higher tone, which remembers ruth\nand pity even in that solemn joy; but Christian feeling does not\ndestroy but modify the psalmist's thankfulness for the sweeping away\nof godless antagonism to goodness.\n\nHis assurance to those who wait on Jehovah has his own experience as its\nguarantee (ver. 35), just as the complementary assurance in ver. 24 had\nin ver. 25. The earlier metaphors of the green herbage and the beauty of\nthe pastures are heightened now. A venerable, wide-spreading giant of\nthe forests, rooted in its native soil, is grander than those humble\ngrowths; but for lofty cedars or lowly grass the end is the same. Twice\nthe psalmist stood at the same place; once the great tree laid its large\nlimbs across the field, and lifted a firm bole: again he came, and a\nclear space revealed how great had been the bulk which shadowed it. Not\neven a stump was left to tell where the leafy glory had been.\n\nVv. 37, 38, make the Shin strophe, and simply reiterate the antithesis\nwhich has moulded the whole psalm, with the addition of that reference\nto a second generation which appeared in the third and fourth parts. The\nword rendered in the A.V. and R.V. \"latter end\" here means posterity.\nThe \"perfect man\" is further designated as a \"man of peace.\"\n\nThe psalm might have ended with this gathering together of its\ncontents in one final emphatic statement, but the poet will not leave\nthe stern words of destruction as his last. Therefore he adds a sweet,\nlong-drawn-out close, like the calm, extended clouds, that lie\nmotionless in the western sky after a day of storm, in which he once\nmore sings of the blessedness of those who wait on Jehovah. Trouble\nwill come, notwithstanding his assurances that righteousness is\nblessedness; but in it Jehovah will be a fortress home, and out of it\nHe will save them. However the teaching of the psalm may need\nmodification in order to coincide with the highest New Testament\ndoctrine of the relation between righteousness and prosperity, these\nconfidences need none. For ever and absolutely they are true: in\ntrouble a stronghold, out of trouble a Saviour, is God to all who\ncling to Him. Very beautifully the closing verse lingers on its theme,\nand wreathes its thoughts together, with repetition that tells how\nsweet they are to the singer: \"Jehovah helps them, and _rescues_ them;\nHe _rescues_ them, ... and saves them.\" So the measure of the strophe\nis complete, but the song flows over in an additional clause, which\npoints the path for all who seek such blessedness. Trust is peace.\nThey who take refuge in Jehovah are safe, and their inheritance shall\nbe for ever. That is the psalmist's inmost secret of a blessed life.\n\n\n\n\n PSALM XXXVIII.\n\n 1 Jehovah, not in Thine indignation do Thou rebuke me,\n Nor in Thy hot anger chastise me.\n 2 For Thine arrows are come down into me,\n And down upon me comes Thy hand.\n\n 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thy wrath\n There is no health in my bones because of my sin.\n 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;\n As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.\n\n 5 My bruises smell foully, they run with matter,\n Because of my folly.\n 6 I am twisted [with pain]; I am bowed down utterly;\n All the day I drag about in squalid attire.\n\n 7 For my loins are full of burning,\n And there is no soundness in my flesh.\n 8 I am exhausted and crushed utterly;\n I roar for the sighing of my heart.\n\n 9 Lord, present to Thee is all my desire,\n And my sighing is not hid from Thee.\n 10 My heart flutters, my strength has left me,\n And the light of my eyes--even it is no more with me.\n\n 11 My lovers and friends stand aloof from my stroke,\n And my near [kin] stand far off.\n 12 And they who seek after my life set snares [for me],\n And they who desire my hurt speak destruction,\n And meditate deceits all the day.\n\n 13 And I, like a deaf man, do not hear,\n And am like one dumb, who opens not his mouth.\n 14 Yea, I am become like a man who hears not,\n And in whose mouth are no counter-pleas.\n\n 15 For for Thee, Jehovah, do I wait;\n Thou, Thou wilt answer, O Lord, my God.\n 16 For I said, Lest they should rejoice over me,\n [And] when my foot slips, should magnify themselves over me\n\n 17 For I am ready to fall,\n And my sorrow is continually present to me.\n 18 For I must declare my guilt,\n Be distressed for my sin.\n\n 19 And my enemies are lively, they are strong,\n (And my enemies without cause are strong?)\n And they who wrongfully hate me are many;\n 20 And, requiting evil for good,\n They are my adversaries because I follow good.\n\n 21 Forsake me not, Jehovah;\n My God, be not far from me.\n 22 Haste to my help,\n O God, my salvation.\n\n\nThis is a long-drawn wail, passionate at first, but gradually calming\nitself into submission and trust, though never passing from the minor\nkey. The name of God is invoked thrice (vv. 1, 9, 15), and each time\nthat the psalmist looks up his burden is somewhat easier to carry, and\nsome \"low beginnings of content\" steal into his heart and mingle with\nhis lament. Sorrow finds relief in repeating its plaint. It is the\nmistake of cold-blooded readers to look for consecution of thought in\nthe cries of a wounded soul; but it is also a mistake to be blind to\nthe gradual sinking of the waves in this psalm, which begins with\ndeprecating God's wrath, and ends with quietly nestling close to Him\nas \"my salvation.\"\n\nThe characteristic of the first burst of feeling is its unbroken\ngloom. It sounds the depths of darkness, with which easy-going,\nsuperficial lives are unfamiliar, but whoever has been down into them\nwill not think the picture overcharged with black. The occasion of the\npsalmist's deep dejection cannot be gathered from his words. He, like\nall poets who teach in song what they learn in suffering, translates\nhis personal sorrows into language fitting for others' pains. The\nfeelings are more important to him and to us than the facts, and we\nmust be content to leave unsettled the question of his circumstances,\non which, after all, little depends. Only, it is hard for the present\nwriter, at least, to believe that such a psalm, quivering, as it\nseems, with agony, is not the genuine cry of a brother's tortured\nsoul, but an utterance invented for a personified nation. The close\nverbal resemblance of the introductory deprecation of chastisement in\nanger to Psalm vi. 1 has been supposed to point to a common\nauthorship, and Delitzsch takes both psalms, along with Psalms xxxii.,\nand li. as a series belonging to the time of David's penitence after\nhis great fall from purity. But the resemblance in question would\nrather favour the supposition of difference of authorship, since\nquotation is more probable than self-repetition. Jer. x. 23 is by some\nheld to be the original, and either Jeremiah himself or some later\nsinger to have been the author of the psalm. The question of which of\ntwo similar passages is source and which is copy is always ticklish.\nJeremiah's bent was assimilative, and his prophecies are full of\nechoes. The priority, therefore, probably lies with one or other of\nthe psalmists, if there are two.\n\nThe first part of the psalm is entirely occupied with the subjective\naspect of the psalmist's affliction. Three elements are conspicuous:\nGod's judgments, the singer's consciousness of sin, and his mental and\nprobably physical sufferings. Are the \"arrows\" and crushing weight of\nGod's \"hand,\" which he deprecates in the first verses, the same as the\nsickness and wounds, whether of mind or body, which he next describes so\npathetically? They are generally taken to be so, but the language of\nthis section and the contents of the remainder of the psalm rather point\nto a distinction between them. It would seem that there are three\nstages, not two, as that interpretation would make them. Unspecified\ncalamities, recognised by the sufferer as God's chastisements, have\nroused his conscience, and its gnawing has superinduced mental and\nbodily pain. The terribly realistic description of the latter may,\nindeed, be figurative, but is more probably literal. The reiterated\nsynonyms for God's displeasure in vv. 1, 3, show how all the aspects of\nthat solemn thought are familiar. The first word regards it as an\noutburst, or explosion, like a charge of dynamite; the second as\n\"glowing, igniting\"; the third as effervescent, bubbling like lava in a\ncrater. The metaphors for the effects of this anger in ver. 2 deepen the\nimpression of its terribleness. It is a fearful fate to be the target\nfor God's \"arrows,\" but it is worse to be crushed under the weight of\nHis \"hand.\" The two forms of representation refer to the same facts, but\nmake a climax. The verbs in ver. 2 are from one root, meaning to come\ndown, or to lie upon. In 2 _a_ the word is reflexive, and represents the\n\"arrows\" as endowed with volition, hurling themselves down. They\npenetrate with force proportionate to the distance which they fall, as a\nmeteoric stone buries itself in the ground. Such being the wounding,\ncrushing power of the Divine \"anger,\" its effects on the psalmist are\nspread out before God, in the remaining part of this first division,\nwith plaintive reiteration. The connection which a quickened conscience\ndiscerns between sorrow and sin is strikingly set forth in ver. 3, in\nwhich \"thine indignation\" and \"my sin\" are the double fountain-heads of\nbitterness. The quivering frame first felt the power of God's anger, and\nthen the awakened conscience turned inwards and discerned the occasion\nof the anger. The three elements which we have distinguished are clearly\nseparated here, and their connection laid bare.\n\nThe second of these is the sense of sin, which the psalmist feels as\ntaking all \"peace\" or well-being out of his \"bones,\" as a flood\nrolling its black waters over his head, as a weight beneath which he\ncannot stand upright, and again as foolishness, since its only effect\nhas been, to bring to him not what he hoped to win by it, but this\nmiserable plight.\n\nThen, he pours himself out, with the monotonous repetition so natural\nto self-pity, in a graphic accumulation of pictures of disease, which\nmay be taken as symbolic of mental distress, but are better understood\nliterally. With the whole, Isa. i. 5, 6, should be compared, nor\nshould the partial resemblances of Isa. liii. be overlooked. No\nfastidiousness keeps the psalmist from describing offensive details.\nHis body is scourged and livid with parti-coloured, swollen weals from\nthe lash, and these discharge foul-smelling matter. With this compare\nIsa. liii. 5, \"His stripes\" (same word). Whatever may be thought of\nthe other physical features of suffering, this must obviously be\nfigurative. Contorted in pain, bent down by weakness, dragging himself\nwearily with the slow gait of an invalid, squalid in attire, burning\nwith inward fever, diseased in every tortured atom of flesh, he is\nutterly worn out and broken (same word as \"bruised,\" Isa. liii. 5).\nInward misery, the cry of the heart, must have outward expression,\nand, with Eastern vehemence in utterance of emotions which Western\nreticence prefers to let gnaw in silence at the roots of life, he\n\"roars\" aloud because his heart groans.\n\nThis vivid picture of the effects of the sense of personal sin will\nseem to superficial modern Christianity, exaggerated and alien from\nexperience; but the deeper a man's godliness, the more will he listen\nwith sympathy, with understanding and with appropriation of such\npiercing laments as his own. Just as few of us are dowered with\nsensibilities so keen as to feel what poets feel, in love or hope, or\ndelight in nature, or with power to express the feelings, and yet can\nrecognise in their winged words the heightened expression of our own\nless full emotions, so the truly devout soul will find, in the most\npassionate of these wailing notes, the completer expression of his own\nexperience. We must go down into the depths and cry to God out of\nthem, if we are to reach sunny heights of communion. Intense\nconsciousness of sin is the obverse of ardent aspiration after\nrighteousness, and that is but a poor type of religion which has not\nboth. It is one of the glories of the Psalter that both are given\nutterance to in it in words which are as vital to-day as when they\nfirst came warm from the lips of these long dead men. Everything in\nthe world has changed, but these songs of penitence and plaintive\ndeprecation, like their twin bursts of rapturous communion, were \"not\nborn for death.\" Contrast the utter deadness of the religious hymns of\nall other nations with the fresh vitality of the Psalms. As long as\nhearts are penetrated with the consciousness of evil done and loved,\nthese strains will fit themselves to men's lips.\n\nBecause the psalmist's recounting of his pains was prayer and not\nsoliloquy or mere cry of anguish, it calms him. We make the wound deeper\nby turning round the arrow in it, when we dwell upon suffering without\nthinking of God; but when, like the psalmist, we tell all to Him,\nhealing begins. Thus, the second part (vv. 9-14) is perceptibly calmer,\nand though still agitated, its thought of God is more trustful, and\nsilent submission at the close takes the place of the \"roaring,\" the\nshrill cry of agony which ended the first part. A further variation of\ntone is that, instead of the entirely subjective description of the\npsalmist's sufferings in vv. 1-8, the desertion by friends and the\nhostility of foes, are now the main elements of trial. There is\ncomparative peace for a tortured heart in the thought that all its\ndesire and sighing are known to God. That knowledge is prior to the\nheart's prayer, but does not make it needless, for by the prayer the\nconviction of the Divine knowledge has entered the troubled soul, and\nbrought some prelude of deliverance and hope of answer. The devout soul\ndoes not argue \"Thou knowest, and I need not speak,\" but \"Thou knowest,\ntherefore I tell Thee\"; and it is soothed in and after telling. He who\nbegins prayer, by submitting to chastisement and only deprecating the\nform of it inflicted by \"wrath,\" will pass to the more gracious thought\nof God as lovingly cognisant of both his desire and his sighing, his\nwishes and his pains. The burst of the storm is past, when that light\nbegins to break through clouds, though waves still run high.\n\nHow high they still run is plain from the immediate recurrence of the\nstrain of recounting the singer's sorrows. This recrudescence of woe\nafter the clear calm of a moment is only too well known to us all in our\nsorrows. The psalmist returns to speak of his sickness in ver. 10, which\nis really a picture of syncope or fainting. The heart's action is\ndescribed by a rare word, which in its root means to go round and round,\nand is here in an intensive form expressive of violent motion, or\npossibly is to be regarded as a diminutive rather than an intensive,\nexpressive of the thinner though quicker pulse. Then come collapse of\nstrength and failure of sight. But this echo of the preceding part\nimmediately gives place to the new element in the psalmist's sorrow,\narising from the behaviour of friends and foes. The frequent complaint\nof desertion by friends has to be repeated by most sufferers in this\nselfish world. They keep far away from his \"stroke,\" says the psalm,\nusing the same word as is employed for leprosy, and as is used in the\nverb in Isa. liii. 4 (\"stricken\"). There is a tone of wonder and\ndisappointment in the untranslatable play of language in ver. 11 _b_.\n\"My near relations stand far off.\" Kin are not always kind. Friends have\ndeserted because foes have beset him. Probably we have here the facts\nwhich in the previous part are conceived of as the \"arrows\" of God.\n\nOpen and secret enemies laying snares for him, as for some hunted wild\ncreature, eagerly seeking his life, speaking \"destructions\" as if they\nwould fain kill him with their words, and perpetually whispering lies\nabout him, were recognised by him as instruments of God's judgment,\nand evoked his consciousness of sin, which again led to actual\ndisease. But the bitter schooling led to something else more\nblessed--namely, to silent resignation. Like David, when he let Shimei\nshriek his curses at him from the hillside and answered not, the\npsalmist is deaf and dumb to malicious tongues. He will speak to God,\nbut to man he is silent, in utter submission of will.\n\nIsaiah liii. 7 gives the same trait in the perfect Sufferer, a faint\nforeshadowing of whom is seen in the psalmist; and 1 Peter ii. 23 bids\nall who would follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, like Him open\nnot their mouths when reviled, but commit themselves to the righteous\nJudge.\n\nOnce more the psalmist lifts his eyes to God, and the third invocation\nof the Name is attended by an increase of confidence. In the first\npart, \"Jehovah\" was addressed; in the second the designation \"Lord\"\nwas used; in the third, both are united and the appropriating name \"my\nGod\" is added. In the closing invocation (v. 22-3) all three reappear,\nand each is the plea of a petition. The characteristics of these\nclosing verses are three: humble trust, the marshalling of its\nreasons, and the combination of acknowledgment of sin and professions\nof innocence. The growth of trust is very marked, if the first part,\nwith its synonyms for God's wrath and its deprecation of unmeasured\nchastisement and its details of pain, be compared with the quiet hope\nand assurance that God will answer, and with that great name \"my\nSalvation.\" The singer does not indeed touch the heights of triumphant\nfaith; but he who can grasp God as his, and can be silent because he\nis sure that God will speak by delivering deeds for him and can call\nHim his Salvation, has climbed far enough to have the sunshine all\nround him, and to be clear of the mists among which his song began.\nThe best reason for letting the enemy speak on unanswered is the\nconfidence that a mightier voice will speak. \"But thou wilt answer,\nLord, for me\" may well make us deaf and dumb to temptations and\nthreats, calumnies and flatteries.\n\nHow does this confidence spring in so troubled a heart? The fourfold\n\"For\" beginning each verse from 15 to 18 weaves them all into a chain.\nThe first gives the reason for the submissive silence as being quiet\nconfidence; and the succeeding three may be taken as either dependent\non each other, or, as is perhaps better, as co-ordinate and\nall-assigning reasons for that confidence. Either construction yields\nworthy and natural meanings. If the former be adopted, trust in God's\nundertaking of the silent sufferer's cause is based upon the prayer\nwhich broke his silence. Dumb to men, he had breathed to God his\npetition for help, and had buttressed it with this plea \"Lest they\nrejoice over me,\" and he had feared that they would, because he knew\nthat he was ready to fall and had ever before him his pain, and that\nbecause he felt himself forced to lament and confess his sin. But it\nseems to yield a richer meaning, if the \"For's\" be regarded as\nco-ordinate. They then become a striking and instructive example of\nfaith's logic, the ingenuity of pleading which finds encouragements in\ndiscouragements. The suppliant is sure of answer because he has told\nGod his fear, and yet again because he is so near falling and\ntherefore needs help so much, and yet again because he has made a\nclean breast of his sin. Trust in God's help, distrust of self,\nconsciousness of weakness, and penitence make anything possible rather\nthan that the prayer which embodies them should be flung up to an\nunanswering God. They are prevalent pleas with Him in regard to which\nHe will not be \"as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth there is\nno reply.\" They are grounds of assurance to him who prays.\n\nThe juxtaposition of consciousness of sin in ver. 18 with the\ndeclaration that love of good was the cause of being persecuted, brings\nout the twofold attitude, in regard to God and men, which a devout soul\nmay permissibly and sometimes must necessarily assume. There may be the\ntruest sense of sinfulness, along with a clear-hearted affirmation of\ninnocence in regard to men, and a conviction that it is good and\ngoodwill to them, not evil in the sufferer, which makes him the butt of\nhatred. Not less instructive is the double view of the same facts\npresented in the beginning and end of this psalm. They were to the\npsalmist first regarded as God's chastisement in wrath, His \"arrows\" and\nheavy \"hand,\" because of sin. Now they are men's enmity, because of his\nlove of good. Is there not an entire contradiction between these two\nviews of suffering, its cause and source? Certainly not, but rather the\ntwo views differ only in the angle of vision, and may be combined, like\nstereoscopic pictures, into one rounded, harmonious whole. To be able so\nto combine them is one of the rewards of such pleading trust as breathes\nits plaintive music through this psalm, and wakes responsive notes in\ndevout hearts still.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR\n\n =Bible Class Expositions.=\n\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. each volume._\n\n\n The Gospel of St. Matthew.\n\n (TWO VOLS.)\n\n=The Leeds Mercury= says: \"They are all written in clear, forcible\nlanguage, and bring abundant illustration from science, the facts of\nlife and history and Scripture. All through they manifest a true\nphilosophical spirit, and a deep knowledge of human nature. None can\nread them without profit.\"\n\n\n The Gospel of St. Mark.\n\n=The Christian World= says: \"As clear, luminous, and pellucid as is\neverything that comes from the pen of the great Manchester preacher.\nEven in treating the simplest incident he surprises his readers, and\nthat without once forcing the note, or seeking sensationalism.\"\n\n\n The Gospel of St. Luke.\n\n=The London Quarterly Review= says: \"Dr. Maclaren is a prince of\nexpositors, and his expositions are as wholesome as they are able, and\nas interesting as they are instructive and edifying. Every paragraph\nis luminous with vivid expressions.\"\n\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n\n=The Glasgow Herald= says: \"There is much freshness and suggestiveness\nin these pages. Dr. Maclaren has studied the art of compression with\ngreat success, and no teacher of a class could desire anything better\nfor his purpose than these lessons. They may be heartily recommended\nto all teachers as about the best things of the kind to be had.\"\n\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n\n=The Presbyterian= says: \"The more this volume is read and studied the\nmore do we admire the humility that ranks such a book as for Bible\nClasses only. It is for them beyond all question, and better fare has\nnowhere been provided for them. Whether they be Bible Classes or\npreachers who study this volume, they will be enriched and\nstrengthened by it.\"\n\n\n LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n Expositions of Holy Scripture.\n\n By the Rev. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt.D., Manchester.\n\n Complete in about 30 volumes. Handsomely bound in cloth, 8vo,\n =7s. 6d.= each volume. To be published also by subscription,\n six volumes in a series, price =24s.= net per series.\n\n\n _First Series, Six volumes, comprising_:--\n\n The Book of Genesis.\n\n The Prophecies of Isaiah.\n\n The Books of Isaiah (Chapters xlix-lxvi)\n and Jeremiah.\n\n The Gospel of St. Matthew (_Three Volumes_).\n\n=The British Weekly= says: \"It is a matter of deep satisfaction that Dr.\nMaclaren's expositions are to be collected and arranged in permanent\nform. Unless we are very much mistaken, they will have a permanent place\nin the library alike of thoughtful laymen and of preachers generally.\"\n\n=The Expository Times= says: \"The Publishers have never done a greater\nservice to Christian teaching than they have done now in determining\nto republish these expository papers.\"\n\n=The Church Family Newspaper= says: \"It is a gigantic task for one man\nto carry through, covering, as apparently is intended, the whole Bible.\nBut if the subsequent volumes are up to the standard of the first, it\nwill indeed be a 'great work,' not only in bulk but in usefulness.\"\n\n=The Baptist Times= says: \"To have the expository utterances of so\ngreat a teacher before us in a systematic and connected form is a\npriceless boon to the Churches.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Manchester, Dr. MOORHOUSE, at Dr. Maclaren's Jubilee\nsaid: \"Thirty years ago I was studying with great profit the published\nsermons of the man whom we are honouring to-day. In an age which has\nbeen charmed and inspired by the sermons of Newman and Robertson of\nBrighton, there were no published discourses which for profundity of\nthought, logical arrangement, eloquence of appeal, and power of the\nhuman heart, exceeded in merit those of Dr. Maclaren.\"\n\n\n _Second Series, comprising_:--\n\n The Gospel of St. Mark (_Two Volumes_).\n\nThe Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (_One Volume_).\n\n The Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings (_Two Volumes_).\n\n The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. I.\n\n\n LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, price 5s. each._\n\n A Year's Ministry.\n FIRST SERIES.\n _Sixth Edition._\n\n\n A Year's Ministry.\n SECOND SERIES.\n _Sixth Edition._\n\n\n Christ in the Heart;\n And other Sermons.\n _Second Edition._\n\n\n Week-Day Evening Addresses.\n _Fourth Edition._\n\n\n After the Resurrection.\n _Second Edition._\n\n\n Last Sheaves.\n _Second Edition._\n\n\nDR. JOSEPH PARKER says: \"There is no greater preacher than Alexander\nMaclaren, of Manchester, in the English-speaking pulpit.\"\n\n\"Dr. Maclaren has long been recognised as one of the foremost\npreachers in the British pulpit.\"--_Glasgow Herald._\n\n\"His discourses may be studied by preachers as admirable specimens of\nwhat a sermon ought to be.\"--_North British Daily Mail._\n\n LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, price 5s. each._\n\n The Victor's Crowns.\n\n Triumphant Certainties.\n\n The Secret of Power.\n\n Manchester Sermons.\n FIRST SERIES.\n\n Manchester Sermons.\n SECOND SERIES.\n\n Manchester Sermons.\n THIRD SERIES.\n\n The God of the Amen.\n\n The Holy of Holies.\n\n The Wearied Christ.\n\n\n LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n Paul's Prayers.\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s._\n\n=The Christian World= says: \"As striking and suggestive as any Dr.\nMaclaren has published.... The book is full of helpful thoughts.\"\n\n=The New York Observer= says: \"They are plain enough to be understood\nby the unlearned, and yet have sufficient richness and cogency to\nattract the most cultivated.\"\n\n\n The Unchanging Christ.\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s._\n\n=The Freeman= says: \"The work of a master of pulpit oratory.\"\n\n=The Christian Leader= says: \"Distinguished by the finest scholarship\nand most exquisite literary finish.\"\n\n=The Independent= says: \"Few preachers combine so many elements of\neffective pulpit address.\"\n\n\n The Beatitudes.\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s._\n\n=The British Weekly= says: \"An excellent exposition of the Beatitudes\n... full of thought and knowledge and power.\"\n\n\n Christ's \"Musts.\"\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s._\n\n=Word and Work= says: \"Felicitous exposition, rugged, intense\neloquence, and beautiful illustration.\"\n\n=The Presbyterian= says: \"Forcible, clear, gracious, suggestive.\"\n\n\n The Music of the Soul.\n Daily Readings for a Year.\n Selected and Arranged from the Writings of\n The Rev. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.\n By the Rev. G. COATES.\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s._\n\n=The Aberdeen Free Press= says: \"Dr. Maclaren's utterances are\nexceptionally rich in devotional thought, and in the choice and\narrangement of extracts Mr. Coates has evidently exercised much care.\"\n\n=The Record= says: \"An excellent gift-book for those who like the\ntheology and the expositions of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren will be\nfound in this dainty volume of daily readings.\"\n\n\n LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\n WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n The Life of David, as Reflected in his Psalms.\n\n IN THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY OF EXPOSITION.\n\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d._\n\n=The Expositor= says: \"Real gems of exposition are found in this\nslight work, which might be sought in vain from more erudite and\nponderous tomes.... We have nothing but admiration and praise for this\nvaluable little reprint.\"\n\n=The Guardian= says: \"Just the book we should give to awaken a living\nand historical interest in the Psalms.\"\n\n\n Colossians and Philemon.\n\n IN THE \"EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE,\" FIRST SERIES.\n\n _Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d._\n\n=The Leeds Mercury= says: \"With great analytical skill, and with a\nspiritual insight which almost amounts to genius, Dr. Maclaren lays\nbare the gist of Paul's message, and does so in terms which cannot\nfail to appeal deeply and at once to the common heart of Christians of\nall sorts and conditions. In moral fervour, spiritual beauty, and an\nunfailing charm of literary expression, this volume is worthy to rank\nwith the noblest results of Christian scholarship and culture.\"\n\n=The Baptist Magazine= says: \"Dr. Maclaren's lectures on the\nColossians are among his best works. He has thoroughly grasped the\nargument of this profound Epistle, followed the sequences of its\nthoughts, traced the connections and dependences of its different\nparts, and applied its principles and lessons to the religious and\nsocial needs of our own day. He seems almost to have 'changed eyes'\nwith St. Paul, and to have elucidated his thoughts with a vividness of\nimagination, an intensity of feeling, and an incisiveness of speech\nwhich have rarely been equalled.\"\n\n=The Scotsman= says: \"There will be found in it much that is\ninstructive and much that is practical, many sound views of life and\nreligion as well as considerable insight into the spirit and meaning\nof the Apostle. Dr. Maclaren, at any rate, knows how to apply the\nlessons of Scripture to the needs and the questionings of our own day;\nand his views, which are evangelical, and opposed to ritualism and\nasceticism, will be widely acceptable.\"\n\n\n LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nObvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.\n\nInconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms I.-XXXVIII.","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":116388}