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of foes ;* it is God, too, doing this with "mercy and truth,”—the attributes that are prominent in redemption, kindness to the guilty in consistency with his adherence to everything his mouth has uttered. "Selah," verse 3, gives peculiar force to the words, "The devourer snorts at me! Selah," Stop, my soul, and ponder; for, lo! God sends help. As for men, they are as lions, in violence; or if you refer to their secret ways, they are equally to be distrusted; for their tongue scoffs at all that is holy. (Verses 4, 6.) They have fallen into their own pit—and another "Selah" calls us to ponder. But God, God in his glory, let me ever be in his hands (verses 5,7)! My heart is fixed, my glory (i.e., my soul) bursts into song, “I awake the morning dawn" to sing his praises. For full is He of tender mercy that reaches above the heavens, as well as of truth that stretches unto the clouds,-such mercy and truth as was prayed for in verse 3, and which shine bright in all his redemption acts. The issue must be glory to himself, infinite glory, glory above the heavens, glory above all the earth. A flood of glory is to cover this earth above its highest mountains, nay, to cover heaven, too, above its loftiest pinnacles. The eye of the Psalmist is gazing on the ages to come in the New Heavens and New Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. David "in the cave," in the very presence of Saul, was taught by the Holy Spirit thus to sing for his own use, and the use of the Church, and the use of the Son of Man in the days of his flesh. The Righteous One connecting his deliverance with Jehovah's glory.

PSALM LVIII.

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith. Michtam of David.

1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

2 Yea in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

* The Targum curiously paraphrases this clause; "Who ordered the spider that wrought the web on my account at the mouth of the cave;" applying a later historical fact, which, however, may have had its prototype in David's history.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb:

They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:

They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:

Break out the teeth of the young lions, O Lord.

7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually :

When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away :

Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

9 Before your pots can feel the thorns,

He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his
wrath.

10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance:

He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

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

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

It is addressed to "the sons of men" (ver. 1), not to rulers The contents. only, though to rulers also, as being among the sons of men.

(See Psalm lxxxii. 6.)

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

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

They are of the "seed of the serpent;" and, like the adder, they hide their ears in the dust, in order not to be charmed, let the charmer chant however sweet and long. Men bury their conscience in the things of earth, and shut out the allur

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ing sound of the tidings of love to the guilty. Hence, judgment comes. "Woe to thee, Chorazin"-Woe to thee, O earth, that hast heard the offers of love as well as the demands of law. In verses 6-9 the wrath is shewn under which the mighty melt away "as a snail," suggesting (it has been thought) the idea of the filthy trail or mark which their beastly pollutions used to leave behind them. Their glory is no more than "an abortion." It is at the coming of the Son of man that it overtakes them. They are devising much and planning great schemes, but "ere their pots can feel the blazing thorn," ere their designs of ambition are reached, "he carries them away with a tempest," the green and the dry, the sodden and the raw (-i), their finished and their unfinished works, and themselves, too, with all their gratified and all their as yet ungratified desires. There are seven similitudes: the lion's teeth broken; the torrents running off; the bow snapping asunder; the snail wasting away; the abortion that scarcely can ɔe said to have had existence; the pots that never get time to feel the heat; the whirlwind that makes them its victim.

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

"The righteous shall rejoice when He seeth the vengeance,

He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." (Ver. 10.) He shall be refreshed at the end of his journey (John xiii. 5; Luke vii. 44; Gen. xviii. 4), He shall wipe off all the dust of the way, and end its weariness by entering into that strange, that divine joy over sin destroyed, justice honoured, the law magnified, vengeance taken for the insult done to Godhead, the triumph of the Holy One over the unholy. It is not merely the time when that joy begins,—it is also the occasion and cause of that day's rapturous delight.

T T

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

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

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

PSALM LIX.

To the chief Musician. Al-taschith. Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.

1 DELIVER me from mine enemies, O my God!

Defend me from them that rise up against me.

2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.

3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord.

4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold!

5 Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen:

Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: For who, say they, doth hear?

8 But thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.

9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.

The title.

Christ and his members.

The contents.

10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me:

God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.

11 Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power,

And bring them down, O Lord our shield.

12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride:

And for cursing and lying which they speak.

13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be :

And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth-
Selah.

14 And at evening let them return;

And let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

15 Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.

16 But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning:

For thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. 17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.

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

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

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

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