The Title.

Vehiloth.

Prophetic reference.

Apparent imprecations on

foes.

6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing:

The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy : And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

8 Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies;

Make thy way straight before my face.

9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness;

Their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

10 Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels;

Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.

11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice :

Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them :

Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

12 For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous;

With favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

ANOTHER Song of the sweet singer of Israel, handed over to
the "Chief Musician," who was to fit it to be publicly sung
"on
on the Nehiloth." This was some one of the many musical
instruments now unknown, lost to us ever since Israel hung
their harp on the willows, and had their joy turned into mourn-
ing *-though generally understood to be a wind instrument,
or pipe, of some sort.

There is in it a prophetic element toward the close. In ver. 10, 11, we have something that closely resembles the Apocalyptic scene in Revelation xix. 1, 3, 4. The psalmist so fully sympathises in the justice of the doom that is coming on the obstinate and impenitent rebels against God, that he cries aloud, Destroy them, O God!" or, more exactly, "Hold them guilty, and treat them as such." On the other hand, there

* The idea of Hengstenberg, that this and some others of the titles convey a mystical meaning, or enigmatical sense, is quite fanciful. He renders this, "On the lots," as being a Psalm that exhibits the different lots of righteous and wicked. But is not the conduct and life of the two classes exhibited in it, far more than the lot? The objection that is not used with stringed in

is used, instead of, beTholuck remarks, somewhere,

struments, is a gratuitous assertion; probably
cause of some peculiarity in using the instrument.
that ancient performers were not able to play different tunes on the same in
struments, but employed separate instruments for different tunes.

arises at the same moment the shout of the righteous, acquiescing with entire satisfaction in their doom: "And let all those that put their trust in thee, rejoice! Let them ever shout for joy!" This is their "Halelujah" over the rising smoke of torment-their "Glory and honour to the Lord our God." And perhaps it is in this manner we are to understand, throughout the Book of Psalms, all those portions where we find, apparently, prayers that breathe revenge. They are never to be thought of as anything else than the breathed assent of righteous souls to the justice of their God, who taketh vengeance on sin. When taken as the words of Christ himself, they are no other than an echo of the Intercessor's acquiescence at last in the sentence on the barren fig-tree. It is as if he cried aloud, "Hew it down now-I will intercede no longer-the doom is righteous, destroy them, O God; cast them out in (or, for) the multitude of their transgressions! for they have rebelled against thee." And in the same moment he may be supposed to invite his saints to sympathize in his decision; just as in Revelation xviii. 20: "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets!" In like manner, when one of Christ's members, in entire sympathy with his head, views the barren fig-tree from the same point of observation, and sees the glory of God concerned in inflicting the blow, he too can cry, "Let the axe smite!" Had Abraham stood beside the angel who destroyed Sodom, and seen how Jehovah's name required the ruin of these impenitent rebels, he would have cried out, "Let the shower descend-let the fire and brimstone come down!" not in any spirit of revenge-not from want of tender love to souls-but from intense earnestness of concern for the glory of his God.

We consider this explanation to be the real key that opens all the difficult passages in this book, where curses seem to be called for on the head of the ungodly. They are no more than a carrying out of Deut. xxvii. 15-26,-" Let all the people say, Amen,” and an entering into the Lord's holy abhorrence of sin and delight in acts of justice expressed in the "Amen, hallelujah," of Rev. xix. 3.*

* “Truth,” says one, “is always a form of Charity; or to speak more properly, Truth is the soul of which Charity is but the beautiful, graceful, and lovely

B

The general contents.

But let us read the whole Psalm. And we may notice that here the words occur, for the first time, "My King and my God." On this Augustine remarks, "Recte primo Rex meus,' et deinde Deus meus,' secundum illud quod dictum est, Per me itur ad Patrem. He that is peculiarly "King" to Israel is on Israel's side, for 1 Sam. viii. 20 shews that the idea included in this term is fighting for his subjects. The blue, (Exod. viii. 15), purple, and scarlet, at the gate of the Tabernacle, and on all its veils, proclaimed, "This is the dwelling of Israel's King, as well as Israel's God."

We seem to see One going up to the Tabernacle early, in prospect of the morning sacrifice. It is near the time; the priest is already at the altar, setting the wood in order, and the Lamb is bound to the altar's horns; the worshipper's eye and heart are upward,-" Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my silent prayer" (ver. 1), a prayer made up of the "unutterable groanings" (Rom. viii. 26), and which can be heard, as well as presented, while he stands amid the crowd that are gathering in the courts. "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning" (ver. 3), is the expression of a resolution habitually to come before him early,-" My earliest cry shall always be to thee; in the morning will I direct my (spiritual) offering unto thee, and will look up to that house of prayer where stand the altar and the mercy-seat, and where God is revealed in grace." The altar presents "God reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." Jehovah's look of love is there; his voice is love from its four horns; everything tells man of grace.

He is up early, securing the best hour of the day, “like a diligent artificer," (Horne). But how careless are those around this worshipper; some coming up to the altar to lull their conscience asleep by the formality of a visit to the courts of God; others hurrying off to their earthly pursuits. This leads him

member. Charity, therefore, is not to be known by soft words and gentle actions, which are oftener the form of policy and courtesy ; but must be sought in the principles of the heart, out of which our words, thoughts, and actions come forth. Is it love to God by which we are moved? Then it is charity, be its form mildness, or zeal, or the stern inflictions of justice."

to meditate before God on the "world lying in wickedness" (ver. 4-9), interposing his own resolute determination to be unlike that world (ver. 7) by the help of Jehovah (ver. 8). A dwelling with God," which at the lowest means friendly intercourse, is what his righteous soul relishes and revels in the enjoyment of, and the want of this he reckons to be the misery of the ungodly. (Ver 4.) This is the very spirit of the beloved. John (1 John. iv. 16)," He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him ;" and the resemblance is all the closer when we find ver. 7 speak of his coming "in the multitude of thy mercy," or "greatness of thy love," to worship in Jehovah's "Holy Temple." And then the believer's soul prays to be led by the pillar cloud of divine wisdom, knowing the snares of his foes.

It is after this that he is brought into such deep sympathy with the holy purposes and righteous sentences of Jehovah, in whose love he dwells, as to cry, "Destroy them, O God,” (ver. 10). And we leave him singing with assured confidence, “For thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour thou wilt compass him, as with a shield.

none How Christ our Head would use

It is a Psalm which most certainly Messiah could use; none could ever use it so fully as He. Think of Him, some morning it. leaving Bethany early that He may be in time for the morning sacrifice, and breathing forth this Psalm by the way and as He enters the Temple-courts. Every word of it becomes doubly emphatic in his lips, down to the last verse, where we see Him as "The Righteous One," encompassed with the Father's love. and well-pleasedness. But whether we read it as peculiarly the utterance of Messiah, or as that of one of his members, we may describe this Psalm as being

The Righteous One's thoughts of God and of man while going up to the morning sacrifice.

The title.

Sheminith.

The members of Christ.

PSALM VI

To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger,-neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

2 Have mercy upon me, () Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

3 My soul is also sore vexed:-but thou, O Lord, how long?

4 Return, O Lord, deliver my soul:-oh save me for thy mercies' sake!

5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee:-in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

6 I am weary with my groaning!

All the night make I my bed to swim ;-I water my couch with my tears. 7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief;-it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.

9 The Lord hath heard my supplication ;-the Lord will receive my prayer. 10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed:

Let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

HITHERTO, the harp of Judah, and the sacred instruments of varied chords, have sounded little concerning the Just One's inward sorrows. But now the Psalmist points "the Chief Musician" to the " Neginoth," mentioned in Psalm iv., and at the same time to "Sheminith," some eight-stringed instrument, as if both together must be used for a theme so intensely melancholy as these verses handle.

We might at once say to the reader, This is not David, it is the Son of David; the grief is too deep for any other,—

"You never saw a vessel of like sorrow."

* This Psalm, and Psalms xxxii, xxxviii, li, cii, cxxx, cxl, and cxlii, seven in all, form "the Penitential Psalms”—which in Popish days a penitent was taught to use, as Naaman at Jordan, and the lepers at purification, used a sevenfold washing or sprinkling.

† Augustine has a long passage in which he discusses the question, whether there is any reference to the Last Day in the number "eight;" and is inclined to think that the Eternal Day may be meant. Some recent critics find an "octave” in the word, and others "the eighth tune." This very obscurity as to the sense of such technical terms, confirms the proof of the indisputable antiquity of the writing, like some of those names in 1 Chronicles, for which we can find no etymology in written Hebrew.